The Broadview / Rosemary "island" and Town Hall
Last year during the vote to extend the TMs contract, I opposed the motion for several reasons. One concern for me is a pattern of driving policy through inaction. One specific example I offered was the roadwork performed on Rosemary Lane and Broadview Road.
You can see my comment at the 0:30 to 0:45 mark in this clip:
I don't think I ever really got into the details publicly though. My point was about a pattern of behavior. The examples I offered were simply to illustrate a larger pattern. And I wanted to keep my comments brief, but Town Hall's poor planning of Rosemary continues to see your tax dollars being spent haphazardly. So I feel compelled to elaborate.
The Rosemary / Broadview area had several issues, but here's a quick before and after depiction of the intersection:
So you see that the paving of the island moved the road and the adjacent property was impacted. Yet neighborhood residents were not asked for input -- they were simply informed* -- about the paving of the island.
Then when I heard about this from residents and I started crying foul, Town Hall suggested that this had nothing to do with the Council. Nonsense. While that may be true in a technical sense, changing the character of a neighborhood is a routine concern for the Zoning Board of Appeals. So I reject the notion that the Town Hall's DPW had authority to act with impunity here. Residents should have been included in the decision-making process. The merits should have been discussed openly since it was clearly changing the character of the neighborhood.
Or is it that Town Hall's DPW can simply ignore the rules to which others must adhere? And of course, there's the issue of property ownership.
Ten years from now, will a TM come to the Council and request a quitclaim to transfer the property from the town to the adjacent property owner? I can already hear it. "This is just an administrative oversight... blah, blah, blah."
Anyway, I have more on the Rosemary work. I'll get to the haphazard spending of your tax dollars, but I offer only this for now because this post will become too long.
Tim White
* Many neighborhood residents were not even informed.
6 comments:
Tim
The bottomline is the town and the residents of Rosemary have a better road and safer intersection with the elimination of an island-no mans land to be maintained at the goodwill of neighbors. Many moons ago this same type of intersection had existed at Jinney Hill Road and Route 10. The potential for someone easing onto the cross street with out a stop was overwhelming and potentially unsafe. So despite your ravings the result is in the best interest of public safety, pedestrian and drivers using that road and residing in the neighborhood.
Tim, don't you ever get tired of nitpicking? What would Tim do if he was Town Manager? How would he react to the constant micro-managing and badgering of a Councilman? How would Tim deal with constant criticism from a small town politician? As gracefully as the current TM? I think not.
the result is in the best interest of public safety
If true, this should be easily quantified by police records on accidents at the intersection. But since my point on this topic is about process, not substance, I reassert that the residents should have been involved in the decision-making process. Changing the character of the neighborhood almost certainly lowered the property values.
don't you ever get tired of nitpicking?
My post clearly explains that I did not elaborate on this issue a year ago because it was one example of a pattern. My concern was the pattern of driving policy through inaction (failure to include residents in the decision making process). Furthermore, I'm now elaborating because there's another example of another pattern of the haphazard allocation and use of tax dollars. But as I mentioned, I haven't gotten to that point yet.
TIM, are you serious.... "this changed the charachter". How about having jersey barriers closing Hilltop. What are those eyesores doing to the charachter. This is utter non-sense. Residents do not, and should not have input into roadway design and construction. Otherwise we would have speedbumps on every road where people feel speed is an issue. We would have random stop signs.
Can you please provide any evidence that the property values are now lower.
Stop your whining, where were you when this was discussed. Were you not the choice of the people to represent them in these matters? YOU apparently dropped the ball through YOUR inaction. Stop pouting like a child, become a man and assert yourself for ONCE on the TC and get something done. You have accomplished NOTHING. You talk alot but achieve nothing.
The Hilltop / Ridgecrest extension pre-dates me. The Broadview / Rosemary paving happened on my watch. As for why I didn't speak out before the destruction of the island, I was unaware... typical of an administration that believes it can act with impunity. Of course that raises the issue of whether the Council will deal with the administration... and I push the Council to do so. As has been mentioned here by another elected official... I'm not alone on the Council on this.
As for my record of which you are apparently unaware, I offer this post from last October.
and with that, I'm going to moderate comments... and posting for the next two weeks will be very light, if at all.
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