WHY THE REFERENDUM
The State of Ohio has always recognized that ultimate authority was intended to and properly resides with the people, not government. It provides a vehicle for relief from a city government that has forgotten they were elected to serve, not be served; that government is not an entity onto itself, but rather a conduit by which people exercise the right of self governance. It is in recognition of that right, and responsibility, that those opposing Resolution 2024-23 sought to have the Resolution placed on the ballot.
WHAT RESOLUTION 2024-23 IS ABOUT
It’s not about road or utility improvements! The stated the purpose of Resolution 2024-23, also referred to as the “Edgewood Road Improvement Project”, is to create a direct route from the south side of Mount Vernon to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district, including Knox Village Square, and east of the city. Additionally, an information sheet prepared by Safety Service Director Tanner Salyers for a March 6, 2024 public hearing on Resolution 2024-23, noted, referring to the project, “Both phases are part of the City’s larger goal to comprehensively address traffic congestion”. According to engineering drawings submitted by the City as part of an ODOT grant applicationt, implementation of this comprehensive traffic plan would extend Edgewood Road to Coshocton Avenue and reconstruct Edgewood to connect Coshocton Avenue to SR 229. As designed, it would also reconfigure East High Street, Stevens Street and New Gambier Road, merging East High and New Gambier at Stevens, essentially making East High a through street to New Gambier and Upper Gilchrist Roads, resulting in a significant increase in traffic on those roads.
Mayor Starr recently wrote a letter to the editor which appeared in the October 5, 2024, issue of Knox Weekly News. The Mayor stated, “Edgewood Road is in terrible shape and has been for quite some time. It’s getting worse and everyone knows it”. Later in his letter he says, “Another issue is the failed waterline running along Edgewood. The resolution allows for the city to replace this…”. He goes on to say, “The lack of an effective stormwater system confounds the problem…”. Many of these same arguments are being made by supporters of Resolution 2024-23, as reasons to pass the Resolution. While those statements may be true, they are not the driving force behind Resolution 2024-23; and we don’t need to pass the Resolution in order to repair and improve Edgewood Road and the utilities along the road.
In July, 2020, long before Resolution 2024-23, City Engineer Brian Ball acknowledged the following regarding Edgewood Road:
We (the City) are also working on citywide condition assessments of water,
sanitary, and stormwater systems. The…evaluation of the water system shows
that the Edgewood Road water lines have exceeded their useful life and need to be replaced. …we have observed the stormwater system on Edgewood Road to be in
failure. Since the City will likely need to completely replace most or all the utilities
on Edgewood Road, at that time the road could be reshaped to improve the
neighborhood…Again, at your repeated request (as to whether the City was
considering extending Edgewood Road to Coshocton Road) we
are not actively working on plans or designs for Edgewood Road or adjacent areas.
It is clear from Brian Ball’s comments that replacement of failing utilities on Edgewood Road was necessary and going to done, even though the City was not “working on plans or designs for Edgewood Road or adjacent areas”.
Any question that Resolution 2024-23 is not about improvements to Edgewood Road or the utilities along the road, should be put to rest by a statement contained in a recent application by the City for funding from ODOT, submitted in November, 2023 (“ODOT application #2”). The first paragraph of the Project Description states:
Due to a lack of connectivity in the street system around the Knox Village Square (a large retail center located on the east side of the City), the adjacent residential neighborhood has dealt with an increasing amount of cut-through traffic on roadways that were not designed to be through roads.
The application goes on, “Not completing the project was considered by CM (Carpenter Marty, an engineering firm hired by the City to do a traffic study in 2018 which was updated in 2023) and the City. This was ruled out due to citizen comments requesting a safe north south route in this region of the City (emphasis added)”. It is worth noting that language has changed slightly from earlier funding applications that referred to a direct route from the south side of Mount Vernon to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district, specifically Knox Village Square (Rural King) and east of the city. Apparently, somebody in the administration finally realized Edgewood Road extended to Coshocton Avenue is on the west end of the retail district, not the east end (Knox Village Square), necessitating the a change in the wording. Additionally, the application claims the Project is in response to public demand for it. Where was that public demand during the three readings on Resolution 2024-23 before city council and the March 6 public hearing? A final note, the application was denied.
