MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon City Council narrowly approved the design phase for the Edgewood Road improvement project at Monday’s meeting.
The resolution passed 4-3 with councilmembers Amber Keener, Tammy Woods, and Janis Seavolt dissenting.
Before the vote, Councilman Mel Severns motioned to amend the resolution, striking out the words “widening” for “reconstruction of Edgewood Road from Gambier Road to U.S. 36.”
The amendment also added in bold, “Roadway improvements are to include widening (if necessary), drainage improvements and multimodal improvements (any non-vehicular modes of transportation throughout the project extents).”
The amendment motion passed unanimously.
Woods then made a motion to strike the emergency clause from the amended resolution. Without the emergency clause, the resolution takes effect 30 days after passage.
The motion failed 5-2, with Woods and Seavolt being the only ‘yes’ votes.
Residents want more transparency
Twelve people expressed either opposition or approval to the Edgewood Road project, nearly all agreeing that quality-of-life improvements, such as drainage and surfacing, were needed.
Mount Vernon resident Dennis Swingle said there’s been a lack of transparency among the administration and citizens.
“I know for a fact that the administration has a significant amount of more detailed information including write-ups explaining details of the plan, concept drawings and data details about the alteration of Edgewood Road as well as many other factors that have been kept secret from the public,” Swingle said.
“It is obvious to me that the administration has not only kept the truth secret from the public but apparently city council as well. It’s definitely time to reject or table Resolution 2024-23 until such time that the administration makes details and explanations of the data they have available to the public.”
Further touching on transparency, 49-year Edgewood Road resident James Stallard received a 100-page packet from the Ohio Department of Transportation, filled with plans the city submitted to ODOT to receive funding for the Edgewood Project.
“Why the city kept plans supposedly made in the public interest hidden from the public is a mystery,” Stallard said, with the heavy packet in hand. “Nevertheless, information in the record provided by ODOT provides some of the answer for secrecy.”
Stallard noted in the 100-page document the city states the “goal of the overall project is to provide a direct route from the south side of the city to the retail area and the east of the city.”
“Nevertheless, the city submitted maps showing state routes now provide a way as direct, if not more direct, as the one proposed using Edgewood Road,” Stallard said. “In the record, the city specifies that the proposed alteration of Edgewood Road includes roadway widening, the addition of curb/gutter, storm sewer, and a shared use path … [benefiting] pedestrians, cyclists, local drivers, and non-local drivers.”
Woodward Opera House Director Dena Hess supported the project, saying it would make the roadway safer and help downtown Mount Vernon.
“As a stakeholder in downtown, I know we see great benefit in the project,” Hess said.
Another concern citizens posed was increased traffic, how traffic will be policed on Edgewood Road after changes, semi-traffic and if final designs are available.
Citations are being issued on Edgewood Road
Mount Vernon Safety-service Director Tanner Salyers wrote in a general response document he doesn’t anticipate increased traffic on Edgewood Road besides the vehicles already traveling on this route and the anticipated increase in traffic that will come with the growth of the city’s population in the coming years.
According to recent ODOT data, Edgewood Road sees nearly 5,000 vehicles daily.
Salyers also wrote natural traffic calming measures will be a major element of the design process, which may include shared lane markings, stop signs, sidewalks, vegetative barriers, various traffic enforcement signs and painted crosswalks.
“The goal with these elements is to naturally remind motorists that they’re in a residential neighborhood and they need to monitor their speed responsibly. Ultimately, we will utilize the resources of the MVPD for traffic enforcement, the way we do with any other location in the city.”
According to Mount Vernon Police Department data, 82 citations were issued on Edgewood Road, either verbal or written, in the past 12 months. There were 44 warning tickets issued, 21 verbal warnings, and one arrest.
“There’s a misconception that when people see truck traffic off state routes that nothing is being about it,” MVPD Chief Robert Morgan said.
“Another misconception is when somebody takes a picture of a semi-truck that says Kroger’s on the side of it and gets a license plate, we still can’t go track down the vehicle and issue a citation,” Morgan said. “It’s not legal to do that, if the officer can’t testify as to who was driving that truck.”
On transparency, Salyers wrote in the general response document “the city does not have preliminary designs for Edgewood Road.”
“We are asking for council’s approval to go into the design process with ODOT which includes extensive community stakeholder involvement per the law. The city has gone through several rounds of concept drawings (with sensitive utility infrastructure included on these drawings which are not subject to public review for security purposes) in order to secure grant funding from ODOT and CORPO. These drawings are, again, conceptual, and are in no way final designs. Community input is necessary and critical to the final design and construction process.”
Moving forward, city administration will collaborate with ODOT and a design firm to begin establishing public meetings in various locations throughout the neighborhood and city, and at different times of day, through different mediums for input, “to collect feedback and to make sure all of the public that wants to be involved is given the opportunity to be involved,” Salyers wrote.
“From the information and conversations we have, we will begin to make the design decisions, specifically on Phase I of the project first. Once a design is chosen that has internal and external consensus, the administration will come back to council to take the project out to bid where council will have a vote and the people will have a voice.”