This Issue:


Gene Esser, Announces
Resignation

SAFETEA - Link
 
CEAO Seeks Your Input
to Assist ARTBA

Work Zone Traffic
Control Pocket Sized
User's Guide

Express Your Thoughts
To Congress

Bush Administration
requests $29.3 Billion
for Highway Program

Local Governments
Wade in on Federal
Gas Tax Increases

House Committee
Plan to Help Failing
Transportation System

Taft Seeks $17.5
Million in Homeland
Security Funds

Students Develop
Way to Compost
Roadkill

Lockport Covered
Bridge

Calendar of Events

E-Newsletter Registration
 

LTAP Announces Summer Equipment Training   for Local Agencies!

For years, The Ohio Department of Transportation has provided high-quality
training on equipment-related topics to ODOT employees statewide. This summer,
some of ODOT’s equipment training courses will be made available for the first time to
county, township, and municipal employees through Ohio’s Local Technical Assistance
Program (LTAP).

Two types of training are being offered:

Equipment-Related Training at Regional Sites – Courses providing basic instruction
on several equipment-related topics will be held at ODOT’s five regional training sites
(NW – Beaverdam, NE – Ashland, SW – Lebanon, SE – Noble County, and Central –
Columbus). These courses are primarily classroom-based, although several involve use
of portable equipment for demonstration purposes. Topics for Summer 2003 include:
CDL Prep. Course, Chainsaw Maintenance, Grade Checking, Load Securement, and
Trenching Safety.

Hands-On Equipment Training at Your Agency – You provide the equipment, facility
and employees to be trained (up to the maximum safe number indicated for each type of
equipment). We provide one of ODOT’s experienced trainers to conduct hands-on
equipment training at your facility, using the specific equipment your employees will be
working with as part of their jobs! Available courses include: Chipper, Bucket Truck,
Fork Lift and Roadside Mowing.

Training dates are still open for June through August. For more information about course
content and registration, please contact Ohio LTAP at (614) 387-7359 or toll-free at (877)
800-0031. Detailed announcement fliers for the equipment training can also be viewed
and printed by visiting the LTAP web site: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/LTAP/

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Summit County Engineer Gene Esser, Announces Resignation "It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Summit County. I have enjoyed being County Engineer and have found it to be extremely fulfilling and challenging..."

Summit County Engineer Gene Esser, who has directed the Summit County Engineer’s
office for the last seven years, announces that he will be leaving public office on June 15,
2003 to pursue an opportunity in the private sector.  Gene states, “It has been an honor
to serve the citizens of Summit County. I have enjoyed being County Engineer and have
found it to be extremely fulfilling and challenging; however, I will move on and allow others
to share in the opportunity to serve the public.” 

Gene has been an active member of the CEAO throughout his career as Summit County
Engineer by serving on the CEAO Board of Directors, chairing and participating on
numerous CEAO committees.  In addition to his local contributions, Gene has been active
on the national level.  Gene currently is the Northeast Region Vice President for the National
Association of Counties and has served on the National Association of Counties Transportation
Committee.   

Gene is leaving the position to his Chief Deputy, David E. Marquard, P.E., P.S. who has been
with him since 1999.  David has been practicing engineering for over 26 years and has been with
the County Engineer's Office for approximately four years. 

Please join us in wishing Gene the best of luck in his new endeavor!  

Additional information will be found on the Summit County Website at
www.engineer.co.summit.oh.us

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SAFETEA - Safe, Accountable, Flexible,
and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003

Go here for details, www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/safetea.htm

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CEAO Seeks You Input to Assist ARTBA in Preparing a
Local Road Safety Report

ARTBA (American Road & Transportation Builders Association) is revising a report on
local road safety, to be used to lobby for a $1 billion per year local road safety program. 
In reviewing a previous draft report on the subject, ARTBA thought it lacked the
“personal touch” needed to bring the importance of the issue home to the reader.  To be
specific, they are hoping to add a few examples of “dangerous local roads” (roads that
have a history of fatal or serious accidents) due to roadway factors – sharp curves
vertical or horizontal); narrow or missing shoulders; inadequate separation between
lanes; insufficient allowances for merging traffic, etc.

If your county has a good example of a “dangerous local road” that could be (or has
been) made safer if more construction funding were available, please send a short
description of the road, including:

• Its name and location
• Its accident history
• What roadway feature makes the road “dangerous"
• Why current funding sources can’t deal with the problem (if applicable)

If need be, ARTBA can “fictionalize” the road to avoid liability concerns. 
Send your response to Mike Martin at mmartin@artba.org

We have done well here in Ohio in obtaining additional funds, now we need to turn
our focus to Washington and the re-authorization of federal highway legislation.

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Washington Notes

Express Your Thoughts To Congress

The members of Congress always appreciate hearing from their districts.  While e-mail is
easy to use, this form of communication overwhelms the Congressional offices.  We have
found that the most effective way of communicating with your Congressman or Senator
is by letter or fax.  We have included a list of Ohio’s US Representatives and US Senators
and their addresses and fax numbers.  Reach out to them while they are in DC and also
when they come back to their district.

