Mansfield mayor to unveil Main Street Corridor Improvement Project videos

MANSFIELD — The biggest news at Mansfield City Council on Tuesday night is likely not even on the official agenda.

During her report at council’s caucus, Mayor Jodie Perry plans to unveil two new videos produced by EMH&T that will provide a visual preview of the $16.5 million Main Street Corridor Improvement Project expected to begin in early 2025.

The 18-month project will completely re-do the streetscape from Sixth Street to First Street through the downtown, converting it into two-way traffic at the same time, with the goal of revitalizing the city’s center.

Main Street Corridor Improvement Project

Total Cost: $16,578,504.03

Total Grant Funds: $13,234,442.00

Grant Fund Sources:
* RAISE
* Richland County Regional Planning Commission
* Safety Fund
* Ohio Public Works Commission
* State Capital Budget
* Richland County Foundation; Mansfield Rising
* Richland County Foundation; Donor Advised

Total Local Funds: $3,344,062.03*

* Permissive Sales Tax
* Street Department Fund
* Downtown Improvement Fund
* Water Fund
* Resurfacing Fund
* Sewer Fund

*Local funds subject to administration and City Council approval.

The seeds for the project were planted during the Mansfield Rising plan in 2018 after a group of 15 local residents attended the SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas.

The group’s trip, funded through the Richland County Foundation, tasked local attendees with returning to write a plan for revitalizing downtown Mansfield.

Many changes have taken place since the plan was introduced. But none on the scale of the Main Street Corridor project, which is nearly 80 percent funded by grant dollars.

Richland Source sat down with Mayor Jodie Perry, city engineer Bob Bianchi and Downtown Mansfield Inc. CEO Jennifer Kime, all of whom were part of the Mansfield Rising project.

Bianchi said the city recently received the Stage Three plan from K.E. McCartney and Associates, the same Mansfield firm that helped the city write the proposal which earned a $7.38 million federal RAISE grant to help fund the work.

“Those plans were submitted two weeks ago and I am currently reviewing all 499 pages,” Bianchi said.

“It’s a large set of plans, a lot of detail of the project. We hope to have our review done and comments submitted back to the engineer,” he said.

Bianchi said there are still a couple of properties that need to be acquired. He also noted reviews by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the federal government must be completed.

“We anticipate getting that (approval) in September, at which time we will advertise for bids for the project for six weeks,” he said.

(Below are images taken from videos Mayor Jodie Perry plans to show to City Council members on Tuesday night during her report. The story continues below the photos.)

“We will open bids and hope to award a contract in November,” the engineer said.

The project could begin as soon as January, depending on the weather. Bianchi said it will start with installation of a new water main, signal foundations and storm sewers, with work starting at Sixth Street and moving south.

The work will be done in segments, one block at a time, to reduce overall disruptions in terms of traffic and impact on businesses along the corridor. There will be time elements built into the contract to maintain progress, Bianchi said.

Kime said officials have been “really open and honest” with businesses and residents about the project.

“The reality is we talk about it every month in our merchants’ meeting,” Kime said. “We talk about it to business owners all the time, just to keep them aware of it.

“I think it’s hard to imagine what (the construction process) is going to look like. So even though we talk about it, the reality is that it’s going to be its own thing.”

Kime, Bianchi and Perry all said communication to businesses and residents will be key during the process. They have examined similar efforts in other communities, including Newark and Shelby, to see what works and what doesn’t.

“The communication to the general public is key because we want to make sure business owner’s have that access, but we need to encourage the general public to come down and frequent those businesses,” said Perry, who was leading the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development when the project was formulated.

The actual construction will come about one year into her first term as mayor.

“I do think there’s been some communities that have done that pretty well with Newark being the one that I think of the most. They did basically dig up their whole downtown.

“It was long. You can’t eliminate all the pain, but (Newark) did some things to keep people coming downtown. I think we’re just at the beginning stage of talking about that, but I think that’ll be a key,” the mayor said.

Bianchi said it will be good to get the contractor’s point of view after the contract is awarded, “to hear from them, get their feedback.”

“What we want to do is have boots on the ground from the city, from our inspection team and from the contractor ready and available to answer phone calls,” Bianchi said.

“Cell phones will be handed out to merchants and business owners. We want to be a phone call away to handle any issues they’ve got.”

Kime said the working relationships that have developed over the years will aid the process.

“We’ve all been working on smaller projects over the past few years that have required this kind of communication. Not to this extent, but it’s not an unusual or new thing for us all to be texting and calling about updates on things that are happening on projects or properties or street issues, things like that,” she said.

“We already kind of have a good system and a good relationship built amongst ourselves and with the downtown community and the public. There’s a system for those kind of updates already,” Kime said.

One of the videos Perry plans to show Tuesday will display the traffic plan that will encourage southbound motorists to use Mulberry Street when going “through” Mansfield and Main Street when planning “to” visit the downtown once two-way traffic begins.

In recent years, the city converted Mulberry to two-way traffic with two lanes going south and one going north. It also converted Diamond Street to two-way, with two lanes going north and one lane going south.

‘We know that ‘through’ traffic is very important from getting from the north side of town to the south side of town. We want to maintain that flow, that efficiency, while we make Main Street two-way,” Bianchi said.

“Right now, the through traffic uses Main Street, even though the (traffic) signals don’t necessarily favor that progression. The through traffic where the signals will favor the progression will be from Firth Street, to Mulberry, to Second and to Main,” he said.

“There’s a couple more turns but it’s actually more efficient based off how the signals operate,” he said.

That traffic signalization plan is already in place, he said, adding motorists going through town will make the journey about three minutes quicker by using the Mulberry Street route.