Map provided by the Marietta Engineering Department Marietta officials and the county floodplain management track flood levels and what buildings and residences are affected when waters from the Muskingum and Ohio rivers rise.

MARIETTA — Floodplain management has shifted from a county duty to a contracted one this summer.

“I worked on it for almost a year researching what would be the best way to stream government money and the revenue we receive from that service,” said Washington County Commissioner David White on Friday. “When we transferred those duties it was in part to leverage more state funds for Soil and Water and the other part is the floodplain manager is supposed to periodically view our floodplain areas in person and that was difficult to do under our building department when they have so much else they’re doing.”

Now floodplain management is offered through the Washington Soil and Water Conservation District, so that the Southeast Ohio Building Department can focus on other permitting and education needs for the five counties it serves.

White said the move allows the WSWCD to leverage an additional 80 percent in state funding, expanding on an approximately $12,000 to $13,000 investment from the commissioners.

“This was part of the larger vision when I came on in 2017,” explained Chris Wilson, head of the building department. “We’re still in communication with Soil and Water and talk via email and phone to get our plans that relate to floodplain completed in the same time frame that we’ve always done, but now we can focus more effort on launching our online application portal and strengthening education on state building codes for both residential and commercial compliance.”

White said keeping the floodplain management service was still a crucial priority, even without the building department doing the job.

“The reason it’s important to keep accomplishing it is because your residential flood insurance rates as a county are lower because we have a certified floodplain manager,” he said.

So, applications for the Floodplain Development Permit in the unincorporated areas of Washington County and within Marietta city limits are now to be submitted to Sandy Lahmers at the WSWCD with the application form, fee and the scaled site and structure plans, proposed and existing structures with dimensions to nearest property lines, locations of existing septic systems and other site and elevation information.

Meanwhile, Wilson said in the next month his office will be able to offer not only a 24/7 online form of applying for commercial, residential, service, HVAC and roof/siding permits but also take payments for those permits and allow for the public to search to see if permits have been approved for any work in the department’s coverage of Washington, Noble, Monroe and Guernsey counties, and the five municipalities the department serves in Belmont County.

“Plus we also want to increase our education offerings so I’m not always the bad guy, it’s better to know what permits you need to have beforehand,” he explained.

The first upcoming education offering will be an all-day class free and open to the public to learn about commercial building codes and requirements.

“That will be for existing buildings which business owners, contractors, designers could definitely benefit from. Maybe you have a second and third floor on Second Street downtown you’d like to renovate,” explained Wilson. “This will help you get started the right way. We’re bringing down Carl Laming, the building official for Clermont County, who holds seminars on building compliance.”

He said oftentimes homeowners don’t realize they need a permit to put on a new deck, roof, siding or a fence taller than 6 feet.

“But ultimately the property owners are responsible for that,” he added. “And we act as an agent for the homeowner to protect them and keep the contractor or the homeowner accountable for doing it right and safe so we don’t see decks falling off the house or building later.”

For more information on what building upgrades need permits and what do not, visit bit.ly/doIneedapermit.