Let’s give marsh road money back

It is time to end the debate over a marsh road in La Crosse. The Department of Transportation continues to insist the answer to improving traffic flow through the city include some new road through the marsh. That is despite the fact that it has been made abundantly clear that City Hall, and La Crosse residents, don’t want a marsh road. The money for a new road, more than $100 million, has already been allocated by the state, and the state is running out of patience for La Crosse to figure out exactly what plans it does like for improving traffic flow. So far the city hasn’t been able to figure out just what it wants, and the ideas it does like doesn’t exactly match the DOT’s plans. So it makes sense for the city to simply give the money back to the state. There is some talk in city hall of doing just that. This money has been hanging over the city’s neck like an albatross, with the DOT warning it will take the money back if the city can’t agree with DOT plans. Fine. Give them the money back. No transportation fixes is better than a road through the marsh that no one wants. The fact is, we don’t know what we want, just what we don’t want. So if we choose not to decide, we still have made a choice.