47- Steve Yoder, Step Right Up, and Bring Your Friends

We have another person dedicating himself to solving the current and possibly worse future traffic safety problem at Playhouse Lane and Route 212.

A couple of weeks ago in the letters section of the Woodstock Times, Steve Yoder, (who I do not know, yet,) suggested that the town simply ask people to park in back of Playhouse Plaza, not in the spaces in front.

One week ago I answered this suggestion by claiming that that would constitute a taking of private property and would be illegal, and that if the town wanted to condemn the property (using the power of eminent domain,) it would cost the town a lot of money.

Mr. Yoder concurred with my analysis, in general, I would say, and suggested that a bunch of stakeholders get together and discuss ways to mitigate this safety hazard.

I think it is safe to say, at this point, that Mr. Yoder and I are not the only two people who think there is a problem at this intersection. A traffic engineer, hired by the Planning Board, said that RUPCO's project WOULD pose a potential safety hazard at the intersection in question.

This intersection's safety concern is something that nobody wants to deal with. The Planning Board doesn't, and seems to have accepted some incompetent Creighton Manning traffic study that does not even address safety, only traffic.

Thank you, Steve Yoder. Why don't you round up everybody who you think should attend a meeting to solve the intersection problem, before the town can accept a large development whose traffic travels through it. I will mark my calendar. Please feel free to use this blog to organize and contact me and others.