Are taxpayers being given the runaround on roundabout?
letter to the editor
To the Editor:
City leaders and the contract engineering firm are all excited about the opportunity to have a roundabout in Wadsworth to keep up with the trends. Is there really a need? Is it practical, what is an alternative(s)? What drawbacks are we not hearing, and what are the real costs?
Route 585 crosses Route 57 between Wadsworth and Orrville. Route 585 is a busy truck route between Akron/Barberton and Wooster and points in between. Busy route 585 crosses busy Route 57 in an unincorporated area, not seeking the status of having a roundabout.
Traffic and turns are easily handled using left turn lanes. These left turn lanes are not expensive, use existing road right of way, and are not glamorous; they just work efficiently.
We are entering the snow season. Yes, the snow can be removed but at what extra time and maneuvering required to do so and damage costs to equipment with raised round curbs, jogs and islands?
Contract engineering costs are $352,000. Wadsworth taxpayers will pay a portion of this. This is engineering cost, not construction costs, which we are given no numbers but can be expected to be well over a million dollars. All this money comes from taxpayers, even the “free money” from the state.
Is this the best Wadsworth can do with taxpayer dollars when the mayor acknowledges that infrastructure improvements for downtown are necessary, as they are aging and past their useful life? And we recently learn that the Wadsworth school system will have financial challenges by 2024. Well, there are always the taxpayers and this will be “for the children.”
John Hayne
Wadsworth
City leaders and the contract engineering firm are all excited about the opportunity to have a roundabout in Wadsworth to keep up with the trends. Is there really a need? Is it practical, what is an alternative(s)? What drawbacks are we not hearing, and what are the real costs?
Route 585 crosses Route 57 between Wadsworth and Orrville. Route 585 is a busy truck route between Akron/Barberton and Wooster and points in between. Busy route 585 crosses busy Route 57 in an unincorporated area, not seeking the status of having a roundabout.
Traffic and turns are easily handled using left turn lanes. These left turn lanes are not expensive, use existing road right of way, and are not glamorous; they just work efficiently.
We are entering the snow season. Yes, the snow can be removed but at what extra time and maneuvering required to do so and damage costs to equipment with raised round curbs, jogs and islands?
Contract engineering costs are $352,000. Wadsworth taxpayers will pay a portion of this. This is engineering cost, not construction costs, which we are given no numbers but can be expected to be well over a million dollars. All this money comes from taxpayers, even the “free money” from the state.
Is this the best Wadsworth can do with taxpayer dollars when the mayor acknowledges that infrastructure improvements for downtown are necessary, as they are aging and past their useful life? And we recently learn that the Wadsworth school system will have financial challenges by 2024. Well, there are always the taxpayers and this will be “for the children.”
John Hayne
Wadsworth
