Some day — Lancaster County Commissioner Rick Vest keeps talking optimistically about a construction dateÌý— a major renovation of railroad crossings at 33rd Street and Cornhusker Highway will happen.
There are plansÌý— complete with 3D images, a website and lots of hoops still to be jumped — and project managers want to know what residents think.
Coordinated by the Railroad Transportation Safety District, the project would eliminate the railroad crossings at 33rd Street and Cornhusker Highway and at 35th and Adams, instead reroute traffic with an overpass along a new section off 33rd Street that connects to an Adams Street extension running parallel to the tracks.
The plans include adding new sidewalks and multi-use trails, said Roger Figard, executive director of the RTSD.
It's been years in the making: a video introducing the project is narrated by Cyndi Lamm, back when she was on the City Council. She was elected in 2015, made an unsuccessful bid for mayor and was succeeded on the council by James Michael Bowers in 2019.
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The goal of the project is to improve the tracks that carry nearly 65 trains daily, a reality that means those crossings are now blocked for 3 1/2 hours each day.
To do that, though, planners must finish a federal process that involves an environmental assessment that must get initial approval, followed by a formal public hearing next fall or winter. Part of that process is getting public feedback, which is why officials want to hear from area residents.
They’re holding a public open house Dec. 16 from 5-7 p.m. at the Center for People in Need.
They’ll be there to answer questions but they really want attendees to do the talking: Do the proposed changes make it safer and easier for bicyclists, pedestrians and those who use public transit? Does it better connect them from their homes to the place they need to go?
The feedback will be included in the federal assessment, which must be approved before RTSD officials can begin buying right-of-way and finalizing design.
Construction likely won't start till 2026 (sorry Commissioner Vest).
The cost is yet to be determined but it could be about $100 million, with about half paid by the RTSD (which just raised its tax rate to save money for the project), and half by the railroads, federal and state aid, and grants.
If residents can’t make the meeting, they can comment online on the website at .
Ordinance gets a nibble
Let’s look beyond the cold temperatures that descended on Lincoln this week and talk about sidewalk cafes, such as The Hot MessÌý— a bar at 408 S. 11th St.
It's the first bar to take advantage of a recently updated ordinance that now allows bars to offer sidewalk cafes like restaurants have for years.
The changeÌý— advocated for by several downtown bar owners and championed by City Councilman James Michael BowersÌý— eliminated a requirement that a business have a kitchen and menu or 40% of its gross sales from food.
It was passed in August.
Hallie Salem, the redevelopment manager with the city’s urban development department, said she’s talked to several business owners about it, but The Hot Mess is the only one so far to apply. Some of the businesses that had cafes may have eliminated their menus.
Applications are reviewed by a committee made up of representatives from various city departments, and goes before one of several design review boards.
Moving on up
Jamie Wenz, who’s been the station manager at LNKTV City, which broadcasts all the city and county public meetings, is leaving after eight years to become technical director at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Wenz and his two staff membersÌý— Beau Wolfe and Melissa FullerÌý— played a pivotal role in keeping the work of city and county government available to the public when the pandemic shut everything down.
LNKTVÌý— a public-access channelÌý— has broadcast public meetings for years, but suddenly, Wenz and his staff became a part of nearly every meeting. They helped manage Zoom meetings between city and county staff, and figured out how to broadcast public meetings and news conferences so the public could testify virtually and reporters could ask questions from remote locations.
They figured out how to make conferences happen virtually, they added closed captioning and apps for streaming service such as Roku and Apple TV so more people had access.
Managing all thatÌý— and making sure they didn’t have too many things going on simultaneouslyÌý— was the hardest part, Wenz said.
They had to stop doing a lot of the longer projects for different city agencies to handle the challenges of the pandemic.
Wenz will likely get to do more of that now, as technical director at the J-school, helping students and faculty on video productions, classwork, student newscasts and other projects. And if they’ve got a question about making a public meeting accessible virtually, he’s their man.