Rogers Board of Realtors still in charge of everyone's lives, it appears

Road Expansion Could Force Some Rogers Residents Out of Homes

• 
• 
• Comments

  0

• Share13

Kumasi Aaron 5NEWS Reporter

6:14 p.m. CDT, October 10, 2011

Nearly 30 Rogers residents are losing their homes. They say it’s all due to a new expansion project on Monte Ne road. Some of the residents have lived in these homes for decades.
Velma Johnson is trying to imagine living with a four lane road coming through her back yard. That’s exactly what's in the works for the new Monte Ne expansion project. And after living here for 20 years, she says things will be drastically different.
“I'm just going to be here in a corner,” Johnson says. “You know is just going to be in a corner here. And it’s going to be awful close you can walk out the back door on the freeway.”
But the city says its expanding Monte Ne road to cut dangerous curves and make it easier to get downtown.

“I just lived here for so long, I’d hate to give it up,” Johnson says. “But I guess I could.”
Rogers mayor Greg Hines says he hates that some residents are being displaced. And besides financial compensation he says the city is coming up with creative ways to work with homeowners.
“I know that to some people this may seem troubling and we understand that,” says Mayor Hines. “And we held our first public hearing last week and well engage them in a number a series of conversations but at the end of the date the city of Rogers is going to do what's right.”
Johnson hopes she'll still be able to call her neighborhood home.
“I just don't know,” Johnson says. “I'd like to keep my house.”
The city is also working on other improvement projects, Including expanding First Street and adding a new entrance to Veterans Park.