4,000 vehicles per day on Government Way

MATTAWA — “WSU was very surprised how in agreement everyone was” at a meeting on Dec. 5 that WSU’s Rural Community Design Initiative held to advance the Makeover Mattawa plan for Government Way.

That could be because of the danger the community sees, or is starting to see on the city’s main street. A measure of traffic taken late last year revealed a count of more than 4,000 vehicles per day.

“After school gets out, there are 1,000 kids who are going to cross that street,” said Lars Leland, president of the Committee for Government Way Improvements.

The Dec. 5 meeting attracted 18 townspeople from all walks of life and five Washington State University students and officials. It was held at the Grant County Fire District No. 8 fire hall. It went about three hours.

“Chief Dave Patterson was kind enough to let us use it,” Leland said. “Tiddaly Diddaly’s served our lunch.”

The meeting was two sessions. The first involved a broad overview of the overall vision, Leland said. Attendees were divided into two groups for the second session. One group dealt with streetscapes. The other was concerned with the future.

In all sessions, members of the community expressed their concerns and ideas for dealing with them. The WSU group is tasked with translating that information into design plans from which the city can choose.

“Anything can be axed by the city or the budget,” Leland said.

Leland said the meeting revealed that the majority of people consider the Government-Boundary intersection and the intersection of Government and the street by the 76 service station priorities.

“Both of them are just terrible with congestion,” Leland said.

Leland said most people in attendance were asking for traffic lights at each intersection. He said that may be too expensive in the context of improving the entire street.

Other ideas tossed around at the streetscapes meeting included sidewalks, street lights, trees, shrubs, benches and flowering plants. The primary concerns, however, were a third middle lane the length of the street for passing, angle parking and the purchase of land for parking lots.

The second group concerned itself with improvements that can be made in the future. Ideas included the development of school routes for children who walk and walking paths to the city park. The group discussed a sidewalk on the south side of Government Way all of the way to Highway 243.

Also discussed were button-operated traffic lights at Government Way crossings. Special traffic lights for the fire station were discussed.

“Pedestrian safety is our priority,” Leland said.

Also discussed were the burial of all power or utility service lines and zoning changes to allow for housing where housing is not currently allowed.

According to Leland, WSU will prepare and send at least four designs to the city. The city could send all or any of them on to its engineers for evaluation.

The city would make the final choice, Leland said. Then he would use that to promote the project to funding sources. He estimates the cost of this dream would be in the $9 million range.