Monday, September 9, 2013

ELYRIA GETS FINAL APPROVAL ON MALL AREA PROJECT; TWO NEW BUSINESSES OPEN; 9/11 REMEMBRANCE WEDNESDAY

The City of Elyria received fantastic news this afternoon!  The Ohio Turnpike Commission gave the final approval to Elyria’s Route 57/49th St. Bridge Reconfiguration project slated to begin in 2014 and be completed in 2016.  The $28 million infrastructure project will remedy a high crash zone by modifying the existing I-90/SR 57 interchange, incorporating a diamond interchange with traffic signals at ramp intersections that will move 620 feet north, removing the 49th Street Bridge overpass by Midway Mall and the ramps to Griswold Road and Midway Mall Boulevard. It will also widen SR 57 to six lanes between the Ohio Turnpike and I-90, widen Midway Mall Boulevard to four lanes and a left turn lane, bring Griswold Road to current design standards and add sidewalks and relocate the existing frontage roads.  Moreover, there are a number of anticipated job creation and long-term economic benefits to the project as well.  Here are the details:
Project Cost/City Investment:
  • Total anticipated cost: $28 million
  • City of Elyria’s investment: $1,880,369

Vital to Safety and Helpful to Our Economic Future
  • Improvements to safety to remedy high crash zone
  • Improved access/barrier removal between I-90 and the Turnpike
  • Improved access to Midway Mall, local hotels, restaurants and strip retail areas
  • Improved access to industrial park
  • Improves the appears and function of a commercially viable area as demonstrated by new or improved businesses in the past three years: McDonald’s, Olive Garden, Verizon, Chipolte, Hampton Inn and others
  • Aesthetic improvement to City and Mall entrance will retain and expand retail and other development
  • Opens the westside of Elyria to future development of 140 acres
  • Local and regional employment opportunities in construction trades
  • Sales increases to local and in-region construction firms
  • Increase in City of Elyria tax base from construction
  • Serves as a catalyst for the Mall area Redevelopment Plan

Patronize Two New Businesses: Cascade Café and Elyria Recycling

Two new Elyria businesses are celebrating this week with the grand opening of Cascade Café on Broad Street in downtown Elyria and the Re-opening of Elyria Recycling, a subsidiary of PSC Metals, Inc.  Please join me in patronizing these hometown establishments. I enjoyed lunch today at the Cascade Café where the Roig family and staff treated me like their family. The BLT was delicious and soon they will be offering take-out orders. If their opening day on Saturday was any indication with over 200 patrons, the Cascade Café is bound for success!  Have an old car, pop cans, or metal of just about any kind?  You can turn it into cash at Elyria Recycling on Infirmary Road.  Their new state-of-the-art facility includes equipment and technology to reinforce safety, efficiency and make sure that the metals coming into the facility are done so legally; good news for all of us law-abiding citizens.            

9/11 Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony Wednesday
This Wednesday evening September 11, please join organizers Bobbie Sears and Heather Sorg for the third annual 9/11 Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony from 6:00 – 8:30pm on Ely Square.  The rain date is Friday September 13th.  Bring school supplies  for donation to the Lorain County Boys and Girls Club.