At Monday’s Ford County Commission meeting, County Engineer Jon Halbgewachs brought the commission’s attention to a recently-created task force which could impact area roadways with its work. “My understanding is that their duty is to then, throughout the summer and going into the fall and winter, set up kind of town hall meetings across the state like they did in the last (Kansas Department of Transportation) transportation program when they did the listening tour, if you will,” Halbgewachs said.
Either Dodge City or Garden City are typically stopping points for such tours, Halbgewachs said. “Where I’m going with this is this committee’s going to be presenting a recommendation to the legislature next year on where Kansas needs to head in transportation,” Halbgewachs said. “When we find out when those town hall meetings are, certainly the county and the city of Dodge City want to be involved in that so you can get your voices heard on what’s important to this region.”
Locally, the task force’s recommendations could determine for better or worse the outcome of certain area roadway projects.
“Part of that is the Highway 50 project, which is on the books, the four-lane expansion between Dodge City and Cimarron, but is has been put on hold because of funding issues,” Halbgewachs said. “So if there’s a desire to get that project finished that voice needs to be heard as well.”
Right now, Halbgewachs said, that project is in haitus.
(Read more: Dodge City Daily Globe)