A resolution asking the Ohio Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit on State Route 51 to 35 mph between Fostoria Road and State Route 579 has been approved by the Lake Township trustees.

The speed limit is currently 55 mph but the resolution says the section of Route 51 that runs through the township has experienced “an increase in traffic use, accidents and developmental pressures.”

The trustees are asking ODOT to conduct a traffic speed study of the stretch of Route 51 between Fostoria Road and Route 579 and Richard Welling, a trustee, repeated  the board of trustees is still not giving up on having a traffic signal installed at the intersection of Route 51 and Millbury Road.

At the trustees’ June 2 meeting, representatives of ODOT said the number of accidents at the Millbury Road/Route 51 intersection doesn’t meet criteria set in the Ohio Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for installing a traffic light.

David Dysard, ODOT District Director, said a traffic signal at the intersection could even make it less safe.

According to ODOT data, there were two crashes at the intersection in 2005; one in 2006; none in 2007; one in 2008, and one this year on May 26. Three of the crashes involved in drivers who were cited for being impaired by some substance such as alcohol.

The crash history for this year only included a March 6 injury accident at the intersection caused by a driver heading north on Millbury Road not heeding the stop sign. There was, however, a fatal accident May 3 west of the intersection involving three vehicles.

The resolution states that “…current business and residential development along State Route 51 is more conducive to that of an urban roadway and requires the lower speed limits in place on the western section of State Route 51 in Northern Wood County,”

In other business, the trustees informally agreed to seek renewal of a 1-mill, 5-year levy that funds fire department operations.

The levy expires at the end of the year.

The trustees agreed to proceed with the required resolutions to place the levy on the November ballot.

Voters in 2004 approved the levy by a wide margin – 3,703 for to 1,986 against, according to results compiled by the Wood County Board of Elections.

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