Ithaca, We Hardly Knew You
Vol. III, No. 198 - A small Darke County is on the path to dissolution
Today our newsletter goes a little outside our traditional coverage area looking to our west in Darke County, largely because there is an interesting process taking place in a small village that might have ramifications for some smaller villages here in Miami County. Namely, the village of Ithaca in Darke County is in the middle of a legal process that will likely end its status as a village and return it to township governance.
In other words, Ithaca is going to still exist, but it won’t have it’s own local government and here in Miami County, there are plenty of examples of these unincorporated communities. The largest and most well known example is probably Brandt, located in Bethel Township, the small community has a population of over 200, but it does not have a village government.
Ithaca is tiny, home to fewer than 100 residents, which makes it subject to Ohio’s “tiny village” dissolution rules in Section 703.34 of the Ohio Revised Code. In May 2025, the Ohio Auditor of State finished a special review under that law and concluded that Ithaca met enough problem conditions that the state was required to ask the Attorney General to go to court to dissolve the village.
A Darke County judge has since agreed with the state’s position and is moving the case forward, which sets Ithaca on a path to lose its corporate powers and be absorbed back fully into the township. When that happens, village ordinances will go away, village offices will close, and the township and county will become responsible for services and assets under the usual the dissolution statutes.
The judge’s ruling comes largely from a report from the Ohio Auditor of State, the report explains that the Ithaca situation is not just about one former official’s misuse of funds, although that did happen and resulted in a theft‑in‑office conviction in 2024. Instead, the report focuses on whether the village as a whole still functions as a government and serves residents in a basic way, using six conditions outlined in state law.
By March 2025, Ithaca clearly met three of those conditions. First, the village repeatedly failed to follow election laws: council seats went unfilled, required appointments were not made correctly, and by spring 2024 all council members had resigned with no replacements. Second, Ithaca did not provide at least two core services like road maintenance, snow removal, or its own police or fire protection; it mainly relied on other governments or private companies without village contracts or payments. Third, the village failed for multiple years to properly adopt a tax budget by ordinance or resolution, as required under Ohio’s tax laws, even when paperwork was sent to the county.
Because Ithaca’s population is well under the threshold set in 703.34 and it met at least two of these conditions, the Auditor was obligated to notify the Attorney General and recommend legal action to dissolve the village. That step is less a policy choice and more a statutory trigger: once the criteria are met, state officials must act.
Under current law, the Auditor’s report and letter to the Attorney General start the process for very small villages that meet the 703.34 criteria. The Attorney General then has 20 days to decide whether to file a case in the county’s common pleas court, and if a case is filed, the court must hold a hearing within 90 days to decide whether the village should be dissolved.
If the court finds that the village has the required low population and meets at least two of the listed problem conditions, the court orders dissolution, which then follows the detailed steps in Ohio’s dissolution statutes. Those steps include winding down village debts and assets, ending village offices, and shifting responsibilities for services and property to the township and county so residents are not left without basic governance.
Ithaca is not the only small Ohio village struggling to keep a functioning government, and new state laws are designed to surface those problems more regularly. House Bill 331 created a new ten‑year review where county officials must look at every village and ask two simple questions: is the village actually providing services, and are candidates consistently running for village offices.
For tiny Miami County villages like Potsdam and Ludlow Falls, where councils sometimes do not meet regularly or struggle to fill seats, Ithaca’s experience shows what can happen when local government effectively shuts down but the corporate shell of a village remains. If a future audit finds that these villages are no longer delivering basic services and are not complying with election and budget laws, they could face the same type of mandatory dissolution process that Ithaca is going through now.
A New Handbook to grow Civic Capacity!
Recently, we created a new digital handbook, “The Citizen’s Guide to Public Records”. This handbook is designed to help residents have a better understanding of public meetings and meeting records. It’s filled with templates, ideas and other information that will open a new world of public affairs.
Also, if you have ideas for future handbooks, please let us know at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Want to Learn More About Troy’s Businesses?
Our publication has recently released our September 2025 Economic Abstract, the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on the businesses and industries in the City of Troy. For those that want to understand our community’s business and industries, this is a must-have report.
Thank you to our New Media Partners!
Recently, many of our stories has been showing up on the local news website, www.mymiamicounty.com. We are grateful for the good folks for sharing our work with their audience and we would encourage our readers to check them out at their website!
Our publication would also like to recognize the good work being done at www.piquanewsnow.com. Piqua News Now is a new web-based news and information site for the Miami County area, with a specific focus on Piqua!
In addition, the good folks at Piqua News Now have started a new, 24-hour streaming YouTube channel. This channel is awesome with continuous weather updates and more importanly, it provides a 24-hour audio feed from county wide dispatch. Check it out here!
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