Please SHARE! This is a head up to Anchorage trails users! Next Wednesday, August 28th 5:30-8:00pm there is an open house meeting for the West Dimond Blvd project at the Dimond High School multipurpose room. This project was planned to improve Dimond Blvd and Jodhpur Road between Sand Lake Road and the Kincaid Park Jodhpur entrance. The project proposed upgrading the roadway and drainage along with separated multi-use pathways along both sides of the road with new roundabout intersections at Sand Lake Road and Westpark Drive (gravel pit subdivision entrance). This project has been on hold since 2006 due to “lack of funding.” State House Representative for District 20, Mia Costello, recently helped secure substantial state funding for the project and design was restarted this year. The project team just completed draft Design Study Report and it was released on July 30th. In less than 3 weeks the project has already been split into two phases due to initial political feedback. The important pathway links between Westpark Drive (gravel pit subdivision) and the Kincaid Jodhpur park entrance have been put on hold. Only road and pathway upgrades between Sand Lake Road and Westpark Drive are currently advancing. This change was made before holding the public open house meeting and hearing what ALL stakeholders have to say about this project! If you use the trails around southwest Anchorage and Kincaid this project needs your support! Believe it or not, there is a contingent of Anchorage residents that are perfectly happy having NO pathways/sidewalks along improved roads or reducing facilities along both sides of the road to a path/sidewalk on one side of the road. Some folks aren’t even interested in seeing roads upgraded. Many times this vocal minority is successful in eliminating pathways and sidewalks from projects. You’ll hear that the project doesn’t have sufficient funding, but that was the excuse for shelving it 7 years ago and without solid support it could be another 7 years or more before we see these trail links completed. For these projects to succeed local politicians, policy makers and project managers need to hear from those in favor of improvements. Projects like West Dimond Blvd are not intended to just support those that live along the road or even just those in the nearest political district. This road provides access to Kincaid Park and serves all of Anchorage. Please let others in the Anchorage recreational community know about the project and current status. Recreational users of Kincaid Park and the surrounding area that come to mind are the AK Tri Club, Arctic Bicycle Club, Singletrack Advocates, Arctic Orienteering Club, Anchorage Running Club, Anchorage Nordic Ski Club and probably many more that I haven’t listed. Please take the time to personally submit comments through the project web page. It would be even better for you to attend the project open house meeting next week to meet the project design team, review the project documents, submit comments and show political representatives attending the meeting that this park and these links are important to the entire community! These meetings are low-key, one on one style, and do not include presentations or the need for public testimony. Please also consider contacting your state and municipal political representatives directly and letting them know you support the full project and would like them to pursue additional funding. Below are the political contacts for Southwest Anchorage: State House Representative - District 20 - Mia Costello 269-0117 [email protected] Assembly District 3 – Ernie Hall 562-2088/343-4115 [email protected] State Senator - District J – Hollis French 269-0234 [email protected] Assembly District 3 - Tim Steele 277-7663 [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:51:58 +0000
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