Thursday, August 30, 2012 3Index

BY KAITLYN DANIELSSta� Reporter

Construction for the Down-town Enhancement Project is set to begin this October, leading to what the City and University hope will be a new and improved Franklin Street.

The project will have two phases focusing on improving portions of Washington Street and inserting a grassy median on Franklin Street.

Project engineer Thomas Wooten said phase one’s design has been completed and phase two’s is still being drawn up. Phase two will include a center landscape median.

Kirksville city engineer Ed-ward Ieans said phase one will cost about $460,000 and the cost of phase two is still under consideration.

“There is a joint agreement with the City of Kirksville and Truman where the budget di-rector and the president have agreed to pay approximately $100,000 to the city for some of the improvements in phase one,” Ieans said.

Campus architect Mark Schultz said for phase one, the City is trying to improve the lighting, sidewalks, streets, storm water system, sanitary sewers and electrical systems distributed through downtown.

The improvements will start at The Square and continue south on

Franklin Street, as well as on Scott Street, which runs east to west to-ward the Hospital.

Schultz said they’re hoping to get the overhead power lines un-derground, as well as get new and improved lights.

Schultz said for phase two, the goal of constructing a grassy me-dian on Franklin Street is to con-trol jaywalking across the street by funneling pedestrian traf�ic to the crosswalks for a safer crossing.

Schultz said the median should soften the appearance of the street and make it look more like an avenue and less like a downtown street.

Schultz said the median also will establish turning lanes that will help traf�ic in and out of the parking lot of McClain.

Ieans said construction for phase one will continue through the winter and should be complet-ed during Spring 2013.

“Although phase one is set in stone, it may be a year or two from now before we start phase two of the Downtown Enhancement Proj-ect,” Ieans said.

Senior Adam Collins, said he thinks even though the grassy me-dian would make Truman look nice and might discourage jaywalking, it is a waste of tax payer money.

“I don’t see that jaywalking is that much of a problem,” Col-lins said. “The money could be better spent repaving streets around campus or around Kirksville.”

After years without a shop in Kirksville, Hardee’s returnsANDI WATKINS DAVISAssistant News Editorindex.newseditor@gmail.com

Hardee’s has returned to Kirksville after being absent from the community for 10 years.

The business opened its doors Wednesday and has continued to be busy, general manager Karen Arment said. She said opening day was very busy and more than 300 people were served by noon.

Arment said Hardee’s decid-ed to open again in Kirksville after the franchise owner did research studies and decided Kirksville would be a good market for the restaurant.

Kirksville used to have three Hardee’s, Arment said.

She said she doesn’t know the specific reasons for those restaurants closing, but said she thinks it has to do with the previous owner’s health and the fact that he no longer lives in Kirksville.

Arment said opening this location was a good business venture for the company.

The new Hardee’s has hired 55 employees and eight management staff, Arment said. Residents, Truman State students and local high school students are among the staff.

Arment said she hires the amount of people she thinks will be necessary for busi-ness and is still hiring a few more employees.

She said applications can be found by the front door of the restaurant, at the cash registers and will be available online starting during the middle of September.

“I have been very pleasant-ly surprised with the employ-ees I have got here,” Arment said. “It’s hard to find the kind of employees that you want to have and we were able to find that in this area.”

Kirksville resident Trista McCutchen said she has been working full-time for Hard-ee’s since the opening day as a cashier. She said she ap-plied for the job because she enjoys working in the fast food industry and enjoys in-teracting with people.

McCutchen said as a ca-shier, she takes orders and de-livers meals to tables. She said she also does anything else she can to make a customer’s experience more enjoyable.

“It’s always nice to see people come in and be really satisfied with your customer service,” McCutchen said.

McCutchen said everything

has been running smoothly and there have only been a few minor issues such as cus-tomers being unhappy with the roast beef.

Arment said she plans to keep Hardee’s competitive with other Kirksville fast food restaurants by continuing to offer great service and fresh, hot food. She said Hardee’s also strives to be different from other fast food chains by serving food to custom-ers at their tables and mak-ing breakfast biscuits from scratch every day.

Junior Alec Logue said he visited the restaurant Sunday with his friends. He said he enjoyed his food and the cus-tomer service.

Logue said he is pleased Hardee’s decided to come to Kirksville and he will be go-ing to the restaurant again during the future.

New Hardee’s opens

BY ASHLEY JOSTNews Editorindex.newseditor@gmail.com

A small group of Kirksville residents are working to restart the local chapter of the Li-ons Club by continuing to recruit chartering members.

With guidance from chapters all across the state, chapter president Matt Shannon and the few dozen interested participants are working together to bring the goals of the Lions Club back to the City during this fall after an unde-termined amount of years since Shannon said a lack of interest disbanded it.

The Lions Club is one of the world’s larg-est service organizations, with more than 1.35 million members in more than 200 countries, Shannon said. Common service focuses of the organization include trying to help anyone who needs eye or hearing exams by providing them for free, he said.

They also work to provide further assis-tance for the less fortunate by organizing re-duced costs for things like glasses through lo-cal doctors, a project Shannon said he hopes to bring to Kirksville as the organization gets going.

“It’s cool to be a chartering member of an organization,” Shannon said. “It’s even a great idea for students who want to get involved with something from the ground �loor.”

While many of the organization’s plans still are developing, Shannon said he hopes to work with student organiza-tions during the future to host events and community activities.

He said during the past, the Kirksville and La Plata Lions Clubs collected eyeglasses to donate to those in need, which is something they hope to continue.

The club’s first big event is the Disabil-ity Awareness Conference Oct. 27 in the Student Union Building, where they plan to host free eye and hearing exams for anyone interested.

“We’re really trying to get our name out there,” Amanda Mills, the new group’s mem-bership chair, said.

Mills said she decided to research the or-ganization in hopes of establishing herself as a young professional in the community.

“I feel like I’m surrounding myself with people who have the same mind frame and are oriented to want to help the community,” she said.

Anyone interested in becoming a char-tering member has until Sept. 22 to contact the Lions Club at kirksvillelionsclub@gmail.com. After Sept. 22, incoming members will just be regular members, as opposed to chartering members.

Shannon said there is a discount rate for students of $25, with $56 for regular members.

Lions Club chapter emerges

City and University look to improve streets

Downtown Enhancement Project

According to City Engineer Edward Ieans and Campus planner Mark Schultz

Goal: improve lighting, sidewalks, streets, sewers and storm water systems.

$460,000Goal: To implement a grassy median on Franklin Street

to control jaywalking.

Undetermined CostPhase One Phase Two

Ashley Jost/IndexHardee’s employee Robin Helm, left, and manager Candice Peterson, right, chat while Peterson organizes a register during a shift change. The new fast food restaurant opened Wednesday, bringing the fast food chain back to Kirksville.

Calli Lowry/IndexStudents hurry across Franklin Street between classes Tuesday morning a few yards away from the designated crosswalk. The jaywalking is something architects are hoping to alleviate with building a grassy median on the street.