The Oklahoma State Capital

The chaos at the I35 and Noble intersection resembled the confusion expressed by councilors as they debated the future of this intersection during the Tuesday night meeting.

The Guthrie Council formally accepted a $39,664 grant from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture for the beautification of this area. $12,664 of the grant will be paid in-kind by the city. The grant will allow Guthrie to plant trees and shrubs in and around the intersection to contribute to the beautification of this fast developing, easternmost entrance to Guthrie. In planning for the beautification, city staff, architects and park board members have designed a plan to close Oklahoma Street and clear up some of the traffic difficulties that have developed in the area.

The traffic situation which was always tedious because of the way Oklahoma runs along side Noble has father degraded with the growth of business in the area.

As traffic gets off Interstate 35 to visit the new restaurants they are forced to drive west and than u-turn to the east in order to re-access Interstate 35. The plan called for correcting this problem by installing two separate median breaks that would allow convenient access from both east and west.

Since Noble is in fact State Highway 33 these plans must be approved by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT). ODOT did not approve of the two breaks in the median being so close together.

Guthrie now has to decide which median break is preferable, the easternmost neat the Texico, El Rodeo, and Interstate Motel locations or a break father to the west. The property owner of the Texico station has expressed concerns that his business would be harmed with the elimination of the eastern most median break.

While this property owner was present at the meeting he left before the issue could be completely addressed. This prompted concern from Ward II Councilor Foster who felt all business owners in the area should be communicated with. Foster raised concerns about access near Wade's Hardware and the Apartments located in the same area.

City Manager Jones agreed with these concerns but indicated it would be likely that every property owner would have a separate opinion.

Upon a motion by Ward III Councilor Aguirre, the issue was postponed for two weeks in order to allow for more input by property owners. Hampton was the only dissenting vote.