A controversy vindicated

Sheetz convenience stores' interest in locating a plant and 750 jobs near County Road 212 affirmed again local officials' controversial decision 27 years ago to build the road. If Sheetz locates near County Road 212, it will join a growing list of companies there: McLane Co., Campbell Soup Distribution Center, Lowe's Distribution Center, Best Buy Distribution Center, ZF Active Safety US, Amazon, Hamlet Protein and R+L Carriers, Ohio Logistics, Penske Truck Leasing. Originally dubbed the connector road, County Road 212 links Interstate 75 with Tall Timbers Industrial Park and County Road 236 on Findlay's east side. It also reduces truck traffic in downtown Findlay. But the $7.4-million construction project drew criticism when the Hancock County Commissioners approved it in 1996 by a 2-1 vote. When the road was opened with a ceremony led by the commissioners, business leaders and other dignitaries, a nearby property owner's sign protested, "This new road sucks." 'Stealing from kids' That was not the worst of the criticism leveled at Commissioners David Spahr and William Recker, who approved the project. "We were accused of stealing tax money from the kids," Spahr recalled this week. Initially Van Buren and Findlay schools received only a fraction of the additional tax revenue generated by development along the road. Most of the additional property tax revenue was used initially to pay for the road construction and related debt. The arrangement is called tax increment financing. "The commissioners kind of stuck their neck out when they decided to build it using tax increment financing," recalled Steve Wilson, who was then county engineer. Only after the road construction expenses and related debt were paid off did Van Buren and Findlay schools receive the full tax revenue benefit from development along the road. Besides all that, Spahr and Recker were taking the risk that if no development occurred in the barren fields along the new road there would be no additional tax revenue. County taxpayers would have been on the hook to meet the debt payments. But it all worked out. Boon for schools Shortly after the commissioners decided to proceed with the new road, Best Buy announced it would build a distribution center along it. "That really kind of sealed the deal," Wilson said. "Best Buy was the anchor for that, the original anchor," said County Auditor Charity Rauschenberg, who was fiscal administrator in the Auditor's Office at the time. "Then everything opened up." More development and more tax revenue followed. As a result, the road construction and debt obligations were paid off early, Rauschenberg said. That resulted in Van Buren schools, in particular, seeing a tax revenue boost sooner than expected. "We turned how many millions of tax dollars into the Van Buren school because of building that road," Spahr said. "That's turned into a boon, actually. It also pushed them into an elite group (financially)." It helped that the road's construction was well-timed. The mid- to late-1990s were a booming time of economic growth and declining interest rates. Through refinancing, "several hundred thousands of dollars" were saved, Rauschenberg said. Outgrowth Now the area along County Road 212 and its leg east of Main Street — County Road 99 — are so congested with traffic that the state is planning a $34.2 million reconfiguration of the Interstate 75-County Road 99 interchange. The interchange is on schedule to be converted to a diverging diamond arrangement by fall 2025. The upgrade will allow traffic to flow more freely and smoothly on County Road 99 and the entrance and exit ramps for I-75. Long backups of stopped vehicles on the bridge and ramps will be eliminated. In the current situation, vehicles sometimes stack on the I-75 ramps nearly all the way to the through lanes of I-75. Spahr finds the outgrowth from construction of County Road 212 "interesting" given the connector road's contentious start in 1996. "Now, was it popular, completely popular? No, it was not, from the school board to the (Allen Township) trustees," Spahr said. "We even had one commissioner that dug in their feet the whole project, but it is a project that I feel kind of proud of today." Former Hancock Regional Planning Commission Director John Anning deserves credit because he originally proposed the connector road idea to the commissioners, he said. "John Anning was the architect of that project. I remember the day he came over and talked to us about doing it and how we might be able to get it done," Spahr said. "He was the guy that really carried the ball." Diverting trucks But it was the commissioners, elected by the people, who were the only ones who could advance the project despite some public opposition. And there may be a lesson in that. "A lot of good projects would never be completed if you had to have a popular (unanimous) vote on every one of them," Spahr said. Spahr said he believes the road's biggest benefit has been routing trucks away from downtown Findlay. Otherwise the trucks would be driving through downtown because the state route, Ohio 12, goes that way. "My lead story is, you drive out there (to County Road 212) and look at all of the trucks that are on that road and they would still be driving by the Courthouse if we had not built that road when we did. Can you imagine that?" he said. "Those trucks would all be going by the Courthouse on Route 12 today."