Deep ditches, lost trees and years of delays on the widening of Taylor Wells Road north brought several angry residents to the Claridon Township Trustees meeting April 18.
Deep ditches, lost trees and years of delays on the widening of Taylor Wells Road north brought several angry residents to the Claridon Township Trustees meeting April 18.
The current board has been struggling for four years to make good on promises given by a previous board of trustees to the 70-plus homeowners along narrow Taylor Wells.
Monday, trustees Jonathan Tiber and Roger Miller explained the Geauga County Engineer’s Office is confident the road will be paved in the first half of next year.
“We’ve been hearing that for five years,” said Allen Douglas, who was also concerned the ditches in front of the house are too deep.
“This ditch is incredibly dangerous,” he said.
Barbara Douglas added, “This year, we’ve had two cars in the ditch.”
The couple also objected to losing more than 15 trees along the front of their property and having to move their fence beyond the right-of-way for the ditch to be dug. The township is working with the county to prepare the roadside for widening the pavement six inches on either side.
Taking six feet of frontage to widen the road just a foot has caused hardship for many residents, Barbara said.
“We are outraged. We’ve tried to go along with the county,” she said, adding the crews dug beyond what she understood the plan was.
“You took our fence and our trees,” she said. “Now what?”
Miller said the plan for widening has been the same from the beginning. The pavement will be widened by six inches on either side. With a berm and ditching added, the entire project goes back into the right-of-way five to six feet.
“I don’t remember changing the plan from day one,” he said, and Tiber agreed.
One resident said the plan was to widen Taylor Wells in 2022 and Tiber explained the reason for the delay was financial. The township needed the Ohio Public Works Commission money to complete the project. However, the county engineer’s office will not schedule the work until the township has the OPWC funds, which came in later than trustees expected.
In addition, the OPWC and county will not take on a project unless it meets state specifications. Taylor Wells could not be widened with OPWC funds unless the berm was added and drainage met the state specifications.
“So we had to bump (the project) to 2023. I accept responsibility for that,” Tiber said. “When I found that out in February, I almost fell over.”
The widening of Taylor Wells is costing about $850,000, with the township doing some of the ditching work, as explained at previous meetings. Monday, Tiber said the preceding board of trustees understood the township would receive 50% from the OPWC, but there were no guarantees on that figure.
The state is only providing about one-third of that cost and the township has to come up with the rest, he said.
Residents also complained about the condition of the pavement.
“Our road is a mess. What can you do?” Barbara asked.
Tiber said township workers will fill the pot holes with hot patch as soon as the weather allows and that should make Taylor Wells safe until it can be repaved next year.
“It’s a Band-Aid, but it will last. Trust me, no one wants this road paved any worse than we do,” Miller said. “The asphalt plants open in April, maybe May.”
Meanwhile, the ditching and seeding of the bare dirt will be finished this year while the last utility poles are moved back in preparation for paving next year.
Barbara said she hopes to see it finished by June or July and asked if information on road closing for patching and repaving can be disseminated to Taylor Wells residents.
Trustees agreed to put notices on the township website.
