Most of you already know that the US 20 Ashton to SH 87 project has been paused for “now”. This is the result of efforts by elected officials from the state level to the local level. But make no mistake, these elected officials were strongly influenced by private citizens who spent hundreds of hours doing research, filing public information requests, filing Freedom of Information Act Requests, studying data, and providing vast amounts of information to elected officials and others. These private citizens and the Island Park news have provided a valuable service of informing the public about this questionable and expensive project. This is self-government at its best.
Now is the time for the public to provide a very clear and definitive statement to the Idaho Transportation Department regarding what they want for the future of this highway segment. The Island Park Preservation Coalition will host a second community meeting on October 14, 2022, at 6 PM, in the Island Park EMS Building, to gather input from the public and discuss the possible solutions. You will recall that in the first community meeting that the attendees voted to support a two lane “super 2” highway as opposed to the four lane freeway being advanced by ITD. A super 2 is sometimes called a 2+1 highway and includes wider lanes, wide shoulders, alternating passing lanes, open areas next to the highway, adjustments in access, and other enhancements. ITD funded (~$3.5M) JUB Engineers to study adding passing lanes to US 20 to improve the highway. JUB Engineers prioritized the location of the new passing lanes. The preliminary planning is done and has been paid for. A super 2 will serve the community for over 2 decades and probably longer. The community has already embraced the tree cutback, rumble strips, and wide shoulders along the entire highway segment. ITD is currently implementing these improvements. The community did not address the intersections, in Island Park, in any real detail in the first community meeting. ITD had provided sketches of the Island Park intersections in the past. Please bring your ideas for these intersections to the community meeting on October 14th. The goal of the community meeting is to provide comprehensive solutions, which the community backs, and take these solutions forward to decision makers. The community “absolutely” must not be viewed as complainers but rather as participants in the generation of solutions. Now is the time to get involved. This is especially true for local businesses that could be impacted.
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Making Sense of It All
This blog will help you make sense out of all the information on the website, how it affects IP, our history, and how efforts continue to put IP into various forms of conservation status. Archives
May 2023
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