State Boulevard Residents Speak About Project
By: Andrew Logsdon
Updated: February 26, 2013
Some say it would ease the heavy traffic, but others say the cost is too high.
"In august, we're going to be looking for a place to go," says resident Kevin Rice.
The city is these buying Eastbrook Drive homes- including Rice's- for the State Boulevard redesign project.
"And doing this whole cut through right here, and taking all these houses down, it hurts memories and families around here," Rice says.
It plans to rebuild this 80-year-old bridge and re-route State arcing just south.
Other neighbors can't wait.
"You have the whole traffic situation with the bottle neck here along State Boulevard, where the traffic just gets crazy in the afternoons, and the weekends a lot," says Mike McKinley, who has lived on Eastbrook Drive since 1988.
Officials say the $11 million project is almost entirely funded by the federal Highway Department, with $2 million coming from the city and half a million from Allen County for the bridge.
Sharon Bryan's mother has lived here sixty years.
She says the existing road causes too many accidents.
"There's always accidents. My bedroom was above the garage and so I could be in my bed and hear the squeal and then the thud," Bryan says.
But others say the real problem is poor management.
"That whole curve is designed to do exactly what it does. It slows down traffic a little bit. So do we need to spend eleven million dollars so that the people in the suburbs can get to the other side five minutes faster?" says Sara Kruger Geyman.
This area is prone to flooding, so the threat of relocation is nothing new to these folks.