A PURPORTED NEED, THE ADMINISTRATION’S PROPOSED SOLUTION AND WHY IT WON’T WORK
In both ODOT grant applications, the City claims not having a direct route from the south side of Mount Vernon to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district and east of the city is causing drivers (presumably to avoid existing congestion on Coshocton Avenue) to increasingly use neighborhood streets like Edgewood, Teryl, Marita, Stevens, Vernedale, Vernonview and New Gambier as cut through routes to get to the east end of the Coshocton Avenue business district, including Knox Village Square. Those neighborhood streets were not built for that purpose or the current volume of traffic using them and, as a result, the streets are deteriorating. As to excessive, cut through traffic using and damaging neighborhood streets, the Mayor is correct. The Mayor and his administration, however, without having, or at least not providing any supporting data, post construction impact analysis, reports or projections, claim Resolution 2024-23 will solve that problem. Logic says otherwise. Extending Edgewood Road to Coshocton Avenue will bring traffic to Coshocton on the west side of the retail district, not the east side. Look at a map. Edgewood extended to Coshocton is not an east side connector. In fact, Verndale Drive, Teryl Drive via Yauger Road, Vernonview Drive, Woodlake Trail and Upper Gilchrist Road all intersect with Coshocton Avenue further east than Edgewood Road! Additionally, the “Edgewood Road Project” will encourage and funnel more, not less traffic to Edgewood Road and an already congested Coshocton Avenue. That, in turn, will funnel more traffic on to adjacent neighborhood streets the Mayor is concerned about, including semi trucks that, despite being prohibited on residential streets, are currently using those streets on a regular basis. Furthermore, drivers will not stay on Edgewood Road to connect to Coshocton on the west side of the business district and then travel east to their destination, be it Knox Village Square, restaurants, Lowe’s, Knox Community Hospital, medical offices, Wal-Mart, Aldi’s, Danbury Senior Living Center, Holiday Inn Express, Knox Public Health or Apple Valley. To avoid the congestion on Coshocton, drivers will do exactly what they are doing now, use neighborhood streets adjacent to Edgewood to get to the east side of Coshocton Avenue! The problem will only get worse as the City continues to expand east. The Schlabach, Rockford Retreat and adjacent developments east of the health department will add 826 new residential units on Coshocton Avenue, and that doesn’t include the new fire station. A proposed solution that doesn’t fix the problem it was intended to solve, but makes it worse, is not a solution, it’s a mistake.
VIABLE SOLUTION ALTERNATIVES
SOLUTION #1
On February 12, 2019, an article appeared in the Mount Vernon News entitled “Study: Shortcut savings negligible”. Reporting on a study conducted at the request of then Councilman Matt Starr, it noted, “Drivers who use residential streets to get from the south side of Mount Vernon to the retail area east on Coshocton Road do not save any appreciable amount of time over those who use state routes to make the same drive… At most, there was a difference of three-tenths of a minute (18 seconds) between taking the designated truck route and taking Mount Vernon Avenue and cutting across Edgewood Drive…”. Contrary to what the Mayor and proponents of Resolution 2024-23 say, whether the Mayor ever said the City doesn’t need a direct route from the south side of Mount Vernon to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district isn’t the point, although that is a reasonable conclusion. What is important is that the study proved that such a route already exists, for the most part on roads built and intended to handle heavy traffic. What is almost as important is what the article went on to say, which was, “Councilman Sam Barone said this (Starr’s traffic study results) suggested they (the City) may need to look more at the amount of police resources that should be allocated to traffic enforcement…”.
