{"id":77587,"date":"2016-06-28T08:53:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T13:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=77587"},"modified":"2016-06-29T08:13:32","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:13:32","slug":"vw-city-council-splits-but-oks-speed-hike-on-westwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2016\/06\/28\/vw-city-council-splits-but-oks-speed-hike-on-westwood\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council OKs Westwood speed hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert City Council split on the issue of raising the speed limit on Westwood Drive, but voted 5-2 to approve legislation that would increase the speed limit to 35 mph on a portion of the street from Ervin to Fox roads.<\/p>\n

\"Van<\/a>
Van Wert County Humane Society President Brenda Hoffman talks about the city’s burgeoning cat population.<\/strong> (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prior to the vote, local attorney Aaron Baker, who has his offices in that portion of Westwood Drive, said he supported raising the speed limit to 35 mph on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m of the opinion that 35 mph is reasonable for that street,\u201d Baker told Council, adding he has not seen any problems\u00a0on Westwood\u00a0in the six years he has had offices there.<\/p>\n

He said the issue has been exacerbated by \u201cspeed trap\u201d activities by troopers from the local Ohio State Highway Patrol post on Westwood that has added significantly to an already-clogged Van Wert Municipal Court docket.<\/p>\n

Council members voting for the speed increase include Streets and Alleys Committee Chair Steve Trittschuh, First Ward Councilman John Marshall, Third Ward Councilman Ken Markward, and Councilmen At-Large Fred Fisher and Warren Straley. Those opposed included Second Ward Councilman Joi Mergy, who said before the vote she felt the issue in not raising the speed limit was primarily one of safety, and Councilman At-Large Jon Tomlinson.<\/p>\n

In other legislative action, City Council also unanimously approved the tax budget for 2017 and also confirmed Nicholas \u201cSticky\u201d Rammel and VWHS Principal Bob Priest as city representatives on the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

Also speaking at Monday\u2019s Council meeting was Van Wert County Humane Society President Brenda Hoffman, who requested $1,000 from the city to help fund a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program that would provide better control for Van Wert\u2019s large cat population.<\/p>\n

Hoffman noted that there has been an \u201cexplosion\u201d in the city\u2019s cat population, which is mirrored by the fact the local humane shelter currently has 54 cats in an area originally meant to hold 18 animals. She added that an informal survey of the community found more than 200 cats in plain sight, not counting those animals hiding from surveyors.<\/p>\n

Hoffman also added that this was the first year she has seen young kittens being dumped into the community.<\/p>\n

The TNR program would set traps to catch cats in a particular area over a two-day period, with residents of the affected area notified by door hangers. Cats caught in the traps would then be neutered and later released into the area from which they were taken.<\/p>\n

Hoffman said euthanizing the cats could have negative effects on the area in which they were found.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get rid of them, you cause what is called a \u2018vacuum effect\u2019 and you are going to be inviting something a lot worse than the neighborhood cats,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

Council President Pete Weir assigned the Humane Society request to the Finance Committee for further action.<\/p>\n

During his report, Mayor Jerry Mazur said he, Marshall, and Law Director John Hatcher would be touring the city on Wednesday afternoon to identify residences where code violations are occurring. The tour is part of the mayor\u2019s and Marshall\u2019s efforts to enforce weed and junk ordinances within the city.<\/p>\n

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming talked about a Municipal Building telephone system crash on Monday that hampered city workers in doing their jobs, while noting that the building\u2019s 13-year-old phone system needed to be replaced.<\/p>\n

Fleming also reminded city residents that the Ervin Road\/Washington Street intersection would be closed starting July 5 and remain closed for 40 days as contractors work in the area, and noted that paving could be completed around the Franklin Park site by the end of the week.<\/p>\n

The safety-service director also commended Water Department workers for renovations they completed in the water office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert City Council split on the issue of raising the speed limit on Westwood Drive, but voted 5-2 to approve legislation that would increase the speed limit to 35 mph on a portion of the street from Ervin to Fox roads. Prior to the vote, local attorney Aaron Baker, who has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 19:47:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}