MANSFIELD — Owners of about 10,000 parcels in Richland and Crawford counties will learn Thursday evening a preliminary estimate of what it would cost to clean up the Black Fork.
Richland County Engineer Adam Gove will offer a preliminary look at the estimated assessments and the economic benefits from the “combined ditch project,” an effort that began began Feb. 24 when the City of Shelby and rural community members filed a ditch petition.
Flooding along the Black Fork has been a frequent and recurring problem, especially in the Shelby area.
The petition asks commissioners from the two counties “to study and examine the economic benefits to the City of Shelby and the approximately 70,000 acres of the agricultural community that lie within the petitioned watershed area.”
Petitioners asked for a project that could improve drainage and reduce flooding along the Black Fork, which rises about seven miles west of Mansfield in Richland County and initially flows northward through the City of Shelby, then eastward across northern Richland County before turning southeast for the remainder of its course through eastern Richland and southern Ashland counties.
The 6:30 p.m. public meeting will be at the Longview Center, 1495 W. Longview Ave.
Richland County Commissioner Cliff Mears, chair of the combined county committee, said Thursday morning that officials will discuss a brief history of how this point was reached. Gove will then give his presentation and residents will then have an opportunity to offer their input.
“We don’t any way of knowing how many residents will attend,” Mears said.
The joint committee, with commissioners from both counties, could then vote to either proceed with the project, decline the project or extend the discussion to another public meeting.
Committee members physically visited some sites on the Black Fork on May 20 and reviewed 150 minutes of drone footage of all 18 miles of the winding waterway on May 21, video done by Matt Wallace, agriculture technician for the Richland Soil & Water Conservation District.
If approved, the work would be a continuation of two phases already privately planned and organized by Shelby residents at a cost of about $367,000, according to Erica Thomas, director of the Richland Soil & Water Conservation District.
The RSWCD said earlier this year phase one cleaned the waterway from Ohio 13 to State Street and that a second phase was nearly complete, clearing the Black Fork from State Street to Mickey Road.
“These two projects were beneficial in cleaning and clearing the river, but more work is necessary to help with continuing efforts to keep the river flowing,” RSWCD said in a press release in February.
