Birch Drive (Scrip Road)

At the last council meeting (9/20) the council passed (on first reading) an embargo of vehicles over 10 tons on the stretch of Birch Drive between Illinois and Hwy 122 (along the river just north of John Adams Middle School). We also agreed to post this section of Birch Drive at 15 mph.

This roadway is of historic significance to the community, having been built during the depression with local "scrip" money. Thus this road is also commonly known as scrip road. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I expect the council will pass the embargo and speed limit at the next two meetings, and these changes will be put in place.

As a result of good community and council dialogue, we have trimmed what was in the '08-'09 capital budget as a $750,000 paving project for this stetch of road to a more modest $250,000 project (asphalt rebuild). Staff is still working on various paving options so we get the most "bang for the buck". We have plenty of time to figure out what changes, if any, we want to make to Birch Drive. After all, the next budget year does not begin until July, and this project is not in the current year's budget.

It would seem we have three viable options for this section of Birch Drive:

• Keep the road open (as it is now), repave, and add an adjacent walking/biking trail
• Close the road, and let the existing roadway become the walking/biking trail (though with this option, we'd probably want to maintain the Hwy 122 access to Asbury Park at the south end of Scrip Road
• Close the road at one end only, which effectively cuts it off for through traffic, but leaves it open for recreational drives along the river

Several things to keep in mind:

• During the school year, this section of road is used for access to/from MCHS
• This section of road is heavily used by walkers/bikers
• We've had 6 or 7 accidents (reported) along this stretch the past five years. All involved young people, and all involved lost control of the vehicle (which implies excessive speed; only one was in icy conditions)

Perhaps posting the road at 15 mph will cut down on through traffic and make the road safer for recreational use.

Personally, I don't have a preference for whether the road is open or closed. This is one of those decisions where the majority will of the community can and should be honored. So, what do you think we should do with this portion of Birch Drive?

Community Growth

We spend a lot of time talking about growth in Mason City, but it seems to me we've never really defined what we mean by growth. We tend to think in terms of population, and though population is a convenient yardstick, it can be elusive.

For example, if poulation is the proper measure, what do we want to grow to.......40,000, 50,000, 100,000? I doubt if any of us would want this to be a large metropolitan community, so at some time population growth would max. out even in an ideal world. At that point we would have the same challenges we have today: covering increasing overhead costs without cutting services when the population is constant.

Since school funding is tied to student population, growth in terms of people is completely appropriate in that context. However, in virtually every other context, it seems we need to talk about "prosperity" rather than "growth". Prosperity would be a function of diverse job and housing opportunities, and personal incomes for our citizens that outpace the increase in the cost of delivering city services (without cutting these services). Community prosperity would also include diverse quality of life offerings.

What does growth mean to you?