 

• Link to Ohio State Senators: http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/index.html

• Link to Ohio House of Representatives: http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/
  Directory.jsp

• Link to United States Representatives: http://www.house.gov/house/Member
  WWW_by_State.html#oh
  
   

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Bush Administration requests $29.3 Billion for FY 2004 Highway Program

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta told members of the House Transportation
Appropriations Subcommittee that the Bush Administration is requesting a core highway
investment level of $29.3 billion in FY 2004—the FY 2003 funding level is $31.6 billion.
Congress April 11 approved a budget resolution that calls for a $33.8 billion FY 2004
highway investment level. Mineta said the Administration is proposing to spend down
the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) balance by $1 billion per year more than the trust fund's
projected revenue stream and transfer the 2.5 cents per gallon of the gasohol excise tax
from the federal General Fund to the HTF. Mineta reiterated that the Administration is
opposed to increasing the federal motor fuels tax and indexing the tax to inflation. The
Administration's TEA-21 reauthorization plan is expected to be unveiled soon. Mineta's
testimony is available at www.dot.gov.

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Local Governments Wade in on Federal Gas Tax Increases

Governors, mayors and county officials from across the country testified May 7 before
the House Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee in support of various
measures to increase federal transportation investment to improve safety and
congestion—including increasing the federal gas tax and spending down the HTF
balance. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) called a federal gas tax increase
"appropriate, long overdue and essential." Mayor William Brooks of Belle Isle, Florida,
speaking on behalf of the National League of Cities, said his organization supports
raising the federal gas tax and fully compensating the HTF for ethanol use. Kentucky
Governor Paul Patton (D) testified he supports indexing the federal gas tax to inflation
and said federal transportation investment would help stimulate the economy. Michigan
Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) also indicated her support for indexing the gas tax to
inflation and recapturing lost interest from the HTF. For more information visit
www.house.gov/transportation.

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House Committee Plan to Help Failing Transportation System and Ailing Economy

Washington, D.C. [May 13, 2003]—A proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives to
increase federal highway and public transportation investment would provide a major
boost to the American economy by adding $290 billion to the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) over the next six years, according to an analysis just released.

The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I)
Committee has proposed a $375 billion highway and transit investment plan for fiscal
years 2004-09 as part of the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century (TEA-21). The $375 billion is the funding level derived from the U.S. Department
of Transportation 2002"Conditions & Performance Report" as necessary to maintain and
begin to improve the nation's surface transportation network.  The House Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee Web: www.house.gov/transportation

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Contact: Dick Kimmins, Ohio EMA, at (614) 799-3695; or Jeff Grayson, Dept. of Public
Safety, at (614) 466-4344.

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Students Receive Science Award for Developing Way to
Compost Roadkill

The "Now You See It, Now You Don't'' project tickled the fancy of the judges for a
national science competition so much that they're giving four Columbus students a
free Disney World vacation, plus a shot at $36,000 in scholarships and a $25,000
grant.

The students created the project for the Christopher Columbus Awards competition,
held annually to encourage middle-school students to explore scientific solutions to
community problems. After hearing about the overpopulation of deer in Ohio and studying
landfills, they settled on the composting idea.

Field trips to the Kurtz Brothers composting and Ohio State University composting-
research center in Wooster gave the students the knowledge to set up three compost
piles in November. They packed sawdust and yard waste around a roadkill groundhog in
one. In another, they placed a dead cat in a pile of yard waste. In a third, they laid two
euphonized dogs in a pile of ground-up wood pallets. For more than a month, they
monitored the temperatures, acidity levels and moisture content of the piles. Then they
uncovered the animals and weighed them.

"The groundhog was flat as a pancake,'' one student said. Fur and bones so brittle that
you could crush them between your fingers were all that remained of that and the cat;
about half of the dogs' bodies were decomposed.

Composting, the students concluded, is a simple, environmentally safe way to dispose
of animal carcasses. OSU researchers have concluded that sawdust is the best
composting medium to use with carcasses -- no odor or contamination is created, and
the dead animals disintegrate completely within months.

A mortality-compost site in Wooster is used to compost some of the more than 11,000
deer killed yearly on Ohio roads. The students hope if they win the top prize in the
competition -- a $25,000 grant to put their project into action -- that composting animals
will become common in Ohio.


Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch
May 5th, 2003

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Lockport Covered Bridge   Click to enlarge     Completed on June 19th, 1999, the Lockport Covered Bridge is located in Williams County, Ohio. Williams County officials replaced an old steel truss bridge with a historic reminder of the covered bridge that stood in the same spot in 1860. The Lockport Covered Bridge is 30 feet wide and 167 feet long and spans the Tiffin River. Constructed with a Side Howe truss design, this bridge will support tractor trailer rigs and arm machinery. With the exception of concrete abutments, piers and some steel tension wires the bridge is completely fashioned from wood. There is a tin roof and pedestrian walkway on one side of the bridge. The Williams County bridge received an Award of Merit from the 2002 Timber Bridge Awards. Directions:  In Springfield Township, from Stryker go north on S.R. 2, go ½ mile to County Road 21/N turn left on 21/N go north 2 miles.  Bridge will be on the right side

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County Engineers Association of Ohio

37 West Broad Street  Suite 660

Columbus, Ohio  43215-4132

614 221 0707 

614 221 5761 (fax)
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