Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Pataskala, OH

Pataskala is a city in southwestern Licking County, Ohio, located along the South Fork of the Licking River about 19 miles east of Columbus.

The town was first laid out in 1851 as Conine Town, named for early settler Richard Conine, who had settled in the area in 1821 after buying more than 2,000 acres, and who platted the town when the railroad was extended to the site.

The name was changed to Pataskala in 1852; it is a word derived from the Delaware (Lenape) language, and a post office has operated there since 1852.

Pataskala was transformed on January 1, 1996, when the village merged with surrounding Lima Township, a merger voters approved on November 8, 1994, that vastly increased the city's population and land area and made it Licking County's second-largest city.

The merger fueled rapid growth: Pataskala's population jumped from 3,046 in 1990 to 10,249 in 2000, then 14,962 in 2010 and 17,886 at the 2020 census.

At the 2020 census, Pataskala's 17,886 residents lived in 6,554 households, spread across roughly 29 square miles of land between the Interstate 70 and State Route 161 corridors.

Pataskala is served by two public school districts, Southwest Licking Local Schools, home of Watkins Memorial High School, and Licking Heights Local Schools.

Central Ohio Technical College operates a branch campus within the city.

The city maintains 127 acres of parkland across seven parks, the largest being the 78-acre Thomas J. Evans Foundation Park, which has 22 wooded acres and a 1.4-mile trail.

Eleven buildings in Pataskala were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, including the old town hall, the Pataskala Banking Company, and the old jail.