Highway meeting was important to get unified effort

Regional News

Bridgeport City Administrator Bill Boyer says a meeting of 40 community leaders earlier this week to talk about highway funding and the future of the Heartland Expressway was important not because any major decisions were reached, but because everyone involved talked and promised to keep talking and working together.

Boyer says the Highway 385 leaders decided that although they want to see improvements south of the Expressway, the region would be best-served if they joined together with the Heartland Expressway Coalition to have the Panhandle send a single unified message to state and local officials.

State Senator LeRoy Louden says it will take a "hard sell" to get the funding needed to finish the Heartland Expressway, with the focus needing to be on the route being "a transportation corridor for Nebraska, not just an expressway for western Nebraska."

Boyer says having such a trade corridor pass through the Panhandle will benefit the entire region economically, even the communities not directly on it.

The officials at Tuesday's meeting agreed to keep meeting in the future, choosing Bridgeport as the location but not setting a specific date.