GALION, Ohio — Galion Mayor Tom O’Leary assured citizens that yards will be repaired at last week’s city council meeting. The issue that was discussed was the Portland Way project which will cause damage to yards along the road.
O’Leary said that the portions of the resident’s yards that will be worked on belong to the city as a right of way. What this means said the mayor is that the resident’s property will not be worked on but only the portion that belongs to city.
O’Leary went on to say that this city right-of-way will be used as a gravel road during construction and they will be restored after construction is complete. O’Leary assured citizens that the city will not leave the yards in bad condition but will continue upkeep until it meets homeowners’ satisfaction.
This project is to pave and expand Portland Way South in Galion. O’Leary also said that the golf cart idea discussed by the city will not work. The mayor went on to say that the city was looking into loaning out golf carts to citizens who live on the street that way they could park their vehicles on an adjacent street and ride the golf carts back and forth to them since their driveways would not be accessible.
O’Leary said that the idea would not work however because of the weather beginning to get colder in the fall as well as most of the homes on the road only having front door access. He said this would cause complications in situations where citizens would have to transport groceries from the back of their homes to the front. Instead the gravel roadways will allow for citizens to make it into the driveways of their homes.
The Portland Way project will be done in phases. The first phase will begin in August. O’Leary said he expects that phase to wrap up around Thanksgiving. At that time the road will be given time for the winter to pass because it would not be a good idea to try to put pavement down during those months.
The project would then resme when it gets warm and the remaining two phases would be completed by sometime next spring.
Also during the meeting council member Michael Richart spoke about the improvements being made to Galion East Apartments. Richart said that recently a group of citizens from the complex were able to receive a grant for low income and elderly people that will allow for repairs and restoration to the complex.
Richart said the tenants are very excited about this as the $2 million grant will be used to replace the roof, siding, and to build a new community center along with a dog walking facility.
Council member Sarah Capretta said that one of the buildings will be made completely ADA accessible.
And Richart added that the tenants have been working on this plan for over five years now and have applied for the grant several times until they finally received it recently. He went on to say that residents will not be displaced during the time of construction but may be moved around within the complex from time to time during the construction.
Construction on the project is expected to begin soon.
Several ordinances and resolutions were on the agenda for the evening all of which were changed from a first reading to a final reading and passed. The first was one authorized the Safety Service Director to enter into contract with the lowest and best bidder for materials related to the 2015 micro surfacing project.
The project is for Biddle Road and Laughbaum Drive and was awarded to American Pavement Inc. The second ordinance on the agenda was an ordinance that saw a transfer in the airport materials supplies and fuel fund into the airport capital, outlay, infrastructure fund in the amount of $594.94.
A FEMA grant was accepted for the amount of $115,500 and a $4,000 firework payment was also addressed during the meeting.
