(Photo by Amber Phipps) The Washington County Commissioners from March. The commissioners approved the resolution to acquire "unknown heir" property during a meeting Thursday.

MARIETTA – The Washington County Commissioners approved a resolution during Thursday’s meeting that would authorize acquisition of property rights for a strip of unclaimed property near Township Road 298 and Gantsville Road just outside of Little Hocking.

The purchase of the 26-acre property has been no small task and began in 2019 when a cycling group based in Belpre were attempting to connect a trail to the Athens Conservancy Trail.

“They approached Belpre Township at one point to try to find transportation alternative funding to purchase the abandoned CSX Transportation railroad in Little Hocking,” said Wright. “We’ve got a bridge that’s starting to fail on TR-298 that passes underneath.”

Wright said the county has $0 put into the project due to the funding the township and the bike club were able to secure. As the Belpre Township Trail Acquisition project progressed, they found that the property was separated into three parcels with one of those parcels owned by “unknown heirs.”

“When someone passes away, sometimes their property stays in limbo,” he said. “So nobody else has rights or claims to that other than heirs from 1872.”

Wright said the process of obtaining the property through the eminent domain has required legal council since the project began in 2019 due to its complexity.

“Will there be an heir that comes forward from the heirs of Dexter who passed away in 1872? I have no idea, but legally this is the way that we go through and let them know if they have rights or claims,” said Wright. “It’ll go through the court system and if it passes in court then we’ll basically be receiving the property.”

Wright said the department’s main goal is to obtain that parcel so they can move forward with replacing the bridge. He said much of that area has remained abandoned over the years with much of it unkempt or occasionally tended to by the township.

Although the department doesn’t intend to work on the trail directly, he said another organization could easily take over the trail project and make it happen.

“This basically acquires the property to allow that to happen down the road,” he said.

Commissioner Charlie Schilling said approving the resolution would be beneficial for developing a trail.

“When you look at something like this to be able to impact travel, tourism, health and wellness, and being able to connect trails,” said Schilling. “I think this is a good project.”

Wright said they could have opted to purchase the bridge from the CSX Transportation railroad company but it would’ve cost about the same as purchasing the entire property through the eminent domain process.

“It’s been difficult and super time consuming, and it’s the harder process but probably the better process,” said Wright.

The approval of the resolution would involve the county in the project to be able to conduct road repairs, bridge repairs, real estate construction and more.

Among other news, Southeastern Ohio Port Authority President Jesse Roush announced there will be 65 new units by Fairfield Homes, Inc. and Ohio Housing Finance Agency in Harmar. The project completion date hasn’t been announced.

“We’ve been working on this in the background for a while,” he said. “It’s a pretty significant project … close to $20 million.”

He said the 65-unit housing development will be located along Virginia Street at a vacant lot and there will be one and two bedroom options.

“Excited about seeing that come forward,” said Roush. “It’s a big step forward when it comes to housing.”

Roush said the intention is to “free up” single-family homes so those homes would be available for current or incoming families needing a larger space to live.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com