City considers connecting hospital, industrial park roads

Connecting a road that runs behind Holton Community Hospital to the road that runs through the Holton Industrial Park has been announced as the focus of a special Holton City Commission meeting set for this afternoon (Wednesday), it was reported.

During the commission’s regular meeting on Monday, commissioners agreed to meet at the industrial park this afternoon to consider ideas for connecting Gilliland Drive, which runs east and west behind Holton Community Hospital, and the industrial park. Commissioners had discussed the idea during a recent brainstorming session on uses for city capital improvement funds.

“They want to look at where they’re talking about putting the road so that everybody can get an idea of where they think it should go,” Holton City Clerk Teresa Riley said Tuesday of the special meeting.

According to figures provided by City Manager Bret Bauer in February, the capital improvement fund listed a balance of $199,874.77 at the time and is expected to have an additional $920,000 added to it by the end of this year, totaling $1,119,874.77.

At that time, Commissioner Tim Morris said he would like to see a connecting road built from the hospital parking lot to the recently-completed concrete road that runs through the industrial park. Morris suggested that the road could run from Gilliland Drive to the industrial park and maybe even play a part in reducing the number of acccidents at the intersection of Columbine Drive and U.S. Highway 75.

Figuring out where the road will go should also help commissioners and city officials to better estimate how much a connecting road would cost, Riley said.

In other business on Monday, commissioners approved an amendment to the city’s N-O (neighborhood office district) zoning regulations to accommodate plans by Homestead Affordable Housing to turn part of the former Word of Encouragement Family Church property at 603 Pennsylvania Ave., now owned by Homestead, into a duplex.

Homestead President and CEO Tom Bishop had originally requested changing the zoning to allow multiple-family housing under N-O zoning. But at a Holton Planniing Commission meeting in February, neighbors of the former church said they did not want to have an apartment building next door, it was reported.

Commissioners approved a recommendation from the planning commission to allow R-2 zoning as an acceptable use, with Riley noting that neighbors “were happy with that, because it’s never going to be anything bigger than a duplex.” The amendment was approved unanimously on a motion by Mike Meerpohl, seconded by Dan Brenner.

The Holton Recorder

109 W. Fourth St.
Holton, KS 66436
Phone: 785-364-3141
 

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