Drainage Board of Adams County

Meetings

• 9 a.m.
• Tuesday, on an as needed basis
• Adams county Service Complex
  313 W Jefferson Street
  Commissioners Room
  Decatur, IN 46733
  Directions

Board Members

• Steve Kuhn, Chairman
• Steve Bailey, Vice Chairman
• JD Nidlinger, Member
• Bill Wemhoff, Member
• Greg Liechty, Member
• Mike Werling, Adams County Surveyor
• Mark Burry, Attorney
• Jacquelyn Searles, Deputy

About the Board

The Drainage Board manages the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of all regulated drains or proposed regulated drains in the county as required by state law.

The Board and Surveyor have jurisdiction over regulated drains. Regulated drains are drains that have been established by either the Commissioners Court or Circuit Court of each county prior to 1965 or the Drainage Board since 1965. These drains are open ditches or tile drains or a combination of both.

The Drainage code gives the ability to landowners to  petition the drainage board to reconstruct a county legal tile or legal ditch if 10% of the landowners have signed the petition. At that point a hearing will need to be held. A regulated drain can be vacated through a petition by all landowners involved.  The Drainage Board maintains landowners ditch assessments.

The Drainage Board promotes and recommends the USDA/NRCS filter strip program along all located ditches. There are 125 watersheds with each carrying its own balance. Adams County has 410 miles of open ditches and 1,340 miles of legal county tile.

Services Provided

• Maintenance work on legal drains and legal tiles by Surveyor's Crew
• Provide Brush Spray Vouchers to landowners with a legal open ditch on their property, for the Brush Spray Program to help maintain legal open drains/ditches
• Provide information and answer questions for the public concerning drainage issues