Toledo’s residential road program is making residents happy

TOLEDO, Ohio — In early January, the city of Toledo announced the plans to reconstruct nearly 70 miles of roads in 2023. The Toledo Department of Transportation’s Residential Roads Program plans to resurface 105 residential streets, patch and seal 44 streets, and resurface 24 unpaved streets.

One of those streets, Yates Street in north Toledo, is the proud home of unofficial handyman Elias Urbino.

“It’s one of the best streets in north Toledo,” Urbino said. “People care about their community.”

Urbino originally grew up in Toledo and moved to Texas in 1970. But he returned about four years ago and loves his neighbors.

He wants the city of Toledo to pay attention to how hard all of its neighbors work to keep their area looking good. He said there are only a few houses that really need repairs and he can’t do it himself, so he’s hoping the city will help.

And just as Urbino is doing repairs for the neighbors on his street, he hopes it will be inexpensive or free.

“I put up siding for people, I did paint and plumbing for people,” Urbino said. He said he will charge about $100 for his work, as opposed to the $2,000 to $3,000 that other residents may charge.

Urbina’s process is simple: neighbors buy groceries and he picks them up from there. All this is done to make his surroundings look beautiful. But Yates Street still needs major repairs, including police officers, street widening and sidewalk repairs.

While the city has plans to take care of the sidewalks, it doesn’t appear that any other work, such as curbs or street widening, is planned.

Until Friday, Urbino didn’t know the city of Toledo planned to repair the road on Yates Street.

“I think the neighbors here will be happy,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be done, and like I said, this street, people care about this street.”

About five minutes away on 10th Street in downtown Toledo, Ashley Reil, owner and esthetician A simple beauty salon and spawas also shocked when she found out that the street near her enterprise was planned to be repaired.

Having worked in downtown Toledo for the past 16 years, she said anyone who spends enough time in the area, especially in recent years, knows that construction and downtown are synonymous.

“That’s a big customer complaint,” Rail said. “This street is closed, this street is closed, this street is closed, and then they’re going to have to work their way out.”

But it’s a necessary inconvenience, she said.

“We want people to come downtown,” Rail said. “There are so many factors that hold people back from coming downtown. Good roads would be a big advantage.”