09/01/1998 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/1/98 the Council minutes for the past year and not once has anyone come forward to urge hastening of the Crocker-Stearns project. We challenge the sponsors of Resolution 98-82 tonight to produce written letters, petitions and other proof from citizens showing interest in speeding up this process. Perhaps they would do better to revisit the need for this $15,000,000 road in a city already overwhelmed by commercialism. We oppose Resolution 98-82 and ask you, our representatives, to defeat it. Sincerely, Jeffrey L. Tasse" Mr. McKay noted that the state and federal governments do control this project, and the preliminary work by the EPA must be done. However, the legislation does not request that the process be speeded up but that the process be kept on a timely basis which has already been scheduled. The proof that North Olmsted citizens want this road is the city- wide vote taken in 1987. He does not believe that this is a waste of Council's time. Mr. O'Grady thanked Mrs. Lepore for her comments. Regarding Mr. Tasse's letter, it seems that it includes a number of misperceptions. He was taken aback by the comment that it was a waste of valuable Council time because serving the needs of this community and its citizens is never a waste of Council's time. Mr. Tasse also has the misperception that there is some kind of tit for tat here that we will put in Crocker-Stearns if Westlake widens Columbia Road. That is not part of the negotiations. Also, K-Mart and Wal-Mart are totally irrelevant to the discussion of Crocker-Stearns. Mr. Tasse mentions that Westlake and other communities are expecting to maintain their green space while North Olmsted switches ours for a road. In point of fact, Westlake has already put in their portion of the road. With regard to Mrs. Lepore's comments, he agrees that he has never heard anyone ask to stop the project and appreciates the support. Mrs. Lepore said that the resolution cannot change the start date, and it is clearly not the intention of the resolution to do so. The intent of the resolution is to keep the project on track. We cannot control the EPA, nor would we want to. But, unless monies are appropriated for this project, the EPA won't finish their work and the other need engineering stages won't take place. August of the year 2001 will be too late to say we want something to happen. We need to stand up now and be counted. That is the purpose of this resolution. Mrs. Saringer noted she remembers during original discussions regarding this road that took place a number of years ago, comments were made by Council people that we should have asked Westlake to make a deal to widen Route 252. There was nothing in writing, but there were second thoughts that perhaps we should have negotiated in that way with Westlake. Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, said he felt the comments regarding Wal-Mart and K-Mart were appropriately addressed by Mr. O'Grady. He lives in the neighborhood near Wal-Mart and is happy to have it as part of the community. All cities need funding. Mr. Lambert feels North Olmsted has reaped the benefits of a good relationship of business and homeowners. If it were up to him, he would bring all the four lane roads that have to be four lanes right up to the Westlake border and let it funnel down into two lanes and let '~~ them deal with the traffic jam. Anybody that comes into North Olmsted and travels along .... 6