Unnamed no more? Lorain County considers giving names to century

ELYRIA, Ohio – What began as a routine discussion about a stormwater project at Tuesday’s Lorain County Commissioners meeting evolved into something much more ambitious: a potential countywide initiative to identify and name waterways that have flowed unnamed through the county for over a century.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Avon Lake resident William Zimmerman questioned the vague reference to the “unnamed tributary” in a stormwater drainage improvement project in Penfield Township.

“Part of my problem with this statement here is that it’s an unnamed tributary of Wellington Creek Ditch. Do we have many of those unnamed areas in the county?” Zimmerman said.

Many of the county’s waterways have never been formally cataloged or named. In the past, waterways were often