Open Townsend Way
This is to advocate the leadership of the City of Pea Ridge take whatever steps are needed to again activate Townsend Way as an access street between North Curtis Avenue and Carr Street. Prior to its being closed with gates, Townsend Way was working very well as a needed cross street from Carr Street and the neighborhoods of Windmill Estates and the surrounding area for accessing the businesses on either side of North Curtis Avenue south of the Post Office.
I understand that Townsend Way was not initially built according to city standards. I am not clear on what that means technically, I only observe that it has functioned for several years without obvious pavement failures or other observable problems.
Without Townsend Way, our street choices for reaching destinations as Arvest Bank, Fred's, Marvin's, Sonic, McDonalds, Subway, White Oak, Dr. Edison's Clinic, O'Reilley's and Farmers Insurance become Slack, Lindsay, Price, and Patton streets, or an unnamed, unpaved gravel street from Carr Street to the Post Office.
Slack Street (Ark. Hwy. 72), has become increasingly difficult to access from Carr, especially for left-hand turns, and since the opening of the Walmart Neighborhood Market. Access to Slack from Carr was already a challenge because the four-way stop at the intersection of Curtis and Slack distributes traffic wrong for traffic wedging in from Carr Street. Even before Walmart, Slack Street was an undesirable choice for crossing to Curtis Avenue, and Townsend Way was the alternative of choice, a most happy choice.
Currently, we are left with Lindsay Street, a very narrow residential street, with minimal setbacks to the houses, and unsuitable as a general traffic artery. On Monday, Feb. 2, I started to cross from Carr Street to North Curtis on Lindsay. A trash truck was working the street, moving west. There was not enough space between the truck and mailboxes for cars to pass the truck. We had to get off to the right and wait until the truck had moved before we could move ahead to North Curtis. I would not expect the residents on Lindsay to be happy with the increased traffic using their street to cross between Carr and North Curtis.
Closing Townsend Way means that all traffic going to and leaving McDonalds and Subway has to be routed onto North Curtis Avenue, increasing the congestion there. My sense is that Townsend Way would and should provide a helpful alternative access to and from those businesses.
Further, the closing of Townsend Way seems to obstruct possibilities of future development of businesses in Lee Town Crossing area. I don't understand how that is a tolerable situation as one anticipates the future of that section of our town.
While I acknowledge the presence of certain technical deficiencies and difficulties, this is to appeal to the city to take active and determined steps to make Townsend Way available as the desirable traffic artery which it already was, and should be for the future.
Respectfully,
Jerry NicholsPea Ridge, Ark.
Editorial on 02/11/2015