Sinkhole Affected Families to Move Home

The Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency today held its final meeting regarding the sinkholes affecting old Columbia Cement mining land.

Back in June five families were displaced after they were forced to leave their home due to sinkholes. The last seven months the EMA has dedicated over 15,000 hours to helping these families find new homes. In fact, over $506,000 dollars was needed to help correct the situation.

“Today is our wrap up meeting for the Stiers Lane collapse, so we’ve brought in all the agencies that have worked to relocate the families and get them taken care of,” said EMA Director, Bo Keck.

The families will be moved into their new homes shortly, and the unsafe 300 acre area has been fenced off and is off limits to the public. As for the families, they are more than grateful for all of the community support.

“I didn’t know it was going to fall in, you know it’s all undermine there,” said displaced homeowner, James Landerman. “But i’m just so grateful for everything that everyone’s done for us.”

Keck says this project has really been a group effort, and he says that helping the families was just the right thing to do.