After a lengthy discussion, Shawnee County commissioners on Monday morning voted 2-1 to approve $43,000 for a landscaping project that will enhance traffic circle “islands” in the historic Potwin neighborhood of west-central Topeka.
Commissioners Kevin Cook and Bill Riphahn voted for the project, which was awarded to Topeka Landscape. Commission chairman Bob Archer voted against it.
The project, which will include installation of irrigation systems and new vegetation in all eight Potwin traffic circles, will be overseen by Shawnee County Parks and Recreation, which has been responsible for the circles’ upkeep since the city and county parks and recreation departments were consolidated in 2012.
The vote came after Archer questioned Parks and Rec director John Knight about why the county was being tabbed with taking care of the traffic circles, as they were the property of the city of Topeka.
Knight responded by saying the upkeep of the Potwin circles — which serve as roundabouts in the middle of brick streets in the tree-lined neighborhood of Victorian houses — had fallen to the county-run Parks and Rec department as part of an agreement in its consolidation with the city’s parks and recreation department, which took effect Jan. 1, 2012.
Archer said he thought the county being responsible for the maintenance of the Potwin traffic circles “begins a trend that’s not good,” noting that other areas in the county, such as Clarion Woods and Clarion Lakes, also have a number of traffic circles and green space for which homeowners had assumed responsibility.
(Read more: Political – The Topeka Capital-Journal)