DALTON: Keep it rural, voters

The current Dalton Gardens council continues aggressive promotion of their Fourth Street project. Why? The answer is obvious; this project is the cornerstone of their agenda, creating an urban Dalton Gardens, in stark opposition to the majority of residents.

Attempting to make this appear more palatable to residents, a plethora of design options were presented at the open house, all were variations on a common theme as at the previous open house. And if those attempts to divide and conquer opposition did not work, shameful scare tactics were presented; raise taxes, create a Local Improvement District, and so on.

Council has a stewardship responsibility to represent the residents of DG exclusively, not outside special interests. Council also has a mandate from the Comprehensive Plan to reduce through traffic from other communities. Current DG council has abandoned both responsibilities and acted recklessly in the other direction. Nearly every street in DG suffers from excessive traffic. Rather than honestly addressing this core issue council instead focuses on Band-Aid remedies to resulting symptoms.

This project is intended to deliver more traffic through DG, traffic which will reverberate throughout DG. Council has neglected routine maintenance on Fourth in a callous bid to create a crisis, one which council just happens to have a fix for. In addition to the Wilbur Avenue debacle, next up will be 15th in DG; residents need only look south on 15th to see what is intended for the DG section of roadway.

We need and deserve a new council.

MIKE CHASE

Dalton Gardens