Road to redesign a rocky path
By Jon Gulliver
Staff writer
PRESQUE ISLE — More than 200 Star City residents Thursday attended sessions to comment on a proposed redesign of downtown traffic patterns and the meetings quickly went from informational to confrontational.
John Melrose, the consultant from Eaton Peabody and former state transportation commissioner, said, “It’s very early in this stage of the process. This is one of many concepts available.”
The concept that created such a strong response, would discontinue use of the entire length of Riverside Drive, close off a section of State Street, create a new street connecting Chapman Road with the intersection near the State Street Bridge (running parallel to the train tracks to the east of the Presque Isle District Court), extend Second Street slightly to the south, discontinue Academy Street between Main and Second streets and extend Chapman Road across Main Street to the east — through property currently home to Governor’s Restaurant, an apartment building and the New York Life office, resulting in the relocation of businesses and homes — then connect with Academy Street. The plan also calls for the possible elimination of traffic lights at two intersections, Academy and State.
City Manager Jim Bennett stated, “The main goal of this planning process is to create a more effective downtown area that generates economic growth.”
Dissatisfaction was voiced in a number of areas, but mainly with the plan itself and how the process has been handled.
“I think the biggest issue that everyone in this room has, everyone wants to see economic growth and everyone wants to see truck traffic eased, this plan that was rolled out to me, while I was hot topping my yard after my $600,000 dollar investment, destroys a lot of little guys like me,” said Tom Clukey, a downtown businessman.
“None of us were even given the opportunity to talk about this to see if we even wanted it, to determine the need for it,” said businessman Bob Graves. “It appalls me that the first time I heard anything about this was in the newspaper last week. The majority of people sitting in this room are here because they don’t want this to happen and they are concerned this was just thrown on us with no warning whatsoever.”
This process has happened quickly, the Council approved the hiring of Eaton Peabody back in August using $10,000 from a community planning grant and $12,500 from the downtown infrastructure fund.
Some members of the Downtown Revitalization Committee, who were aware of the hiring of Eaton Peabody, said they would have liked to have been more involved in the drafting of the proposal, a complaint directed at City Manager Bennett.
City councilor Mel Hovey said that criticism is unwarranted.
“We thought we were doing what the Downtown Committee wanted us to,” said Hovey. “I am a little bit dismayed at what has happened here and I would come to Jim’s defense. When we hired Jim we told him what we wanted him to do and he’s doing it.”
Not everyone in attendance was against the entire plan. One person in the back of the packed conference room at the Northeastland Hotel said, “The process needs to be rescued.”
Melrose, who was the meeting facilitator, said early in the gathering, “can we find an option which people will rally around and support?” He added this is also a long-term project and final decisions are down the road.
The conceptual design plan is available for review on the city’s website, www.presqueisle.govoffice2.com
