Findlay makes good on promised safety study

As promised, the city of Findlay will conduct a traffic study of the controversial reconfiguration of Blanchard Street, with data to be collected beginning this fall. In a letter to Findlay City Council dated Aug. 7, City Engineer Jeremy Kalb said the study is meant to determine if the roadway reconfiguration "had a positive or negative impact on traffic flow." City council approved the project in December 2019 despite heavy public opposition over concerns that the changes, which included a dedicated bike path, would make the roadway unsafe. Due to the public concern, council agreed to require a second traffic study within a year of the project's completion. A safety study on the reconfiguration, conducted by the Ohio Department of Transportation in August 2018, stated that it would be safer. The new roadway, complete with signage and traffic signals, was completed in the fall of 2020. "To obtain the most accurate data out in the field, we will not be able to record traffic counts until school is back in session," writes Kalb. "The Engineering Department expects to have the completed traffic study by the end of the year." On Thursday, Kalb said the GPD Group, of Columbus, has been hired to conduct the traffic study, which is expected to cost about $40,000. Since her return to city government, Councilwoman Holly Frische, R-1, has insisted that city officials make good on their promise of a second traffic study. Frische was appointed to council in July 2022 by the Hancock County Republican Party to serve out an unexpired term of Brad Wisener, who was elected to council in November 2021. The term expires in December. Frische is seeking election to represent the city's 1st Ward in November and is unopposed. She was first elected to represent the city's 1st Ward in 2013, and was reelected twice before making an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for Findlay mayor in May 2019. Frische voted against the street project in 2019, as did Councilman Jeff Wobser, R-at-large, and former Councilman Tom Shindledecker, R-at-large. A $1.25 million grant from ODOT paid for the new bike paths on Lincoln and Blanchard streets, and an additional $1.25 million safety grant from ODOT was used to reconfigure Blanchard Street with the goal of making it safer. Findlay's share of both projects was $238,153. On Lincoln Street, a shared-use path — which still functions as a sidewalk — replaced the sidewalk on the north side of Lincoln Street, from South Cory to Blanchard streets. On Blanchard Street, the northbound and southbound curb lanes from Sixth Street to Center Street were converted into 5-foot-wide bike lanes. This section of Blanchard Street was reduced to a three-lane road for motorists: one northbound lane, one southbound lane and a center turn lane.