MOUNT VERNON — Mayor Richard Mavis said the private railroad crossing at Spruce Street will be barricaded in the near future, but those barricades can be removed — temporarily — if an emergency situation demands it.
The Spruce Street crossing is one of two means of entering the the Buckeye Addition subdivision in Clinton Township. The other is the crossing at Roosevelt Avenue. Some residents in the area have expressed concerns about having only one means of getting in or out of the subdivision.
The mayor said he’s given the street department the go-ahead to put up permanent barricades on the railroad crossing at Spruce Street. He said he has consulted with the owner of the crossing, Brenneman’s Lumber, and with township officials.
The railroad company that leases the local line, the Coshocton-based Ohio Central Railroad Systems, recently upgraded the crossing at Roosevelt Avenue, but opted not to upgrade the Spruce Street crossing. The company was unable to locate any record of a past agreement between the railroad owner and the property owner to maintain the crossing.
The mayor had previously said the costs of upgrading and maintaining the crossing would be over $100,000, a cost that county, township and city officials couldn’t justify spending on a private crossing. This week, Mavis said a number of local housing subdivisions have only one means of entrance or exit.
The mayor also said he met this week with the local wildlife officer and a fish expert from the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Wildlife to discuss a fish stocking program for the three lakes at Foundation Parks.
“The good news is the division will help pay for part of the costs,” he said.
Mavis said the plan is to stock fish in all of the lakes once a year. The division will study the fish population in the lakes in the fall — the number of fish, their size, and kind — before a stocking strategy is made. In the fall, he said, the fish go into deeper waters; in the spring, they move to more shallow waters, which is the time the division can use shocking techniques to study the population.
The division already stocks rainbow trout at Foundation Park every year. The city’s plan is to complement the stocking that already takes place.
Mavis said he and wildlife officials discussed stocking largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish. He said there was also some discussion about working with local fish and game clubs to to create a better habitat for fish in the Foundation Park lakes.
In other news, the mayor talked the administration’s plan to form a committee sometime this fall to create a strategy to tackle the water splotching problem associated with city water.
In recent years, a number of local residents have complained that city water, when used for washing, discolored their clothing.
Mavis said the firm that has been investigating the phenomenon for the city recommended the city form a committee with residents who have experienced the problem. He said every prior investigation has indicated there is nothing in the water itself causing the splotching, and the problem remains a mystery.
“We have people who have done a load of laundry with 12 to 15 items and one one piece is affected,” he said.
The mayor spoke about discussed number of other city news items:
•Tim Hortons, the Canadian-based fast food chain, wants to build a franchise restaurant in the Coshocton Avenue area. On Wednesday, the city’s planning commission will consider requests for easements relating to a proposed building west of and adjacent to the Advance Auto Parts store at 945 Coshocton Ave. The mayor said the company must get the commission’s consent because the construction of the building will leave an adjacent commercial parcel landlocked; normally the commission would not allow a creation of landlocked is not accepted planning policy. The company will ask for necessary easement to allow access to the parcel in question so it can move ahead with its plan for the new restaurant.
•The Delaware-Knox-Marion-Morrow solid waste district will hold its hazardous waste collection day Sept. 22 at the Knox County Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Local residents are encouraged to bring hazardous waste, as well as items such as scrap tires, old computers or cell phones, for disposal. There is no fee. The district is responsible for waste disposal, recycling and related education within the district.
•The Harcourt Road waterline extension project should begin anytime, as the administration has given the contractor permission to proceed on the project. Beheler Construction of Butler will extend a city water line along Harcourt Road, from the water plant to the school bus garage, which should improve water quality in that area.
•The Hiawatha Water Park/Pool closed after Labor Day. There was a good holiday crowd on Monday and over the weekend because of the warm weather. Mavis said it was a good first season for the water park.
•The city honored three of its outstanding volunteers at the First Friday event on Saturday: Alice Curtis, who has served on the local library’s board of trustees since 1979; Sally Nelson, who has served on the city’s audit review committee for five years; and Gary Gray, who has served on the city’s Municipal Planning Commission for four years. Mavis said the city has many volunteers and it’s nice to be able to honor some of the most outstanding ones.