Local News

City holds workshop for Connected Marietta to gather project ideas

The city of Marietta held public workshops Friday to gather community input on what types of transportation projects people would like to see.

Three workshops were held Friday, two at Marietta College's The Gathering Place and one at the Busy Bee restaurant.

According to American Structurepoint Project Manager Frank Aransky, the city of Marietta, Washington County and Marietta College are all working together on a project called Connected Marietta and the workshops and the purpose of the workshops was to gather public input on the project.

Aransky said American Structurepoint is working with all three parties to help them with the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant application they will need to submit for the projects that will make up Connected Marietta.

According to the United State Department of Transportation, the RAISE grant gives the DOT the chance to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve national objectives. It also said the RAISE is a discretionary grant program for investments in surface transportation infrastructure that will have a significant local or regional impact.

Aransky said that American Structurepoint's contract is with Washington County but the city of Marietta is taking the lead on Connected Marietta. He said there was an old project called Cross Marietta and they are taking it and some of the work that was done through Enrich Marietta, the city's active transportation plan, and Reimagine Marietta and seeing how all the needs and outcomes of these blend. Elements of all these have been rebranded as Connected Marietta.

Marietta Development Director Geoff Schenkel previously told the Times that Cross Marietta stands for Connecting Residents on Safer Streets and it is a project to work toward renovating streets downtown, on the Butler Street Corridor and parking. The city's Enrich Marietta website said it is a results-driven, inclusive process that guides the community through comprehensive projects and policies to enrich the experience of Marietta's infrastructure, arts, education, and recreational assets. The city's Reimagine Marietta project page states that it is a project to create a new comprehensive plan and update the city's planning and zoning code.

Aransky said for Connected Marietta they are looking at mostly Second and Third streets from Washington Street down to the river, the Butler Street corridor to across the Harmar Bridge and the Pike Street/Greene Street area.

"So we're looking at those corridors to make sure trucks are staying on the route they should be staying on, how can we bring more of a (pedestrian) safety element to it, (and a) bike corridor. So we're still trying to figure out what these projects are," Aransky said. "The true purpose and need is facilitation of safe and efficient travel for all involved. So this would be people on bikes, people that are walking, access to social services, workforce, making sure that we can connect everything up in a safer way."

During the workshops American Structurepoint had displays with information about Connected Marietta, the RAISE grant, the proposed project area and other information. There was a suggestion box attendees could put project suggestions in and they could put a post-it note on the project area map with suggestions.

Aransky said they have also been taking suggestions through a survey. It can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C837JH9.

Marietta College employee and Marietta resident Erika Smith attended one of the workshops. She said she was part of the grant writing team that applied for RAISE funds for the planning portion of the project.

"I'm a downtown resident...I walk to the college for work," she said and she is interested in pedestrian-friendly pathways in relation to Connected Marietta.

"I'm interested in safe walkways (and) bikeways" to connect the Marietta College campus to Harmar, Smith said.

Smith said she would love to be able to walk from her house on Fifth Street to the Busy Bee restaurant without having to worry about traffic. She said she wants to see "something to make both sides of the Muskingum more connected, anything that would help us achieve that."

Marietta resident Lynn Vermaaten, who lives at WinBeri apartments, also attended a workshop.

"My biggest support would be for the Harmar Bridge being opened up as a walking path," Vernatten said.

She said she wants to see people be able to safely walk from the west side of the city to the east side without having to use the Putnam Street Bridge.

Aransky has heard some suggestions for Connected Marietta projects already.

"We're hearing, 'hey Butler would be great if it was more of a (pedestrian) centric kind of community,'" he said. "We're also looking at other things like parking, maybe add more parking to help the downtown business...economic strength, how do we strengthen downtown as far as bringing them together."

He also said he had heard people want greenspace and ways to slow people down on Second Street and putting a parking garage downtown through maybe a public private partnership.

Aransky said right now they are conducting outreach through the survey and workshops and they are conducting analysis of crash statistics, public travel efficiency and more.

Learn more about Connected Marietta at https://www.mariettaoh.net/news_detail_T3_R34.php and https://www.connectedmarietta.com.

According to the information displayed at the workshops, the RAISE grant application will be submitted in February 2025.