MOSCOW, Ohio — The Village of Moscow survived a deadly tornado and catastrophic flooding over the past 25 years. And now, it's survived a vote to dissolve and meld into Washington Township.
Moscow faced an uncertain future after the closure of the William H. Zimmer coal plant last year, which provided 90% of its revenue, and a dwindling population of just 155 registered voters.
Residents of the Ohio River community voted Tuesday on whether to dissolve and join Washington Township. it would have made Moscow the third village in Clermont County to disband since 2019, joining Newtonsville and Amelia.
But like the residents of Owensville, Moscow voters overwhelmingly rejected the dissolution of their village. Unofficial results show 78 people voted against the dissolution, with six voting for it.
Signs supporting the village could be seen in most yards ahead of the vote.
“The village has been here for over 200 years, there’s a lot of history here,” said Mayor Tim Suter, whose family has lived here for generations, in a March interview. “There’s a lot of people upset. It would be very sad.”
The village was founded in 1816 and became a major hub of the Underground Railroad. The former high school, which is now a community center, houses many memories such as scrapbooks from years of ice cream socials, photos of floods and local celebrities, and old bricks and glass chunks from factories that once operated during a more vibrant era.
“Grandpa had a restaurant … they would come on Sunday for chicken and cars were lined up and down the street,” Suter said, describing his grandfather, Harry Suter, who in addition to being mayor also played music on riverboats and helped operate the family hotel.
Like much of Clermont County, this village had been flush with coal plant revenue. The Zimmer plant provided 150 jobs and millions to build new fire stations and schools, pave roads and replace household septic tanks with municipally treated water.
Then Texas-based Vistra Corp. announced in 2021 that it would close the Zimmer plant five years early because it was unable to sell electricity at a high enough rate to make a profit. It shuttered the plant last May.
“This village is going to hit hard times,” said Moscow resident Danny Freeman, who is leading the push to dissolve the village, in a March interview. “They don’t have enough money to last forever.”
Zimmer was the sixth coal-burning power plant in the region to close since 2013, a trend that’s driven by the increasing cost of complying with air-pollution rules and cheaper energy sources like natural gas.
Already Moscow officials have made deep cuts in village expenses in anticipation of the lost tax revenue. They added new trash and wastewater treatment fees for residents, dropped health care benefits for employees and cut the salaries of the mayor and village council members in half.
“We’ve done everything we can do, we’ve cut our expenses as low as we can go,” Suter said, while admitting that more cuts are likely coming.
Vistra is challenging the county auditor’s $140 million property valuation of the plant and surrounding land, arguing that it is worth 80 percent less — or $28.5 million. A hearing is set before the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals in Columbus on August 15.
If Vistra wins its appeal, some public entities will be forced to repay the more than $4 million in tax revenue they received over the past two years. The village of Moscow, Monroe and Washington townships, New Richmond schools, county libraries, Grant Career Center, and Clermont County could be substantially impacted.
"Just like any taxpayer, Vistra is committed to pay its fair share of property taxes on its plants and sites. The 2021 valuation by Clermont County was excessive compared to fair market value. Vistra is appealing the valuation as provided by Ohio law," said Vistra spokesperson Jenny Lyon.
If Vistra is successful, Moscow may have to repay $134,002, according to the county auditor’s office.
“It all depends on that hearing and what value they put on the plant. We’re just kind of holding tight trying to figure it out,” Suter said. “After that, we’ll know what we have to do.”
Suter would rather keep the village intact, and make more cuts, if necessary, than see it dissolved.
“Finances shouldn’t be an issue. If that is the case, then just let it die kind of like on the vine, instead of just chopping it off now,” Suter said. “There’s no reason to do that.”
But Freeman, who has owned property in the village for nearly 50 years, said dissolving the village and joining Washington Township would result in lower taxes and fewer zoning regulations. He got upset a few years ago when village officials told him he couldn’t convert a garage on his nearly three acres of land into a small house.
“It’s my property, I’ll do what I want with it. So that’s what actually triggered it,” Freeman said. “I had no trouble getting enough signatures to put it on the petition.”
But Suter wrote in an email to WCPO that Freeman never applied for a zoning permit for the garage and if officials had denied his permit request, he could have appealed it.
Because of Moscow’s small population, Freeman only needed 19 signatures to put the issue on the ballot. If he’s defeated at the May election, he said he may try again, if his opponents use “scare tactics” to intimidate residents into voting against his measure.
“If this fails, will I do it again? If they let the people decide without a bunch of scare tactics, okay, I’m good with that,” Freeman said. “But if they use a lot of scare tactics, I’ll be there next time, ready again.”
While the dissolution was possible, officials were banned from signing new contracts, which meant no holiday lights in December, no street paving this spring and possibly no Fourth of July fireworks, Suter said.
“We’re in lockdown pretty much,” Suter said.
Cheryl Richards has lived in Moscow since 1999 and handed out flyers urging voters to keep the village on Tuesday.
"It’s just a very nice little small village, a country village," Richards said. "We have this community center, we’ve got a fitness center, we’ve got our little post office. We’ve got fireworks in the summertime, they put up Christmas lights — which we couldn’t do because of all of this going on."
Anna Tull was born in the village 74 years ago, in a house two doors down from the home where she lives now. She's never lived anywhere else and can trace her family back six to seven generations here.
"I would like to keep the village because the village is over 200 years old, it has a lot of history," Tull said. "It would just be very sad it would be like losing an old friend."
For his part, Suter believes that taxes could rise if the village dissolved because the county would take over the wastewater treatment plant, and “the rates would skyrocket.” He worries that the community center wouldn’t be as well maintained under Washington Township control.
But that’s not how Freeman sees it.
“I know Moscow is going to try to hit the residents up for a tax increase. They’ll have to,” Freeman said. “If you’ve got a dying horse, shoot it and get it over with.”
