Who is responsible for the chronic ice problem in Peters?
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Tuscany development is on land once owned by the Menichi family.
There is a 30-foot puddle that is several inches deep on the left shoulder of Justabout Road, across from the entrance of Simmons Farm in Peters Township, that appears more often than the buzzards return to Hinkley, Ohio.
But, you can almost set your watch to both. When there is bad weather, like what we have been experiencing, the Justabout Road puddle appears. Sometimes it’s water and sometimes it’s ice. And every March 15, the buzzards return to Hinkley, a suburb of Cleveland.
While the buzzards aren’t a hazard to Peters Township motorists, the Justabout Road ice puddle is. The problem is Justabout Road is a state-owned road, so the township says it is not responsible. The state, meanwhile, claims the overflow problem on Justabout’s shoulder was caused by sewerage line work done by the township and it is not its problem.
“It’s our road, but they are responsible,” said Ray Deep, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation’s District 12 office.
Michael Silvestri, Peters Township manager, said the road problem stems from work being done on a nearby housing development called Tuscany, which features 18 lots varying in size from two to more than seven acres. Tuscany is being developed on land once owned by the Menichi family.
Silvestri said the township has notified the state about the problem. He said it is up to the state to then get in touch with the developer about the issue.
“There needs to be a permanent solution to this issue,” he said.
In the interim, Pete Overcashier, Peters public works director, and his crew will continue to go to Justabout Road on an as-needed basis and clear away the ice and the water.
“There is a low grade, which then flattens out and causes the problem,” Overcashier said. “And we go out with our shovels.”