ASHLAND – The owners of Uniontown Brewing Company want to create outdoor seating in the alley beside the brewery and are asking the city for help to make the vision a reality.
Restaurant and brewery owners Doug and Anna Reynolds, along with Ashland Main Street Executive Director Sandra Tunnell, came before Ashland City Council Tuesday to lay out their plan. The Reynolds also own the former Gilbert building, where Uniontown is located.
The Reynolds asked that city officials consider leasing them a majority of the pedestrian alley that runs from South Street to Main Street just east the Gilbert’s building.
“Our intentions for this property is to expand outdoor seating for our restaurant, up about 40 seats. Also, along with those 40 seats, we will be erecting a fence around those seats along with goose neck lighting and planters,” Doug Reynolds said. “What we want to create is a more inviting corridor from the city lot to Main Street.”
About five feet would be left as a pathway for pedestrians to access Main Street from South Street and the city’s Parking Lot B.
“We’re here to ask what steps need to be taken to help secure this,” Doug Reynolds said.
Mayor Matt Miller told council he had met with the Main Street Ashland board a couple months ago to identify downtown projects that could be addressed this season, and that alley was determined to be a priority.
Miller also said he and city engineer Shane Kremser are discussing ways to improve the surface of the alley, possibly by milling the asphalt to take the alley surface back to its original brick.
Tunnell said the city would need to lease a portion of the alley to the brewery to make outdoor seating possible as the business could not be serve alcohol on city property.
Tunnell called the recently opened brewery “transformative” for the Ashland community and said it is already drawing people from out of town.
“I think it would be fantastic if the city would be able to help us out,” she said. “If we make it more attractive, then they can put in their outdoor seating and we can have that as an example to do other things in other alleys.”
All five council members expressed an interest in working with Uniontown and Ashland Main Street to help improve the alley and then lease it to Uniontown for further improvements.
With the council’s blessing, the mayor said he would sit down with the city law director to work out the details and determine the process for facilitating the plan.
Council members also approved a resolution to authorize the mayor to enter into a contract with the Ohio Department of Transportation to upgrade traffic signals on U.S. 250 at Sugarbush Drive and George Road. The upgrades will be paid for by ODOT and are designed to improve traffic flow in that corridor, Miller said.
Also during Tuesday’s council meeting, Miller gave updates on some projects that are moving forward.
The city’s planning commission, he said, is beginning a review of the city’s zoning regulations with input from realtors and developers. That committee will meet for the first time 4 p.m. Wednesday in the municipal building’s lower level conference room.
Miller said he traveled to Columbus earlier Tuesday with planning commission member Rick Ewing and Ashland County Community Foundation director Jim Cutright for a meeting with architecture, engineering and planning firm OHM Advisors. The community foundation has agreed to pay for a professional plan for key areas of the city, including downtown.
Miller also said he plans to set up an evening tour of Wooster-Ashland Regional Council of Governments. City council members, county commissioners and the media as well as other community members will be invited to take part in the tour to learn more about the WARCOG combined dispatch center.
At the request of council president Steve Workman, city finance director Larry Paxton gave an update on Brookside Golf Course. Paxton said course staff and volunteers are making efforts to cut costs and increase revenue, but their efforts have been hampered by inclement weather. The city has had to transfer money to the golf course to meet payroll, he said.
Workman asked the mayor and finance director to make sure the golf course is collecting data about the course’s operations that council can use to make future decisions.
