Park traffic irks Miller Road residents

By Denise Dick

Two homeowners posted their own signs imploring travelers to exercise caution.

POLAND — For years, Miller Road was a quiet country lane that saw little traffic apart from those who lived there. For the last several weeks, though, residents say there’s been a nearly steady stream of vehicles along their street every Saturday.

The township park between Miller and Cowden roads opened in late August, and the Poland Youth Soccer Association began playing games there.

The club includes about 950 children and teens, and games run from morning to afternoon every Saturday. At those times, motorists enter the park on Cowden and exit on Miller. Both are one-way on Saturdays.

“There’s probably 20 to 25 cars in a line just about all day Saturday,” said Vincent Genova, a Miller resident.

That makes it difficult to get in and out of driveways, residents say.

Before the park opened, traffic was minimal, Genova said.

Now?

“There’s no comparison,” he said.

Traffic volume isn’t the only problem. It’s the speed, too.

Last month, a group of road residents sought help from the trustees to slow vehicles down. Because Miller is a Mahoning County road, the township asked the county engineer’s office to erect 25 mph speed limit signs.

But residents say it’s still a problem.

Two homeowners posted their own signs imploring travelers to exercise caution.

“Please slow down,” one sign reads. “We have kids too. Thank you.”

“Please slow down,” says the other. “Sometimes our kids get loose.”

Carolyn Marinelli, who posted the first sign, said she wasn’t trying to be nasty to the motorists. She just wants them to drive more slowly. Still, she says her sign has been removed several times, and last week, someone took it down, ripped it up and threw the pieces in her yard.

“I understand the kids need to get out,” Marinelli said. “They need exercise.”

She doesn’t understand, though, why the cars can’t turn around in the park and go back the way they came, out Cowden Road.

“When you move out to the country, you want to be in the country,” Marinelli said. “You don’t want all those cars driving by.”

James Romack, another resident, says people still drive too fast.

John Eck bought his house, across the street from where Romack lives, three years ago. The quiet country atmosphere is what attracted him.

Now that character has changed, he said.

“It’s like they took the neighborhood by eminent domain and now we’re stuck with it,” Eck said.

Township Administrator James Scharville and Mark Naples, trustees chairman, are curious as to why the residents haven’t called police or complained to them if there’s such a problem.

The township has been planning the park for years, Naples said. Nothing has been hidden, he said.

Former trustee “Frank Bennett, me and [Trustee] Annette DiVito acquired that park in 2001,” Naples said.

Eck says he knew the park was coming, but he envisioned something similar to Poland Municipal Forest in the village — something quiet.

“There was never any mention of the volume of traffic,” he said.

Scharville acknowledged that the road sees more traffic now than before the park opened, but it’s only during soccer season, about eight weeks in the fall, he said.

That’s not much consolation for residents.

“Here is my fear: What’s next? Baseball fields?” Eck wonders.

There are plans for a playground, walking trails, a maintenance/concession building and a flag football field, Scharville said.

No baseballs fields are planned, and the flag football club’s membership is much smaller than that of soccer, he said.

Eck, Romack and Genova question why the township didn’t open Moore Road, which runs through the park, out to U.S. Route 224, and direct traffic there instead of in front of their homes.

“Moore Road used to go all the way out to [Route] 224 and there aren’t any houses there,” Genova said.

Naples said park plans were recommended by a park advisory board.

“We didn’t want to go out to 224 because it’s 55 mph out on 224,” he said.

Romack is also upset because he and many neighbors used to hunt deer on their property. The township posted signs prohibiting hunting, trapping or retrieving animals on park property.

“The park isn’t far from here,” he said. “You can’t control where a deer goes after it’s hit.”

What if a resident shoots an animal on his own land, and it runs into the park and dies?

Scharville said the township wanted to be definitive in its rules about the prohibitions.

It didn’t want to have to argue with hunters who contended they shot an animal one place and it died someplace else.

The rules of the township park are consistent with those of other parks across the state, the administrator said.

denise_dick@vindy.com