Let's get Church-Division streets right this time Stevens Point needs to get it right with reconstruction of Church and Division streets. For decades the city has been dealing with the situation. Another reconstruction proposal was unveiled this week and appears to be another stopgap effort to rectify problems on the city's busiest north-south route. The reconstruction involves taxpayers' dollars, and the question has to arise, are those dollars being spent wisely? Budgetary matters are a primary concern. But the project should do something right, not be just another cheap attempt to improve a problem. The proposal deals only with a three-block area, between Dixon and Monroe streets. What are the major problems? One is definitely the curve around the triangle from Division to Monroe to Church. The proposal addresses that issue by moving traffic from Division onto Church at the intersection with Church and widening Church to accommodate two-way traffic. The proposal fails to really tackle the problem at the intersection of Church-Division and Dixon. Instead it offers another namby-pamby "solution," permitting only right turns from Dixon onto Division and installing traffic signals a block south. Traffic signals used to be installed on important streets. Park and Madison streets dead-end several blocks from the signal lights and certainly aren't streets with a major destination. Dixon is a major east-west collector street in the city. The street stretches to Park Ridge and is the route to get to Sentry Insurance, Copps Corp. and several other businesses. However, visibility at that intersection is terrible. A driver on Dixon has difficulty making a right turn, let alone a left turn as vehicles suddenly appear around the curve where Church becomes Dixon. Many residents know the problem with those turns, and head to Madison and Monroe streets to make their turns because of the better visibility of oncoming cars. Right now, more than half the buildings blocking visibility are vacant. Others have been turned into apartments because their viability as a business has diminished. They were built close to the road like similar buildings of their era. If planners were designing an intersection and those buildings weren't there, would they allow them to be constructed in that location? To utilize the traffic signals at Park-Madison, the planners apparently decided to switch the one-way streets, making Church the southbound route and Strongs Avenue the northbound route. That leaves motorists bound for downtown with a convoluted way to get there instead of a straight-shot down Church. They have to make a left turn onto Park, a right turn onto Strongs and then head for downtown, where some long-time traffic patterns will probably have to be revised. That's hardly a direct-approach to maintain a vibrant downtown. From appearances, it would seem people from the south might prefer continuing on Division to Main Street to make a left turn, adding volume to an already clogged intersection. Don't waste tax dollars with another stopgap effort. Don't pump several million dollars into a project when another $1 million might rectify the situation for years to come. - Gene Kemmeter