Plans, plans, who’s got the plans. . .

Where are the plans for the proposed academic village and roundabouts, still on the drawing board I’m told. Yet in a split decision Mayor Townsell voted in a request from Hendrix College for a roundabout along Harkrider at Winfield and Siebenmorgen Roads. This after only seeing the conceptual drawings with no idea what the finished design will look like.

What is the actual daily traffic at these intersections? All we get is old and/or estimated data. How can you know the feasibility of these roundabouts without knowing the amount of traffic and the patterns that it takes? What will be the total cost of these roundabouts? Again all we get is that it will not cost any additional money than what has already been set aside for the proposed divided highway. But how do they know this if the final plans have not been submitted.

The fact is that they are not even sure if this idea is feasible, in fact when asked what would the city do if this proposal didn’t work the reply was they’d put the traditional traffic lights back up. This would mean that the designers, the Mayor, and the alderman who voted for this idea are not even sure this plan would work.

Jamie Gates of the Mayor’s office recently commented that the roundabouts will accommodate traffic as well if not better than a signalized intersection. If this were true then why have the back up plan? He added that it would be much more attractive and safer for the rising Hendrix student population who will be going to their new Health and Wellness Facility and athletic fields. Once again we see that the main push for this project is to benefit the expansion of a private institution and not the public in general.

So why do this idea you may ask? Well the answer could be found in the remarks left by an anonymous person who commented on this blog, the poster writes,

Has anyone considered the fact that Hendrix students and alumni, while small in number, tend to be fairly affluent and have disposable income to spend in our fair city?

Maybe cutting the college a break, when it and its students and alumni spend so much money here, might not be a bad idea...

This blogger suggests that since the students and alumni of Hendrix College are affluent with a lot of disposable income to be spent in the city we should cut the college some slack, that sounds like something Alderman Adam Weeks would say. But hasn’t the city already done too much of that? Is it not time for the city to think about the needs of all its citizens and not just the wants of the higher echelon.