Mission accomplished
By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:03 PM PDT
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| Jennifer Colton | ARgus Observer
Mary Cordova (left), Payette City Clerk, and Doug Argo, city engineer, hold the ends of a ribbon while Mayor Doug Henderson slices it during a ceremony for the official unveiling of a new traffic light at the intersection of Seventh Avenue North and U.S. Highway 95 Wednesday. As the second traffic signal in Payette, the light will break up traffic on the highway and provide safe access to McCain Middle School. |
Payette - The new stoplight at the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and Seventh Avenue North is now in operation after a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday in Payette.
The ribbon cutting put the finishing touches on a project Payette officials pursued for more than a decade.
A crowd filled with Payette City officials, council members and police officers were on hand to cut a ribbon and officially christen the light, which Idaho Transportation Department workers connected Tuesday afternoon.
“Originally, we were going to flip the switch during the ceremony, but we would have have to bag the lights and had a full crew from ITD come down to unbag them,” Payette Mayor Doug Henderson said. Both Henderson and former mayor Mark Heleker attributed the traffic light to the persistence of many people over the 10-year period.
The request for a stoplight on U.S. Highway 95 was first pushed up to the ITD in 1996 when Jim McCue served as Payette mayor, Heleker said, and he continued the struggle during his term as mayor.
“My job for four years was to stay in contact with ITD and remind them that we have a situation here with the amount of traffic,” Heleker said. “I was a thorn in their side. John Franks — who was the city clerk at that time — he was a big part of sitting down and working on those meetings — and Paul Stevens — the city engineer — they were with me whenever we met with ITD.”
U.S. Highway 95 serves as a main, north-south thoroughfare in Idaho, running through Payette north to Weiser and south to Fruitland, and the Seventh Avenue North intersection was chosen for the traffic light location for two reasons, Heleker said.
First, Seventh Avenue North provides primary access to a section of the city including McCain Middle School, Payette Municipal Airport and Scotch Pines Golf Course.
“If we had put it in a more centralized location like on Center Avenue or Sixth Street South where the high school is, the state pointed out that traffic could back up and block other intersections,” Heleker said.
Although the project fell off the ITD radar at one time, Heleker said the project reappeared on the ITD list during the second year of his term as mayor.
“From that point, I have to commend mayor Henderson for continuing that battle,” he said. “It’s been a team effort.”
Henderson also announced at the ceremony that the ITD has agreed to install a full pedestrian system — complete with crosswalks, signals and push buttons — as an addendum to the current project rather than part of a project to widen Seventh Avenue North.
“It made sense to do it now,” he said. “My impression is it will be in the near future. They want it done fairly quickly to close out this project.”
The Seventh Avenue North project will probably begin next spring, Henderson said.
“The public has been very happy to see this happen,” Henderson said. “It’s been a part of just about every council member’s and mayor’s campaign for the last decade.” This is only one step in what we plan to do for safety. We’re just happy to see that light.”
