Western Front - 1973 May 4

              the - western front uuestern Washington stole college
Vol. 65
No. 42
FRIDAY
May 4, 1973 .
Ten Cents
Recycle all paper
Monday
is the lost day
to drop a class M a s SW
Goltz working to shut off High Street
by DUFF WILSON ^^ ^^
Fewer problems than expected
during the temporary closure of High
Street have led to a renewed effort to
keep it closed.
Barney Goltz, director of campus
planning, wrote a letter to Bellingham
mayor Reg Williams this week calling
for a limited reopening of Western's
central lane.
City traffic superintendent Tom
Tow thinks that bypassing traffic to
Garden Street would be "no real
problem," especially with college
enrollment declining.
"Less than 9,000 cars per day use
the area," Tow said last Tuesday.
"Garden can handle it."
Williams, contacted Wednesday, said
he "hadn't received any particular
feedback" on the issue. Goltz was to
discuss it with him Thursday, and will
send the official proposal when
President Flora signs it next week.
High Street has been fenced off since
Christmas vacation for construction of a
$500,000 underground utility tunnel.
The project is nearly completed, and
High Street is ready to open again. The
fences will come down in two weeks,
when sidewalks are put in.
Since 1965 college-city negotiations
on closing the street have led to
discussions of possibilities, extensive
proposals for street improvement in and
around campus and tentative
agreements—nearly everything short of a
binding decision.
Widening Garden Street has been
Mayor Williams' main prerequisite to
closing High Street. Now it no longer
seems necessary.
Goltz and Tow both assert that High
Street's interim closure has disproved
the need for a higher capacity alternate
route.
"I think the fact that the bypass
road worked so well during this closure
would lead the mayor to be more
amenable to closing High Street
part-time," Goltz said Tuesday.
"Other than pretty heavy volumes at
times," Tow noted, "we haven't had
much trouble with traffic on Garden
Street (since High has been closed)."
Garden, Tow said, is a substandard
roadway, and "it needs improvement
whether it gets more traffic or not."
The police traffic manager said last
week that there was no significant
increase in accidents on Garden Street
while High Street has been closed.
Tow set several preconditions to
closing High Street. He said the option
of reopening it should remain, and the
service needs of the campus must be
met by using High Street as an
emergency entrance. Parking and lane
controls would also have to be increased
at "that ridiculous intersection" at the
bottom of the Garden Street bypass.
Goltz's plan meets Tow's
requirements. Goltz is proposing neither
a permanent nor a daytime-only closure,
but "reopening on a limited basis."
"We will retain the option to reopen
SOON TO REOPEN-Campus planner Barney Goltz is negotiating with Mayor R,eg Williams in an effort to keep High
Street vacated of traffic, after the construction fences come down in about two weeks. It would remain open to
emergency and service vehicles.
High Street at any time," Goltz said.
". . . We're obligated at this time to
say to the citizens on top of the hill (up
Highland Drive) that they can use High
Street whenever ice is on the bypass,
construction is on Garden Street or
other emergencies arise.
"Second, ambulance, fire and service
vehicles would have access to it. They
could trigger open a special electronic
gate.
"Third, I think it should be open to
buses to give public transportation more
visibility" and for the convenience of
handicapped students.
"Given all these conditions," Goltz
concluded, "we may have arrived at the
best possible compromise. We've got to
be loose enough in our thinking so we
don't just defend what we do, but be
able to change and adjust it."
Last week Goltz was contacting
people within the college, in city
government and on the hill to determine
to what extent the street should be
reopened.
He urged people to write the mayor
with their comments.
Limited reopening hinges
on bypass, homeowners
inside...
Campus pub proposal given boost
A campus pub proposal got a "yes" vote by two student services
organizations. Now it goes before the Business and Finance Council. See
pg. 2.
Government responsiveness analyzed
The first in a series of articles dealing with the responsiveness of student
government to student's needs is explored in a student survey. See pg. 4.
Negotiations to close High Street and
convert it into a pedestrian mall have
been underway since 1965.
Controversy has centered on what
actions should precede any closure.
In 1965, a joint planning effort
between the city and college was made
to recommend an arterial system with
circulation patterns "designed to
separate through traffic from
college-oriented traffic and remove
existing pedestrian-vehicular conflicts."
This included construction of
College Parkway, a connector (down the
hill) between Highland Drive and 21st
Street and various access and
circumference roads.
One major step in this plan was to
close High Street. When this point came'
up, a prerequisite to develop a Garden
Street connector was added. The college
agreed to this, allocated funds and built
the three-lane bypass behind High Street
Hail.
Later the city added that the
completion of the project as envisioned
would require widening Garden Street
and improving the connection between
Indian and Garden at Oak Street, near
Nash Hall.
College officials don't think the city
has reneged on any agreements—nothing
has been officially approved—but is
simply being very cautious.
Traffic using High Street has been
over 80 per cent college related. The
city seemed convinced that if the
college really wanted High Street
vacated it would stop using it or direct
funds toward widening Garden to four
lanes.
These requests for widening Garden
were made when Western's enrollment
was projected upward, as high as
15,000.
Barney Goltz, campus planner, now
thinks, from what Tom Tow, city traffic
superintendent, told him, that widening
of Garden should be avoided.
The main detractors to closing High
Street in the past have been residents up
the hill from the college.
Several years ago the college asked
the Board of Public Works, now defunct
and replaced by Mayor Reg Williams, to
consider closure. Residents up the hill
"rose in arms," according to one source,
and "the board backed down."
This was before the Garden Street
bypass was built. In winter, 1972, these
hill residents again petitioned the board
against closure, saying the bypass was an
unsuitable alternative.
It has been a somewhat emotional
issue to those homeowners. They say
winter driving up the steep bypass grade
is especially dangerous. It's also shorter
to some points via High Street.
The issue hasn't been pursued
further by the college until now.