072511 Melrose Drive improvement project a step closer to reality
By Sharon Haught
July 19, 2011
254
Summary: The multimillion dollar project that will transform Melrose Drive from an unimproved to an improved street is one step closer to reality.
It may have taken longer than expected, but the Melrose Drive improvement project is about to get underway.
Wooster City Councilman Jon Ulbright introduced the resolution declaring the project a necessity that was ultimately approved unanimously by council at its July 5 meeting.
The multimillion dollar project will see Melrose Drive transformed from an unimproved to an improved street with the installation of gutters, curbs, storm sewers, a bike path on the west side of the street and sidewalks on the east side of the street. The street will also be repaved.
Ulbright noted that council has previously approved three pieces of legislation related to the improvement of Melrose Drive between Milltown Road and Portage Road including authorizations for right of way acquisitions, preparation of surveys and legal descriptions and funding requests to the Ohio Public Works Commission.
According to Ulbright the total cost of the project is estimated at approximately $2.6 million. Of the total cost the Ohio Public Works Commission is providing $500,000 in grant funding for construction costs. In addition ODOT is providing $85,000 in grant funding for the project under its Safe Routes to School program to pay for the costs of sidewalks and crosswalks in the area.
Ulbright noted that the city will pay ?the usual cost of intersections plus two percent of the improvements plus 50 percent of the cost of appropriating any required real estate.?
According to the resolution adopted by council the city?s portion of the project costs will be paid for out of the capital improvements, permissive tax, water, sanitary sewer and the storm sewer funds.
According to Ulbright the Resolution of Necessity council approved ?will begin the process of determining assessments to property owners?for the folks who own property on Melrose and trip generation (based assessments) on adjacent streets that use Melrose as their primary exit or entrance to their residential street so they?ll be sharing the costs.?
City Engineer Joel Montgomery noted that between the grant funding and the city?s contribution to the project the city ?will only be assessing a little over $536,000? to local property owners in the Melrose area.
According to Montgomery, based on the current construction cost estimates the amount that will be assessed to each property owner ?works out to be just over $2,400 per resident.?
Montgomery noted that the school district will also be assessed for the Melrose improvements and that the amount of their assessment is higher than those for individual residents because the district generates a great deal of traffic in the area.
Montgomery also pointed out that a traffic count in the area showed that over 60 percent of the traffic on Melrose was generated by the actual property owners in the area, which includes the schools, but that the city is only assessing 21 percent of the costs to local property owners.
According to the terms of the resolution adopted by council, residents subject to the assessment will be given the option of either paying the amount in full after construction is complete or making 15 annual installments with interest at the same rate the city will pay to issue bonds for the residents? portion of the project costs.
According to Montgomery, work on the Melrose project is expected to get underway in August.
?When it?s all done I can see a tremendous improvement for the neighborhood and most importantly safety because those children walking to and from Melrose have to negotiate the unimproved, heavily traveled Melrose. That?s a real safety issue and this will go a very, very long way to solving that safety problem,? said Ulbright.
