YOUR INFORMATION NEWSLETTER FROM NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE
PAUL G. BUESCHER
~ KEEPING NCT RESIDENTS INFORMED SINCE 2005 ~
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#484 FRIDAY MAY 05, 2017
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LET’S DISCUSS FLOODING
The majority of Northfield Center Township is located in the Brandywine Creek watershed. This means that the storm water falling on our Township eventually drains into the creek, which in turn ends up in the Cuyahoga River just South of the Highland Road bridge.
It’s not just our township that drains into Brandywine but many other communities as well. As the rains fall, parts of Macedonia, Boston Heights, Hudson and Twinsburg Township all contribute to Brandywine Creek before the flow arrives here in Northfield Center. This is a collective natural drainage system, which under normal circumstances, handles storm water runoff efficiently. The same can be said about the manmade infrastructures that drain the runoff from these communities.
The storm water drainage infrastructure (ditches, pipes, catch basins, etc.) within our communities were planned and constructed to handle NORMAL rainfall at a two to five-year flood event duration. To do otherwise would be cost prohibitive. Imagine having to have five-foot deep ditches in your front yards and 48” pipes under your driveways! Even then there would still be flooding during extremely heavy rainfall. Why? Because all of that water still has to find its way to Brandywine Creek and when the Creek and its tributaries are overflowing, the water has nowhere else to go and backs up! This is nature and the best that we can do is to respect it, cope with it and learn from it.
Before I address some of the flooding issues in our Township, I want to emphasize a very important, non-negotiable and iron-clad fact …. All 900+ townships in Ohio are PROHIBITED BY OHIO LAW FROM DOING ANY WORK WHATSOEVER ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!
So, who is to blame and who or what is responsible for the flooding woes in our Township? The blame game runs the gamut from over building to so called manmade global warming. Our own federal government even funded a $5 million study to show that cow farts are a contributing factor! Don’t believe me? Look it up.
I’m sure that there’s plenty of blame to go around but I believe that it goes back many decades during the early years of community development. It has continued to amaze me over the years to see planners allowing homes and businesses to be built on flood plains along rivers, creeks, streams and other well-known flood prone areas. I’ve personally witnessed (in another community) official 100-year flood plain maps redrawn to accommodate developers and well to do property owners. Development and building was also allowed on ‘drained’ wetlands, including here in our Township, where Cattails still grow.
I’ve personally witnessed this insanity throughout the 80’s and 90’s and as a correspondent for a local newspaper I wrote about my concerns both before and after the floods that I so accurately predicted. I testified at many public hearings and exposed the lunacy of the economic and environmental hazards that these actions would cause in the near future. I even received the Ohio Environmental Watchdog of the year award in Columbus in 1999 for my efforts. But still, the disregard for nature’s fury and the safety of residents, continued over the years and today many are paying the price.
It’s not my intention to be a doomsday ‘prophet’ but I have to remind people about historic flood events that have occurred in our area and will occur again.
Some people have referred to the flood events of the past few years as “100-year floods.” It was back in March, 1913, that the actual 100-year flood occurred. And then in July, 1969, our 50-year flood occurred. Statistically speaking, both the 50 and 100-year floods are overdue to hit us again! I personally witnessed the July 4, 1969 flood and studied the 1913 event thoroughly and even talked with a few old timers who lived through that one. Believe me when I state that nobody will escape the results of either coming event and many in our region will lose their homes and more!
Here in our Township I’ve been a part of the resolution for several flooding problems but obviously, we have more work to do. One of the real sticking points is the Dorwick Ditch, which has been a problem since 1969, and is even referenced in meeting minutes going back to 1955! In May 2008, we tried to resolve the matter by attempting to obtain an easement in and along the Dorwick ditch. The easement required the participation of all property owners along the ditch. On May 28th, we conducted a special meeting for all of the affect property owners but less than half showed up and only three were willing to sign easement agreements. We devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy into this only to be let down by a lack of interest and the dissemination of misinformation. It was like banging our heads against a wall so we had little choice but to cease our efforts.
Last year, resident Rick Patz, initiated a “Ditch Petition” by filing the necessary paperwork and putting up $600 of his own money. This began a legal process that if successful, would involve the County Engineer’s Office in addressing and correcting some of the issues creating the flooding conditions affecting residents in the “Wicks” area and beyond. This would, of course, come with a cost to area residents through some hefty assessed fees.
