Lorain Council approves spending for west side gateway revamp

LORAIN — In a near duplicate of what was going on at Amherst's City Council meeting, Lorain City Council gave the green light for the preliminary engineering agreement for the Lorain/Amherst Western Gateway Improvement Project split with the city of Amherst. Of the three designs pitched between the cities, Lorain chose Bramhall Engineering's plan for roundabouts at the intersections of Oak Point Road, Cooper Foster Park and Route 2 with North Lake Street. Lorain's portion of the preliminary engineering agreement is $314,250 and will be paid with tax incremental financing from Deerfield Estates. The total project will cost about $14 million, not including any other infrastructure upgrades made during construction. According to traffic studies presented at several public meetings between the two cities, the roundabout option cut queue times for the congested area drastically. Bramhall's preliminary engineering will include the design of the roundabouts, including their shape, number of lanes and securing approval from the Ohio Department of Transportation. Amherst's Finance Committee approved the plan Monday, and it will go to full Council next week. In other business Council also updated where residents can operate snowmobiles, ATVs and dirtbikes, prohibiting the off-road vehicles on residential properties less than 10 square acres, or on any property within 250 feet of a building, street, highway or property line. Council withdrew an increase in the police chief's salary after a lengthy executive session. The proposal would have given Chief Jim McCann a $34,000 raise under a new compensation formula meant to make sure he was paid more than the captains and officers serving below him by changing the formula for his salary. For 2021, police Capt. Mike Failing earned $170,091, followed by McCann with $166,122. The chief is not currently eligible for overtime. The proposed formula would have seen McCann be paid the base salary of the patrol captain, plus the base salary of the operations captain for the previous year divided by two, plus the gross overtime paid to those captains divided by two, plus the gross on-call incentive bonus for those captains divided by two, plus 16 percent of the total sum. The chief would also have been given overtime for work done to secure grants. Tony Dimacchia, D-at large, said the item was ultimately withdrawn because the formula still needs work, but he expects a new draft to go before Council at a later date. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.