Minutes - Council - 05/26/1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1. First off, many or all residents in the development in general object to a road of any sort that would reroute a major county road or state highway through the middle of Flintwood Hills. Many of us were not aware of any such plans when we decided to build here. I put part of the blame on those of us who did not do our homework before we purchased lots and the rest of the blame on the city for not keeping the public informed. 2. 90% to 95% of the current residents have children. We are not talking about teenagers who know better than to stay in their own yards; we are talking about children most of who are under the age of 5 who could just as well be your nieces, nephews or grandchildren. Also, a few of our residents are engaged in home day-care businesses. A major road through Flintwood Hills is going to pose serious threats to these children. Earlier this spring, an accident occurred on county road #57 between an automobile and a young boy on a bicycle which claimed the boy's life. Furthermore, on Saturday evening, May 16th, many of us were horrified by the 2-vehicle head-on collision that occurred within a mile of our development on County Road #116 (Industrial Blvd.) claiming the life of a 22 year old man and seriously injuring several others. Some of us that were home heard the sounds of the crash, or heard sirens for 20 minutes after. A few others I spoke with either witnessed the accident or saw the results shortly after. That is two people killed in a few short months and summer isn't even upon us yet. We cannot replace these people but we can greatly reduce the chance of it happening again by being smart about the decisions made on issues such as this. 3. I have a good view of County Road #116 from my back yard and have noticed a substantial increase of patrolling since the accident happened and I am genuinely impressed by the increase. On the other hand, I also witness many cars still 'hotrodding' up and down #116, treating it like it was a dragstrip. Most of us are law abiding citizens, but it only takes one vehicle 'hotrodding' in the wrong place at the wrong time to cause a tragedy. ~one of us want to see Dysprosium Street turned into another 'dragstrip' like Industrial Blvd. Also, do we have to wait until a tragedy occurs before we react? In closing, I am a realist and do understand the price we all must pay for progress. With that, I would like to say if a road is to be rerouted through Flintwood Hills whether we want it or not, do not make plans and decisions based on the 'almighty dollar'. Please show interest in our concerns for maximum safety if not for our own peace of mind for our children. Please consider scaling down the size of the road to decrease the amount of traffic and make it as inconvenient as possible to access. Also consider marked crosswalks, bike paths, sidewalks, minimum speed limits, signals, proper street lighting and posting of signs warning of children, In addition, we do not want our City government making decisions the old fashioned way. Please dare to be different, creative, innovative and humane. We have a saying in our office that says 'do it right the first time'. Please get the residents involved in your planning if it is a matter of money or where it is going to come from. Please come to us and state the problem; maybe a compromise can be reached. Finally, I challenge each one of you here in attendance tonight to drive through our development on a warm weekend day and see for yourself the families that live there. The development continues to increase in size and so to will the number of City Council/May 26, 1987 Page 8 of 21