Sauk River Watershed District
State Revolving Funds
The Sauk River Watershed District has received slightly over a million dollars in SRF
funds in several grants ranging from $400,000.00 to $250,000.00.At this time we have
committed well over half of the total and have actually put into projects about
$350,000.00.
About 75% has been used for updating on site septic systems, about 20% for feedlot
improvement and about 5% for miscellaneous land use best management practices.
When we received our first grant of SRF funds, little did we realize what we would have
to go thru to access those funds. The problem arose in guaranteeing repayment to the State
of Minnesota. We were the first Watershed District in the State to try and access SRF
money. We had to so to speak, "plow new ground," all the way, We were first told
we must have a Bond Consultants favorable opinion. The first legal firm we approached
offered to give us an opinion, with no guarantee as whether that opinion would be good or
bad, for $10,000.00. Needless to say we told that law firm where they could go and what
they could do with their opinion. After several other tries, we approached the Dorsey
Whitney Law firm in Minneapolis and after considerable negotiations we struck a deal with
them that if they would provide an opinion that the State would accept, we would give them
$1,000.00 for each grant we received. If the State did not accept their opinion they would
get nothing. They accepted the offer.
The next obstacle proved to be much worse. The State would not accept our special
assessment tax levy capabilities as adequate security. They demanded general obligation or
G.O. taxing authority as security on the note. We did not have G.O. taxing authority. At
that time only the Counties had that authority. Our Watershed District covers parts of
five Counties and our SRF funds were conunitted three of those Counties. That forced us to
have to go to three County Boards and beg them to co-sign the note. Not an easy task to
accomplish! I nearly wore out the knees in my trousers begging for signatures. Finally,
after about eighteen months of effort and $15,000.00 in legal fees to our Attorney, we
were able to access the first money.
We use the authority given us under Minnesota Statute 103 D to initiate projects and to
repay those costs thru a special assessment applied to the real estate taxes. It has
worked very well. We try to group as many individual properties into one process as
possible to make the process as efficient as possible. That way we may include many
parcels in the same legal notice and the same group share one public hearing.
Under Minnesota law, a special assessment comes ahead of everything except the IRS so
it is a very secure method of protecting our interests.
There is a sequel to this story. We decided there had to be a better way, we enlisted
help from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil
Resources, The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and a letter of support from the
County Boards and the local Soil and Water Conservation Districts and went to the
legislature and had a bill passed to give Watershed Districts G.O. taxing authority to
access SRF funds. The Governor signed the bill just this week. From here on it should be a
piece of cake.
All the outstate Watershed Districts will now be able to ride the road that we have
paved and I expect that SRF funds will be a very positive influence towards cleaner water
for years to come.
If anyone is interested in sharing our experiences, please call, Fax or e-mail us at srwd@saukhearld.com. We might be able to help you!
Bob Mostad
Sauk River Watershed District
524 Fourth Street South
Sauk Centre, Minnesota 56378
(320) 352-2231 phone, (320) 352-6455 fax
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