Wise approach taken on Vine Street project

It has sometimes been said that the letters in the word “team” stand for “Together Each Accomplishes More.” If you need an example to illustrate that principle, look no further than the united efforts of leaders from Willoughby, Eastlake and Willowick to revitalize Vine Street throughout all of their cities.

Mayors Robert Fiala of Willoughby, Rich Regovich of Willowick and Dennis Morley of Eastlake have pledged to work together to improve Vine Street between Erie Street in Willoughby and Lake Shore Boulevard in Willowick.

We believe that this collaborative approach to reinvigorate Vine Street is an excellent strategy for a variety of reasons.

First, the desire to join forces to revitalize Vine Street has proven to be inspiring and is helping the project to gain momentum. Regovich and Morley began working with each other late last year after Eastlake City Councilman Michael Zuren started holding the Vine Street Corridor meetings in an attempt to reach out to businesses located there.

“On a bigger picture and a bigger scale, we realized there are other things we can do to make that even easier for businesses and make it look nicer and create an atmosphere that would draw people in,” Regovich said.

Although Fiala was running for Willoughby mayor at the time, he became interested and wanted to get involved in the Vine Street initiative, the Willowick mayor noted.

“I thought that was fantastic because I never thought Willoughby would want to be involved,” he said.

After winning the election and being sworn in, Fiala officially joined the group in Vine Street discussions. And it didn’t take long before news of those talks attracted the attention of another local elected official.

Lake County Commissioner Daniel Troy reached out and asked if they wanted to sit down and talk about the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the lights on Vine Street, Morley said.

The three mayors agreed and met with Troy to talk about getting NOACA to do a study of Vine Street to improve the traffic flow. If the mayors were seeking solid advice on how to approach NOACA, Troy was the right person to ask. After all, he’s a current member and treasurer of the NOACA Board of Directors, as well as a past president of the panel.

Troy scheduled a meeting for the three mayors with NOACA. That meeting took place Feb. 1.

Troy drove the three mayors to downtown Cleveland to meet with NOACA Executive Director Grace Gallucci, Planning Director Kathy Sarli and Programming Director Randy Lane, according to his Feb. 1 Facebook post.

During the meeting, the group discussed funding and program possibilities for various aspects of revitalizing Vine Street. Topics included a study of the traffic signalization along the Vine Street corridor to achieve a synchronized and optimally operating system in all three cities, along with safer pedestrian and crossing upgrades, potential separated bike lanes, lighting and other amenities to improve the corridor.

Transportation improvement is another key area they are exploring.

“We are trying to work with the transportation planners at NOACA to make Vine Street more aesthetically pleasing, safer and more conducive for future investment for business or residents,” Troy said during a phone interview. “Some of these areas may need to be repurposed, so I want to work with them (Fiala, Regovich and Morley) to look at every funding possibility.”

According to Troy, NOACA officials are in favor of helping the cities apply jointly for various funding sources to achieve some of the objectives.

Troy, who is a fan of collaboration, shared service consolidation and regionalization, believes it just makes more sense.

“It’s getting hard pressed for some communities to do this on their own,” the commissioner said. “I think it’s good that you’ve got three mayors who are forward thinking.”

We also feel that the cities’ decision to join as one in filing grant applications for Vine Street revitalization could give them more clout in securing funds.

“Collaborations such as these are so important in these days of shrinking government resources,” Troy said in his Feb. 1, Facebook post.

We believe Fiala, Regovich and Morley are making a wise choice by planning and acting as a unified entity to help enhance the entire length of the Vine Street corridor for businesses and residents.