Page 33 - LDC FlipBook demo

And in an unusual problem, they received a report that a High Street resident had discovered one of the relief wells, and casually cut a hole in the cover so he could use the water for his garden.
Lawrenceburg Utility Superintendent Roland Horney determined that the well was not on the man’s property, but on the Conservancy District land. The minutes
do not show the final outcome of the dispute. Also, Lawrenceburg schools asked for permission to build a new road from the intersection of Front and Sixth Street to the school area, to help keep school traffic off US 50. The request was taken under advisement.
In March of 1985, Horney was appointed the superintendent for the LCD.
From the beginning, the District had been acting
as a landlord for hundreds of acres of cropland in
the bottoms, but in 1986 they began having trouble collecting rent. They finally settled for a payment of a little over $4000 against a $5000 bill, and decided that
in the future, farmers who rented ground would have to pay up front.
A major step toward making the levee a place for relaxation came in 1987 when LCD took advantage of a Lawrenceburg street paving project to pave a walkway along the top of the levee.
Problems caused by the Indiana law that said Conservancy Districts could not collect taxes against personal property continued to keep the District in perpetual financial straits. At one point, they even briefly considered going back to a Flood Control District, but decided that would simply make the situation worse. When the LCD was created, they continued, as the Flood Control District had been, to be governed by a board made up of the Mayor of Lawrenceburg, two
Lawrenceburg council members, one representative from Greendale and the Lawrenceburg township
trustee. Then late in 1989 came a letter from the Indiana Attorney General warning them that the LCD Board of Directors was supposed to be elected, and
not appointed.
In the interim, they petitioned the Dearborn Circuit Court to appoint members for 1989, and planned for a public meeting and election for 1990.
The minutes for February of 1991 reflect that the meeting had been advertised, but no one from
the public had shown up, nor had there been any candidates. The current Board of Directors were elected by default.
They were Mayor Carl Agner, Lawrenceburg Council members Ramona Kime and Bill Hoffmeier, Greendale Town Board President, Jack Braun, and Lawrenceburg township trustee, Jerome Gilb.
By 1990, the District was beginning to obtain its
own buildings. First there was a pole barn for their equipment and then a lease for a cement block building in the Fairgrounds to use as an office.
That year they were struggling to raise enough money for efficient operation and increasing maintenance costs, and they considered a change from the Flood Control Conservancy District to a Water Conservancy District, which would provide them with some tax advantages.
Opposite: As a gift to the community, the LCD commissioned the design and construction of a sports park.
Right: Aerial and ground views of the components that make up the levee system provide a sense of the complexity involved..