State's top court rules against Lakeview

The school argued that the gas is coming from within the district's boundaries.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled against the Lakeview Local School District in a claim the district filed against the Trumbull County commissioners hoping to get some of the payments from natural-gas extractions from Mosquito Lake.
Trumbull County Auditor Adrian Biviano said the county has received payments of about $120,000 each of the last three years because of the drilling.
The school board filed suit July 28, 2005, asking that the county be forced to share the proceeds of the gas extractions because the lands in question are in the school district's taxing district.
In its ruling Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court said U.S. law requires the federal government to disperse 75 percent of all money generated by such extractions on lands acquired for flood-control purposes to the state in which such property is situated.
It says the state can distribute the money for the benefit of public schools and roads or defraying any expenses of the county, but it does not require distributions to schools or roads.
Argument
The school system argued that money from the extractions should go to the school system because it is adversely affected by the removal of the Mosquito Lake lands from its taxing district years ago when the lake was created.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said his office had advised the school district that it was not entitled to a share in the money because the payments were intended to be for the benefit of the county through the county commissioners.
Lakeview Superintendent Robert Wilson said the lawsuit was an attempt by the school district to acquire additional revenue. It didn't cost taxpayers anything, he said, because the attorneys working on behalf of the school system were working on a percentage basis only. "We took a shot," he said.
Justices ruled against the school district 5-2.
Watkins said the natural-gas payments were from mineral leases granted by the federal government in the early 1990s and 2000 for private mineral exploration of lands acquired to build the 16,000-acre Mosquito Creek Flood Project in the late 1930s.