Akron Ohio News - Ridgewood/Jacoby roundabout continues to draw citizens’ concerns

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Ridgewood/Jacoby roundabout continues to draw citizens’ concerns

3/4/2010 - West Side Leader

By Ed Wojnaroski

Fairlawn City Council and city officials continued discussion of the city’s plan to build a roundabout at the intersection of Ridgewood and Jacoby roads during Council’s Committee-of-the-Whole meeting March 1.

The roundabout would be the first in Fairlawn and the second in Copley, with the first being constructed at Ridgewood and Hametown Roads a few years ago.

This roundabout would be located at the border of Fairlawn and Copley and would help alleviate traffic backups, according to Fairlawn officials.

According to Fairlawn Mayor William Roth, the city tried to get a light for the Ridgewood and Jacoby roads intersection for three years, but state officials would not grant the request. He said a study showed 11,240 vehicles use that intersection per day.

Ridgewood Road resident Max McKanna said he’s worried about traffic backups on Ridgewood Road once the roundabout is constructed.

“My main concern is that it’s going to cause a back-up on Ridgewood where none now exists,” he said. “I’m afraid that you’re hitting a fly with a sledgehammer.”

Roth said the city is acting now because funding for the project was available and it might not be in the future, when he expects development at the city-owned office park on Ridgewood Road will cause an increase in traffic beyond the current capacity of that intersection.

Fairlawn City Council introduced legislation during its Feb. 8 meeting that named Perrin Asphalt as the winner of the bid to build the roundabout. According to city officials, Perrin’s bid was the lowest at $346,932. Council is expected to approve the bid in the coming weeks.

Service Director John Sellars said the total cost of the project is $406,932, which includes inspections and easement acquisitions. The city received a grant of $191,258 from State Issue 1 funds to pay for the city’s portion of the project. He said Summit County and Copley are adding an additional $50,000 each to the project.

In regard to safety, Councilman Russell Sharnsky (at large) said he asked Copley Police Chief Michael Mier about the safety of the Copley roundabout. Sharnsky said Mier reported a significant reduction in the number of accidents and their severity at that intersection.

Sharnsky said he had asked Mier because some residents had expressed the idea that roundabouts were more dangerous than traffic lights.

Sharnsky said Mier told him the roundabout has done more to reduce accidents than anticipated.

Sunridge Road resident Becky Adamczyk said, “I go through that intersection six times a day, and I’ve never seen an accident.”

Councilwoman Barbara Potts (Ward 2) said she thought people are upset about the roundabout because it is something new.

“It’s a learning experience,” she said. “Council has been considering what to do there for more than three years.”

She said a roundabout will always work, unlike traffic signals, which can fail during a power outage. She said the design of a roundabout causes people to slow down, which is a good thing.

She added that roundabouts can accommodate semi trucks, which can use the inner apron to turn, in response to Adamczyk’s concern that semis using the roundabout would have to go very slow, resulting in backups.

Also during the meeting, Roth warned Council to “bring a lunch” to the next Committee-of-the-Whole meeting March 15 because the subject of the 2010 budget will take center stage. The city must have a budget in place by the end of March.

“It’s going to be a challenging year,” Roth said.

He said tax revenues for January are down more than 4 percent over January of last year. He said that might cause some major projects to be held. He added that because the city has “a policy of paying for street repairs as it goes, the 2010 annual road repair is one of those projects,” although he did not give any details at the meeting. He intends to do so at both the next Council meeting and the next Committee-of-the-Whole meeting.

City Council next plans to meet March 8 at 6:30 p.m. The next Committee-of-the-Whole meeting is set for March 15 at 6 p.m. Both meetings will take place at Fairlawn City Hall, 3487 Smith Road.

Ed Wojnaroski can be reached at jemelec@aol.com.

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