By KATIE WISELY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
One business owner in northern Hamilton County is frustrated and says a long-term construction project is costing him dearly. INDOT says the purpose of the project is to improve the safety and mobility of U.S. 31 within Hamilton and Tipton counties. But it’s making it harder for people to reach a well-known farm market.
The project upgrades U.S. 31 to a limited access corridor. This means INDOT will eliminate some access points along the way and build interchanges and overpasses at some locations from State Road 38 up to State Road 931. All other local cross streets will be converted into cul-de-sacs.
Local business owner Scott Wilson says a majority of his business comes from traffic along 31. Without that, he says it’s going to make it challenging for customers to find a different way to the store.
Wilson Farm Market, located at 256th Street and U.S. 31 in northern Hamilton County, could suffer from lack of access depending on how the U.S. 31 construction project affects the intersection. (Photo provided)
The parking lot is always packed at Wilson Farm Market.
“Probably 35 percent local and the rest is coming off 31 one way or the other,” Wilson said.
It’s a third-generation family business and has been in the same location, at U.S. 31 and 256th Street, since 1968.
“I found an old photo, one of the original photos when my grandparents had it,” Wilson said. “It says like potatoes were 49 cents.”
Without an exchange, customers will have two options. They can exit two miles south on 236th Street or two miles north at 276th Street.
“Traffic would have to come four or five miles through the country to get there,” he said.
INDOT completed a corridor study in 2017 and reviewed safety data from 2014 to 2016. It indicated that in Hamilton and Tipton counties, 88 percent of crashes happened within 1,000 feet of an intersection.
“It’s a big deal,” Wilson said. “Huge massive gaps with no exchanges at all.”
Currently, INDOT is still in the process of completing an environmental assessment, so everything proposed is preliminary and could change. Right now, the plan shows 256th Street as a cul-de-sac, which would not provide the farm market direct access to U.S. 31.
Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt says the county’s comprehensive plan shows an access.
“I don’t think that people realize that there is not a lot of places to be able to go around there to get groceries,” he said.
Farmers in the area could also be impacted.
“My brother farms directly across the road and my neighbor farms directly behind the market,” Wilson said. “Those two guys will have to drive seven miles to get to those properties that are 100 yards apart.”
But there is a way to possibly get an exchange. Heirbrandt says it’s not uncommon for the county to go after federal funding.
“It will probably come down to some type of money contribution,” he said.
Wilson will continue to fight for his business and isn’t afraid to make it known.
“Sometimes the cheapest solution is not the correct solution,” he said.
I understand Wilson’s position but the State’s intention to make 31 a limited access highway has been known for a long time. I have shopped there for years on my way home from working in Kokomo and Tipton. Many people in Howard and Tipton have already been displaced by the State preparing the road for limited access so Mr. Wilson is not alone. Even if the State does cave and put an exchange at 256th, the present building would definitely be in the right of way for the new intersection unless there was a major reconfiguration of that intersection. I feel the best solution would be for Mr. Wilson to find a new location at one of the new exchanges planned for 31. Many people along SR 37 being upgraded to I69 have been in the same position without getting an exchange built to save their business. I will still shop at Wilson’s wherever it ends up but I believe spending 2 million dollars to save a business is not fair to all the other property owners and businesses already affected by the road upgrade.