Downtown construction to switch lanes next week
City won't replace stoplight
Good news is here for all downtown businesses who haven't used their front doors much in the past few months.
Your headaches are nearly over.
Workers on the Main Street project will change lanes next week and begin demolition work on the north side of Grand and west side of Main.
That was the word Tuesday afternoon during the Hillsboro City Council's regular bi-weekly meeting.
Much of the work has been completed on the current lanes, including a layer of rock, two layers of asphalt, curbs and gutters, foundations for the decorative lamp posts, and the underground spaces that will hold the lamps' wiring, according to engineer Bob Previtera.
Though the current lanes are not complete yet, they're driveable, and the lane switch should take place sometime next week, he said.
When the entire project is finished in a few months and all the streets and lights are finished, one major change will remain: no more stoplight.
Instead, the intersection of Main and Grand will feature a four-way stop.
Previtera presented a four-way stop sign that will be mounted on a decorative pole to match the rest of the street lights. The council approved the move.
But not everything with the Main Street project has gone just as smoothly.
Downtown business owners Lowell Foth, owner of of a car repair business at the corner of Main and A, and Todd Jost, owner of Jost Welding and Radiator Service at 118 S. Main, both attended Tuesday's meeting. Each business needs a driveway instead of a curb in front of its building.
At a special council meeting called last week, Todd Jost and the owner of his business' building, Carl Jost, protested the concrete curb that was being poured as the meeting took place. Jost's business requires a driveway to allow vehicles to enter the building.
At that meeting, city officials told Jost that it was too late to stop the curb — instead, the curb could be removed later and a driveway installed.
Construction work will begin next week on Foth's side of Main, and he's concerned that a curb will be poured in front of his building as well.
"Without a driveway, I'm out of business," Foth said. "Is it inconsiderate to think of somebody with a business?"
Previtera said that a decision needed to be made before the lane switchover took place.
Both Jost and Foth agreed to meet with Previtera and city administrator Steve Garrett Wednesday morning to try to resolve the issue.
In other council business:
— The council approved an auditor's report from Knudson and Monroe of McPherson. The accounting firm audited the city's financial records for the 2002 calendar year.
— The city has not received a lease proposal from Tri County Telephone of Council Grove. TCT earlier proposed leasing space on a city water tower for its high-speed broadband Internet equipment.
Scott Braden, of Braden's Computers, attended Tuesday's meeting to discuss the issue of TCT coming to Hillsboro. Braden sells DTN SpeedNet wireless Internet through his business.
Braden said he was concerned that another wireless Internet service at the same frequency as his — 2.4 gigahertz — would cause complications with local service.
When Tabor College installed its 2.4 gigahertz wireless networks, the download speed for DTN users slowed down greatly, among other problems, Braden said.
If TCT were to use another frequency, Braden would have no problem with that provider coming into town — in fact, the competition would drive down prices for all Hillsboro Internet users, he said.
