City gets money to repave Dover Center
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Jan. 7, 2009

Persistence pays off.

So say North Olmsted officials after receiving formal notification this week that between State of Ohio Issue 1 funds and Cuyahoga County the city will be receiving more than $1 million for the long-awaited resurfacing project on Dover Center Road from Butternut Ridge Road to the North Olmsted-Westlake City line, which officials say is scheduled to get underway this summer.

“We’re just finishing dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s with the agreement,” said Mayor Thomas O’Grady “We had heard that we were likely to get it this time but we were still waiting for the formal agreement after so many attempts to get funding.”

City officials have sought funding help for the project from the county and state several times previously but were rejected. This time the projects were approved with $809,548 in state Issue 1 funds being approved and the county set to give either 10 perent of the project cost or $260,000. This could leave up to about $800,000 for the city to pay for in the project, which has an estimated cost of $1,619,096 right now.

O’Grady said city officials made getting the funds a major issue anytime they could.

“We pressed very hard and let everybody know this was our top priority this year,” said O’Grady. “Whether it was at NOACA (Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency) or somewhere else we let them know that we needed to get this done.”

Service Director Duane Limpert was elated.

“I can give you more than a million reasons why I’m excited right now,” he said. “This is something we’ve needed to get done for a long time.”

Limpert said officials anticipate the funds from Cuyahoga County cutting into the North Olmsted portion of the costs.

“We have to have final determination as to whether the county pays 10 percent or $260,000, but it will help,”  he said. “In addition, we’re going to work on the engineering costs and see if we can bring the cost estimates down a little.”

Limpert said officials plan to get the project started this summer and finish it this construction season.

“We just need to get all the proper documentation, engineering and related wotk done but we are planning for it this year,” he said.

City Council members also were pleased.

“That’s some long overdue good news,” said Michael Gareau Jr., chairman of city council’s Finance Committee. “It’s great that we’re going to be able to get it done.”

Gareau noted that the project does point out areas where North Olmsted needs to perform better and said the city needs to exercise long-term care.

“We can’t pay for the $800,000 right now so we’re going to have to borrow it,” he said. “We have to continue to work to get out of that cycle of borrowing that we’ve been in, but we will get this done. Then, once we’re done, we have to maintain the road better. One of the reasons it was in such bad shape was we didn’t maintain it. This time, we need to have a regular maintenance problem for it and other facilities.”

Nicole Dailey Jones, chairwoman of council’s Streets and Transportation Committee, said taking care of the city end of the project will be a priority for the city.

“We’ve waited a long time to have this done so we’ll make sure that we have our financing, the engineering and all the other necessary details taken care of,” she said.

Kevin Kennedy, president of City Council, said it will benefit a lot of people.

“You have a lot of people who travel over that roadway every day,” he said. “It’s something which affects the city a great deal because it’s a major roadway in the city for residents and people coming in and out. It’s something we’ve needed to be done for sometime because it has that major impact on our city and the area.”

Limpert said the city will begin the process of getting engineering and planning done as quickly as possible.