Friday, September 15, 2000
Money shifted into sidewalks
Springdale gets OK to change bike trail plans
By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The city of Springdale can spend federal transportation dollars on new downtown sidewalks and street lights instead of improving bike lanes along West Kemper Road.
The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments approved the funding change Thursday, scrapping a plan to give the city $355,600 for bike lanes and instead offering $294,026 for new benches, improved lighting and new sidewalks along Ohio 4.
Even though the city will get fewer dollars, City Administrator Cecil Osborn said street-side improvements are what the city wants as it attempts to remake its downtown core as part of an urban renewal project.
The city already used eminent domain to acquire some older commercial buildings near Ohio 4 and West Kemper Road, property that United Dairy Farmers has offered to buy to build an expanded store.
The improvements will include new lighting, benches, repaved and possibly decorative sidewalks, and plants along Ohio 4 from north of West Kemper Road to Northland Road.
Mr. Osborn expects that OKI's funding will pay two-thirds of project costs, with the city paying the rest. Construction won't start before summer 2001.
The city's plan has angered some small-business owners being displaced as a result of the court-ordered seizure of commercial property owned by Sam Burns, 77, of Florida.
Subway, Kemper TV & VCR Service, Corky's Barber Shop and La Placita Imports all must find a new home by the end of October.
A Hamilton County jury in June awarded Mr. Burns $501,500 for the property. UDF, which oper ates a store abutting the commercial property, has offered the city $550,000 for the property. It's the only offer Springdale has received, but city officials have not decided whether to sell the land to UDF or another developer.
The land is contaminated, Mr. Osborn said, and the city has asked the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas to make Mr. Burns pay some cleanup costs. The request was reiterated in a court hearing Wednesday aimed at distributing some of Mr Burns' $501,500 to businesses affected by the city's acquisition of the land.
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