At the June 13th, 2022 meeting, the Mount Vernon City Council passed ORD. 2022-22, regarding the installation of accessible crosswalk signals during the construction of new, or reconstruction of existing intersections. This legislation was created as a direct response to concern from community members about the accessibility of our city for the visually impared.
“We pride ourselves on being a walkable community and this fits perfectly with the Complete Streets legislation we passed in 2021. My goal continues to be making Mount Vernon a welcoming place for everyone,” said Councilwoman Amber Keener. “After a news report was done by NBC4 out of Columbus it was clear we could do better and work towards a more accessible community.”
The policy will work to improve the city’s response in a financially sustainable way. There are simply limited funds to make widespread changes, but with this method the future will be more visitor and resident friendly.
In September 2021, Councilwoman Amber Keener began the process to bring this legislation to council. “I’m very proud that within eight months of being made aware of this issue facing some of our citizens we were able to bring about an Ordinance to begin to make corrections. This is what being, “All things Mount Vernon” is all about!