Washington nixes Buchanan boulevard plan

Months after finalizing plans for West Buchanan Street renovations key to a new business park, the Washington City Council reversed its decision to include a boulevard in the project at the request of several city staff Tuesday night.

“(Planning and Zoning) had come to development services department and asked if there was any other option at this point in time,” City Engineering Technician Keith Henkel said. “They had had some concerns from agricultural citizens that some ag equipment would not fit down the lanes with the boulevard in there … I’ve talked to most of the homeowners on Buchanan securing temporary easements for the project. I can tell you there was not anyone I spoke to that was in favor of it.”

Henkel said the move would reduce the street project’s cost by around $10,000. City Engineer Partner Jack Pope said it would not have a major negative impact on project plans.

“We’re going from a 38-foot wide to 31-foot wide,” he said. “It’s more of an aesthetic thing than anything else. It’s making the street smaller, driveways will have a little more room, it will impact properties less.”

City Maintenance and Construction Superintendent JJ Bell said his department opposed the boulevard as well.

“I know in west Washington, it’s not impossible to clean snow off of there but it does make it a lot easier without those,” he said. “It’s a lot cheaper … it’d be more maintenance-friendly too, as far as that goes.”

Mayor Jaron Rosien defended the city’s second guessing on the boulevard.

“We do have one chance to do the project correct, whatever correct is,” he said. “It’s a 50-70-year project, after that I think it’s overlaid, so it’s arguably a 100-year, 200-year or 250-year project that will exist however we choose way beyond all of our lifetimes … we want to support ag, we want to support a good project.”

Despite city officials’ earlier insistence on the boulevard, Council Member Danielle Pettit-Majewski said the change was an easy decision in light of new information.

“We’re going to save money by not putting it in, people who live there don’t want it, it’s going to be harder to maintain if we put it in,” she said. “To me, it doesn’t make sense to do this.”

The boulevard was originally intended as a speed-control device, according to then-City Administrator Brent Hinson at a planing and zoning meeting in July.

While Council Member Steve Gault agreed that the boulevard was unnecessary, he said the city should look into traffic control alternatives in lieu of it.

“You can’t tell me that an 18-year-old kid is going to end up with a quarter mile of paved road and it’s not going to turn into a drag strip,” he said. “Something has got to be done about that … speed bumps, whatever, it doesn’t really make a difference, we have to do it.”

The move satisfied a repeated request from Washington resident Mike Murphy, a farmer who had complained at council meetings about the boulevard starting in early summer. While Murphy was at the meeting, he did not speak at it or immediately reply to a request for comment.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com