RACINE - A picture of a proposed roundabout hangs on the wall outside the Department of Public Works office in City Hall.

In the next few months, the city could decide if the roundabout becomes a reality at the intersection of Sixth Street, Seventh Street and Washington Avenue, or if traffic lights would be better. The intersection is directly in front of City Hall, 730 Washington Ave.

Public Works Commissioner Richard Jones hopes the roundabout will eventually come to Downtown and anticipates in the next 30 to 60 days the city will receive a recommendation about the intersection from its consulting firm.

The recommendation will go to a citizen advisory committee, then the Public Works and Services Committee and finally City Council for final approval, he said.

The reconstructed intersection is part of the Sixth Street and Seventh Street reconstruction project, federally funded with a 20 percent local match.

The city has already completed a portion of the Sixth Street reconstruction and is scheduled to finish construction this year, Jones said. Construction is supposed to start between April 1 and May 1 and should be completed by Nov. 1, he said. An exact start date has not yet been set, Jones said.

After the Sixth Street construction is finalized the city is scheduled to reconstruct Seventh Street in 2011, Jones said. That will include a new intersection where Sixth, Seventh and Washington meet, he said. But it is yet to be determined if the intersection will be a roundabout or a signalized stop, Jones said.

Either way, changes are going to be made at the intersection, Jones said.

In an earlier traffic flow study, city officials concluded that the Downtown intersection needed alterations, Jones said.

A consultant for the Downtown Racine Corp. recommended traffic lights as the best option, Jones said. But because the project is federally funded, the city is required to study the option of a roundabout when considering a new traffic light, Jones said.

He says a roundabout will be safer and less expensive.

Richard Cole, on the other hand, doesn't agree.

He owns Brandt Jewelers, 218 Sixth St., and doesn't think a roundabout is a good idea.

"People are confused as it is," Cole said.

He said he thought with former Mayor Gary Becker out of office, the roundabout idea would go away. It appears that isn't the case.