City of Newark holds firm to not close Pearl Street pedestrian bridge

Maria DeVito | Newark Advocate

NEWARK - Newark officials are holding firm in their decision not to close a pedestrian bridge.

Officials of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church sent a letter dated June 13 to Newark Mayor Jeff Hall and Newark City Council members once again asking the city to close the pedestrian bridge at that connects Pearl Street over Ohio 16 and Ohio 79.

But city officials said they are against closing the bridge because the amount of trips taken across it.

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Closure of the bridge was one idea debated since church officials reported that a man with a gun and another with a knife were seen at different times near St. Francis de Sales School and St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, on Granville Street, late last year. And, drug paraphernalia had been found in the area.

Representatives from the church and school visited Newark City Council's Safety Committee in the fall and spring asking for the closure.

Parish Priest David Sizemore and Business Manager Jim Knox wrote in the recent letter, "We as a parish have spent tens of thousands of dollars acting on installing additional lights, automatic locks on doors, cameras, fencing and even removed two trailers that were desperately needed for meeting space and storage all at the city’s request."

In the fall the city did a study that showed more than 400 trips were taken across the bridge over in eight hour periods over three different days.

Sean Fennell, D-7th Ward, represents the area and said based on those numbers too many people use the bridge to close it.

"I think that our next step is to see what the crossings are like now," he said. "Without that information it'd be difficult to make a truly informed decision at this point."

The letter details an incident that occurred at about 9:20 p.m. June 12. A member of the custodial staff walked into a room and saw a person on a couch in the room. The staff member locked herself in a separate room and called for help.

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Sizemore and Knox write police officers found the person had drug paraphernalia and the person was transported to the hospital. A Newark Police report was filed for the incident.

"This was a pleasant outcome. But it could have been just the opposite," Sizemore and Knox wrote.

The person who was found on the couch was caught on St. Francis' security cameras crossing the bridge and trying different doors until one opened.

"Even though we have automatic locks in the doors, heat and humidity swell the doors to where they don’t close properly," the letter states. "We continue to address this and fine tune the doors, but as we well know things happen."

During a Council Safety Committee meeting March 19, people expressed concern that closing the bridge would would force people to walk further to get their groceries or reach their job.

Sizemore and Knox write in the letter the parish's desire to close the bridge is not about disregarding or hampering the poor, but about protecting the safety of parishioners and the students.

"This topic has everything to do with people walking up to the church and trying to enter

either the home, school or parish. These individuals are under the influence and need help," the letter states.

Fennell said the school could hire a school resource officer to patrol the area during school hours.

"Ideally, we would be able to have officers there during peak times but we just simply don't have enough officers right now to do that," he said.

The city, Sizemore and Knox write, built the new Mount Vernon Road bridge, which has better lighting making walking safer.

But Newark Mayor Jeff Hall said on the south side of highway, the span between the two bridges is quite far for someone who is walking.

It would be difficult to nullify all negative activity in the area, Hall said.

"We keep chewing on it, crunching on it, trying to think of ideas, there just aren't a whole lot of options," he said.

Fennell said he is concerned about the safety of St. Francis students, but he is concerned about safety throughout the city as well.

"I don't know if closing the bridge is truly the answer," he said.

mdevito@gannett.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @MariaDeVito13