The last thing Ohio needs following the scandal of the FirstEnergy bribery case is a change in state law to materially weaken the existing ethics law.
But that’s what Pioneer, Ohio, Mayor Ed Kidston tried to accomplish with the assistance of lobbyist Jonithon LaCross (“After AquaBounty, what's next for Pioneer?” Sunday).
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The Ohio Ethics Commission red-flagged a provision inserted on the last day of a lame duck legislative session making it legally safe for some local officials to do personal business with the government body on which they serve under certain circumstances.
Gov. Mike DeWine used his line item veto to strip the proposed change of law from the legislation passed as House Bill 315. This provision would “invite misuse of taxpayer money,” the governor said in his veto message.
This is behind the controversy in Williams County over a pipeline from Pioneer, drawing water from the enormous Michindoh Aquifer, to the site of a defunct AquaBounty Technologies fish farm.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has approved use of 5 million gallons a day from the aquifer. The Williams County commissioners have dropped an effort to block the village of Pioneer from running pipes along 1-mile of county roadway to bring water into the AquaBounty site and carry treated wastewater out into the nearby St. Joseph River.
Neither Pioneer officials nor Williams County economic development leaders will say how the site will be used with AquaBounty financially incapable of executing on a project to raise genetically modified salmon at a construction cost of nearly $500 million.
Many Pioneer citizens interviewed by Blade reporter Tom Henry for his front page report question the secrecy of future plans.
Mayor Kidston is one who’s a target of such claims that transparency is desperately needed in Pioneer.
The mayor bought the 81-acre farm that became the AquaBounty site for $600,000 and sold it to the company for $2.1 million. Between a $1.5 million personal profit and an attempt to change state law on potential conflicts of interest, Mayor Kidston should make transparency a political priority.
An economic development site able to extract 5 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer with pipelines in place to deliver the water is enormously valuable.
The Intel computer chip fabrication plant near Columbus will need 5 million gallons a day and be the city’s largest water user.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. complex in Arizona, announced with President Trump at the White House, will also need 5 million gallons of water daily.
A pipeline from Pioneer providing 5 million gallons of water daily will make the AquaBounty land much more valuable than it is now. It’s a resource too valuable to the entire state of Ohio to let a small-town mayor run point on economic development any longer.
Henceforth, Williams County development efforts tied to water from the Michindoh Aquifer should be a Regional Growth Partnership-driven project.
First Published March 19, 2025, 4:00 a.m.
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