SHADYSIDE — After some research, the disagreement over whether Belmont County or Mead Township is responsible for maintenance of a ditch in the Shadyside area was resolved.

Joyce Hartley of Cash Ridge Road has spoken at meetings of the Belmont County Board of Commissioners and has been in contact with the Mead Township Board of Trustees about water coming onto her property. She believes the water to be coming from a nearby drainage ditch following road work. Hartley is concerned that the damage to her property is worsening and that the water may become an ice hazard in winter.

There had been a disagreement between the commissioners, the county engineer and the Mead Township trustees about whose jurisdiction the ditch fell under. The commissioners submitted the matter to the prosecutor’s office for a legal opinion, which was received last week.

According to Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flangan, the opinion deals solely with the question of jurisdiction of the ditch and does not touch on whether water is coming from that ditch and causing any other damage.

“That is not the question we were to answer,” Flanagan said.

According to the legal opinion written by Assistant Prosecutor Jacob Manning, the Ohio Revised Code is not entirely clear on the responsibility of maintaining roadside ditches. His letter referred to a legal opinion from the Ohio Attorney General in 1981, concluding that the township would have jurisdiction.

Manning added that this seems to contradict the Ohio Township Handbook, which indicates responsibility would go to the county.

“To be candid, we believe this is incorrect,” Manning wrote, adding that the handbook refers to ORC 305.12, which gives the commissioners authority to bring and maintain a lawsuit involving injury to any road or ditch which they have the responsibility to repair, but the commissioners are not required to assume responsibility for ditches along township roads.

“We agree with the Ohio Attorney General’s analysis,” he wrote, adding that his office contacted the Ohio Auditor’s Office and was told that the Township Handbook was a resource and could not supersede the law. The state office also indicated it would review the issue.

Manning also noted that in 2018 Hartley had filed suit against a neighbor for allegedly causing the runoff and against the former owner of the home for allegedly concealing that runoff occurred. She dropped the suit in 2019.

Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton commented.

“In short, the opinion shows that any potential responsibility from a government agency standpoint would fall to the Mead Township board of trustees,” he said. “In cases like this, where we’re unsure of what the legalities are, we look to the prosecutor’s office as do the trustees.”

He said it does not appear to be a county matter.

“This is very rare that we get this far into an issue like this, us being the board of commissioners,” Dutton said. “These are conversations or issues that really come up at trustee meetings or with the county engineer. We work with the county engineer and there’s certain parts of the Ohio Revised Code where things run through our meeting, but to actually get far into an issue like this, it’s really rare it comes before our board.”

Mead Township Trustee Ed Good said the trustees had followed the Township Handbook.

He said Cash Ridge Road was subject to full-depth recovery, paid for by Gulfport Energy, as part of a road use maintenance agreement that included upgrading ditches and improving the road.

“That road is probably one of the best roads we have in the township. That thing was totally redone. It was done with a full-depth recovery process. Gulfport did all of that,” Good said. “We’ve had absolutely no problem with the ditch line or anything else.”

“We maintain all the ditches in the township,” he said. “What caused us to really explore this and delve into this was when there was claims of damages. What we advised Ms. Hartley to do was get a hold of her insurance company.”

Good said the township and other entities have monitored the area and he does not believe the damage to her property has come from the ditch.

“Regardless of ownership of that ditch, there is no issue. We haven’t seen anything,” he said.

He added he does not expect this opinion to change any assumptions of jurisdiction among townships.

“A lot of townships take care of the ditches on township roads, it’s just that is not what the Hand Book states when you get into the technicalities of it,” Good said.