From: John Thurlow [mailto:john@thurlow.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 1:26 AM
To: Ron Owens
Cc: Judy Shirk; Jack & Janet Callahan
Subject: Response to Latest Plan for Barriers

Good Morning Ron,

Jack, Judy and I got together last night to consider the latest design you provided and wanted to get back to you right away.  We know that e-mail can be time-consuming and would be happy to talk by phone today to save you time in replying, but we’ve included our comments below. With apologies for the length once again, please understand that this is a very important issue to many of us.  

To be frank, we believe there will be a considerable negative response to this final plan at the end of the week when people see activity there.  We were concerned before because of the lack of detail in the previous plans, but we provided what we had to our group as you agreed.  The unknowns were worrisome. People didn’t know exactly what the signs would say, what size they would be, what the “reflectors” or chevrons would look like, whether the berm was 8 inches or 10 inches high – small but important details when considered all together.  And people in our group asked why the plan did not incorporate any of our ideas, (with the exception of the recent addition of the pedestrian walkway).  As we said in our meeting with you in April, having a voice in the Barrier Alternative plan would go a long way toward providing the Residents Group with satisfaction that they had contributed at least something since last summer. We appreciated that invitation and your positive comments about our design ideas.  But what is now planned will not provide that satisfaction, we fear.
June 7, 2006 E-mail to the Town Manager (excerpt)
This was the day of the Council meeting at which Mr. Owens was going to present the plan.  We were not aware that this issue was going to the Town Council action even though we had been exchanging messages several times as this new plan evolved.  We asked for more details to share with Resident Group members. The Council, after less than 10 minutes of deliberation, approved the plan on this night. We regret that we could not have provided our elected officials with the public input they appreciate, especially about a controversial issue that has concerned residents for 17 years. We hope it will be reconsidered when we make our proposal this summer to the Council.
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