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Township may vacate unpaved alleys
(by Sean Lehosit, Staff Writer - October 14, 2010)
The Franklin Township Road Department has their eye on dedicated, but unimproved, alleys that lay mostly unseen within township neighborhoods.
According to Supervisor of the Road Department, Jim Stevens, these unimproved alleys, meaning they are unpaved, have fallen through the cracks and would prove difficult to properly maintain.
“We have a lot of alleys in our township,” Stevens said.
Many of these alleys have been overlooked and suffer a lack of upkeep. However, the road department has a plan to deal with these unimproved alleys and during the Sept. 30 Board of Trustees meeting, suggested that board members begin investigating these particular areas.
Trustee Chairman Timothy Guyton added that he has been asking about these alleys for a while. He would like to vacate all these unimproved alleys, which would result in an increase in resident’s land property.
“Our goal is to simply get inventory off our books, we don’t maintain it anyway,” Stevens said.
He added that because the vacation of alleyways would extend a resident’s yard, they can help maintain the area from things such as overgrown brush or trees. “This is the direction I’d like to go with it as we find these areas.”
Since alleys are generally 10 feet in length, if the township were to vacate these spots, each attaching resident would gain five feet of additional land from the alleyway.
While the board continues to look into this issue, Guyton added that all affected residents would be notified by mail before any action was taken. Additionally, all affected residents would have the option of petitioning the vacation.
“If one person in the affected area says no, it doesn’t happen,” Guyton said.
New police cruisers
Trustees also passed a resolution to purchase two new police vehicles, which Police Chief Jim Timko previously announced he was looking to purchase to help relieve the four present police vehicles, which have been racking up mileage.
The police department will be purchasing two, 2011 model Crown Victorians, for $28,478 for each vehicle. Both vehicles will be fully equipped, including plastic seats in the rear to give more space and to help with cleaning the backseat, for instance, after transporting drunken detainees.
According to Timko they are getting the vehicles at state purchasing price, but there will be a separate price attached to the police striping which will need to be done.
Leaf pick-up
Stevens also announced to residents the township will begin their autumn leaf pick-ups from Nov. 8 through Dec. 3. During this time there will be a suspension of brush pick-up.
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