With an existing, viable route, the real question is why are drivers increasingly using neighborhood streets as cut through routes to access Coshocton Avenue? Drivers, like water, will take the path of least resistance. The key to Mayor Starr’s traffic study is that there is no appreciable time savings when there is strict adherence to traffic laws. Numerous traffic and safety concerns regarding Edgewood Road and the surrounding neighborhoods have existed for many years. They include a blatant disregard for posted speed limits (a 24 hour traffic study in the area ordered by City Engineer Ball’s office several years prior to 2019 found 466 vehicles traveling at speeds from 40 to 69 MPH in a 25 MPH zone); vehicles ignoring stop signs and failing to slow down, much less stop, at controlled intersections. That these problems have not been addressed and still exist is evidenced by a funding application submitted by the City to the Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization (“CORPO”). In that application dated August 10, 2023, the City acknowledged that, “poor driving behavior” on Edgewood “such as speeding, running stop signs, and other aggressive behaviors” contribute to an increasing amount of cut through traffic on neighborhood streets” and constitutes a problem and safety issue that needs to be resolved. As then Councilman Barone concluded four years earlier, a lack of a police presence and the failure to strictly enforce traffic laws allows drivers to save time using Edgewood Road. Removing the benefit of using residential streets makes them less attractive to drivers and will reduce traffic on those streets. Despite knowing this, Mayor Starr and his administration have done nothing.
S0LOUTION #2
In 2019, the City hired Richland Engineering to generate a concept drawing of a SR-229/US- 36 connector route via Upper Gilchrist Road that would create a direct route from the south side of Mount Vernon to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district that actually would have connected to Coshocton Avenue at the east end of the district. Additionally, it would have better served points east of the city both now and in the future as the city continues to expand in that direction. That proposal was suddenly dropped when then council member, Mike Hillier, indicated he had been told by the owner of the land necessary for the project that he, the owner, would not sell the land to the City. That was confirmed by an email on July 6, 2020, when, in response to an inquiry as to the status of that project, Brian Ball stated, “This effort was halted at the request of Mike Hillier.” However, in a story about Mount Vernon receiving a partial grant for the “Edgewood Road Improvement Project” posted on August 24, 2023, Knox Pages wrote, quoting the article, “(Brian) Ball said that although ultimately the thought is to route traffic from Coshocton Avenue to Ohio 229 via Upper Gilchrist and Ohio Eastern Star roads, that project is long-term. How long is, “long term? On March 11, 2024, while discussing the “Edgewood Improvement Project”, Tanner Salyers said, “This has been a fifty year problem…We’ve almost been in this conversation for fifty years…”. City residents shouldn’t have to wait another 50 years. Why not pursue that project now, while the land is still available and undeveloped, and save $19 million dollars?
THE ADMINISTRATION’S LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND MISINFORMATION
To be transparent, government must act openly and honestly in the exercise of the power and authority entrusted to it, with full disclosure to the public it is supposed to serve. Concerning Resolution 2024-23, transparency has been completely absent, if not abused.
The Mayor knew Resolution 2024-23 would be unpopular. There had already been long standing objections from residents of Edgewood Road and adjacent neighborhoods about widening Edgewood and extending it to Coshocton Avenue to make it a connector route between Gambier Road (SR 229) and Coshocton Avenue (US-36). In order to minimize opposition, the administration tried to hide the Resolution from the public, and spread misinformation about it.
- As noted, the City has not been transparent concerning the reason for the Resolution. While repairs and upgrades to Edgewood Road and its utilities are needed, the Mayor and his administration are using those repairs and upgrades as an excuse to implement an unnecessary, unpopular and extremely expensive comprehensive traffic plan. Additionally, the Mayor and his administration commonly refer to Resolution 2024-23 as “The Edgewood Road Improvement Project”. Purposely, the name implies the Resolution is about improving Edgewood Road and utilities along the road, but, as indicated, that’s not true.
