The Lyon County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a one-year assessment for 2026 for maintenance on three county ditches and two judicial ditches, including a $35,000 assessment (or 10%) on Judicial Ditch 10 & 23, which portions of lie in the southern part of Tracy, near the schools. Some work has been done on that ditch system.
“Anytime you start doing repairs on that system, you’re dealing with sewer lines, electric lines and a lot of private utilities that aren’t marked it’s very expensive,” said Lyon County Planning & Zoning Administrator John Biren. “The City of Tracy, in addition to that, is looking to do some work; this (ditch) serves as a storm sewer for that part of town, and I anticipate some expenses on this in the future. It needs some work.”
Biren said there are “a lot of things” going on with the system that are undocumented. He wasn’t sure of how the entire ditch system comes together.
“Tracy just built those two UCAP homes (on Front St.), and that’s where we’ve had some issues with high water — is that where this one dumps into?” asked Commissioner Rick Anderson.
Biren said that would be further east and north by the old hog buying station, then to the east again under the County road. Biren said the original outlet is about one-quarter of a mile east of the County road.
“There has been an outlet created; the original outlet ran underneath the railroad tracks, now it dumps before the railroad tracks,” said Biren. “When water is deep back by the school, the intakes are taking that water, and when you go to the outlet by the railroad tracks, there’s not near as much water coming out of there as I think there should be. There’s some things going on with that system that have been patched together that I can’t explain.”
Anderson approved the motion to approve the 10% assessment on the ditch.
