BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- The Stoddard County Commission set Aug. 24, 2015, at 10 a.m. in the Commission Room of the Government Building for a tax levy hearing for county drainage districts at their regular meeting Monday. The county oversees seven drainage districts in the county. The Circuit Court oversees 11 drainage districts and the Little River Drainage District has areas in the county.
The commission oversees the following districts, along with their tax levies:
Drainage District No. 1, $1.00 per acre;
Drainage District No. 7, $1.00 per acre;
Drainage District No. 13.33, ten percent maintenance levy with a $10 minimum;
Drainage District No. 14, ten percent maintenance levy with a $10 minimum;
Drainage District No. 17, ten percent maintenance levy with a $10 minimum;
Drainage District No. 19, $2.50 per acre.
County Clerk Joe Watson said the tax levy hearing was set for Aug. 25 last year, and asked commissioners if Aug. 24 during the regular meeting would be acceptable to the commission. Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis, Commissioner Carol Jarrell and Commissioner Danny Talkington all agreed on the date and time.
The Little River Drainage District, organized in 1907, changed forever the face of southeast Missouri.
In designing the system of ditches which would ultimately drain southeast Missouri, the engineer faced a major problem. Much of the water which flows through the region originates in the Ozark Plateau and St. Francois Mountains. Water from as far away as Fredricktown had to be diverted to drain the district. Engineers devised digging a 40-mile-long channel which would drain that water into the Mississippi River before reaching the Bootheel. Begun in 1914, the Headwater Diversion Channel runs from near the town of Greenbriar, in Bollinger County, to just south of Cape Girardeau where it enters the Mississippi River.*
At the same time work was progressing on a series of ditches, totaling more than 900 miles, which would drain the remainder of the district. The largest, 100-mile-long Ditch No.1, collects the runoff from all other ditches in the district and carries it south into Arkansas where it empties into the St. Francis River and later the Mississippi, a distance of 250 miles. Although the Little River District wasn't the only such project in southeast Missouri, it was by far the largest, draining more than 550,000 acres of land in seven counties. Dozens of other districts drained smaller areas and in all more than 1.2 million acres of land were turned into farmland.*
The law establishing county drainage districts was 243.020 of 2014. It reads, "When it shall be conducive to the public health, convenience or public welfare, or when it will be of public utility or benefit, the county commission of any county in this state shall have the authority to organize, incorporate and establish drainage districts and to cause to be constructed, straightened, widened, altered or deepened, any ditch, drain, natural stream (not navigable), bank protection, current control, or watercourse, when the same is necessary to drain or protect any land or other property."
The commission has not raised any levies in recent years, but has the authority to raise the levies based on landowner requests.
District No. 1 is located in the southern portion of the county east of Bernie, No. 7 is located between Highway FF and Highway N southeast of Bloomfield, No. 13/33 is located east of Advance, No. 14 is located south of Advance, No. 17 is also located south of Advance and north of Highway K, and No. 18 is located in the south central portion of the county from just north of Highway D to the New Madrid County Line. (A detailed plat of the districts is available at the county clerk's office.)
* Taken from "Swamps to Cotton" by Jeff Joiner, for RURAL MISSOURI,
Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.