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Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024
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Volume 11, Issue 03
Septic permit deadline extended LAUREN HOFFMAN THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
The Lorain County Public Health Department said it will extend the deadline for septic permit fees for residents who are unable to pay by Jan. 31. Even though the details on the length of that extension have yet to be nailed down, the news came as a welcome reprieve for many residents who said they felt betrayed by the short notice. “What tonight showed is that we were here to hear our residents’ concerns and we want to
let them know that we heard them,” Public Health Administrator Mark Adams said during a Jan. 9 meeting. R.J. Heibel is one of more than 30 Lorain County residents who showed up to the Lorain County Public Health Department’s board meeting, when many expressed anger over the new Operation and Maintenance (O&M) program implemented by the Ohio Department of Health. “I feel blindsided by this and I think we all do,” he said. “I want to see the proper breakdown of this and I think I speak for all of us when I say this is not right.”
On Jan. 2, residents started to receive bills in the mail regarding the $120 permit fee tied to the program. The letter stated residents would be required to pay the fee by Jan. 31 or face a 25 percent penalty fee placed on their taxes. Many residents said the timeline was too short. “I know this is the first time you are hearing about this and that’s on me,” Adams said to the residents during the meeting Wednesday night. “But this is not something new, it has been around for some time and is being implemented now.”
In 2015, the Ohio Department of Health was permitted to regulate septic systems across the state following the establishment of Chapter 3701-29 in the Ohio Revised Code. The program was then passed down to county health departments to implement what included requiring homeowners to have a permit for their systems. The implementation process began soon after but hit a standstill in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now four years later, Adams said the health department is picking up the pieces.
“We have been doing this since 2015 when it first began but we didn’t realize just how many septic systems are out there and we knew that we couldn’t get it done with just two people,” Adams said. To address the need, Adams hired three more people to the team. Up until that point, the program was funded by taking money generated by the department’s levy but the need kept growing. “This fee that people are paying is for us to administer the program from everything like SEPTIC PAGE A3
Most property tax bills going up DAVE O’BRIEN THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
Scholastic Art Exhibit returns to LCCC JOHN BENSON FOR THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
It seems as though 3D artwork is all the rage among area youth artists. That’s what visitors can expect when touring the 56th annual Lorain County Region Scholastic Art Exhibit, which is open through Feb. 15 at Lorain County Community College’s Beth K. Stocker Art Gallery. “Every year the artwork ebbs and flows, but for this exhibit there’s a lot more 3D than usual,” Stocker Arts Center Operations and Gallery Coordinator Beth Bryan said. “I don’t have any idea why, but it’s really wonderful to see so much this year. It’s definitely more than usual and it’s really high-quality and beautiful.” Sponsored by Nordson Corp., the exhibit draws from public, parochial and private middle and high schools and home-schoolers (ages 12 to 18) from Lorain, Erie and Huron counties. The categories of art include SCHOLASTIC PAGE A3
BRUCE BISHOP | The Community Guide
MAIN: Liz Loczi a volunteer in the galleryat LCCC looks at the Scholastic Art Awards display at the Stocker Art Center on the campus of Lorain County Community College. ABOVE: This ceramic cow is a Gold Key winner by Hattie Rose Hobar an Avon Lake High School.
Most Lorain County property owners’ tax bills will increase this year due to new tax levies, according to the Lorain County Auditor’s Office. The largest increase is in the North Ridgeville School District, where Issue 16, an additional 6.26-mill bond issue that will raise $7.5 million per year over the next 37 years to build a new high school and transportation facility, passed in November. Homeowners will pay an additional $208.83 in property taxes per $100,000 of value on their home as a result, Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass said. That’s slightly less than backers of the bond issue promised after three other North Ridgeville tax issues came off the books this year. Those included a substitute 0.022-mill school levy, a 0.8mill school bond issue and a 0.09-mill city bond issue, according to the county auditor’s office. Other increases were in the Amherst School District, where some Amherst and Amherst Township residents and some Lorain citizens can expect tax bill increases of more than $69 per $100,000 of value. That’s due to Issue 10, a continuous 2.5-mill replacement levy, that passed in November. Two other smaller school tax issues lapsed, TAXES PAGE A5
INSIDE THIS WEEK County
Oberlin
Wellington
Nonprofits to merge ● A3
BOE member sworn in ● A5
Snowball is Feb. 3 ● A4
OBITS A2 • CROSSWORD A7 • SUDOKU A7 • KID SCOOP A8