Zack Stoycoff
Staff Reporter
CLAREMORE —
Rogers County commissioners will seek a higher opinion on whether they can help fund the engineering study for Claremore’s proposed highway loop.
Commissioners delayed their decision in June when the district attorney’s office downplayed the county’s authority to participate in the study. Now they will turn to the state attorney general, District 3 Commissioner Kirt Thacker said Thursday.
Thacker said he will work through State Senator Sean Burrage’s office but has yet to meet with Burrage.
“I’ve called him and he’s called me back but with our busy schedules, it just hasn’t worked out yet,” Thacker said.
Claremore city officials asked commissioners in May to help them pay half of nearly $300,000 for a study to determine where to place a four-lane highway encircling Claremore, something they hoped would ease traffic and promote development.
City Manager Tim Miller and Mayor Brant Shallenburger have announced their departure since then, but city spokeswoman Cassie Woods said the city’s goals are the same.
“There’s going to be no change,” she said. “The loop is still a top priority of the leadership.”
Commissioners said the project has fallen out of the public eye as they look for ways to pay for it. But the county has always supported it, they said.
“In my opinion, the loop is 20 years late, but it’s better late than never,” Thacker said. “If it’s built, the loop will benefit everyone who uses Claremore — inside the city limits or in District 3.”
District 3 includes Inola, Verdigris and southern Claremore.
Assistant District Attorney Barry Farbro said in his written opinion that the county cannot legally fund a study unless several conditions are met. Among them, the project could be listed on the county’s five-year circuit engineering district plan, something Thacker said in June he would explore.
Thacker said that might still be the best option. He said plans to discuss it at the district engineering board’s meeting Sept. 2, but the board only meets monthly and he needed time to gather more information.
In the meantime, he’s mulling asking Claremore businesses and residents whether they actually want the loop.
“I’m a proponent of landowners’ rights and I just don’t believe in government muscling its way through someone’s living room,” he said.
City officials have said they will hold meetings with property owners once they know where the loop will be placed.
Thacker said he might try to do that beforehand.
“There’s more to consider than just money,” he said. “Do the people of Rogers County actually want the loop?”
He said he wants to talk to business owners because he’s curious how they think the loop would affect their businesses.
“I think that’s one thing that will probably affect my decision,” he said. “I would like to hold town hall meetings with merchants, or they could just call me.”
Engineers won’t know where the loop would be until they look at what impact it would have on traffic, the environment and the economy at different locations.
Preliminary plans call for a complete circle around Claremore connecting highways 20, 88 and 66 about five-miles outside the city, which would require building miles of new roadway and using some existing county routes.
The study would be comprehensive enough to convince state and federal agencies to help pay for the construction of the route, officials say. Government agencies could cover as much as 80 percent of the construction cost.
“I think everyone understands that even in great economic times a project of this magnitude would be overwhelming,” Thacker said. “I know no one disagrees with that.”
Editor's note: This story originally had the wrong price for the highway loop study, which will cost nearly $300,000. It has been corrected.
