I shuffled up Mulberry Street to my first day of kindergarten at Washington School in 1948. I DON’T HAVE a role in deciding Monarch’s request for a conditional use permit to mine shale to use it in the manufacture of cement and haul it through Humboldt, and I have no intention of weighing in on the planning commission’s recommendation to issue the permit. I do know the three county commissioners — Tom Williams, Jim Talkington and Jerry Daniels — face a hard decision. I also am convinced they will consider information from Monarch and the well-meaning folks who oppose the total package and make what they think is the correct decision.
My folks didn’t have a car — fairly common then and if they had I still would have walked the three blocks — which had me and other kids living nearby making the trip morning and noon each day; kindergarten was half a day. In first grade we walked to and fro four times a day. School lunches were being served in some places but as far as I know not in Humboldt, and if they had been Mom still would have expected me home at noon. When attendance boundaries changed, I went north to Lincoln School starting in third grade, a distance of six or seven blocks — still on foot — and didn’t have to cross the highway.
The point is, for three years, at ages 5, 6 and 7, I crossed a federal highway, U.S. 169, that carried much of the traffic between Kansas City and Tulsa without incident, and I’m pretty sure no other kids had a run-in with a vehicle. In later years I have no idea how many thousands of times I crossed the highway on foot, going to town, joining with friends at Walter Johnson Field to play summer baseball or to the river to fish and swim. We were out and about everyday, unless curbed by stormy weather. Without TV, computers and all the other captivating electronics of today, what was a kid to do but be out with his buddies?
For comparison’s sake, U.S. 54 runs through the heart of Iola, passes within two blocks of three schools and next to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, where kids go daily for classes. I remember one accident involving a child, who was hit by a local car turning at the intersection of Buckeye and Madison streets. Recent traffic counts made by KDOT are that about 2,100 vehicles are on the old highway approaching Humboldt from the north each day; about 7,000 a day go through Iola.
Of course you know what I’m getting at: Allen County commissioners will decide Aug. 18 whether to permit Monarch Cement Company to remove shale from a site north of Humboldt and transport it in large trucks along old highway 169, now a county road running through Humboldt.
Parents have responsibility to teach their children to be careful about crossing streets, and to ride their bicycles in a safe manner. By the time they’re old enough to venture out, they should know to stop at intersections and look both ways, on foot, on a bicycle or driving a car. Like to though we might, we can’t put kids in a protective bubble every time they leave the house. It falls to parents, grandparents, anyone who has contact to teach children about safety and how to go about in a proper manner.
I understand very well safety concerns that all have who are being touched by Monarch’s proposal — I have four school-age grandchildren in Humboldt. Large trucks don’t stop on a dime and north of town the highway is narrow and has next to no shoulders — no different than it has been for decades.
A positive is that Curt Whitaker, whose trucks would haul the shale, pays drivers by the hour, not the load, which means they’ll have no motivation to rush. Curt stressed he admonished his drivers to obey traffic laws, including speed limits.
Safety priority for drivers, and young pedestrians
