MANSFIELD — Jason Bammann told Mansfield City Council on Wednesday that weekend evenings on the “Miracle Mile” are not what they were when he was there in his youth.
That’s why the 50-year-old police officer, who will be officially sworn in Friday as the new Mansfield Police Department chief, advocated for legislation aimed as reducing weekend “cruising” in the area along Park Avenue West between Home and Trimble Roads.
“When we were out there, (when) my parents were out there, people were truly out there to socialize. This crowd is out there to just wreak havoc. It’s a totally different crowd. We’ve had gun calls out there. We’ve had overdose calls out there. So it’s not the social gathering that it once was,” Bammann said.
The idea behind a proposed ordinance discussed during council caucus is to limit repeat vehicle traffic on Friday and Saturday nights between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. in an area with boundaries of West Fourth Street and Park Avenue West between Home and Trimble roads.
The legislation is not scheduled for a vote until May with readings planned on April 2 and April 16.
The ordinance would make it a misdemeanor for someone to drive past a traffic control point more than two times in any two-hour period.
The first violation would be a minor misdemeanor. A second violation within one year of the first would be a fourth-degree misdemeanor. Additional violations within a year of the first offense would be a third-degree misdemeanor.
Bammann said department saw in 2023 the problem in the area was motorcycles, drag racing and out-of-town visitors.
“We found we had an influx of people coming from out of county as far away as around Cleveland and down around Columbus. The word was out on Facebook. We found that there were some Facebook groups kind of underground that were promoting this.
“So it was bringing people into our community for one purpose, and that was to just wreak havoc and act out of control,” Bammann said.
(Below is the legislation City Council is considering enacting to reduce “cruising” on the Miracle Mile in Mansfield.)
Local lawmakers discussed similar legislation in September 2023 before shelving it for the winter. The current proposal is modeled after similar legislation approved by the City of Wooster that helped with a similar problem, Bammann said.
“I don’t think this is the end-all correct-all, (but) this is definitely something to grab their attention. You take away the excitement of the drag racing, because we have that component of people coming to just watch,” he said.
“I’ve seen people out there with little kids sitting right on the edge (of the street). So it is a dangerous situation. We had that fatal out there last year and we don’t want to travel down that path, either,” Bammann said.
Safety Service Director Keith Porch told council that the MPD has responded to 3,494 calls for service in the area since 2021 — and handled 1,929 incidents.
Council members appeared receptive to the proposal.
At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader said she spent a lot of time on the “Miracle Mile” while growing up.
“I get what you’re saying. I look at the numbers provided by Director Porch and I look at the significant increase of the Friday and Saturday calls. It’s alarming to me because I did spend a lot of time mean my late teens, early adulthood (there). I was out there probably just about every weekend. We didn’t have all that drama back then.
“I get the tradition. I do. I’ve taken my girls down there. I’ve shown them. We haven’t been down there in a long time. But we have to keep our children safe,” Zader said.
2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier agreed.
“This might not be the end-all, be-all, but anything that provides (police) with another tool in your tool belt, I’m all for that,” she said.
At-large Councilman David Falquette thanked Porch and Bammann for bringing the legislation back early in the year before the “cruising” season begins.
“Usually the phone calls start, then we start thinking about it and then the season’s all but over. So I’m very happy that it’s happening now,” he said.
“I certainly appreciate the tradition and many years ago when it was a bunch of people sitting around, cars moving 25 mile an hour, showing off how nice their vehicles look, not how fast they would go,” Falquette said.
“I think it used to break up maybe around 11 o’clock. The problem we’ve got today is this is going on until 3 a.m. and the neighborhood is not happy and certainly we do not want more loss of life,” he said.
5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz agree safety should be a priority.
“I think safety should always be placed at the top of the charts for everything. I know we’re not gonna (vote on) this tonight. I still think we want to get more people’s perspectives and a lot of people aren’t able to be here tonight,” Diaz said.
