MANSFIELD — Mansfield’s plan to fund a multi-million dollar flood mitigation project still remains a mystery.
And solving the city’s flooding puzzle was placed on the forefront of minds yesterday when videos and images like this appeared after a deluge of rain inundated Mansfield streets.
But Bob Bianchi, the city’s engineer, recently said the project could be funded through the use of conservancy law, a possibility that he and the Mansfield mayor rejected in the project’s early planning stages.
Using conservancy law, the city could fund the project via local assessments through the creation of a watershed district or subdistrict, said Boris Slogar, Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District Chief Engineer.
Slogar said communities like Copley Township, Barberton, Norton and Wolf Creek in Summit County have started to take steps to form their own conservancy districts.
“That’s something Mansfield could do,” Slogar explained. “It would be an area of watershed to include their own conservancy district.
“Once it’s formed, they would then develop solutions to the problems. Then there’s a legal process, when it’s approved by the conservancy court and then comes a capital assessment where you assess residents within the conservancy district boundary.”
A conservancy district, Slogar said, does not have any geographical or size limitations.
“It can be as small as a neighborhood you live in,” he said, adding there are currently 21 conservancy districts in operation in Ohio today. Reno Beach Conservancy, between Toledo and Sandusky, is the size of an allotment, Slogar said.
“If they did that and called it the Mansfield Conservancy District, for example, they would have complete local control,” he said.
Slogar said he and Mansfield city officials have not spoken about forming a subdistrict recently. They did, however, speak a few years ago when Mansfield started exploring options to mitigate flooding in the northern section of the city. That region includes buildings like the post office and North End neighborhoods.
But Mansfield officials decided forming a subdistrict would not be feasible. Instead, a $24 million project with EHM&T commenced — without a plan to fund it.
Forming its own district or subdistrict also came up in the 1930s when watershed conservancy districts were first formed, said Slogar. Arthur E. Morgan took it upon himself to find a solution to flood-prone areas, specifically the Dayton area. He was motivated by the devastation that happened there in 1913.
The system, known as conservancy law, has funded levies and dam structures that prevent communities like Dayton, Miami and other counties throughout Ohio from becoming devastatingly inundated when rain relentlessly falls.
“Mansfield said they would form their own then, back in the 1930s,” Slogar said. “But, for whatever reason, it never happened.”
Bianchi said the $24 million price tag attached to the EHM&T project, which creates its own watershed made up of four regional detention basins in the northern section of the city, is not going to be as steep, making it possible to fund the project through conservancy law, he said.
Bianchi declined to comment on how much the project is expected to cost; however, he said the decrease is millions of dollars.
Mansfield mayor Tim Theaker and Bianchi were quoted in an April story saying the project, spearheaded by EHM&T, would be ready for phase three by September or October. As of January, Bianchi said the project is still deadlocked in phase two — research.
“We’ve discovered additional work items that need reviewed prior to finalizing the study — they’re minor things we’re still looking into,” Bianchi said.
Specifically, the “minor details,” include nailing down exact elevations along West Sixth Street.
Once those details are hammered out, Bianchi said the engineering department will meet with city administration. After that, the final presentation of EHM&T’s plan will be presented, by Bianchi, to city council members.
Bianchi, who has worked closely with EHM&T since late 2013, hopes that will happen sometime this month.
