August 22's Letters to the Editor

To the Editor,

What is the value of a life?

It is $169.00 per year.

That is the esti­mated amount of Mor­row County prop­erty taxes which will be derived from the tri­an­gu­lar par­cel at the U.S. 42 curve on which the bill­boards are located. And these won’t start being paid until 2014.

These bill­boards present a huge safety issue for motorists. I just don’t see the wis­dom in sac­ri­fic­ing our safety for a mere $169.00 a year.

I call upon Card­ing­ton Town­ship Trustees to repeal the ille­gal bill­board per­mit and, per the law, require that they be torn down within 30 days.

Go to www.billboardsafety.org for more information.

Mar­garet Gif­fon, Cardington

To the Editor:

On behalf of the mem­bers of Con­cerned Cit­i­zens for Your Safety (CCFYS), I thank the Card­ing­ton Town­ship Trustees and staff for pro­vid­ing us the oppor­tu­nity last week to present our con­cerns regard­ing the ille­gal­ity of the bill­boards on the U.S. 42 curve.
We under­stand that since that meet­ing, the Trustees have met with the County Pros­e­cu­tor. Both the Card­ing­ton Town­ship Trustee Chair­per­son and the Zon­ing offi­cer have indi­cated that the previously-issued per­mit has been with­drawn and a for­mal pro­ce­dure has been ini­ti­ated to address whether the bill­boards should remain or be taken down. We com­mend the Trustees on that decision.

We con­tinue to main­tain that these bill­boards present a unnec­es­sary safety haz­ard and should not be issued a permit.

As this process is nego­ti­ated, we extend to Card­ing­ton Town­ship per­son­nel any assis­tance we can pro­vide while they col­lect rel­e­vant doc­u­ments and data so that a well-informed deci­sion can be made. We have researched the issue thor­oughly, have assem­bled a host of per­ti­nent doc­u­ments, and sin­cerely thank Town­ship per­son­nel, as well as per­son­nel from the County Audi­tor, Engi­neer, Zon­ing, and Recorder offices for their help. We also thank those at the Attor­ney General’s Office and the Ohio Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion who, through both a meet­ing and dis­cus­sions, shed addi­tional light on the legal and reg­u­la­tory aspects involved.
Thank You to all of those who came out for and who spoke at the meet­ing, and to those in the com­mu­nity who have, behind the scenes, pro­vided their moral and finan­cial sup­port.
An impor­tant part of the CCFYS mis­sion is to pro­vide edu­ca­tion and to encour­age your input. We will be hold­ing a “Com­mu­nity Infor­ma­tion Meet­ing” this Fri­day, August 24 at 7 PM at Legion Park in Card­ing­ton (in the cen­ter of town) to bring every­one “up to speed” on what has hap­pened to date, what will we under­stand will tran­spire, what the major issues are as the process unfolds. Please join us and your neigh­bors so you, too, can be informed.
If you have any ques­tions, you should visit www.billboardsafety.org. There, you will find our con­tact infor­ma­tion. We wel­come your ques­tions, and will do our best to answer them as best we can in a timely manner.

Again, thank you to the Card­ing­ton Town­ship Trustees, and to those who con­tinue to believe in the need to insure our safety as motorists.

Vicki Ker­man, Con­cerned Cit­i­zens for Your Safety, Cardington

Let­ter to the Editor,

The bill­boards on U.S. 42 are a huge safety haz­ard for motorists. Not only do they present a dis­trac­tion, but they also are a prob­lem for motorists who, should they lose con­trol of their vehi­cle at this dan­ger­ous curve, risk seri­ous injury or death if their vehi­cle runs into one of the steel columns. This places Card­ing­ton Town­ship in severe finan­cial jeop­ardy should any law­suit be filed when (not if) an acci­dent occurs there. The fact that they are ille­gal per Town­ship zon­ing code mag­ni­fies the finan­cial risk to the Township.

The State High­way Patrol has doc­u­mented the num­ber of acci­dents at this curve in just the last five years. There have been 21 acci­dents there since 2007, includ­ing one fatal­ity. How sad! To be com­pound­ing an already-dangerous curve with a sig­nif­i­cant safety haz­ard sim­ply does not make sense.

It is in the best inter­est of both Town­ship and County res­i­dents that these bill­boards be removed. Our offi­cials should do what­ever is nec­es­sary to make that hap­pen. Each day which goes by with the bill­boards on the site only increases the prob­a­bil­ity of a seri­ous acci­dent hap­pen­ing, and exposes the Town­ship to the pos­si­bil­ity of expen­sive litigation.

A year-by-year tally of the acci­dents is avail­able on www.billboardsafety.org at the “Lat­est News” tab.
Barb Weise, Cardington

Dear Edi­tor,

I attended the Card­ing­ton Trustees meet­ing on Mon­day 8/13 . I appre­ci­ated that I was per­mit­ted to voice my con­cerns over the safety haz­ard the bill­board at the U.S. 42 curve presents. Their jus­ti­fi­ca­tion was that this sign would pro­mote our town. Now I feel, con­sid­er­ing the legal issues involved that, the only state­ment left to make is this: “Lind Media, tear down this sign”

Please voice your con­cerns regard­ing this issue to the Card­ing­ton Town­ship trustees, remind­ing them that the town­ship is zoned for our pro­tec­tion. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion and updates please see the web site: Billboardsafety.org

Linda Har­vey, Cardington

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Aug 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.