Lake County commissioners continued their discussion on their drainage ordinance and plan during their regular meeting on Tuesday.  Former commissioners Craig Johannsen and Kent Peterson, along with Chuck Lebeda, who recently retired from the Natural Resources Conservation office, met with commissioners to discuss the county’s current drainage ordinance and plan and some proposed changes to them.  State’s Attorney Ken Meyer said that the way that the state law regarding drainage is currently written, he and other state’s attorneys across the state are wanting counties to get out of dealing with drainage. 


Meyer said a lot of counties do not have drainage ordinances, and are not having any problems. 
After much discussion on Tuesday, commission chair Scott Pedersen said that he doesn’t think the state legislature is going to make any changes in the state’s drainage law this session. 


Pedersen said the East Dakota Water Development District’s director Jay Gilbertson is lobbying state lawmakers to try to get a summer study done on drainage issues in the state.  Pedersen also said that because of their work in studying and proposing changes to Lake County’s drainage ordinance and plan, he will pass along Lebeda and Johannsen’s names to the state for consideration if a task force is established to look at drainage issues.