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Government

Iowa Communities Pay for Highway 30 Study

US Highway 30 Coalition
US Highway 30 Coalition

Clinton and some other communities are hoping to convince the state to widen two sections of Highway 30 to four lanes. They're paying for a private consultant to study the possible economic impact of adding lanes, from DeWitt to near Cedar Rapids (Lisbon), and a section west of Ames (Carroll to Ogden).

Andy Sokolovich, Interim President and CEO of the Clinton Regional Development Corporation, says there's a lot of truck traffic between his city and Cedar Rapids. And additional lanes would promote safety and save money.

US Highway 30 Coalition

"One, to insure that these trucks can get to and from at a rapid rate. Two, lower fuel costs for themselves because they're traveling at a higher rate of speed - they're not stopping and idling behind a tractor that's trying to move from one farm to another. And three, really just to kind of open up the artery of transportation into the city of Clinton and surrounding communities."

Communities along Highway 30 have asked many times for four lanes, but the state is only considering adding some passing lanes, every few miles. And he says that's not good enough.

"And I think as they four-lane Highway 20, we've seen the economic growth along that project of four-lane Highway 20, and we're looking to see the same economic growth along Highway 30."

Members of the U.S. Highway 30 Coalition will pay for the study, including 5,000 dollars from the Clinton Regional Development Corporation. And it could be finished by the end of the year.

(DeWitt to Lisbon 45 miles)
(Carroll to Ogden 44 miles)

Government
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.