Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I was reading the minutes from some of the council and committee meetings. I was shocked to see that there is a developer requesting an access road to 256 with a traffic light. I can?’t believe that council would entertain yet another light anywhere on 256 that didn?’t directly affect the health, welfare and financial interests of the taxpayers of this city. Not only was all this informaiton itself shocking, but the light being requested (demanded?) is between the Drug Mart and the light already at the Post Office! Can you imagine having a traffic light in that stretch to deal with??

I have to commend whoever directed that the lights be put on flash overnight. Even though some of them are now malfunctioning, the effort is appreciated. I often have to travel through town late at night and nothing is more frustrating than sitting through light after light with no other traffic around.

Speaking of the lights, does anyone out there know if there are any plans to improve the way the lights work? I mean it is plainly obvious that none of the lights are tied together to work together. I thought the intent of turning over the control of the lights near 70 was to allow ODOT to time them to work together. If they manage to get that part working, what benefit will it be to the rest of the area if none of the other lights work together or work with the ODOT lights? Will this make things worse than they are now?

I know it was the history of previous councils to approve all requests for access to 256 and in all but a fraction of the cases the city paid for the light. Will this council be different? Will this council have the guts to stand up to the developers and say you can have access, but on our terms?

I asked around a little about what might be proposed for the land to be serviced by this new road requested and I was told that a gas station and strip mall was proposed there! Do we need another gas station and strip mall especially in that stretch of 256? Aren?’t there plenty of vacant stores now in existing strip malls? If the current vacant stores can?’t be filled, why would we add more? Why don?’t we tear down the old ones? Why don?’t we tear down Drug Emporium plaza and replace it with something that can be filled or change the use to something different?




By Motorist

Another Brice Road?

It appears we are heading to make 256 look a lot like Brice Road. In a recent article in the Dispatch they talked about the increase in crime in the Brice road area and that no one wanted to go there anymore. We call all see the empty stores in the area. We are already seeing empty store here in Pickerington (Big Bear and Drug Emporium). How many more lights and curb cuts will it take to get the full Brice Road effect?

Brice already??

It's easy to see the progression (degression?) from Hamilton to Brice to 256. It's also easy to see the progressive deterioration in the subsequent years. Hamilton had the best access planning and failed due to the ''new and improved'' retail offerings on Brice. Brice failed due to poor access.

Read the local papers. Associate the crime reported on 256 with crime reported on Brice and Hamilton and the timelines. 256 is far ahead of the others using the crime to growth ratio.

However the question really is how much will the Pickerington residents tolerate? How much crime? How much inconvenience? How much traffic? Would the residents stand behind council in making dramatic alterations to access to 256?

I guess what I am asking is would the residents pass a road levy to fund some of the much-needed improvements? If there was a road levy in place, potentially the city could have told ODOT where to get off and have funded the Diley improvements themselves and appeased more of the affected residents. Hopefully all the residents on Pickerington Road and Hill Road and others are paying heed to all this. They will be next. There is no getting around it. Those roads HAVE to be improved and will be. The question is how much input will the affected residents have?

It?’s the age-old question to Pickerington again. You want improvements but are you willing to pay for them? In the past the answer has always been no. That was understandable considering who was spending your money and who was giving it to developers. Most of them are gone now and the remaining have been rendered impotent and will be gone soon enough. The broom to sweep city hall clean has started to swing. The people you elected based on your trust of them have the majority of all committees and council.

Once again to the residents of Pickerington ?– Are you willing to pay your fair share to make Pickerington into what it can be or would you rather wait until we are the next Brice Road and Independence Village?


By Motorist