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THE ROAD LESS DRIVEN Fort Shawnee Mayor: Road Leads to Loss: Potential Businesses Lost at Industrial Park Because Road Incomplete

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 12:10 CDT

By Heather Rutz, The Lima News, Ohio

May 19--FORT SHAWNEE -- A riddle: What Allen County road goes nowhere, and does it from two directions?

Answer: Fort Shawnee Industrial Drive.

Mayor Dennis Shaffer is tired of it and is making that known. The road, home to several manufacturers and a motorcycle store, starts from two directions, from Breese Road and McClain Road, but was never finished in the middle, creating two dead-end roads.

Shaffer said the village has lost a buyer for the former 84 Lumber building and a developer of a medical office building because the road doesn't go through.

"It's like a half-finished house," Shaffer said. "Could you sell a half-finished house?"

In 2000, when the road was built, county officials said the road would be finished when needed. Shaffer said county officials have now told him the money isn't there right now.

Commissioner Dan Reiff added another reason Thursday. The Ohio Department of Transportation will eventually reconfigure the intersection of Interstate 75 and Breese Road as part of a large revamping of the 75 from Auglaize County to the Bluelick Road interchange.

That reconfiguring could take out part of the existing Fort Shawnee Industrial Drive, so officials are leery to add to a road that could be changed.

The state hasn't yet decided on a design for the interchange, ODOT Engineer Kirk Slusher said, but the entire stretch will end up with six lanes. Construction won't start until 2012, but the state has already held a public meeting about the project and could be finished finalizing alternative designs by late summer or early fall, Slusher said.

The industrial drive's original cost was shared by the county and village. Shaffer doesn't think it would cost much to finish it, compared to other projects. At a Village Council meeting earlier this week, Shaffer urged fellow officials to step up the pressure to get it done.

"When you talk to those boys, put that word in up, down and sideways, because it needs to be done."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lima News, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Unknown:LBR,

Source: The Lima News

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