Published Thursday, September 12, 2002
MERCER COUNTY
for road to new jail
By Tom Fontaine
Herald Staff Writer
Despite the complaints of residents, the safest way into a 265-bed county jail that is to be built along state Route 258 in Findley Township would be Thompson Road, according to Mercer County Prison Board members.
Board members voted Tuesday to approve placing the jail's entrance at the mouth of Thompson Road.
The vote clears the way for the county to begin seeking contractors this winter for the estimated $17 million project and for work to begin in the spring. Work is expected to last 18 months, pushing the targeted completion date to late 2004 -- a year later than initially anticipated.
Board members had looked at alternatives to a Thompson Road entrance -- as some residents of the narrow, one-way road pushed for and demanded one.
Board members thought they had found a remedy to the situation about two months ago, when the county purchased an additional 15 acres next to the jail site for $50,000.
Mercer County Commissioner and prison board member Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman said then that the land, which nearly doubled the size of the site to 30 acres, would allow the county to move the jail's access road.
But that plan hit a snag.
PennDOT, which conducted a traffic study along state Route 258, said the Thompson Road access would be safer than a proposed one nearly 250 feet east of Thompson Road.
The line of sight from the crest of a hill on state Route 258 to Thompson Road is 875 feet, compared to 641 feet from the crest to the proposed access road.
The speed limit along state Route 258 is 55 mph. According to the traffic study, 85 percent of the cars clocked on the stretch of road travel 59 mph or less and the average speed is 54. In addition to the speed of the traffic, one road cutting onto state Route 258 would be safer than two roads in the 875-foot stretch, PennDOT determined.
"I had been against this (Thompson Road access) and thought that when we purchased the extra land we would be able to move the access road," said county Commissioner and prison board member Kenneth Seamans. "But I went out to the site and, honestly in my mind, this is the safest thing we can do ..."