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Pedestrian, Bike Plan to Connect Jonesboro

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The City of Jonesboro is taking citizens’ comments and putting together a pedestrian and bike plan to be developed in several stages in the future. 

The plan would develop a beltway that would connect all of Jonesboro together through a series of interconnected trails and corridors.  This plan is in the early development stages.  Assistant Director of Jonesboro’s Parks and Recreation Department Danny Kapales.

“We are getting a visionary plan out to the public to get their ideas on what they would like to see done for future transportation in Jonesboro,” said Kapales. 

Jason McDaniel is with Civil Engineers Associates.  He tells about how the idea for this started.

“We are tasked by the city to look at the master plan for the trails, bike, and pedestrian system,” said McDaniel.  “We are in the early stages of Phase 1 of this plan.”

McDaniel says there has been a desire for a long time to provide numerous modes of transportation across all of Jonesboro and to connect all parts of the city together.

“There have been numerous meetings that have taken place and we have consultants that have been helping us in this process,” said McDaniel.  “We are trying to connect all of the Jonesboro together and put a plan together that will lead to a much better quality of life.”

The city held two sets of public meetings on the plan where comments were presented.  Kapales says those meetings were successful.  He tells what the biggest need is for this plan.

“The need is to create a connected Jonesboro,” said Kapales.  “We want to give people access to all points of Jonesboro without having to use vehicles.  We find that people want to walk, run, and ride bikes safely throughout Jonesboro and we want to create a plan to do just that.”

The first phase of this project is still underway and is expected to be going for quite a while before any definite plans are released.  Kapales says the first phase will be determined through what is in the public comments from the meetings.  View the entire plan here.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.