HUMBOLDT — After 90 minutes of comments, about half favoring a multi-user lane along the edge of Ninth Street and the other half opposed, Humboldt council members voted nay, by a 4-3 vote. Councilman Mark Slater was absent because of surgery his wife underwent earlier Monday.
Council members Sunny Shreve and Vada Aikins gave impassioned support to the project that has been hanging fire for several months. Shreve made the motion to move ahead and Aikins quickly put it before the council. Only Cindy Hollingsworth joined them in the affirmative.
Sarah Lassman was the only of four negative voters to stump her position vocally, saying she feared having a multi-user lane — for bicycle riders as well as walkers, joggers and people using small motorized devices — would give young children a false sense of security.
In a nutshell here are other comments:
— Mona Hull said she thought the connectivity would be helpful in promoting commerce downtown and be an adjunct that would encourage out-of-towners.
— Bobbi Bonds mentioned Allen County would resurface the main north-south thoroughfare, and allowed marking a six-foot lane with a three-foot buffer would leave ample room for two lanes of vehicular traffic.
— Richard Weilert questioned why sidewalks wouldn’t be a better venue, particularly for walkers. Don’t take people from a place a safety — sidewalks with a five-foot strip grass strip between them and the street — and put them in harm’s way on the street, he urged.
— Don Walburn had a plethora of reasons why he thought the lane should be rejected: put children and walkers, even people pushing strollers, closer to traffic; make home access more difficult; result in congestion with delivery and other trucks parked on the street; expose users to many different types of traffic, and drivers.
— Layne Sterling said several times a year he took wide farm equipment from where he lives east of Humboldt to farm fields west of town, and that doing so could put him in violation of traffic laws in trying to avoid the marked lane.
— Janey Works thought the lane would be safer for bicyclist of all ages, and other who would use is.
— Dan Julich questioned why the city would expend money to paint and maintain lane markings when it appeared to have difficulty maintaining several other things he mentioned, including Christmas lights and illumination of a City Hall sign.
— Damaris Kunkler, Thrive Allen County program director, said a grant from the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City likely could be attracted to pay for marking, which should require 40 gallons of paint costing about $2,000. City Administrator Cole Herder estimated city labor, done mostly after hours, might cost as much as $8,000, or better than $20,000 with a turn-key private contract.
— Aaron Arana, at 19 the youngest to speak off the cuff, had the most succinct comment: “Kids are going to ride on the street, and it would be safer with a marked lane.”
— David Toland, Thrive director, came late and ended public comment by saying a “lot of crazy ideas have come up and Humboldt usually says yes. It’s easy to say no, and hard to say yes, the right thing” in this case.
The council, though, by Toland’s historical recollections, took the road less traveled with its rejection.
IN OTHER NEWS, council members:
— Approved a loan agreement with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment of $5.7 million to help finance a $7 million sewer improvement project. The remainder of revenue will come from several sources, including an anticipated $500,000 Community Development Block Grant. Amortization of the KDHE loan is 40 years and will be paid off with sewer revenue.
