Residents who live and recreate along the Ohio River off Neville Island are upset over a proposal to dock and stage commercial barges would irreparably harm their way of life – among other things.
A West Chester, Ohio, branch of Martin Marietta Materials Inc. has applied for a Department of the Army permit to construct a fleeting area up to 900 feet long that would extend up to 120 feet into the river.
The project also would include two deadmen structures above the river’s ordinary high water mark and utilize an existing tie-off to establish the proposed fleeting area. A deadman structure is a buried anchor wall, block or pile used to secure a dock or barge fleeting area.
The fleeting area would be established at river mile 8.8 of the main channel of the Ohio River along the northern bank of Neville Island.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which outlined the project particulars in a public notice, is taking comments on the proposal through Saturday, June 20.
According to the public notice, the Corps of Engineers will consider the public comments in determining whether to issue, modify, condition or deny Martin Marietta’s permit application.
Comments are used to assess the potential project’s impacts to endangered species, historic properties, water quality and general environmental effects as well as impacts to recreation, fish and wildlife values, shoreline erosion and “considerations of property ownership and, in general, the needs and welfare of the people,” according to the public notice.
Several area residents say their qualify of life would be compromised in a major way if Martin Marietta – an international supplier of heavy-side building materials including aggregates, ready-mix concrete, asphalt and specialty products, according to the company website – is granted the permit.
Neville Island resident Ally Sokolowski, who moved to her current home last August because of the view and the “peaceful environment along the water,” said riverfront traffic hasn’t been a problem. But she said if the fleeting area were permitted to go in, that wouldn’t be the case.
“It would significantly impact my view and also create a lot more noise and pollution,” she said.
Sokolowski said many others would be impacted in a negative way – not only people who live along the river but those who use the river for recreation.
“It goes beyond just our neighbors – there are people from other communities who come here to boat,” she said.
Sokolowski said she doesn’t see why Martin Marietta couldn’t construct the fleeting area in another portion of the river, noting that that there are industrial areas of Neville Island that might be able to accommodate such a project.
Rob Frazier of Martin Marietta, who is listed on the Corps of Engineers’ public notice as the project applicant, did not respond to several requests to discuss the project.
Sokolowski said nearly 200 people have signed a petition asking the Corps of Engineers to deny the permit and added that a number of Neville Island residents as well as some from Glenfield, which is across the river, had submitted comment letters to the Corps.
Among them is David Orbison, who wrote that if approved, the project would be a “permanent blight” on his family’s view of the river, where they dock their boats and engage in various water-related activities.
“We take good care of our property and object to the replacement of our view with that of ugly, rusty barges,” said Orbison, a Glenfield resident.
According to drawings included in the Corps of Engineers’ public notice, a typical barge is nearly 200 feet long and more than 50 feet wide, and the barge staging area would be able to accommodate three barges end-to-end. That’s roughly the length of two football fields.
Orbison said the project would substantially decrease his property value and that of his neighbors and also would create noise pollution and offensive odors from the industrial fumes associated with the barges. He also said the effect of the stationery barges on the flow of water likely would create the potential for “significant erosion” of the Neville Island bank and added that shoreline wildlife – including Great Blue Herons, seagulls, ducks and other birds – would suffer.
Like Sokolowski, Orbison questioned why Martin Marietta would seek to install its project “in the heart of a residential area” when there is “plenty of industrially useful space in which to locate this installation.”
Orbison also said that if the installation of the fleeting area went awry, it could create even more significant problems.
“Barges are notorious for leaking hazardous chemicals and compounds, due to rust and other damage,” he wrote. “My children and my neighbors’ children would then have to swim in a highly toxic environment, potentially producing serious illness and death.”
Jessica Lentz, another Glenfield resident who lives directly across from the proposed project site, voiced concerns about the impacts it would have on the “character, appearance and identity of our community.
“One of Glenfield’s defining characteristics is its unique setting along the Ohio River,” she wrote in her comment letter to the Corps of Engineers. “We love our view of the trees and it is one of the reasons we purchased this home two years ago.”
Lentz requested that the Corps of Engineers hold a public hearing on the issue; Sokolowski issued a similar request.
Orbison closed his comment letter by urging the Corps of Engineers to think hard before awarding Martin Marietta its permit.
“No good will come of it,” he wrote. “The massive disrespect to the public entailed by the awarding of this permit cannot be allowed to happen.”
Comments can be submitted electronically at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs/public-notices or to brendan.w.white@usace.army.mil or by phone at 412-395-7189. Reference “LRP-2026-00163” in all comments.
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