President of Council Kathy McNear called Council to order on March 7, 2007, at 7:02
p.m.
The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of
allegiance.
Mr. Knox took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury, Galster,
Harlow, Squires, Vanover, Wilson and McNear.
The minutes of February 21, 2007 were approved with seven affirmative
votes.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mayor Webster read a letter from Chris Kinnard that said, “As a
resident of Springdale for over twenty years I want to take a moment to compliment our
Street Maintenance crew. Their efforts are especially evident during the winter months. I
live in the Oxford Hills area and even though there are serious hills in Oxford and Beacon
Hills, we are never snowed in. I’m not sure of the best way to recognize their
efforts but I hope you would agree that the least we could do is acknowledge them in a
Council meeting. I’ve not been able to make the last few Council meetings due to a
conflict on Wednesday evenings. If you agree with my observation I would greatly
appreciate it if you would acknowledge the outstanding snow removal performance of our
Street Maintenance crew.” I certainly agree with his observation and take this
opportunity to congratulate them on a wonderful job of getting us through this terrible
February.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE -
none
ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE NO. 15-2007 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO, FOR BUTLER COUNTY TO ACT AS LEAD AGENT
FOR THE RESURFACING OF EAST CRESCENTVILLE ROAD AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.
Mr. Osborn said it should be West Crescentville, not East and the boundaries are from SR 4
to SR 747, rather than Crescentville to SR 747.
Mr. Danbury made a motion to accept the changes. Mr. Vanover seconded. The motion passed
with seven affirmative votes.
Ordinance 15-2007 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 16-2007 “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT RELATIVE TO THE
IMPROVEMENT OF EAST KEMPER PHASE III BETWEEN THE CITY OF SPRINGDALE AND THE BOARD OF
HAMILTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS”
Mr. Squires made a motion to read by title only and Mr. Galster seconded. The motion
passed with seven affirmative votes.
Mr. Vanover made a motion to add the emergency clause and Mrs. Harlow seconded. The motion
passed with seven affirmative votes.
Mr. Osborn said this is project known as East Kemper Road Phase III which is widening
Kemper Road from Tri-County Parkway intersection to a point just west of Century
Boulevard. Part of that is widening the railroad bridge. The total project cost is
$1,157,500 paid by the Ohio Public Works Commission; $446,000 paid by the Municipal Road
Fund; and $1,177,259 paid by the City. This was our highest priority in 2004 but came in
right on the bubble for funding under the Ohio Public Works funding. The following January
we were alerted that we could get the funding if we were willing to go into a 50
percent/50 percent arrangement with the OPWC, with the reservation that when the Municipal
Fund application came around again, we would go after Municipal Road funding on this
project. We did that this past year and made an agreement with the Hamilton County
Commissioners and Hamilton Engineer that we would forego any other applications this year
and next year in order to get this funding. The County Engineer supported us in that
effort and made the recommendation. The Commissioners agreed and the funding has been
awarded. This legislation is our acceptance of that funding.
Mr. Danbury said it contains the emergency clause on page 2, Section 1. It just isn’t
in the title.
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Danbury seconded.
Ordinance 16-2007 passed with seven affirmative votes.
PRESENTATION – I-275 IMPROVEMENT PROJECT –
Cecil
Osborn and Don Shvegzda
Mr. Osborn stated the I-275 improvement project will be kicked off this month. The orange
barrels are already up on the expressway and the contractor is lined up and ready to go.
This is a multi-year project and will have a significant impact on the region in terms of
traffic maintenance. I’ve asked our engineer to walk us through a power point
presentation that was put together by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Mr. Shvegzda reported the concrete barriers have been placed westbound near US 42.
They are rehabbing and resurfacing the existing pavement. An
auxiliary lane will run between Mosteller Road to the northbound I-275 ramp. All the
bridges have to be widened that I-275 carries over the surface roads. The bridges at US 42
and Chesterdale Road will be replaced. The project cost is $140 million and is expected to
be completed in 2010. Phase I is starting now and will run through the fall, at which
point Phase II will start. There will be no detours. By using the express lanes they will
be able to maintain three lanes in each direction during construction. During off-peak
hours there may be some interruption. The speed limit is 50 mph and will be significantly
enforced. The express lane for Phase I will begin east of SR 747 and end east of US 42.
