Community input will be sought on design renderings
MOUNT VERNON, September 27, 2023 – The City of Mount Vernon will host a public meeting on design renderings for the City’s new Municipal Court Building and new Police Station. At the meeting, attendees will be able to discuss the projects with City officials, ask questions, and provide input. The details of the meeting are as follows:
| Date: | October 5, 2023 |
| Time: | 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. |
| Location: | The Station Break Senior Citizens Center of Knox County 160 Howard St. Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050 |
In the spring of 2022, the City entered into agreements to purchase four property parcels on and near the Public Square for the relocation of the Municipal Court and other City offices. The costs of renovating the Court’s current building at 5 Gay St., built in 1974, and also housing the Police Department and the offices of the City Law Director, had become prohibitively expensive, necessitating the search for a new home for these facilities.
The building at 3 E. High St., now owned by the City, is situated on the northeast side of the Public Square and will be demolished. The City is working with architectural consultants to assure that the new building’s exterior design is in keeping with the downtown’s historical and architectural character. In addition, the current retail spaces at ground level there will be retained and improved. The Municipal Court will go on the second floor and the Probation Department will occupy the third floor, with the Law Director’s offices on the fourth floor.
The Police Department, also now headquartered at 5 Gay St., will be relocating as well. The City owns 2.5 acres at 71 Sychar Road, just south of and across the road from the Hiawatha Water Park, that will eventually become the new home for the Police Department. All the department’s assets will be consolidated there.
After the public meeting on the design proposals for the new Court Building and Police Station there will be a 30-minute break, followed by another public meeting on a proposal to improve South Sandusky Street, or State Route 13, which was previously announced by the City on September 15. That public meeting will run, in the same room at the Station Break, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on October 5.
Those proposed improvements will reconstruct and widen South Sandusky Street from West High Street to West Ohio Avenue, create a new, three-lane roadway on a new alignment from West Ohio Avenue to South Main Street to replace Phillips Drive, and re-route SR 13 in the City to better serve the needs of the traveling public.
The proposed improvements include new curb and gutter, sidewalk, shared-use path, two traffic signal replacements, one new traffic signal, water line, sanitary sewer, and drainage improvements.
Questions about the new Court Building and Police Station design proposals, as well as the South Sandusky Street improvements, may also be addressed to Brian Ball, P.E., City Engineer, at 740-393-9528. All materials presented during the public meeting will be available on the project website – www.MountVernonOhio.org/documents-library – immediately following the meeting. Comments may be submitted until Nov. 6, 2023 to the City Engineering Office, 40 Public Square, Mount Vernon, OH 43050 by mail, or email at PC@MountVernonOhio.org. Comments received by Nov. 6 will be compiled and posted on the website.
Persons who require interpretation or translation services or a reasonable accommodation to participate in this meeting should contact Mr. Ball at the phone number listed above at least 15 days before the meeting.