COMMUNITY JOURNAL CLERMONT 75¢
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013
Your Community Press newspaper serving Amelia, Batavia, Batavia Township, New Richmond, Ohio Township, Pierce Township, Union Township, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Township
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Village, county spar over back taxes
Dilapidated former lodge is at the center of controversy By Lisa Wakeland lwakeland@communitypress.com
Batavia Village officials are battling with the county for back taxes on a blighted property. The issue centers around Norfolk Lodge 54, a now defunct Masonic lodge located at 610 E. Main St.. The village wants to tear it down for safety reasons, but Clermont County officials are blocking that action until Batavia officials pay the outstanding property taxes. “I don’t think anyone here wants to take possession of a piece of property that’s our intention to tear down for the safety of the public and then pay $6,000 for the privilege of
tearing it down,” said Village Solicitor Christopher Moore. Through the forfeiture process Batavia has taken ownership of a few other properties and torn down the structures, and in those cases the back taxes were waived, Village Administrator Dennis Nichols said. The village was then reimbursed for demolition costs through a state demolition grant program, Moving Ohio Forward, which helps communities removed blighted structures. How much each county receives under this program is based on the number of foreclosure filings, and nearly $1.2 million was allocated for Clermont County. There is no required local match for the first $500,000 a county receives. But the Ohio Attorney General’s Office has since said that villages should pay taxes on these dilapidated properties if
THE PROCESS Batavia Village Solicitor Christopher Moore explained the forfeiture process and how municipalities can take over blighted properties. After the county foreclosure process, the property is auctioned at a county sheriff’s sale. If no one buys it, Moore said it’s then offered to the local school board. If they decline, he said, it’s offered to the local municipality. And if the city or village doesn’t want it, ownership would transfer to the state. Finally if the state declines responsibility, Moore said it comes back to the county sheriff for sale.
they take ownership, explained Moore. And now the county not only wants the tax money from the former lodge, Moore said county officials are trying to collect on previous properties Batavia took over and demolished under the state grant program. “The county is being extremely shortsighted on moving things forward in this community with respect to these blighted properties,” said Councilman Stephen Staton. “Proper-
ty values aren’t going to start to recover until these are off the rolls. “ Moore agreed and said the whole point of Moving Ohio Forward was to help get rid these properties and clean up neighborhoods and communities. This most recent action by Clermont County officials is preventing Batavia from using state funds to take down the former lodge, Nichols said. “These properties will con-
Batavia village wants to use state funds to tear down this former Masonic lodge on East Main Street, but the county is trying to block that action until village officials pay the back taxes. JASON HOFFMAN/THE COMMUNITY PRESS
tinue to be blights on the community as long as this is the situation,” Staton said. “You’ve made it unprofitable for anybody to ever take them over, and it’s only going to get more expensive. The county is See TAXES, Page A2
Cemetery gets 3,000-pound addition By Keith BieryGolick kbierygolick@communitypress.com
AMELIA — Village Mayor Todd Hart served in the U.S. Army for eight years during the Vietnam War and Gulf War. “That’s why this means so much to me,” Hart said. “It’s kind of a pet project that I can’t get away from.” He’s talking about a veterans memorial in Odd Fellows Cemetery. “We don’t have a veterans memorial in the village,” Hart Hart said. “(But) we do have service members all the way back to the Revolutionary War in that cemetery, and every war up to the Vietnam War.” Not only would the memorial honor servicemen and women, but residents of the village stand to get something out of it as well. The Home Depot store on Ohio Pike has gotten behind the project, and before work on the memorial could start, the cemetery needed a general cleanup. “(The cemetery) hadn’t been touched in about 100 years,” Hart said. So Home Depot sent more than 100 volunteers out in April to help with tombstone straightening and weeding. “We’re still working with Home Depot. Hopefully, by the end of September we should have .... information so we can start putting up the front wall in the cemetery,” Hart said. “It used to be a fence, now we’re going to do a RumbleStone wall.”
This 3,000-pound howitzer gun will be the newest addition to the veterans memorial planned for Odd Fellows Cemetery in Amelia. Standing in front of the gun are, from left, Derrick Campbell, village vice-mayor, Mark Riley and Paul Dunn, both members of the Amelia American Legion, and Todd Hart, village mayor.KEITH BIERYGOLICK/THE COMMUNITY PRESS
Officials plan to start campaigning for funds next year, he said. In front of the memorial, which will be centered in the cemetery, Hart and other officials want to put a 3,000-pound Howitzer gun they received from the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. Hart said the village has been trying to get the gun for five years. “You couldn’t get better timing,” he said. “This one is a Vietnam-era gun, but they still actually use this same weapon with a few upgrades (today).” The 21-foot-long gun still be-
longs to the government, and is just on temporary lease to the village – at no cost to taxpayers. “If they ever need it back we have to give it back to them,” Hart said. “I think we’re in trouble if they need it back though.” Eventually, the goal is to build spaces into the memorial wall where Clermont County residents can put cremated remains of their loved ones who have served. Mark Riley, a U.S. Marine veteran and member of the Amelia American Legion post, said he’s excited about the prospect of a memorial.
FOOD
ONE BID
Rita Heikenfeld makes her pecan pie using her friend Perrin’s no-fail pie crust. Full story, B3
Clermont County received one bid for its Shayler Run sewer project. Full story, A3
A veterans memorial is planned for Odd Fellows Cemetery in Amelia. The local Home Depot has pledged its support and will help with construction and some of the costs.THANKS TO KATIE KRAFKA
“It’s detrimental to vets not to have a monument (where they live),” Riley said. Paul Dunn, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the Amelia American Legion post, said it’s important for veterans to be
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supported and honored for their service. “It’s going to be a great asset for Clermont County,” Dunn said. “I’m very proud to be a part of this.”
Vol. 33 No. 24 © 2013 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED