Newton Kansan
NEWTON —
In September, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will seat a council charged with writing a new transportation plan for the state.
When that happens, Harvey County will have a plan for asking the state to make improvements to U.S. Highway 50, a plan that came into sharper focus Monday when the commission agreed to help fund an economic impact study on the highway. “Highway 50 needs a lot of attention,” commissioner Chip Westfall said. “And not only from a safety standpoint. If you think about it, for those who are unfamiliar with the highway there are really only two places to get fuel in Harvey County — Burrton and Walton. If you are not familiar with the Newton interchange, you are through it and gone before you can hop off.”The county agreed to give $8,105 to the Harvey County Economic Development Council to help fund an economic study of the road. The study will cost $20,000, with each partner municipality in the county chipping in based on the percentage of the EDC budget they normally fund. The study will take about 60 days. “If we are serious about making something happen with Highway 50, we need to have some documentation on the effects it has,” commissioner Marge Roberson said. And they need to have it when it is needed this fall. After the commission charged with writing the new 10-year transportation plan is seated, members will visit all 105 Kansas counties to discuss each county’s needs. “They will be seated in September, but we don’t know when they will visit us,” EDC director Mickey Fornaro-Dean said. “We might draw the short straw and be first on the list.”Dean said there is no guarantee the county will be able to sell an improvement project for Highway 50 to the state, but having the economic study will be part of trying to make it happen. “Is it a given that we will get projects? No,” Dean said. “But this gets us on the playing field.”The county commission was the last entity in the county to approve funding for the study. All municipalities — Newton, Hesston, Walton, Sedgwick, Halstead and Burrton — had already approved funding for the study prior to Monday’s meeting. “There’s no question we need something,” commissioner Ron Krehbiel said. “Highway 50 has been a suicide lane for 20 years or more.”In other business, the commission:• Received the initial budgets for the Harvey County Economic Development Corp., Harvey County Extension, Community Development Disabilities Organization and Solid Waste Department budgets. The proposed budgets are public record and are available for viewing at the county courthouse.