DAKOTA CITY — The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors sold Oxbow Park at Monday’s board meeting.

Sam and Lakyn Harvey, of Humboldt, submitted a bid of $166,000 at the bid letting Monday. Their’s was the highest of three bids received.

The Harveys intend to turn the park’s lodge into their residence.

Oxbow Park comprises about 1.2 acres just west of Humboldt, north of Iowa Highway 3 along the West Fork of the Des Moines River.

The property was acquired by the county in 1994 and a two-story lodge was built in 2002. The Humboldt County Conservation Board had been renting out the lodge, but the number of renters has declined.

The Conservation Board tried unsuccessfully to sell the property twice in 2016. It had been asking for a minimum bid of $150,000, which, according to appraisers, was the fair market value.

The Conservation Board intends to use the funds to develop a newly-acquired 26-acre addition to Sheldon Park to the south. It intends to make that park a recreation destination site.

The septic tank at the Oxbow site passed inspection last month, Conservation Director Todd Lee said. There had been uncertainty about how the property was zoned, but Lee said that according to Interim Zoning Director Brian Skow the property is zoned residential.

“The Harveys will not take possession until Sept. 1,” Lee said.

He will notify the few people who had reserved the lodge after that date that the lodge will not be available.

The property will be put back on the tax rolls.

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The board learned Monday that landowners may have been overcharged in a drainage project along Lateral D in Drainage District 33 northwest of Rutland. The work was completed last year and established alternative drainage for the closure of agricultural drainage wells in the area.

A project study was done by T.P. Anderson & Company, of Humboldt. Tim McCartan said total project cost was $502.294. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship inadvertently inflated the interest costs and overpaid the district.

The project received a 75 percent grant from the state’s well closure fund in the amount of $345,757, but the amount that should have been received from the state was $270,757. Ultimately, the $75,000 will probably have to be paid back, McCartan said.

The landowners were assessed $263,000, but the assessments should have been $191,000, according to the study. The reason for the difference was the amount of state funds that came in after the fact.

Landowners asked what happened to the overcharge. Supervisor Rick Pedersen said the money was sitting in the drainage district fund and the intent is to refund that money back to the landowners after the board consults with the county attorney.

Pedersen said he requested the study because he had concerns about the numbers.

“It was a little confusing to me,” he said. “I wanted to clear it up.”

Drainage Clerk Trish Egli also asked for the study, he said.

“Unfortunately,” Pedersen said, “we trusted the state’s numbers.”