43
Canfield road extension raises concerns for residents
Photo
Don Hutchison, Cardinal Joint Fire District chief, stands in front of the emergency road connecting the Westbury Park and Stonebridge developments in Canfield. The middle point of the route is about where the person is standing in the distance. The extension will connect both sides of Timber Run Drive.
By ROBERT CONNELLY
rconnelly@vindy.com
CANFIELD
Years of talk are becoming reality as a temporary route between two subdivisions will be made into a two-lane road in the coming weeks.
Local officials tout it as a safety upgrade, but residents in both subdivisions are worried about the safety of children.
The road was installed on Timber Run Drive, linking the developments of Stonebridge in Canfield City and Westbury Park in Canfield
Township. Timber Run Drive comes off of Herbert Road, not far from its intersection with state Route 46, while Westbury is an offshoot of Gibson Road, north of where Herbert intersects Route 46.
The 150-foot temporary road is now one lane and has a gate to be opened by emergency personnel only.
Canfield council approved allowing the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission to develop the road with assistance from the Stonebridge Land Corp. in the city. City Manager Joe Warino said the project cost, paid by the turnpike, will be about $55,000. The reason the turnpike is involved is because it needed another route for residents while the Gibson Road bridge over the Ohio Turnpike is replaced.
Warino said road construction will start at the end of March. When it’s finished, the bridge project will start.
The developments have grown over the years and continue to on both sides of Timber Run Drive. The township’s section of the temporary route is paved, and a gate is within feet of the line between the city and township.
“Hopefully the positives outweigh the negatives,” said Anthony Restanio. He has lived on Grayson Road for five years and is a few doors down from the divide in the Westbury Park development in the township. He is worried about the increase in traffic because he has two young children. Both subdivisions have speed limits of 25.
On the city side, Lynda West has lived on Timber Run Drive, near the divide, for 11 years. “They’ve been trying to do this since we built this [home] in 2003,” she said of the road.
Talking about safety concerns of people walking, she said there is enough of a grade in the road that it’s hard to see cars pulling out of driveways. “It doesn’t last long, but there’s enough of one,” West said.
She said her house was one of the last in the subdivision and the rear of the development was heavily wooded. That area has since been cleared for another road, with two homes on it, but much wooded area remains.
“It’s a major safety issue. They’re definitely going to have to do something,” West said.
Asked about if more stop signs would help once the road is complete, Restanio said: “I’ve seen in the past where people ignore stop signs.”
Local officials had issues with the Westbury development for safety reasons, leading to the development of the temporary route. There was a fire in October 2006 that shut Gibson Road down to one lane, not wide enough for school buses. Chuck Tieche, then-city manager and now a city councilman, talked at the time about building an extension to the Westbury development.
Don Hutchison, Cardinal Joint Fire District chief, said in 2009 the fire district had the drive installed for emergency personnel after a lawsuit over ingress and egress. In the years since then, the CJFD hasn’t had to use it. The issue is that both developments have continued to grow — Hutchison said that when a development hits 30 structures, it must have two ways out.
While driving this week with The Vindicator, Hutchison counted 42 homes from Sandstone Lane north on Timber Run Drive, Alabaster Avenue and Lake Wobegon Drive.
Hutchison said of the emergency route: “That’s what the result was: not a finished road, but a road.” He said making that route into a full road had “been planned. It was just never put in.”
Mayor Bernie Kosar Sr., who lives in the Stonebridge development on Alabaster Avenue, said, “I understand the need. I see kids running. ... If someone’s not going 25 but 35 mph,” he added of safety concerns. City officials said Wednesday that after the lawsuit in 2009, there was an understanding it would become a full road. “It’s not someone’s whim; it’s someone’s directive,” Kosar said.
City officials said Wednesday at the city council meeting that there would be a speed trailer set up by the new road once it is finished. “There will definitely be an increased police presence on that stretch of Timber Run Drive when that road opens,” said Chuck Colucci, Canfield city police chief. “We need to educate the people using that road and that the speed limit is 25. And then at some point, the enforcement will kick up.”