Athens City Council members will discuss the Richland Pedestrian Improvement Project at Monday night's meeting.
City council started discussing the ordinance at previous meetings. It proposes building a bypass near the crosswalk that connects West Green to the area near Porter Hall, according to a previous Post report.
The area has a high pedestrian and vehicle traffic rate, and has caused a number of accidents. The crossing has pedestrian counts of 1,300 people each hour, and 750 to 1,000 vehicles per hour, Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said during a previous council meeting.
Safety in the area has been a concern of several city council members.
“Yes, this is costly, but running over students is costly too,” Councilman Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward said at that previous council meeting.
The project has an estimated cost between $2.5 and $3 million, but the City of Athens would only pay between $350,000 and $400,000 of that cost, according to that previous Post report.
Council members will discuss submitting a bid for design engineering of the project. The bypass would run underneath Richland Avenue to alleviate traffic and increase safety.
“At this point, what we have is a preliminary design,” Athens City Council President Chris Knisely said. “It will be up to 25 feet wide, which is wider than many of the roads here in Athens, so it isn’t a tunnel.”
Safety has been the cause of concern among city council members, with a number of pedestrian vehicle related accidents.
“There have been incidents where there were pedestrian vehicle accidents; it has happened before, once deadly,” Patterson said in the previous Post report.
City council will also be discussing an ordinance that would authorize Patterson to join a coalition of cities that are challenging the constitutionality of amendments to Chapter 718 of the Ohio Revised Code.
The coalition of municipalities in Ohio is opposing amendments in the collection of income taxes. Income taxes are currently collected locally, according to Knisely, and the amendment to the code would change how they are collected.
“Many cities in Ohio are joining together in this,” Knisely said.
