“I make no apologies for getting involved and helping defeat this plan. “It was sold as a beautification, but it became an obliteration of Maple Avenue,” Hunt told The Assembly recently. A view of Maple Avenue from Harden Street. Hunt, who originally supported the project, said few people in Burlington knew that it went far beyond sprucing up the road’s appearance. Hunt said the Maple Avenue plan had morphed from a beautification project to a boondoggle that would have reduced the number of lanes, increased congestion, and hurt businesses along the road. Hunt disputes that he asked Baltutis to withdraw the grant application, but confirmed that he called the mayor to oppose the plan and asked for his campaign contribution to be returned. “One man was so tied in with our officials that he had enough pull to actually change the minds of the people on our city council.” “That area needs help,” Bigelow, who ran unsuccessfully for city council last year, said in an interview. The city spent nearly $200,000 to hire a consultant to help develop the plan and submit applications.ĭejuana Bigelow, who was involved in the Maple Avenue community discussions, was disappointed when the grant proposal was withdrawn. A steering committee of citizens held public meetings and workshops, and conducted a survey. Mark Walker and two state legislators, had written separate letters of support for the Maple Avenue plan. Seventeen groups, businesses, and politicians, including then–U.S. Then Baltutis, who was first elected mayor when he was 30 years old, lost his reelection bid in November. The city council, which had supported the road renovations three years in a row with unanimous votes, rescinded the plan in September with a 3-2 vote. Two months after the call, Hunt got his wish about Maple Avenue. Hunt asked for his $5,600 campaign donation back and threatened to fund other campaigns instead. “That’s not how that works,” Baltutis, who was running for a fourth term, recalled telling Hunt. Sam Hunt, a former state legislator and state transportation secretary who owns a business along the corridor, told the mayor he wanted the application withdrawn, Baltutis told The Assembly. It runs from Interstate 40/85 to downtown Burlington, a city of 55,000 residents about 20 miles east of Greensboro. The city council had just voted to apply for a $25 million federal grant to revamp one of its busiest, most unsightly thoroughfares. One afternoon last summer, Burlington Mayor Ian Baltutis was sorting through novels and paperbacks in his used-book store when he answered a call on his cell phone.
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