Community

Barton Residents Ask Belmont County for Help With Flooding

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Following flooding last week, Barton residents took to the Belmont County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday seeking assistance.

The residents said that there needs to be some sort of resolution to the unaddressed flooding and road erosion following recent heavy storms.

County Road 10 and Church Street in Barton regularly flood, and the residents are asking the board for help.

The residents believe that the flooding is allegedly coming from two separate issues. The first is culverts that are from the 1940s needing to be replaced, and the second is a resident who built a storage building blocking the culverts.

The residents said that the culverts on Center Street are incredibly backed up with mud and debris from previous floods, which results in flooding nearly every time the community experiences heavy rain.

"The county’s culvert is four feet. When the contractor came in, he put an 18-inch culvert into that four-foot culvert, backfilled over it, and that individual put a little storage building on it. Since that time, at least twice a year, that culvert gets blocked, which is a real issue because it is all private property. It then overflows the banks and it floods our community," resident John Henthorne said.

Commissioner Vince Gianangeli asked Henthorne if the group of residents in attendance at the meeting had ever tried to bring any civil litigation against the property owner who is allegedly blocking the culvert.

Henthorne replied that the group has not due to the property owner being 90 years old and her late husband being the one who contracted the storage shed to be built that’s blocking the culvert.

"We have never thought of a formal suit or anything like that. She’s 90 years old. She’s part of our community. We don’t dislike her, we actually love her," Henthorne said. "The issue still remains that her husband contracted that job. It’s like don’t shoot the messenger. She didn't do it but she was married to the guy. She is responsible, she’s culpable because she allowed it to happen but I don’t know how to resolve the issue."

He added that he believes either the Corps of Engineers or Ohio Department of Natural Resources should examine the culvert to decide if the shed should be moved.

"You have a natural waterway which is protected under federal and state laws. It can’t be altered unless you get a permit from the Corps of Engineers," Henthorne said.

He added that he believes that the resident did not get the permit needed to alter the culvert.

Resident Dana Goletz then spoke. She said that during last Thursday's flooding, 575 gallons of heating oil spilled from her fuel tanks, spewing the oil into the floodwater, which contaminated the water.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann asked how the oil spill happened.

"At the source of the blockage, the water overflowed the banks and washed down by her house. She had just filled up her fuel tanks, and the debris broke the line and basically drained her heating oil into the flood, which contaminated everything," Henthorne said.

Echemann then asked how much of the flooding is getting into the homes, to which resident Nick Oberdick said his basement received three and a half feet of water from Thursday's flood.

He added that the water didn't begin to go down throughout Barton until Tuesday, so from Thursday until Tuesday the village was flooded.

"We’ve been dealing with this twice a year for the past eight years. I have structural damage on my house now because there is so much water that’s coming down off the county road along my house, and it’s eroding away the side of my foundation," Oberdick said. "It took me probably 16 hours of shoveling, raking and cleaning up just to get my backyard cleaned up."

He added that it is an extreme inconvenience and he has probably lost thousands of dollars of equipment and things that were in his basement from the flash flooding caused by the blocked culvert.

Echemann replied that he is not shifting blame or deflecting, but the issue with the resident has nothing to do with the county.

He added that the culverts needing repaired is an issue that needs to be addressed and resolved by the county.

"This is all the responsibility of the county engineer [Terry Lively,] which I know you know, and he is well aware of all of these things. I know he’s got plans to alleviate some of this stuff, and you are welcome after our meeting to walk over and talk to the engineer. I’m sure he will talk to you. Terry’s good about that. He’s not always at the public meetings, but he’ll certainly talk with you," Echemann said.

Henthorne replied that he knows that the commissioners aren't responsible for alleviating the issue but is asking for the board to expedite the timeline of the project.

Commissioner JP Dutton said that he recently spoke to Belmont County Emergency Management Agency Director Dave Ivan, who said that he is currently speaking with the Ohio EPA about trying to resolve the issue regarding the spilled oil.

He added that the board will absolutely follow up with Lively about the issue and see what the best steps would be.

Dutton said that in addition, he believes the residents should contact the Corps of Engineers to make it aware of the blockage and see what its response would be.

Lively said that he is aware of all of the damages that were discussed during the meeting and said his office is actively trying to get culverts reopened and cleaned out.

"We’re still finding damages throughout the county, and we’re going to have to put together a list of all the sites that were damaged and turn those into the EMA," Lively said. "There’s a possibility of a declaration of disaster that may help provide funding for repairs. We just don’t know, but we’ve got to get a list together and get that turned in."

He added that his office is working its way through the process and trying to get everything functioning as best as possible while cleaning things up and finding new damages.

"I need to look at the culvert system that we’ve got and see if we can make improvements," Lively said. "There’s never going to be culverts large enough to handle every storm that hits Barton."

He added that he can’t put pipes big enough in the ground to handle everything that’s going to hit Barton.

"But we can make things better. And that’s what we’re going to try and do," Lively said.