Sandy Lake Road...

I remain mystified over the fact that the community outcry over the failure of the City's leadership (both elected and employed) to act on the Sandy Lake Road has been so sedate.

It was great to see the article two issues ago in the Coppell Citizen's Advocate that went into some detail about the accident about two weeks ago between a Coppell High School student who was struck by a car as the student was attempting to cross Sandy Lake Road en route to classes.

In response, the City leaned on its longtime defense by citing limitations within the Americans With Disabilities Act that precludes their intervention without adequate pedestrian accessibility on both sides of the street after a safe crossing has been facilitated. While no-doubt accurate in the strict reading of the law, I find it incredible that a more practical approach hasn't been developed. While there are several thousand feet of Sandy Lake that require improvement (and the remaining asphalt pavement is failing at a very rapid rate), an interim solution could easily be implemented by breaking the project into smaller pieces, with the initial focus being around that intersection with Whispering Hills where the students cross every day.

Another surprising point in the article was that the Coppell Independent School District does not view the crossing as dangerous, and therefore those students who choose not to pay for school bus services (and who have no other way to get to and from the High School), must instead risk their safety every day.

I challenge the City's and CISD's leaders to quit making excuses and to implement creative and productive ways to solve the immediate need to act in the best interests of our children (and other pedestrians) while finally committing to a comprehensive solution for the remaining section of the roadway that was mandated by voters in 1999.

Accident on Sandy Lake This Morning...

One of our neighbors reported having seen a pedestrian struck by an automobile on the still-unimproved section of Sandy Lake Road west of Denton Tap Road this morning. My prayers go out to all those involved, most especially the youngster that was struck.

My frustration is again extended to the Leaders of our City - the City Manager, City Council and Staff that have, for more than ten years, failed to execute and complete the voter mandate to improve that stretch of road.

I'm anxious to hear from those same Leaders what their plans are to honor their Commitment to the Voters.

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.

City Parks...

Is it just me, or does it seem odd that the City has cars and trucks traveling along the concrete trail system in the Andy Brown Parks complex? More than once I've been shocked to see a parks department vehicle "cruising" the trails. While I am certain that the trails were built substantially enough to handle vehicular traffic (an ambulance, for example), it would seem to me that such usage should be reserved solely for emergencies, and not for routine passage from one area to another.

Similarly related - have you ever seen a Coppell police officer on the trails system? I haven't. I have seen officers walking, on horseback (no, we don't need to buy horses for our officers, this is just an observation), and on bicycle at other parks in the region, but not in Coppell. I'd feel better seeing them around.

While the days are certainly growing longer (in terms of daylight) as we approach spring, I, for one, would like to see the City put together a plan to light the trails system for use after dark. As I understand things, the parks are, by definition (maybe even by LAW), basically off-limits after dark, as the City feels safety would be compromised. It has been months since we last saw triple digits, but it would be nice to use the parks (with lighted trails) in June, July, August and September when daytime temperatures are not conducive to being outside...

Sandy Lake Road vs. Safety of Our Kids and Timely Execution on Voter Mandates

While Coppell is, in many ways, a great city, we still have opportunities for improvement on several important fronts, the most significant of which is safety. On that topic, I have for several years been interested in seeing the remainder of Sandy Lake Road upgraded and completed to equal the rest of its length which was completed in years past.

Several generations of Coppell City Council have, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, chosen to defer, rather than act on, the mandate that the voters gave the City in the Bond election dated November 1999 which will someday see the remainder of Sandy Lake Road completed from Denton Tap westward to Coppell Road North.

As a result of the continuing delays in following-up on the voters’ mandate in a timely fashion, as school began on August 25, we once again saw (and continue to see) those high school students who, because they live too close to Coppell High School to qualify for free bus service, put their personal safety at risk as they walk to and from the High School. For those students who live directly south of Sandy Lake Road, the daily trek to school involves a dangerous crossing over Sandy Lake, coupled with, on one side or the other, a perilous walk alongside 35 mph traffic on the sloping embankment of the adjacent drainage ditch. There is no shoulder on that section of Sandy Lake Road, nor any sidewalks.

While the installation of a traffic signal at the Whispering Hills and Sandy Lake intersection affords a modicum of improvement, it is certainly not THE solution. I would never willingly choose to walk along or cross Sandy Lake Road in that area, and I strongly suspect that no one on the City Council would do so themselves, or allow their children to put themselves at such risk.

I passionately ask that the Council and the City work to immediately develop a short-term solution to this safety issue (crosswalk, pedestrian activated all-direction red light, on-site police during school transit times, SOMETHING), AND establish and honor a reasonable time line to begin and complete the voter mandated reconstruction and improvement of this important artery.

It has been nearly NINE YEARS since voters approved the project. I do recognize that there are many challenging issues that must be resolved in such a project – to include planning and design work, right of way acquisition, wetlands mitigation and countless others, but I am of the very strong opinion that we’ve all waited long enough.

In the years since voter approval of the aforementioned roadway, the Council and City have taken action (as approved by the voters) to rebuild dozens of miles of other area roads, many of which were authorized through bond elections more recent than the one that is the subject of these thoughts. Perhaps language should be inserted in future bond packages mandating that the authorized projects be sequential relative to their approval dates so that future Councils cannot choose to unreasonably defer the voter’s mandates while moving forward on later approvals.

The Council and City decided, in addition to the many miles of streets and other meaningful improvements to our fair city, to add new amenities to include the “sundial park” adjacent to City Hall along with a now-under-construction city cemetery. I just hope that we don’t one day need to use both of those amenities as a result of a lack of urgency in executing the Sandy Lake project - first as a gathering area to express our community grief and secondly as a final resting place for a student tragically lost because we’ve chosen to defer for so long the completion of this important piece of roadway.

In closing, let me cite a quote from Coppell Mayor Doug Stover’s May 2008 State of The City as extracted from the City’s website. While Mayor Stover was writing on the topic of the City’s longstanding dispute regarding extraterritorial development proposed at North Lake, I believe the following portions of his quote are equally well-placed when considered in the context of the topic of this writing: “The City's eminent domain case is still progressing through the court system, but we will not rest until the public interest is protected and public services are provided for.“