Another expansion

Fort Recovery is likely to expand for the 12th time in 30 years.
Barring an appeal and an overturned decision, the village will annex 30.5 acres in Gibson Township, mostly between Sharpsburg Road and Ohio 49.
For some property owners, the annexation is no surprise. Three of them already had village utilities and had signed agreements to be annexed in once there was an “attachment point” for that land, village administrator Randy Diller said.
That attachment point came with the approval last year of a 6-acre annexation that would bring in a proposed subdivision and Dollar General.
Mayor Dave Kaup is also planning a subdivision in the area. That land needs to be annexed so it can be split into smaller lots and receive village utilities.
He intends to divide 8 acres into 17 lots.
“We definitely need some housing around here,” he said.
In a community survey administered in the fall, respondents rated “residential” as the area in which the village needs the most long-term growth.
Kaup was also a partner in the Indian Heights subdivision, getting involved in 1994.
“I was involved in development long before I was mayor,” he said. “It’s not something new.”
If just his subdivision and the three properties under agreement to annex were included, that would create two pockets of unincorporated land within the village.
“From just a simple common sense approach,” Diller said, that “didn’t make any sense” to village government.
It would create issues in taking utilities through the area, servicing some properties and skipping others. It would be impractical for the village to be responsible for maintaining some patches of road and not others.
And it would complicate law enforcement.
“Obviously our police don’t have jurisdiction in (the township) unless they were specifically given approval by the sheriff’s department to do something in those areas,” Diller said. “Which is not a problem, they’re going to get that approval,” but it is an extra step.
If a call comes in, a resident will get help, whether it’s from Fort Recovery police or Mercer County Sheriff’s office.
What’s tricky is pulling drivers over and writing tickets. Vehicles traveling north on Ohio 49 come into the village at the industrial park and then briefly enter the township north of the park before re-entering the village.
In other words, there are several changes in jurisdiction on a short stretch of road, and officers have to be aware of whether it’s their department’s.
A ticket written in the township by a Fort Recovery officer would be invalid.
To avoid these problems, the annexation includes 12 properties, an unbroken pocket of land north of the industrial park and south of Fort Recovery Elementary/Middle School and Mary Help of Christians church.
It’s practical for the village, but the annexation process hasn’t happened without opposition.
Sharpsburg Road residents Dillan and Paige Schulze voiced the most displeasure at village council meetings, regularly attending from August through November to speak against it. Dillan Schulze repeatedly cited increased property taxes and his lack of need for village utilities or services as reasons for his resistance.
“We certainly didn’t want it to go this way. We’d much rather they would have saw the benefit. They’re certainly entitled to their opinion that it’s not a benefit to them and that’s OK,” Diller said. “We just think what we’re doing is the right thing for the village in the long run.”
Previous annexations haven’t tended to include residential properties, so this opposition is new.
In 1987, about six acres were annexed for an addition to Community Park; in 2001, 37 acres of Ambassador Park were annexed so that it was fully in the village.
The village annexed the 40 acres that are home to its sewer lagoons in 1994.
“We’ve actually owned those lagoons since the early ’70s, but they were never for whatever reason annexed into the Village of Fort Recovery,” Diller said. “That was an oversight. It was found and corrected.”
About half an acre for a sewer pump station on the village’s east side was annexed in 2001.
The largest annexation, nearly 86 acres in 1988, was for the industrial park, and a 41-acre expansion followed in 1999. An expansion north of the village by J&M Manufacturing led to a 24-acre annexation in 2011.
Later, 26 acres of the industrial park were detached from the village because the area wasn’t easily accessible, Diller said. That detachment in 1992 was followed by a 0.7-acre detachment the next year, which Diller believes was a driveway to those 26 acres.
The Indian Heights subdivision and the elementary/middle school sit on 77 acres of land annexed in 1988.
In 2012 and 2013, annexations totaling nearly 17 acres were approved. These included residential properties, but the efforts were led by owners who wanted village utilities.
More residential annexation will be necessary, if the village is to meet its growth goals.
“We obviously project growth (east) in the future. We actually have that identified as the most obvious choice for residential growth, because this is all residential,” Diller said, referring to property along Flaler Road.
For now, the village is focusing on the current annexation.
The Mercer County Commissioners approved it on a 2-1 vote, with Jerry Laffin and Rick Muhlenkamp voting for it and Greg Homan against. The decision could be appealed by Gibson Township or affected property owners.
As of Friday, no appeal has been filed. If that remains true through Jan. 30, the appeal deadline, the annexation could be effective by April.