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Dozens of community members spent Sunday morning pulling trash from Mill Creek during a watershed cleanup aimed at protecting water quality and preserving local parks.

BOARDMAN TWP., Ohio - Dozens of volunteers rolled up their sleeves and grabbed trash bags Sunday morning to take part in a Mill Creek watershed cleanup at the East Newport Boat Launch.

The event, organized by the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District along with several partners, brought about three dozen participants who collected litter both on the shoreline and out on the water in canoes.

“This is one of our most precious natural resources,” said Zack Felger, district outreach and education specialist. “Today we are doing a Mill Creek watershed cleanup in order to improve this beautiful natural resource that we have here in Mahoning County.”

Organizers said protecting Mill Creek is about more than just aesthetics. Water quality, recreation and even drinking water are at stake.

“Most importantly, water is our most important natural resource, obviously, for drinking water purposes,” Felger said. “But where trash goes…it ends up in our wastewater treatment plants, and it's very costly to treat polluted water.”

Kathleen Vrable-Bryan, executive director of Mahoning Soil and Water, said the event also serves as a way to raise awareness about the connection between land use and water health.

“We’re doing this because it is all for the sake of water quality improvement,” Vrable-Bryan said. “Hopefully people can take this information back home, and be a little bit more aware that what they’re doing on their properties can affect our water quality.”

Vrable-Bryan added that the work is personal for her. Growing up near Mill Creek MetroParks, she said she and her friends would often pick up litter in the area. “We want future generations to be able to have those good memories, like we all do as older people,” she said.

Partners for the cleanup included the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Mill Creek MetroParks, the Mahoning County Green Team, Boardman Township, Buckeye Water to Trails Adventures, and Friends of the Mahoning River.

Organizers say the goal is to make the Mill Creek cleanup an annual tradition, with similar efforts also planned in other local parks and watersheds across Mahoning County.

ROCKINGHAM, Va. (WHSV) - Among the many historic sites throughout the Shenandoah Valley, people gathered near Port Republic on Saturday, August 16, to remember the Battle of the Cross Keys.

The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and the Mill Creek Country Store partnered to host the weekend. Throughout the event, guests were taken back in time to the Civil War. Not only was the event a history lesson, it was also a celebration of new features added to the site.

“Over the last few years, we have done a lot of new infrastructure, parking lots, trails, signage, and this is an event kind of to celebrate a big milestone,” said Mike Scheibe, the resource management associate with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation.

Alongside the debut of new infrastructure, there were tours, demonstrations and other activities.

“There was a cannon firing demonstration; we are actually on a Confederate artillery position that was key during the battle of Cross Keys,” Scheibe said.

Scheibe said it was also an opportunity for education.

“We have living historians from all over Virginia come out to help celebrate it, teach a little bit about the soldiers and what they had during the Civil War,” Scheibe said.

A notable aspect of this special event was the presence of the guest speaker, Ron Maxwell, an American Civil War filmmaker. An area of the event was filled with people listening to Maxwell and asking questions.

The event offered several places for visitors to explore.

“There are seven different sites you can see, and they all tell different stories about what happened here during the battles in 1862,” Scheibe said.

As this event brought together people of all ages, Schibe said it was a learning experience to continue the education of local history and the preservation of historic land throughout the Valley.

“There isn’t a whole lot of point in saving this land if people don’t come and enjoy it and learn from it,” Scheibe said.

Copyright 2025 WHSV. All rights reserved.

FORT PIERCE – A last-minute request by the representative of the owner of the 439-unit Millcreek Planned Development slated for the north side of Orange Avenue prompted a larger City Commission discussion Aug. 4 than the normally simplistic second reading and provoked a two-week delay on the final approval.

Property owner FM Millcreek Holding LLC plans to build 309 townhomes and 130 detached single-family homes on a 62.5-acre parcel just west of 41st Street.

Last March, the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the final site plan of the first phase.

After City Clerk Linda Cox announced during the latest meeting that the final developer’s agreement had been fully executed, Mayor Linda Hudson opened up the public hearing and invited the public to speak. The applicant’s contracted Land Planner Tod Mowery was the first and only public speaker that night, expressing concern with an adverb in that final agreement that would force his client to prematurely apply for a traffic signal at the entrance to the development.

