 my letter to the editor on WV road
by Linda W on 5/8/2009 11:04:31 AM
Message my letter to the editor on WV road was posted by Linda W, on 5/8/2009 11:04:31 AM. May 8, 2009
Dear Editor,
Recently when I asked the county supervisors why Williamson Valley Road is to be widened to a divided four lane highway Supervisor Thurman e-mailed me the following response. “The truck route for future economic growth from the west is not Highway 89 through the Spars but through Skull Valley and for growth to be successful out by the airport there has to be an outer loop around the congestion of Iron Springs Road.”
To date I have not been able to find one study that the county has done as to what effect this will have on habitat areas or adjacent land uses all of which are 100% residential. No one seems to think that it is important to follow the county’s general plan or to keep commercial traffic on the state highways that were designed for it.
The cost to widen the 2.2 miles (southern portion) is 20 million dollars.. That’s a little less than ten million dollars per mile. Ten million of that will come from the taxpayers of the city of Prescott. How far would ten million dollars go to paving and repairing the streets of Prescott?
The construction will remove tons and tons of the rock hillside and replace it with a retaining wall that is 1,300 feet long and as high as 30 to 35 feet in places.
Ask yourselves what you are giving up by allowing this truck route in the Williamson Valley. I can’t imagine that tourists, hikers, cyclists, or horsemen are going to want to recreate to the sounds of truck traffic.
I would love to hear from the mayor and the rest of the council as to why they prefer turning a residential county road into a truck route at such a high cost instead of utilizing the state highway system.
Linda Weatbrook
2331 W. Post Oak Dr.
Prescott AZ 86305
928-445-0281
Cell 928-830-8309
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