Miller Road and North Cottonwood Street recently were opened to golf carts, prompting Iola officials to reduce the speed limits on both to 30 mph.
Iolan Mike Jewell would like to see the same done to Marshmallow Lane.
Jewell, speaking at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, asked the city to consider opening the north-south thoroughfare in northwest Iola to golf carts and other “low-speed” vehicles.
“I know there are a lot of people who work at Russell Stover who walk or ride bicycles,” Jewell said.
Jewell, who is legally blind, recounted being struck by a vehicle along that street when he worked at the Resource Center for Independent Living.
The lower speed limit also would open access to such places as Iola Walmart and other businesses along North State Street, Jewell noted.
Council members were non-committal.
Councilman Jon Wells said the city could consider the request, “but we need to do our due diligence,” and check with the business owners and residents near the street, in particular Russell Stover.
THE COUNCIL set an Oct. 24 public hearing to discuss whether to extend the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Plan.
The plan grants a partial rebate to property owners in town who increased their property’s appraised values by at least $10,000.
Because it’s part of an inter-local agreement, extension also must be granted by other local taxing entities, such as Allen County, USD 257 and Allen Community College.
The proposed extension would vary little from the existing plan, City Administrator Sid Fleming said.
“All we’d change are the dates and the names of the participating organizations,” he said.
COUNCIL members approved, 7-0 — Bob Shaughnessy was absent — the scope of work for construction engineering for a Safe Routes To School project.
The city will work with Schwab-Eaton P.A., Manhattan, at a price of $26,777.
The engineering costs were a bit higher than expected, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock said.
Typically, engineering costs are about 10 percent to 15 percent of the total project cost (pegged at about $180,000 by the Kansas Department of Transportation), Schinstock said. The Schwab-Eaton price is about 18 percent.
