FR council considers options

FORT RECOVERY — It’s all or nothing.
Fort Recovery Village Council heard Monday evening that a plan to help the flow of truck traffic through the village will either be fully paid through Ohio Department of Transportation or be up to the village to cover.
Village administrator Randy Diller would like to see a four-way stoplight installed at the intersection of Elm and Butler streets (Ohio 49 and Ohio 119) to allow more traffic efficiency downtown, but traffic counts of the roads don’t meet ODOT standards for funding such a project.
The only options are to conduct another round of traffic counts at a more advantageous time to possibly meet the standard and receive ODOT money; make it a four-way stop with signs with full funding from ODOT; or install a four-way stoplight with village funds at an estimated cost of $160,000.
The intersection is currently a two-way stop, with Elm Street (Ohio 49) traffic stopping. Diller said some drivers have to wait three or four minutes to be able to turn onto Butler Street, and with more than 20 percent of the village’s traffic consisting of trucks, a stoplight would help the traffic flow.
“What we’re after here is when they look at intersections like this, they look at how much you’re going to improve the overall intersection, and they do that by average stop time,” said Diller. “Obviously, vehicles going on 119, it’s going to increase their stop time because right now they don’t stop. The vehicles on 49 will decrease. The question is will they decrease by more than what we’re going to increase on 119.”
ODOT officials advised Diller that if the village would like to conduct another traffic count, the most worthwhile day would be a Tuesday in February, as the department adds percentages for the usually slow traffic time of year.
If the village instead chose to install stop signs, which ODOT would fund, it would need to move the “stop bars” back by 50 feet and move curbs. That would require the village to acquire the rights of way for the corners, which could be problematic with the location of a Shell gas station at the intersection.
“There’s certainly some issues there, but it’s worth pursuing. I can’t picture in my mind how that works. It’d seem like you’d be looking all over the place trying to figure out if someone else was at the stop sign,” said Diller of how far back each stop sign would be placed. “When they can’t see, they’re just going to pull up. If there’s a truck waiting to turn, it’s actually better in (ODOT’s) eyes because that car can go through the intersection. If it’s a stoplight, he has to wait for the light to change before he can get out of the way.”
Council members will consider the options, with Diller continuing to keep in contact with ODOT about the choices.
In other business, council members Rod Thobe, Cliff Wendel, Al Post, Dave Garman, Dave Kaup and Dave Bretz:
•Consented to Police Chief Jared Laux purchasing an all-wheel drive 2015 Dodge Charger from Key Chrysler, Xenia, Ohio, for $34,923, which includes all equipment except decals. The vehicle will replace a 2004 cruiser, and the funds were included in this year’s budget.
•Heard from Diller about an issue brought to him by local emergency personnel. Diller encouraged council members to tell home owners to visibly display their house numbers on the front of their homes or on decoration in the front yard. Personnel have had recent incidents during which they were called to a home without any identifying numbers, which took longer to find.