The following speech was presented at a special meeting held in order to provide the public one hour of time to speak about their concerns regarding the Cattle Dam and the Landings housing development. The whole speech could not be delivered because of the city’ restrictive rules reducing the time allowed to 3 minutes
Address to Mount Vernon City Council
August 12, 2019
Cloyd Yough
50 Wildwood Lane
Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050
740-397-2495- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I am speaking as one of the neighbors of the Knox Cattle Company Dam. I
do not in any way speak for my neighborhood association. I am only
expressing my personal opinion in this matter.
I have rewritten this presentation many times. This past week was an up
and down one for me. It got me to thinking about the passion Sam Barone
and Chris Menapace displayed in one of Council’s recent meetings. Right
after that we got to see the proposed amended ordnance 2019-30 and then
the people of Mount Vernon lost half of its representation on the
Council. Boy, that is scary. Those two actions, in my opinion, have no
place in Mount Vernon, Ohio government or politics. Then we got the
letter from Mayor Mavis this past week and that was scary too. Those
actions made me feel that the Landings group has done a pretty good job
of informing you all of the situation and how we got here and that the
City is fearful of losing the opportunity to get more MONEY.
Currently, as I understand, the City is trying to help solve the repair
issue at the Knox Cattle Company Dam by offering to bank roll the
studies and repair but then require the responsible property owners to
repay the cost of the studies and repair. Here again, the City gets to
decide who the responsible property owners are. That could be a minimum
of $3000 to a max of $30,000 a household. On top of that the City
expects our area residents to support the storm water utility with its
monthly fee, and any future maintenance to the Dam. We have not
established who the owner of the Dam is so we don't know what he or she
wants. That doesn't matter because the City has the right under 920
City Code to step in and do what it wants. This is another way for the
City to get more storm water funding. My HOA has been accused of
accepting responsibility for maintaining the Dam. In my research of the
by-laws and deed restriction on our HOA, I have not found where we
committed to maintain any dam.
Why is the city so eager to get started on this project? The ODNR has
noticed homes and property downstream of the Dam and that, if we have a
big storm, those properties would be in danger of damage and possible
loss of life. Now, who authorized or permitted the construction of
these family homes downstream of the Dam?
The City Administration.
Mayor Mavis and the current City Safety Service Director sat in meetings
discussing potential flooding of the properties back in 2001, but did
not contact ODNR for any information or direction. Mayor Mavis stated
that the ODNR had had the Knox Cattle Company Dam on its radar since the
1970's. So, why didn't our seasoned veterans contact ODNR? Who knows
now? Mayor Mavis in a recent meeting stated that the Landings
development did not get proper supervision, as it should have. We now
have a big expense facing us. The City wants property owners around the
Dam, who had nothing to do with placing homes below the Dam, to pay for
the repairs to the Dam. It is kind like, your car was stolen, the crook
wrecked your car and now he wants you to pay for having it fixed. I
don’t really fault Mayor Mavis or the Safety Service Director. We all do
or don't do things that should be done. It happened. Let's go on.
One way the City and the property owners could meet ODNR’s requirements,
is for the City to take ownership of the pond/dam, ascertain the real
cost of the bringing the situation up to code and apply for a grant to
cover the cost. Our problem here is that the City does not want to
establish a precedent of taking ownership of private property. Well, the
City assumed ownership of Ariel Foundation Park. The City has
established other precedents by using the old conflict of interest to
eliminate half the people's representation to City Council. Has that
ever been done before? How about ordnance 2019-30. Is that another
precedent established?
I think the first thing City Council should do is to table any further
action on amending ordinance 2019-30 and any action on the storm water
utility until cooler heads can administer this City. There is something
sinister about this whole series of events.
Let's get back to working together and not against each other. THAT IS
MY THOUGHTS AND I AM STICKING TO THEM!!!.