In case you missed it, Mount Vernon City Councilperson Severns used his end-of-meeting pulpit on April 8 to let all know he would make decisions about Edgewood Road for the public good that he would not regret in 20 years. This was rich coming from someone residing on a dead-end street with no through traffic.

Nevertheless, Mr. Severns intends to implement a plan made in secret and kept secret from the public to alter Edgewood Road, High Street and New Gambier Road and to extend Edgewood Road to Coshocton Road.

I was surprised that the implementation of the plan would create a throughway on High Street and New Gambier Road from the Square to Eastern Star Road and to Upper Gilchrist Road. All of this hidden under the excuse of making needed improvements to the pavement of Edgewood Road and to the subsurface water, sewer and gas lines, while ignoring the damage imposed by full implementation of the plan on existing property owners’ residences throughout the Edgewood neighborhood.

Mr. Severns' hijacking of a residential street to serve not only development made over the past 50 years but also ongoing development is a horrendous decision he may never regret, but many regret it now, and more will do so as the potential damage to the entire Edgewood neighborhood from fully implementing the plan becomes apparent.

Go to mtvernoncitizensforresponsivegovernment.com/index.php/current-issues to see for yourself the highly regrettable 240-page plan Mr. Severns and Mayor Starr intend to implement, but worked so hard to keep secret that it had to be obtained from the Ohio Department of Transportation under the Ohio Open Records Act.

James R. Stallard

Mount Vernon, Ohio