We are Nicole and Jason Hicks, Shorewood residents and parents of 3 Minnewashta kids! We moved here about 3 years ago, and have really enjoyed the community, and are fortunate to live right on the LRT, therefore we get to hop out our back yard and bike, walk or jog any time! We love the trail and how it links several communities together, as well as the Shorewood park system, which offers our kids and us hours of enjoyment with sports and other recreation. Mostly, we moved to the area for the fantastic Mtka school system, and our kids have truly loved school these past few years. I spoke with Leslie Egan today at our kids' fun run at the school, and she was wearing your button, so I picked her brain a bit about you, and she said you want to bring a cohesiveness and energy to the city council. That sounds great to us. We haven't really participated in city government thus far, other than a little bit when our road was redone last year. What do you see as the biggest change(s) that need to take place in our city gov't? What has been sidelined or outrightly avoided/ignored due to ineffectiveness thus far? What is already going well?
My wife and I have only a few concerns regarding the city and it's operations/planning. They are as follows:
1. Where is the sidewalk all along Smithtown Rd linking Tonka Bay with Victoria, thus allowing people to walk/commute/exercise safely and unhindered? This is an enormous thumb in the nose to health in general and to Shorewood's "Green" friendliness so often remarked in the newsletter. Did you know there is an actual bus stop about 200 yards from Minnewashta school?---obsurd!! If there were a walkway, I would venture a guess that MANY would use it for a variety of purposes. This has to change, and despite the fact it would upset some home owners on Smithtown, it would, in our opinion, be for the long-term benefit and sustainability of our community. If people can't safely commute on foot in this day and age, then chances are they will find another community to live in. As a family with three small children who recently bought a home here, it would have been most difficult to choose a house on Smithtown in the city of Shorewood for safety reasons alone. Other busy roads to consider placing sidewalks would be Eureka and Strawberry Ln. I work in emergency medicine, and cars vs. pedestrians are common and unfortunate incidents, and these three types of roads are where they are most likely to occur, in any community.
2. Again dealing with recreation/parks/walkways, it seems there is a precedent to have a tunnel under Hwy 7 near the entrance to Freeman Park and at Hwy 19 at the LRT crossing. These are dangerous areas that have seen a number of accidents (or at least near misses). Imagine, if there were under-road access on Hwy 7 to Freeman park, followed by a sidewalk from the LRT trail all the way to Minnewashta along Strawberry lane---the number of kids who could safely ride bikes or walk to/from school on so many beautiful Sept/Oct and Apr/May days would increase greatly. Access and use of Freeman park in general would likely increase as well, not to mention a decrease in car traffic to some extent on soccer and baseball game days. Are there federal dollars available to match local or state funding for such projects?
3. Finally (and if you took the time to read all of this, thanks very much!), our road (Harding Ln) was redone last year. Instead of putting a main water line in when everything was torn up, the city allowed for the project to go ahead without. I know it would have cost the taxpayers more money, but I think this was an unwise decision on the whole. Presently, we are all on well water, which is fine, except for the fact that the quality of the water has been and always will be in question, thereby decreasing home values and desirability over time, relative to other neighborhoods/communities. The majority of people who voiced opposition to city water say they "already replaced their well recently", "have a water filtration system" or purely didn't know what their options were. And this is the problem, the communication was ineffective, we weren't given definite cost estimates or options for paying for such an expense over time. Now we will have to wait another 15-20 years for the road to be redone in order to tap into city water. Long term planning seemed to be last on the agenda with this particular project.
Anyway, just trying to get a sense of your stand on some of these issues. Unfortunately, we won't be able to make the meeting tonight to hear from you and the other candidates, as I have to work and my wife is home w/ the 3 kiddos. Good luck, and hope to hear from you.
Best Regards,
Jason (and Nicole!) Hicks
No comments:
Post a Comment