Politics & Government

Fairlawn Installs Lift Gate for Emergency Access on Rosemont Boulevard

Fairlawn is installing the gate to stop through traffic from using the neighborhood to get to future Walmart development on Rothrock Road.

In a couple weeks, emergency vehicles and buses will use a microphone system to get into the back end of Rosemont Commons from Rosemont Boulevard.

Fairlawn officials are installing a lift gate at the intersection of Rothrock Road and Rosemont Boulevard to stop traffic from using the neighborhood as a through-way when Walmart builds on Rothrock Road.

The gate will lift when It uses a certain frequency and opens in less than 7 seconds, said Fairlawn Deputy Service Director Ernie Staten.

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The gate has several fail-safes, as well. The gate is counter-balanced and can be easily lifted in case of a total power failure, which is unlikely, Staten said. When power to the gate does go off, it's fail-safe is to automatically open and stay open.

The gate also has enough of a battery backup to open and close several hundred times in case power in the city is off.

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To protect the lever to open the gate from non-emergency personnel, Fairlawn installed a box with a code to the lever, as well.

"What if kids got to it," Staten said. "We didn't want that to happen so we changed the system to add a code. It's a change that's worth it."

While Fairlawn cannot block Rothrock Road because it's in a lawsuit with Copley Township, it can still block Rosemont. Rosemont is not a part of the court case, Staten said.


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