7/31/2019 Maumelle Monitor Column for Week of Aug. 27
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Moore on Maumelle #3Column for Week of Aug. 27
I spent an hour and half visiting with Mayor Mike Watson last
week. It was a greatvisit. He was open, candid and engaging. I
wouldnt go so far to say he was
charismatic, but it was an enjoyable visit. We covered
everything from the third
entrance/exit to generating more excitement for the new Maumelle
Middle School and
High School to fixing potholes in our city streets and
recycling.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Ill share some of his
responses. This was not
an investigative meeting. I was not trying to get to the bottom
of anything. As I told
my editor, doing investigative reporting is too much work and
Ill have none of it. Im
just here to tell you what I think and whats going on in
Maumelle.
Our first area of discussion was the third entrance/exit. You
would not believe howmuch work has gone into making it a reality.
The city has been working on it since
1996. Mayor Watson has been on the job since 2007 and its been
one of his
priorities since day one.
Realize that to make this happen, many stars have to align. As
the mayor told me,
this involves the feds, the state of Arkansas, Pulaski County,
the city of North Little
Rock and the city of Maumelle. Its not a magic bullet, said
Watson. Its going to
be a big help but its also going to take the widening of I-40.
There are simply too
many cars trying to get somewhere at the same time, he
added.
At some point, maybe 20 years, well need to expand Maumelle
Blvd. to 3 lanes, hesaid. Too bad we cant embrace public
transportation and get some of these dang
cars off the road.
When asked when he thought realistically the 3rd entrance/exit
would happen, he
said about 7 years. That puts me at about 65 years old when it
opens, so Im just
going bear with it. Thinking it might be a good idea to try
audio books.
But rest assured it is a high priority and the mayor and he is
working on some aspect
of it at least every week.
I asked the mayor if he ever looks at Maumelle-All About Town, a
Facebook pagethat appears to have 4,414 likes and a lot of traffic.
I do look at it, said the Mayor.
At first I tried to respond to the criticisms but it just went
on and on, he said. But
yes, he does look at it and he has seen many of the sharp
criticisms that have
appeared, especially those about the upcoming bond election, set
for October 9th. He
told me that many of his critics had never attended a city
council meeting, so he
wondered how they could be so critical of what he and the
council are doing. Good
point.
