Ohio Department of Transportation pledges support for
 “Waverly South Connector” Project

After submitting an application to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s “Transportation Review Advisory Committee”, (TRAC) requesting funding for the City’s planned “Waverly South Connector” project in December of last year; the City received an interesting reply.  In a one page letter dated December 23, 2004 from ODOT Director, Gordon Proctor, the City was informed that ODOT was denying the application for financial assistance from the “TRAC” Program, but that ODOT pledged to provide $4.1 million to the project from the ODOT “Small Cities” Program. The letter also went on to report that ODOT would be taking over the administration and project management of the roadway plan, beginning with the Environmental Review Process, scheduled to occur this summer.  This announcement was substantial in that the City’s own planning staff would have been hard pressed to complete the task.

The “Waverly South Connector” has been in the planning stages since September of 2002. In May of 2002 the Waverly City School District announced its plans to relocate from 4 separate locations in downtown Waverly, to one combined campus site on West North Street (St. Rt. 220).   At that point the City needed a plan to provide alternate access to the West end of the City.  The City was also interested in providing additional prime access to a 300 acre undeveloped site in the same area. This site was originally annexed into the City around 1955, but has remained undeveloped due to lack of ingress and egress.

 Following a series of meetings with representatives from the City Government, the City School District, the Ohio Department of Development and the Ohio Department of Transportation, the City submitted a joint application with the County Government and the City School District to the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, (GOA), requesting “Appalachian Regional Commission” grant funds to be used to hire a consulting firm tasked with completing a feasibility study for the City.  The application was approved by GOA and two separate studies were completed in the Summer of 2002.  The studies as completed by R.D. Zande and Associates, Inc.,  provided the City with 10 potential roadway alignments that could be used in order to provide alternate access to the West end of the City.  After careful review by the City’s and ODOT’s planning staff, a preferred alignment was chosen and a preliminary cost estimate of $8.2million was drafted. The project was entitled the “Waverly South Connector”.

 In an attempt to initiate a search for financial support for the project, Waverly Mayor William A. Kelly sought the support of U.S. Congressman Rob Portman (R), US House of Representatives, District 2, who in turn requested appropriations from the Federal Government for the project.  This request was approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by the President in November of 2004 which pledged $922,000.00 from the FY 2005 Department of Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies Bill as part of the Consolidated FY 2005 Appropriations Act. Combined with the pledge of $4.1 million from the Ohio Department of Transportation, the project is now over 50% funded.  Congressman Portman will submit a request for the remainder of funding needed, (3.1 million dollars) in the FY 2006 Appropriations Act.