This story was submitted by the Athens City-Council Health Department.
AMESVILLE, Ohio — A community art project in the Village of Amesville is more than meets the eye: The village is using street murals as a placemaking strategy that could deter speeding while also encouraging healthy habits.
Amesville Village Council worked with the Athens City-County Health Department’s Creating Healthy Communities program and Athens County artist Kasey Jones to plan and implement an asphalt art strategy. The idea came about last summer, when the health department and consultants from the active transportation firm Toole Design facilitated a discussion about safe streets in the village. Villagers’ concerns included traffic speeds on Franklin Street.
Catherine Girves, principal planner with Toole Design, explained to attendees that asphalt art can encourage drivers to slow down and be more alert for vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and kids. Asphalt art also is a placemaking strategy whereby community members collaboratively create and revitalize public spaces.
More than 40 Amesville community members participated in an Asphalt Art Community Paint Day on Sept. 21, 2024.
“The public engagement component of this project strengthened the relationships among residents, even those who don’t have students in the school system,” says Amesville Village Council member Lynne Genter. “A healthy community has a focus on both physical health and mental health and art has an impact on mental health.”
Jones has an MFA in community art and has painted large murals in several cities. After discussing potential concepts with Jones, Amesville settled on a flower-themed mural to tie in with the village’s Bee City USA status. Because Franklin Street is immediately behind Amesville Elementary School, the village decided to include murals on intersections on Liberty Street as well, so that all four corners of the Amesville Running Club’s route would feature brightly colored murals to encourage the runners.
”Amesville Elementary is an integral part of the Village of Amesville and seeing our young people out and about is great for the community. The mural artwork just highlights this collaboration,” says Gary Goosman, Amesville mayor. Each morning when school is in session, the running club welcomes all students to run or walk laps through the neighborhood behind the school. Last year the students logged over 7,000 miles and they are well on their way to meeting or exceeding that distance this school year.
The asphalt art project is the latest in a series of traffic-calming projects that the village has partnered with CHC to accomplish.
Last year, Amesville Village Council worked with CHC to develop and adopt a Complete Streets policy, which documents the village’s commitment to considering all roadway users when working on roadways. That policy prioritized potential projects, with traffic calming measures and pedestrian infrastructure for State Route 550 topping the list of community members’ desired improvements.
Also in 2023, Athens County CHC assisted the village in applying for nearly $300,000 through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Systemic Safety Program for pedestrian roadway safety improvements on State Routes 550 and 329. ODOT awarded the village $238,050 and Buckeye Hills Rural Transportation Planning Organization awarded the village $38,428 in matching funds for the project from its Surface Transportation Block Grant program. ODOT will begin construction on these improvements, which will include accessible crosswalks, curb extensions, signage, and a new sidewalk on SR 329, in 2026.
Amesville Village Council member Miranda Kridler says the village’s collaboration with the health department’s CHC Program exemplifies the best of what can happen when public health and local government work together to actively listen to a community’s concerns and respond with support.
“The Health Department’s support means the village got to actually see investment in places where people wanted to see projects,” Kridler says. “The grant dollars that are coming into our community would never have been possible if we hadn’t had that support from the health department. It’s a really powerful thing to see good ideas get traction and then see follow-through.”
Traffic calming measures and complete streets policies are public health strategies that support active living, one of the CHC program’s goals. CHC is an Ohio Department of Health program that funds 31 local health departments throughout Ohio to implement policy, system and environmental changes to increase access to healthy foods and active living.
Anyone with questions about the project can contact Meredith Erlewine at merlewine@athenspublichealth.org or by calling the health department at 740-592-4431.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
