The Board of Aldermen meeting room was standing room only last week as the board heard a citizen request to get rid of many of the one-way streets around downtown Kosciusko and revert to the 2016 traffic pattern.
Local business owner Leisa Terrell, who asked to have the topic put on the board agenda, was joined by 50 other concerned citizens and business owners who almost universally expressed support for her request.
At the outset of the meeting, Mayor Jimmy Cockroft explained that the board planned only to hear Terrell’s presentation, not to gather community input or make any decisions.
“We won’t take any public comments about it tonight,” he told the group. “We know why everyone else is here.”
Terrell then told the board of the challenges she and others feel the traffic pattern and bike lanes have caused local businesses.
“I know it makes sense on paper, and all the officials, the KAP, etc. had endorsed it,” said Terrell, and “nobody has anything against the bikers, but it takes half the parking away from businesses, there is no freight access now and it reduces traffic flow. It is really hurting the business owners.”
Other issues include the pattern cutting off two of the largest potential parking areas and access to the Chancery Court and Kosciusko School District buildings on Washington Street when the square is closed for community events.
After allowing brief comments from a couple of audience members, both the Mayor and Alderman-At-Large Tim Kyle said that the concerns had not been brought to the city’s attention previously.
“If you don’t say something, we don’t know about it,” said Cockroft, noting that citizens are always welcome to attend the board’s meetings on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
Cockroft also sought to lay some rumors to rest, telling the group that there was no grant money received related to the traffic pattern change, and that JC Cheek did the bike lane work for free, with the city paying only for the paint.
Kyle said the board will always willingly listen to citizen concerns about decisions that have made or will make.
“I had simply not ever had a single person say something,” he said. “We’ve done stuff before that we screwed up on. Some things work out good, and some things don’t.”
The board then indicated that members would likely be contacting some of the individuals in the business community to gather more information and input before making a decision on whether to return the traffic pattern to its pre-2016 path or make any other adjustments.
