Fulton County Ohio Media

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If you ever need assistance organizing an event for hundreds of people to help them understand why and when they must give more money to the government, DO NOT contact the Office of the Lucas County Engineer for “How To” lessons.  If you were anywhere in the vicinity of the Swanton Public Library on Chestnut Street between the hours of 3:00 PM and well beyond the scheduled 7:00 PM allotted time, you were witness to, what many described as, a “cluster ____.”  And what a cluster it was.

The event by was put on by the Office of the Lucas County Engineer (LCE) to allow property owners affected by Joint-County Ditch Improvement Petition filed by the Village of Whitehouse on March 20, 2021, to ask questions of LCE personnel.  Unfortunately, the resources devoted to the meeting were woefully inadequate with only six LCE employees to separately respond to every individual property owner’s questions and concerns.  And, with all due respect to the Swanton Public Library and its employees, the venue was far too small and completely unsuitable.  It appeared the LCE totally misjudged the response to the event and they were absolutely overwhelmed and under staffed.

The end result was hundreds of people waiting outside in a Cedar Point-like queue in the hot sun with temperatures in the mid-80’s.  The queue began at the door of a room in the back of the library with the six LCE personnel serving one customer at a time then spilled down the hall, past the front desk, out the door, turned east then north down the sidewalk and finally into the parking lot.  Both the library and Pilliod Park parking lots were filled and the overflow vehicles took up a lot of the grassy areas in Pilliod Park and Rotary Park to the west.

There were also several dozen people gathered around Mike Pniewski, Lucas County Engineer, firing off questions and trying to get answers in a very chaotic atmosphere.  As you would expect, emotions ran high as some people talked over others and Mr. Pniewski struggled to give answers quickly enough before being pelted with more questions.  What possibly exacerbated the situation was the initial distribution of information cards to land owners with significantly inaccurate assessment values, which the LCE attributed to a computer glitch.  A new set of cards were mailed out but this created a serious credibility issue for the LCE.

I do not know why another venue such as the gymnasium at Swanton High School could not have been used or more LCE personnel could have been assigned to handle the response.  It would have kept everyone out of the weather and there would have been a lot more room to set up separate queues for easier and quicker flow and to field more questions.  School is not in session right now but the library was open as normal until 7:00 PM today.

Without commenting on the necessity of the ditch improvement project and annual maintenance fees for the Swan Creek Watershed, the implementation of this project has been poorly handled.  When you are telling taxpayers they are required to pay more, it should never be done in the hit-and-run manner that the Lucas County Engineer used today.  They deserve better.  Another Q&A session is set for next week, 7/30/24 at the Whitehouse Village Hall from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM.  The hall is located at 6925 Providence Street in Whitehouse.  I do not know the venue’s capacity, but I would recommend you get there early and bring a lunch.

Click on the link above to access photos from the meeting.

Photo: Mike Pniewski, Lucas County Engineer addressing the crowd.