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Commissioners raise procedural, parcel concerns about Sugar Creek Joint County Drainage Project
Summary
Wood County officials told commissioners they found errors and procedural gaps in the Sugar Creek Joint County Drainage Project submission — missing engineer signatures, disagreement over log-jam-only plans, no Sandusky prosecutor opinion on file, absent ODOT sign-off, and more than 200 parcel-owner entries flagged as incorrect — and asked staff to request clarification from the Joint Board.
Clerk Sandy Long briefed the Board of County Commissioners on March 10 about outstanding procedural and data issues with the Sugar Creek Joint County Drainage Project, which involves Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood counties. Long said the final plans and assessment roll submitted by Sandusky County lacked the signatures of the three county engineers required under Ohio law, and Wood County Engineer Musteric disagreed with the approach taken by Sandusky County Engineer Carlos Baez, who prepared plans limited to log-jam removal to be bid as a lump-sum project.
Long said a requested opinion from the Sandusky County Prosecutor about the correct procedure for submitting final ditch-construction plans has not been received. She also noted that a response from the Ohio Department of Transportation — required when a state highway is affected — has not been provided. Wood County Drainage Coordinator Jon Shinew reported a rapid review found more than 200 Wood County parcel-owner entries that were incorrect on the submitted assessment roll; Long said some owners would only be assessed a nominal amount (about $25) because they already pay for maintenance of the watercourse, but the inaccuracies could leave owners unaware of impending assessments if not corrected.
Commissioners asked Long to draft a letter to the Joint Board of Commissioners and the county engineers to catalog the concerns and request the prosecutor's opinion and missing agency responses.
What happens next: the county will send the requested letter and seek corrected plans and an updated assessment roll before the project proceeds to a final hearing.
