MANSFIELD — Solutions Journalism is a fairly new concept for agencies in the news gathering business. It takes the next step beyond reporting an issue to the realm of suggesting a resolution for a problem.
The Richland Source embarked on two significant Solutions Journalism pieces in 2016, one on flooding in the region and a second on infant mortality. The first of those subjects was recognized on Tuesday by the New York Times.
New York Times reporter David Bornstein wrote at the newspaper’s Opinion Pages website:
“Around the country, a common environmental story is how communities are responding to local climate change effects. In Richland County, Ohio, for example, flooding has been growing more frequent and severe for a decade, a mounting problem that extends across the Midwest.
“In When the River Rises, Dillon Carr, a reporter for the Richland Source, examines in painstaking detail the effect of floods on farmland, how government policies and Environmental Protection Agency rules constrain and frustrate farmers who want to do something about that, and how watershed conservancy subdistricts have been shown to be a workable and affordable solution.”
Recognition from the New York Times is just the latest piece of national publicity for Richland Source. In May, the Columbia Journalism Review touted the company’s growth. In 2015, the PBS site Media Shift profiled Richland Source’s approach to local journalism. Also in July of that year, Harvard’s Nieman Lab discussed the diversity of Richland Source as a local news agency.
Earlier this year Richland Source was selected the 2016 Small Business of the Year by Richland Area Chamber of Commerce. To learn more about the company, check out Our Story.
Publisher Jay Allred said Richland Source is committed to solutions reporting as part of its mission in the community. In September, reporter Brittany Schock completed a three-part series on infant mortality in the area.
In his work, Carr, an Ontario High School product, spent six months reporting on the five-part piece examining a problem that has created more than a century of headaches in north central Ohio.
For the first part, he interviewed a Lucas farmer who complained his crops were endangered by eroding Mohican River tributary rivers that converge on his property.
“I just want someone to care. Those rivers haven’t been dredged since the late ‘50s. And every year, it just cuts and cuts and cuts into my fields,” Masters, 81, said. “My kids and grandkids, that’s what worries me.”
The farmer plans on passing on his 92-acre plot to his children. But he worries about the “uncontrollable” rivers that are gradually cutting away the farmable land.
The second piece explored a homegrown idea for a solution, as expanded upon by Dan Tucker, owner of Tucker Brothers Auto Wrecking in Mansfield. Tucker said the eroding rivers should be maintained with money from the steep Current Agricultural Use Valuation property tax. CAUV taxes have increased nearly 70 percent for Ohio farmers in recent years.
The solution, in theory, could work, said Congressman Bob Gibbs (R) and state representative Mark Romanchuk (R).
However, in reality, probably not.
“You’d have to change state law. Or you’d have to convince the schools to say, ‘OK, you can use some of my money; I don’t think that will happen,” Gibbs was quoted saying in the story’s third part.
The farmers’ idea to reallocate CAUV tax monies to dredge and maintain area rivers displayed an concerted misunderstanding of a complex issue, which is part of a much larger, national issue. Part three dives deep into the issues surrounding flooding. A hint, it’s political.
In parts four and five, however, a viable solution is presented through a description of subdistricts and Ohio Conservancy Districts. Several communities, including Shelby and Bellville, have opted to create subdistricts, which are part of the larger Muskingum Watershed Conservancy Districts.
The viability of creating subdistricts was reinforced by exploring Seville’s subdistrict, also referred to as the Chippewa Subdistrict. The community decided to create the subdistrict in the late 1950s in response to growing flooding problems.
In essence, a subdistrict allows a community to pool together funds to maintain the engineered system.
A flood control system is paid for through yearly assessments. Chippewa’s subdistrict received $373,170 in 2015 from its assessment, which means each landowner within the subdistrict paid around $11 — for the entire year.
