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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015
Emily Wichmer/Index
Roads throughout Kirksville are riddled with potholes. Mihalevich Concrete Construction, Inc. will fix streets in the community that are in need of repair. The city
hired the company to repair roads such as LaHarpe Street, Doyle Way and the roads around The Square.
Kirksville to repair The Square
By Rachel Fechter
News Reporter
Kirksville roads are full of peeling tar, large potholes
and uneven curbing, but the city’s contractor will begin
road repairs for some of the major problem areas.
Mihalevich Concrete Construction, Inc. will fix areas
including Doyle Way, Cobblestone Lane to McPherson
Street, the west LaHarpe Street approach to Franklin
Street, The Square, and the intersection of Michigan and
Boundary Streets.
Public Works Director Glenn Balliew said road repairs are an ongoing issue. Balliew said he decided it
was time to take serious action when he noticed a difference in the number of how many Kirksville roads
were being fixed and the roads that needed repairs. Balliew said many of the roads in residential areas deteriorated because their sub-bases underneath the asphalt
or concrete were shifting or were incorrectly laid down.
Some of these roads need to be torn up and rebuilt from
scratch, he said.
“There’s a whole lot of factors in what streets do,” Balliew said. “If you live in a neighborhood with nice houses
but you can’t go down the street, it makes the value in
property go down. No one wants to have a bad, ugly road
in front of their house. We are working on how to fix that.
You have to pay attention to the taxpayers because they
pay the bills. That’s who the streets affect.”
Mayor pro tem Glen Moritz said there was an abundance of support from Kirksville citizens to fix the roads.
Moritz said citizens provide the major source of income
for road funding because of the transportation sales tax
Kirksville requires that annually raises approximately $1.2
million. He said it is important for residents to know that
when enough citizens bring something to the attention of
the city council in a positive and respectful way, change
can happen.
“Anyone who’s driven around Kirksville knows the
roads are a fairly constant issue,” Moritz said. “As a council
we definitely get a number of calls about the roads. There
is a certain degree of morale that comes from having a city
that’s well maintained, looks good and that’s easy to travel
over. Each individual in the community really is important. It’s great when citizens give their positive input and
write constructive suggestions.”
Moritz said many citizens want answers now about
when the roads will be done, but there are many factors
that come into play, such as weather and financial planning. He said if the temperature drops below 45 degrees,
the asphalt and concrete used to build the roads will not
set properly. This has created a specific season for road
building and a limited time frame that will come to a halt
once cold weather arrives, he said.
Engineering technician Linda Jepson said there’s
also the issue of financial planning. She said it is hard
to determine the exact cost of the project because the
city still is in the process of bringing in a state expert
to grade each of the 120 miles of existing streets in
Kirksville and estimate a cost to fix them. Despite these
complications, Jepson said she and others at the Public
Works Department are working as hard as they can to
move the road repair process along.
“Currently, we’re dealing with concrete streets that
are outdated and beyond their life expectancy,” Jepson
said. “Some of the smaller back streets and lower income areas I think have been missed because they’re
less traveled and less thought of. We’re trying to tackle
those areas. The more people that complain about the
street the more likely it is to get repaired. We definitely
try to listen as much as we can to see what the real
problems are.”
Street maintenance supervisor Ray Sandstrom said
Kirksville roads continue to crack and split, and the
Public Works Department struggles to keep up with all
Emily Wichmer/Index
The Kirksville Public Works Department is planning
to fix roads on The Square. The department still is
determining the exact cost of the project.
the repairs. Sandstrom said the department is trying to
tackle every problem area even if it takes months, years
or decades to complete.
“It seems like we keep working harder and harder but
we just keep getting further and further behind,” Sandstrom said. “I do think we’re moving forward. We’re putting a plan together to move forward with the council. If
everything works out we’ll gain a little bit next year so we
can get more life out of our streets.”
Planned protest draws controversy
By Paige Yungermann
News Reporter
Junior Tommy Fieser postponed his Facebook event
for a “Pointless Protest,” in reaction to the responses
and controversy it has generated.
The protest was supposed to take place Sept. 30
on The Quad, but in response to the criticism, Fieser
changed the name to Project Positive Propagation,
which is a new event.
Fieser said he now is rethinking the project entirely
but he still wants to get students to critically reflect
on their lives.
Fieser said he decided to change the name because
while it originally was called A Pointless Protest, it did
have a point, so the name did not fit the project.
“I’m trying to break people out of their everyday,
monotonous routine, to think outside the box,” Fieser said.
Fieser said some people reacted negatively to his
use of the phrases, “Everything is arbitrary — do whatever you care about,” and, “Nothing really matters,” in
relation to the project. However, Fieser said what he
meant by these phrases is people should spend time
doing what they want as opposed to doing things that
do not matter to them.
Fieser said he finds it interesting that some of the most
liberal students at Truman were the people most opposed
to the Pointless Protest. He said even though the event did
not happen, he is glad it generated so much conversation.
“I’m glad that it sparked controversy,” Fieser said. “I
think that’s why we are here on Earth, to experiment
with social boundaries and to question every day what
it means to live life.”
Fieser said he got the idea for the project at a Burning Man event called Interfuse last May. He said his
friend, who also was at Interfuse, was walking around
with signs that said things like, “Nothing matters,”
and, “Why am I here?”
“I’m trying to break people out
of their everyday, monotonous
routine, to think outside the box.”
— Junior Tommy Fieser
Fieser said this was his vision for the Pointless
Protest, but after receiving negative feedback, he
is rethinking what he wants to do with Project
Positive Propagation. He said the Pointless Protest
has evolved into this new project, and he is not
sure how it will all turn out. He said he hopes to
host an event during the next two or three weeks.
Fieser said he created this project as part of his
work for the True Genius grant, which allows people
to work on creative projects. Fieser said he already
has completed other projects this year as part of his
work for the grant. Earlier this semester, he asked
students on The Quad for synonyms for “awesome,”
“beautiful” and “interesting.” He said he then created hearts that say “You are...” with all the synonyms
listed, which he hung up around campus.
Senior Justin McKean said he learned about the
protest through Facebook and wanted to be involved.
Even though the project is changing, McKean said he
remains interested in participating in it.
McKean said while some of the criticism the project
received was constructive, other comments were personal attacks directed at Fieser. McKean said he saw
some people made comments that others should not
associate with Fieser.
“It had really good intentions, but people misunderstood where [Fieser] is coming from,” McKean said. “There were many statements made
that were worthwhile and much needed for the
evolution of this project because Tommy threw
it out there without intending to step on anyone’s toes, but he stirred a lot of emotion. He got
people talking.”
Political science professor Paul Parker said protests typically are used to bring attention to perceived societal problems and often are a reaction
to something.
“Protests are ways to draw attention to issues that
others might overlook,” Parker said. “Protests are often organized to try to spur political action. It is one
way of people participating to raise consciousness and
affect social change.”
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