MECHANICSBURG – Village Council learned Aug. 3 the Street Committee agreed on a solution it hopes will address the ongoing concerns over parked cars creating visibility issues for drivers at several intersections within the village.
“We decided to go with 70-foot setbacks at the problem corners,” Village Administrator April Huggins-Davis said, noting the areas addressed include the intersection of East Sandusky Street and the first alley east of Main Street, the intersection of East Sandusky Street and Locust Street, and the intersection of North Main Street and East Race Street. “Those seem to be the worst areas.”
Council member Scott Salee added, “This is the best recommendation we have. Let’s try it and see if it works. If it doesn’t work, we will try something else out.”
The 70-foot clearances will be marked off with paint, and signs will be posted, Huggins-Davis said.
Leaf collection
With the fall season just around the corner, council was informed the Street Committee discussed options for leaf pickup. Those options include, Huggins-Davis said, hiring seasonal part-time employees to operate the leaf pickup machine, requiring residents to bag their leaves, contracting with a solid waste removal company or offering no service, leaving residents to mulch their own leaves or haul them to village compost.
“Our (Street Committee) top pick might be to see about hiring some part-time seasonal employees to come in and help just for that month that we pick up leaves,” she said, adding it takes three people to operate the leaf pickup machine.
Council agreed to table the decision until its Aug. 17 meeting.
Street maintenance
Council was informed John Grosse, the village’s engineering consultant, is working on a proposal to be sent to Champaign County Engineer Stephen McCall requesting that some of the village’s permissive tax money be used for repairs on various village roadways.
“We’ve targeted Pleasant, Walnut and Park as the worst areas that we need to do road work on,” Huggins-Davis said. “(John) estimated the cost to be around $50,000.”
In April, the village learned its permissive tax account through the county has a cash balance of $120,000.
Council was also made aware of Grosse’s recommendation to revive the village’s crack seal program, abandoned roughly 15 years ago.
To restart the program, the village will purchase from DJL Material and Supply Inc. of Akron a crack seal filler that meets Ohio Department of Transportation specifications.
“(The product) preserves your roads if you fill the cracks so that water can’t get under there and compromise the base and asphalt, breaking it up,” Huggins-Davis said. “What the company does is, you buy a pallet or two of the product you fill the cracks with and they provide you with the machinery to do it and the training.
“It would be our people operating (the machinery),” she added, noting the plan is to purchase two pallets of the product at approximately $1,600 a pallet and begin crack sealing village roads in September. “We’ve got a lot of roads that need to be sealed up.”