“There was a condition added at the last meeting,” he said. “That was the last item on the timeline of the last page. It talks about when a particular action is to be held as it relates to the Department of Transportation signalization. It may cause a little bit of confusion because it says ‘immediately.’ ”

Mowery insisted the inclusion of that word required his firm to prematurely submit the traffic signal request to the DOT before he could even finish his construction plans.

“We can’t submit until we actually have a packet ready,” he explained. “We feel as though Item 6 is redundant because it’s covered in five different points within the existing agreement. We would at least like to have that word modified and removed.”

The land planner’s second request to alter the project’s construction timeline further complicated the second and normally final reading of the application. At present, the developer agreement stipulates that land clearing and grading on the first phase would be conducted this November.

“On the timeline, we need to get four months added into that initial phase,” he said. “There’s not going to be a way for us to get to that groundbreaking stage by November. Generally, it’s three to four months for the construction plans to be fully put together. So, we would already be out of compliance. It just goes to the timing from when we submitted this until we got to the Commission.”

City Attorney Sarah Hedges was the first to respond to Mowery’s request, acknowledging that it was throwing a monkey wrench into the normally rapid second-reading process.

“Given the applicant’s request to amend the development agreement, that should have happened before we got here tonight,” she said. “If they are asking to change terms in the agreement they’ve already signed, that will need to be done and brought back to you for a second reading with a new agreement signed.”

Commissioner Curtis Johnson Jr. resisted any further delays, however, acknowledging his prior traffic signal concerns due to the fact the Bent Creek neighborhood on the south side of Orange Avenue shares a median cut and intersection with Mill Creek.

“With all due respect to the attorney, this has been going on too long,” he said. “We just heard that some of the dates aren’t even going to line up based on this because it took some time to get this through. I looked at the other aspects of the actual agreement that clearly stated there needed to be a submission to the FDOT along the way already.”

The city attorney, however, attributed the adverb causing Mowery angst to Johnson himself.

“This was part of the original motion on the first reading as one of the conditions,” she recalled. “I believe, Commissioner Johnson, it was your condition that you wanted. So, the motion said immediately, and that was included. So, if that word is to be changed, you all would need to give us direction to do so. We would need direction from you to amend that timeframe table as well.”

Commissioner Michael Broderick then posed a question to Mowery about the potential of piggybacking on a Bent Creek traffic signal request to expedite the process.

“You and I had a follow-up discussion relative to Bent Creek, which is in Phase 3,” he said. “Based on their additional units being added, I asked you to inquire of the Bent Creek development team if they are already in application to the state for signalization based on the additional units. Do we have any information pertaining to that?”

“I reached out to the county,” Mowery replied. “I was not able to get a definitive [answer] as to whether or not they’ve applied for it.”

Commissioner Broderick subsequently switched gears, posing a different question to Planning Director Kevin Freeman.

“I’m going to side with the development team on this indicating they’re not going to be able to break ground [or] be ready for November 2025,” he said. “Would you agree that’s a fair assessment as far as a logical progression of where we stand currently?”

In his response, Freeman inferred that delays in the application process had pretty much thrown the construction schedule off course.

“I would agree that the parameters they’re facing in terms of getting things completed within certain timeframes in the table are very tight,” he said.

When Broderick referred to the additional four months in the timeline and removing one word from the agreement as “pretty simplistic changes,” Mayor Hudson briefly got a ray of hope.

“Is this something that we can give direction for, and then with everybody’s agreement, go forward on this?” she asked. “We don’t want to cost them any more time.”

Hedges informed her, though, it would be at least two weeks to the next Commission meeting.

“If you all give us direction to amend the timetable based on what the applicant needs and however you would like Condition Six amended, this can be brought back before you by the 18th,” she said.

While both Mowery and Commissioner Arnold Gaines hoped the two-week delay could still be avoided, Hedges advised against approving a formal agreement that had yet to be resigned.

“Because your ordinance is approving this agreement, your agreement should be in final form when you are approving your ordinance,” she insisted.

