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There were a lot of comments swirling around at the time of the election about District 2 City Council candidate Georgia Blotzer’s involvement with the McArdle Roadway Task Force. Some people tried to draw distinctions between the task force addressing aesthetics of the road versus the inherent safety issues that the potholes, runoff and rotting fencing posed. She wanted to clear those up and sent us this commentary regarding the evolution of the project and where it stands today.

To: You

From: Georgia Blotzer

Now that the election is over, I feel the need to clarify some remarks that I made during the League of Woman Voter Debate on the McArdle Roadway issue. The McArdle Roadway Barrier Replacement Task Force has been working to improve conditions on McArdle Roadway for over 2 years. When asked at the debate, why the group put aesthetics over safety, I responded that our goal was to deal with the safety component first. However, due to the time constraints imposed on any answer, I was unable to fully address the details and wish to do so in this format.

After many meeting with public works, our group was told that nothing could be done about the drainage/hillside problems on McArdle without an engineering study. With Dan Deasy’s help, the Mayor agreed to provide the funding to allow this study to occur. The study was due to commence in the beginning December 2007. We found out at the end of December that the money allocated for this study was taken away.

While trying to have the funding restored for this project, our group was told about the federal transportation earmark funding availability. It was our goal to write a grant to obtain funding to solve the drainage, as well as the barrier, fencing (also a safety hazard), sidewalk, and lighting issues on McArdle Roadway. Since the detailed grant applications asked for specific information on needs and costs, we were unable to request monies for the hillside without the engineering study results. Without this study, public works could not determine what the source of the drainage problems were. Without the cause of the problem, the monies, materials, work force or time needed to complete this project could not be determined. Although our group did not have the information needed to complete the grant application for the hillside issues, we did not want to lose the opportunity to possibly obtain funding to correct the problems on the other side of the roadway.

Legitimate problems involving BOTH safety and aesthetics…for political reasons, people have criticized the efforts of a group that has worked diligently for over 2 years to improve McArdle Roadway. Since we are the only group making any efforts to improve both the safety and aesthetics of the problems on McArdle Roadway, I strongly believe that the successes of our group should be noted and our ongoing efforts should be encouraged and supported.

Sincerely,
Georgia Blotzer