COLUMBIANA COUNTY After 19 years of trying, ODOT to close rest stops

A rest stop may be torn down by the end of this year.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
WEST POINT -- The Ohio Department of Transportation is eliminating two rest stops it has been trying to close for 19 years.
One rest stop along state Route 518 near West Point had been the incorrect site of a historical marker.
The marker has been moved about a quarter of a mile away from the rest stop. The monument commemorates the northernmost point Confederate soldiers reached during the Civil War under the command of Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
A second historical marker will remain indefinitely at the second stop on state Route 7 south of Columbiana.
That monument commemorates one of the first Superior Court meetings in Ohio. ODOT has long wanted to eliminate the rest stops to save funds, but local officials had wanted them kept open in the belief they would draw tourists.
But restrooms at the stop near West Point have long been closed. Beck McCarty, an ODOT spokesperson, said that the state spends about $13,000 a year maintaining the stop.
McCarty said the building could be torn down and the area reseeded by the end of the year.
There's nothing at the stop near Columbiana except the monument and a low retaining wall. It separates the small parking area adjoining state Route 7 and grass and trees.
Background
The monument to Morgan's raid was made by the East Liverpool Historical Society. ODOT had persuaded the society to move it to the rest stop in the 1950s.
The monument was moved back to its original location earlier this year. Timothy Brookes, the head of the society, said, "It's within 10 feet of its original site."
The Columbiana County Bar Association made the plaque for the monument near Columbiana.
Brookes is on the bar committee trying to figure out what to do with it. This monument is in its correct location. Moving it would be difficult because it's much larger than Morgan's monument.
McCarty said ODOT is giving up its easements to use the land at the two stops. Ownership will revert to the people who now own the property.
The bar association may negotiate an agreement for an easement for the court marker so it could remain where it is, McCarty said.
wilkinson@vindy.com