As all of you should know by now, I am opposed to the current E Street “Road Diet” plan currently proposed by the City.  If current city council votes are any indication, it appears that many of the current council are opposed to it as well.

 

As many of you who are interested in this project know, there is a nearly $2 million funding “gap” in this project.  In other words, the mayor appears prepared to sign contracts for the project even though she has no idea where the last $2 million will come from.  In her latest campaign materials, she touts herself as “Fiscally Responsible”.  I am not sure how you are fiscally responsible when you plan to move forward on an $8.5 million project that is only 75% funded.

 

In any regard, a curious discussion took place last night at council workshop.  Out of the blue it was announced that a plan is being discussed to fund this “gap” by using city park funds.  Currently the city has a projected $600,000 in park impact fees, and between these and the $1,350.000 balances in the Real Estate Excise Tax funds, the mayor would like to “close the gap”, or as the finance director stated “We are there”.  All of this even though the park board is told annually that there is not enough money to complete or even make a major dent in the parks comprehensive plan.  We can, however, use the funds for a street project.  What is the mayor thinking?

 

This discussion at council workshop took place at 6:30 PM.  It was revealed during the discussion that the mayor had “just thought” of this solution at 2 PM that day.  (I am paraphrasing the following) “This E Street project is going to be so wonderful, well, it could be considered art.  And it does need to be landscaped, and we landscape our parks, so we could justify it by using park funds.”  The discussion was SO premature that the finance director stated that the parks, art and benches could be placed in the third lane of the project (obviously an embarrassing error that was not corrected until much later, but I think this underscores how fast the idea was thought of and fast-tracked as a funding solution).

 

Please!  This is a street project, not a parks project.  The mayor indicated that she had not even done the courtesy of speaking with the parks board first to at least let them know this public discussion would take place.  To be fair, the “intent” is to be creative and use REET and park funds to underpin the project while still pursuing other sources to pay for more of the project.  If additional funds do come through, they would re-pay the funds that they raided to complete this project.  Make no mistake however, if other funds are not found, the discussion last night was to go ahead and use these funds to finish paying for the project.

 

This is wrong on so many different levels.  This E Street project was conceived as a safety and transportation project.  While I oppose the current plan, I certainly support making safety improvements to the street, adding continuance sidewalks to both sides, creating “real” bus stop areas, adding safety improvements around Hathaway School and doing intersection improvements at 32nd, 34th and 39th Streets.

 

The discussion that took place last night is just another example of knee-jerk, pull it from my back pocket ideas and “plans” that help exemplify why I chose to run for mayor.  Half-baked ideas that have not even been thought through and vetted with the appropriate individuals are NOT what we need.  We need true leadership with a vision for the future and real plans for how we get there.  This is easily the most expensive single project that the city has ever considered.  It deserves more planning than what took place yesterday.

 

I don’t mind people getting creative with thoughts of how to do things, but please don’t try and use smoke and mirrors to spin the “road diet” into a parks project.  That only causes the project to lose more credibility and insults the intelligence of the public.

 

Please contact your council members and let them know that you want parks funds to go to our PARKS for the improvements that they need, not to fund a very controversial street project.  And be sure to let your council members know if you are in favor of the current project or not.  They are keeping count and it is very possible that enough people registering their displeasure with the project will help to cause a Plan B to come forward that better addresses the issues and is more in line with available, APPROPRIATE funds that the city already has.

 

Looking forward to a better Washougal,

 

Sean Guard