Findlay again seeks to annex junction

FINDLAY — Two years after being rejected, Findlay officials again proposed Hancock County commissioners approve annexation to the city of the truck-frequented County Road 212-236 intersection for upgrade Tuesday. Business leaders support the proposed $3 million widening and smoothening of the intersection at Findlay's northeast edge, City Engineer Jeremy Kalb said. "That's kind of our business route out through town," he told the county commissioners. The intersection is a link between Interstate 75 and Ohio 12 east of town. The improvements would allow freer, safer traffic flow through an intersection that currently involves 90-degree turns on narrow roads, Kalb said. A hitch for the city: the intersection must be located in Findlay for the upgrade to occur. Another hitch for the city, at least in the past: The commissioners two years ago stipulated the city must commit to installing a traffic light at the intersection if it is upgraded. The city in 2023 refused to guarantee a traffic signal until the intersection someday has sufficient traffic levels. The commissioners and city officials each argued in 2023 that they were on the side of safety. Kalb presented the commissioners Tuesday with a study finding that no traffic light would be warranted either now or after the proposed intersection upgrade. The study, by GDP Group, of Akron, reported in January 2025 that there would be good "sight distance" for motorists approaching the intersection, he said. However, city officials would be willing to have another traffic study conducted after the intersection upgrade. If the study would find a traffic signal warranted, the city then would install it, Kalb said. Two years ago, Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn said experts along with state and federal rules deemed a traffic light unwarranted. Unwarranted traffic lights make intersections more dangerous, she said. "If you install (a traffic light) where it is not warranted, people start to ignore it or get the sense of false safety rather than if you have a stop (sign)," she said. But the mayor in 2023 was not wielding a recent study of the 212-236 intersection as Kalb was on Tuesday. The commissioners made no comments on Tuesday. They only listened. At the close of the hearing, Commissioner William Bateson said they would make a decision within 30 days. Two years ago, County Commissioner Timothy Bechtol said that without a traffic light the city's planned upgrade would particularly imperil motorists approaching the intersection from the north on County Road 236. The upgrade would form a T-shaped intersection, like where Manor Hill Road intersects Bright Road, he said. Like a southbound Manor Hill motorist approaching Bright Road, a southbound County Road 236 motorist would face two lanes of traffic from two directions — the southward extension of 236 and the northwest extension of 212. "I wouldn't want to make a left-hand turn there into two-lane traffic, two ways, especially with semis," Bechtol said in 2023. "We just don't want to put the high school drivers in jeopardy." Muryn has cited a distinction between the Manor Hill-Bright Road intersection and the proposed County Road 212-County Road 236 scenario: The Manor Hill intersection warrants a traffic light under state and federal standards because it has sufficient traffic volume. Because traffic volumes at the 212-236 intersection are not large enough to warrant a traffic light, the state could require the city to remove a light at the intersection, the mayor said in 2023. Installation of a traffic light would cost about $225,000.