County delays Kansas Expressway plan

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The Greene County Commission again tabled the vote to map the extension of Kansas Expressway past Steinert Road in its Oct. 2 meeting. The vote was also tabled in the commission's August and September meetings and will be next taken up in its Nov. 6 meeting. |ret||ret||tab|

Western District Commissioner Darrell Decker said the commission is leaning toward approving the third option for the extension, which takes the longest course to the southwest and would connect directly to Steinert. The first and second options for the Kansas Expressway extension are almost a straight line south from Plainview, but would bisect the 100-year-old Steinert farm.|ret||ret||tab|

Presiding Commissioner Dave Coonrod said the vote was tabled for the third time to provide the commission and property owner Robert Davis additional time to discuss the third option for the extension, which would affect Davis' property located west of Steinert Road and Farm Road 143.|ret||ret||tab|

"There was a request by Mr. Davis to give him another 30 days to look over a memo of understanding that he received late last Friday (Sept. 29)," Coonrod said. "He visited with some of his surrounding neighbors to see if they objected to one more delay, and no one seemed to have a problem with that."|ret||ret||tab|

If the third option is chosen by the commission, the expressway extension would exist about 650 feet in front of Davis' home, which sits on approximately 40 acres, according to Bill Robinett, Greene County Highway Department traffic planner. |ret||ret||tab|

Decker said Davis wanted written confirmation from the commission that the home he built just a few years ago will be protected. |ret||ret||tab|

"I think (Davis') concerns are valid, but I think those concerns will come into play when we negotiate for the rights-of-way. The memorandum of understanding will give him something in writing that will indicate what our intentions are," Decker said. "As you come up a hill and then down a hill where the extension would intersect with Steinert, there is a possibility that headlights could shine right in his living room window. He's wanting to preserve a grove of trees that would help buffer that."|ret||ret||tab|

The third option for the extension is recommended by the Greene County Highway Department and favored by the majority of residents and commissioners because it would not displace any homes or create a new intersection. All three options are comparable in cost. Robinett said 1999 estimates for the extension hover around $3 million for each of the three options, but he stressed those figures are preliminary. After the commission votes to map the extension route, the county will then acquire the rights-of-way for the extension, which will first have to be appraised.|ret||ret||tab|

Decker said despite the months-long delay, he still doesn't feel the other two options for the extension have been adequately discussed.|ret||ret||tab|

"At some point Kansas is going to cross the (James) river and we're going to end up in Christian County ... I don't think we should take (Kansas Expressway) west I think we should continue south," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Decker said he's confident the issue will not be tabled a fourth time in November. |ret||ret||tab|

"We were probably very, very close to reaching a decision Monday, but we just hadn't quite gotten there," he said. [[In-content Ad]]