Safety concerns on State Highway 3 heading east out of Palmerston North have prompted transport officials to decide traffic lights should be installed at the busy Roberts Line intersection.

The lights are expected to make it safer for all traffic, especially cyclists and pedestrians, from Kelvin Grove wanting to cross SH3-Napier Rd to get to the Manawatū River shared pathway.

There will be a pathway beside the highway from Roberts Line to Sutton Place to complete the off-road route.

NZ Transport Agency director of regional relationships Emma Speight said the decision to make improvements came after reviewing public feedback. That consultation happened in August 2018.

READ MORE:
* Anger mounts among Palmerston North politicians over Napier Rd crashes
* KiwiRail freight plans complement city and transport investment
* Motorists’ advocate wants focus on Roberts Line

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Soon, City of Poughkeepsie residents will cast votes that will impact the future for themselves and their children.

Soon after, residents around the country will head to the polls for the general election.

The Poughkeepsie City School District is holding a bond vote on Oct. 20, two weeks before the Presidential election, asking residents to approve one of two capital improvement plans, which would either cost roughly $48 million or $98 million, depending on the option favored.

The propositions were originally planned to be included in the spring’s school budget votes, but the district removed them from the ballot amid the uncertainty of the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which all budget votes were delayed from May to June.

Dilapidated steps are pictured at Clinton Elementary School. (Photo: Courtesy photo)

Superintendent Eric Rosser acknowledged rescheduling the proposition vote so close to the general election could impact voter

SRPINGFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority will receive $680,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to reduce travel times and create greater access to jobs for rural residents in Western Massachusetts.

The money will fund a transit review and improvement planning study, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday. That would include recommendations for improved transit services and facilities, new routes, modern fare collection systems and integrating low or no-emission buses.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the PVTA was transporting more than 10 million passengers a year on a 2019 budget of $39 million. For several months this year it provided essential trips only, and has slowly returned to running portions of its former service.

PVTA operates in Hampden and Hampshire counties, with major hubs in Springfield’s Union Station, in Holyoke and in and around the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus.

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration announced Wednesday

Downtown Hicksville’s chaotic jumble of roads and walkways is set for a $22 million pedestrian and bicycle-friendly makeover — if the funding can be secured.

Nassau County last week released its “complete streets” plan for the area around the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road station that is poised for revitalization.

“When you’re adding apartments or for housing or any kind of development at all you want to make sure that … you can accommodate any increased population or traffic, and you also want to look at how you can make things safer,” Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said in an interview. “You also want to look at how to make it more attractive.”

The complete streets report recommends adding 1.75 miles of bike lanes, new street crossings for commuters, extending sidewalk curbs to shorten the distance to cross streets, building median islands at wide intersections, making sidewalks and curb ramps

Victims of the Windrush scandal have responded with scepticism to the publication of a Home Office “comprehensive improvement plan” promising “a fairer, more compassionate” department – pointing to similar previous pledges that have yet to materialise.

The author of a report into the scandal’s causes also reacted with frustration that the government is not moving fast enough to implement all of her recommendations, despite a promise from the home secretary, Priti Patel, in June that they would be adopted in full.

Wendy Williams, who wrote the independent Windrush lessons learned review, welcomed the plan, but added: “Some of the more fundamental recommendations, such as the appointment of the migrants’ commissioner, require greater clarity and pace if the department is to be successful in its aim to rebuild public trust.”

In her introduction to the plan, Patel made a renewed promise to oversee an ambitious, comprehensive reform of the Home Office.

Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday is expected to approve a plan to transform a one-block park in downtown Houston into a memorial to four African-American men who were lynched during the Jim Crow era.

The proposal by Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis would use the entire block that contains Quebedeaux Park — between Fannin, Congress, San Jacinto and Franklin streets — into a place where he said visitors can remember racial terror of the past and reflect

MONUMENT • The Monument Board of Trustees has authorized a major move to fund water improvement projects over the next three years.

At the board’s Sept. 21 meeting, they heard recommendations from town staff and special legal counsel regarding the potential for using the sale of revenue bonds to fund major improvements to its water system over the coming years.

However, instead of revenue bonds, it was recommended Monument create an ordinance to enter a site lease agreement and lease purchase agreement to market Certificates of Participation (COPs) — an alternate form of financing.

Town attorney Andrew Richey presented the finer details of the agreement, with bond counsel provided by Nate Eckloff of Piper Sandler and Kimberly Crawford of Butler Snow Law Firm. Both counsels recommended the certificates to help maximize the town’s budgetary flexibility in financing the water projects.

Presently, the town has a 2A water fund and an

A Texas developer plans to demolish much of the Shops at Worthington Place, in an effort to save the struggling mall property by converting it into a mixed-use development called High North.

Under the plan, which is scheduled to come before the Worthington Planning Commission Thursday, the north and west sides of the mall will eventually be torn down, removing about 120,000 square feet of the 138,000-square-foot building.

The mall’s owner, the Dallas firm Direct Retail Partners, plans to initially demolish the mall’s north end, about 85,000 square feet, and replace it with a 125,000-square-foot office building, up to 10 stories high, including a parking garage.

In a second phase, the west side of the mall would be removed and replaced with another office building of similar size to the first, plus a 120-room hotel or a 100-unit residential building, a 30,000-square-foot office or retail building,

This post is sponsored and contributed by a Patch Brand Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.

The new owner of the long-stagnant hotel project plans to present its renovation plans to the Architectural Commission.

Darrell Hofheinz
 
| Palm Beach Daily News

Palm Beach residents who have grown weary of looking at the long-vacant-and-unfinished Palm House hotel project on Royal Palm Way could get their first glimpse Wednesday of the new owner’s renovation plans.

The project is on the agenda of Wednesday’s Architectural Commission, when the board is expected to review the plans proposed by LR Palm House LLC. That limited liability company paid about $40 million for the hotel building in May 2019 in a private sale approved by a bankruptcy court.

The company is affiliated with London + Regional Properties, an international real estate investment firm specializing in hospitality projects through its L + R Hotels division.

Work at the hotel halted abruptly nearly six years ago and never re-started. The property eventually ended up