- When the City announced it had been awarded a grant from ODOT for the “Edgewood Road Project”, Knox Pages posted an article on August 24, 2023, entitled, “MOUNT VERNON GETS $2 MILLION TO IMPROVE EDGEWOOD ROAD”. The article stated in part, “The project includes installing curb and gutter, storm sewer work, water and sanitary line replacement, and a sidewalk on the west side.” City Engineer Ball indicated the improvements would involve an “asphalt road, concrete curb and gutter, concrete sidewalk and modern drainage.” There was no mention of constructing a direct route from the south side of the City to the east side of the Coshocton Avenue retail district via Edgewood Road, widening and extending Edgewood to Coshocton Avenue and reconfiguring East High Street, Stevens Street and New Gambier Road.
- The magnitude of the Edgewood Road Project, with a price tag of almost $19 million dollars, is obvious. The plan as submitted to ODOT will destroy neighborhoods and the quality of life within those neighborhoods, decrease home values and result in the City taking private property through the exercise of eminent domain, including the destruction of at least one home. Nevertheless, the comprehensive traffic plan envisioned by Mayor Starr and his administration, of which Resolution 2024-23 is just the first step, was conceived behind closed doors without public discussion or involvement. The only public hearing regarding the plan before it was put before city council in February was on March 13, 2018! Not only was the project developed in secret, but the administration actively tried to keep the details of it hidden from the public, both when the project was announced in 2023 and when the Resolution was being considered by city council earlier this year. Despite requests from the public and Councilperson Amber Keener for more information about Resolution 2024-23, the administration refused to disclose the ODOT and CORPO funding applications or the information and drawings submitted to the State of Ohio as part of those applications. That’s wrong! Public scrutiny of the Resolution wouldn’t be happening now if it had passed as an “emergency”, as the Mayor intended, which would have prevented it from being on this November’s ballot. When requested to drop the “emergency” language from the Resolution, the Mayor refused to recommend that to council. The public has a right to know about the vision and plans elected officials’ have for their city, specifically, Edgewood Road; and their voices should be heard before that vision or those plans are put before city council for approval. As Councilperson Janis Seavolt once so eloquently stated, “They (referring to the public) have got to be able to know what’s going on. It’s their money.” Such a simple, yet profound statement!
- Councilman Mel Severns is an elected councilman at large. As such, he represents all of the citizens of Mount Vernon. He also chairs the Streets and Public Buildings Committee and brought Resolution 2024-23 before city council. Although a member of the legislature, with regard to this Resolution, it seems he was acting in concert with the administration.
On February 21, 2024, Severns sent an email to City Law Director Rob Broeren and City Engineer Brian Ball. It said, “I don’t remember discussing Resolution 2024-23 that would take Edgewood through to Rt. 36. Are we sure the resolution is correct? There will be a lot of controversy over it. I know we talked about doing this in the future, but are we ready to adopt a resolution now? Without public meetings for input?” Despite his concerns, he failed to raise or even mention those issues when he introduced the Resolution. He had a duty to convey his concerns about Resolution 2024-23 to his constituents. He didn’t. In retrospect, his silence is deafening.
- After the first reading of Resolution 2024-23 on February 26, a public hearing was scheduled for March 6. Safety Service Director Salyers was asked if he would prepare an information packet regarding the Resolution for the hearing. Mr. Salyers had available to him, at a minimum, a 2018 Traffic Study and 2023 Updated Traffic Study completed by Carpenter Marty, and grant applications for the project submitted to CORPO and ODOT. All totaled, over 100 pages of documents, including 60 detailed engineering drawings related to the reconstruction of Edgewood Road. Instead of making that information available to the public, or even disclosing that those records existed, Mr. Salyers chose to create “The Edgewood Road Improvements information sheet”, consisting of one, two sided sheet of paper, with one side being an aerial view of Edgewood Road from Gambier Road to East High Street
- The information sheet that Salyers prepared made it clear that the Resolution, at least Phase I of it, included construction from Rt. 229 (Gambier Rd.) to E. High St. Nonetheless, on March 11, 2024, at a council committee meeting, Mel Severns addressed the other six members of council and the public, saying Resolution 2024-23 was “limited” to authorizing “a contract to design” reconstruction of Edgewood. He emphasized, “The Resolution is not approving any facet of construction.” Short of accusing Mr. Severns of lying, it can only be assumed he either misunderstood the Resolution (not good) or, relying on some technical or procedural point to support his comments, was playing fast and loose with the truth (worse).
