City of Ammon, Dig A Little Deeper

While I’m happy to hear that improvements are coming quickly to the intersection of Hitt Road and 17^th Street, I have some concerns with the project’s apparent lack of support by the City of Ammon.

How can I say the city isn’t supporting the project when the city has committed $1 million to it? Well, this little snippet from the PostRegister tells me something:

(Apologies if you can’t read the link; sometimes they’re free, sometimes they’re not.)

The northern, western and southern legs of the intersection will be expanded to include two through lanes, two dedicated left turn lanes and one dedicated right turn lane each. There will be fewer improvements to the eastern leg of the intersection in Ammon.

Now, maybe the lack of improvements on the Ammon leg have to do with property acquisition. Or maybe the lack of improvements on the Ammon leg have to do with the City of Ammon not putting enough money into the project.

I don’t have enough information to answer either question. Perhaps those in the know can shed a bit of light on the situation.

I just know as a regular user of both this intersection and the intersection at Hitt and Sunnyside, it’s the intersection at Hitt and Sunnyside I prefer – because it has the two-two-one configuration that three legs of the Hitt/17^th intersection will have.

And while the improvements planned at Hitt and 17^th are sorely needed and will make using that intersection much easier, I have to wonder why the Ammon leg is being left out.

City of Ammon, can we get an answer?

My question has less to do with the typical sniping between the cities and city residents over the perception/reality that Ammon pays less than its fair share for improvements on Hitt Road. As the Post Register points out, the road is the dividing line between the city – but Idaho Falls lays claim to the road itself. If Idaho Falls residents have complaints about how costs are divided along the road, perhaps they ought to ask their own city council about this arrangement.

As a resident of the city of Ammon, however, and as a regular user of Hitt between 17^th and Sunnyside, I’d really like the intersection at Hitt and 17^th to match what’s been done at Hitt and Sunnyside. The reality is, petty squabbling aside, this intersection needs improvements on all four legs.