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Heading to Pro Bowl See page 3
RESS January 23, 2017
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Ag tax update coming
Unable to control landfill odor By Kelly J. Kaczala and Larry Limpf
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Our lives were a living hell this summer, but it could have been much worse. John Szozda See page 6
High wind damage
Top photo, recent winds measuring up to 70 m.p.h. flattened the gazebo at the home of Mike (pictured) and Sandy Hauck, Eastmoreland Drive, Oregon. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean). Bottom photo shows the gazebo before the wind damage. (Photo courtesy of Mike and Sandy Hauck)
242 homes on demo list By J. Patrick Eaken Press Staff Writer news@presspublications.com In 2016, the Lucas County Land Reutilization Corporation was awarded an additional $15.7 million for demolition and greening in targeted neighborhoods in the City of Toledo. This is on top of $14 million that was received in 2014. The corporation, or land bank, says it earned these funds based on “strong and consistent accomplishments since 2014 with those dollars.” This new funding came with a new deadline and all acquisition, demolition, and greening work must be completed by the year 2020. So, the land bank announced “Project 2020” — an action plan to accomplish at least 1,500 more necessary home demolitions in targeted neighborhoods by the year 2020. That includes 242 homes in East Toledo’s 43605 zip code — all scheduled for demolition from June to September, 2018.
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If they are not maintaining the properties they have then it makes no sense for us to sell it to them.
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For Wood County landowners with property enrolled in the Current Agricultural Use Valuation tax program, taxes paid this year will reflect 2016 values, which will be the final year those values will be used to calculate payments, Mike Sibbersen, county auditor, is reminding farmers. CAUV soil values are set by the Ohio Department of Taxation and adjusted every three years for every county. Current values for Wood County parcels in the CAUV program were set for the 2014 tax year, payable in 2015. Sibbersen said 2017 CAUV renewal forms have been mailed to property owners enrolled in the program and are to be returned to his office by March 6. Eligible property owners must reapply each year but there is no fee. Eligible owners not currently enrolled can also apply but there is a $25 initial filing fee. Under CAUV, farmland is assessed on crop production value rather than market value, protecting farm operations by linking the tax base to its production capacity rather than potential for development. If forms aren’t received by the county auditor’s office by the deadline, state law requires the auditor assess the property at market valuations and recoup the tax savings of the past three years. After a reappraisal is complete, new values will be issued for 2017, which will be payable in 2018, Sibbersen said. “Wood County has 9,606 individual real estate parcels on ag use,” he said. “A total of 318,785 acres in this program brought a tax savings to agricultural landowners last year of over $3 million.” Under state law and taxation department rules, real property in all Ohio counties is reappraised every six years and property values are updated in the third year following the reappraisals. Ottawa and Lucas counties are scheduled to undergo reappraisals in 2018. As a percentage of market values, farm acreage in area counties in 2015 had CAUV valuations of:
That means that by the end of 2018, over 500 homes will have been demolished in East Toledo since the land bank was formed in 2012, says land bank president David Mann.
Some residents in Northwood and Walbridge have been complaining about a heavy odor of methane gas emitted from Waste Management’s Evergreen Recycling and Disposal Facility Landfill for over a year. Laura Stiefel, who lives within a 2.5 mile radius of the landfill, located at 2625 E. Broadway in Northwood, said she and her neighbors first noticed the smell in November 2015. “I called Waste Management. They weren’t aware of any issues, but said they would look into it. They called me back and said they had noticed a bit of an odor and they would check it out. At that point, I just sat back to see what would happen. But it did not get any better,” she said. In 2016, there was “a nearly constant smell of methane,” in the Northwood and Walbridge area coming from the landfill, she said. Methane gas is produced as a byproduct of landfills as part of the normal waste decomposition process. Regulations require landfills to control methane emissions and the associated odors. Most landfills are required to install a gas collection and control system. “The smell can be detected from Walbridge as far as the Woodville Road/ Wales Road intersection,” said Stiefel. “Several neighbors and I contacted Waste Management in March 2016 about our concerns of these fumes leaking into our neighborhoods. After several months of no improvement, I have been in contact with the Wood County EPA.” Possible causes She said that an official with the EPA told her he was in contact with Waste Management. He said there were two possible causes of the odor, including a bulldozer striking a venting pipe that could have released the methane. “They said they would have to do some research to find out where it was coming from because it’s not easy to tell which pipe that may have been struck,” she said. Another possible cause is the weight of the landfill could have pinched or ruptured a pipe. “If that is the case, and if the load is just getting too heavy for the landfill, they could just burn off the excess. But they don’t like to do that because it increases the atmospheric methane,” she said. She was told by the county EPA that Waste Management was “waiting for bids so they could begin to work on where the pipes were ruptured, and that it should be resolved soon.” “The last time of contact, we were told this issue should be resolved by January, yet the methane gas continues to plague
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