Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Tough Road to Pedal

(Published in the Janesville Messenger, 2-2-14)

Change is inevitable, and everyone has a different way of gauging just how extensively and rapidly things around you are evolving.

In my case, it's based on how I have to adjust my bicycle routes.

In the 22 years I've lived in my current house in Milton, I've seen new streets, new schools, expanded schools, new parks and new subdivisions. I've seen businesses of various sizes come and go. And I've seen Highway 26 evolve from a single two-lane road to a divided four-lane to a freeway that bypasses the city.

But darn it, when they mess with my bike routes, now that's an adjustment.

I have always had four favorite routes – one in each direction – that I use to leave the city and head to distant destinations. My favorite route was always County M southeast to Townline Road, which I then took east toward LaGrange. Once I was on M, it was an immediate shift from city to rural area.

Soon after a big ethanol plant showed up, Highway 59 and County M were completely realigned, resulting in a strange but relatively minor change to my route.

The new Highway 26 Bypass, on the other hand, meant having to completely re-figure both my driving and biking routes in and out of town. Unlike my auto navigation, however, I am actually looking forward to trying the new bike trail that runs alongside the bypass and connects Milton with Janesville and Fort Atkinson. And the realignment of Janesville Street (the former 26) now gives me a straight shot to Townline Road for my ride to LaGrange. What hath God wrought?

So when the talk started about an I-90 interchange at County M west of Milton along with a city annexation of 1,200 acres for an industrial park, my first thought was about how that part of my bike ride to Indianford would be affected. Now, when I get a few blocks past Milton West Elementary School, I am riding past cornfields. This proposal would extend the city about three miles west. Tractors and fields would be replaced with semi trailers and buildings.

Sure, I could easily just change my route and avoid it. But there's something about this development that goes beyond altering a peaceful bike ride in the country. It would be a sudden and drastic change to Milton. If my map-reading skills are accurate, it would double the city's east-west width.

From a personal standpoint, it also encroaches closer to what I always considered our neighborhood growing up, the rural area that sent kids like me to tiny Consolidated School. The western edge of the proposed development is near an area the old-timers called Sandy Sink. It also reaches within a half-mile or so of Threshermen's Park, home to the annual Rock River Thresheree. Antique tractors, meet tractor trailers.

A billion dollars of development, 24 million dollars of tax revenue, and the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs sounds very appealing. But what scares me is that the project seems so massive, especially if it is done all at once as the developers intend. And what if they build it and nobody comes? Not to sound pessimistic, but it would not be unprecedented. You may recall that an enthusiastic home builder envisioned 1,000 new homes along Highway 26 between Milton and Janesville by now. The project stalled after only 12 were built.

The decision to put in the interchange and convert this much farmland is a big step, perhaps a defining moment in the history of the city. Will it be a huge economic boon? Or a massive change to the town's identity? Or both?

We may know soon whether Milton and its adjoining townships go down this road or not. My quiet two wheels may be replaced by many sets of eighteen. On the surface, it seems like it may be a tough road to pedal.


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