By Ryan Storz
The Bourbon Board of Aldermen met with Rob Conaway of Archer Engineering on June 22, expressing a desire to make an alternate route to the Safe Routes to School project the firm is taking on for the Bourbon School District.
The original kickoff meeting suggested crossing Old Route 66 on the south side to avoid crossing the street (?).
Mayor Leonard Armstrong suggested researching crossing the other side of Route 66 to better serve the city.
Armstrong said that because the former MoDOT property, now the BCDC property, will be developed, the city wants traffic flowing as freely as possible through the Route 66 and Pine St. intersection.
The school board was reportedly supportive of the alternate route. Archer was looking at the new estimates versus the old estimates and the realignment.
Conaway said that the MoDOT liaison was open to the alternative route, but it had to be resubmitted to the Meramec Regional Planning Commission as a new scope of the project.
Other challenges of the project were discussed at length, including right-of-ways and storm water.
Regarding storm water problems, Monty Todd reported that, at one time, all of Route 66 had storm water systems, but as time progressed, most of them were filled in.
There has been a problem with storm water from the bus shed all the way down to Peoples Bank and crossing over Route 66.
The water ponds by the Autumn Age Homes every time it rains. Alderman Stanley Bell pointed out that there have been problems with storm water since the school put in the new parking lot at the middle school.
Armstrong said he had driven to Crocker and looked at the walkways being installed. He reported that there are storm drains running under the sidewalks.