Stop signs and a guard rail dominated the conversation at the Dec. 18 Bainbridge Township Trustees meeting.
Stop signs and a guard rail dominated the conversation at the Dec. 18 Bainbridge Township Trustees meeting.
At the Nov. 11 meeting, Bainbrook Laurel Springs neighborhood HOA President Alex Shahidian said drivers have been seen driving too fast, sliding through intersections and ignoring stop signs in several locations, endangering children on their way to school.
Township Service Director Jim Stanek said during that meeting Geauga County Engineer Andy Haupt told him the signs don’t belong in the neighborhood and should be removed.
The Ohio Revised Code limits the township’s authority to place signs in the right-of-way along roads maintained by the township without the engineer’s permission, despite residents’ concerns, he said.
Last Wednesday, township Police Chief Jon Bokovitz said he purchased flashing radar and speed limit signs from Traffic Logix Corporation to replace the stop signs.
However, Stanek said he is not satisfied with the signs’ performance.
“We were told those signs, if charging correctly, should hold a three-day charge in a cloudy situation,” he said, adding the batteries, designed to pull power from solar panels, are not sufficient.
“(Traffic Logix) think they sent us the wrong charger,” Stanek said.
He proposed reaching out to communities who use the solar-powered warning signs to find out how they keep them working.
Meanwhile, one of the illegal stop signs has disappeared and Trustee Kristina O’Brien said she doesn’t understand the mentality of someone who would do that.
“That’s not our community,” she said.
When Trustee Jeff Markley, concerned for the new equipment, said, “You don’t want to lose a $3,000 sign,” Stanek said the solar-powered signs have locator chips in them.
Tanglewood neighborhood resident Mike Zakany was also displeased with the county engineer’s decision to replace, without warning, the wooden guard rail in front of his home on Tanglewood Trail with a steel guard rail.
“Monday was a nightmare for us in Tanglewood,” he said, clearly agitated. “I woke up to see our guard rails were swapped out with turnpike guard rails. People are outraged. Our HOA (homeowners association) Facebook is blowing up.”
Zakany said the work crew dug a big hole while working on the project, creating a water and power outage. A mail box was knocked over, as well.
“It’s a sloppy mess,” he said.
Zakany said he called Haupt, who told him the wooden guard rails don’t comply with Ohio Department of Transportation standards. The resident felt the wooden guard rail is part of the neighborhood’s historic value.
Stanek said the wooden guard rail was installed in 2008 and was broken and had to be replaced.
The aesthetics of the community have been compromised, Zakany said, adding he planned to talk to Haupt about the problem at a meeting this week.
O’Brien said the wooden guard rail might not have been safe.
“Safety first and foremost — then aesthetics,” she said.
In a phone interview Dec. 19, O’Brien said the stop signs were not warranted, were unenforceable and have been removed.
“You can’t use stop signs to temper speed,” she said.
On another topic, O’Brien said she, as trustee chair, attended the first meeting of the Bainbridge-Aurora Joint Economic Development District board for the Lake Geauga District. She, the mayor of Aurora, a business owner, a business employee and a neutral party will make up the board that will work out details on the development of the former amusement park property.
