NWACC Board wants input on interchange project
Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BENTONVILLE - In the coming years, as Bentonville prepares to make Eighth Street the driveway for Wal-Mart, Northwest Arkansas Community College wants to make sure it's somewhere on the decision-making table.
At its meeting Monday, the NWACC Board of Trustees voted for NWACC President Becky Paneitz and board chairman Coleman Peterson to draft a letter to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to voice the board's concerns regarding the impact of the project on the college.
The city and state are currently looking at options that would facilitate east-west traffic flow by widening Eighth Street and constructing an interchange between exits 86 and 88 off U. S. Highway 71.
But because NWACC's 130 acres are east of U. S. 71 and between the two exits, the college has a vested interest in details of widening project - as well as how it could effect classrooms and student growth.
One of the board's concerns is the preservation of the Natural Science Learning Laboratory, which serves as an outdoor classroom for the college and houses rare ecosystems and old-growth woodlands.
Another concern is the upcoming construction of the Shewmaker Center for Global Business Development, which may need to be shifted approximately 30 feet because of the highway project.
"We need that building; we needed it yesterday," student board member Tim Payne said. "But I don't want us to give up the beauty of this school to give in to this exit. I don't want a concrete wall there that looks just like the Berlin Wall."
Paneitz said she has listened to concerns from faculty and students about the Eighth Street project and that it is important that the school have a voice in the project. "This would make a statement that would allow us to speak in one voice. We want to make sure that we're at the table and know what the issues are."
The AHTD held its first of a number of public sessions on the project in late February, in which seven conceptual designs were displayed. The design of the project is still in the preliminary stages.
The NWACC Board voted to move forward with the groundbreaking for the Shewmaker Center for Global Business Development, scheduled for May.
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