12/21/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/21/1999 3) The city has conducted a field survey of areas where high speed errant I-480 vehicles could potentially leave the roadway, achieve residence in a house and thereby cause loss of life and great property destruction. Our Engineering Department has determined that we have rough1y12,375 feet of a potential problem along I-480 located within North Olmsted's boundaries. Our Assistant City Engineer has determined the cost to place galvanized guard rail with wood posts per ODOT standards along said ].2,375 feet to be on the order of $247,500. That is a small price to pay to save a human life. Further, it is his opinion that the entire amount of $247,500 should be borne either by ODOT or by federal assistance from the Federal Highway Administration. The City of North Olmsted did not construct I-480; and, therefore, North Olmsted should not be saddled by any expense of finishing the job of protecting our residents from I-480 errant vehicles. A letter is being sent to Congressman Kucinich requesting his help in securing funds from ODOT or the Federal Highway Administration to install these crash barriers. A copy of the letter will be sent to Governor Taft. 4) It appears that the Transit Review Advisory Committee has not recommended approval of the Crocker Road extension at this point. Supposedly, $150 million is available. The dollar value of the projects released total about $85 million, but we do not yet know what projects are to be funded with the other $65,000,000. He and Mayor Clough are going to try and meet with regional ODOT and the county representatives for their input and then to go to Columbus to meet with the Ohio ODOT directors and Governor Taft. The bottom line is that we cannot afford to let this project die. If we don't get this project going at this particular round, it may be a long, long time before it will be carried through to fruition. 5) The Castle Pines project is still viable. Through discussion with Tom Coury, he has learned their current posture is that they are attempting to hook up with a business partner in order to move the project off dead center. 6) He signed the Coke contract last week. In his opinion, we were fortunate in dealing with a solid, responsible company like Coke. Their final and best offer was about $76,000 higher than Pepsi. And conceivable, since the contract offer was modified by Council, they could have come back to the city by reducing their offer by $50,000 and still be the high bidder. However, Coke did hold to its roughly $276,000 offer. 7) He needs to clarify some of the comments made in the November 16 meeting by Councilperson Kasler. However, in deference to the time and to a certain event to occur after this Council meeting, he will make the comments at a January, 2000 meeting. 8) He would like to issue a challenge to members of Council. The challenge being for each Council member that makes a contribution to the skatepark of between $100 to $500, he will, from his personal funds, match the amount of the contribution. Thus, if each Council member contributes $500 for a total of $4,000, he will write out a check for $4,000-a Christmas present to the group working so hard for the skatepark. Mr. Nashar noted that he was in receipt of a petition from residents regarding the guard rails on I-480. Mayor Musial said those residents would also receive a copy of the letter which was being sent to Congressman Kucinich. 2 4