PERRYSBURG – Residents keep circling back to the proposed roundabout and its potential impact on the city.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Cooper Suter, who lives in the 500 block of West Front Street just east of the proposed roundabout site, presented six reasons why it was bad for the Perrysburg community.
In priority order were pedestrian and cyclist safety, loss of parkland, the cost, it would be ineffective, it does not keep with the historical layout of the city, and its impact on residential neighborhoods.
Suter said a group has been formed to oppose the roundabout and is circulating petitions.
He provided council members of the drawing of the proposed roundabout, which shows its five entrances at the intersection of Ohio 25 and U.S. 20.
Council in June gave administrators authorization to apply for federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds to help pay for the $5.8 million roundabout project. The local share of $1.116 million will be funded using road improvement funds.
Since then, residents have been showing up at council meetings to voice their concerns.
“If you look at that two-lane roundabout, there’s no way anyone is getting across safely, especially at rush hour,” Suter said about pedestrian safety.
The roundabout will permanently destroy the existing green entry corridor into the city, he said.
He referred to a 64-page traffic study of the intersection and said the most expensive of the six options listed was the one the city went with.
The cheapest one is $5,000, he said.
“In the end I don’t know how it will work,” Suter said. “Roundabouts are great at moving traffic (but) there’s nowhere for it to go,” he said.
Traffic will start cutting down side streets into the residential part of the city, he said.
“I think it’s flawed from its conception because it only talks about cars,” Suter said.
The causes of accidents at that intersection, according to the traffic study, have been attributed to speeding, following too close, driver impatience, rush-hour traffic, and improper passing, lane changes and turns, he said.
“Those are all just enforcement issues. None of those require a $6 million engineering change,” Suter said.
For $170,000, the number of lanes can be reduced as can the speed limit, thus improving the accessibility to Orleans Park and the safety of pedestrians, he said.
There has been lot of assurances that this project is preliminary, but the funding request is tied to a roundabout “so you can’t fault us for thinking there’s a bum rush under way. I ask you to read the report and think about the best option,” Suter said.
He got applause from the audience as he stepped away from the podium.
Katina Holland, who lives in the 300 block of West Front Street, said that the roundabout won’t fix the traffic coming from Maumee.
“The state of Ohio transportation needs to intervene with that. To take that (the bridge over the Maumee River) down to one lane is insane,” she said.
The one thing roundabouts are not good at is pedestrians, the elderly and the handicapped, she said.
This was not Holland’s first time voicing opposition to the roundabout. Another repeat meeting attendee was Deborah Born, who lives in the 100 block of East Front Street.
“I’m not for the roundabout. I don’t think it’s going to help anybody. It’s in the old part of town, it will cause problems, it will be near the cemetery, and it will cause problems for people getting to their homes,” she said.
Also at the meeting, council:
• Approved a purchase agreement with Rouen Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, Woodville, for the purchase of three 2023 Jeep Compass 4×4 vehicles for the Division on Planning and Zoning for $101,125.50.
• Approved a purchase agreement with Stryker Medical for the purchase of two Stryker Xpedition power stair chairs for the Perrysburg Fire Division for $32,525.42.
Passed change orders for engineering and design services for the new Department of Public Utilities for $45,130 and for engineering and design services for the wastewater treatment plant for $192,200.
• Authorized the mayor and director of finance to enter into an agreement with App Architecture, Englewood, for the remodel of the kitchen and dayroom at fire station 38 at a cost not to exceed $52,418; with Guttermann Inc., Newmarket, New Hampshire, for waterline leak detection equipment at a cost not to exceed $41,565; with NECO, Cincinnati, for the design, furnishing and installation of an advanced metering infrastructure system that will provide for automated reading of water meters including meters, infrastructure for transmitting and receiving data, installation, hardware, software and training at a cost not to exceed $131,675; and with Helms & Sons Excavating for storm sewer repairs for Willowbend Road at a cost not to exceed $48,371.
• Authorized the city engineer to pursue a Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments grant to create a multiuse path along West Indiana Ave in front of Fort Meigs Historic Site that would then connect to the end of the multiuse path, currently under design, that will end at Fort Meigs Road.
• Accepted grants valued at $20,000 from the Ohio Ambulance Transportation Program to be used to provide premium pay to eligible workers; $343,000 from the Ohio Department of Development to be used on Grassy Creek Sewer Rehabilitation Project; and up $175,000 (27.9%) of the cost to complete the Eckel Junction Road Rehabilitation Project.
