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April 26, 2001 Gov. Bill Owens came to Southwest Colorado this week with a lot on his mind. Nothing he said or did, however, was more welcome than his announcement that Mancos will get a stoplight. In the larger scheme of things, perhaps it is a small thing – one traffic light, in one small town far from the political or population center of the state. But to the people of Mancos it is a long-sought recognition that the lives of their children and the safety of their town matter. Owens could hardly have brought them a better gift. Like so many Western towns, Mancos is built around and divided by a highway. And, nowhere are the problems associated with the West’s habit of combining main streets and major thoroughfares more poignant. In the last 10 years there have been four deaths at the Mancos intersection of U.S. Highway 160 and Colorado Highway 184. The most recent was when 12-year-old Kiley Duran was struck by a pickup truck while attempting to cross the highway March 17, 2000. That tragedy led to a public outcry at the Colorado Department of Transportation’s glacial response time and seeming insensitivity. Two hundred people marched in protest – an overwhelming expression of support and outrage for a town the size of Mancos. Finally, CDOT agreed to lower the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph and to install a flashing light. With Owens’ announcement construction of a full traffic light should begin within four weeks. Owens announced the light at a speech in Durango Monday. And, it is not just political grandstanding that his administration get credit for it. Such a seemingly simple fix will cost $500,000 and required the personal intervention of the state’s transportation director, Tom Norton. The state received only one bid for the project, and that came in $50,000 over what had been budgeted for the intersection. Because of that, it was necessary for Norton to personally approve the construction of the light. He was wise to do so. And, if a nudge or a nod from the governor was involved, good for him. Massive programs are rarely how government most directly affects our lives. Rather, it is those things that can too easily be dismissed as small and distant. In Denver, a stop light may seem a little thing, but in Mancos it can mean a child’s life. No goal is better than that. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
All rights reserved. |