Phase II will be west of SR 4 to US 42 with ramp reconstruction at SR 747 and SR4 on all
the ramps to the south. By Phase III all the eastbound construction is substantially
complete. Phase IV starts the westbound construction. The express lane will exist east of
SR 747 to US 42. Truck traffic will be prohibited from the express lane.
Mr. Shvegzda continued they are going to widen over Kenn Road, SR4 and SR 747 and there
will be traffic maintenance involved with those operations. The work on Kenn Road is
anticipated to start in early April. Each side of the bridge is a phase and each will take
ninety days. They will sequence along with the mainline construction. Construction
activities will take place during off-peak hours, between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., Monday
through Friday. There will be intermittent directional one-lane traffic through there and
closures of up to thirty minutes for placement of the new beams. Similar activities will
take place on SR 4 and SR 747. The hours for construction on those roadways will be 8 p.m.
to 6 a.m. on SR 4, and 12 to 4:30 a.m. on SR 747. On Chesterdale Road the bridge deck will
be both raised and replaced. There will be no pedestrian traffic allowed on the bridge.
Construction is expected to start in May and be completed by October. ODOT recognizes that
the timeframes may be an issue and we will stay in contact with them to get their current
status.
Mr. Osborn said the impact of this project will be problematic. One of our concerns is for
motorists on the expressway to identify the SR 747 exit to get to our primary business
district and not get caught in the express lane. We have approached the State about the
possibility of the City paying for signage that would be put in at the beginning of the
express lane keying people to the idea that if their destination is the Tri-County
business district, they need to be in one of these two lanes and not the express lane.
ODOT is difficult when it comes to signage. We had a similar situation on the grade
separation. ODOT would only put up signs saying business open. We came along behind them
and put up signs identifying specific businesses and how to get to them.
Mr. Osborn said the work on the bridges is a real concern. They are going to be worked on
at night when people are normally sleeping. We expressed our concern about that. They have
not responded to us yet. It will be their decision. The roads where the bridges are on the
interstate will see temporary total closures. On Kenn Road they need to raise new beams
that will straddle the entire road. They will close the road for thirty minutes when each
beam is raised. Kenn Road is the only way we have to get to the Oxford Hills/Beacon Hills
subdivision without going all the way around through Fairfield. Our police and fire
departments are pre-planning how to deal with that. The Fire Department will probably
pre-position a life squad in that part of town. We sent out correspondence to every
business in the City we could identify to get them to attend two presentations by ODOT at
the Sharonville Convention Center. The response was not overwhelming. The Springdale
personnel outnumbered the businesses. Some of the bigger businesses have been contacted
directly but I think a great majority of the businesses in the area do not realize how
great the impact of this is going to be and we will continue to try to get that word out
to them. We’ve expanded the size of the April newsletter to provide material and
information to our residents about what they can expect regarding this construction.
It’s not our project but we have to live with it. It’s not going away very
quickly and we will have to deal with some hardship.
Mr. Danbury asked are the phases continuous.
Mr. Shvegzda replied the construction will be continuous. There will be breaks due to
inclement weather.
Mr. Danbury said when they are going to reconstruct the Chesterdale bridge, that will
impact our fire support as well. Do we have a contingency plan? Is Sharonville going to be
stepping up?
Mr. Shvegzda replied Chesterdale will remain opening although it may be down to one
alternating direction of traffic across.
Mr. Danbury asked is it possible to widen the area of the two bridges they are building
over Kenn Road and SR 4 in case we need to put another lane in there?
Mr. Shvegzda responded the only thing that will be widened is the width of the bridge
above the railway. The span of the bridge will remain the same. If they widened the area
they would have to reconstruct the existing bridges.
Mr. Wilson asked what was ODOT’s rationale of having the express lanes that seem to
be precluding exiting to SR 747 and I-75? These appear to be major exits from I-275.
Mr. Shvegzda answered at one time they were trying to get a design exception to not have
as wide a shoulder as is place now. Because they had to maintain the same shoulder width,
the only way to continually maintain three lanes is to have the express lane, to shift
everything over and do the construction on the other lanes.
Mr. Wilson asked have we considered the paramedics in Fairfield for the Beacon
Hills/Oxford Hills area?
