Closing Rothrock Won't Delay Safety Vehicles, Fairlawn Says

Fairlawn officials, responding to concerns that closing Rothrock Road to traffic will jeopardize response time for safety vehicles, will have a training session for its mutual aid partners on Monday.

Deputy Service Director Ernie Staten said Fairlawn will train police and fire forces from Bath, Copley, Akron and Summit County how to get through the gates in a matter of seconds.

Responders will just press a button on their walkie-talkie, he said.

"It's going to give them the ability to get there as quickly as they did before," Staten said.

Earlier this month, Fairlawn won a court battle with Copley Township over the right to block Rothrock to through traffic, successfully arguing the residential nature of the street would not be preserved once a Walmart and Sam's Club open
on the north end of Rockrock, in Copley.

During testomony, Copley Fire Chief Michael Benson said closing Rothrock "places hundreds of our senior residents' lives in danger" by giving paramedics a longer route to Copley Place, a senior facility. 

But Staten said that won't be the case. On one end, safety forces will be quickly able to open the gates at the Rosemont Boulevard-Rothrock intersection.

On the other end, at Sawgrass Drive, traffic will be blocked by water-filled barricades and 24 reboundable tubular pylons. Safety vehicles can drive through the pylons, which will bend and then bounce back to their original position.

"You can run these over at any speed and they will pop back up," Staten said.

Regular vehicles can run over the pylons, too, but will face the possibility of damage to their vehicle and a fine.

"I don't recommend it for personal vehicles, and we do have an ordinance prohibiting people from going through them," Staten said.

Fairlawn has not yet set a date for when Rothrock will be closed.