Friday night, as I was driving home from work, I notice covered signs indicating a road closure. When I got home I got on the internet and discovered that the city of Columbus is closing Hines Road Monday morning, July 28, at Refugee Road for at least a month to install a water main to service the new apartments going in on Refugee Road west of the Pickerington Police Department. Columbus gave no notice to any residents that this would be happening, and the residents of all the subdivisions off of Tussing Road are still suffering from the closure of the Tussing Road bridge.
This closure is endangering the thousands of residents who live in the area. Response times for fire, police and ambulances will be greatly reduced, as the options for route of travel are limited to Brice and Tussing or travel through the Indepence Village subdivision, which will increase the potential for harm to children in that area. Additionally, if, for instance, a parent needs to drive her child to the emergency room, or a spouse needs to be driven to the emergency room, it may take an hour or longer during peak times due to this reckless decision.
Once the Tussing Road bridge is opened, the city of Columbus will be closing Tussing Road at that site to install a water main. For some unknown reason, Columbus can't coordinate with Fairfield County to run their projects simultaneously. So Park Place residents won't have access to SR 256 until November.
Whether it be right or wrong, I believe this will have a HUGE negative impact on the August school levy, because the PLSD residents in these subdivisions are angry, and the only control we seem to have is voting on a levy. Unfortunately, Columbus didn't let anyone know this road closure was happening.
So this is something that Park Place residents have in common with Pickerington and Violet Township residents - Developers win and average citizens lose.
Channel 10 came out to interview residents about the closure. It will air tonight, July 27, at 6:30 and 11:00. The reporter told us she was also interviewing someone from the Fire Department who will claim the response times will only be impacted by a few seconds. I don't know how they would know that, as I saw a Fire truck in my neighborhood mapping out response times at 10:45 this morning, approximately 15 minutes after the Channel 10 reporter left! This particular trip will only indicate the response time on a Sunday morning when Hines Road is open - it will give no indication what the response time will be at 5:00 on Monday evening. I asked if she will be interviewing anyone from Columbus City Council, and she said no Council member was available today. Hmmmm...interesting...and convenient. Perhaps none of them wanted to be a ''lightning rod'' for this RECKLESS AND DANGEROUS decision???!!!
The city of Columbus has also denied citizens their rights by withholding information about the road closure, because if we wanted to get a temporary restraining order, we would have had to have done so this past Friday, when none of us knew about it. Again, something else Park Place residents have in common with Pickerington residents.
This closure is endangering the thousands of residents who live in the area. Response times for fire, police and ambulances will be greatly reduced, as the options for route of travel are limited to Brice and Tussing or travel through the Indepence Village subdivision, which will increase the potential for harm to children in that area. Additionally, if, for instance, a parent needs to drive her child to the emergency room, or a spouse needs to be driven to the emergency room, it may take an hour or longer during peak times due to this reckless decision.
Once the Tussing Road bridge is opened, the city of Columbus will be closing Tussing Road at that site to install a water main. For some unknown reason, Columbus can't coordinate with Fairfield County to run their projects simultaneously. So Park Place residents won't have access to SR 256 until November.
Whether it be right or wrong, I believe this will have a HUGE negative impact on the August school levy, because the PLSD residents in these subdivisions are angry, and the only control we seem to have is voting on a levy. Unfortunately, Columbus didn't let anyone know this road closure was happening.
So this is something that Park Place residents have in common with Pickerington and Violet Township residents - Developers win and average citizens lose.
Channel 10 came out to interview residents about the closure. It will air tonight, July 27, at 6:30 and 11:00. The reporter told us she was also interviewing someone from the Fire Department who will claim the response times will only be impacted by a few seconds. I don't know how they would know that, as I saw a Fire truck in my neighborhood mapping out response times at 10:45 this morning, approximately 15 minutes after the Channel 10 reporter left! This particular trip will only indicate the response time on a Sunday morning when Hines Road is open - it will give no indication what the response time will be at 5:00 on Monday evening. I asked if she will be interviewing anyone from Columbus City Council, and she said no Council member was available today. Hmmmm...interesting...and convenient. Perhaps none of them wanted to be a ''lightning rod'' for this RECKLESS AND DANGEROUS decision???!!!
The city of Columbus has also denied citizens their rights by withholding information about the road closure, because if we wanted to get a temporary restraining order, we would have had to have done so this past Friday, when none of us knew about it. Again, something else Park Place residents have in common with Pickerington residents.
