The question
We own a 40 acre farm. The property adjacent to us was sold for a subdivision. Development started in 2001. There are about 20 homes on 40 acres. The stormwater flows thru a culvert on our property. The culvert has been there since before 1960. Now that the subdivision is nearly full of homes there is a lot of water that flows thru the culvert onto our land. They say our culvert causes water to backup during heavy rains & is an obstruction. The drain tile in the development is broken & needs to be repaired. We replaced our drain tile in 2002 because of the extra stormwater from the development roads & some houses eroding the ditch on our side of the culvert. At a Nov. town meeting our town board ordered us to remove the obstruction (culvert) no later than May 2015 or they would have it removed at our expense. Nothing is in writing. This argument has been going on for years. Our County official said we don't have to remove it. Our town board says the County has no authority.