NIMBY's at it again..........

For years now, the little town of Sliver Lake OH(northeast of Cuyahoga Falls OH, South East of Stow) Has complained about one thing other another. Normally about the State Highway and CR Railline on the west side of town.

Both Highway and Railline were built LONG before houses came up to it. the Railline is the old Cleveland Akron & Columbus route built in the late 1870's, The highway dates to the 1960/70's on the East side of the Highway is Silver Lake and the west side Cuyahoga Falls. well in the mid 1990's Silver Lake's complainging about RT8 had goten so bad that the State of Ohio errected a soundwall, the soundwall was placed before the tracks however because of the fact CR only ran 2 trains a month on the line and was gradually scaling down to the point where the ended use of the line in the late 1990's and sold it to the Summit County Port Athority (METRO) for future possible use as a comutter corridor.

One would think that Silver Lake would be happy the soundwall was errected, but after a short time complaints started again, This time they were complaining about the fact that the Cuyahoga Falls side of the soundwall was built higher than theyer side and sounds were being reflected over they're side. So once again the state of Ohio paid to raise the Silver Lake soundwall.

Advance time to 2000. Metro is considering turning the line into a Commuter line betwen Akron and Cleveland with a future extension to Canton. A committee is formed. Unfortunately none other than the Mayor of Silver Lake becomes the head of this comittee. Despite OVERWHELMING support from most the towns this line would run though (with the lone exception of Silver Lake off course) the Comittee takes a private vote with only a faction of the members and votes the Comutter Rail down. Sighting it would hurt the many to serve the few. Needless to say supporting towns (Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Akron, Hudson, Kent, and several smaller towns around Cleveland) are angry.

Advance to present day. a Dinner train company decides it wants to run a dinner train over the line. Like usual towns the line goes though (Cuyahoga Falls, Stow and Hudson) are all for this venture. however. once again we have Silver Lake at its act again.

Finally here is a recent news story about it all that was in the Cuyahoga Falls News Press

Village Council engineers opposition to theater train.

by Don Jovich
Reporter
SILVER LAKE - Village Coun-cil is attempting to stop the operation of a dinner theater excursion train on the rail line within the village of Silver Lake.
After two hours of delibera-tion in an executive session Thursday, Council unanimous-ly passed a resolution authoriz-ing solicitor Robert Heydom to commence with legal action in preventing a dinner train theater which would be operated by the Adrian and Blissfield Railroad Co. of Michigan.
"We have a pressing prob-lem," said Council President Duane Scott prior to entering the session.
Earlier this year, Metro Regional Transit Authority passed a resolution to enter into a lease agreement with the Adrian and Blissfield Railroad Co. for the company to operate a dinner theater excursion train on the railway existing on the western border of the village.
According to Council, the operation of such a train would be contrary to the zoning codes of the village. '
"The zoning laws do not allow commercial ventures, with the exception of Silver Lake Florist, within the vil-lage," said councilman Bemie Hovey (At-Large).
Hovey explained the new resolution enacted by village Council would be consistent with the current zoning laws in Silver Lake.
The railway property in question stretches from Cuyahoga Falls to Hudson. The Adrian-Blissfield Railroad has already agreed to pay all of the costs involved to bring the tracks up to standard.
According to METRO offi-cials, there will be some signal repair and needed upgrades to the railroad tracks and some railroad tie replacement to be done by the railroad company.
The cost for the work will be credited against the lease pay-ment.
In the last Silver Lake newsletter, Mayor Dr. Warner Mendenhall said, "AB Railroad expects to begin operation in September 2002 with one four-car train per week. The even-tual plan is to run the dinner train four or five evenings per week with additional trains running as needed for special. events."
A previous resolution passed by Council June 18, 2001, states Silver Lake, "without reservation is opposed to the
commuter rail and any other rail traffic that may restart from the action taken in response to the Canton-Akron-Cleveland inter-regional travel corridor major investment study."
Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don L. Robart said the city favors the plan and has been speaking with affected parties for about six months.
"We are supportive of the concept," said Robart in response to a question at Mon-day night's City Council meet-ing.
He added the dinner theater plan would not be held to the same scrutiny as the earlier proposal for a commuter rail.
The next regular meeting of Silver Lake Village Council will be Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. All meetings convene at Village Hall, 2961 Kent Road.
E-mail: djovich@recordpub.net Phone: 330-688-0088, ext. 3141

 

I suggest the state build a 50 foot high wall coupletely surounding Silver Lake with no entrance or exit doors. Then just let them suffer. It seems like that is what they want anyway.

 

I don't know how it would apply to this case, but in the past, towns have been stopped from regulating railroad in their limits because they were in essence interrupting interstate commerce and that the national interest was greater than one town's. Like I said, however, this is hardly "interstate commerce" so I guess time will tell how it's sorted out.

 

Silver Lake should be renamed Mercury Lake.
It's poisoning people.

 

Guys, I've done work in Silver Lake. It is a tiny, semi-private community filled with your typical hoyty-toyty tight hineys. There are very few homes there worth less than $350,000. The surrounding communities need to start threatening Silver Lake with annexation. It CAN be done! But is it worth the legal mess? Probably not. The whole thing SUCKS!

 

that whole town is a mess. in fact kids in the town are given a choice of going to eather Cuyahoga Falls or Stow High School.

Utilitys are also a real mess.

 

If I remember correctly, aren't there only a couple of ways to get in and out of there because they blocked off some roads or streets to make it a more private community?

 

the only streets I can think of are everything facing the falls. due to Rt 8. but other than that I cant think of any other blocked streets. Although alot of the streets even though they're public they say "Private Drive" or "Through Traffic Prohibited"

 

Maybe that's what I am remembering. I used to install auto glass and frequented the Akron/Canton area back in the early 90's. I remember one guy in particular who lived there in Silver Lake called to have his windshield replaced. When I got to his house he told me he was late for a golf game and insisted I follow him to Firestone Country Club to do it there. I refused, but he called my office and whined so my office told me to do it anyway. What a jerk!
Put me behind schedule by about 2 hours for the whole day. I'll never forget it. The town if packed with self centered idiots like that. I can't remember one positive experience doing business there in Silver Lake.

 

WARREN OR ANYONE WITH A GRUDGE (HA! HA!), NEXT TIME THAT SHOULD EVER HAPPEN, TAKE A KID'S 25 CENT PLASTIC WHISTLE AND SCOTCH TAPE IT TO THE GRILL FACING OUTWARD.

THE FASTER THEY GO...................

 

I always preferred not sealing the section along the top of the windshield right above their lap

 

My friends at the bike shop do this to guys with 10,000 dollar paint jobs on their tanks.
It works well on cars too! Also on the sides of tires!

Take a flat ended screw or cut the point off one, and take some harmless glue and stick it onto someone's vehicle and then point it out to them freaking out about it!
It looks like the screw is sticking out of the car!