(a)
(1) The commissioners shall proceed to assess the lands within the district and shall inscribe in a book the description of each tract of land. They shall assess the value of the benefits to accrue to each tract by reason of the improvement and shall enter such assessment of benefits opposite the description, together with an estimate of what the landowner will probably have to pay on the assessment.
(2) These assessments shall embrace not merely the land but all public and corporate roads, railroads, tramroads, and other improvements on lands that shall be benefited by the drainage system.
(3) They shall place opposite each tract of land the name of the supposed owner, as shown by the last county assessment, but a mistake in the name shall not vitiate the assessment. They may correct evident errors which occur in the county assessment list.
(b) If any commissioner or any private corporation or other drainage district has dug ditches or made drainage works that can be profitably used as a part of the general system, the value of the ditches or drainage works to the district shall be assessed by the commissioners, shall separately appear upon their assessment, and shall be paid for by the district, either in cash or by reduction of assessment.
(c)
(1) The commissioners shall also assess all damages that will accrue to any landowner by reason of the proposed improvement, including all injury to lands taken or damaged.
(2) Where they return no such assessment of damages as to any tract of land, it shall be deemed a finding by them that no damage shall be sustained.
(3) Whenever the district embraces land in more than one (1) county, the secretary of the board of commissioners shall forward to the county clerk of each county in which the lands of the district lie a copy of the assessment of benefits insofar as relates to the lands in that county. The copy shall be preserved by the respective county clerks as permanent records of their offices.