TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Budget crunch may halt trafficway
Opponents to proposed trafficway unite to save the Baker wetlands
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The controversial South Lawrence Trafficway will be built along an alignment with what is currently 32nd Street, if the US Army Corps of Engineers most recent plan is approved.
a crippling budget crisis and recent suggestions from Kansas' newly elected governor might put that project on indefinite hiatus.
The amount of money being set aside to build the multi-million dollar highway concerns many Kansans, including Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, in light of the current financial crunch. Her proposed budget trims Department of Transportation funding by $26.1 million.
Recommended or not, the proposed budget prompted newly appointed Deb Miller, transportation secretary, to freeze the $14 million allocated for the project until the Corps releases its official record of decision, and all lawsuits filed by the Trafficway's opponents are heard in court.
The Corps' final decision will come after the public has 30 days, beginning Friday, Jan. 17, to email Corps officer Robert Smith with comments at robert.j.smith@nwk02.usace.ar
"It's too soon to tell what will happen with the budget. The recommendations are recommendations at this point, we can't tell what we really have to work with until the end of the legislative session."
"It's too soon to tell what will happen with the budget," said Marty Matthews, transportation department representative, on Thursday. "The recommendations are recommendations at this point, we can't tell what we really have to work with until the end of the legislative session."
Marty Matthews Transportation department representative
my.mil. Lawsuits opposing the route can be filed after the Corps' decision is final.
"If they ever start building it I think some of us should go out and camp on our land," Kindscher said.
All this uncertainty did not stop a group of about 40 concerned Lawrence citizens from coming together Saturday to devise a plan to ensure the completed extension between Kansas Highway 10 and Interstate 70 would not go through the Baker Wetlands.
If or when construction begins on the Corps' Final Draft, Kelly Kindscher, associate scientist for the Kansas Biological Survey, thinks students and workers at the University should know that 20 percent of the land used on the 32nd Street route belongs to KU, and they're going to give that to KDOT.
Preventing the road from dissecting the wetlands, an area of land cherished by environmentalists and sacred to many area
Native Americans, has long been the goal of a variety of opposition groups. But recent events, like the release of the Corps' final recommendation, heightened anxieties and created a sense of urgency among the road's opponents. That's when Don Phipps, Lawrence, got the idea to bring together these diverse and occasionally splintered groups to create a unified front.
"Save the Wetlands is really just an attempt to organize opposition in a multi-faceted way that can deal with this issues' political nature," Phipps said before the meeting.
"Personally, I think it's ridiculous that people are losing jobs and schools are being shut down and there's still money being set aside to build this highway," he said.
It's money that made the Corps' most recent decision for the 32nd Street alignment a popular one among supporters. According to that plan, Baker University would receive over $5 million as part of a mitigation package intended to diminish the four-lane road's environmental
"Personally, I think it's ridiculous that people are losing jobs and schools are being shut down and there's still money being set aside to build this highway."
Don Phipps Lawrence resident
impact on the wetlands. The plan calls for creating more wetlands nearby and building an education and research center within the mitigated wetlands.
Kindscher and other opponents think money could also make the Trafficway unpopular among those who keep track of state spending.
"We're playing a card game here, folks, and someone's going to fold, whether it's KDOT or some other entity," he said. "If we keep the pressure on it won't be us."
Edited by Jason Elliott
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