FPS staff report
June 2, 2009
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) will serve as a partner to help relocate 30 homeowners from a flood-prone area of northern Carroll County and to help reduce downstream pollution from a site in Canton in Stark County.
Members of the MWCD Board of Directors approved local matching funds for $140,000 for the Carroll County project and $43,200 for the work in the city of Canton.
“These two requests for assistance squarely fit within the intended purpose for assessment funding according to the Amendment to the Official Plan of the MWCD,” said John M. Hoopingarner, MWCD executive director/secretary, during a recent meeting of the Board of Directors held at Coshocton. “The MWCD’s plan includes providing local matching funds to assist homeowners who have repeatedly dealt with flooding, such as what has occurred in recent years in Brown Township.”
U.S. Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, and trustees from Brown Township requested assistance from the MWCD to help fund the local match required for award of a federal grant of nearly $900,000 for the purchase and removal of 30 homes near Malvern. The area has suffered significant flooding in 2004, 2005 and 2008 and all of the residents to be relocated have volunteered to move from the area.
Brown Township will contribute nearly $73,000 toward the required $222,728 match amount, with the MWCD providing the remaining $140,000. The removal of the homes will restore floodplain storage and reduce the rate of inflow into Bolivar Reservoir, Hoopingarner said.
“This effort also will permit the homeowners in this area to relocate and provide them with the peace of mind to be leaving the concerns and stresses of flooding behind,” Hoopingarner said.
Vera Gatchell, project manager for the relocation project, said that all of the homeowners who are relocating volunteered to leave the area and repeatedly have been calling her office for status updates on the program.
“We are talking about people who are living in their homes with mold today that is left over from the flooding,” Gatchell said. “This is a very positive avenue for the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District.”
In Stark County, the retention basin and forebay planned at the Fairhope Nature Preserve will reduce pollution loads in the watershed, Hoopingarner said. The state has awarded the city of Canton nearly 80 percent of the total $560,000 cost for construction of the project located on the northeast side of the city. A local match of $123,200 is required, with the city providing $80,000 and the MWCD to contribute the remaining $43,200.
The MWCD will pay for its share of the costs for the Carroll County and Canton projects- along with other identified maintenance projects at the reservoirs and in the watershed - through an assessment of property owners in the watershed pursuant to Ohio law, which collection began this year
In another matter, Dan Bolger of Millersport, a member of the South Licking Conservancy District in the Licking County area, said board members of the conservancy district are considering the possibility of dissolving the district and making a request to become a subdistrict of the MWCD.
The South Licking Conservancy District, which was formed about 50 years ago and much of which is located inside the boundaries of the MWCD, has identified projects to reduce flooding in its watershed, Bolger said, adding he was attending the meeting to inform MWCD officials about the discussions held recently by South Licking board members.
“We know that there absolutely is a need and justification for alliance (with the MWCD),” Bolger said. “From all the information that I can read, becoming a subdistrict of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District makes absolute common sense.”
Hoopingarner said state law provides the process for establishment of subdistricts operated by conservancy districts. The MWCD already operates the Chippewa Subdistrict in northern Wayne and southern Medina counties. Subdistricts can be established after a petition request is made of a conservancy district.
In other business, the board:
-APPROVED an agreement with an Ashland website development firm for upgrades to the MWCD’s Internet website, www.mwcd.org.
Spire Advertising and Web Design will assist in an overall upgrade to the website, including merging the MWCD’s other website. |
