Citizens Take Look At County’s Couplet Plan

Sat., July 13, 1996

By Brian Coddington brianc@spokesman.com

County engineer Jim Haines patiently talked Carol Scheurer and Ruth Bradley through a proposal to build two sets of lanes that engineers hope will help solve the Valley’s traffic problem.

Haines showed the mother and daughter Thursday night how the Spokane Valley Couplet project would limit Sprague to four lanes between University and Thierman to carry westbound traffic. Eastbound traffic would be routed along a road to be built along First and Second.

“Well, now we know,” said Scheurer, a Greenacres resident, toting an informational brochure on the project.

Scheurer and Bradley, who lives in Otis Orchards, liked what they saw during an open house at University High School. Both said they would need to know more before being sold on the project.

Most of the dozens of people who attended the meeting thought the same way. A stack of comment sheets left on a table near the exit door cited over and over the need to solve the Valley’s traffic problem.

“I think it will make traffic smoother, but it will take some getting used to,” Scheurer said.

Some disagreed. A few wrote that the eastbound lanes for the proposed couplet would still be too close to the Dishman Hills area. Another worried about potential business growth along Second Avenue.

Those comments were in the minority.

“A lot of the Sprague Avenue business folks like this better,” said Ross Kelly, assistant county engineer.

Kelly was referring to a lawsuit filed by the Spokane Valley Business Association that blocked a recent arterial proposal. That plan would have built one set of lanes about Fourth Avenue, taking motorists away from the Sprague business corridor and through the Dishman Hills Natural area, the business association complained.

“The big thing is getting the information out to people,” Kelly said.

Thursday’s open house was the first of two. Engineers will hold a second hour-long open house on Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. at University High. A public meeting will follow the open house and will give residents a chance to comment on the proposal.

Information gathered from the meeting will be used to help engineers draft an environmental impact statement.

The project would cost about $16 million. Construction could begin as early as 2000.

, DataTimes

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