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Poland township trustees take steps to complete sidewalk project
POLAND
Township trustees are taking steps to add to the new sidewalk that extends along state Route 170 from Dobbins Elementary School to where the township and village meet near Nesbitt Street.
Though 1.2 miles of sidewalk has been installed, the township now is trying to extend the sidewalk to run across two properties where the existing sidewalk is extremely dilapidated so that the village and township sidewalks will be connected.
About 200 feet separate the two functional sidewalks that extend through the township and village along Route 170.
The new sidewalk was installed using $500,000 from the Safe Routes to Schools grant program.
Township trustees talked to councilwoman Linda Srnec at a township meeting Wednesday at which trustees promised to resolve the issue.
Trustees and Srnec said they have been in touch with Ohio Department of Transportation representatives, and that ODOT is open to providing additional funding to complete the sidewalk.
“At this time, we don’t have a hard figure,” said Trustee Bob Lidle about the cost of extending the sidewalk.
The exchange between Lidle and Srnec at one point became heated, with Srnec saying the township should have informed the village the original plan was not going to happen.
“Council is not willing to finance half of it. It’s between you and Ohio Department of Transportation. This is not our project,” Srnec said.
“Do we think it was a little bit discourteous to take us out of the project? Yes,” she said.
Lidle, however, said it was not the trustees’ fault, and that ODOT made the decision to finish the sidewalk where it now ends.
“That is absolutely not true. That is not a statement that should be made,” he said when Srnec suggested the township had purposely excluded the village.
“We’ve got 1.5 [miles] of it done, 154 feet [left]. We’re going to get it done,” Lidle said. “My vision for this thing has always been connecting Poland.”
Lidle said the next step will be to get a bid from a contractor and give the figure to ODOT, a process he said should take about seven to 10 days.