Council delays Main's 'Greenway' decision

SANDPOINT — City Council members are going to wait a little longer before making an official decision on the Main Street improvement “Greenway” plan.

After council members sent a review of the design for a proposed set of improvements to Main Street, they anticipated following up at Wednesday’s meeting to approve or deny the street concept. However, a combination of absences and recusals threw a wrench in that timetable. The council decided to table the matter until more members could be in attendance to make the decision.

“We may still technically have a quorum, but I don’t feel comfortable making this decision with only three council members,” Councilman Aaron Qualls said.

The reduction in available officials started with council members Justin Schuck and Jamie Brunner being unable to attend the meeting. Furthermore, Councilman Shelby Rognstad, who owns Common Knowledge Teahouse and Bookstore, recused himself from the discussion due to a conflict of interest. That only left council members Qualls, Tom Eddy and Carrie Logan to make a decision. In light of that, they decided to table the matter.

“We’re talking about closing off a historic, major corridor in town that links high-density residential (areas) to the downtown area,” Qualls said. “It’s a bus route that serves the senior center.”

“I think this is something we should have as many council members to decide as possible,” he added.

An option recommended by both engineers and residents at the previous council meeting, the Greenway concept is designed by Reun-Yeager and Associates to calm traffic by disconnecting Main Street from Boyer Avenue. This would create a quieter area of town aimed at improving residential living, introducing aesthetic improvements and new green spaces and reducing the number of accidents and near-accidents at the awkward intersection between Boyer Avenue and Cedar and Main streets.

“We’ve witnessed a number of accidents at the four-way stop at Boyer and Cedar,” Pastor Stanley Norman of Sandpoint United Methodist Church said at the meeting. “The other thing is that to avoid that intersection, people cut through our parking lot going the wrong way all the time.”

 Funding is currently not available for the project. However, if council members approve the concept, it will be available to pursue once budgeting allows it to move forward.