Supporters of finishing the South Lawrence Trafficway through the Baker Wetlands hope to have dozens of supporters in their corner next month for a public hearing that could determine the road’s fate.

And when the bell rings to start the hearing 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds Bob Johnson and others on his side plan to come out swinging.

“We’re in the 15th round of a heavyweight bout, and we’ve won most of the rounds but not all of them,” said Johnson, a Douglas County commissioner working on the project. “We know we’ll win a draw, but we’re going for a knockout.”

Saturday morning, Johnson and three project officials met with a dozen community leaders to answer questions and discuss strategy in preparation for the hearing before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As the federal agency with jurisdiction over wetlands issues, the corps intends to choose one of two routes for the road by year’s end:

l Along a 32nd Street alignment, through the wetlands, at a cost of $105 million.

l Along a 42nd Street alignment, running south of the Wakarusa River at a cost of $128.5 million.

Everyone attending Saturday’s invitation-only meeting agreed that building the road along a 32nd Street alignment would best serve the community. And the best way to convince corps officials, at this point, would be to pack the hearing with supporters, they said.

“It’s not a matter of try,” said Sue Hack, a Lawrence city commissioner. “I think we have to be at the hearing, and bring five of your closest friends.”

Added Nancy Hambleton, a former Lawrence mayor: “Numbers count.”

Building support

Hack and Hambleton were among four former mayors at Saturday’s meeting. The others were Bonnie Lowe (formerly Bonnie Augustine) and Shirley Martin-Smith. Also attending were Kelvin Heck, chairman of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce; Jean Milstead, a retired banker and former co-chair of the Horizon 2020 steering committee; and several business owners and interested individuals.

All of them signed a letter supporting the 32nd Street route, and agreed to spread the word about what they see as the virtues of the alignment. Among them: efficient traffic flow, economic development, expansion of the Baker Wetlands and relocation and reconstruction of 31st Street, Haskell Avenue and Louisiana Street to skirt the expanded wetlands.

The property now used for 31st Street, between Louisiana Street and Haskell Avenue, would be returned to Haskell Indian Nations University.

Mike Rees, chief counsel for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said he didn’t need such public assistance heading into the Sept. 12 hearing, which will give Col. Donald Curtis and other corps officials a chance to hear what the community thinks about the project’s draft environmental impact statement.

Ready for battle

The document stands on its own, Rees said, and he is “inherently confident” in its ability to withstand any legal challenge. Even so, he’s already lined up Lenexa attorney Tim Orrick to fight in court and former Kansas University law dean Mike Davis to advise the state on federal procedures.

“We don’t need anybody’s support,” Rees told the group. “We need the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ support, but that’s it.”

The corps intends to collect public comment during the hearing and continue accepting written comments through Sept. 30. Officials expect a final decision about the road’s route by the end of the year.

Rees said the state was prepared to spend $15 million by the end of the year to get the project moving, by moving dirt in the wetlands and fulfilling an $8.5 million wetlands mitigation agreement negotiated with Baker University and Douglas County.

The mitigation plan includes building a wetlands education center, relocating roads, expanding the wetlands, relocating a water line serving the city of Baldwin and providing money to care for the wetlands.

Such features would not be included with the 42nd Street route, Rees said, which carries too many negatives to win any support financial or otherwise from his department.

“It’s too expensive,” Rees said. “It’s badly engineered. It provides no local benefit in terms of traffic relief. It is the most environmentally damaging route, by far, and it is going to cause Lawrence to grow into Baldwin in ways that nobody is going to want, and I think those factors will be recognized by Col. Curtis, and that (choosing 42nd Street) won’t be their decision.

“So it’s 32nd Street, and 32nd Street is the compromise route. It provides something for everybody.”

Opposition assistance

While groups opposed to the trafficway long have been involved in the process, and their concerns about the project’s potential effects on American Indian culture and traditions are well-documented, the group that convened Saturday is hoping to break the mold by shifting the direction of the community’s discourse.

Instead of focusing on the project’s delays the western half of the project opened to traffic in 1996, at a cost of about $45 million, while the section east of U.S. Highway 59 has been mired in regulatory and courtroom battles members of the new group say they will focus on the future.

And, to some degree, members said they had trafficway opponents to thank.

“We’re at the point we should stop bemoaning the fact that we don’t have a road, and stop grousing about how long it’s taken, and start rejoicing,” said Johnson, who has led the county government’s latest push to complete the trafficway. “We should start rejoicing in what we’re going to get as a result. Although they never meant it, what they have caused to happen is a far, far better road a far, far better route for our community, and an incredible asset for Baker University, for Haskell.

“In our own quiet way, let’s pat them on the back compliment them.”