Hill County considers expanding RSID 10 by Milk River Levee

The Hill County Commission heard a request by Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent to move forward on a plan to expand RSID 10 to include properties that benefit from the Milk River Levee dike but don’t contribute to its maintenance.

At the commission’s weekly business meeting Thursday Vincent said these properties likely didn’t exist at the time the map showing the dike’s area of effect was created.

“There are properties over there that are benefiting from the dike, big time, that have not been included in the original resolution in 1954, probably because they weren’t even there,” he said.

Vincent said an updated map of the area has been created that includes the properties but the county would need to go through proper procedures to annex them.

He said the process shouldn’t be especially difficult but would require a public hearing after contacting everyone who lives in the proposed expansion.

Vincent and Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown, who was involved in creating the updated map, said the whole county should really be contributing to the maintenance of the dike, because they benefit from the businesses in the area.

“In reality it does affect the the entire county,” she said, “I mean I live way out there, but if something happened it would affect me greatly.”

Vincent said county-wide zoning could be used to address this issue, but the expansion of RSID 10 is an issue that would need to be handled separately.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said he thinks the commission is probably on the same page with Vincent, but they need more information before proceeding and said RSID 10 should be prioritized.

Vincent agreed and proposed that they hold a separate meeting next week to discuss specifics.

Brown said anything that gets approved would not go into effect until next year.

The commission also unanimously approved the Agro-Industrial Park’s Covenant which lays out how the park can be used.

Peterson said the document has been examined by Hill County Attorney Karen Alley who saw no issues with it.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean also announced that the Hill County Courthouse’s elevator is now operational.