Commissioners nix Scio’s annexation attempt

BY JD LONG (jim@harrisonnewsherald.com)

CADIZ—It was admittedly a difficult decision, but Harrison County commissioners rejected Scio’s annexation bid. Two commissioners even stated they would have liked to see the annexation bid go through, but they could not “by law” vote in favor of the Scio petition to annex the around-700 acres of land in North Township that encompasses the Utica East Ohio fractionation facility (Williams plant).

A flurry of activity led up to the commissioners’ decision Wednesday morning with the township, Scio representatives, and the Williams plant meeting Monday, but according to Scio’s village administrator Jason Tubaugh, the talks didn’t amount to a solution. And during an 11th-hour turning of events, North Township trustees met Tuesday evening in a special meeting and unanimously voted to accept Scio’s offer of agreement to the annexation.

North Township’s fiscal officer Sue Myers explained the agreement was good for 50 years protecting the township’s property tax revenue if annexation is approved. If not, the deal prevents the township from “opposing annexation” for the same number of years.

Two heavily challenged issues within Scio’s petition eventually led to the bid attempt’s failure, even after the Aug. 20 hearing that saw Utica East Ohio, North Township, and Scio all argue their cases on the annexation.

Commissioner Paul Coffland stated one of the issues was that 51% of property owners of the two land parcels were needed to sign the petition; that threshold was reached when consolidating both parcels. However, when the parcels were viewed separately, 51% had not signed, and that included Ohio Power and AEP. In August, Scio’s attorney Jim Matthews argued that the two companies’ signatures were not needed, but the commissioners ultimately stated that the matter would need to be decided by a judge if appealed.

The second main sticking point was that there were two separate parcels, so two petitions needed to be filed. Since Scio had only filed one, the commissioners ruled against the second issue. But in the end, if even one of the six articles was not agreed upon by the commissioners, the petition could not be approved, according to Harrison County prosecutor Lauren Knight. After a brief executive session, the articles were read and voted on separately. Coffland’s motion to deny the petition was accepted by a unanimous vote, but the commissioners’ sentiments contrasted the decision. Commissioners Don Bethel and Coffland both felt annexation would have been good for the county, and commissioner Dale Norris voted in favor of Article 5, also stating that annexation would’ve been good for the territory.

Of the petition’s 11 issues and six articles, five were unanimous in favor, three against, and three split. Coffland was the lone objector to whether the petition was an accurate legal description of the perimeter, citing county engineer Doug Bachman’s assessment. He also objected to whether it included an accurate map or plat (also citing Bachman’s review).

Another item they split on was whether the proposed annexation area was not unreasonably large. While Coffland and Bethel agreed, Norris disagreed and felt that it was “unreasonably large.” One unanimously agreed article focused on the benefits of annexation outweighing the detriments and the good of the community being served. “So, there’s no question that this would be a betterment of the community, the entire community including North Township,” Bethel stated.

The commissioners were unanimously against the petition on the two parcels being contiguous and sharing common borders. Bethel cited both the prosecutor and engineer’s decision on this.

The commissioners were also unanimously against Article 6’s explanation on Leffler Road; they were concerned over who would maintain that road and saw no agreement come forth. Bethel said the details were unclear where he sided with Bachman and could not vote in favor.

Tubaugh was present and told the board their vote did not put an end to the matter. He simply called it a “part of the process.” Coffland responded, hoping that talks would continue between the interested parties. “There’s no doubt that I agree that the benefits far outweigh, you know, what we had to do today,” Coffland explained.

Bethel added that he was looking for a reason to approve but could not get past certain issues within the petition (along with the other commissioners). Later, Tubaugh spoke more candidly and stated the upcoming Scio council meeting (Sept. 22) would reveal more information, and he alluded to things coming together — but he would not elaborate on the details. He told the board that talks with the Williams plant would continue, something he and North Township trustee Dan Henry wished for as expressed on Tuesday evening.