For the past week and a half, the Morriss Road/Gerault Road expansion project continued  to be a hot topic of conversation in Flower Mound.

• On May 4, the Flower Mound City Council approved the Advance Funding Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation. The Regional Transportation Council approved more than $105 million in Regional Toll Rev¬enue Project funding for eight construction projects, including Morriss/Gerault.

• And on April 30, residents protested the Morriss/Gerault expansion with a march down Morriss Road. The gathering was part of a citizen-initiated forum to hear city council candidates’ stances on the expansion as well as other Flower Mound issues. (Check out the candidates' views on the expansion project.)

The four-lane Morriss Road/Gerault Road is expected to expand to six lanes beginning in 2010 to allow for the increased traffic flow predicted from the River Walk at Central Park, a future commercial and residential development. The expansion will be funded through the revenue from the Sam Rayburn Tollway (formerly the 121 Tollway), Denton County Roadway Bond revenue and Five Star Development, the developer of the River Walk at Central Park.

At the forum, which was nine days before the election, it was clear that the majority of the candidates opposed the expansion project. Seven of eight candidates opposed expanding the road at this time and/or without performing further traffic studies and projections. The candidates discussed alternatives such as expanding parts of the road, adding left turn lanes or expanding on a progressive basis.

The protest was organized by Flower Mound residents in an effort to voice their opinions and hear town council candidates’ platforms on the expansion issue, as well as other issues including the town’s SMARTGrowth Program and oil and gas drilling.

“This forum was 100 percent citizen based,” said Kim Berg, a resident who created the blog stopmorriss6.blogspot.com. “There was no sponsoring or backing. This was a grassroots effort to hear the candidates.”

Resident Kara Gorham said after hearing the candidates’ stances on Flower Mound issues, now she’s clear on who she wants to vote for.

Even Flower Mound residents who don’t live on Morriss Road came to show their support. Diane Consolino helped plan the event because she said it’s important to have a forum where people in the community can hear what their candidates have to say.

“Flower Mound has that community feel and to put a highway through the middle of our community would be a tragedy,” she said. “It destroys a community to be divided like that. So even though I don’t live on Morriss, this is still my community.”

• The issue won’t go before the public again until May 26 when the Flower Mound Transportation Commission will conduct a public forum at Town Hall, 2121 Cross Timbers Road.

Lindsey Bever is a reporter with neighborsgo and can be reached at 972-436-5551 ext. 3004 or via e-mail at lbever@neighborsgo.com. If you have a story, photo or video you'd like to share, please post it directly on neighborsgo.com.