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Trustees request closure of Oak Hill Road section

6/21/2012 - West Side Leader
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By Pam Lifke

BOSTON — Boston Township trustees at the June 13 meeting made a formal request for the Summit County Engineer’s Office to close a portion of Oak Hill Road for safety reasons and to establish a detour.

A landslide has eroded a portion of the road, making it unsafe for two-way traffic. The lane affected by the landslide has been blocked off, trustees said. At a previous meeting, trustees approved a request for the Engineer’s Office to design a one-lane road with proper signage.

Summit County Director of Engineering Joe Paradise responded to the request and said a one-lane road would require placement of concrete barriers whose weight would contribute to continued failure of the road. In addition, Paradise’s response stated use of stop signs for alternating traffic on a one-lane road would be unusual and unexpected, and use of a traffic signal would be too costly for the number of cars traveling the road. Paradise also said he expected overweight vehicles would continue to use the one-lane road, endangering their passengers. Oak Hill Road has a 5-ton weight limit but frequently is used by school and tour buses, trustees noted.

Paradise concluded his response by recommending total closure of the road for safety reasons.

Trustees have petitioned Summit County Council to vacate that portion of Oak Hill Road, as it is within the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and no township residents live along that section. It has been estimated that repairs to the portion of the road affected by the landslide would run nearly $1 million, trustees have said.

Trustee Amy Anderson said members of Summit County Council visited the Oak Hill Road area June 1 to see the portion of the road Boston requested be vacated. Anderson said the Council members seemed impressed by the beauty of the nearby area around Everett Road, so she included those properties in her estimate of property taxes lost to the township. Nearly all of the property in Boston is within the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and is tax exempt, she said. Just in the Everett Road area, Anderson noted, the township is missing out on nearly $4,000 in annual property taxes while, on an annual basis, Woodridge Local Schools would be due nearly $20,000 and the Peninsula Library and Valley Fire District would be due $2,400 and $3,200, respectively.

Anderson said County Council has given the go-ahead to vacate a portion of Stanford Road. Vacations of Oak Hill and Wetmore roads will be revisited by Council in 60 days, she said. [See related story titled, “Council considers panhandling regs,” in the June 14, 2012, issue or visit www.akron.com.]

In other business, Peninsula Mayor Doug Mayer, attending the trustees’ meeting as a Boston employee, told trustees that Peninsula Council has received information about a possible combined police district, but the concept has not been formally discussed.

Trustee Gerald Ritch said he thought a combined police district, which would be similar to the combined Valley Fire District, is something the township and the village should explore.

Mayer said he would place the topic on the agenda for a future Village Council meeting.

Anderson, at a previous meeting, said a 2011 amendment to the Ohio Revised Code now would permit a joint police district and recommended the township explore partnerships with Peninsula, Richfield Township and Boston Heights.

The trustees’ next meeting is set for June 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the administrative offices at Boston Township Hall, located at the corner of Main Street and Riverview Road in Peninsula.

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