The Commission then voted unanimously to table the second reading until the Aug. 18 meeting to give staff time to make the changes and get the amended agreement signed by all parties.

For the fourth year in a row, the Phenix City tributary, Mill Creek, has dangerously high amounts of E. coli in it, a fecal coliform bacteria, which indicates waters are unsafe to drink or swim in for recreation.

This summer, E.coli levels have regularly been anywhere from four to 10 times higher than what is considered healthy by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management guidelines, its worst 15-week streak of E. coli since at least 2021, when various organizations began taking samples.

Mill Creek is the only body of water that traverses through Phenix City. The creek ripples alongside auto repair shops, around neighborhoods, behind barbecue restaurants and beneath bridges, eventually meeting the Chattahoochee River next to the Phenix City Amphitheater. It pours into the Chattahoochee just a few hundred yards south of the famous urban whitewater courses’ crown jewel of epic waves, near Waveshaper Island, where tens of thousands of tourists venture each year.

Two nonprofit water watchdog and conservation groups, the Chattahoochee River Conservancy and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, as well as Columbus Water Works, have taken water samples at Mill Creek. Each group has taken the sample for different reasons, and some have sampled it more often than others. All show the same consistently bad results.

Each of the group’s executive directors told the Ledger-Enquirer they have shared their results with the Phenix City Utilities Department.

Despite years of data, including this summer’s consistent streak, public outcry and help offered by the River Conservancy, the Phenix City Utilities Department has not found the source for such high levels of E.coli in Mill Creek and has not reduced contamination levels down to a safer level.

The Phenix City Utilities Department would not participate in an interview for this story due to ongoing litigation between the city, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper regarding its wastewater treatment plant, so it is unclear whether the city takes its own water samples.

Assistant City Manager Chan Gamble provided a statement saying the city is aware of the “recent reports” of elevated E. coli in Mill Creek. It takes them “very seriously,” and is “aggressively searching” for the source, he said.

He added that the city has recently made repairs to the sanitary sewer infrastructure along the creek and to “be assured that the City will continue to be vigilant in its efforts to identify any sources of elevated E. Coli and address them immediately.”

Mill Creek consistently a ‘failure’ for water contamination

The Chattahoochee River Conservancy takes samples during popular swimming recreation months, between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend, which the group publishes on social media to inform people about where it is and isn’t safe to swim between Lake Harding and Lake Oliver.

The River Conservancy, the Riverkeeper and Columbus Water Works all use recreational water guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency for what is considered unsafe. The numbers used are measured in colony forming units, or CFUs. The guideline set by the EPA is no more than 126 CFU per 100mL for multiple samples or 235 CFU for a single sample.

The numbers detected this summer by Natalie Downey, the former interim director of the Chattahoochee River Conservancy, ranged from 961 CFU to 2,420 CFU, with nearly every week but two being “beyond our scope” of what is measurable. The testing materials in their lab in Columbus only allow them to test up to 2,420 CFU. The Riverkeeper’s readings allow them to go much higher, into the tens of thousands of CFUs.

“We use a black light and count the number of colony wells (in the sample),” Downey said. “We count the large and small wells and get the most probable number. Whenever we do Mill Creek’s sample, the results are glowing (from the black light).”

When it’s above 235 CFU, the River Conservancy considers that a “failure,” and “does not recommend” people to swim in the area.

The group tests 16 other sites throughout the river basin that are popular recreation areas, such as Blanton Creek, Lake Oliver Marina or near the Trade Center.

The last sample of the season, Aug. 29, showed the Trade Center, south of the flowing Mill Creek waters, “Safe to Swim” at 20.9 CFU.

Downey said she has tested Mill Creek when it’s almost dry and gets the same results.

Other water bodies sometimes fail, such as Lake Oliver Marina last week. But it’s a one-off, and not an issue in the eyes of the executive director of the River Conservancy, Mason Jarrett.

“Lake Oliver failed (last) week, and I’m not super concerned about that because it doesn’t consistently fail,” Jarrett said. “It’s not completely alarming if you see one random spike, and then it goes back to normal.”

Jarrett said animal presence in the water, birds or high rain events can cause a spike.

