Good News for Fort Smith Drivers

The city is scheduled to widen Rogers Avenue by the first of the year, but city planners have some extra plans that have some neighbors upset. The city is adding an extra lane to Rogers Avenue from Cliff Drive to the I-540 Ramp to get rid of some congestion. If that doesn’t do the trick, the City says it’s also considering extending Best Buy Drive into residential areas to the north. Stan Snodgrass, the Fort Smith Director of Engineering, explains, "The redistribution of the traffic, while it would allow the neighborhood essentially access to a signalized intersection, you know, the flip side is youre going to encourage cut-through traffic in the neighborhood." Some say they don’t want this extra traffic, especially since they have a school nearby. Resident Sue Brown says, “There’s a lot of kids that’s up in this area.” Her husband, J.D. Brown, explains, "They get off on the main drag and ride their bicycles, which is nothing unusual. We enjoy the kids, but we dont want to see them hurt." City planners say they won’t even consider extending Best Buy Drive until at least 2009.