By Daniel Human
SHARPSVILLE — Tipton County and southern Howard County residents had the chance Wednesday to learn more about the upcoming work on the new U.S. 31 bypass. For others, it was a chance to air concerns.
Sharpsville business owner Mark Nichols stood somewhat exasperated in the hallway of Tri-Central High School as he tried to think of a solution for his problem.
The Indiana Department of Transportation and the design companies working on the Kokomo Corridor plan to put the southernmost interchange for the bypass directly northwest of Robert Miller & Son Furniture, which Nichols co-owns.
There will be no way to get from U.S. 31, the main thoroughfare for Nichols customers and delivery semis, onto 600 North, where the entrance to the store is.
Instead, visitors from Kokomo, the store’s largest customer base, will have to take an off ramp a mile north of the store, drive a mile west, a mile south and a mile east along rural county roads.
“What the state is proposing is not reasonable access,” Nichols said. “A retail business couldn’t survive with the proposed route to the store.”
Nichols was among an auditorium full of curious and concerned residents of the area who attended INDOT’s open house for Contract 4 of the new U.S. 31 corridor.
Kevin Jasinski, the design team’s project manager, took the audience through a point-by-point break down of the contract.
The contract, which will be awarded in September 2011, spans the southernmost portion of the future federal stimulus-funded bypass. The contract will run from 550 North in Tipton County to about a 1/2 mile south of Ind. 26.
Real estate companies are currently acquiring 57 parcels of land for the contract.
Ron Francis, a representative from Butler, Fairman & Seufert Civil Engineers, one of the companies working on the project, said the company has mostly bought out farm land.
The company had cleared 15 properties, was preparing to buy 17 and appraising 22 as of Wednesday. INDOT has condemned three of the 57 parcels so far.
Harry Maginity, a spokesman for INDOT, said the state office has had a few disputes with condemnations and legal battles throughout the entire Kokomo Corridor project.
“We understand you do the best you can, but utopia doesn’t exist,” he said. “You serve 85 or 90 percent, but you lose 10 percent.”
Nichols said he plans to seek legal action against INDOT.
“Any reasonable person can look at this and say ‘This can’t work,’” he said as he jabbed his thumb backward at a map of the interchange outside his business.
• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.
