Schmitt wants compromise on roundabouts

GREEN BAY - After 11 hours of debates over the course of the last month, the city is not done debating the future of Military Avenue.

"I think we have people who are very dug in on an issue that I think needs compromise," said mayor Jim Schmitt. He is asking the council to rescind its previous decision to put six roundabouts on Military Avenue and change the plan to include a mix of traffic lights and roundabouts.

The city is looking at three options. Under all three, the intersections Military and Mason and Military and Shawano would be lights. One alternative has two roundabouts at the south end of the road, at 9th and 6th Streets. Another option has one roundabout at each end of the project: one at 9th and one at Dousman. A third option would have roundabouts at three of these four intersections.

"I think the where is an engineering decision. How is this going to work best? The engineers initially said the best thing are six. But it's not the right thing to do at this time. It's too much too fast," Schmitt said.

Alderman Chris Wery voted for the six roundabouts. While he says that would be the ideal plan, he will support a compromise.

"People being stubborn on both sides are just going to end up hurting that street and those businesses. So we need to come together and find something in the middle that we both like and move forward," Wery said.

While there is some support for a compromise there are some people who say they don't want to see any roundabouts on Military Avenue.

"I'm committed to continuing to fight to stop any roundabout from being put on Military Avenue," said alderman John Vander Leest. He said there is enough support to overturn any plan with roundabouts by taking it to a referendum.

But the mayor says that could delay the project and put nearly three million dollars of federal funding in jeopardy.

A city council committee will discuss the alternatives for Military Avenue at a meeting tomorrow but no decisions will be made. Next week the council is expected to discuss the plans and make a final decision.