Poland Village denied grant to install sidewalk

Staff report

POLAND

The village will not have a sidewalk installed on Sheridan Road in the near future.

Village council’s application was denied for the next round of Safe Routes to Schools, a grant program administered by the Ohio Department of Transportation that helps communities install sidewalks to increase foot traffic to schools, council member Bill Dunnavant announced at a meeting earlier this week.

Council members had hoped to add a sidewalk on Sheridan between Island Drive and Johnston Place, near the North school building.

Safe Routes to School is the program from which township officials got a $500,000 grant last year to install a sidewalk on state Route 170 from Nesbitt Street to Dobbins Road.

Also at the meeting, council members discussed what some members say are safety issues in Poland Municipal Forest.

Upkeep of the forest was a topic of debate at the previous council meeting, with several residents urging council not to remove dead ash trees and instead to leave the forest in its natural state.

Village officials, however, have posed the issue as a question of safety.

Discussing broader concerns with the upkeep of the woods, forest board president Elinor Zedaker told council, “It [looks] like a war zone. ... Something has to happen” to clean it up.

There will be a public hearing at 6 p.m. Aug. 4 regarding the removal of ash trees from the forest.

Council also continued its discussion of the 2-mill, five-year levy to repair roads it is putting on the November ballot. The tax, which would generate $114,000 annually, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $70 per year.