My thoughts ...

I encourage residents and others who have concerns regarding past or future flooding in northwest Lucas County to attend this meeting, located at Sylvania Township Administrative Office at 4927 Holland-Sylvania Road. This meeting is directed toward more than just Sylvania Township; drainage systems west of the Township will have an impact in the Township.

This is a great opportunity for the various county and township officials to hear from residents about their concerns, perspectives, and thoughts, as well as a chance for residents to learn more about why there is flooding in this area, why it seemingly has gotten worse in only the last year or two, plans to address the flooding, and the potential impact on the area.

This meeting is just one of many steps in a long process the Township has undertaken in order to address flooding issues throughout the township. Under prior boards, minimal resources were directed toward ditch and creek maintenance. The township was in a position where decades of maintenance worked had been neglected. My fellow trustees and I agree that maintaining our infrastructure is vital to maintaining our quality of living, and we have directed that an emphasis be placed on our drainage system. Although after years of neglect we can't address all of the issues right away, we are making great progress.

We have completed extensive cleaning of Schlickter Ditch (North of Central between McCord and the bike trail) and began work on Smith Ditch in the St James Wood area, with more work scheduled for this summer. Ditch work in the eastern portion of the Township is also proceeding this summer. We have also been working with residents in several subdivisions who were experiencing excessive flooding for a variety of reasons.

One of the biggest undertakings for these projects is getting access to the ditch in order to get our equipment and trucks in to perform the work. Easements granted decades ago often are not wide enough to get our equipment in so we have to find property owners who will grant us additional access. We have been working diligently to get appropriate access easement, but it is a time-consuming and lengthy process, thus delaying actual physical work until we have appropriate access points. This is just one of the many issues that need to be addressed with regard to dealing with the flooding of 10 Mile Creek.

I encourage you to attend the meeting on April 1 at 6 p.m. to learn more about flooding in Sylvania and the outlying areas.

DeeDee Liedel
Sylvania Township Trustee