A small group of Chillicothe's west side residents showed up on Wednesday evening for a public question & answer session on an upcoming city project that will construct a sidewalk along a currently grassy portion of Buckeye Street.
Wednesday's public meeting was led by City Engineer David Fishel, Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney, and personnel from the City Engineering Department.
The City of Chillicothe will be using a portion of a Community Development Block Grant to construct a sidewalk along the north side of Buckeye Street from the intersection of Buckeye & Piatt to the intersection of Buckeye & Safford.
"Every two years there's a Community Development Block Grant or CDBG, which is money allocated to the city for a range of possible projects," said Mayor Feeney. A couple of years ago we decided to put that money into two projects. One, over here on Buckeye, was building a sidewalk, curb and gutter where there wasn't one before, providing access to Piatt and the library, and making a safer walking area. The other project was drainage and paving of a parking lot at Mary Lou Patton Park. It's different parts of town and different types of projects but it's core infrastructure work that we don't typically have money for, so when we get grant opportunities like that, we jump on them and sometimes use some of our own matching money to pull them off."
The northside of Buckeye Street looking east from Delano Avenue to Safford Avenue. One of the portions of Buckeye Street that will benefit from the sidewalk project.
The new sidewalk is intended to create a safe walking space for pedestrians while providing improved access to the Northside Branch of the Chillicothe Ross County Public Library and will come complete with wheelchair accessible ramps and storm water gutters.
"There are areas in town that are impassable whether on foot or in a wheelchair, and what we thought this would do is build a connection to the library, to Piatt, to the bike path, and the park. It's always a struggle because there's a lot of different areas where we could connect people, so picking a choosing can be difficult."
Eric Derringer was one Buckeye Street resident who expressed frustration with the project. He owns two properties along Buckeye that would be affected by the project. He said he'd recently spent thousands to pave the driveways of those two properties and that he was frustrated the city would be breaking up portions of those newly paved driveways to install the sidewalk. Derringer also expressed concern that the color and grading of the sidewalk would not match the work performed on those two driveways. Engineering Department personnel however said they would do their best to match their work with the aesthetics of his paved driveways.
A couple of nearby Orange Street residents also questioned why the city would install a sidewalk along Buckeye Street, which already has some paved walkways, and not on Orange Street, where there are currently no sidewalks.
Mayor Feeney said a potential undetermined-future project could address those needs but added that the area covered by this project was something the city could afford with the money it has now. The Mayor said the installation of sidewalk along Orange Street would be a more expensive project since Orange Street spans a significantly lengthier stretch of land.
When it comes to the completion of the Buckeye Street sidewalk project Feeney said residents could expect it to take place near the end of this summer.
"We have a target deadline of early August, and we'd like to see the project wrapped up by the end of August."