[Blogger Foreword: Mary Ann Weber continues doggedly to present her case, which in my opinion seems to make it clear that being a good neighbor is not on the township's agenda, the township in this case amounting to the two junior trustees. The thought processes here look pretty tangled to me.]
Mary Ann Weber: I was skipped over on the list last week. My questions were about tearing up the road. My main concern is having access to my property because my driveway is half way down there. With this removing the trees and rhododendrons that is a great idea because right now it is hard to see someone coming south on Center Road and turning into Diagonal.
My daughter has a very low car to the ground and she has to be able to go through there. [Also, Mary Ann asked about the chipper being used.]
John Festa: We have been more than patient about the boundaries. You have to agree that the property is where it is do we can grant you the license. If you don't, your driveway is on Diagonal Road. So unless we establish something for you, there will always be these ___[?]. We need to move forward. We don't want to force you out of anything.
Mary Ann: She explained some things about her property and situation.
JF: Our intention is not to interfere with your life.
Mary Ann: Anyone who works over there usually blocks the road.
JF: In order to move forward, a decision has to be made about the property. We have already said we would grant you a license. You are asking us not to block your driveway but it is still our property.
Mary Ann: I want to talk with an attorney about purchasing that little piece of land.
JF: We are not in a position to sell the people's property.
[OK, everyone. If you haven't gone hunting for the salt shaker so far, now would be the time, if you have a pretty fair recollection of previous meetings over time.]
JC: To be fair, none of us were trustees when we acquired the property [which was around 1800 when the township was surveyed, I believe. Blogger.]
Jason, continuing: I think you are kind of missing the point. How we got to those boundaries is great for historical knowledge, but it will not change where the pins are. We can not sell you that property. We would have to put it up for auction.
[More talk about this followed.]
[I don't know whether John Festa or Jason made the next remark]: We are not trying to block you out of your driveway.
Mary Ann: It has happened many times.
JC: Just contact the road crew. Who was blocking you?
Mary Ann: Last year the guys who did the edging and mulch had to big trucks and they dumped their mulch in the road and had the whole place blocked. I cold not get in.
JC: All you had to do is let them know. If it happened one time last year . . .
Mary Ann: It has happened more than once.
Carole Pollard, Allyn Road: First of all, I think that the more deliberate approach to the bull pen and gazebo is a good idea. That was reassuring. I think that Sue's question about whether this woman has seen the place in person, not just from Google earth, is crucial.
I would like to suggest that the trustees and their families have a picnic over there.
At this statement, Jason snorted. CP: I'm serious. John Festa: What is that supposed to mean? [He was not smiling.]
[The above three comments occurred pretty much simultaneously, on top of each other.]
CP: Because we have been telling you how noisy it is and how busy it is and you don't believe us and you dismiss it.
JF: I didn't say I don't believe you.
CP: That has been said at the front table--it has been passed off as nothing. The clear intention is to proceed no matter what and I am saying you need to know what the rest of us do, as if two meetings ago was not enough with the noise here. I think you need to see that this is serious the way the rest of us have. I think the committees working over there might come to a similar conclusion.
I was trying not to be confrontive. So much for that attempt. I think that will do for tonight.
[Blogger: Two things were blatantly obvious here: Jason snorted in dismissal or derision or something, and John Festa was openly hostile and appeared to sneer at my statement about not trying to be confrontive. At the risk of sounding like a grade school kid, I don't think I initiated the ridicule and hostility on this one. And from Bill Kelley's request for Jason not to laugh at him, it sounded to me as if he got similar treatment. Because I am looking down to write, I don't see what goes on with other people when they comment. I do see responses to my own remarks. All of the pious declarations about the people and serving them kind of shrivel next to the behavior.]
Dave Pollard, SR 82: I am not going to talk about the bullpen. I want to thank whoever did something about the door. It opened more easily and the people who usually slam it when leaving did not. [Blogger: Here is what happened: Vic, apparently, took a look at the door and I think had someone really check it. One nail had worked its way out a little and was hanging things up when the door was opened or closed. On the way out of the August 4 meeting, I spoke with Jason about it. He was amicable and conciliatory and it was perfectly clear to me after something like 6 or 7 years of his tenure that he was not going to do one thing about it. Vic did. As usual.]
Dave, continuing: The last time I came down here on the tractor, I realized that the road drops almost two feet in the last 30 feet. If 82 were brought up to the level of Center Road, you would be able to see. That would be much less expensive than [regrading 82].
Jason: If I could address that directly, 1-1/2 years ago I began with ODOT, and they did a study. They had been hearing about it. They came out and pulled all the crash statistics from OHP. They did a site survey, and they have some criteria for a site survey. Almost all the issues were for vehicles traveling west bound on 82 and southbound on Mantua Center Road.
One solution was the Look Again signs. They thought there had been good success with that. They did not even recommend the flashing lights around the sign. Their advice was to cut the berm back and in order to do that, they can avoid the trees, but were concerned it would kill them. Rachel and Nate Adams did not want to lose them. While Nate and Rachel were concerned about public safety, they did not want the trees removed. ODOT was not going to conflict with the home owners on that. That is probably where it will stay.
Dave: They need x number of fatalities in a given period before they will do anything.
[Blogger note: A week ago, on August 20, I ended up not going to Heinen's in Aurora because of an accident at Center Road and 82. There was an ambulance and a hauler that a car was going to be winched up onto, plus the Highway Patrol, of course. So Jason and ODOT may be satisfied that their job is done, but here we were again. I know that accidents happen. But when they cluster in an area, that implies something about the area. I wonder how many (if any) fewer accidents have happened at that intersection since the survey and the Look Again sign which is ridiculously easy not to notice. But the bureaucracy has done its job. (By its own definition; never mind about reality.)]
After Dave's comments, the meeting recessed to pay the bills. I talked with a couple of people for a little, and then came home. And just think--we get to do it all over again day after tomorrow.
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
