First, I want to acknowledge all those who were involved with removing the $1.6 million for Tatlock lights from the 2024 Capital Budget. It was the right thing to do and it gives all of us time to fully and fairly assess the situation.
I trust you will conduct a thorough and impartial assessment of the area impacted by the lights. But we will all follow Ronald Reagan’s advice – Trust but verify.
I also want to say that I am a fan of the Community Programs department. My oldest grandson goes to summer camp, both my grandsons participate in TryCAN and I have worked with David Guida for many years on the Memorial Day events. But the engagement plan Community Programs developed has some fatal flaws. Tonight I am going to identify two of them:
- Conducting environmental and traffic studies in the Spring is laughable. Nothing happens in the Spring other than the Summit Relays and High School graduation. To get an understanding of the full impact of large events on the Tatlock neighborhood, you need to study at least three football games and two lacrosse matches in the Autumn.
- The second flaw is providing notice of a community meeting only to people within 200 feet of Tatlock. 200 feet would only include people living on a portion of Butler Parkway and Lewis Avenue and a small portion of the homes on Aubrey Street.
The area that would be affected by the lights is much larger. It includes homes from River Road to Beverly Road and Woodland Avenue to Morris Avenue. The affected area is more in the range of 12 hundred or 15 hundred feet from Tatlock, not 200.