“It’s when we see a consistent failure from a body of water that we’re like, ok, this body of water’s not healthy,” Jarrett said.

Columbus Water Works began taking samples in Mill Creek in 2021 because the organization was made aware of the E. coli issue. Their data shows nearly identical results as the River Conservancy.

“We wanted to include Mill Creek as one of our sampling sites, because we do know that it is high in E. coli, and we wanted to have that data point,” Vic Burchfield, executive vice president of Columbus Water Works, said.

He said it’s common for urban streams to have E.coli and an area needs to be studied to understand the cause.

“You have to take a lot of samples, especially when you know that it’s happening, and make an assessment of the stream, and you would see if there is a contributing sanitary sewer problem on that stream or not,” Burchfield said. “But in some cases, it’s not a smoking gun.”

Both Burchfield and Water Works President Jeremy Cummings have offered help to Phenix City. Cummings said the group offered some mutual aid, but were told Phenix City is putting together a “game plan” at the beginning of this summer.

Downey said she’s offered to help identify the issue. She suggested the challenges on the Phenix City side seem to be funding and resources. She has sat down with Utilities Director John Spraggins, and she said he suggested it was an infrastructure issue.

Jarrett said they have never “accused” Phenix City of any wrongdoing causing the problem. They feel it is their job to simply make them aware of the persisting issue and show the data.

Phenix City Council is aiming to help resolve issues. On Tuesday, the council approved upgrades to the water water treatment plant, according to Councilmember Griff Gordy.

“We voted on three items,” he said. “ As soon as we vote, (contractors are able) to do everything they can.”

Residents concerned. Are Alabama officials’ hands tied?

The consistent, unhealthy results have frustrated Phenix City residents, some taking to ADEM to report the issues. Others have left comments on Facebook images from the Chattahoochee River Conservancy thanking them for their work.

Some have taken the Conservancy and the Riverkeeper’s data and reported the issue to ADEM, complaining about the smell and the public health issue going unresolved for too long.

“I rode across Mill Creek in Phenix City with my windows down yesterday, and the smell was unbearable,” an anonymous web complaint from July 25 sent to ADEM reads. “This is not only an environmental issue, it is a public health issue. How is it possible that this continues week after week? I believe it has gone on for years. How do I escalate this beyond this complaint?”

Shanda Torbert, a water division complaint respondent for ADEM, responded to the complaint 10 days later, pointing to the ongoing litigation between ADEM and the Water Treatment Plant.

“The Department filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Russel County on September 13, 2024, that includes violations of the NPDES Permit and the Alabama Water Pollution Control Act. To access the file for the Phenix City WWTP, please utilize eFile (AL0022209).”

Jarrett does not believe this issue is connected to the water treatment plant.

“They’re separate,” he said. “Logistically, they couldn’t be the same.”

ADEM External Affairs spokesperson, Lynn Battle told the Ledger-Enquirer that because sanitary sewer overflows are a possible source of pathogens in waterways, and there is ongoing litigation with the treatment plant that could be connected to the issues in Mill Creek, ADEM must point to the ongoing lawsuit with the water treatment plant.

Battle also said Mill Creek is technically in “good” condition per the last assessment done by ADEM in 2022. Good standing means the creek is not “impaired.”

She said their assessments encompass six years worth of data so it will be updated in 2026, even though they did take more samples in 2024.

The standards for Mill Creek testing that ADEM uses are technically classified for Fish and Wildlife, which are slightly different than EPA numbers, according to Battle.

However, the samples collected by all three groups show contamination well above both EPA and Fish and Wildlife recreation standards in the summer months. Fish and Wildlife standards change every October to permit much higher thresholds of E. Coli. The standard in the summer is stricter because “summer months are when water recreation is most likely to occur,” Battle said.

ADEM’s sampling methodology and the Fish and Wildlife bacteria criteria can be found on the agency’s website.

Another complaint on Aug. 6 reported the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s test results of 40,820 MPN/100mL and 27,375 MPN/100mL on July 24 and July 31. The MPN/100mL measurement calculates the most probable number to determine contamination levels, and MPN is equivalent to CFU. The EPA’s standard for safety by this measure is 235, and Fish and Wildlife’s standard is 298.

