The view from the Idea Center

Unless it’s happening in your backyard, it’s hard to imagine or envision losing as much as 55 feet of shoreline in a community that relies on Lake Erie for tourism and property values.
 
That’s the battle against nature that continues to play out in Geneva-on-the-Lake, where concerned residents packed a village council meeting last night to hear about potential solutions and estimated costs.
 
Last week, ideastream’s Taylor Haggerty reported on the rapid deterioration of the shoreline and the application for funds to help out the village. Since then, approximately 20 additional feet of shoreline has eroded, concerns are growing and the village has had to assess if gas and other utilities are still safe to operate for homes on Old Lake Road – so far, yes, Mayor Dwayne Bennett, Sr. told Taylor when she checked in with him again this morning. But that could change.

“If we get a big storm, we could lose 10 feet, 20 feet at one time,” Bennett said. “I think we’ve got a little bit of time there, but not a lot. That’s why we’re pushing this so hard.”
 
Several factors have caused the issue, including high temperatures and increased rainfall that not only raised water levels to record heights, but has resulted in the lack of ice in the lake that would act as a natural barrier to erosion.

Taylor and ideastream are digging into these issues affecting infrastructure, property values and the possibility that some private property owners may get stuck paying twice for these problems: once to fix their own property and again to pay for public property repairs if a parks levy passes on March 17.

With a short-term mitigation estimated to cost $1.3 million and a state plan focused on algae blooms that considers erosion a natural occurrence that they can’t directly affect, the obligation to stop this erosion could fall solely on Geneva-on-the-Lake voters and taxpayers.

Thanks for reading and listening,
Glenn Forbes

Need to KnOH

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