Sand won’t need to be adjusted

ODNR findings good news for Perry Township Park

The sand stayed in all the right places last year in a section of Perry Township Park that is monitored annually by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

That’s the conclusion drawn by township government leaders after they received ODNR’s ruling on results of a sand survey performed at the park last summer.

Township Administrator Karen Sundy said that ODNR issued a report stating that the township will not have to move or replenish sand in the target area of the park, based on analysis of last year’s survey findings. Sundy shared news about the state agency’s decision at the Feb. 12 trustees meeting and said Trustees Rick Amos and Robert Dawson “are ecstatic with the report from

ODNR.” Trustee Nancy Steele was absent from the Feb. 12 meeting.

The sand that is measured and monitored each year is situated in an area of Township Park where erosion-control devices called groins were constructed about seven years ago.

Perry Township in 2011 received permits from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct the groins and place 2,800 cubic yards of sand at the project site.

The groins resemble rows of large rocks that are clustered together and visible above the surface of the water that extend perpendicular from the shore and out into the lake.

As a condition of receiving both permits, the township also agreed to follow a long-term plan for monitoring the accumulation or loss of sand in the vicinity of the groins.

“This is standard for projects that have the potential to impact the flow of sand along the shore,” said Stephanie Leis, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, in an interview for a previous NewsHerald story.

Each year, the township must hire a contractor to take measurements of the sand in the project area. In 2018, a crew from Crabbs’ Surveying Service performed the calculations.

“They have points on land and points by the groins, and the guy that does it actually takes a jet ski out there and they have someone on shore, and they measure how deep the sand is,” Sundy said

Results of the sand survey are then sent to ODNR and the Army Corps, and they determine how the township must adjust the quantity of sand around the groins.

“The amount of sand at the site is calculated and compared to the pre-project sand volume,” Leis said.

If more sand than the 2,800 cubic yards that was originally placed has accumulated, then the additional volume of sand needs to be moved downdrift of the area, Leis said.

By moving the sand “downdrift,” it means taking it and placing it in areas of the park east of the groins, Amos said. On the other hand, if a deficit of sand is recorded, more needs to be brought in from an upland source.

Leis said the purpose of the monitoring plan is “to ensure that downdrift areas are not being starved of sand by the installation of the groins.”

“You can’t change what nature would have done as far as having a place gather too much sand or give up too much sand,” Amos said.

ODNR’s latest ruling means the township will not have to hire a contractor to haul in or move away sand in the vicinity of the groins. Those activities have cost the township nearly $20,000 over the past two years.

On May 8, trustees approved a $12,620 payment to Star Excavating to haul in 1,262 cubic yards of sand from an upland area to nourish the shoreline in the vicinity of the groins. The mandate to add more sand came from the analysis of the 2017 measurements.

Almost a year earlier, on May 9, 2017, trustees approved a $6,300 payment, also to Star Excavating, to bypass, or move, sand from the vicinity of the groins. That ruling stemmed from the 2016 sand monitoring.

Sundy made what turned out to be an accurate prediction in 2018 when she said at a trustee board meeting, “I think this year, all indications are — with our fingers crossed — that (the sand) stabilized by a couple hundred yards, so that we shouldn’t have to move or replenish.”

On Feb. 14, Sundy expressed optimism that the stabilization of sand in 2018, and the latest report and ruling from ODNR, are signs of more good things to come for the target area of Township Park.

“We are hopeful after the survey in 2019 the monitoring plan will be complete,” she said.

Courtesy of Perry Township The erosion control structures known as groins are shown in this 2014 photo at Perry Township Park.