The Grove Hill Park Commission met this morning, where it was announced by Chair Nancy Rogoff that bids for the remaining work to repair the Cottage Street retaining wall and planting to stabilize the adjacent hillsides would not be released until June of this year. Plans for this work were developed, approved, and budgeted for 2023. Part of the wall repair work was completed in the fall of 2023, until it stopped due to the weather.

Blossom

Blossom Time will return to Riverside Park for the long weekend leading up to Memorial Day. There will be some adjustments to the layout to make it work with the Main Street Bridge rehabilitation project, but the changes should be relatively minor and confined to the front of Riverside along the wing wall. I’ll be recommending the event application to council on Monday evening.

Riverside Park Pavilion

Council previously voted to build a new pavilion on the eastern edge of the park. The Village Engineer is putting together some options for us to consider. This project will be in the 2024 budget, with construction likely starting in the second half of the year.

NYE Popcorn Ball Drop

We voted to recommend that Village Council approve the event application for the New Year’s Eve Popcorn Ball Drop.

Community Survey

I let the commission know that the Facilities & Services Committee will meet to discuss conducting a community survey, but likely not until January 2024 since committee members may be changing.

Requests for CT Consultants

We started by reviewing our draft list of requests for the village engineering firm, CT Consultants. I had circulated earlier versions of the list to Safety Committee members so there wasn’t a lot of discussion among us. Erinn did suggest asking for advice about getting accurate data for the amount and kind of traffic passing through downtown (vehicular, pedestrian, or bicycle). This could mean a mix of manual counts, pneumatic tubes, and automated processes using cameras or GPS signals. Over the next few days I’ll be incorporating that feedback into an updated version that will be recommended to council for final approval.

I’d been working on a follow-up post to my analysis of the intersection at Orange north and Mill Street. I stopped to watch traffic a few times and take video of some of what I’ve seen since July, when the village made some changes. The conclusion I reached so far is that – while cutting back the overgrowth at the northeast corner has improved visibility for drivers and walkers – driver behavior has not really changed for the better. Many drivers are still speeding through this area, not using turn signals, not stopping at the sign, and rolling straight into the crosswalk. All four of these videos were during a five-minute period around lunch time. Only one driver came to a complete stop, and from what I’ve seen I believe it only gets worse during rush periods.

After a few stops and a lot of discussion, we settled on a site near the east end of the park with a great view of the entire park. I like it because it hits almost every point on my wish list:

• It’s clearly visible from almost anywhere in the park
• It’s not too close to the homes on Orange Street
• It can be connected to the existing brick path path
• It should have minimal impact on the Blossom Time festival

Park Event Applications

We had two park event applications to review, both from the Chagrin Valley Jaycees and both for holiday lighting in the village. Both events are planned in the same way as previous years, and both events passed unanimously.

Riverside Park Improvements and Shelter

Next, we revisited the topic of a new pavilion in Riverside Park. We’re pretty much starting from scratch and revisiting the location, size, and style of the structure to build. After some discussion we all agreed that the location should be our first decision, so we’ve scheduled a special Parks meeting on Tuesday, October 10th at 8:30 am in Riverside Park to walk around and look at options. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

South Main Street Parking

The meeting was requested by the Police Department to discuss parking restrictions on South Main Street. South Main Street is a two-lane street and parking is allowed on most the western (southbound) side of the street. No parking is allowed on the eastern (northbound) side. Lt. Weiskopf explained that there have been seven documented crashes on South Main Street between 2019 and today. Parked vehicles were not contributing factors to those crashes. However, the department still believes that parked vehicles create a dangerous situation on certain stretches of the road where the slope makes it difficult for drivers to see oncoming traffic when attempting to pass a parked vehicle. They are not recommending a complete ban on parking on South Main Street – only specific areas and times of day when a parked vehicle is most likely to create a safety issue.

This is the intersection of East Orange, North, and Mill Streets in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The speed limit on all three streets is 25 mph. There is a single crosswalk on Mill Street connecting the eastern sidewalk on North Street to the south (and only) sidewalk on Mill Street. This sidewalk flows uninterrupted to the southern sidewalk on East Orange Street. Within 500 feet of this intersection you’ll find a library, a church, a preschool, a village park, a walking trail, an arboretum, the Chagrin River, and about a dozen residences. We are reviewing this intersection in response to residents’ concerns regarding the safety of the pedestrian crosswalk and the intersection in general. We also anticipate increased vehicle traffic at this intersection during the impending Main Street bridge construction.

Park Events

Jocelynn Ray would like to host kids yoga in Triangle Park on the third Saturday of the month at 10:00am from May through September. We voted to recommend it to council.

The 34th Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure will bring 1,000 cyclist to Chagrin Falls as a Wednesday morning stop on a 400-mile, week-long bicycle tour of Northeast Ohio. We had a few questions about the timing and logistics of the event that we’re following up on, so we didn’t actually vote on this one.

Stroll Gates Mill submitted an application for an outing to ETalian and Bell Street Park, but I didn’t see anything in it that indicated the need for an event permit. It’s just a group of people visiting a park. Nevertheless, we voted to recommend it to council.

Little Free Library in Whitesburg

There was some more discussion about the Little Free Library being proposed for Whitesburg Nature Preserve. There are some doubts about the usefulness of a library in this location and some concern about setting a precedent for individual-initiated projects in village parks. However consensus seemed to be that there was little risk in letting this one move forward, and it’s at least consistent with the existing Little Free Libraries in River Run and Riverside Parks.