Sugar Creek county ditch cleaning assessments on the horizon
FREMONT ― The Sandusky County Engineer’s office is working on assessments for the proposed cleaning of the last section of Sugar Creek, which covers 10 miles of Sandusky and Ottawa counties, affecting 3,500 parcels of land.
Notices of the Joint County Ditch Project were made Oct. 11 for owners of land in the Sugar Creek watershed that would be within the proposed improvement area.
As noted in the letter, “a watershed is the area of land where all of the water that drains off of it and goes to the same place ― a river, stream, or lake. This includes storm water systems and roadside ditches that collect water and take it to creeks and rivers.”
Sandusky County Engineer Carlos A. Baez Sr. estimates that assessments will be sent out to the owners of 3,500 parcels.
“We were waiting for comments from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to come back, with comments, before we could finalize plans,” Baez said. “We met with the Wood County engineer and the Ottawa County engineer in my office. Basically, we came up with a plan of attack to finalize the plans.”
Using that plan, combined with the finished assessments, the project plans will then be filed with the Sandusky County commissioners.
“I’m expecting that to take less than a month,” Baez said. “Once we’ve filed with the commissioners, they will then set up a meeting. I would say in two to three months before a meeting gets set up. It’s good to let people know that it’s out there and that it’s coming. I think there are about 3,500 parcels, so it’s going to take a while to do that. We’ve been working on that since December.”
Baez noted that this is one of several projects in the works, each started before the pandemic, and requiring input from multiple jurisdictions and multiple agencies.
The Sugar Creek clean-up crosses three counties: Sandusky, Ottawa and Wood counties. The petition for the third, and last, section for cleaning was filed Oct. 31, 2016. It covers about 10 miles of the creek, with about 5 miles in each of Ottawa and Sandusky counties. That section starts at Woodville Township Road 115, north of Gibsonburg, then heads 10 miles north to where it outlets into the Portage River.
“You’ve got to treat these projects as one. That’s why they are called Joint County Ditch Projects,” Baez said.
The clean-up is to include log jam and silt removal. This will consist of a berm on both sides of the channel for access, all log jams and silt bars removed, and rip rap placed where needed. Rip rap is usually crushed stone, meant to prevent erosion.
“The assessment notice will give (landowners) notice of what their maximum assessment is going to be. Then there will be a date with the final hearing. That’s when they can come in and speak, or send letters, or comment. At that time, that’s when the commissioners make their final decision to proceed, or not to proceed,” Baez said. “They will have a good month, or more, notice about when the hearing is.”
The first two sections were petitioned in 1959 and 1972. Both were approved, constructed, and are being maintained under County Ditch Maintenance.
The Sandusky County Engineer’s website is sanduskycountyengineers.com/ditch-petitions-drainage, which has the documentation presented since 2016.
rlapointe@gannett.com
419-332-2674
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sugar Creek cleaning in Sandusky and Ottawa OH counties
