Bootheel
Levee and drainage districts are part of how Pemiscot County is governed
Much of the county is farmable only because of levees and drainage ditches managed by special districts, which carry their own assessments and boards separate from the county.
Like much of the Bootheel, Pemiscot County’s flat row-crop land is workable largely because of an engineered system of levees and drainage ditches. These are run by special-purpose districts, levee districts and drainage districts, that are separate units of local government with their own boards and their own assessments on the land they serve. For a landowner that can mean a drainage or levee assessment on a parcel, on top of regular property tax, and a stake in how water gets moved off the fields. Figuring out which districts cover a property explains a piece of the tax picture and a piece of how flooding and drainage are managed locally. The statutory basis for these districts is in Missouri law, and the districts themselves hold the operating records.
References
Where this fits: this note belongs to Pemiscot County. See every local note for the county on its page.