Greencastle announces improvements and extension of South Street

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
A patchwork of asphalt of various ages give cars a rough ride along South Street. The street's width also makes meeting another vehicle -- particularly a school bus -- a tight squeeze.

The City of Greencastle will be holding a public meeting for proposed improvements to South Street that will extend it to Bloomington Street (U.S. 231).

The public meeting is for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 from at Greencastle City Hall, where city officials will explain plans to improve South Street and ask the public to provide input and feedback.

"We're excited to be moving forward on this project that will benefit so many residents," Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray said. "Public input is vital to ensure the road improvements are the best fit for our community."

The proposed upgrades to South Street will be primarily funded with federal money. Planned changes include improving the pavement, adding curbs with a closed storm sewer system and sidewalk construction.

The project will extend east to Zinc Mill Road. South Street will also be extended west from East Street in the Foxridge area, and create a new intersection with Bloomington Street.

Survey work has already been completed for the project and environmental studies and design of various improvement options have begun.

The project is expected to be ready for construction at the end of 2014.

"We invite all members of our community to join us at the kickoff meeting," Mayor Murray said. "We need your help because early involvement by residents is very important."

Only residents, she added, can provide on-the-ground concerns of those who travel or live near South Street.

A proposal to extend an improve the street would involve extending it from its current west end at East Street to U.S. 231.

The meeting will feature an informal open-house session where interested people will have an opportunity to view project displays, receive informational handouts and talk to project representatives one-on-one while having questions and concerns addressed.

Officials from the City of Greencastle, along with their design consultants from Bernardin, Lochmueller & Associates Inc. will be on hand to answer questions. The public will also have the opportunity to provide written comments on the improvement project.

City officials would like to encourage the community to attend this public information meeting and learn more about this project.

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  • A stoplight at the new intersection would be nice. That would help avoid another catastrophe like the Martinsville St. intersection.

    -- Posted by Clovertucky on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 10:22 AM
  • This extension to US 231 is a good deal! I hope they go ahead with it. It will take some of the traffic off Martinsville Street and the traffic jam at the intersection of Martinsville and US 231 by McClure's.

    -- Posted by not gullible on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 1:21 PM
  • Bet the residents of Edgelea are wishing they were in the City right about now. County can't even find money to repair existing roads but the city can find money to build new ones. Also, why is this money from a federal grant? I fail to see how this is a federal problem. Yet another example of wasted taxpayer dollars.

    -- Posted by hometownboy on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 1:23 PM
  • Why spend money on more streets to maintain and plow ,we can't fix what we have now !

    -- Posted by Blue6 on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 5:55 PM
  • Something definitely needs to be done to that street.

    -- Posted by purple_heat on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 6:54 PM
  • Here's a thought: Repair Woodhaven to South st and South st to Zinc Mill and revamp that crazy 3-way intersection .

    -- Posted by Blue6 on Wed, Jan 25, 2012, at 7:35 PM
  • Sorry,hometownboy,Edgelea has no desire to be annexed into City of Greencastle.....

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Thu, Jan 26, 2012, at 2:21 PM
  • bomtrax5,

    I understand that many residents don't want to be annexed but for the life of me I can't understand why. They just agreed to pay an assessment to get the county to fix their own roads, whereas if they had been annexed their increased assessment / property taxes would have went to do that as well as provide sewer, street lights, and other services (trash, leaf, and snow removal). Plus I seem to remember a banner story awhile back that said septic issues are so bad in the subdivision that there is sewage running on the streets. Edgelea needs to realize that annexation would benefit both the residents and the city.

    -- Posted by hometownboy on Thu, Jan 26, 2012, at 3:43 PM
  • Hometownboy,your points are definitely valid,this project is in the infancy stage so who knows.......

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Fri, Jan 27, 2012, at 6:42 AM
  • Everyone seems to overlook the facts.

    1. There is no more sewage in the streets of Edgelea than what can be found all over this county and city streets. Yes it exists, but due to various factors, including no septic fields it can be found almost everywhere.

    2. No, the citizens of Edgelea did not agree to an increased assesment, only about 35% did that. There was NO public discussion or explanation given to the proposal. This was all accomplished with a small group or politically connected people. Where was the public comment section of this proposal - there was NOT one.

    3. The original city annexation proposal may have been acceptable if the city had not made the proposal impossible to pass. There were some political considerations that were made to make the proposal so that it probably could not gain local support - it did what it was designed to do.

    4. If the city could get an 80/20 grant, why couldn't the county have done the same thing in the edgelea area? Mainly because it would have required them to actually do their jobs - something that is terribly lacking. They believe their job is to provide excuses.

    -- Posted by gunner on Fri, Jan 27, 2012, at 3:17 PM
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