Ohio Code § 6101.72

§ 6101.72.

Any territory in which a proceeding has been instituted or is pending for the construction

of a single or joint or interstate county ditch, or township ditch, or underground

drain, or levee, or county sewer, or for the cleaning of drains and watercourses,

or for the removal of drift, or for the drainage of marshes, or for any sewer district

outside of a municipal corporation, organized under any other law of this state, may

become a conservancy district or subdistrict under sections 6101.01 to 6101.84, inclusive, of the Revised Code , or may be absorbed in and amalgamated with any conservancy district in the following

manner: When the officials in charge of any such improvement or the board of directors of

any conservancy district which desires to annex or absorb such territory petitions

the court in which such conservancy district was organized, or the court having jurisdiction

over all or part of the territory affected by the proceeding which is desired to bring

under such sections, for an order making the territory affected by any of the improvements

above noted a conservancy district or subdistrict under such sections, or for amalgamating

such territory with an existing conservancy district, the clerk of the court shall

give notice of the pendency of said petition and of a hearing thereon in the same

manner as provided for notice and hearing on a petition for the organization of a

conservancy district.  At the time of such hearing the court shall hear the evidence and shall grant the

petition or deny the same as seems most advantageous to all the interests affected

thereby.  The court in its order shall specify whether such territory shall be organized into

a conservancy district or subdistrict, or whether it shall be absorbed in or amalgamated

with an existing conservancy district.  Thereafter the territory affected by said order and the improvements for which said

territory was assessed, or for which contracts have been let therein, shall be subject

to sections 6101.01 to 6101.84, inclusive, of the Revised Code , and all such orders and procedures shall be had as are necessary for fulfilling

the requirements of such sections.  No order of the court shall be made under this section which shall lessen the security

of any issue of bonds or other obligations issued under this section or any other

statute. If a proceeding sought to be joined to or amalgamated with a proceeding under sections 6101.01 to 6101.84, inclusive, of the Revised Code , is under the jurisdiction of a court of common pleas other than the one having jurisdiction

of the conservancy district, then at such hearing the judge or judges of the court

of common pleas of the county or counties in which such ditch or other improvement

is located shall sit with the judge in whose county the district was established.  A majority of those sitting shall be necessary to a decision, and from such decision

or from a failure to decide appeal may be taken.