No change for Anderson Street this time either, Council says
Some long overdue repaving is currently in progress along Anderson Street from Bloomington Street to Wood Street in Greencastle.
While new and smooth, that blacktop surface likely will be the only change East Anderson Street residents will witness for the foreseeable future.
Not that some of its residents haven’t been advocating change.
At the September City Council meeting, a petition signed primarily by residents of the Miller Asbury Apartments development in the old Miller School building, requested Anderson Street (which runs one-way east) be converted into a two-way street from Bloomington to Wood Street.
No one from Miller Asbury attended that meeting but a large group of residents from homes along East Anderson Street did in protest over the possibility of a change to two-way traffic.
The Council took no action that night, effectively denying the petition.
Thursday night a contingent of Miller Asbury residents was on hand for the October Council session, this time petitioning for the street to be made two-way between Bloomington and Arlington to facilitate their exit onto Bloomington Street.
Again the Council took no action, effectively denying the petition, but not before some interesting dialogue took place.
Carolyn Nichols represented the Miller Asbury group at the podium, offering a petition with 49 signatures, nine more than the previous month. She suggested the two-way designation would help “take more traffic off of Seminary Street.”
To get to Bloomington Street, Miller Asbury residents must exit their parking lot and go right, turn left on Arlington and left again onto Seminary a block later to get over to Bloomington to go north or south.
In letter from Phyllis Neumann read to the Council by Nichols, she noted the change would make it “much more accessible for elderly residents” and create a “faster way to get to Putnam County Hospital.”
The Miller Asbury contingent noted that residents who live along the north side of Anderson between Bloomington and Arlington have expressed no problem with the two-way change, and that the street could easily accommodate the traffic because there is no parking on the north side there.
Resident Marty Gill, 531 Anderson St., quickly contested those notions.
“All the people from Arlington down to Bloomington are against having it a two-way street,” Gill assured, noting that residents do indeed park on the north side, especially when they have visitors or multiple vehicles.
Gill also noted that Anderson Street residents had meetings with Chuck Heintzelman, the developer of the Miller Asbury project, and “he told us it was never his intention to make it a two-way street. It was never his intention to push for that.”
City Planner Shannon Norman echoed those remarks, adding that such an idea also has had no support from the city’s public safety officials.
Fire Chief John Burgess said making Anderson Street two-way traffic would “make it extremely tight“ to get fire equipment through the traffic in a timely manner.
“We’d have to eliminate parking to do it,” Council President Adam Cohen said. “That to me, with all due respect, becomes a problem.”
Councilman Dave Murray had similar thoughts.
“The overriding thing to me is when public safety people tell me this is not a good thing, it’s tough for me to go down that road, no pun intended.”
Before all discussion faded, one Miller Asbury resident asked if the city could just make the section of Anderson from Bloomington Street to the apartment’s entrance two-way.
That would not be feasible, Mayor Bill Dory explained, noting that a two-way designation would have to continue to at least a cross street, the first of which would be Arlington.
With no action taken on the two-way matter, Mayor Dory summed up the issue.
“No action is necessary,” he said, “because there is no change.”
He then thanked the Miller Asbury residents for coming out to make their case and take part in the process.