Madisonville residents discuss traffic calming, plans to honor 4th-generation Barnes Barber Shop

Notes

Monica Hill, president of Madisonville Community Council, called the monthly general body meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, with about 33 people in attendance. 

There was no roll call. Officers and committee chairs sat in the room without clear identification.

Cincinnati City Council Member Scotty Johnson attended the meeting to give a brief presentation and participated in discussion throughout.

Cincinnati Police Department Updates

Officer  Monique Martin of the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) said there is an ongoing issue with people leaving wallets and firearms in the passenger seat of their vehicles, tempting car break-ins. But overall, crime is down in Madisonville.

Cincinnati Recreation Commission

Chase Brown presented on behalf of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC).

There will be an All Girls Engineering Night on Wednesday, March 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Madisonville Recreation Center, with instruction from The STEM Lab. There are 10 spots available for girls ages 11 to 13.

The CRC will be offering several summer day camps, including a chess program and a drone program.

Shroder Middle & High School

Senior high school students will be doing volunteer work at the middle school and the Madisonville Rec Center.

The clear backpacks distributed to students at the beginning of the school year are falling apart, so the school is collecting donations of sturdier clear backpacks.

Citywide Arts Project

The ORCHARD, presented by the Wyoming Fine Arts Center, will be coming to the Madisonville Branch Library on March 18 at 3:30 p.m. and March 23 at 6 p.m.

The project will be a tree of memories on permanent display, including items and photographs donated by the community.

Artsville Updates

Artsville, now in its tenth year, has a variety of events scheduled in the coming weeks and months.

Tickets are on sale for live performances of Grass Roots, a play written and directed by Terry L. Chappell II, which will be open Feb. 27 through March 8.

Other events in March include the annual Artsville Fish Fry fundraiser and a performance by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

Registration is open for the Youth Poetry Slam on April 17. Anyone interested should contact Artsville.

Proposed Street Dedication for Barnes Barber Shop

Cincinnati City Council Member Scotty Johnson presented a proposal to honor Barnes Barber Shop, one of Cincinnati’s oldest Black businesses, by giving Mathis Street the secondary street name “Barnes Brothers Way.” Johnson said the barbershop has been an anchor in Madisonville for almost 60 years.

“The barbershop back in the day was the place where you got an education, you got therapy, and if you were a young knucklehead like me, you got straightened out,” he said.

Johnson said City Hall would likely get to voting on the street dedication in April.

A member of Madisonville Community Council motioned to give Mathis Street the secondary street name “Barnes Brothers Way.” The motion passed unanimously with 25 in favor, and none opposed or abstaining.

Several members of the Barnes family were in attendance, though the three brothers who founded the barber shop have passed away. The business was known as Barnes Brothers Barber shop until a recent name change to include a female Barnes descendant who also works at the barber shop. The family business is now in its fourth generation.

Madisonville TIF Traffic Calming Updates

Traffic Calming Speed Humps Cost Less Than Expected

Kerry Devery, the transportation chair of Madisonville Community Council, presented updates on a project to use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to fund traffic calming projects on street sections in Madisonville that had not made the cut for city-level initiatives.

(This map shows the Madisonville TIF district and streets identified for traffic calming.)

The Madisonville Community Council voted in summer 2024 to request that $500,000 of TIF district funding be used for traffic calming projects for residential streets where there had been repeated complaints, Devery said.

A list of 10 street sections and four alternates was approved and sent to bid last year. The proposal includes 38 asphalt speed humps in total and two concrete speed tables, which would slow traffic through a portion of the Madisonville historic district along Madison Road.

The cost estimates came in lower than expected, as construction costs have dropped since the pandemic, Devery said. The 38 speed humps are expected to cost about $111,000 and the concrete tables $145,000, which leaves $244,000 remaining of the funds allocated for traffic calming.

The concrete speed tables are more expensive because they impact street drainage, Devery said.

If the streets receive funding for resurfacing in the future, the resurfacing will work around the speed humps. This is to ensure the project will not duplicate work or funding, Devery said.

Anderson Place to Receive Raised Crosswalk and Flashing Beacon

Devery presented on a separate traffic calming project that might receive some of the leftover TIF funding, which can only be used for a traffic calming project.

The Madisonville Community Council leadership has complained for “many, many years” about the intersection of Anderson Place and Madison Road. The intersection “feels like the historic entrance to Madisonville,” Devery said.

John P. Parker Elementary School is located on Anderson Place, but the school has moved the official crossing guard a block away to Stewart Avenue, where there is a traffic light. The intersection occurs in a school zone, but Devery said that drivers rarely slow to the correct speed.

