Rochester plans to extend McDonald Drive approximately 650 feet from where it currently ends by Quality Inn and Walmart to Southway 31 near the Rochester Motel. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — Rochester is using more than $650,000 it received from a state grant to connect McDonald Drive to Southway 31.

Rochester Mayor Trent Odell said the city recently learned it received $658,477.17 from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings Matching Grant program for the project.

The road will be extended approximately 650 feet from where it currently ends by the Quality Inn and Walmart to Southway 31 by the Rochester Motel.

Odell noted the extension had been “discussed” by leaders before his time as mayor. The previous holdup was the city couldn’t gain access to the drive, which was privately owned.

The first portion of the drive was owned by McDonald’s, with the back by the Quality Inn and Super 8 by Wyndham.

As he noted in his State of the City address earlier this year, former Fulton County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jillian Smith helped Odell connect with the owner of the two hotels. He later reached out to the McDonald’s Corp.

The city then obtained “total control” of the drive, he said. Rochester also received an easement from the property owner over whose ground the drive will extend.

“He was talking at that time with a possible developer (which helped us negotiate),” said Odell.

The yellow line on the above map shows where McDonald Drive will be extended in Rochester. Image provided by Rochester Mayor Trent Odell.

City workers cleared a wooded area at the current end of the drive after getting additional permission from the above property owner. Walmart also agreed to let the road be accessed from the northwest corner of its parking lot, said Odell.

“It will be all-new paved … up to the stoplight on SR 25,” noted Odell of the drive. “There will be a sidewalk on each side of the extension, and then once we get to the hotels or basically to the current road, we’ll have a crosswalk and then there will be a sidewalk on the Walmart side of McDonald Drive, not on the hotel side because there’s not room for one.”

Odell said the extension “eases some traffic backlog.”

“People can come into Walmart from the east,” he said.

Odell said it will also “brighten … up (the area) and create some activity.”

“It will help our emergency services access Walmart more quickly and have two access points (if needed),” he said.

In addition to the grant funds, the project is being paid for through city money as the cost is estimated above the grant money received, said Odell.

Bids should be put out this month, with Odell hoping the road is complete “by July.”