Grandview Estates residents plan to appeal Beaver-Seckel ditch rehabilitation project

A group of Grandview Estates subdivision residents met twice this week to discuss plans to appeal the proposed Beaver-Seckel ditch rehabilitation project that the residents say will cost some of them thousands of dollars in assessment fees.

The Marion County Commissioners voted 3-0 on Aug. 24 to approve moving forward with the Beaver-Seckel ditch rehabilitation project. According to documentation provided by the county commissioners, the project will cost $230,239.19 to complete. Work to be done includes cleaning, grading, and reseeding of 5,848 linear feet of open ditch and cleaning under four culverts located along the ditch.

The entire Beaver-Seckel ditch extends from Linn-Hipsher Road in Grand Prairie Township to South Avenue in Marion Township and runs through the Grandview Estates subdivision. It was built in the 1940s when the United States Army operated the Scioto Ordnance Plant in the area.

Documentation provided by the county commissioners verifies that assessments for some property owners adjacent to the Beaver-Seckel ditch will cost more than $10,000.

Grandview Estates residents opposed to the project met with Attorney Kyle Phillips from the Ratliff Law Office on Tuesday evening at Grandview Estates Park to discuss their options for a course of action. Residents have 21 days from the date the petition was approved to file an appeal.

Based on what the residents told him, Phillips informed them that he believed they may have a valid appeal based on two factors allowed by Ohio Revised Code Section 6131.25, which outlines six grounds for an appeal. First, is whether the improvement is necessary. Second, is whether the cost of the improvement greater than the benefits conferred.

The appeal will be filed with the clerk of the Marion County Common Pleas Court, per Ohio Revised Code.

In July 2018, the commissioners voted to reject a petition in support of the Beaver-Seckel ditch project, but another petition filed July 10, 2019, was approved by the county commissioners. Multiple extensions were granted that pushed the final decision to Aug. 24 of this year when the commissioners voted to approve the project.

During a public hearing conducted July 20, Marion County Deputy Engineer Charlie Walker said one of the main reasons for conducting the project is a change in weather patterns that has resulted in an increase in "the frequency of intense rain events" locally.

"The EPA released some data and the rainfall during our four wettest days of the year in this region is 35% (higher) than historically speaking," Walker said. "So our intensity has gone up. The amount of water flowing in most streams during the worst flood of the year has increased by 20%, so now when it's wet, it's wetter. And what we're also seeing is when it's dry, it's dryer. So when we're dealing with non-maintained ditches and tiles, as we are out in Grandview, this exacerbates the issue."

Walker told residents who attended the public hearing that the project will alleviate "some flooding," but will not solve all flooding issues in the area.

"I'm not scared to admit, this ditch, you won't notice as much benefit because not many people live right next to it," Walker said. "However, everyone's water goes here. So how are you going to do an improvement that's going to help you if (the water) can't go anywhere? ... This benefits more people because it's a larger watershed, but your individual benefit is still dependent on you getting your water to it."

Individual property owners are required to maintain portions of the ditch that run through their property.

Four residents testified at the public hearing on July 20 in support of the project, including Burris Drive resident Daniel James, who filed the petition. Six residents testified in opposition to the project during the hearing.

"I agreed with the last petition (in 2018); everything needs to be cleaned out," James said. "I think it's pretty simple to see we want the ditches cleaned out, we just don't want to pay for it. Our case, I've cleaned out my driveway. I've basically got my water to that ditch. I put in French drains, cleaned trees out of the ditches, and I've got it to where it's supposed to go."

As they did in 2018, residents opposed to the project are questioning the cost versus the benefit of the project as well as the fairness of the costs of the assessments for each property owner.

"I have stated in the past that I wouldn't opposed to cleaning the ditches if everybody was charged the same amount of money," Grandview Drive resident Jack Smith said during the July 20 public hearing. "I know what you're saying, but there's no way you can prove to me that more of my water flows to that ditch than anybody else's because it all goes underground. We don't know where it goes. So if we did that, I wouldn't be opposed, but we don't. I'm paying $7,000. To me that's way out of line. That's way out of line.

"We're not benefiting from this unless we pay more money. The only way we benefit from this if we put out more money. I don't have a lot of money to be putting out. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm on a fixed income. A lot of people in Grandview are retired and are on fixed incomes."

During the public hearing held July 20, Walker said had the 2018 petition been approved, the scope and cost of the project would have both been greater. He said that the plan at that time was to rehabilitate some 22,000 feet of the ditch at a cost of approximately $404,000.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Grandview Estates residents appealing Beaver-Seckel ditch project