Fort Scott corridor findings unveiled

Thursday night, officials and residents of Fort Scott received their first look at the possible future of the entire city of Fort Scott. The new look for Fort Scott will change the whole southern portion of the city, including changing the historical down town area, not to mention 69 Highway itself. This presentation of the possible change in a small south eastern city is a major reconstruction. The most affected will be the intersection of 69 hwy and National. An area of focus is Main Street where the major fire took out several historical buildings and left vacant grass covered lots. Felsburg, Holt and Ullevig project manager Kyle Anderson stated traffic plans were based on lasting until the year 2040. At the moment the engineers don’t have any estimate as to the costs for such a project, but this process has to face a stakeholder review and more comments before the final report in the later part of November.

I have been a resident of Fort Scott, Kansas many times and for many years, the people are kind, and that is the kind of atmosphere that makes you want to stay. I was very excited to read the article of new changes to areas in need of change. As stated in at www.morningsun.net stated so well this is a preliminary recommendation. This change will be for the good if it follows through and that elates me. But you know where there is good there is always bad, such as traffic delays and so on.

We all know that when KDOT starts working on anything they put traffic at a stand still; we all have been in the Orange zone, here or Kansas City. Instead of working on a small portioned area at a time to not affect people’s everyday lives, they block and zone miles of road or dozens of areas that they can’t work on right away. My main thought regarding this article is that I hope they do stop and realize life moves rather fast at times in the small sleepy town of Fort Scott.

As I pull this story to an end, I say to anyone who drives anywhere that has endured the, “Orange Zone,” this is my only complaint to the reconstruction of the town of Fort Scott. If you’re going to do road work as you say, portion off the area that you are actually physically working on, not miles of endless road that half the workers are nowhere near. In further thought, as for the historical down town fire several years ago, destroyed antique buildings that now only grassy lots lie. I say to the engineers let’s keep as much as possible looking like the original Fort Scott; we don’t want to lose our heritage with a modern thought. Finally the corner of National and 69 highway, this has been a dangerous intersection for many years and I have seen many, many accidents in this above mentioned area. With life comes changes, but changes shouldn’t let us forget who made those brick roads and why they are still there.