VILLAGE OF CHAGRIN FALLS
SAFETY COMMITTEE
September 8, 2008

Members present: Lutz, Watterson, Evans
Also present: Himes, Bloom, Zugan, Brosius, Williams, Lannon

The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m. by Chairman Janna Lutz.

REQUEST FOR A CROSSWALK ON SOUTH FRANKLIN STREET AT CENTER STREET

Mrs. Lutz said there has been a lot a pedestrian traffic here, particularly from the English Nanny School and other businesses. She said parking is on the opposite side of the street. The English Nanny School has asked a few times about creating a crosswalk at this location.

Mr. Himes said there is, by law, a crosswalk there; it is just not a marked crosswalk. Pedestrians can legally cross at any intersection, state law provides for a crosswalk, but they would like to have a marked crosswalk and then curb ramps on both sides would be installed, as required by the ADA. The cost is between $3,500 and $5,000 to install the curb ramps, the striping, and signage. They may be able to fit this cost into the road program but they do have the May Court project going on so the contingency may get eaten up in that. If they don’t, they can come back and ask for an additional appropriation or they could make an additional appropriation by motion tonight.

Mr. Watterson asked if there is any evidence that there are more people crossing there and it is more of a problem than other streets? Chief Brosius said they have crossings marked in several areas throughout town. It is an arterial street and it is better that they put some approach signs up and mark it to add additional safety to pedestrians. People are crossing there all day long. He said he hasn’t had any other requests other than for this location. There are traffic signal devices at most of the crosswalks.

Mr. Himes said there are crosswalks at Maple Street; they went in with the traffic signalization project. Center Street is the only area on that block that is not striped. That is the other distinction about striped crosswalks, pedestrians have the right-of-way in a marked crosswalk whereas they have to yield to traffic in an unmarked crosswalk.

Mrs. Lutz said she is cautious about adding more burden to an already stretched budget but she does not want to ignore safety concerns.

Paulette Nance, from the English Nanny School, said they have noticed an appreciable difference in traffic coming in from Solon and coming from the Judson Community on South Franklin Street. She said she sees people having trouble crossing the street also going to the retail stores. She said she has seen some near misses and asked that this be done this year.

Another audience member agreed that there is a definite need for a marked crosswalk at this location.

Moved by Mrs. Lutz, seconded Mrs. Evans that we create a marked pedestrian crosswalk at Center and South Franklin Street. Carried. Ayes: Lutz, Watterson, Evans. Nays: None.

APPROPRIATION TO REPLACE RADIO TOWER EQUIPMENT

Chief Chris Kostura, of the Orange Village Police Department, explained that a while back they knew they needed a second antenna so they went to Beachwood. Beachwood has an antenna and they let them become a part of it so when the equipment was put in, they are called duplexes, they needed one for the police department and one for the fire department. It was integrated into Beachwood’s system but because they were sharing from Beachwood and the frequencies were so closely tied together they could only use 75% of its capabilities, which in turn caused them some problems in Moreland Hills and Orange Village and anybody else’s equipment that would be in that general area, the fire department as well. Chief Kostura said they had a cell tower put up behind their City Hall and they transferred everything. The problem was that they couldn’t transfer the duplexes because they were integrated into everything else that was a part of what was there. The good part about that is, in case they would have some type of tornado or something that would take down the antenna behind the City Hall they could immediately re-hook back up to the Beachwood tower. The cost to replace the two duplexes is approximately $4,000. Chief Brosius said Chagrin Falls would pay about 20% of that $4,000 and it would go into next year’s budget.

Moved by Mrs. Evans, seconded by Mrs. Lutz to appropriate the monies to replace the tower equipment. The motion carried unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m.

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Janna Lutz, Chairman
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