Hebron wants in on Buckeye Lake talks

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Officials evacuate residents of a mobile home park in Hebron.]

HEBRON, Ohio They know all about flooding in the low-lying parts of this Licking County village.

Theyve peered out their windows and watched picnic tables float by. Theyve stood on their porches and gawked at waves licking the front steps. Theyve swapped rumors about just how bad it would get if the dam at Buckeye Lake, just a couple of miles away, failed.

But now that engineers say that last point is a significant worry, using scary words such as catastrophic failure, Hebron residents arent just talking about it.

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We are concerned, said Clifford Mason, mayor of the 2,300-resident village. I think its important for someone from the village to be at the table.

Hebrons leaders didnt know about the alarming Army Corps of Engineers report concerning the earthen dams viability until news reports on Wednesday. Mason hopes to change that.

On Wednesday night, the village council agreed to send the state a letter outlining its concerns about Buckeye Lakes future. The council also asked that a Hebron representative, in this case Mason, be included in future discussions.

Though the village is up the road from the lake, across I-70, estimates still show that if the dam were to give way, water from the 3,000-acre lake would flood the homes of at least 3,000 people. That includes parts of Hebron, which could be flooded within two hours. That likely would inundate the villages water-treatment plant and areas that lie near the South Fork of the Licking River.

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Hebron wants in on Buckeye Lake talks