NEW FRANKLIN, Ohio — New Franklin residents are saying enough is enough, as their wait for a replacement for collapsed and potentially hazardous Kungle Road bridge has now hit 4 years.
Amy Fox-Sir Louis is a 17-year Kungle Road resident raising 4 children, who believe it's appalling a battle between the cities of Norton and New Franklin has left her neighbor living with a closed road and a crater that's 12 feet deep and 20 feet wide.
“The bigger issue is the safety factor, so there used be some barriers that had barrels and now those barrels are gone and we don’t have street lights in the area," Fox-Sir Louis said. “The concrete barriers don’t have any markings, there’s nothing reflective there, so it would be pretty easy for someone not familiar with the area to drive into those. We’ve had issues with the kids playing in there which is dangerous, but the issue of someone driving into the concrete barriers is what I’m most worried about."
Phyllis Osborne is a 21-year Kungle Road resident who is also very concerned about neighborhood safety. Osborne told News 5 the neighborhood has been given very little information on when the bridge will finally be replaced.
“We don’t hear any word on anything, and so it’s another year, another year, another year," Osborne said. “Whose in charge of all of this, we’ve not received anything, we’ve gone to the Mayor, we’ve gone to the council meetings and we don’t get anywhere.”
New Franklin Council Member Kevin Powell told News 5 he is also hoping to hear better information on when the bridge will be replaced.
“As residents reach out to us and ask about the status of it, when is it getting fixed, we don’t have those answers," Powell said. “It came down to which city owns it, and that’s when the survey got involved and that’s when they determined this was actually Norton’s responsibility.”
New Franklin Council Member Jack Daniels agreed with Powell, and told News 5 the City of Norton annexed the bridge 20 years ago, so Norton should finally move forward with replacement.
“They chose to annex this area, I think it’s 10 or 15 feet past the bridge that way is where the line is, so you came in and took our property, so take care of the residents that are on the road," Daniels said. “It’s not ours, so again it’s really hard for us to succeed in pushing anything forward.”
News 5 reached out to Norton Mayor Mike Zita and he responded quickly, acknowledging his city is responsible for the Kungle Road bridge replacement. Zita said the project will get started in 2023 and issued the following statement in response to our story:
The Kungle Road culvert repair is part of the Eastern Road Phase 1 Project. The project is expected to be ready to bid by the beginning of May, with the construction to follow. The City has already ordered the culvert to prevent expected lead time issues.
Still, some Kungle Road residents like Fox-Sir Louis remain skeptical that the project will get started this year.
“I’m tired and I am not particularly optimistic, I think it will eventually probably be fixed, but I don’t know if we’ll know about it or whether it will be anytime soon," Fox-Sir Louis said. But it is Norton’s responsibility to fix this road, I feel that if there were more Norton residents who lived on this side of the bridge I know it would have been fixed already.
News 5 will continue to follow through on this developing story.
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