While no public patrons were at Tuesday's Stark County Commission meeting to petition the closing of a South Heart section line, commissioners supported the change.
Since January, multiple developers approached South Heart, and city leaders say more water is needed to accommodate growth. Town officials expressed interest in expanding lagoons to accommodate more development, which arrives during an ongoing oil boom.
"Clearly, the city of South Heart needs to have (this section line) closed to do some expansion work on their lagoon system," Commission Chairman Ken Zander said Tuesday.
Stark County State's Attorney Tom Henning made sure commissioners covered all their bases before approving the change.
There should be "adequate other access to anything that is in that area, so that it does not appear to infringe on anybody's access to anything," Henning said. "We don't need people driving across lagoons."
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County Road Superintendent Al Heiser assured commissioners the land, located south of the Heart River, is not heavily used.
"We drove out and looked at it. Basically, it goes nowhere," Heiser said. "(Closing the section line) is not going to affect anything, and nobody was here to argue against it."
Commissioner Russ Hoff agrees.
"I looked at (the land) too," Hoff said. "I'm not normally for closing section lines, but this is one that I see as fit."
The Press placed calls to South Heart city officials, including Mayor Floyd Hurt and councilmen Jayme Lefor and Chuck Andrus on Tuesday. All went unreturned.
