By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council is going to order further study on the option for the Woodie Seat Freeway that would end the freeway at Avenue F and upgrade streets in the south end of the city.
Members of the public, along with councilwoman Sara Bagwell, argued that the options that were not on the table for grant funds did not get as much study as the roundabout option that was originally eligible for federal money that the city did not get.
"The bridge is in dire need," said community member Cecilia Pena. "It needs to be fixed. We're putting bandaids on it right now to make it safe. I'm happy for that. Until we have all the options on the table, transparent, for everybody to see, everybody to make a choice, is all we're asking. Transparency."
The council reached a consensus that they would look at it more, but councilman Jon Richardson brought up the elephant in the room, which is the railroads whose tracks run under the Woodie Seat.
"We'd have to get permission from three different railroads?" Richardson asked. "It would be nice, if, before our next meeting we had some sort of, if possible, some sort of memorandum of understanding or something from the railroads on what we're wanting to do, before we order the study."
The issue is that railroads respond on their own timeline, not to mention that it's not as if the city of Hutchinson is their primary priority. Also, speaking generally, when aiming for cost sharing whether it's at the state or federal level, the people writing the supporting check have their own ideas of what is best.
"The history of option 3 (the single roundabout that was recommended by engineering), is pretty much in the lens of experts telling us how to design to get the money," said City Manager Jeff Cantrell. "That's a pretty common practice for all cities. You design to get the grant dollars. It makes the most sense, it's sustainable. It conforms to new design, all the good stuff, the key words that you'd want to hear. It's not really created in a vacuum of staff, evil staff nefariously sitting in cubicles coming up with a strategic plan to screw the community, it's really more about, how do we get these grant dollars, and what's the most responsible design?"
Since the city is not going to get the federal cost share, the thought was that they might be able to get some state money with the roundabout option. At this point, all of that is on hold pending the study on the surface streets option, which could take up to a year to finish.