Residents of New Richmond won't get the chance to vote on whether to dissolve their Clermont County village this November.
No petition to dissolve New Richmond was filed with the Clermont County Board of Elections by an Aug. 5 deadline, deputy director Christopher Dennison said in an email to The Enquirer. The board certified the questions and issues to appear on the ballot during an Aug. 17 meeting, and the measure to dissolve New Richmond − as well as a similar effort to dissolve Batavia − is not among them.
"So, barring any unforeseen court involvement, the issue will not appear on the November 3 general election ballot," Dennison said in an email to The Enquirer.
What happens if an Ohio village dissolves?
If New Richmond dissolved, its government and services would no longer exist,
and Ohio Township would primarily absorb the unincorporated area.
In Ohio, a petition to dissolve can be filed with the village council. If the council doesn't then file that petition with the county board of elections within 30 days, the petitioners can take it directly to the board of elections.
David Peters, leader of the New Richmond Village Dissolution Initiative, submitted 263 signatures on July 14 to the village council. It's unclear if the council ever took further steps to review the signatures, but it did not send the petition to the Clermont County Board of Elections. The 30-day deadline for them to take this action would have been Aug. 13 ‒ past the Aug. 5 filing deadline.
The Enquirer asked Peters if he attempted to file the petition with the Clermont County Board of Elections before Aug. 5, but he did not respond by publication.
Why did residents want to dissolve New Richmond?
Council Clerk Kelley Snider also did not respond by publication of this story to questions about if the council took further action on verifying the signatures.
A coalition of residents started pushing to dissolve the village of around 2,800 in response to a controversial project to build four roundabouts on U.S. 52 through New Richmond. Petitioners said the project was a tipping point in what they view as the village government's lack of transparency.
Officials previously told The Enquirer that dissolving the village would eliminate New Richmond's police and fire services, meaning residents could see response times increase by 7 to 10 minutes.
Residents won't be able to file another petition to dissolve until 2028. Peters did not answer by publication whether he planned to bring up the issue again.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New Richmond dissolution won't be on November ballot
