By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Department of Transportation and city officials are continuing to work on solutions of what to do with the I-229 double decker bridge in St. Joseph.
District two councilmember Taylor Crouse says the issue is one where he knows where many people stand, by how often he's heard about it.
"I feel like it's one more example of St. Joe feeling like our feelings aren't being considered in this, it's been going on for about eight years," Crouse tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr.
The sentiment Crouse says he's heard from the community is that the double decker bridge should stay the way it is.
Crouse says there's been a lot of progress in downtown St. Joseph and the south end, and he doesn't want to see changes to I-229 hurt that progress.
"Why on earth would we do things for downtown, south side, you know my district, north side, and then make it more difficult to get to those areas of town, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Crouse points out.
Crouse says many voices have spoken out about proposed changes to the double decker bridge
"You know we have a lot of business leaders in our community speaking up, we've got a good group of legislators in Jefferson City," Crouse explains. "Senator Luetkemeyer, I know he's taken enormous steps to fight for our community."
Crouse says legislative representatives in Jefferson City have also spoken out about the change. But Crouse says St. Joseph residents shouldn't be passive and should speak out as well.
Crouse says the issue is well known not only in St. Joseph but to people throughout the region.
"It just seems to be an issue that like so many people, not just in this town, but in other communities that feed off of St. Joe and that our economy has great needs in," he says.
The Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a meeting on July 21st at the Remington Nature Center where the bridge will be a topic of discussion.
Crouse says he expects many people to come to the meeting and be heard.
"There's various plans yes, I don't know exactly what will be presented at the meeting, but like I said I'm sure that a lot of questions will be answered for anyone that has them as of now," Crouse says.
Crouse expects the topic of the bridge to be near the top of the docket at the meeting. Public comments and questions will be heard.