EDITORIAL: Go back to Plan E

This has got to the most ill advised proposal the City of Willits has made since they got into that unholy alliance with the proposed new hospital, oh yea, and the Bradfords........with the economy nationally, stately and locally reeling, the city with total lack of wisdom elects to repair and improve a street that is one of the best preserved roadways in Willits. Who decides this stuff? who makes the list of streets to be resurfaced? Why is this even being considered?
Commercial St. is not full of potholes and does not have crumbling sidewalks for the most part. One could find infinitely more qualified candidates for repairs by simply driving the 20 or so miles of roads and streets in the town. Sorrily this insane decision rest totally on the City's staff leaders....and ultimately the city council, past and present. For several years the city has been surveying and analyzing the Commercial St. area. When ask by citizens why?....... the standard answer was routine mapping, blah blah blah. Then quietly the public works department and others applied for grants earmarked exclusively for this project knowing full well if an outcry from the community arose the defence would be, we got the grant, we either use it or lose it. Now the project has by some reports nearly doubled in cost, the city's answer is to loot the city's half cent sales tax, which by the way was set up to improve the streets that are in need , not to improve the property values of already well groomed areas. This project needs to be stopped. The so called grant money belongs to all who pay the tax, it's not "FREE"!, grant is code for the public's/people tax dollars. In the future any grant applications should take into account the needs of the many, and not the desires of the few..........

Submitted November 4, 2009
Dear Willits News Editor,
On October 24, 2009, more than 375 men, women, and children walked the 10,000 step path through Willits. We walked for personal, community, and planetary health.
On November 12, 2009, at 6:00 PM, we have an opportunity to take a shorter, but even more important, walk to the Willits City Council Chambers in support of a more walking friendly, bicycle friendly, and business friendly community.
On June 10, 2009, the Willits City Council approved Plan E for improvements on West Commercial Street. Plan E and the final version, Revised Plan E, were developed with wide-spread community input including that from the Willits Healthy Action Team (WHAT), the West Commercial Design and Implementation Committee, the downtown business community, and students from Willits High who want to make it safe to walk to and from school.
After hearing from people who packed the City Council Chambers, the Council voted 5-0 to approve Plan E and directed staff to develop a specific implementation plan.
On November 12, 2009 at 6:00 PM (Thursday, not Wednesday) the City Council will decide whether to implement the plan. Now that we can finally get this plan put into action, some Council members are not sure whether this is the best way to spend our money. They are not sure whether the community still supports Plan E.
I believe this plan needs to be implemented. More expensive plans were proposed, but this one is the least expensive option that meets the requirements for a “complete street” solution that takes into account the needs of walkers, bicyclists, those in wheel-chairs, as well as drivers.
On November 2, 2009 a number of those who provided community input for the plan, including myself, Pete Swanton, and Richard Willoughby, met with City staff to review the plan. It was clear to all those present that the staff had not strayed from the design principles behind Plan E and the budget had not ballooned.
In fact, City staff, including Alan Falleri and Dave Madrigal, told us that the engineer’s estimate for the Revised Plan E is substantially less than the cost of similar street improvements in other nearby communities including Fort Bragg.
West Commercial is an important corridor in the commercial downtown of Willits and is the first leg of the WHAT 10,000 step Walk. It’s also along the path that many high school students walk and where a number of students who are in wheelchairs travel every day.
I believe it is vital that this plan, that has widespread community support, be implemented as soon as possible.
People can write or call the members of the City Council to express their support. But nothing impresses the Council more than to see people who show up for the meetings.
I urge everyone who wants to make Willits a healthier place to walk, ride, and live to come to the City Council meeting on November 12, 2009 at 6:00 P.M.
Jed Diamond, Co-Founder
Willits Healthy Action Team

No one is against folks getting out and walking several times a year.......personally walking more than several times a year is a better personal choice. It's impressive that nearly 400 souls will brave Willits main streets, mean streets, back streets and hopefully the dilapidated, disintegrated and gone needing for decades streets, because those were what the monies were originally intended for....... If more people had walked those areas the likes of this Commercial street proposal would not have ever existed.
This is a feel good project for the select few, this is to some a trickle down project for the post bypass era...when ever that might be, and sadly, a property value booster to a lucky few. Not good enough......not good enough reasons for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in one of the worse economic downturns in history on a adequate roadway. It's not surprising some council members are re-evaluating this project carefully, they should, they are considering spending the future of street repair, what little there has been.....all in one place, a place that by any ones standards is better groomed and in better shape than most of the streets and roadways in the town. This project if it proceeds if will eliminate most if not all the money for the ordinary residential streets...where most of the ordinary taxpayers live.
Months ago the city council in it's wisdom after a dividing debate voted down a walking trial for the Haehl Creek sub-division, looking back, that was a bargain, it was only $1000.00 a running foot......Commercial Street will make that look like pocket change.......

Jed, I think you have been had--or you don't care whether it costs 1 million or 5 million dollars which surprises me cause I know you've seen much worse areas to walk than this.
I wonder if you paid any attention at the October 14 meeting where it was very clear to some watching on tv, as usual no one was present at the meeting, that the price had been cranked up to nearly $1mill and Burton led the opposition--refusing to approve a project without a final price tag and making it clear the price was not right especially when he learned the nearly $1 mill didn't include any planters or some other stuff. Holly pretty well said she didn't care what it cost, but was willing to wait for the full estimate cause that seemed the way the council was leaning.
So I figure someone made a political choice and told the staff "dont change the design but slash the estimate." That way you keep the Comm Street cabal happy and everyone else happy too--at least until the bids come in.
If you'd watched late october 28 after all the hoopla over the bradford place was over and everyone left, and the day this article appeared you'd have seen city staff falling all over themselves--even after the mayor and city manager and city attorney told them they couldn't talk about it, to present another estimate for significantly less money. Did this article make them cut some stuff out, doubt anyone would admit it. Sounded to me like the Dave and Tom show would have said anything to get the thing out for bid, figuring no matter what by the time the bids will be back, Dave will be long gone and the city will be stuck approving the overrun or losing the free money--just like the ball fields, kids club etc. If the estimate can be manipulated that easy in two weeks without changing the design either they had lots of gravy in it to start with or its a bald faced lie now.

Jed are you sure you want to pack the city hall for this turkey of a project? Why not instead come to them with a list of sidewalks that need fixing and curbs that need to be cut to allow the disabled to cross the streets. We have streets without sidewalks, streets with no room for sidewalks, areas where people walk that are loaded with pot holes. Why not instead push to spend the money for a walkway along the train tracks. Use your leverage to help fix the problem not help the elite who live/work on Commercial. Do you really think Padula and the Greek are worth it?

Hurrah, the city council okayed the new proposal, Jed brought crouds to city hall, now what?
Guess the rest of the city is screwed.

Commercial street blues wrote:

Hurrah, the city council okayed the new proposal, Jed brought crouds to city hall, now what?
Guess the rest of the city is screwed.

Hey "Blues", the rest of the town was screwed before the vote. Nobody spoke again it......nobody cares bout the money, it's the time of the dope...... thems was bout the winning, this was a team game, there may be no I in team but there sure as hell is in WIN! and make no mistake that bunch got a lot of I's in thems, they was drunk with the glee when the vote came down, they got all that "free money" from all the regular folk, wonder how happy all will be when the estimate come down though. Them estimators ain't never been right on nothing they been involved ins, don't have to remember to far back, just take a deep breath and smell all that sewy......they all heroes.....