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First, the sign disappeared. Then the village did.
For over a century, Amelia, Ohio was a sleepy little village in Clermont County. It had schools, churches, neighborhoods, a mayor, a village council, a few thousand residents—and like many towns, it had a local income tax.
But in 2019, that tax triggered a revolt.
When a new 1% income tax quietly passed (on top of other financial frustrations), something rare and almost mythic happened: residents voted to disband the entire village.
Not just repeal the tax. Not recall the mayor. Not protest at town hall.
They voted to make Amelia disappear.
Pay no attention to the village behind the curtain…
A Tax Too Far
Amelia had been growing fast, with new subdivisions, strip malls, and a rising cost of village operations. That new income tax was meant to support infrastructure and safety services. But many locals didn’t buy it.
To them, it felt like a bait-and-switch. Why were they being taxed like a city when they still lived like a village?
And so, in November 2019, they took a vote that almost never happens:
Should we dissolve the village of Amelia entirely?
The vote passed. Narrowly. And within days, Amelia was no more.
Gone—but still on the map
Today, the roads still wind through where Amelia once was. People still live there. Houses weren’t bulldozed. But legally, the village ceased to exist—absorbed into the surrounding townships of Pierce and Batavia.
All village services were transferred to the county. The village government was disbanded. The name "Amelia" became a memory, not a municipality.
You can still find it on a GPS. But it’s not really there. Not officially. 👻
It’s a rare example of something almost no one ever does: voting a town out of existence.
Only in Ohio? Maybe not—but it feels like Ohio
Only a few dozen towns in U.S. history have dissolved themselves by public vote. Most of them are tiny, shrinking places with no money, no services, and maybe 100 people.
But Amelia had over 12,000 residents. It was growing. It had a Walmart. A Chipotle. It even had its own police department.
It wasn’t dying. But the people still said: We don’t want to pay for this anymore. Let’s be done. 🙅♀️
It’s bold. It’s bizarre. And it’s also weirdly Midwestern.
Where else but Ohio do you get that much democracy mixed with that much petty rage over a local tax? 😂
The Village That Ghosted Itself
If you live in Ohio long enough, you get used to seeing your hometowns change. Malls close. Schools consolidate. Cornfields turn into condos.
But very rarely does a place just… vanish by choice.
No lawsuits. No uprisings. Just neighbors filling in a bubble on a ballot and turning their home into a ghost government.
The buildings stayed. The people stayed.
Only the village left. 🙃
Keep it weird, Ohio. Keep it weird. 😎
The tagline though…LOL
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