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Q!ith:em,\' }\buncate · SEPTEMBER 26, 2008
PAGE 2
Opinion
Wants Sandy Lake Road Completed
While Coppell is, in many ways, a
great city, we still have opportunities for
improvement on several important fronts,
the most significant of which is safety.
On that topic, I have for several years
been interested in seeing the remainder
of Sandy Lake Road ullgraded and com-
pleted to equal the rest of its length, which
was completed in years past.
Several generations of Coppell City
Council have, for reasons that are not
entirely clear to me, chosen to defer,
rather than act on, the mandate that the
voters gave the City in the Bond election
dated November 1999 which will some-
day see the remainder of Sandy Lake
Road completed from Denton Tap west-
ward to Coppell Road North. .
As a result of the continuing delays in
following-up on the voters' mandate in a
timely fashion, as school began on Au-
gust 25, we once again saw (and con-
tinue to see) those high school students
who, be\:ause they live too close to
Coppell High School to qualify for free
bus service, put their personal safety at
risk as they walk to and from the high
school. For those students who live di-
rectly south of Sandy Lake, the daily trek
to school involves a dangerous crossing
over Sandy Lake, coupled with, on one
side or the other, a perilous walk along-
side 35 m.p.h. traffic on the sloping em~
bankment of the adjacent drainage ditch.
There is no shoulder on that section of
Sandy Lake Road, nor any sidewalks.
While the installation of a traffic sig-
nal at the Whispering Hills and Sandy
Lake intersection affords a modicum of
improvement, it is certainly not the solu-
tion. I would never willingly choose to
walk along or cross Sandy Lake Road in
that area, and I strongly suspect that no
one on the City Council would do so them-
. selves, or allow their children to put them-
selves at such risk.
I passionately ask that the Council and
the City work to immediately develop a
short-term solution to this safety issue
(crosswalk, pedestrian activated all-di-
rection red light, on-site police during
school transit times, something), and
establish and honor a reasonable timeline
to begin and complete the voter mandated
reconstruction and impr,,?vement of this
important art~ry. ;,ri.
It has been nearly nf~e years since
voters approved the project. I do recog-
nize that there are many challenging is-
sues that must be resolved in such a
project, but I am of the very strong opin-
ion that we've all waited long enough.
In the years since voter approval of
the aforementioned roadway, the Coun-
cil and City have taken action (as ap-
proved by the voters) to rebuild dozens
of miles of other area roads, many of
which were authorized through bond elec-
tions more recent than the one that is the
subject of these thoughts. Perhaps lan-
guage should be inserted in future bond
packages mandating that the authorized
projects be sequential relative to their
approval dates so that futuie Councils
cannot choose to unreasonably defer the
voters' mandates while moving forward
on later approvals.
The Council and City decided, in ad-
dition to the many miles of streets and
other meaningful improvements to our fair
city, to add new amenities to include the
"sundial park" adjacent to City Hall along
with a now-under-construction city cem-
etery. I just hope that we don't one day
need to use both of those amenities as a
result of a lack of urgency in executing
the Sandy Lake project - first as a gath-
ering area to express our community grief
and secondly as a final resting place for
.a student tragically lost because we've
chosen to defer for so long the comple-
tion of this important piece of roadway.
In closing, let me cite a quote from
Mayor Stover's May 2008 State of The
City as extracted from the City's Web
site. While Mayor Stover was writing on
the topic of the City's long-standing dis-
pute regarding extraterritorial develop-
ment proposed at North Lake, I believe
the underlined portions of his quote are
equally well-placed when considered in
the context of the topic of this opinion
piece: "The City's eminent domain case
is still progressing through the court sys-
tem, but we will not rest until the public
interest is protected and public services
are provided for."
Bruce Bradford, Coppell
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Agrees on Alcohol View
Coppell in my blood as before my move
to Wylie, I had been there since 1948. I
also had connections to the school from
1968 to 1980. It is sad to see this ruling
pass.
Thank you for speaking out.
Dear Editor,
I no longer live in Coppell, but I do
want to tell you how much I appreciate
your view on the alcohol sales at some
Coppell events. No good can come of the
. . rtdtcuh:1us reeih'tg: 'f' wiU'lllways 'hne' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ..... Dorothy 9rnnd
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