By Josh Echt, Geauga Maple Leaf

Monday, Monday may have been good for The Mamas and the Papas.
But Munn day — a discussion about a section of a Newbury Township road — took place last Wednesday.
And the roughly 40 residents opposing proposed county ownership of the road said it wouldn’t have been good for them at last week’s trustees meeting.
Currently, the 2.13-mile section of Munn Road between Bell Road north to the road’s terminus at Route 87 is owned and maintained by the township. The section of Munn Road south of Bell Road to the Auburn Township border is already owned by the county, Fiscal Officer David Lair said.
Trustees said county ownership of the road would ease the township’s maintenance costs, while residents argued county ownership — and a related project widening the road’s shoulders and berms — would destroy the character of the road.
In June, the board received a letter from County Engineer R.L. Phillips. He told the Geauga County Commissioners some roads in the county needed to be re-evaluated in terms of ownership and maintenance responsibilities. The various roads needed to be switched from county to township roads and vice-versa.
• County roads to township roads: Messenger Road and Music Street.
• Township roads to county roads: Clay Street, Hemlock Point, Caves, Pettibone and Munn roads.
“The commissioners are sensitive to the needs of the trustees,” Lair said of the proposed changeover.
Although all but one resident opposed the switch to a county-owned road, the trustees said they would not vote on the issue right away, he said, adding the proposed road changes also included input from road superintendents from around the county.
“I’d like to think we’ll discuss this issue at the next trustees meeting,” Trustee David Snively said.
Both trustees and Lair said the county widening the road and taking it over would make it safer for residents. They also said upgrade costs, which would total about $500,000, would drain their entire road and bridge operating budget. However, if the county spends the funds, they argued, then the township could utilize those funds and pave the other 36 miles of township roads.
Although many residents protested the proposal, Lair told them a similar project had been undertaken on Georgia Road in Burton Township over the past three years. So far, that road upgrade has not generated complaints since the renovation was completed last year.
Resident Dave Vanderwist said truck traffic and speeding residents are a big issue on Munn Road. He said he needed to install a sign warning drivers of a slight curve near his property.
“The trucks are doing 50 (mph) and roll through the stop sign (near the Music and Munn intersection),” he added. “Why do we allow truck traffic to go through there that fast?”
Vanderwist also said Munn Road contains several industries to the south that may be the cause of the truck traffic. The trucks use Munn Road as a cut-through from Route 422 and Washington Street to the south to Route 87 and the township’s trucking plants in the north.
Trustee Bill Skomrock, a former dispatcher for Manfredi Trucking Co. and the current DistTech Director of Safety, said he used to ask truck drivers not to use Munn as a cut-through.
“I’d chew their a-- out,” he said, adding the township unsuccessfully lobbied for a lowering of the current speed limit from 45 mph down to 40 years ago. “When I go down route 44 at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, I’m the only one going 45 mph, which is that road’s speed limit. I’ve even been on Munn Road and the residents speed themselves.”
Snively said the township even assessed a similar road construction project on Pekin Road, in which the shoulders and berms were widened. Data from the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office revealed average driver speed did not increase after the road was rebuilt.
However, Munn Road resident Kathleen Reinker argued Pekin did not have near as much truck traffic as Munn Road.
Lair and Snively said they could ask the sheriff’s office to specifically patrol the road, paid for with township funds, and get “dedicated coverage,” according to Lair.
“We’ll lose the character of this road if the county takes it over,” resident Jeff Brinkerhoff said.
Brinkerhoff asked if trustees could poll the residents via a show of hands whether or not they wanted the county to take the road over. All but one resident, Fire Chief Doug Zimperman, voted no.
Trustees told the residents they also didn’t know to what degree the road would be widened and said they would ask Phillips for more information.
“There may be a trade-off of some of the character of the road, but there’s a safety issue involved,” Snively said. “We can’t call all of the shots here, but we can adjust them.”
Trustees next meet 7 p.m. July 21 at the town hall.

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Snively describes the effects of the proposal to residents.