To the Editor:
Land Grab by Culverts
For land owners who have culverts that need to be replaced, the new culvert design being implemented by
ODOT calls for an S shaped design which takes considerably more land than the straight culvert design.
The old design keeps the water flowing in a straight line and requires quite a bit less private
property. If one of these culverts happens to be on farm ground, not only is the crop income lost
forever, but the S shape prevents farmers from being able to square off fields so about twice the land
is lost because of the difficulty in farming odd shaped fields.
For tax payers this means they must pay for the cost of the private property that ODOT takes for this new
design and that land then is forever taken from the tax base and belongs to the state of Ohio.
No one disputes the need for culverts to be replaced or even widened periodically, but why the need to
take so much more land and put this cost on the backs of the tax payer? The taxes that would be paid by
the land owner are forever gone too so this is a double whammy for the tax payer and the private
property owner.
Linda Bishop
Findlay