Shaker Lakes Blog

I want to preface this post by addressing a question I'm sure some will have: what qualifications do I have that allow me to question what the Sewer District says about dams? The answer: I don't have any special expertise, but based on their public statements, NEORSD's expertise shockingly also appears to be lacking. All I do here is compare their statements to basic definitions and statements from people who actually are  qualified, such as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which is in charge of classifying and regulating dams. These comparisons reveal that the Sewer District has made multiple statements that are very misleading or even objectively false. This is extremely important to the ongoing controversy around the Shaker dams. Think about it. Throughout this whole process - all the way back to NEORSD saying they were going to repair both the Horseshoe and Lower Lake dams and through everything that's happened since - it appears that our cities were...

Being a stickler for accuracy has always been a strong personality trait of mine. Members of my family and people I've worked with could all tell you this. When I was in second grade, I frequently corrected misspellings my teacher made on the chalkboard. She took it with good nature. Looking back as an adult, it's hilarious to think about how this might have felt to her. When I was in third grade, my parents had to meet with my science teacher because I'd insisted, in front of the class, that something he was saying about the moon's rotation was wrong. (I was correct. I don't know whether my dad was able to convince the teacher that he had a science fact wrong and his eight-year-old student had it right.) As an adult working in science, I've been in situations where I had to push back against people I was working with who wanted to make claims that weren't sufficiently supported by the evidence. I say all this to illustrate that getting the facts right is, a...