COUNCIL: Protect our pedestrians

Like everywhere else in Kootenai County, Dalton Gardens has become a raceway. I am 81 and retired, so I am home quite a lot outdoors pruning, mowing, and general maintenance, so I see and hear the road all day long. What inspired me to write something in The Press was watching a young family riding their bicycles single file at the edge of our narrow road (no curbs) and they almost got hit three times by three speeding vehicles, made me sick to see people enjoying an innocent pastime getting harassed like that and potentially putting their lives in danger. A family just wanting to enjoy riding their bicycles. For people that do not know, Dalton Gardens is rural and a walking, bicycling community. I beg our City Council to do something for the citizens in regard to safety for the people.  

A few years back, a previous council talked to the residents on the north end of 15th Street in Dalton. Residents couldn’t cross the street safely to get to their mailboxes because of speeders taking a run at a hill at the end of Dalton Gardens city limits. The council at that time voted to do a study of the Federal Transportation Department regulations then voted to make two intersections on 15th Street into four-way stops. It improved the safety immediately — even for the speeders, because they were forced to stop and take their turns in order to proceed — and there were no litigations for the city.  

One more time, I plead for our Dalton Gardens City Council to help our pedestrian public receive more safety while enjoying our city. 

RAY CRAFT 

Dalton Gardens