- On March 11, while addressing public demands made during the March 6 public hearing for details about the “Edgewood Road Project”, Tanner Salyers said, “If you want those detailed drawings … they’re not there yet…”. The Mayor, who was sitting next to Salyer, didn’t correct him. Despite saying there were no drawings, more than a year before, the administration submitted more than 60 pages of detailed engineering drawings for the project to ODOT as part of the City’s grant application Those drawings were only obtained through a public records request. Salyers justified his comments by saying the drawings were concept, not final drawings approved by ODOT. The requests by the public for drawings, however, were not qualified or limited to ODOT approved, final drawings. Mr. Salyers created that qualification himself, and that was, apparently, okay with the Mayor. What makes the denial even more egregious is that on March 6, at the public hearing, one of the speakers addressing council referred to “traffic studies” (also part of the ODOT grant application) and concept and preliminary engineering drawings. While not specifically making a request for those documents, the speaker raised the question of their existence. Were Mr. Salyers and the Mayor justified in their response and silence, respectively; or, in denying the “drawings” existed, were they guilty of “misinformation” or lying? You decide.
- Tanner Salyers and proponents of Resolution 2024-23 repeatedly say nothing about the “Edgewood Road Improvement Plan” is final until the design phase has been completed. During the March 11 council committee meeting, however, Tanner Salyers made two comments that shed some light on this issue. While explaining why some of the wording of the Resolution was being amended, he made a Freudian slip when he said, referring to the project, “We adopted the language (reconstructing instead of widening regarding proposed changes to Edgewood Road) that more adequately reflected what we were aiming to do” (emphasis added). In the video of the meeting, the Mayor, who is seated next to Mr. Salyers, says something under his breath. Salyers immediately catches himself and says, “yeah, what we were proposing” (emphasis added). It gives the distinct impression the administration knows exactly what they want and expect out of the Edgewood Project ”design phase”. The other comment by Salyers comes approximately five minutes later. He states, “What we have to be honest and open, everybody wants this hard truth transparency and here it is, the idea is to make a connection between 36 and 229…”. While he allows that if the “design phase” indicates it shouldn’t be done, we won’t do it, his choice of words and the manner of his delivery again suggest the administration knows exactly what they want and expect out of the Edgewood Project ”design phase”.
- ODOT application #1, as submitted by the City, shows East High Street, Stevens Street and New Gambier Road being reconstructed and reconfigured to merge East High and New Gambier at Stevens, essentially making East High a through street to New Gambier and Upper Gilchrist Roads. Again, because nothing is final until the “design phase” is complete, opponents of Resolution 2024-23 are told not to believe their eyes and ignore engineer drawings submitted to the State of Ohio as part of a grant application because they are only “concept” or “planning” drawings. On the other hand, those arguments notwithstanding, an email purportedly written by City Engineer Bian Ball suggesting “the proposed changes to the insertion (intersection) of E. High St, Steven St, and New Gambier Rd be eliminated from further consideration” should be taken at face value? It seems that “information” may have been leaked by the Mayor and his administration in an effort to, again, stem opposition to Resolution 2024-23. Why? On March 11, Tanner Salyers stated at the city council committee hearing on Edgewood that the “need for safety is the priority of this entire project…aside from it being a utilities necessity.” The Knox Pages article dated August 24, 2023, announcing the $2,000,000 dollar grant award from ODOT, quoted Brian Ball as saying, “The intersection of High Street (and Edgewood Road) is poor and unsafe. We are going to be reshaping that intersection to make it safer”. In light of the comments by Salyers and Ball, is it realistic that “the proposed changes to the (intersection)…be eliminated from further consideration”?
