Lucas County to pay for Springfield schools student parking

1/30/2013
BY DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Springfield Local Schools will build two new rows of student parking at Lucas County's expense to replace spaces lost because of the upcoming McCord Road Underpass construction under a deal the district board of education approved tonight.

The school board voted to accept a $773,820 offer from the county engineer's office that will pay the district for both a permanent land take to build a traffic roundabout at McCord and Hall Street and a temporary easement needed for a railroad shoofly during the underpass construction.

Construction of the shoofly, a temporary route for the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks to bypass the underpass site, is expected to start early next year. It will occupy the northerly 70 feet of school district property abutting the railroad line until after the underpass opens, scheduled for 2016 or 2017.

The affected property now is part of the district's bus lot and part of the student parking lot at Springfield High School. School board chairman Kenneth Musch explained that the lost bus-lot space will be taken from the existing student lot, while one new row will be added to that lot's east end and a new lot, with several dozen parking spaces, will be built just west of the high schools' football stadium.

"It will be a little farther for some of them [students] to walk, but it will be there for them," Mr. Musch said.

Two inches of reinforcing pavement and engine-block heaters will be added to the area to be used by buses.

"It's not going to cost the taxpayers of Springfield Local Schools any money for that," Mr. Musch said, noting that the school district's work has to start this year for the land to be ready for the railroad construction to start on time.

"The railroad wants at least 9 to 10 months of settlement" of the roadbed before the temporary tracks can be built, he said -- and until the temporary tracks are operational, underpass construction can't start.

The roundabout will take a small bite from a corner of school property at McCord and Hall, but won't affect the tennis courts there, the board chairman said. Once the project is finished, he said, the county money also will pay to restore the shoofly site to its previous condition.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.