12/26/2023
GAMBIER... MAJOR CHANGES COMING
Story by Fred Main
A monster project that isn’t expected to start until June of 2024 dominated thoughts and plans of Gambier’s administration during 2023.
The Ohio Department of Transportation will be creating a roundabout at the intersection of Ohio 229 with Laymon Road and West Wiggin Street in the village to create a safer traffic route at what is the most widely used entrance into Gambier. The project will close access to the village at that point for most of the next five months, take away a good portion of the hill on West Wiggin Street and impact both the village and Kenyon College for a substantial portion of time.
“That’s going to be huge. It’s going to impact when students arrive in the fall, it’s going to impact any type of summer program the college has going on, it’s going to impact our Fourth of July celebrations,” said Gambier Mayor Leeman Kessler.
“But, we’re really excited for the end result. We’re really excited to have the roundabout there to help with the number of collisions we’ve seen in the area.”
Because of the proximity of the Kokosing River to the west side of the intersection, it was deemed necessary to take away part of the hill coming out of Gambier. The village helped decide how much of the hill would be removed and got ODOT’s approval to put up a retaining wall to keep from taking too much. As part of the project, there will also be a pedestrian walking path down Wiggin Street to the roundabout. At the moment, there are no sidewalks down the Wiggin Street hill, so anyone walking from the village to the river access point on Laymon Road has to walk in the road.
“In some ways, we’re almost more excited about the fact this project unlocked a walking path for us. So, pedestrians no longer have to walk in the road or in the ditch on the way down and across the bridge. I think that’s going to be really erase my gray hairs,” Kessler said. “A lot of students do that, so having that path will be great. That hasn’t happened yet, and yet there’s still been a lot of work on it. One of the main things we’ve been doing is removing all the barriers so that can happen in a timely fashion.”
There have been several projects completed in the village during 2023, thanks in part to a strategic plan the village developed with the help of the Area Development Foundation and other entities in Knox County five years ago. Through that help, the village has unlocked $160,000 worth of funding through the Knox County Foundation to help with projects. They were able to create new sidewalks on Ward and Kokosing streets, added new playground mounds to the community park and installed solar panels on the wastewater plant. The solar panels have not yet been turned on, but it will be a massive energy savings for the village once they are ready to go.
With the funding, the village also redesigned its website, hire a consultant to help create a new zoning code, put up new welcome signs at the corporation limits and put a new kiosk next to the post office and Village Market.
“We’ve still got $28,000 left to spend and I’m confident we’ll take a decent chunk of that,” Kessler said. “It’s been a really fantastic resource to make use of. … I’m really humbled by the generosity of the Knox Foundation and the work done by the Area Development Foundation to make that possible. These were projects that we were able to push forward from the back burners because that funding was made available. And it allowed us time to identify projects that people were passionate about. We’ve just got to get the last bit of the cake batter out of the bowl.”
While the future ODOT project has dominated things in Gambier, there are many other good things that have happened over the past year.
The first is the addition of a new event in the village, as well as the continuation of one that was started just a year ago.
Gambier was for a long time the home of the Gambier Winter Craft Show, but it had disappeared a few years ago. This year, the village reintroduced the idea on a smaller scale, but to much the same fanfare, with Gambier Village Lights. The event on Dec. 3 was a chance for residents and visitors to stroll through downtown Gambier with live music, local crafts and luminarias.
“A lot of this has been the brainchild of councilwoman Kaitlin Sockman. She really wanted to see more events, more celebrations,” Kessler said. “Years ago, there used to be the winter craft fair in Gambier, which was a big to-do which would host lots and lots of vendors. The organizers of that weren’t able to continue and folks wanted to do something like it. This wasn’t a full version of that, but this was an opportunity to have local merchants and local crafters come out and have a winter market. It was great. We had a wonderful turnout for it.”
The second was a continued celebration of Gambier on its ZIP code day. Last year, an event was planned for April 30, which corresponded to the village’s ZIP code of 43022. It was such a hit, they brought it back this year, giving the villagers four opportunities to celebrate their hometown, once each season – 43022 Day, Fourth of July, Trick or Treat and Village Lights.
Looking ahead to 2024, Kessler hopes the village can take a look at a couple of long-term projects. One is an expansion of wastewater along Kokosing Street, while another will look at water lines along Duff Street. Kessler said they will attempt to figure out how the village can best afford those projects – whether it be in one lump sum or if they have to divide it into pieces.
Another ongoing problem they hope to make strides on is water loss within the lines around town. The village has had leaks for many years, and while they have plugged most of them, there are still a few lingering issues he hopes to get fixed. Kessler said they are working on getting smart meters on the hydrants to help detect individual problem areas.
“It’s been a 30-year struggle of dealing with water loss. We’re much better than we were in the past, but there’s still work to be done,” Kessler said.
