Christina Grimes’ hands quaked as she stepped off the highway shoulder and into the Speedway parking lot.
“That was the longest 20 minutes,” she said, lighting a cigarette and taking a long exhale.
Feb. 15 was the first time she’d walked along the shoulder of State Road 46 into Nashville since last fall, when she saw her boyfriend, James “David” Sturgeon, be struck and killed by a passing driver next to her.
Last Thursday, Grimes had a dozen people walking with her. All were there to support the concept of building a sidewalk along the highway, and more joined the group at the Nashville Town Council meeting that evening.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“There isn’t anything we can do to bring David back. But something needs to be done so that another family doesn’t have to go through what we had to go through,” Grimes tearfully told the council.
She’s due to deliver his baby in six weeks. Grimes also has four other children at home. “Our family is shattered,” she said.
“There’s a child that will never meet her father. Luna (Sturgeon’s 6-year-old daughter) will never see her daddy again. She’ll never be able to play with him again. This could have been prevented.
“I know that it’s expensive and we don’t have a lot of money, but we should do something.”
Ten speakers stood up at the town council meeting to ask for action.
Council President “Buzz” King didn’t disagree with any of them.
“I’ve said the same thing for the last 16 years. It’s got to be done,” he said.
The big question is how to do it. King said the town is working with the state to figure it out.
One idea had been using Community Crossings grant money from the state to fund the sidewalk. But whether or not that is allowed according to the terms of the program is unclear.
Utility Manager Sean Cassiday said that his understanding is that any sidewalk built with that money has to be alongside a road that also is getting work, like repaving. INDOT public relations manager Harry Maginity said that Community Crossings money would be an option, according to the traffic engineer he talked to, Hillary Lowther.
Community Crossings projects are funded 50 percent by the state and 50 percent by the local entity, he said.
INDOT would be pleased to work with the community to install sidewalks along 46, Lowther said through Maginity.
Submitting it as an “LPA project” also is an option, she said. LPA projects are funded 80 percent by federal dollars and 20 percent by the local entity, Maginity said.
“They could put in for an LPA … and then they could have sidewalks, curbs, ADA curb ramps and lights,” he said.
Cassiday said during the town council meeting that he had talked to an INDOT representative and looked at the Hawthorne Drive intersection, and one of the big problems is that there’s no curb, which would be needed with a sidewalk. Because of the turn lane going into Hawthorne from 46, there also is no shoulder in the intersection area. He said a new shoulder would have to be built, and he had no idea what that would cost.
INDOT told him that the entrance to The Seasons needs to be moved so that it lines up with the Hawthorne intersection — and that would be a huge undertaking — but that would allow a crosswalk to be put there, he said.
Speakers at the meeting acknowledged that yes, the Salt Creek Trail does connect downtown Nashville to the Hawthorne Drive area. But because it goes through the woods and is not the most direct route, not everyone who walks between those areas will use it, especially after dark, they said.
Maginity wondered whether if lighting was put along the existing trail, people would choose to use it, and if there still would be a need to put a new sidewalk along the highway.
There are plans to make a leg of the trail go under 46 from the Brown County Schools campus to the Hawthorne Drive area, but there is no funding for that phase, and the committee in charge of the trail has not met since a county commissioner pledged to reorganize it last fall.
Speaker Rick Hofstetter said he could see the existing trail and a new sidewalk creating a nice loop for people to use for recreation and other purposes.
Speaker Clara Stanley said there is additional urgency in making a safe path for Brown County Schools students from their campus to the opposite side of 46, because the Kids on Wheels group is planning to build a skate and teen park next to the Law Enforcement Center.
BC Paths for People member Anna Hofstetter also suggested lowering the speed limit on the stretch of highway between downtown Nashville and the Hawthorne Drive shopping area, from 40 to 20 or 30.
“As far as the speeds, INDOT would be willing to discuss the need to lower the speed limit with the addition of the sidewalks,” Lowther said in an email from Maginity last week.
King told the meeting audience that three or four years ago, the town asked the state to lower the speed limit and the state refused at that time.
“I completely understand the urgency,” Cassiday said, talking about the fear he felt as kid when he rode a bike up and down 46, delivering newspapers. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said about any possible changes INDOT would make.
Hofstetter offered to form a committee to help get a project in motion.
“The time to start is now. Let’s go,” King answered.
Town Attorney James T. Roberts said one mechanism to getting it done could be found in the town’s own ordinances. He read a passage from the section “request to construct sidewalks at existing buildings,” passed in 1989, which states: “For safety reasons and to limit liability in the event of accidents, construction of sidewalks and/or curb lines at existing building sites may be required by request of the town board and a Barrett Assessment may be used if necessary to expedite the improvement.”
“We have have some leverage there,” he said.
Council member Arthur Omberg asked if the town could use its grant-writing service to help with funding, and Town Manager Scott Rudd said he’d ask.
“I think everyone’s sort of on the same page,” Hofstetter said.
“I’m sure there will be hurdles, but I think when there’s a will, there’s a way, and the time is now … not when another person dies.”
