I tried to submit this comment yesterday on the City of Moab’s website but the link did not work. I recall Rani [Derasary] stating multiple times in council meetings that the link to Citizens to be Heard comments was not functioning. (Gives one the impression the City of Moab is not concerned about constituents’ comments.)
I decided that I would just attend the City Council meeting and speak at Citizens to be Heard. Unfortunately, I was not recorded (not the first time I have seen this happen) so I am assuming my comment was not made part of the record. I am sending a copy to you of my comments last night.
My name is Scott Newton; I am owner of Poison Spider Bicycles along with my wife Karen on North Main Street.
First off, I want to say thanks to the Council & Mayor for serving. It is not always easy but a necessary job to help our community run efficiently, prudently and with vision.
Last night I attended a meeting about Utah’s most dangerous highway, our Main Street. It was great to see so many people from our community attend. I will state that it was disappointing to not see the Mayor, one person from council or even our new city manager attend. Public safety should be a major priority; you cannot keep trying to ignore it.
For the last 15 years, Poison Spider has been bringing attention to the Moab City Police Department and City Council about the increased speeds on North Main Street and lack of enforcement. We are now seeing this ALL over town, not just North Main. It is so bad that the County rents a billboard on my property on North Main stating SLOW DOWN while in town.
I think we can ALL agree we have a problem with traffic speeds and people running red lights. It is time for the City of Moab to start doing actual enforcement, not just leaving unattended police cars all over town. In the last City Council meeting, it was stated we have a full police department. Why are they not able to do actual enforcement? How much revenue would the City of Moab make if they were issuing tickets?
Lots of the other problems brought up last night could have been addressed from our 2017-2018 Downtown Plan for which the City of Moab already paid Avenue Consultants/Downtown Redevelopment. The Downtown Plan was buried because both the plan and survey had mention of a bypass. Unfortunately, lots of the other great suggestions were also completely ignored. Issues that Tony Lema and Karen Guzman Newton recently brought to your attention were highlighted in that plan: sidewalks, dead trees and lack of ADA accessibility.
This plan has been around for over six years and little to nothing was implemented from it.
Why are you getting ready to do another downtown plan which will cost taxpayers close to $250,000? Let’s STOP wasting money and start working on the improvements already recommended to make Main Street safer. We can start with enforcement and then start checking off the other projects.
If you don’t want to do this then the question you should ask yourself is how many injuries, accidents or even deaths are you okay with in our community?
Thanks for your time,
Scott Newton
Moab
2017-2018 Moab Downtown Plan:
https://moabcity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/333?fileID=525
https://moabcity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/333?fileID=526
