Memorial Day has come and gone, but the legacy of freedom the holiday honors and celebrates remains. The Edgewood Road referendum is an example. With little fanfare, determined, local citizens are reminding us that democracy lives; we can fight city hall; and government is still of, by and for the people!
On March 25, at the urging of Mayor Matt Starr and his administration, the city council, by a 4-3 vote, passed Resolution 2024-23, generally known as the Edgewood Road Extension or Improvement Project. While the project provides for much-needed repairs and improvements to Edgewood Road and utilities serving the area, those are only a small part of a much broader, ill-advised, “comprehensive” traffic and “improvements” plan developed by the administration that will affect everybody living in and traveling through Mount Vernon.
The plan, submitted by the city to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) in June of 2023, and obtained only after we made a public records request, would not only affect Edgewood Road and extend it to Coshocton Road but would also alter East High Street and New Gambier Road to create an east-west throughway from the Public Square to Eastern Star and Upper Gilchrist Roads. This plan was conceived behind closed doors, without hearings or input from the public. If, as the administration claims, the project is necessary and will benefit the entire community, why did the administration make every effort to keep the plan a secret from the public until it was too late to object to and try to stop it before the council voted?
In the weeks before the vote, despite a request by a member of the council, the administration failed to respond to calls for honesty and transparency concerning the project. It refused to release details concerning the nature and scope of the project, or even the work it entailed. The administration went so far as to state such information “doesn’t exist,” despite the fact the grant application submitted to ODOT was approximately 85 double-sided pages, including engineering studies, reports, cost projections, maps and drawings. All of this was withheld from us, the people the administration is supposed to be serving. That same administration also turned a deaf ear to concerns about the negative impact the proposed project would have on the largest R-1 residential neighborhood in the city.
In response to the administration’s actions, concerned citizens took it upon themselves to put democracy into action. Many individuals displayed yard signs to bring this issue to the public’s attention. After the council’s vote, as provided by state law, volunteers circulated a petition calling for a referendum to put the Edgewood Road Extension Project to a vote of the people. More than 730 signatures were obtained and submitted to the city auditor, Terry Scott. After a review of the signatures by the Board of Elections, the auditor determined the petition met the requirements necessary to start the process of drafting language to place the issue on the November ballot.
Edgewood Alert appreciates everyone who displayed yard signs, assisted in the petition effort and signed the petition. Edgewood Alert is also thankful to council members at large, Janis Seavolt and Amber Keener, and Third Ward councilwoman Tammy Woods, who listened to their constituents and opposed Resolution 2024-23. That this matter will now be on the November ballot means it will receive public scrutiny, there will be an opportunity for public comment and dialogue, and, most importantly, it will be decided where power ultimately resides, with the people who live in and call Mount Vernon home.
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