By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Sidewalks at D and S. Ash Sts. in Hillsboro are being widened, and city administrator Matt Stiles hopes the upgrades will make the area more accessible to people with disabilities.

The goal is to make the intersection safer and decrease the likelihood of an accident like in June when a boy was killed when he ran into a semi. The improvements also will meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, Stiles said.

“We know there are some access issues with the ADA part of it,” Matt Stiles said. “You always want to bring it up to ADA compliance.”

The first upgrades are on S. Ash St. along the west side of Great Plains Federal Credit Union. The widened sidewalk will ease traffic flow. Similar improvements will be done to other sections of the intersection.

“We’re evaluating sidewalks and trying to take care of the biggest issues first, then go back through and look at where we have money,” Stiles said. “There’s not really a formal process that we’re going to do this intersection next and then that one.”

Elizabeth Wine of Great Plains Federal Credit Union already has fielded questions from customers wondering about the work being done.

“They’ve been wondering what we’ve been doing,” she said. “It’s like, well the city’s changing the sidewalk out, making it a little easier for people in wheelchairs or pushing strollers so they aren’t running through the drainage.”

The changes won’t affect access because there is no entrance on the credit union’s west side. It could increase congestion for people using the drive-through, but the city is working with Great Plains FCU to minimize inconvenience.

The update required multiple trees along the west side be cut down, which Wine expressed no qualms about.

“If it makes it easier to do this then be my guest and take them out,” she said. “I was looking at having to take them out 10 years from now.”