(Congo Ditch) 

Pickaway County has twenty-three ditches with a total of twenty-six miles of ditches in the program. The Pickaway SWCD will work with landowners, who live in the watershed of a ditch or other water convergence structure, to petition the County Commissioners to provide for permanent maintenance by the county. After an improvement has been completed, the "benefited" owners are assessed by the number of acres in that watershed to provide a fund for future maintenance activities.

The "schedule of benefit assessments" on owners who are in the watershed of the particular county ditch is maintained by the County Engineer's office. The assessments represent a percentage of estimated benefits using the property owner's acreage.

After six annual maintenance fund assessments have been made, the county commissioners will review the permanent base cost for maintenance fund assessments and may increase or decrease the portion assessed to each landowner in the watershed of the ditch when there has been a significant monetary change during the intervening six years.

Please contact Sue Lumley or Lloyd (Mack) McManus at the Pickaway SWCD office (740-477-1693) if you are interested in or have questions about starting the petition process for county ditch maintenance.