Citizens for Responsive City Government make the following points about plans requested from Richland Engineering and distributed by City Engineer Brian Ball for a connector between Gambier Road (OH 229) and Upper Gilchrist Road (Monroe Township 254).
- We support the concept of retaining a right-of-way for a bypass between Gambier Road and Upper Gilchrist Road because the City of Mount Vernon has planned no connector to address the obvious flow of vehicular traffic that now wends through neighborhood streets in the east end that were not designed for high volume vehicular traffic, including through commercial trucks loaded with logs, gasoline, cars, lumber and other goods.
- We do not support certain aspects of the plan distributed by Engineer Ball for a connector road between Gambier Road and Upper Gilchrist Road. That plan was published in the Mount Vernon News on Saturday, October 5, 2019. In particular we reject the concept of any “round-about.” We especially reject the “round-about” planned for the intersection of Gambier Road, Park Road and Eastern Star Road. We believe the “round-about” proposed to join those three streets was included in the plan as a cynical ploy to generate controversy sufficient to once again serve as an excuse for avoiding addressing the obvious need for a connector.
- We believe the City’s most pressing current need is to retain a right-of-way between Gambier Road and Upper Gilchrist Road. Once a right-of-way is available for development, a plan meeting budgetary reality and the needs of residents could be developed. Obtaining a detailed plan before a right-of-way exists is another of a long line of the City’s cynical ploys to generate controversy rather than addressing actual need.
- It is certain that no road will be constructed anywhere without a right-of-way for it.