LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Details of the Cable Road improvement project were shared Tuesday night at Lima City Council, with strong opinions being expressed by councilors.
According to information posted on the City of Lima's website, the proposed project for Cable Road would convert the 5-lane roadway to 3 lanes between Windsor Drive and College Park West, install a median between Latham Avenue and Windsor Drive, and construct sidewalks on both sides of the roadway extending from Latham Avenue to College Park West. At Tuesday night's city council meeting, city councilors expressed their stances both for and against the project.
"A lot of the members of the Low Vision Coalition would really benefit from this area being walkable, being accessible, being safe for them. Our students need to be able to walk the streets. Our disabled need to be able to get into businesses and to work," Carla Thompson says in favor, Third Ward Councilor, Lima City Council.
"If you're bringing businesses to town, you're bringing more people to town- there's going to be more traffic, and this is going to cause a real problem. What has happened on Market Street- it's two lanes, and it's a nightmare. They don't slow down. They're doing 50, 60, 80 miles per hour up and down that street, and we have two lanes," Jon Neeper says in opposition, Seventh Ward Councilor, Lima City Council.
After council adjourned, Your Hometown Stations spoke with Lima Public Works Director, Kirk Niemeyer, about how the city arrived to the current proposal.
"The proposal that we put forth- we use, there's many countermeasures or tools in the toolbox when it comes to trying to fix safety problems. We put it into a matrix and compare the pros and cons of each one to see which one looks the best, which one will function the best for the community. So yes, we look at... we're not just looking at today's traffic, we're looking at traffic volumes 20 years down the road, so we don't want to design something, build something that's only going to work for a short time," explains Kirk Niemeyer, Public Works Director, City of Lima.
The City of Lima will continue to receive public input about the project through April 21st. You can go online at https://publicinput.com/cableroad. You can also submit responses via mail to the following address: City of Lima, Attention: David Louth, 50 Town Square, Lima, OH 45801. You can also email responses to David.Louth@cityhall.lima.oh.us or call (419) 998-5567.
