State funds sought to fix Dover, Fitch roads
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published June 27, 2007

City officials hope to fix a long-standing problem on two well-traveled roadways while not leaving as big a hole in the municipal budget.

City Council June 19 approved applying to the state of Ohio for Issue 1 infrastructure road repair money to help fix Dover Center and Fitch roads. If approved, the state funds would cover 80 percent of the estimated $2.7 million project costs for work on the roads, with the city of North Olmsted and Cuyahoga County each picking up 10 percent each of the remaining costs.

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said it would solve a major problem for the community in a more economical way.

“Getting work done on both roadways has been a major goal of city officials for a number of years,” O’Grady said. “We’ve made other attempts without success to obtain the necessary funds. But we’re confident that with the support of Cuyahoga County on this, we will present a successful application to the state.”

O’Grady noted that 10 percent of the estimated cost, or about $270,000, would be much easier for the city to deal with than about $1.35 million, or half the cost.

“We’ve tried to get the funds through applications to the county, which ultimately would have resulted in our splitting the cost 50-50 with the county,” O’Grady said. “But after talking it over with county officials, we decided to go in together and seek the state funds, which would make it easier for both ourselves and the county.”

If approved, the Dover Center resurfacing would go from Butternut Ridge Road to the Westlake corporation line. Work on Fitch Road would extend from the corporation line at the border with Olmsted Township to Butternut Ridge Road.

Service Director Duane Limpert said there’s no question there is a strong need for repairs on the two roadways.

“They’re among the most heavily traveled in the city,” Limpert said. “You can see both have not had work done for a number of years.”

Service Department records showed the last work done on Dover Center Road was done in 1985 and the last repair work done on Fitch was in 1989.

Ward 1 Councilman Dan Ryan has been citing the need for repairs on Dover Center for months, noting the high volume of traffic has been wearing the roadway down rapidly. Limpert, who was the Ward 1 representative prior to Ryan, readily acknowledged the need.

“We’ve been less than successful with the prior applications to the county because it’s had a heavy backlog of projects to deal with,” Limpert said. “We think a joint project with the county presented to the state should do well.”

Councilman-at-large Michael Gareau Jr., who has been advocating doing additional crack sealing and preventative maintenance work on city roadways for several years, said Dover Center is a prime example of  what he means.

“You can see the difference in it because we really haven’t done any preventative maintenance on it,” Gareau said. “It’s a major road which has even more problems. We haven’t had a regular preventative program in place for years. We definitely need to have some kind of work done on it.”

Gareau also has advocated having some of the crack sealing and preventative work on major roadways which are shared with the county or state bid out to outside contractors while having city crews do more on roadways within city limits.

“We need to get as much done as we can; there’s only so much city crews can do by themselves and still get their other work done,” Gareau said.

Limpert said officials have until September to get the application in. They expect to hear by the end of the year if the application is successful.