Speed limits adjusted on four Holmes County roads
County Road 349 west of Millersburg is one of several Holmes County roads that will see a speed limit change following a speed study.
The Holmes County commissioners met at the Old Jail in Millersburg on Monday, June 12 and passed several resolutions concerning road work among their list of duties.
The board of commissioners passed a resolution requesting the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation to modify the present speed limit on four separate county roads.
The speed studies in each of the requested areas were done by Mastermind LLC.
Included in the list of proposed speed limit changes was County Road 51, for which there was three separate speed studies done, thus three different resolutions, with each changing the speed limit to 45 mph.
“The reason there are three different parts is because the road is broken up into three different sections and the consultant likes to break it up and study each individual section as its own road,” Cory Baker of the Holmes County Engineer’s Office said. “They all came back the same speed anyway.”
County Road 160 will have its speed limit changed to 50 mph, the portion of road existing from County Road 77 to Winesburg. County Road 320 from state Route 754 to the corporate limits in Holmesville will be adjusted to 45 mph while County Road 349, which is west of Millersburg and leads past the Holmes County Dog Warden and Adoption facility, will be dropped to 40 mph.
“We like where those (speed limit numbers) came back, so we will send those to ODOT,” Baker said. “We will wait for their approval to come back before we post.”
The engineer’s office will send all of the study reports and the resolution to ODOT’s traffic engineer at District 11, and he in turn will review and either approve or reject each request.
“It usually takes two to three weeks,” Baker said. “Once we get that back, we can post them.”
The commissioners performed a bid opening for the Mohican Valley Trail, phase one, an approximate 1-mile stretch of road in the corner of Western Holmes County that extends to the new covered bridge being built near Loudonville.
The lone bid came from Grassbaugh LLC in Glenmont, which submitted a bid of $1,758,970.13. That bid came in just under the 10% allowage on the Holmes County Engineer Office’s estimate of $1,599,972.89.
If the bid had been over the allowed 10% margin, Baker said they would have had to reconnect with any and all potential bidders to discuss where adjustments on the estimates could be made.
Since it was just within the limit, that will not be necessary, and the engineer’s office will now review the proposal and give the commissioners their blessing on the project.
Matt Chanay of the Holmes County Engineer’s Office said the project is a shared trail existing alongside Wally Road that will be utilized by walkers, runners, bicyclists and buggies.
The project agreement will not return until July 1, so the project will begin sometime after that date and will depend on the contractor’s availability.
Coupled with the bridge, Baker said, “It will look very different over there in a couple of months.”
A resolution also was passed authorizing the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Community Corrections Grant Agreement, resolving the board authorized the grant in the amount of $575,976.
“It’s yearly and helps pay for the probation officers,” said Susan Schie, commissioner clerk.
Another resolution was passed approving the Holmes County LEPC membership list form 2023-25. That list of officers included John Schlabach, fire chief at East Holmes Fire Department; Jason Troyer, Holmes County emergency management agent; Jennifer Talkington, deputy health commissioner for the Holmes County Health Department; Sarah Burkholder, environmental director with the Holmes County Health Department; and Dave Mast, journalist with AloNovus Inc. representing the media.