May 11, 2006

By Robert Mihalek

Higher costs may force the Village to drop from the Northern Gateway Project a bridge that would have spanned Yellow Springs Creek, behind the Bryan Center.

The bridge was supposed to be a unique key feature in the Northern Gateway Project, linking the bikepath and downtown to the Cemetery Street parking lot.

The project is intended to provide long-term parking for cyclists and people coming to town for the day to shop and eat.

However, the bridge will be scrapped if the Village does not find alternative funding by the end of the month, Village Manager Eric Swansen and Village Council members said at Council’s May 1 meeting.

The Northern Gateway Project involves the construction of a bike spur off the bikepath to the Cemetery Street parking lot. The bike spur will run across the Bryan Community Center’s front lawn. Cyclists and pedestrians would cross Yellow Springs Creek over the bridge at the Bryan Center.

The project was spearheaded by the Northern Gateway Committee, which has merged with the Bicycle Enhancement Committee, a subgroup of the Village Planning Commission.

Swansen told Council that the Village received an estimate that the bridge will cost $50,000 over the project budget. Swansen and several Council members said the Village cannot afford the additional costs.

Council president Jocelyn Hardman said that if the Village can find the $50,000 from another group, the bridge will remain a part of the project.

The project’s total budgeted cost is $476,000, more than half of which will be covered by a $275,000 federal grant. The Village’s share of the project, Swansen reported, is almost $201,000 – of which $24,000 has already been spent, almost $52,000 is budgeted for 2006 and $125,000 will be spent in 2007.

Swansen recommended that the Village revise the project if it cannot find outside funding for the bridge.

In one option Swansen provided, the Village would construct the bike spur over a culvert next to the bridge on U.S. 68, near the Bryan Center. The bike spur would still connect the bikepath to Cemetery Street.

He said the Village could use some grant money on other bikepath improvements, such as signs directing people to parking areas.

Hardman and Council member Karen Wintrow lobbied for the Village to move forward on the project without the bridge. Hardman said she did not want to turn down grant money and stressed that the project would provide additional long-term parking.

However, Council member Kathryn Chase questioned the appropriateness of spending funds on the project when Council is planning to ask voters to approve a tax increase in November to pay for such things as infrastructure improvements.

Referring to possible job cuts the Village may have to make, Chase said, “I can’t lay somebody off to waste money on aesthetics,” a term she used to describe the Northern Gateway Project.

If the Village’s financial situation is the dire emergency that she and others believe it is, Chase said, “then we cannot have things like this.”

Wintrow said the Village needs to invest in amenities that bring people to town and create primary jobs. She said quality of life will “bring jobs to Yellow Springs,” and the Northern Gateway Project “speaks to Yellow Springs” and the quality of life it offers.

John Struewing, a member of the Northern Gateway Committee, lobbied Council to give the committee time to raise the funds for the bridge. “The bridge was to be a destination for the village,” he said.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com