More than 40 Waldo citizens gathered Thursday to talk with representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) about proposed changes to the portion of State Road 24 that runs through the town.  

A mile of the two-lane northbound portion, also known as Waldo Road, is scheduled for resurfacing in 2024, but a proposed plan includes lane repurposing and additional features. 

The portion of the road under consideration, from west of NE 141st Drive to US 301, has reached the FDOT’s design phase. 

The community members attended the in-person meeting, talking to FDOT employees at tables for an hour and a half before sitting down for a formal feedback session, which lasted another hour and a half. 

The city of Waldo has been talking about changing the road to encourage downtown development since the 1980s, according to Waldo Mayor Louie Davis. As the refinishing project approached, the city expressed interest in lane repurposing to slow down traffic. 

While the meeting attendees and FDOT employees were unified around a desire to slow down traffic on Waldo Road, citizens were split on the best method to do so. 

The proposed project, which would cost $23.4 million in state funds, would narrow Waldo Road to one lane with on-street parking and a buffered bike lane. Davis said he hopes that change would slow traffic down so people driving through would look at the town and stimulate economic development. 

Hellen Ingles, a Waldo resident since 1959, said the town is too small and poor to support businesses and the road plan, which would cut public parking and make it even more difficult for businesses to take root. 

Julie Stokes, like several other citizens at the public input meeting, expressed concern that narrowing the road would only create a bottleneck, and that the drivers who speed now would only become more dangerous as they use cut-through routes to get ahead on the road. 

Stokes said people already cut through by her house, and when traffic gets backed up, even the cut-throughs slow to a crawl. She argued that narrowing the road without introducing enforcement would do nothing to stop speeding motorists. 

Waldo disbanded its police force in 2014 after being investigated for issuing speeding ticket quotas and determining the city did not have the funds to continue operating. At the July 18 meeting, many community members pointed to the lack of law enforcement as the reason for unchecked speeding. 

Waldo City Council member Monique Taylor, as well as other community members, recommended traffic lights as an alternative to narrowing the road. Taylor said too many motorists travel Waldo Road to make it one lane, especially when traffic accidents occur on other roads and motorists re-route onto Waldo Road. 

“I’m concerned about my citizens here in Waldo, I’m concerned about my senior citizens in Waldo, I’m concerned about my kids here in Waldo,” Taylor said. Like many at the meeting, her main concern was for pedestrians who want to be able to safely cross the street, and she said a well-marked crosswalk would not be enough to stop traffic. 

The FDOT proposal would replace the second traffic lane with a buffered bike lane, but Waldo citizens at the meeting indicated they did not think that a prudent use of space. Several community members complained that people do not bike in the town, and a protected bike lane would not be worth losing a lane of traffic. 

Until July 31, FDOT will continue to accept community input on the project website, through email to project manager David Tyler (david.tyler@dot.state.fl.us) and by mail to the FDOT District 2 Office at 1109 S. Marion Ave., MS 2007, Lake City.

According to Tyler, all input in any form will be weighted equally, and the plan can be amended up until construction begins. 

Regardless of what other pieces of the project make it into a final plan, FDOT will resurface the road according to schedule in 2024.