In late 2023, a group of concerned local citizens got together to form the Lake Logan Association (LLA), whose mission was to work to restore Hocking County’s Lake Logan to a healthier condition. As the main issue threatening the man-made lake is that it has been steadily filling up with silt for years, the LLA soon began to focus its efforts on lobbying state officials to dredge it, which the group sees as an indispensable first step in the process of restoring the lake.
Some two-and-a-half years later, LLA’s persistent efforts appear to have paid off. Last week the Ohio General Assembly passed House Bill 479, which includes among other items special project funding to dredge three Ohio lakes: Lake Loramie and Grand Lake St. Marys in west central Ohio, and Lake Logan. The legislation allots $1,725,000 for the Lake Logan dredging project.
Maria Diaz-Myers, a founding member of LLA, told the Logan Daily News on Friday that she was “very, very happy” to receive notice from state legislators that the bill had passed and been forwarded to the governor for signing. “It’s very unlikely that the governor will not sign it, so we’re kind of celebrating,” she added.
As reported recently in the Logan Daily News, the long-drawn-out process of getting a dredging project in the works for Lake Logan had advanced to the point where the state was assessing the comparative merits of two sites to be used as a dredge material relocation area (DMRA), where the estimated 200,000 cubic yards of silt to be pulled from the lake can be deposited.
One is a 17-acre parcel on Lake Logan Road that the owner is willing to sell to the state for $1.15 million; the other is a Blosser Road property, part of which its owners are willing to lease to the state for six years at $18,000 annually. The Daily News reported in May that the state was apparently focusing mainly on the Blosser Road site, at least in part because of the large price difference between the two candidates.
This left intact the major obstacle of funding for the dredging project, which HB 479 would appear to have removed. Diaz-Myers speculated, however, that the size of the funding award could put the Lake Logan Road site back in the running as a potential DMRA.
“The part that is going to be interesting to see how this plays out is, OK, now we have the money — now what site is going to go forward?” she said. “Because with so much money, they could buy the (Lake Logan Road site) if they wanted to.”
Diaz-Myers expressed gratitude to state officials who were allies to LLA in its push to secure a dredging project for Lake Logan, including state Reps. Mark Johnson, Brian Stewart and Tim Barhost; state Sens. Jerry Cirino, Beth Liston and Kyle Koehler; and county Commissioner Michael Linton.
She also called the campaign an example of grassroots democracy in action.
“It gives me hope in the power of the people, of regular ordinary citizens, working together, making an association like this,” she said. “It really took the grassroots movement, then the association, then the engagement to make it happen. And that gives you hope, because you know, sometimes we feel like democracy doesn’t work. But it does work — it’s not fast, it’s not pretty, but it does work.”
Email at jphillips@logandaily.com
