Winona Street Vote

Editor, Times-Union:I am asking the Town Councilmen of Winona Lake a favor. Before they vote on an ordinance to change the direction of Court Street from 12th Street to Auditorium Boulevard from one-way south to one-way north, would they please visit the location and walk around the area.  (The Fourth of July weekend would be the perfect one to watch the traffic flow.)Take the turn off Administration to Court Street onto Court Circle and see how smooth the transition is now.  Consider the long junket someone living on Court Circle (where I live) would have to travel if the one-way change takes place. They would have to cross the bridge on Auditorium, go south on West Canal Street, west on 12th Street, north on Court Street and then west on Court Circle!We also own a house on Court Street.  The four other Court Street owners I had a chance to talk to about this one-way change yesterday, when I first heard about it, were not aware of it either.  So, apparently all the agreement and decision-making about approaching the council took place at the opposite end of Court Street – the south end.  That end apparently gets benefits of some sort from this change.  The north end only gets a long crazy unpleasant drive down to 12th Street and back – many times a day, if it is me.The other odd thing is that at Auditorium, Court Street is going to have itself turned into two one-way streets facing each other head on – an accident waiting to happen!  All for what? It is not just the people on Court Street and Court Circle who are affected.  Just think of the enormous amount of new traffic that will start going by West Canal and 12th Street and the houses at the south end of Court Street.  I would imagine no one has considered that.  Noise level, peace and safety and their general island tranquility will change and the alleys will be much more in use.  Sometimes you must be careful what you wish for.  I would request the councilmen seriously consider this vote and hope they will not change the direction of Court Street to one-way north.  Maybe they should consider changing 12th Street. to one-way east. Perhaps that would help give a circle effect and help out the folks at the south end of Court Street.  I just do not feel it is my job to drive miles out of my way every day for a problem that surely can be solved other ways.At the very least, a decision of this magnitude should have had the whole neighborhood invited for discussion.  When this came up before, time was taken to invite the previous townmarshall to study the situation.  He understood the traffic pattern confusion that could occur and the decision was made not to do it.Jan NelsonWinona Lake, via email