Drain Commissioner

Fred D. Strauer, Iosco County Drain Commissioner

All drainage work completed through the Drain Commissioner’s Office is by petition of the property owners or municipalities. Beneficiaries are property owners, cities, villages, townships and the county-at-large. Projects are financed through special assessments. The Drain Commissioner is responsible for spreading the special assessments, maintaining accounting of expenditures and assessment collections. Property owners are assessed for direct benefit. Cities, villages and townships are assessed for health benefits and the county-at-large is assessed for the benefit to county roads.

The Drain Commissioner is also the agent appointed by the losco County Board of Commissioners for maintaining the court-ordered lake levels including constructing and maintaining dams and pumps used to control the levels. Under the Inland Lake Level Act (Act 146, P.A. of 1961), the Board of Commissioners may file a petition in Circuit Court to establish a special assessment district to pay the cost of establishing and maintaining a lake level. There arc currently three legally established lake levels in losco County: Long Lake in Plainfield Township, Floyd Lake in Grant Township and Van Etten Lake in Oscoda Township.

The Drain Commissioner is a member by statute of Lake Improvement Boards which most often monitor weed control projects on inland lakes within the county. The Commissioner is also statutorily a member of the losco County Parks and Recreation Commission, Local Emergency Planning Committee and the Iosco County Public Works Board.

The Commissioner reviews external and internal drainage of preliminary and final plats for subdivisions/residential developments as governed by the Michigan Subdivision Control Act. All plats require the signature of final approval as to stormwater management from the Drain Commissioner.