The Knoxville City Council met in regular session Monday.
The council presented information regarding the Highway 14/Lincoln St. “Road Diet”, using a 240-page Iowa DoT study that concluded the project would make the street safer for both vehicles and pedestrians. The council then opened the floor to public comment regarding the project, which had over 15 residents state their concerns ranging from vehicle and pedestrian safety to traffic during race nights among others. After the public comment period, the board approved the conversion of Highway 14/Lincoln St. to three lanes with a 4-1 vote, with councilman Rick Kingery voting no.
Councilman Dylan Morse tells KNIA/KRLS News he used the numbers from the study and the availability for grant money as reasons to why this is a good idea.
“The study showed that this really will be beneficial to the city. It shows it has been beneficial to the 91 other communities from around the state that are in similar situations, similar traffic numbers and daily number of cars, so safety is a huge factor. Doing this will also give the city greater eligibility in applying for funds through the state-funded traffic safety improvement program. They don’t want to put good money after bad any more than we do, so if we are not willing to put our money where our mouth is and we are not willing to make positive changes to the community, then they are not willing to fund the necessary improvement for our traffic signals, which are in dire need of improvement”.
The “Road Diet” will not take place until the year 2020. The council approved the hiring of Cal Wyman of Mason City to be the Knoxville Deputy Fire Chief. The council also approved a change to the 2018 streets improvement project that involves using sod instead of seed, and set a public hearing date for September 4th to approve changes to the zoning code.