DALTON: Reasons for unrest

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the pending litigation over the use of one’s property to subdivide; but, it’s far greater than that. It’s about how the City Council doesn’t listen to its citizens with regard to traffic problems, the updated comprehensive plan (as of this date, still in progress) and daily living in this small community, which the citizens want to keep rural and small.

The City Council agreed to rebuild Hanley Avenue in Dalton several years ago using the same engineering firm that today is in process of designing (without the majority of citizens approval) Fourth Street to move more traffic using “free” federal grants. The Dalton City Council using federal grants also gave the city’s right-of-way to the city of Coeur d’Alene in order to align Wilbur Avenue to U.S. 95 to the west along with traffic signals at Wilbur and Government Way, paid for by federal grant monies.

The Dalton City Council continues to demonstrate that the citizens’ quality of life is not their first priority. Last year, a Council member said “get ready people, it’s coming” referring to the Fourth Street proposed project. We cannot walk or bicycle safely on any of our Dalton streets because of traffic. It seems the Council is more concerned with making sure that the surrounding commuters can drive through our community with ease.

The first mayor of Dalton Gardens stated, “that you will have to work hard as a people in order to save this community.” We as a people trusted our council to be true to its citizens. Our council hasn’t kept their oath to protect our quality of life. Everyone should be aware that “free” usually has strings attached to it.

RAY CRAFT

Dalton Gardens