It’s been four years since political controversy in Kokomo centered around the word “roundabout,” and Friday Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight ended any speculation the issue will resurface.

This week, the Kokomo Board of Public Works & Safety hired an engineering firm to create two alternatives for an intersection improvement at Park and Markland avenues.

One of those alternatives — per the contract signed Wednesday — was supposed to be a roundabout intersection.

But Goodnight said Friday the inclusion of that design alternative in the contract was a mistake.

“We’re not building a roundabout, and we’re not going to spend a dime looking into it,” Goodnight said.

He said the city will still pay Indianapolis engineering firm Beam, Longest & Neff LLC to design a new, signalized intersection near the current Markland/Park intersection.

Just the presence of the Markland/Park contract on the board of works agenda was enough to bring two city councilman out to the meeting.

In the contract, Beam Longest was asked to design two conceptual intersections, “anticipated to be a signalized intersection and a roundabout intersection.”

Goodnight said the roundabout alternative shouldn’t have been included in the contract language.

Bob Cameron, D-2nd, and Kevin Summers, R-At Large, who attended the meeting, both largely declined to discuss their position on a possible new roundabout afterward, other than Cameron saying “I’m not for it.”

But Goodnight’s two most vocal critics on council aren’t the only council members with concerns about roundabouts — even one paid for entirely with federal dollars.

Prior to Goodnight’s announcement Friday afternoon, Councilman Mike Karickhoff, R-At Large, said he’d wait until he hears from the engineers before forming an opinion.

“We’ve had a roundabout on Kingston Circle for years, and in certain situations, it’s probably a good traffic control device. But I want to hear from the experts,” Karickhoff said.

City officials — including council members — received word more than a year ago that $1 million was earmarked in a 2008 federal Omnibus reconciliation bill. The money, which passed Congress prior to the passage of the American Reconstruction & Reinvestment Act — also called the federal stimulus — is specifically designated to reconfigure the Markland/Park intersection.

Until Friday, city officials, including city engineer Carey Stranahan, had always said a roundabout might be an appropriate alternative at that intersection.

But Karickhoff acknowledged Friday that political support for a roundabout might be hard to find in Kokomo.

Asked if he thought Kokomo residents would support a locally funded roundabout, Karickhoff was blunt.

“No, and there’s probably not a lot [of support] for a federally funded one either,” he said. “But if it’s a wise decision, it shouldn’t matter whether it’s state, local or federal money.

“The question becomes, do you spend money unwisely, just because it’s not local money? No, you don’t,” he said.

The pros for roundabouts generally are considered traffic safety, room for landscaping, no need for electricity, low-maintenance and better aesthetics.

The cons are that roundabouts take up more room, they are usually more expensive to install than signalized intersections, and when traffic volumes are unequal, backups can occur.

The latter problem occurs regularly during rush hour at roundabouts in Carmel, where a disproportionate flow of north/south commuter traffic creates backups in the east/west lanes.

It wouldn’t be a problem at Markland & Park, where traffic backs up in roughly equal amounts in all four directions.

Perhaps the best argument in favor of roundabouts is the fact no one can “blow” a roundabout. Traffic is forced to slow, making fatal accidents almost impossible.

But in Kokomo, which has about one-fourth of Carmel’s tax base, spending a large sum on one roundabout became a big political issue in 2005.

That year, the council unanimously passed a resolution urging then-Mayor Matt McKillip to refrain from spending any additional tax money on the Park/Boulevard roundabout, a project expected to cost up to $550,000.

The main reason for the council’s resolution was constituent complaints about the $387,000 cost of the first roundabout McKillip built, at the intersection of Webster Street and Center Road. That money was paid with local dollars, not federal money.

McKillip refused to sign the council resolution, calling it an example of “gamesmanship” by the council.

The episode ended up sparking a much larger controversy over how much money the mayor could spend without council authorization.

• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com