SHELBY — A ditch petition was never filed in Richland County prior to 2021.
That year on Valentine’s Day, Shelby Mayor Steve Schag and several city landowners signed a ditch petition — declaring their interest to have the Black Fork River cleaned up — and filed it with the Richland County Board of Commissioners.
What followed was about two and a half years of meetings, research, plan development and drone work, among other procedures.
“In the meantime, nothing really happened,” Richland County Commissioner Cliff Mears said Monday night during a Shelby City Council meeting.
“The intent was to clean out the Black Fork as much as we could. But because of our inexperience, but also because of other considerations, we incurred a lot of costs,” Mears said. “We incurred engineering costs… drone footage costs, legal concerns… and in the end it was determined that the costs far outweighed the benefit.”
But the commissioner came to Monday’s council meeting with “another recipe” to ultimately accomplish the same goal desired in 2021.
Mears said commissioners will contribute $46,495 to Shelby for logjam removal in portions of the Black Fork which run through the city’s unincorporated areas to State Route 13.
Shelby will be responsible for covering the cost of removing logjams from the Black Fork within city limits (between the Mickey Road bridge and most eastern corporation limit of the river) — estimated to cost $10,230.
“It would be your project,” Mears told city officials. “Here’s a one-time check. Let’s get it done — a lot more expedient in the process of doing it this way.”
The total project estimate from Ottawa-based Tawa Tree Service — who would be responsible for removing 32 logjams in total — is $56,725.
Shelby lawmakers voted unanimously to enter into the agreement with county commissioners — which includes accepting the board’s one-time financial contribution.
Contribution a ‘bargain,’ says Mears
Mears said commissioners consider their $46,000-plus contribution a “bargain” compared to the money spent during the ditch petition process.
During the multiyear ditch petition process, commissioners’ general fund paid $42,246.33 for legal fees, mailings, drone footage and engineering costs, he said.
“And we really didn’t get anything out of it,” Mears said. “For just about the same amount of money, we’re hopeful that we can get something done with this proposal.”
(Below is a copy of the resolution passed by City Council on Monday evening, which details the agreement with the Richland County Board of Commissioners. The story continues below.)
Unlike the ditch petition — which required an assessment process to all parcel owners within the watershed area — no property owners will be assessed during the proposed project, Mears said.
Fourth Ward Councilman Nathan Martin thanked Mears for attending Monday’s meeting and checked to make sure Shelby has the statutory authority to carry out the project.
The commissioner responded that Richland County administrator Andrew Keller identified this project is within the city’s legal authority to complete.
Eric Cutlip, 3rd Ward councilman, thanked county commissioners for their cooperation throughout the past few years.
“I know it’s been a long road and it’s had a lot of hiccups along the way, but at least we’re finally getting something done,” Cutlip said.
Schag said the resolution passed Monday enables the city to take care of the major logjams obstructing the flow of the Black Fork.
The mayor also thanked John Ensman, the city’s director of utilities, who has dedicated a large amount of time to this effort, along with Matt Christian and Matt Wallace from the Richland Soil & Water Conservation District.
“We are very, very grateful and we hope that this will mitigate the flooding activity that’s been going on in the last few years,” Schag said. “We know it won’t eliminate, but we hope to mitigate flooding around our area and northern Richland County.”
