By Ris Twigg
Staff Writer
Obetz Village Council approved an emergency ordinance amendment to clarify the village’s tax filing position for the 2019 tax year during the Feb. 24 meeting.
Obetz Village Administrator Rod Davisson said earlier this year he heard from a worker who informed Davisson that the village’s codified ordinance stated all residents must file income taxes with the village, which alerted him to the codified error.
“Most places require you to do it. We just don’t,” Davisson said. ”But when we adopted our income tax ordinance we accidentally left it in there. When the state came out with its income tax language, we missed the filing requirements. This is fixing our current ordinance, which is an adaptation of the state.”
Now the majority of workers in Obetz will not have to file income taxes with the village. If the ordinance didn’t pass, Davisson said every person living or working in Obetz would have had to file with the village.
Council also passed an ordinance allowing the director of finance to make payment on a year-long contract the village of Obetz has with MLG Capital Consulting, Inc., a group that’s working on a project in the southwest part of town.
“We signed a year-long contract with them, but we funded it for six months. The six months expired in December. I forgot about it, so they worked in January,” Davisson said.
Alum Creek Drive and Bixby Road
Alum Creek Drive at Bixby Road is getting a facelift — for safety reasons.
Safety improvements to the intersection were discussed by council and at a public meeting held on Feb. 25 by the Franklin County Engineer’s office.
Currently, folks traveling on Bixby Road can cross Alum Creek Drive — a roadway that’s heavily traveled by semi-trucks at speeds of up to 60 mph or more — to get to the other side of Bixby.
But Alum Creek Drive is four lanes wide, with hardly a space wide enough for one car to fit in the median. Many drivers end up with the head and tail ends of their vehicles poking out into incoming traffic on both sides. This has caused at least one fatality and several wrecks at this one intersection alone, Davisson said.
“The traffic on Alum Creek is almost as heavy as the traffic on I-270,” Davisson said. “They’re going to hard-barrier Alum Creek Drive so people cannot cross.”
For the residents living on Bixby Road, this means adding an additional detour to get home by traveling up Alum Creek Drive to Groveport Road, and then getting back on Bixby.
“(The safety improvements) are not our call. We don’t control Alum Creek. It’s purely the county engineer, ” Davisson said.
When the 43-acres of e-commerce development is built at the corner of Bixby Road and Alum Creek Drive, Obetz plans to pave a road through the development that connects Bixby Road to Toy Road. This will allow residents living on Bixby Road to access and travel on a safe, signalized intersection to get home and not have to make a major detour, Davisson said.
“We really don’t want people to get hurt. This crossing is lights-out dangerous,” he said.
For information on the Alum Creek Drive at Bixby Road Safety Improvement Project, contact Ted Beidler, a mobility engineer for Franklin County, at 614-525-6157 or tbeidler@franklincountyengineer.org.
Bixby Grove
Council approved the final plat for the Bixby Grove subdivision, which involves approximately 37 lots on the south side of the subdivision.
Part of the approval requires the homebuilders upgrade the playground, put in landscaping, fix street lighting and complete sidewalks in the development within one year.
“According to the ordinance, should they not be able to complete these conditions within the year, then we will not be issuing them building permits,” said Obetz Community Services Director Stacey Boumis. “So it gives them adequate time to get those completed.”
