Death and Biohazard Cleanup Help Across Clark County

One city in the middle, villages at the corners

Clark County counted 136,001 residents in 2020, and close to half live inside Springfield, the county seat. The Mad River and Buck Creek both pass through the city, with I-70 skirting its south side and US 40, the old National Road, running through downtown.

Springfield's housing ranges from Victorian mansions on East High Street and South Fountain Avenue to modest worker houses near the old industrial districts tied to firms like Champion Reaper, plus suburban streets in Northridge just north of the city line. Rentals are scattered all through it, including student housing near Wittenberg University.

Outside the city, the county breaks into townships with a village or two in each. New Carlisle anchors Bethel Township to the west, Enon sits in Mad River Township, and South Charleston and South Vienna hold the flat farm country to the east. Housing out there is a mix of village homes, farmhouses and subdivisions such as Park Layne and Crystal Lakes.

Where the Clark County Coroner fits in

Copies of death certificates are issued by the Clark County Combined Health District at 529 E. Home Road in Springfield, an office separate from the coroner. Voters in Clark choose the coroner, who by state law must be a doctor, and that office studies sudden, violent or suspicious deaths and rules on cause and manner.

Clark County says autopsy reports usually take four to eight weeks, and limited exams can be ready within days. Next of kin receive reports at no charge, and the office reaches out once they are done.

What the coroner's office does not do is clean the room. After investigators finish in Springfield or out in Harmony Township, the space is handed back. From that point the owner, the landlord or the executor decides who comes in to remove and disinfect affected materials.

Springfield police and the sheriff's districts

Inside city limits, the Springfield Police Division handles calls from 130 N. Fountain Avenue downtown. The division dates to 1867 and has about 130 sworn officers split among patrol, investigations and administration.

Right next door at 120 N. Fountain Avenue, the Clark County Sheriff's Office runs countywide patrol through district offices and township stations. The sheriff lists stations for Bethel, Mad River, Moorefield and Springfield townships, an East District office, a New Carlisle office and a South Vienna office. New Carlisle contracts with the sheriff rather than running its own department.

A few villages, South Charleston among them, list a small police department of their own. Either way, officers release the property when their work ends, and nobody from the sheriff or the city schedules cleaning for the family.

ZIP codes without a separate town page

Five Clark County ZIP codes are served through this hub. Enon (45323) is a Mad River Township village of 2,449 people, known for its large Adena burial mound and as the home base of the Speedway gas station chain. Its homes sit just south of the National Road corridor and inside the Greenon school district.

Medway (45341) is a small unincorporated place of 627 people in Bethel Township, on the Mad River between Springfield and Dayton. Spangler Road, the two-lane road that continues north from the end of I-675, leads there. Park Layne and Crystal Lakes lie next to it.

On the eastern side, South Charleston (45368) is a Madison Township village of 1,706 on US 42 and State Route 41. South Vienna (45369), in Harmony Township with 402 residents, is home to the Northeastern schools and a corn festival held the weekend after Labor Day.

Springfield's 45502 ZIP is the odd one out. It takes in downtown around Fountain Avenue, where both the city police and the sheriff have their buildings, and then stretches into rural ground, reaching places like Tremont City, North Hampton and Lawrenceville across Moorefield, German and Pike townships.

Springfield and New Carlisle pages

The Springfield page walks through ZIPs 45503, 45504, 45505 and 45506, from Snyder Terrace and Broadmoor to the southern neighborhoods near I-70. It also covers the historic districts and the older rental blocks that make up a large share of the city.

New Carlisle's page covers 45344, a Bethel Township city of 5,559 where State Routes 235 and 571 cross downtown. That ZIP reaches past the Clark line into small corners of Miami and Champaign counties, both inside this line's coverage.

Clark borders Champaign, Miami, Montgomery and Greene counties, which all use this same Dayton-area number. Madison County to the east is different: only its London (43140) and South Solon (43153) ZIPs are covered, so check the county before calling about a farm just over the line from South Charleston.

Calling from eastern and rural Clark County

The same referral number works for a farmhouse near South Vienna as for a duplex in Springfield. In flat country around US 40 and State Route 41, give the crew a crossroad and a landmark, since rural addresses can be hard to find at night.

Mention barns, wells, septic tanks and any outbuildings on the property, and say whether the house is a manufactured home. If the loss happened in a rental near Enon or Medway, tell the landlord early, because the building policy usually sits with the owner while a renter's policy mostly protects belongings.

Where a crime caused the harm, the state fund kept by the Ohio Attorney General may give a qualifying victim back as much as $750 per claim for cleaning. Insurance on a Clark County home may also help, but read the policy wording before signing anything with a cleanup company.