St. Paul Village, an affordable senior living community, is adjacent to the Anderson Place intersection. Devery said seniors afraid to cross at the intersection to reach the bus stop will sometimes take the bus in the opposite direction and transfer rather than risk crossing.

City staff received a grant from ODOT based on a traffic study three years ago that proved the intersection is unsafe. Through the grant, 90% of design and construction costs will come from the state, and the city will cover the remaining 10%. Devery presented a proposal to use the leftover TIF funding to cover the city’s portion, including about $35,000 for engineering and $30,000 for construction.

The project will include building a raised crosswalk and installing a solar-powered rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB). Pedestrians will be able to press a button to activate the beacon and alert drivers of their intent to cross. Drivers are not obliged by state law to stop for the beacon, Devery said.

Members of the community asked why the proposal does not include a traffic light that would require drivers to stop.

Traffic engineers use a numerical system and a manual to determine what type of signal an intersection “warrants,” Devery said. According to Devery, the decision is based on the number of cars that turn left at the intersection compared to how many cars go straight through the intersection. 

As the majority of drivers commuting on Madison Road continue straight through the intersection, the “numbers they took from the Madison Road study do not support the warrant for a traffic light, which means if you apply for a grant from the state, the state will see those numbers and they will just tell you ‘no,’” Devery said.

Several members of the community council expressed frustration with the decision not to fund a traffic light. At least one person said “that doesn’t make sense.”

Later in the discussion, Devery noted, that in his view, the problem with traffic engineering is that decisions are based on current data rather than future possibilities. For example,  data from SORTA shows that the bus stop at Stewart Avenue, where there is a traffic light, is more popular than the stop at Anderson, which is closer to the senior community.

Another member of the community council asked where the funding would come from if the Madisonville Community Council voted not to use the TIF money for the project. Devery said it would have to come from some other city source, which might mean that another neighborhood does not get funding for another project.

TIF Districts Under City Review

City Council member Johnson said that City Council is working on a “complete review of TIF funding and TIF districts.” He said that the Anderson Place proposal is an “amazing opportunity” to use TIF funding for street calming in the Madisonville district and it is “very rare” that City Council would disagree with a decision by the community council.

Johnson said that if an ordinance came up that would take away funding the community council had already allocated, he would vote no.

The TIF funding allocated for traffic calming in Madisonville will stay until it is used or moved, so the community does not risk losing the funding altogether if not used this year, unless City Council votes to move the funding.

A community member asked if a project like the Anderson Place crossing might qualify for funding from the Southern Railroad sale as an infrastructure project.

Johnson said that the city has money for infrastructure projects such as pothole repair but lacks “the bodies and the manpower” to do the work and might need to look to “outside resources” to repair potholes. Johnson also said he had voted against the railroad sale.

Motion to Use TIF For Anderson Place Passes

The Madisonville Community Council voted in favor of the city’s request to use TIF funding allocated for traffic calming to pay for the 10% portion of costs to design and build the Anderson Place crosswalk and beacon for which the city is responsible, with 19 votes in favor, one opposed, and one abstaining.

Announcements

Neighborhood Safety Meeting to Organize ICE Response

Madisonville Area Safety and Solidarity (MASS), with support from Ignite Peace, will host a Madisonville Neighborhood Safety Meeting on Feb. 28 at Gaines United Methodist Church. The meeting will include training on nonviolence and how to join or support a Madisonville-based ICE Watch rapid-response team.

HIll said that AJ’s Cheesesteaks in Madisonville has already “had to kick ICE agents out of their restaurant.”

“This is really important that we all know our rights and know how to protect each other, because unfortunately, as we’ve seen, it’s not what they said it was,” Hill said.

Gentrification and Property Concerns

One community member expressed concern about the loss of local businesses in Madisonville, noting particular concerns about the former site of a laundry business.

The Madisonville Urban Redevelopment Corp. (MCURC) will be presenting soon, Hill said.

A few community members asked if anyone had heard of a private parking company that owns a lot near Barnes Barber Shop. One community member said that the conversation was not relevant to the meeting.

Another community member expressed concerns about gentrification of Black neighborhoods and the wealth gap between Black and non-Black households. She said that her daughter cannot afford the “outrageous” new houses being built in Madisonville and that the buyers appear to be non-Black families.

Neighborhood Plan Public Engagement Open House

The next working group meeting for the neighborhood plan, scheduled for March 4, has been postponed, Hill said. Instead, there will be an open house at the Madisonville Rec Center with a date yet to be determined. There will be presentations and time allotted for questions.

Gaines Methodist Church Development Project

Gaines will present on their new development project next month, Hill said.

There is no date yet for the planned MCURC presentation.

Adjournment

Hill adjourned the meeting at 7:52 p.m. 

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