I am posting the two letters below because at this time I still have yet to receive a response from Brian by either phone or email to answer the questions put forth in these emails and the earlier email presented to Brian Ball and other city officials on February 2^nd , 2020. I realize that some delay in our communications problem may be due to Covid19 and I am not anxious at this time to sit down across the table to discuss these issues, however that doesn’t stop me from requesting that a written response should certainly be forthcoming.

Dennis Swingle

                                                                        March 12, 2020

Brian,

I am glad to get to hear from Judy about making the arrangements to meet regarding my two emails to you about the project. I assume Judy told you that I am scheduled for prostate surgery on Friday the 13^th and I expect to be incapacitated for a few days following that surgery. So today I am talking to two other Edgewood Road residents who I have communicated with a number of times about when we might be able to get together and due to my need for some time for recovery I am looking into to a schedule either late in the last week of March like the 25, 26 or 27 otherwise I am thinking sometime the during the first week of April. In the interim prior to the meeting I am requesting a written response to the questions outlined in the two previous emails so that I can review your plans with the other two members of the Edgewood Road community

So as I said before:

“To that end, I requested that you clarify certain statements contained in your email to try and make future discussions on this important issue more productive.” 

Thanks,

Dennis Swingle

                                                                        March 11, 2020                                                                      

Dear Mr. Ball:

On February 2, I responded to an email you had sent me about various long standing safety concerns on Edgewood Road and the surrounding neighborhoods which I raised before city council on November 25, 2019.  I expressed gratitude for your interest in, and indicated a desire to work cooperatively with your office to attempt to resolve, those safety concerns. To that end, I requested that you clarify certain statements contained in your email to try and make future discussions on this important issue more productive.  The next day, February 3, you sent me an email stating that you would have Judy Ashcraft from your office contact me to schedule a meeting.  Since then, I have not heard anything further from you or your office.  I have not received any clarification of your comments, and a meeting has not been discussed, much less scheduled.

In an effort to move this matter forward as quickly as possible, I believe it is appropriate to ask:

• Do you acknowledge that residents have a legitimate complaint about traffic speeding on Edgewood Road and in the surrounding neighborhoods?
• Do you acknowledge that prohibited traffic, “through” commercial trucks/semis, ignoring traffic laws and using Edgewood Road and surrounding neighborhood streets illegally to  travel between Coshocton Road (US 36) and Gambier Road (SR 229) is wrong and constitutes a safety concern for residents in the area?  If so, what do you and the administration plan to do to stop/minimize it?  If not, why not?
• Mayor Matt Starr, last year while serving on city council, conducted a simple, inexpensive, yet extremely effective and telling traffic study (local students actually drove the routes) which established that the drive time from, I believe, the south side of Mount Vernon to a specified point on Coshocton Road, whether through town or accessing Edgewood Road, was virtually the same when traffic laws and regulations were observed.  As I stated in my email of February 2, traffic on Edgewood Road and through the surrounding neighborhoods can be reduced by making those residential streets less attractive to cars and semi-trucks that, in an effort to save time, break the law (a police presence and enforcement of speed and prohibited traffic laws are preferred, speed bumps are a viable alternative).  What, if anything, has been or is being done in this regard?
• Is the SR 229 connector/bypass incorporating round-abouts published in the Mount Vernon News in the fall of 2019, or any modification thereof, currently being considered by your office and/or the administration to facilitate travel between Coshocton Road (US 36) and Gambier Road (SR 229)?  If yes, what is being done?  If not, why not?
• Is your office and/or the administration considering or pursuing the widening of Edgewood Road north of SR 229?  If yes, what has or is being done?
• Is your office and/or the administration considering or pursuing the extension of Edgewood Road north of SR 229 to Coshocton Road (US 36)?  If yes, what has or is being done?

Answers to these questions, as well as those raised in my February 2 email, are pertinent to and would be extremely helpful to me when preparing for any discussion with you concerning Edgewood Road.  More importantly, in the name of transparency, the public has a right to know.  I look forward to your response, as well as the scheduling of a meeting, at your earliest convenience.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Dennis Swingle

cc: Mayor Starr, Safety Service Director Dzik, Police Chief Morgan , Law Director Broeren and City Council 

The letter to Mr. Ball and my address to city council on November 25^th 2019  addresses the fact that for years the city administration and city council has ignored the requests of the citizens to attend to our needs regarding the “preservation of the public peace, health and safety” in the east end!

Dear Mr. Ball:

As you know, I spoke before city council on November 25, 2019.  My comments addressed long standing safety concerns for residents living on Edgewood Road and in the surrounding neighborhoods (‘East End”). The combination of increased traffic, illegal semi-truck traffic (including gasoline tanker trucks and tractor trailers with open cargo beds) and a blatant disregard for posted speed limits (a 24 hour traffic study in the area ordered by your office several years ago found 466 vehicles traveling at speeds from 40 to 69 MPH in a 25 MPH zone) is an accident waiting to happen.  When that accident occurs, depending on the circumstances, it could be deadly.  The next day you sent me the following email:

Read more ...

November 25, 2019

Dennis Swingle

1101 E Chestnut St

Mt Vernon, Ohio

I am going to speak about the “preservation of the public peace, health and safety” in the east end!

I spoke with Mr. Hillier last Thursday about a full size tanker truck carrying gasoline past my house on N. Edgewood Road heading north toward Coshocton Ave. Mr. Hillier told me I’m wasting my time bringing this problem to City Council. Well, I strongly disagree.

My security camera records the passing of traffic on Edgewood and stores the data for 30 days. I called the police dispatcher and as usual was asked 5 or 6 questions before the dispatcher sent an officer to look for the law breaker. Of course, by the time the officer was dispatched, the offender had most certainly reached Coshocton Ave. This is why I am tired of calling the police department every time I see another semi truck traveling through a residential neighborhood.

I see semi trucks fairly regularly. One I see is a full size semi transporting tree trunks to a sawmill. It comes through regularly traveling north on Edgewood. In the first place the guy has no business being on Edgewood, and secondly I know of no sawmill capable of processing logs that large in the area north of here.

I have to ask: am I wasting my time speaking to you about these issues? I hope not. Semi trucks using the whole east end as a thoroughfare is causing a dangerous situation for the peace of mind and safety of the residents and children. Let me take this a step further and relate to you the problem we have with cars speeding down Chestnut Street from Verndale Drive to N. Edgewood. When looking at the studies Brian Ball conducted 24 hour traffic study about 4 years ago and he found 466 cars traveling at 40 to 69 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. Now let me speculate, what if this gasoline hauler wound up in front of one of these speeding vehicles? What a catastrophe would have occurred at the intersection of E. Chestnut and N. Edgewood. How many lives would have been lost and how many houses would have been burnt to the ground?

So am I wasting my time pointing out such a critical situation that threatens life and limb of the residents of the city that this administration represents or will the administration act before something catastrophic occurs? The responsibility of the city government is “the preservation of the public peace, health and safety”

Citizens for Responsive Government

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).

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. It is certain that no road will be constructed anywhere without a right-of-way for it.