Does Anyone Else Care?

School starts again next week. Just a couple of days ago I saw two boys on bicycles waiting for automobile traffic on Sandy Lake (west of Denton Tap, just east of Whispering Hills) to clear in both directions so that they could safely cross that very busy street. Thankfully they were successful and no harm came of their need to cross from the north side of Sandy Lake to the south side.

With school beginning next week that challenge will be repeated numerous times every day, as Coppell high schoolers who either by choice or economic circumstances find that they must get to and from school either by walking or aboard a bicycle. Bus service, despite the danger of crossing the roadway, is not a free option for most of those who live south of Sandy Lake Road.

Voters in our fair city approved the mandate to upgrade Sandy Lake from its crumbling two-lane asphalt, ditch-bordered status to a modern four-lane curbed concrete roadway. That election took place more than TEN YEARS AGO!

In the meantime we've seen the city build a lightly used amphitheater park, upgrade numerous lesser-used roads, begin construction on new tennis facilities, do repair work on already upgraded portions of Sandy Lake Road, spend millions of dollars on unusable (for now) land OUTSIDE the city and take almost NO action on the subject section of Sandy Lake.

When will the City Manager and City Council make this the priority project our students and citizens deserve?

Mayor's Concerns Over Traffic Management, Safety Elements...

In an online article (12:00 am June 18, 2009) about the Manara Academy charter school, Katherine Leal Unmuth of the Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com) reports that Coppell Mayor Jane Peters expressed "concerns about the traffic management plan, angst about the traffic situation" and "serious concerns about the safety elements" associated with the opening of the school.

While I certainly respect and appreciate the Mayor's opinion on this, my question to her, to the City Council and City staff is why do they continue to allow our citizens (predominantly school aged kids) to risk their lives crossing Sandy Lake Road west of Denton Tap Road? Voters approved the bond proposal to rebuild and significantly improve that stretch of road TEN YEARS AGO, but we still see no visible progress towards that end.

The City has been aware for years of the safety issue faced by those trying to cross the road (often students going to or from the high school), but no solution has been put in place. City staff tells of the challenges of gathering right of way access related to the roadway, and to issues of eminent domain related to a possible temporary safe crossing solution, but seemingly nothing has been done.

Please review my earlier blog entries on this important topic for further information and photos. I sincerely pray that the City immediately develops a temporary solution (interim sidewalks, crossing guards, traffic cops, whatever) and moves expediently towards execution on the voter-mandated plan to improve the roadway and upgrade this thoroughfare to the same standards this road already exhibits throughout our community.

We must not tolerate this situation any longer, as an injury or death as a result of the City's delays would be unconscionable.