The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed a Massillon woman’s lawsuit filed against the Conservancy Court of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District that claimed the Court was not created legally by the Ohio General Assembly in 1914.
It is the second time this year that a lawsuit filed by N. Kathryn Walker against the Conservancy Court has been dismissed.
In January, visiting Judge H.F. Inderlied Jr. in the Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court dismissed a case filed by Walker that claimed the Conservancy Court violated portions of the state’s open meetings law. Judge Inderlied ruled that the Conservancy Court of the MWCD is a court of common pleas and is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. That case is currently on appeal.
The Supreme Court case claimed that the Conservancy Court of the MWCD, and all of the state’s conservancy courts that oversee conservancy districts, did not receive the proper majority vote when the laws governing conservancy districts were approved by the Ohio General Assembly in 1914. There are an estimated 20 conservancy districts in operation in the state of Ohio.
Both cases were filed on behalf of Walker by attorney William E. Walker of Massillon, the son of N. Kathryn Walker.
Walker’s suit requested that the Ohio Supreme Court halt an assessment by the MWCD that will begin in 2008 until her case could be heard.
Earlier this year, the MWCD Board of Directors approved a plan of maintenance and major rehabilitation of the aging infrastructure of reservoirs and dams that reduces flooding and conserves water for public uses in the Muskingum River Watershed. The $210 million plan will be funded by an assessment of property owners in the 18-county watershed beginning next year.
Board members also have approved the first project in the plan through a resolution to participate in the installation of a temporary anchor relief project for Dover Dam on the Tuscarawas River. The MWCD will serve as the local cost-share partner with the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on the project, which will begin sometime before the end of this year and involve the installation of 17 bar anchors to help stabilize the concrete dam until a permanent plan can be implemented in a couple of years. Through the agreement, the MWCD will provide approximately $25,000 to $35,000 of the total estimated cost of between $500,000 and $1 million for the temporary bar anchors, or more than $20 of federal investment for each dollar of investment by the MWCD.
The MWCD projects that an estimated $10.5 million annually would be generated from the assessment of property owners for public health and safety projects to safeguard the reservoirs and dams. The system of reservoirs and dams constructed in the 1930s in the MWCD region has prevented billions of dollars worth of potential property damage and saved countless lives.
The MWCD projects that 94 percent of the nearly 500,000 parcels subject to the assessment would pay an annual fee of $12. According to the Ohio law that oversees conservancy districts, the assessment fee is collected as part of a property owner’s regular county property tax collection. Projected assessments can be reviewed online at the MWCD website at www.mwcd.org, and the MWCD also can be contacted toll-free at (866) 755-6923.
The MWCD, a political subdivision of the state, was organized in 1933 to develop and implement a plan for flood reduction and water conservation in the watershed that spans all or portions of 18 counties. By 1938, 14 reservoirs and dams were constructed.
The MWCD manages the reservoir areas behind the dams in the watershed, while the USACE owns the dams. The reservoirs, some of which have permanent pools of water (lakes) for water conservation and recreation programs, hold floodwaters temporarily for safe release downstream during flooding conditions.
The counties wholly or partially contained in the MWCD jurisdiction are Ashland, Belmont, Carroll, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas, Washington and Wayne.
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