Local farmers and other members of the community want a seat at the table as discussions continue about the feasibility of an outer loop around Owensboro. Daviess County residents met Wednesday evening to share their concerns on the potential new roadway.
Jason Strode, one of the organizers of the meeting, said they came together because the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet claimed the stakeholders of the community talked about the plan — but Strode said he and other farmers were not reached.
“We’re the people that own the land, we’re the people that are going to pay for the road, and we’re the people who had to live with it,” Strode said. “So, we consider ourselves the largest stakeholders in all this.”
Strode said those who came together to form the meeting know farming is vital to Owensboro.
“They’re always gonna make new strip malls, but they are not making new farmland,” Strode said.
KYTC officials said there are three preliminary corridors for the new loop. The options shown in the maps below (click here then select the preliminary corridor tab for an interactive map) range from 21.9 to 35 miles around the city stretching from U.S. 60 East to West. For each, a new interchange would be constructed at I-165 and the Audubon Parkway.
For Strode, the discussion of an outer loop hit close to home — quite literally in front of his yard. While he said the proposed preliminary corridors wouldn’t harm his farmland, they would go through neighboring farms.
One of those is the Bittel farm in Sorgho.
George Bittel’s family has been farming for more than four generations. Bittel said that regardless of the length of any of the current proposed corridors, they each cut into the Bittel farm at one point or another.
“That’s going to impact our business and our lifestyle and what we do every day,” Bittel said.
To Bittel, the meeting on Wednesday was about the community coming together to support each other. He found a lot of the community’s concern comes from the unknown of where an outer loop could be placed, and the meeting allowed them to voice those concerns.
While an outer loop may provide a chance for growth throughout the county, not all farmers are behind the growth that could come. Strode said he is for growth and development, but he doesn’t believe it’s needed in Stanley, West Louisville, Sorgho and other towns.
“This is way overreach of growth, this is taking over the county is what this road looks like to me,” Strode said. “We don’t want it, we want to have our way of life.”
One compromise Strode could see is the widening of the bypass, an idea that was brought up during a Tuesday Zoom meeting about the feasibility of an outer loop.
“We just really want to have a seat at the table to be able to help make those decisions,” Strode said.