Mr. Osborn replied we have mutual aid with Fairfield and Sharonville. The same could be
said for the Heritage Hill area. I think that will be circumstantial as events occur and
we’ll be watching that. We will be doing that kind of planning continuously with our
safety forces.
Mr. Vanover asked how high are they raising the bridges?
Mr. Shvegzda replied it will be around nine inches. That does mean they will have to
adjust the profile coming off the bridge on each side.
Mr. Vanover said there is high pedestrian traffic at the overpass at Chesterdale,. I want
to make sure that we give the residents adequate notice.
Mr. Osborn stated we shared that with ODOT. I suggested that we all look at taking the bus
route on Kemper Road and moving it down and turning it around at some place like the ODOT
garage, somehow extending that bus route to make a pass down that way. A substantial
number of people there ride the bus. I don’t know how responsive ODOT or Metro will
be. We’re concerned, that faced with the inability to cross the Chesterdale bridge we
may see people trying to cross on the expressway. Sharonville and Springdale were both
given the option of total closure for approximately ninety days, or a prolonged repair
period. Both agreed it was in the public’s interest to retain some degree of access
across that bridge at all times rather than lose total access for that ninety day period.
Mayor Webster said ODOT really made a concentrated effort to try to communicate and reach
out for input from our business community. I’m sure we will all hear it when this
starts. We tried to tell them and we will continue to try to tell them. We will go through
hell here but it will be worthwhile when it’s done. Everyone needs to be patient and
also avoid the area when possible. I haven’t talked to Don about this but there is an
awful lot of room on SR 4 and I would not be surprised that if we wanted to widen SR 4 we
could do that without touching the bridges.
Mrs. Harlow said on I-275 where northbound I-75 merges into it on two lanes, the left lane
merges into the right hand westbound lane. I always thought that was dangerous. I’ve
seen a lot of near crashes at that location. Is there any relief for that in this plan?
Mr. Shvegzda said right now the far right lane continues on and ends at SR 747. Now
through that area you will have an additional lane. The far left lane won’t merge on.
There will be another lane just through that location.
Mrs. McNear asked if the theater was one of the businesses that came to the meeting. If
they close SR 4 at 8:00 p.m. that could have a big impact on them.
Mr. Osborn replied I don’t think they were.
Mrs. McNear said where they started putting up the barrels on I-275, it doesn’t look
like the lanes are all that narrow. Are they going to stay that way?
Mr. Shvegzda said that is the way they will be.
Mr. Danbury asked has anyone ever suggested putting a wall in-between the east and
westbound traffic.
Mr. Shvegzda said they have discussed that for reconstruction but it is too unwieldy.
Mr. Osborn stated it would be a real headache in clearing accidents from the express lane.
OLD BUSINESS
Mrs. McNear asked for nominations to the Tax Review Board.
Mrs. Harlow said I have talked to Rose Fehr and she is interested in continuing on the Tax
Review Board. Mrs. Fehr was nominated and approved by acclamation.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Danbury said there will be Springdale night at the Reds/Rockies
game on May 5. Twenty dollar tickets may be bought for $11.
Mr. Osborn said we need legislation for Finance to issue notes out of a
TIF for construction of an intersection for the improvements at Tri-County Mall and
Cassinelli Square. The notes will be rolled until a bond can be issued.
Mr. Osborn reported the employee celebration will be more entertaining
and focus less on the awards this year.
Mr. Galster stated we need to schedule a public hearing for April 18th
for electronic signs in a PUD district.
MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Board of Health
-
March 8
Planning Commission
-
March 13
Board of Zoning Appeals
-
March 20
Lions Club pancake breakfast
-
March 24
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE - none
UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT
Electronic signs – first reading
-
March 21
RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED
Note for Tri-County intersection construction - March
21
KKG
-
March 21
Added PO
-
March 21
Mr. Danbury made a motion that Council go into executive session as a meeting of the whole
to discuss economic development and personnel matters. Mr. Galster seconded. The motion
passed with seven affirmative votes.
Council went into executive session at 7:55 p.m. and reconvened at 8:42 p.m.
Council adjourned at 8:46 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Edward
F. Knox
Clerk
of Council/Finance Director
Minutes Approved:
Kathy McNear, President of Council
__________________________, 2007
City of Springdale Council
March 7 2007