Dear Resident,
This certainly has been a very wet spring, more rain than usual. Every area in town is experiencing flooding problems, even places like the library that have never flooded.
I have gotten several calls and emails about the next two items and I thought it would be good to post this information.
Sherman Road Flooding--Tom Day, the City Engineer, has been working for some time to minimize flooding around Sherman Road. I have been following this ever since I was elected to Council 3 years ago. The latest idea that was tried was to build a small catchment on the creek that would force water over the top but also trap branches below so that they would not clog up the entrance to Worthington Run. The amount of rain we have had lately just overwhelmed this attempt.
The next enhancement will be to enlarge the ditch going into the basin. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that if there is a huge amount of rain, sometimes nature wins.
Worthington Run Basin—I also checked about the mowing of the Worthington Run basin. Again, this has been a concern for a long time. Adena, the road leading up to it and the basin all belong to the state. The state historical society has run out of money and so has pretty much abandoned the care of many sites including Adena and Story Mound. Some citizens of Chillicothe formed a group called the Adena Mansion Society to try to raise funds and take over Adena in order to keep it open.(The Society is the group who sponsored the recent “Kill The Hill” run to raise money for Adena.) The City has agreed to mow the grass on both sides of the road leading up to the mansion. The basin, however, is a swampy area. Until it dries out in July, it cannot be mowed because the equipment will just sink in and get stuck. The City has handled the mowing for the past couple of years. They still plan to mow it even though their manpower is way down due to the lack of summer workers this year. When it gets mowed depends entirely on the weather and when the basin dries out.
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June 16th is “Fishing with Ronald McDonald” sponsored by McDonalds and Homeland Credit Union. “Kids’ Print” IDs will be made in cooperation with the Ross County Sheriff Department and Deputy Matt Large is in charge of this. If you have young children, you may want to consider taking them to Yoctangee Park between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. and having an ID made for them. The information will be kept n file locally. This is a great way to protect your little ones and assist law enforcement in case of a problem.
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The Ross County Senior Citizens Picnic is coming up on Friday, June 18th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will be held at the OU-C Shoemaker Center and is free to all senior citizens of Ross County. There will information booths, door prizes, and lunch will be served at 11:30. A cake auction will be held after lunch. Transportation will be available to assist seniors from the parking lot to the building.
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I am a member of the Thoroughfare Planning Commission. A meeting was held on May 18th, to update to members and begin looking at future plans. As head of the Development Committee for council, my membership on this commission gives me more insight as to the needs and plans for the city roads and support structures. Formed in 1998, the Thoroughfare Planning Commission has several long-range plans for road development in the city and county. Patricia Wetzel from ODOT (daughter of 2nd Ward residents Robert and Maria Miller) stated that Ross County is one of the few counties that has actually made a plan and accomplished many of the objectives from their plan on a steady basis. Some of the projects completed from this plan are:
Veteran’s Parkway
U.S. Route 35 Relocation
State Route 207 to U.S. 23 Connector and Interchange
U. S. 35 and Pleasant Valley Interchange
Operational and bridge improvements
State Route 104 Improvements and widening (scheduled for completion this fall)
North Plaza Blvd. Relocation (beginning stages)
*U.S. 50/Western Ave. widening (Planning stages-Sate funded)
*The last item is a joint project that the county commissioners endorse and the city pledged its support to in the form of a resolution which the city council passed in early May.
Nancy Ames
2nd Ward Council