The city of Columbia held an open house to showcase its improvement plans for Business Loop 70 on Thursday.
Residents and business owners had the opportunity to share their thoughts on the projects and to speak with city officials and planners at the Boone Electric Cooperative Community Building in Columbia.
People put their thoughts on sticky notes and placed them on tables and posters throughout the room.
Carrie Gartner is the executive director of the Loop Community Improvement District, and said a lot needs to be done to improve Business Loop 70.
“This road has been neglected for decades,” Gartner said. “It has to be rebuilt from the bottom up, and that means making sure all the storm water sewers work. That means under grounding utilities. That means building sidewalks.”
Gartner said planning should be completed by the end of the year as the city and Loop Community Improvement District hear from constituents, and they would submit for capital improvement funding by 2027.
Rita Fleischmann, a long-time resident of Columbia, was at the event.
“I’m here because I love Columbia,” Fleischmann said. “I am here to have a voice for people who are overrun by people who don’t have the opportunity to give their voice. I’m supporting everybody.”
Fleischmann was excited at the prospect of having a more-pedestrian accessible Business Loop, which was shown in some of the proposals.
“My heart lies in the visual aspects of this project,” Fleischmann said. “I’m a biker. I’m a walker. I have my allegiance to being on your two feet or on a bicycle.”
Michele Batye is a business owner on the Loop, the owner of Dave Griggs Flooring America. She said she is worried about student safety.
“We want to be able to attract pedestrians and cyclists, and it’s just not that right now,” Batye said. “It is not safe for the Hickman High School students. It’s not safe for crossing.”
Posters around the meeting room had proposals of how to set up roadways, like having roundabouts instead of intersections. Data on the diagrams showed there were less instances of pedestrian and vehicle conflict with the former more than the latter.
The total cost for the project had conflicting answers, and there is no official number at this time.
