[Vision2020] Highway route?

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

Questions swirl around proposed route of highway


By DAVID JOHNSON
of the Tribune


MOSCOW -- In the wake of suggestions that a secret committee may be working to influence the selection of a new route for U.S. Highway 95 between here and Thorn Creek Road, the identity of a dozen local people was revealed Tuesday. 

The 12, said Miguel Gaddi, a consultant hired by the Idaho Transportation Department, in no way conducted "back-room" shenanigans geared to promote any of the 10 alternative routes under consideration. 

In fact, Gaddi said during a public breakfast meeting, the panel members never met, were anonymous to one another and submitted separate answers and comments regarding the realignment project. Results will be made public next month, officials said. 

"This is kind of a virtual panel," Gaddi said, explaining the method was aimed at collecting information for an Environmental Impact Statement. 

"What you've set up is an echo chamber," said Rob Anderson, who lives across the border in Whitman County but is in the area that could be affected, depending on the route selected. 

Another critic, Frank Merickel, said he could lose his rural home to the realignment and he wondered whether his concerns were represented by the panel members. 

"I want a highway and I want the best fit for that highway," Merickel said. "But I am really getting a very uneasy sense of that when I overlay that with the composition of that committee." 

Panel members are: Michelle Fuson, Latah County planning director; Gunders Rudzitis, a University of Idaho professor of geography; Shelley Bennett, a Realtor; Walter Steed, a member of the city of Moscow transportation committee; Tom LaPointe, Valley Transit executive director; Travis Wambeke, an engineering consultant; Orland Arneberg, North Latah County Highway District; Jack Nelson, Latah County commissioner; Andrew Ackermann, Moscow assistant community development director; B.J. Swanson, AmericanWest Bank; Cinthya Barhart, Latah Economic Development Council executive director; and Jeff Martin, Gritman Medical Center chief executive officer. 

Gaddi, an associate planner for HDR Engineering of Boise, was hired to conduct the research effort, said Ken Helm of the Idaho Transportation Department. 

Helm is the project manager for the 6-mile stretch of highway between here and Thorn Creek Road. The department had selected a relatively straight route farther east of the current route. But area residents complained, a lawsuit was filed and the department restarted the planning process. 

Gaddi assured everyone at the meeting that all the questions asked and the comments received from the panel members will be made available to the public. Never, he said, were any of the panel members asked to choose a favored route. 

But Anderson suggested too many people with similar takes on development are too involved. He added it appears officials are trying to "get the EIS out the door so we can build the road." 

Crews have all but completed the first season of work on segments of the highway between Thorn Creek Road south to the top of the Lewiston Hill. At least one more construction season is needed before that portion is finished. 

Officials said work on the Thorn Creek-to-Moscow section will depend on how the environmental studies and other public involvement progresses. Early completion estimates range up to 2009. 

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Johnson may be contacted at deveryone at potlatch.com. 
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