What's Happening In Marietta This Week

MARIETTA, OH — There is a lot going on around Marietta this week. Mayor Josh Schlicher sat down to go over the state of the city with Patch. He says there are a lot of people in the city doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work right now.

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One thing the mayor is looking forward to is their all-out rollout project, where all the city departments work together to improve the city, street-by-street. He said they will be getting that started next week. "We'll run that for 1-1 1/2, maybe even two months." This will be mainly aimed at fixing up sidewalks, streets, street lights, signs, trimming trees, removing hazards. "Really focusing on the neighborhoods and the neighbors' needs."

The mayor signed the DORA (designated outdoor refreshment area) proposal on Friday and the details are being worked out right now by Paul Bertram, the city's law director. "That information will then go to the Department of Commerce, Liquor Control. Once they do the approval it will come back to us." After it does, the city will proceed to get DORA signage posted around the downtown area. "We're shooting for the first Friday in June to have everything ready to go for the DORA."

City employees will be doing work at Oak Grove Cemetery this weekend. Schlicher said they're trying to pretty up the cemetery in time for Memorial Day weekend. "We're putting some new flagpoles up." They're also patching cemetery roads, putting up new signs, and painting. "And just keeping up with the mowing and the trimming. We want all the cemeteries to look good for Memorial Day weekend."

This is National Correctional Officer's Week, and while the city doesn't have a jail, Schlicher extended his gratitude to jail workers around the area.

The Marietta Fire Department just swore in their newest firefighter. Once he gets back from the fire academy the department will be back up to full staff.

Continuing projects include renovation work on the aquatic center. Drivers can expect to see crews out working on fiber-optic upgrades to the city's traffic system. These upgrades are going to continue through June for much of the city, and until later on in the year for other parts. The upgrades will allow for a smarter flow of traffic which aims to cut down on stop-and-go traffic which will cut down on accidents.

He said they had to delay firing up the crack sealer. They had been getting ready to start sealing up cracks last week but had to push the start date back because of the weather. Mayor Schlicher says they want to get it going as soon as possible because they can't run it all summer. When it gets too hot out the crack sealant can't fully harden. It looks like that will get underway next week.

He said they're still looking at every single park that the city owns to see where they can make improvements. "Some require some paintings, some require extensive renovations." They want to work to get the city parks back to where they used to be. They're working on setting up meetings for the Lock One Park set to be built back by the armory.

Schlicher said the city is continuing to take control of new fleet vehicles as part of a project they started last year. The city leased a couple of dozen work vehicles so they could cut down on maintenance costs associated with having to keep aging vehicles in commission. "We're going to save probably about $150,000 a year, taxpayer dollars. And the city is going to be able to drive newer vehicles, safer vehicles." This week they got their hands on a couple of new trucks for the city's water department.

Finally Mayor Schlicher says they're still working on the river trail slip. He says it's shut down for now, and there likely won't be any work done on it for the year. "We continue to ask people to stay out of the area, do not cross through the construction zone there." He says they've got it marked and closed off, but still, people try to cross it. He asks folks to help him by not crossing the trail there, he doesn't want to have to enforce it, but will if he has to.

He says they're getting going on a lot of projects that have been on the backburner for too long. Folks are jumping in to help too. "We're getting a lot of volunteer groups coming here wanting to help." He says this is creating a domino effect for folks wanting to donate time or money. Anyone interested in donating either can do so by getting ahold of the mayor at his office in City Hall, his number is 740-373-1987.

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