Nelsonville officials have conflicting opinions about how the State Route 33 bypass will affect the city's economy.
The bypass is the last one to be completed along the State Route 33 corridor in southeast Ohio. The Ohio Department of Transportation constructed other bypasses to address safety concerns along the highway and connect the area around Columbus to southeastern Ohio, said Stephanie Filson, public information officer for district 10 of the Ohio Department of Development.
Nelsonville City Manager Fred Holmes said he thinks the bypass is going to have a positive effect on the economy. People will be able to get (to Nelsonville) safer and quicker, he said.
We are trying to make this as positive a project as we can
Holmes said. Kevin Dotson, manager of the Rocky Outlet Store and president of the Nelsonville Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is working toward making the bypass have a positive, instead of a negative effect, on the economy. It is putting up signs to advertise what the city has to offer, and it is making the entrances more attractive, Dotson said.
Bill Wend, a Nelsonville-York Board of Education member and a member of the chamber of commerce, said he thinks, at first, the bypass is going to have a negative effect but will end up being good for the county.
A lot of people think it is going to be a negative but I think after the initial shock if we all work together and play our cards right
it will be a great plus
Wend said.
The bypass, along with the Lancaster bypass, will make it faster to get to the city, encouraging more people to come and to move to Nelsonville, he said. That will increase the tax base and generate more revenue for the city.
Nelsonville City Council President Clinton Stanley said the way the Ohio Department of Transportation is proposing to construct the interchanges is going to severely hurt the economy of Nelsonville. The state is going to put an interchange on each end of the city, Stanley said, which will take a lot of traffic away from existing business areas in Nelsonville.
That is why I was fighting so hard for the third interchange
to put some development into the area
he said.
Council Vice President Greg Smith was also concerned about the effects the bypass will have on the city. He said originally ODOT told Nelsonville there was going to be an interchange on State Route 78. The city spent all it had on water and sewer in that area of town, and now ODOT changed the plans, he said.
He said the city manager has not tried to negotiate to change plans back, which indicates poor planning, Smith said.
City Council authorized the city manager to have an economic study done to show ODOT what the economic effect would be
and he decided not to have it done on his own
Smith said. I think in the end that is going to horribly hurt Nelsonville.
Filson said she thinks the city is doing a good job of sustaining itself and moving forward, and the bypass is going to provide an incentive for those getting off the bypass to actually stop in Nelsonville.
I think the bypass will most certainly help the southeast Ohio region
Filson said.
The Lancaster bypass was finished recently, and both the Fairfield County Economic Development Director and the Economic Development Director in Lancaster said the bypass has been positive for the area.
Mike Pettit, economic development director for Lancaster, said the bypass opened up 2,000 acres of land for business near it. He said the volume of business on old state Route 33 has been the same, but people are able to get to Lancaster more easily.
David Zak, Fairfield County Economic development director, also said business has not dropped, and some businesses have shown interest because of the bypass, especially in an industrial park near it. Zak said Fox Mechanical has decided to locate in Lancaster and hire 20 people.
