The West Wendover City Council will spend about $2 million to rectify a 30 year old error that created a growing traffic nightmare for West Wendover parents of school aged children.
In Tuesday’s City council meeting a $2.2 million bond was unanimously approved to extend and route Florence Way to provide a vital second access to the West Wendover Elementary, High School and soon to be built Middle School.
The construction will correct an error committed by either builders or planners some 30 years ago even before the West Wendover incorporated in 1991.
Back in those early days city planning was not exactly strictly adhered to all the time. While Florence Way was supposed to run across town parallel with the rail road tracks it was accidentally blocked by residential and commercial construction on Alpine Street. The blockage was discovered only after two homes and one commercial building had already been constructed and occupied.
The issue was placed on the back burner and there it stayed for about 30 years.
At first the road that wasn’t there was hardly noticed by the residents of West Wendover. Then in 1996 with the opening of the new high school traffic on Elko Avenue, the only access road to the school became a nightmare for parents, teachers and students at the start and the close of each school day.
Plans to redress the problem were tied to the construction of a new middle school. The middle school was first delayed first due to the gold bust of 1998 then local economic crash of the State Line in 2003 and then by national Great Recession of 2008.
Finally thanks to a rebounding economy with a very healthy future promised by the new gold mine the school expansion was approved and with it the “fix” to a 30 year old error.
According to City Clerk Anna Bartlome the new Florence Way will run parallel north of railroad and south of Hanson Storage and Flash Back Auto. To make the deal work the city swapped land with the property owners.
