SHELBY — The parking lot of a popular breakfast establishment in Shelby was a topic of concern at Monday’s council meeting, as plans move forward to improve one of the city’s most dangerous intersections.
The chambers of Shelby City Council were full on Monday as the most loyal patrons of Ted & Ali’s Corner Cafe in Shelby were adamant that any road improvement plans not impact the restaurant’s business. Ted & Ali’s is located on the corner of North Gamble Street and West Smiley Avenue in Shelby, which according to Project Manager Joe Gies is Shelby’s second-most dangerous intersection.
“With the new high school opening and the middle school, there are a lot of kids driving to school and middle school parents dropping their kids off, so Smiley is a well-traveled road during those times,” Gies explained.
“When they’re sitting at the red light waiting to go westbound, traffic is backing up and cars are sitting on the railroad tracks.”
Compounding the increased traffic at the Gamble/Smiley intersection is the current parking set up at Ted & Ali’s Corner Cafe. Currently there are six parking spots that run perpendicular to West Smiley Avenue, with concerns of parked vehicles partially obstructing the eastbound lane of Smiley Avenue as well as safely leaving the restaurant.
“They are backing into the roadway with very limited sight distance, and sometimes even stopping traffic,” Gies said.
To solve these problems, Shelby City Council unanimously voted for Mayor Steve Schag to apply for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Highway Safety Improvement Grant to improve the Gamble/Smiley intersection. Between preliminary engineering plans, construction for sidewalks, curbs and traffic lights, and construction engineering, the city would be responsible for close to $42,000 with the assistance of the grant.
The proposed project would replace the existing traffic signal and install LED signal heads, pedestrian countdown heads, stop-bar radar detection and railroad preemption.
“It would have a preemption that there is a train coming, and the light would turn green to get the cars out of there,” Gies explained. “It would also have cameras on the traffic light that can sense when cars are there and alter the red and green patterns to make it more safe.”
In addition, the project would include the installation of a sidewalk on the north side of Smiley Avenue’s eastern approach. Further, a sidewalk and curb would be part of the south side of Smiley Avenue’s eastern approach with rearranged parking on the north side of Ted & Ali’s cafe.
Removing the Ted & Ali’s parking on Smiley Avenue would have been more favorable to the intersection project according to ODOT, and was discussed at the city’s most recent Utilities & Streets Committee. However, Ted & Ali’s owner Amanda Stone protested, saying the loss of six parking spaces would negatively impact her business.
“I don’t feel like I would’ve been able to stay in the kind of businesses that we are, if at all, had it went the way it was first presented,” Stone said.
Ted & Ali’s also offers additional parking for its customers on the south and east side of the building. Stone presented council with a petition not to remove the six spots on the north side of the building, acquiring 291 signatures.
“I think there needs to be a policy that when businesses have anything street-wise or anything like that that’s going to be done to or around their property, I felt blindsided by this,” Stone said. “I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this.”
While Stone said she supported improvements being made to the city of Shelby, she also advocated for preserving the city’s historical buildings. Stone has been the owner of Ted & Ali’s Corner Cafe since her father, Theodore “Ted” Sagle, passed away unexpectedly in 2012. Sagle had owned the restaurant since 1987.
“We talk about Shelby has a history, I know my business itself is a major history to Shelby,” Stone said. “I think if we want to bring businesses and people to Shelby and make it beautiful, we need to think about our business and family histories and not dissolve those along with trying to also make it very warm and welcoming.”
Stone also had the support of Councilman Charlie Roub, who stated “change for the sake of change is never a good idea.”
“I think the biggest problem at this intersection is for nine months out of the year and early in the morning and early in the afternoon, and that’s an issue that needs to be resolved in cooperation with the schools,” Roub said on Monday. “The traffic problem is because of the school traffic, and not because of parking at a restaurant.”
Ultimately, Stone reached a compromise within the Utilities & Streets Committee meeting where the restaurant would only lose four parking spaces on the north side, and instead rearrange parking to include two spots parallel to Smiley.
“I do want to give thanks to the owners offering very valuable input, and allowing us to be able to do a compromise that I think is going to accomplish at that intersection what all of us really want to accomplish, and that is to make it very safe for our kids who have to cross there,” said Councilman Nathan Martin, chair of the Utilities & Streets Committee.
“I agreed to this proposal, as long as it’s that proposal,” Stone added on Monday. “I want to thank the streets and utility committee and Joe (Gies) for working very hard to resolve this. That was excellently wonderful.”
