Northgate roads and College Station medians frustrate citizens

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Roads in the Northgate area have caused frustrations among the locals who say they hope those roads get fixed.

Those frustrations are felt by Robert Knethercut, the manager of Chimy’s, who drives those roads to work daily. It is something he says he deals with, as well as his employees and customers.

“Driving on these roads is not the best thing,” Knethercut said. “People dread going on those roads and try to take little detours at all costs. I know they damage vehicles and whatnot, especially the lower ones.”

Knethercut also said the medians, not just in the Northgate area but throughout the city, have caused heavy traffic and hurt local businesses.

“I’ve seen that the medians and whatnot have kind of deterred people from going into parking lots and that deters people from going into different businesses,” Knethercut said. “I have seen people who instead of wanting to pull a U-turn, they’ll just avoid going to a business and go somewhere else.”

Not far down from Chimy’s, a road near First Street and Church Avenue was vandalized. Yellow graffiti covers a portion of the cracked road and in black letters, there is a question for the City of College Station that reads, “But we need medians?”

The person who vandalized the street messaged KBTX Tuesday morning explaining why they did the graffiti and asked to remain anonymous.

“Local business owners pay roadway maintenance and improvement fees every month to the COCS, and in turn, we are beset with crumbling side streets and subsurface infrastructure,” the statement read. “Adding medians that prevent deliveries and customer access to these same businesses is a disservice to the people they should be working for. If the city cries “TxDOT’s fault”, then it still rests on their shoulders for not standing up to the state at the behest of the citizens.”

When Knethercut saw the graffiti Tuesday morning, he was surprised. He said he doesn’t agree with damaging property, but he agrees with the message.

“I think they’re speaking for the majority of the people, but vandalizing property is wrong obviously, so maybe a slap on the wrist if they did fess up, maybe it would be a slap on the wrist, nothing crazy,” Knethercut said.

KBTX reached out to the City of College Station and Mayor John Nichols, however, both declined to comment. We also reached out to Councilwoman Linda Harvell, however, she did not return our phone calls or texts at the time of this story.

Councilman Bob Yancy did provide KBTX with a statement that addressed the vandalism and the issues with the streets and medians.

“City staff and contractors are working hard to stay ahead of massive population growth that’s impacting traffic and roadways. They deserve constructive citizen feedback and our support,” Yancy said in the statement. “Defacing public property and violating laws are not ways to make a point. Using the “SeeClickFix” app, or speaking before city council and TxDOT during public hearings is how to ensure our voices are heard.”

The SeeClickFix app can be downloaded from the app store. Once downloaded a user selects their city and will be able to input a request. From there they can enter the street address or location followed by carries options such as vandalism/graffiti, animal control, bulky trash, and more. Users will be asked to upload a photo, add a description then finally submit the request.

Individuals who vandalize property with graffiti could be charged with anywhere from a Class B Misdemeanor to a felony depending on how much damage was done to the property.

At the time of this story, the City of College Station has not said if a report has been or will be filed with the College Station Police Department.