Commissioners flooded with Miami River calls
By REUBEN MEES
Examiner Staff Writer

For the past two weeks, letters and telephone calls have been pouring into the Logan County Commissioners’ office like the waters of the Great Miami River pour into Indian Lake area homes after days of heavy rains.

The citizen concerns were prompted by a letter that went out two weeks ago informing thousands of residents of Logan, Auglaize, Champaign, Hardin and Shelby counties that they were being billed for a Great Miami River and Muchinippi Creek cleanup that officials hope will help alleviate some flooding in Logan County.

Kacy Kirby, administrative assistant to the commissioners, said Thursday the office had received more than 900 telephone calls to a special number set up for the project, additional calls at the main number, about 80 letters and scattered e-mails and personal visits.

The nearly $1 million river improvement project is being funded by assessments of $25 per parcel to each of nearly 31,000 parcels in the five counties, Commissioner David Knight said. Property owners near the Muchinippi are being charged extra for the work to be done on that waterway.

Logan County property owners are responsible for more than $785,000 of that bill because the 16 miles of river to be cleaned are entirely in Logan County.

As of Thursday, slightly more than $18,000 had been collected in Logan County, personnel at the treasurer’s office reported. Residents have until April 7 to file an appeal either in a written letter to the commission or by picking up an appeal notification at the Logan County Commissioners’ office. A formal public hearing on the appeals will take place later in April or May, Mr. Knight said.

Logan County residents, who circulated a petition to get the issue on the November ballot and rejected it by a 60 percent majority, are hot that the commissioners of all five counties are proceeding despite that vote.

“This was voted on — the majority said NO!” rural Bellefontaine resident Sheryl Godwin wrote in an appeal letter on file at the commissioners’ office. “There needs to be another way to fund this project. That’s what the joint commissioners are paid for. They are not paid to railroad homeowners into paying and paying and paying.”

Logan County Commissioners John Bayliss and Jack Reser, who represent two votes on the 15-member joint board of commissioners, have voted against project details in accordance with that statement by voters.

Mr. Knight said the issue had already been approved prior to the vote and the other members of the joint board continue to vote in favor of proceeding. The issue was only voted on in Logan County.

“Last fall we asked the prosecutors of all five counties to give us their legal opinions on what the responsibility of the joint board was and their consensus was that a single county cannot opt in or out of a project once it is begun,” he said, explaining that he voted in favor of recent items because they were procedural issues and not votes on whether the project should continue.

Mrs. Godwin also pointed out in her appeal that she and her husband own about 8.4 acres divided into three parcels east of Bellefontaine, which means they are being assessed as much as Mr. Knight for his approximately 250-acre Pleasant Township farm that lies very close to the river.

The state law that defines how money is to be collected for watershed improvement projects spells out that the assessment is to be per parcel and not per acre, Mr. Knight said.

“Is that ‘fair?’” he asked. “I probably agree that it isn’t, but you are never going to come up with a set of rules that everyone thinks is fair.”

Other property owners, like Catherine Morse, who listed a Shelby mailing address, said they were being charged unfairly for small parcels — some less than 1/10th of an acre — that have almost no impact on a watershed.

“While I certainly do not have any objection to helping financially with improving the quality of the lake water, I do not feel that I should be taxed for land which is so small that no independent resale value exists now or in the future,” she wrote. “I am continually being penalized for correcting surveying problems that occurred before I took over ownership.”

Mr. Knight said the state law makes no distinction between the size of parcels.

“The state law says $25 per parcel is the minimum,” he said. “It doesn’t say use common sense and we probably don’t want elected officials interpreting law and determining how much people are going to pay.”

A final set of complaints came from property owners who say they live too far away from the river and should not be taxed because they do not use the river.

“A lot of people just don’t understand what a watershed is,” Mr. Knight said.

A watershed essentially states which river or stream a drop of water that lands on a certain property will eventually flow into. Water is believed to flow into the portion of the Great Miami from all the residents who received bills in the project.

Mr. Knight said the project will be bid over the summer with the assistance of Logan Soil and Water Conservation District and the Logan County Engineer’s Office.

The contractor will then be responsible for removing any log jams and cutting trees on the banks that have either died or are leaning above the water.

When the initial cleanup is complete, the engineer’s office will be responsible for maintaining the river and the joint board can approve an assessment of up to $2.50 per parcel per year to cover those costs. The fund that money goes into, which is separate from general government spending funds, can never exceed a balance above 20 percent of the project cost, or about $200,000, Mr. Knight said.