Time for city to reevaluate bypass plans

The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and in our case right now, the road around paradise has been struck with dead ends over the last 50 years.

The Sheridan Press wants to applaud the citizens of Sheridan County, the elected officials and government staff for their efforts trying to plan for future growth, protect our sacred and beautiful downtown and keep our residents safe by looking at opportunities for a bypass on the west side of town.

While it may not be a popular suggestion , we’d like to ask  those responsible for planning take a road trip to Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins sits between the beautiful foothills of the Rocky Mountains and Interstate 25 on the east. The city grew from our size now to well above 100,000 people. The city did this all without building a business loop.

We’re not saying Sheridan is desired or projected to grow to 100,000, but a town in a similar geographic quandary has grown, kept residents safe and maintained a beautiful downtown they call Old Town.

All without a bypass.

Sheridan’s challenge for decades has been a lack of planning. You don’t have to look much further than North Main Street in Sheridan to see an impact — some might say a negative one — by moving the interstate exit, and yet it seems the city council and staff have yet to take any meaningful action.

Last week, city staff presented 50-plus years of history on the bypass in a fully packed, standing room only meeting at The Hub on Smith.

History seems to be repeating itself yet again.

City staff is proposing the city council look at and decide on a bypass from Loucks to North Main streets, but when asked about future implications of the bypass from Loucks to Big Horn, they attempted to say it won’t impact us for 100 years. That’s not OK with us.

We are at a crucial juncture with a city planner that lives here now — starting in the position in June — to really take a look at what the future might hold. We can’t repeat the plan from 50 years ago that plotted the bypass on certain draws before the city council somehow approved subdivisions to be built on both sides of it years later. That isn’t a good plan.

Please consider other options. For example, a taxpayer at the aforementioned meeting brought up the idea of an overground conveyor belt that could potentially get rock from point a to point b west of Sheridan.

The Sheridan Press again wants to congratulate everyone for coming together and talking, staying respectful and listening to each other. That is how these great ideas come to pass. But, the current proposal isn’t good, and it’s nothing short of being tone deaf if council allows city staff to move forward as currently proposed.