Baldwin ? No longer do Douglas County commissioners dispute the need to rebuild U.S. Highway 59 between Lawrence and Ottawa.

The question now is where to build it.

FROM LEFT, Jean and Bill Mitchell of Lawrence and Elizabeth Hemphill of Baldwin discuss the effects of a proposed route for U.S. Highway 59 that would cut through a farm owned by the Mitchells. Two meetings for public officials and the public were conducted Tuesday at Baldwin high school to discuss the proposed freeway between Lawrence and Ottawa.

“I’m sold on the freeway idea,” said Jere McElhaney, chairman of the commission, after a meeting with highway officials. “They educated us, and it is better than an expressway. Anything for safety we’ll do.”

Before Tuesday’s meeting at Baldwin High School, McElhaney and his fellow commissioners had doubted the Kansas Department of Transportation’s assertions that highway traffic should be rerouted to a new freeway.

Perhaps turn lanes could be added, they figured, to cut down on an accident rate that is 25 percent higher than other highways of its kind in the state.

Or more lanes could be built adjacent to the two-lane road to boost capacity.

But after joining about 50 other government officials from Douglas and Franklin counties in listening to presentations from KDOT engineers, they each agreed individually to switch gears and focus instead on which route the four-lane freeway should follow.

“The freeway probably does make sense,” Commissioner Charles Jones said.

“I’m sold,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said. “I just want to get the responses from people who are most directly impacted, and I would probably be inclined to go that way.”

Two options

A draft environmental impact statement compiled by KDOT recommends building the freeway along one of two routes, each of which would run parallel to the existing highway:

300 feet to the east, which would displace 33 residences and eight businesses. The freeway would cost about $210.3 million when built in 2007 and require acquisition of about 960 acres of new right-of-way and affect 882.8 acres of prime farmland.

A mile to the east, which would displace 11 residences and two businesses. It would cost about $199.4 million in 2007, and require acquisition of about 970 acres of new right-of-way and affect 869 acres of prime farmland.

Routes unpopular with some

Tuesday evening, KDOT officials opened their ideas and conclusions to dozens of interested individuals in the high school’s cafeteria. Engineers answered questions about effects on properties in each route’s path, and a stenographer transcribed testimony to be entered into the public record for the project.

Among those unhappy with the process was Caryn Goldberg, spokesperson for the Franklin-Douglas Counties Coalition of Concerned Citizens. She blasted KDOT for rejecting the coalition’s request for more time to compile public comment.

And the settling on two routes for a freeway ignores viable options for improving safety on the dangerous road, she said.

“Both alternatives are completely bogus,” said Goldberg, whose group was formed to fight KDOT’s early preference for building a mile to the east. “The draft EIS did not look seriously at expanding (U.S.) 59 on its current alignment.

“The public hearing is another dog-and-pony show, where the people feed the input into the public agency and we don’t get to hear what each other are saying. That greatly diminishes our ability to reach community consensus.”

“We have from the start asked KDOT to put money into making the current road as safe as possible. Whether that means reducing speed limits, improving the shoulders, putting flashing lights at dangerous intersections, increasing patrollingall those things,” said coalition member Ken Lassman, 47, of rural Douglas County.

But not everyone was opposed to the idea.

“I’m willing to sacrifice my farm. I feel really bad when I hear of accidents because I have part of the power to control them from happening by not fighting, by going along with progress. The people who are fighting, they’re looking out for themselves. They’re not thinking about others,” said Bobbie Kindig, 45, who’s lived in Ottawa for five years.

Public comments accepted

KDOT plans to accept public comments through May 30, before including them in deliberations for choosing a final route. The decision could be final by the end of the year, with field surveying set for 2003 and construction in 2007.

Douglas County officials said they would collect public comments of their own this month, in time to make their own recommendation to state officials. The final decision rests with Dean Carlson, the state’s secretary of transportation, with approval from the Federal Highway Administration.

“The Kansas Department of Transportation has done a good job of narrowing it down to two possibilities,” McElhaney said. “Now it’s up to us to make a decision.”