- The administration has accused opponents of Resolution 2024-23 of misinformation and fear mongering, trying to scare voters into believing that Resolution 2024-23 will somehow permit trucks and semis to use an “improved” Edgewood Road. In fact, it is the administration that is trying to mislead voters. Opponents of the Resolution acknowledge the Resolution will not make it legal for trucks and semis to use Edgewood or similar neighborhood streets. On the other hand, it’s not legal for trucks and semis to use Edgewood and similar neighborhood streets now, but they do. A two (2) week traffic study conducted by the City Engineer’s office in 2017 had a total count of 23,643 vehicles (an average of 1,689/day). Buses and trucks (203) and tractor trailers (114) accounted for 1.34% of the total vehicle count. Those 317 vehicles, many of which were prohibited on neighborhood streets, represent an average of more than 22 per day! If that same percentage is applied to the current total vehicle count of 4,938 per day as determined by ODOT, while it may not be totally accurate, that calculates out to 66 buses, trucks and semis per day. Limiting the calculation to semis only, the daily semi truck traffic would be 24 per day. If Edgewood is improved, reconstructed or widened, it is fair to assume the daily semi truck count would increase.
- The administration, and particularly Tanner Salyers, have said public involvement and participation regarding Edgewood Road is critical and will be sought, but, apparently, only in the “design phase”, which will only happen if Resolution 2024-23 passes. On the other hand, prior to the “design phase”, the administration didn’t have any difficulty generating a more than an 80 page funding grant application for the project, with 60+ pages of detailed engineering drawings, laying out a proposal for improvements to Edgewood Road, including East High Street, Stevens Street and New Gambier Road. Who or what prevented the administration from seeking public input and having a public conversation about this project when they started developing the project with Carpenter Marty (Carpenter Marty, according to records provided pursuant to a public records request, has been paid over a quarter million dollar since May 4, 2018 through July 17, 2024, not necessarily all related to Edgewood.) in November, 2020? Nothing! The Mayor and his administration made a conscious decision not to include the public in the planning process!
- The administration amended Resolution 2024-23, changing references from “widening” Edgewood Road to “reconstructing”. That amendment, as well as the reason Salyers gave for the amendment (noted in #7 above), are suspect. During the first readings of the Resolution and at the public hearing on March 6, there were many concerns and objections raised regarding “widening” Edgewood Road and installing an 8 foot sidewalk, curbs and gutters; and the taking of private property to accomplish those “improvements”. In order to minimize opposition, the administration decided to remove the word “widen” from the Resolution. Echoing Salyers’ comments at the same March 11 council committee meeting, Brian Ball said, “The intent has never been to do widening, or major widening…This is a reconstruction project.” However, the LPA Federal ODOT-LET Project Agreement, CFDA 20.205, governing the work to be done pursuant to the project, flies in the face of Salyers’ and Ball’s statements. The ODOT-LET Agreement states the purpose of the project is, “The widening of Edgewood Road from Gambier Road (US-229) to US-36.” Additionally, several grant applications for Resolution 2024-23 state the proposed work to be performed is “roadway widening”. Not only that, the grant applications contain the following or similar words, “The proposed project will include right-of-way strip takes”, and “Negative community impacts (of the project) include right-of-way takes.” Even a letter from ODOT informing the City that their application (ODOT application #1) had been approved states the “widening project” has been selected for funding…”. Most compelling, at least one grant application submitted to CORPO references the 2023-2050 CORPO TRANSPORTATION PLAN Project Listing, a copy of which is attached as an exhibit. It describes the project as “Major Widening”; and the “Project Description” is given as, “Edgewood Rd. from SR 229 to US 36: Connection and Major Widening”. The same information is included on a 2018-2040 CORPO Transportation Plan Project Listing which is also attached as an exhibit. Either these documents, based on information submitted by the City, are wrong, or major widening is anticipated. With Carpenter Marty showing right-of-way costs for the entire project to be $4,435,100 dollars, it appears Resolution 2024-23 will involve significant widening of Edgewood Road. If so, amending the Resolution was done solely for appearance sake, to lessen opposition to the Resolution by trying to hide major widening of Edgewood and the attendant taking of private property. Not to better reflect the work to be done as stated by Mr. Salyers, but to hide it!