At this point in time, the petition is now stalled at the County Council level. The apparent cause for this is the County Engineer’s proposal this year for a County-wide storm water management program. It appears that these two actions might be in conflict with each other. The County’s proposed management program would allow the Board of Trustees to opt in to the program but not individual property owners. If our Township would opt in, it would cost each homeowner $4 per month with businesses assessed more depending on impervious surfaces such as roofs and parking lots. There is much more to this proposal so I am including the County’s draft as an attachment to this newsletter.
In the meantime, I found it ironic that nearly all of the residents in the “Wicks” area, along with your Board of Trustees, know exactly where the problems along the Dorwick Ditch are located. These have been discussed time and time again but the issue seems to fall on deaf ears. These problems are located on the South end of the ditch where the ditch’s waterflow joins the drainage from Beacon Hill, the Mitchel ditch (drains all along Olde Eight) and the VFW. We just discovered last week that the Mitchel ditch and the VFW drainage were piped in and covered over by the County in 1992. This was confirmed through documentation and by County officials to the Board of Trustees at their May 1, 2017 meeting. It was also acknowledged that the maintenance along their easement is their responsibility but that they lack the funds to do the work! The pipes at the South end of the Dorwick ditch contain two 90-degree turns and, in the opinions of many, are undersized and in clear need of maintenance work. That’s where the major problems are located so now we are in a wait-and-see mode to see if or how the petition and/or the County’s proposed storm water management program will play out.
We also have flooding issues at the bottom of Hazel Drive. When the Route 8 expansion was built, ODOT installed a single drainage pipe beneath the roadway that, in our humble opinions, is clearly undersized. How can a single 60″ x 38” oval pipe drain Charter Lake and Hazel during heavy rainfall? This is not to mention the rain water that drains from the impervious surface of Route 8 itself. Our Township drainage ditches function just fine but when the water backs up next to Route 8, it has nowhere to go and backs up. Unfortunately, those experiencing the flooding are living at the bottom of a hill on one side and the new Route 8 acting as a dam on the other side with an undersized drainage pipe! The only answer that I have for this dilemma is to have ODOT dig up Route 8 and install a much larger pipe. Does anyone really think that’s going to happen?
There were also complaints of flooding in the Oakmont area. In 2013, the Summit County Engineer’s Office corrected many of the causes of flooding in the area, including the construction of a large retention pond and the installation and clearing of drainage ditches. This did correct many of the issues but due to the flat terrain, some flooding still occurs. Last week’s rain event filled the retention pond and water backed up. Again, this was an unusually heavy rainfall and the water simply had nowhere to go but to back up. On a related note, I should point out that during the 1970’s, I flew many times in and out of the old Welcome Airport where Charter Lake is now located. I vividly recall nearly two-thirds of the Oakmont area as a wetland. I watched closely as the County did their work in 2013, and as they dug the retention pond and ditches nearly all of the diggings were black “swamp muck.” The workers even had to occasionally use heavy timbers on the ground to keep their equipment from sinking. What more can I say?
Folks, nature occasionally throws us some curve balls and when that happens there’s really nobody to blame and very little that anyone can do. How you are affected depends on where you live. If you live in a low laying area or near waterways, your chances of experiencing flooding are quite high. However, even those living on high ground can experience flooding problems during a heavy rainfall.
Everyone needs to be reminded that if you have a drainage ditch, stream or creek on your property, Ohio Law dictates that it is YOUR responsibility to maintain the waterway. If you neglect this responsibility, or dump yard debris that interferes with drainage then you could be opening yourself up to a civil lawsuit from any one or more of your neighbors who suffer damage as a result of your negligence. The same holds true if you alter your property in a way that increases or diverts water flow onto your neighbor’s property that causes them damage.
As you can see, storm water and its resulting flooding is a very complex and emotional issue. My only intent in writing this article was to show the complexities and share the facts as I know them.
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Thank you,
Paul G. Buescher
Northfield Center Twp. Trustee – Chairman
330-467-9451
TrusteeBuescher@aol.com
www.northfieldcenter.com
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