Thank You Earl Martin, Chris Redfern, Sally Conway Kilbane, for helping put common sense back into regulation and helping property owners recover their confiscated property.

The PR machine of ODNR, is just that - a machine -- they can say what ever they want publish whatever lies they see fit and people will believe them. Trust me.

The truth is more of a victim in this issue than the victims of the property they have stolen.

This Democrat would never think that would ever happen... ODNR fight for clean water, clean air, sensible regulations to protect the environment... I'm with that.. Right?

Not so fast... when a few zealots at ODNR were empowered to change state regulations they had they sights on deeded property and the lakefront. Because they could not afford to buy the land they so desired - they change the interpretation of Ohio law from Low water To the High water mark defining ownership of the property. This nulified almost every deed along the lake-- deeds hundred of years old -- and took property from people -- claimed ownership to homes....

One ODNR official was in my neighbors home (after the new "regulations" were enacted) and said the state now owns up to "here" POINTING at his kitchen floor. That deserves to be repeated ... a ODNR official went in to my neighbors home and claimed ownership right through the miiddle of his house... that had been thier for decades. In some instances this little regulation change took 50-100 feet or more -- of dry deeded private property... that has been private the through the history of this state.

The ODNR -- that has no authority to do that -- did just that ... then forced people that live along the lake to LEASE THIER OWN PROPERTY....

But the real story is the lies, and BS that comes out of ODNR on a daily basis about this issue... I could not believe the deceit and propaganda, that would make the Nazi’s proud, that came out of their offices. In 1974 ODNR fought for LOW water as the property line - as that is what most deeds read and what people have been paying for and paying taxes on for 200 years.
They ODNR rewrite history of this state that never existed.... citing laws that and language in OHIO code that does not and has never existed.... They use (or abuse) their PR power like a sledgehammer, smashing the truth, and when a reporter does call them to task - they back off but that rarely happens...


Now this issue is twisted and used against those that tried to stop this larceny... and people "claim" to know this issue... well if you haven't had the pleasure of your deeded land being confiscated, then have the state force you to lease it.. You don't have a clue.

This issue has NOTHING to do with beaches... It is about the illegal regulatory taking of private property by people who answer to no one.

Fact until these ODNR zealots were empowered all deeds were honored.. There never ever was an issue for 200 years in this state

The fact is Earl Martin and MANY other reps did not get involved with this issue until others and myself had their property confiscated... and that is the truth... WE WENT TO THEM FOR HELP!

This issue has been twisted like everything in today’s politics to support a view - or misrepresent the facts---- rather than tell the truth...

Opinions should be based on fact.

The fact is this has nothing to do with Earl personally except he and the other reps saw the crap that my neighbors and me have gone through and they have tried to stop it. It has nothing to do with beaches.

Chris Redfern has supported our efforts as well and has voted for HB 218 to make the State honor our deeded property, that is all.....

The below text is that of an article that appeared in the Morning Journal in December 2000, when this fight started and before the "twisting" began.
They tell the story better than most:
----------------------------------------
Property Owners Along Lakefront Deserve
Relief from State's Bullying

Imagine this: In the schoolyard, a bully grabs the hat off your head. When you try to grab it back, the bully starts yelling to a gathering crowd that you are trying to steal ''his'' hat. Then he makes you ''lease'' your own hat from him in order for you to wear it.

That's something like what's been happening to the people who own property along the shore of Lake Erie in recent decades. Their ''hat'' is their shoreline property. The bully is the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Only a few decades ago, it was accepted that a property owner along the lake owned the land to the low water mark (defined as about 569 feet above sea level), as most deeds designate.

Then state officials changed their tune and started claiming that the state owned the land below the high water mark (about 573 feet above sea level), despite what deeds said and despite the fact property owners must pay tax on that strip of shoreline between the high- and low-water marks a strip sometimes as much as 50 feet wide in gently sloping lakefront areas. The state also began requiring property owners with new or existing structures below the high water mark, such as for erosion control, to lease their own ''submerged land'' back from the state.

Many property owners along Lake Erie's shoreline have banded together in the Ohio Lakefront Group, headed by Dave Carek of Sheffield Lake. They've allied with some state lawmakers proposing legislation that will give them relief.

Sponsors of this fine-tuned version of HB 218 include Rep. Earl Martin, R-Avon Lake; and Rep. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland. They hope the bill will make it out of committee this week and win Ohio House approval by year's end, on its way to becoming law by next year.

Grendell is from landlocked Geauga County, but wants to head off the potential for state bureaucratic tentacles putting a similar squeeze on property owners along Ohio's inland lakes and rivers.

The legislation proposed by Martin and Grendell says you own the land to wherever your deed says, which is usually the low water mark. Their bill eliminates the renewable submerged land leases for residential properties, replacing them with one-time permits. It acknowledges that the public has use of areas covered by water. It preserves coastal management controls so that the state won't lose federal funds for coastal projects, as critics fear.

In short, it rights the wrongs done to lakefront property owners while protecting the public's interest in the lakefront.

Some state officials and allies in environmental groups have cried that lakefront property owners are trying to grab control of ''the public'' lakefront; they've thrown up scares about loss of public access and fears of fenced-off beaches.

That's absurd, and they've got it backward.

The state is the one who's done the land-grabbing from lakefront landowners and has benefited from submerged land lease fees and bulked-up administrative ''turf'' controlled by the ODNR. The lakefront property owners have been the victims. Rather than being greedy rich people as critics sometimes portray them, many lakefront property owners are ordinary people who've had their land passed down through generations.

They've been done wrong for too long.

State lawmakers should do the right thing by giving the reform bill prompt approval

©The Morning Journal

###
----------------------------------------

... to have the state come in and then confiscate your deeded land that has been in you family for decades should not happen to anyone who lives anywhere at anytime... JO