MOUNT VERNON – A bike ride around Mount Vernon — as part of active transportation planning efforts with Knox Public Health — helped City and County officials understand what bicyclists experience when riding on the city’s streets.
The bike ride by six local officials will help as the City considers lane sharing and possible future bike lanes on different roads, Mayor Matt Starr told the Mount Vernon News. No decisions were made.
“Right now, it’s just understanding what the bicycle community has to go through,” he said. “So we want to find a way to get bicyclists off of the bike path and get them down to and spend money in our retail areas.”
Knox Public Health’s Tami Ruhl; Mount Vernon Police Officer Jeremiah Armstrong; Councilmember Julia Warga; Olivia Toth, marketing director for the Knox County Convention and Visitors Bureau; Randy Kronk of the Kokosing Gap Trail and Courtney Cosky from the Village of Gambier took part in the ride.
Starr called it a nice trip around town during which they learned a lot that will have some bearing on the City’s active transportation planning.
“A lot of people are riding their bikes to work,” he said. “It’s not just for recreation; it’s not just the workout.”
Streets
The Streets Department has finished completely rewiring the traffic signal at the Pleasant Street and Division Street intersection.
“We had to completely rewire that,” Starr said. “The wires were really bad and they were weathered. They were just barely hanging on.”
The department continues to mow the rights-of-way around town and finished spraying weeds on City rights-of-way.
Starr said another big project they finished was fixing the stormwater drainage problem on Miller Avenue. Another catch basin had to be installed. He said it is working much better now.
The City asks its residents to continue reporting potholes to help determine where patching is needed. Call 740-393-9501 to report a pothole in Mount Vernon.
Engineering
The City has sent out for bids on the Columbus Road-South Main Street intersection. Starr said the intersection by the speedway, Whit’s Frozen Custard and Everlasting Cup is difficult for motorists to navigate because they do not have a traffic signal for those retail areas. It will end up being like a four-way stop when completed.
“We’ll also be engineering for pedestrian safety as well,” he said.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has begun milling on State Route 3 in preparation for paving. The City is working with ODOT to replace all manhole castings so that they do not clank around when people drive over them. They also want to make sure the manholes are up to the level of the road’s final surface. In the past, manhole covers and valves were covered by pavement. That required the City to have to drill through the pavement to access the valves and pipes.