“The high (E. coli) reading can be an indicator of other pollutants or toxins in the water. The extreme readings represent a public health hazard,” the complaint said. “Is the city or ADEM doing anything to identify the wastewater leak or the source of the contamination?”

Two days later, Shanda Torbert responded with the same response, pointing to the ongoing litigation.

If the creek is considered “impaired” or no longer in good standing by the 2026 updated assessment, then ADEM would develop a Total Maximum Daily Load, reduction plan, to return to where standards are met, Battle said.

BOARDMAN — Even though Vicki Maslo lives about an hour from Mill Creek MetroParks, she hasn’t allowed the physical distance to diminish her desire to make what many say is one of the Mahoning Valley’s greatest treasures a bit cleaner and greener.

“We love our (local) parks, but we’re still happy to come to a park people cherish,” Maslo, of Twinsburg, said.

Maslo, along with her son, Luke Maslo, 12, and daughter, Nora Maslo, 14, showed some of that happiness without concern over getting their hands a bit dirty, because they were among several dozen volunteers who took part in a Mill Creek Watershed cleanup that got underway Sunday morning at the East Newport boat launch site.

Partnering with the Mahoning County Soil & Water Conservation District for the three-hour beautification project were Mill Creek MetroParks, Boardman Township, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Mahoning County Green Team and Buckeye Water to Trail Adventures, Zack Felder, the SWCD’s district outreach and education specialist, noted.

The volunteers got hold of black plastic bags and grabbing devices before breaking into two groups — one of which removed trash and debris from the park’s wetlands area and adjacent trails, and the other that did the same on the lake to clear it of “floating trash.”

Beforehand, an early-morning thunderstorm had rolled through, but left in its wake mostly cloudy skies, temperatures in the mid-70s and a slight breeze.

For Nora, the cleanup effort will provide volunteer hours, obtaining a certain number of which is a graduation requirement at her high school, she said.

For their parts, the family bagged everything from bottles to paper to candy and other wrappers, Vicki Maslo added.

“We are all doing this for the sake of water quality improvement. … It’s important to maintain water quality so people can recreate for years to come,” Kathleen Vrable-Bryan, the SWCD’s executive director, said.

Calling Mill Creek Park “one of the gems of our community,” Vrable-Bryan added that Sunday’s cleanup also is personal because she spent part of her childhood with friends ridding the park of litter and trash, she recalled.

Also following that trajectory was Anna Lazar of Youngstown, who works for the Ohio EPA’s Division of Drinking and Groundwaters.

“I grew up in Youngstown, and Mill Creek Park was always sort of my introduction to loving nature,” said Lazar, who also was a geologist and part-time Youngstown State University professor of environmental studies.

A love of the park was ingrained in Lazar partly because her father, George Lazar, 76, was a Cub Scout leader who often led his Scout packs and his family on hikes. In addition, the elder Lazar accompanied his daughter and her students on field trips, she recalled.

During Sunday’s cleanup, Anna Lazar collected mainly cigarette butts and lighters, as well as fast-food wrappers, she said.

“We’re going around the shoreline to see what we can get from the water,” Evan Jagger, who runs Buckeye Water to Trail Adventures, said, adding that his initial plan was to kayak to the wetlands area.

Jagger, who was accompanied by his wife, Molly Jagger, and daughter, Lennox Jagger, 7, estimated that his group had picked up 1,128 pounds of trash — which included tires and oil drums — over an 18-month period in the Alliance area.

For her part, Molly Jagger found an old discarded General Electric blender that an online search revealed had been made in the 1940s, Evan Jagger said, adding that he also helps to clean the Cuyahoga River in and around Akron.

Ohio’s No. 1 pollutant is sediment, because it carries a host of other pollutants with it and deposits them, Vrable-Bryan noted.

Also, the SWCD is strongly urging citizens to monitor their water quality. Along those lines, the agency has a program to teach them how to take water samples and check the samples for possible pollutants, she said.

For more information, call the SWCD at 330-740-7995, or go to www.mahoningsoilandwater.org