CHARLESTON — A farmer who lost part of a crop to a fire accidentally set by county workers will be reimbursed for every bushel under 30.
Duke Presson, who lost 25 of 37 acres of beans planted on land he leases from the county to the fire, presented Mississippi County Commissioners with five-year crop yield averages from the Farm Service Agency during their regular meeting Thursday.
Presson had left wheat stubble and straw on the field when he planted the beans to help retain moisture, he said. When county workers burned a brush pile at the county shed on land adjacent to the field, cinders apparently blew over and ignited Presson’s crop.
During their June 28 meeting, Commissioners agreed to reimburse Presson for his losses.
Presson said replanting the beans cost $2,103 and that replanting them this late in the season would probably result in a lower yield per acre.
Commissioner Homer Oliver had suggested during the June 28 meeting that Presson keep track of the per-acre yields of the early and replanted beans to determine how much the county should reimburse him for lost yield.
After presenting the FSA report which showed the average yield on beans for the area is 39 bushels per acre, Presson suggested the county reimburse him for every bushel under 30 on those 25 acres.
Commissioners agreed to Presson’s proposal.
In other business Thursday:
• Commissioners discussed a drainage problem with Ditch 23 on the north side of Highway 60.
“If we get a big rain it’s going to be out in the field,” Commissioner Martin Lucas said. “It’s just dead water; it doesn’t move.”
Lucas said there aren’t any beaver dams but vegetation, sloughed banks or something else is impeding the water flow.
• The road and bridge budget was reviewed by commissioners.
As of Thursday, the county had spent $20,000 of the $65,000 budgeted for asphalt materials; $12,000 of the $15,000 for limestone gravel and $4,700 of the $16,000 budgeted for snowstone, according to Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg.
Blumenberg also reviewed sales tax receipts which he said are 5 to 6 percent over what was received by this time last year.