- At least one funding grant application submitted by the City indicates Edgewood Road was platted as a major thoroughfare. Whether that’s true or not, the right of way for Edgewood from Gambier Road to where Sugar Street would intersect with Edgewood if Sugar Street were extended east, is only 40 feet. Major thoroughfares have at least 60 foot right of ways. In ODOT application #1, Edgewood Road is identified as an “Urban Major Collector”. In a CORPO grant application submitted by the City on January 10, 2024, there appears to be a reference to changing the functional classification of Edgewood Road from a 7-Local to 5-Major Collector. In a memo from City Engineer Brian Ball to the Board of Zoning Appeals dated November 2, 2022, Ball indicated Edgewood Road was a Secondary Collector, next in line to a Primary Thoroughfare. In the next paragraph, he states a Secondary Collector equates to a major collector, meaning a road …which serves or is intended to serve as the principal (emphasis added) traffic way between large and separated areas…and which in (is) the main means of access to the main thoroughfare system. Attempting to summarize, while grant applications appear to identify Edgewood Road, first as an urban major collector and then as a local or neighborhood road, according to Ball it’s a secondary collector, not a primary collector, which makes it the same as a major collector, even though, as currently constructed, it doesn’t meet the criteria of a major collector despite what someone may have thought in 1946, over three-quarters of a century ago. The administration can call it whatever they want and define it as they choose, but the fact remains, Edgewood doesn’t and has never extended to Coshocton Avenue; has served as a neighborhood street for at least 77 years; and only has a 40 foot right of way. The last line of Brian Ball’s memo to the Board of Zoning Appeals is instructive. Ball said, “As a Secondary Collector Edgewood Road would ideally have a minimum Right of Way width of 80 feet (twice that of Edgewood) and a minimum (emphasis added) pavement width of 40 feet (the entire right of way of Edgewood, no room for utilities). Structures would be located a minimum of 40 feet from the right of way line.” All told, that would require 160 feet. Absent “major, major widening”, which the administration says isn’t their intention (thus, the amendment to the wording of the Resolution to reflect “reconstruction” rather than “widening”), that won’t happen! Apparently, the administration intends to reconstruct Edgewood Road for a specific purpose that, when it’s finished, won’t meet the necessary criteria for a road intended for that purpose! You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole. Resolution 2024-23 doesn’t make sense!
This Mayor and his administration have not been honest about Resolution 2024-23. They talk about their desire and need for public involvement and input on issues. It appears, however, they don’t really want it; and when they receive it in the form of unprecedented numbers of individuals attending city council meetings and public hearings and voicing their opinions, and in this case their objections and opposition, they ignore it.
COOMMENTS ON MAYOR STARR’S LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Mr. Starr’s letter was entitled, “Mayor: Project good for the city and neighborhood”. That title reflects a large part of the problem, not just with Resolution 2024-23, but with our Mayor’s approach to running the City of Mount Vernon.
Residents of the “Edgewood neighborhood” (Edgewood and adjacent streets) have been very vocal in their opposition to extending Edgewood Road to Coshocton Avenue and making it a connector route between Coshocton and Gambier Road since long before March 13, 2018. That was the date of the first and last public hearing on Edgewood Road before Resolution 2024-23 was presented to city council in February of this year. Neighborhood residents filled council chambers and voiced their concerns, fears and objections to the Resolution as it went through three readings. When it passed on March 25 by a 4-3 vote, those same residents started a petition to place the issue on the ballot and obtained over 700 signatures (approximately200 more than required). The depth of opposition to the Resolution, at least by neighborhood residents, should have been obvious to anyone, except, apparently, the Mayor. Unwilling to accept that people are in the best position to decide for themselves what is in their best interest, he has the audacity to tell those residents he knows better than they do what is good for them by declaring the project is good for the “neighborhood”. Such arrogance does not bode well for the citizens of Mount Vernon.
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