You Really CAN’T Get There From Here

By

Mike Scinto

 Columnist

Appearing in Kettering-Oakwood Times-Times Community Newspapers

          I’ve sat in amazement and watched video accounts of climbers pushing forward to the peak of Mt. Everest; losing limbs, suffering frostbite and even losing their lives. I’ve viewed accounts of brave souls who traversed the rain forests, by river and through insect-plagued jungle trails, to get medical supplies to remote tribes around the globe. And as a 16 year old I remember heading back to my hometown of Memphis, to travel with family members on their annual jaunt to Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. While I loved my traveling partners, and the rodeo was awesome, the trip was somewhat less tolerable. Arkansas, at the peak of summer heat, is almost unbearable. We traveled in a Ford Fairlane with NO air conditioning across Arkansas and Oklahoma. Because of allergies, my Aunt couldn’t have wind blowing on her. While never measured, I’d bet the temperature in the car had to eclipse 120 degrees.

          While all of those journeys were painful and treacherous, none held a candle to the trip I took last week. I had to drive from my home in God’s country, a little bit south to the office of my newspaper to pick up a package. The trip took me through the heart of Kettering, Ohio; no path for the faint of spirit these days!

          This once gorgeous suburb of Dayton has become a maze of orange barrels and hard hats. At least three main thoroughfares are traps of barrels, ropes, machinery and dirt (mud). Since my visits are few and far between now, I planned to also stop at my favorite bakery, a restaurant where a good friend is the manager and a grocery store second to none. Needless to say, after traveling hours and hours to get a few blocks, those additional stops were scrapped. I’m not sure how the businesses even keep their doors open.

           It was all I could do to pick up my package and escape with my sanity! Combine the construction with drivers who quite obviously cut classes on Driver’s Education days and it was a nightmare. These hooligans behind the wheel cutting in and out of lanes, deciding to turn at the last second and sitting through multiple traffic lights to turn left, not realizing they could have proceeded into the intersection then turned when oncoming traffic moved through.

           None of the planners from Kettering asked me but if I were in charge we would take a section of one main roadway and intersection, concentrate crews there, repair it and move to the next section. Instead they strung out crews from Wilmington to Dorothy Lane and on to Woodman. Those are the only ones I SAW. There may be more. And of course they tied up all those intersections too. There is no “alternative route”. In fact there are multiple driveways into my paper and it was a game of bumper cars trying to get in and out.

           I can only imagine what would go through the mind of a business man planning to relocate who’d heard such great things about the area and surveying it in his car with potential investors. Or what about the family relocating to the area and wanting to buy a home in a nice, quiet suburban community?

           It’s too late to “re-plan” it now but maybe next time they’ll realize there are better ways of doing things. By the way the Headline for this column was not my idea but fit perfectly. I hesitate to attribute it to the person who “donated” it to me since they spend a great deal of time in Kettering and might end up with a crew working in front of THEIR work or home for the next year or two as retribution. I sure hope none of the other 48 contiguous states are in need of orange barrels; they’re all in use in Kettering!