Conservation is a dam site closer to a sale
By APRIL KELLEY
The Humboldt County Conservation Board moved a few steps closer to selling the Reasoner Dam to the River Development Group (RDG) during their regular meeting on Wednesday, July 15.
Lee led the discussion with the fact that the insurance, which had been presented by the RDG at the last meeting, was determined to be sufficient to fulfill the requirements set out in original purchase agreement.
Now that insurance has been put in place, the next step is to work with the city on an easement to allow the RDG to get to the dam.
Working with ISG, they have survey data because of the bridge and trail project, at least for the west side of the dam. " They might also have stuff on the east side, too so that it would make it as cheap as it can be,” Lee said.
The cost will still be about $3,000 to provide the survey information and put the easement together.
Lee spoke to Gary Jensen with RDG who was unsure about bearing the costs of the survey.
“I ran it by River (Development Group) or Gary Jensen, who I've been dealing with, about what he thought about it. He wasn't crazy about the cost,” Lee said.
“So I offered maybe we could pay half. He wasn't crazy about that either,” Lee continued.
The RDG group discussed the possibility of doing it themselves.
“So I said, ‘Gary, we're trying to protect you guys here.’ We want this recorded at the recorder's office. We want this official,” Lee said.
Even with that information, Lee stated RDG was still hesitant about the cost of the survey and easement. He requested that the Humboldt County Conservation Department pay the $3,000 cost in order to move the project along.
“It needs to be done correctly and so there are no loopholes. There are no ambiguities. It not only protects them, it probably protects us a little bit too,” Lee said.
The Board voted 2 to 1 in favor of paying the cost for the survey and easement with Bob Rasmussen and Will Spellmeyer voting yes, Mary Miner voting no and T.C. Loving and Taylor Pedersen absent.
Lee also walked through the purchase agreement and pointed out the things that had been similar to the Rutland dam agreement and what was different.
The Rutland agreement included a real estate taxes and assessment clause and a right to title review, neither of which is in the agreement for the Reasoner Dam.
The purchase agreement for the Reasoner Dam includes verbiage about the dam reaching the end of its useful life, clause pertaining to the seller cooperating with the buyer to obtain easments for egress and ingress and the buyer providing the seller with a maintenance bond.
Lee discussed the issue with the Reasoner agreement and stated that there were things that could be removed.
“We dealt with the easments and I spoke to the lawyer who stated we could remove the end of life statement without any issues,” Lee said.
The maintenance bond can also be excluded from the agreement because it was added to show the sincerity of RDG to work on the dam. If they chose not to improve the dam, it will simply revert back to the state at this point and the state would decide what to do.
The three members of the board in attendance voted on Resolution No. 2026 07-15 consenting to the transfer of the custody, control and management of Reasoner Dam to the RIVER Development, Inc. and that the board chairman is authorized to complete all transactions.
The Board again voted 2 to 1 in favor of accepting the resolution, with Rasmussen and Spellmeyer voting yes, Miner voting no and Loving and Pedersen absent.
The next step in the process is to get the approval of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors.
Read the FULL recap of the Conservation Board meeting in this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent.
