Farmers in the area oppose it ? as do city commissioners from Arkansas City ? but commissioner Dick Bonfy said the county has to take a serious look at a $3 million road project that would help serve a casino in Oklahoma.
“We’ve got to consider it,” he said following a joint commission meeting on the issue earlier this week. “It’d be a significant project.”
The Ponca Tribe has approached Cowley County and Bolton Township about a possible joint project to improve a nine-mile stretch of road that would connect U.S. 166 West of Arkansas City with the intersection of U.S. 77 and State Line Road.
County manager Leroy Alsup and commission chair Gary Wilson have met with the Ponca about the project. It’s at least the third time in the last five years that tribe officials have approached the county about the proposal.. Alsup and Wilson both have made it clear that talks so far have been preliminary.
But that has not kept Ark City commissioners, and residents in the area where the project would take place, from voicing their concerns. The two commissions met for about an hour Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Ponca officials are seeking federal dollars to fund the project because it would improve what is already used as a makeshift by pass for people traveling from Wichita ? and other areas north ? to a cluster of tribal casinos in Oklahoma. State Line Road would run in front of the proposed Ponca Fancy Dance Casino.
That means anyone taking the shortcut would pass by the Ponca casino first.
Cowley County officials have said the project could bring needed improvements to dirt and asphalt roads that might otherwise never be improved. But they acknowledge that farmers in that area have concerns about road improvements and increased traffic.
“I think we have to be open minded,” Alsup said. “But we have to take into consideration the concerns that people have.”
Ark City officials are less than excited about a road project that would essentially create a second bypass around the downtown area.
City commissioner Mel Kuhn said he is sure Ark City is already “losing money” as traffic flows on the bypass and not through the heart of downtown. Kuhn said many people believe the town already has “one bypass too many.”
City commissioner Scott Margolius agreed.
“We’re not looking for ways to have less traffic” come through town, he said.
But Alsup points out that the roads targeted for improvement are already popular with casino goers and that will only increase when the Ponca Fancy Dance Casino opens. The work would make the roads capable of handling bus and heavier tourism traffic.
No decisions were made at the meeting, which was held mostly to give those opposing the project a chance to air their views. County commissioners have yet to see a formal proposal from the Ponca Tribe and Alsup has said a long term agreement for maintaining the roads would have to be in place.
The roads would most likely become county roads if the project goes forward. They belong to Bolton Township at the moment.
