DRIVING

six-month window.

Starting Oct. 5, distracted driving will be an unspecified misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $150 and 2 points against a driver’s license.

Punishments scale up with repeated offenses, and a second violation within two years can lead to a fine of up to $250.

Fines are doubled in a work zone.

Under the new law, it is illegal to even hold or “physically support” an electronic device except holding it to one’s ear or answering a phone call with a single tap or swipe.

Drivers older than 18 can use a hands-free device, but only if they are not physically supporting the device or entering any symbols into it.

There is an exception to the law when stopped at a traffic light or when reporting an emergency.

Exemptions apply to first responders using an electronic device in the structing and purchasing sanitary sewer improvements related to “Project Apple Pie,” the secret code name for what became the Carvana facility built on the former Spiegelberg Orchards in Elyria Township. That project is done, the sewers are in, and Carvana is up and running, Commissioner Jeff Riddell said.

● $1,220,000 in bond anticipation notes to pay the costs of construction and other improvements at the Lorain County Engineer’s Office’s garage. That project has been completed, and the engineer’s office will pay off what was borrowed with revenue from the motor vehicle gas tax, county officials said.

● $960,000 in bond anticipation notes for the Boone Road widening project in Columbia Township.

● $740,000 in sanitary sewer improvement bond anticipation notes “for the purpose of paying the cost of construction and acquiring sanitary sewer system improvements” for the Hampshire Farms development in Amherst Township.

Budget Director KC Saunders said the county borrowed money to fund those projects. As long as they remain notes, the county only makes interest payments, he said. When the projects go to bond, there are transactional costs, and Saunders said it doesn’t make financial sense to absorb all those costs separately.

“This is money we already borrowed,” he said, and the notes are being extended another year before going to bond. “We’re not going to bond yet, but we will be.”

That’s when principal payments will begin, Saunders said. Because commissioners consolidated all the notes, they will pay only one transaction fee instead of six. Riddell said bond fees can be in the “tens of thousands of dollars if not more.”

“It’s not just filing a mortgage and you have collateral,” he said. “Public financing is much more complex. … Sooner or later, we have to start paying on the principal.” friend of hers which drove her to the scene Tuesday said she was a single mother who had just rented the unit and started to move in from Medina last week. course of their duties, utility workers in an outage or emergency situations, licensed radio operators and commercial truck drivers operating a data terminal.

Chuck Brooky, business manager for Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 758 in Amherst, asked commissioners during public comments to hold off on the vote on the engineer’s garage bond anticipation notes until the engineer’s office assigns a prevailing wage coordinator to work with unions on highway and bridge projects.

Brooky first raised concerns about the issue on March 24.

A prevailing wage law requires contractors on public projects to pay regionally standard hourly wages, benefits and overtime, according to the Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio.

Rates are calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor and Ohio Department of Commerce and established by local standards and competitive practices.

The explosion blew out the front of the home and did damage to the neighboring home had a window frame blown out along with part of the roof peeled off.

Pelko said that his officers have been prepared to be on the lookout for distracted driving and are ready to explain the new rules before citing begins in October.

The State Highway Patrol maintains a dashboard on distracted driving crash statistics and reports that between 2018 and April 3, there have been 62,324 distracted driving-related incidents in Ohio.

Of that number, 1,828 resulted in fatalities, including nine fatal crashes in 2022. In 2022, there were an additional 67 serious injury crashes that were caused at least in part by distracted driving.

“I just want to remind the people out there, you know, we are out there for their safety and the last thing we want to respond to is an injury accident because somebody was answering a text or on their phone,” Pelko said. “Everybody wants to go home and hug their loved ones, and we want to make sure people can do that. That’s what (this) law is for.”

In April 2018, Avon passed a distracted driving ordinance similar to the one that Ohio has now adopted, which City Council President Brian Fischer said has made the city safer.

“I’m happy that the state explored this,” he said. “And that now Ohio has caught up to Avon on this.” Avon’s ordinance does not have the same exemption for drivers stopped at traffic lights, but Fischer said it is an important step forward in combating distracted driving.

“Anybody driving anywhere sees everybody is on their phone,” Fischer said. “So any legislation that gives law enforcement a chance to combat that and educate people is good.”