Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Traffic Signals

Dear Proceed Cautiously

I forgot the issue of traffic signals. You first must understand that the Violet Township has NO authority over traffic signals. Their placement or their timing. That is controlled by either the County Engineer Frank Anderson or the City Engineer who works for City Council. The Trustees can't even place a stop sign without county permission.

About a year ago I called a member of the Service Committee to complain about a light timing and I don't recall which intersection that was. However he told me that they were working on the lights and the timing. He also said that in a spirit of cooperation the City, over the last two years, had given the Township traffic more green time. He also said that there is a plan with the City engineer to increase the average speed on 256 up to 45 MPH. Currently in the morning the average speed is 38 MPH. That plan would drastically shorten the green times for the township traffic going north on 256. I understand that they opted not to go with that plan. As you know the Engineer will be doing another speed study soon. I am also sure that the City Engineer will present Pickerington with options other than what is currently offered.

I don't know if you remember but Pickerington did cut off access to the Pickerington Health Center a few years back to force them to annex. So my message is don't underestimate the powers of a home rule City.

Would the citizens of Summerfield be willing to annex if they had 15 second greens in the mornings and no turn on red signs posted?

My advisory initiative continues to grow.



By Broke

You're joking right?

Ok - I have to cut and paste this in because I'm laughing hysterically.

1. OK, so the point in creating a paper township is to take money away from the evil soon-to-be-ex-spouse. Good. Revenge is always sweet. But have you really thought through all the services the Township provides? You addressed the Fire Department. Of course, that also comes with EMS services. But there's also street plowing in the winter - are you ready to take that on with the same service level the Township provides? If not, residents will be very unhappy after the first snowfall. Have you talked to any but the handful of residents who post here? Word on the street is that most people are happy with Township services. Remember, if you're going to take a huge political step, be prepared to land on your face.

This is too funny to be true. The township provides SQUAT to the city residents outside of the fire department. EVERYTHING and I MEAN EVERYTHING else that the city residents receive in services comes from the city - not the township.

Street cleaning - city, snow plowing - city, police services - city, 911 services - city, road repairs - city, mosquito spraying - city, parks and rec - city, water and sewer - city.

Please, I'm begging you - please post the services that the township provides to CITY residents because I'm VERY VERY curious to find out what they are.

If you can't then PLEASE get off this high horse about the 'great services' the township provides to the city residents. The township is a leech, they take .6 mills from the city for administrative costs and the city gets a slap in the face in return.

Ask the residents at the corner of Wright and Diley how well the township trustees represented them when they rezoned the 3 acres to commerical that was surrounded by their subdivision! If this 3 acres was butting up against a 'township' subdivision the trustees wouldn't have even considered it.

I'm waiting with baited breath to read your response.

It's Clear Now

Based on all the responses by Broke, it's now clear to me I did not misunderstand the posting. It's all about getting revenge on the Township Trustees and using Township residents as pawns.

Here's something Broke forgot in all his calculations: when Township residents are annexed into the city, they then have to pay the city income tax. Taxes automatically go up for these residents. Annex enough of them, and city council members will pay in future elections.

If Broke isn't a city council member, then he is very close to a council member. Council members need to think through their actions very carefully - that's the basic message of my posting.

The community is already divided. Taking revenge on residents because city council members are mad at the trustees will only breed more division. Nobody is saying council needs to say ''yes'' to every Township demand. That's where a little political finesse comes in.

I sincerely hope cooler heads will prevail.

By Proceed Cautiously

Get your facts straight

I believe that the average progression up 256 is 38 mph with the posted 50 mph speed limit. In other words if the lights were all working optimally and you hit the first light green that is controlled, which I believe is Hill/Refugee and proceeded north at 38mph, you would hit all the rest of the lights green until you hit the next uncontrolled, or uncontrolled by the city light which is on front of Marcus. If you tried to increase the average speed, which I may be misassuming you say when you refer to average speed to 45 mph, you would have to increase the speed limit to something like 65 or 70. As much as I would love that it ain?’t going to happen.

If you lowered the posted speed limit to 45 mph you lower the progression speed. It?’s not an exact mph to mph ratio but you hopefully get the drift.

What I am concerned about (and this plays into the press articles about improvements to Hill/Refugee) is that council or service committee (or worse the safety committee butts in) is that they may find all this too confusing to comprehend and just lower it whole road to 35 or something ridiculous like that.

Yet another thing to remember in the press is all the feel good talk about the TIF area near Kohl?’s store. The developer is paying part of the cost to put in a new road near or extending Stonecreek. Now if that is the Stonecreek I am thinking of it must be the one that runs back just north of the decrepit strip mall where Mazatlan is located. If this is so I?’ll bet 2 cups of coffee that the developer will get a traffic light there. Just think of your morning or afternoon commute, or heck, any commute through that area will be like if yet another light is added. They can?’t fix/control/improve or simply abandon what they have now nor can they get ODOT to the table to fix their mess near the freeway.

Guys and girls of the city leadership: how hard can it be to fix what you have and make it work before changing anything else??? Didn?’t one of the councilmen who didn?’t get elected pioneer setting aside funds for fix the problem? Didn?’t you pay for a study that charted the course for fixing the problems? Was all the talk about actually trying to make a difference just to shut him up until you could get him out of office? Was he that bad and the rest of us commuters so insignificant that you just ignore the whole thing?

You?’re proposing paper townships, city fire departments, city school districts, joint parks districts water and sewer fee increases, and blowing your horns about how wonderful you all are but yet you can?’t or won?’t try to fix the number one problem that has been plaguing most of us since you were too young to vote and that is TRAFFIC.