Mayor returns to council meetings

Hunter back after heart surgery, complications

Sheffield Village Mayor John D. Hunter returned for his first Village Council meeting following heart surgery in October.

Hunter, the mayor of the ‘Heart of Lorain County,’ thanked the village, especially his assistant Lynne Jones and Council Pro-Tem Carolyn White, and the support from the community who wished him well during his recovery.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Council and department heads and all the employees of the village, especially our Council ProTem Carolyn White, for taking care of things here in my absence.”

Hunter underwent a successful procedure to repair a microvalve but suffered complications with ulcers caused by surgical stress impacting his large intestine, stomach and a major artery,

he said.

The ulcers necessitated requiring two additional surgeries followed by 28 days in intensive care.

For the final procedure, Hunter said he was rushed into surgery,

“They found that I had a major artery that had been eaten away,” Hunter said. “The human body holds 9-12 pints of blood. I had about 14 pints of blood that night. They didn’t expect me to make it for the next three days. They notified my family and I thank the Lord for bringing me through it and all the prayers and concerns of everybody.”

The mayor said he was overwhelmed by the countless numbers of calls, text messages cards and flowers and said he was back on the mend.

In other business, Council approved the village’s 2019 $10 million operating budget and passed resolutions authorizing the widening of Detroit Road between Interstate 90 and Abbe Road slated for summer 2019.

Hunter said the project stemmed from a desire to improve safety in the area known

“It’s a state-driven project. It’s a safety award we received because we had the dubious honor of being one of the top three most accident-prone areas in the whole state,” the mayor said.

The area had 132 accidents, many of which, resulted from improper lefthand turns.

The road will be widened to two turn lanes and will feature a divider down the middle of the road.

The project comes at an estimated price tag of $1.5 million. The project will also aim to bring a new traffic light on the east side of Detroit Road onto Abbe Road, and will replace four lights with traffic sensors, aimed at improving the flow of traffic.

Council passed a resolution to resolution authorizing an agreement with KS Associates, Inc. for engineering services including traffic signal design plans and traffic control plans for a new traffic signal at Detroit Road and Transportation Drive.

Hunter