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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 3, 2004 Nevada Street committee has its own ideas By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings Members of a committee formed to find Nevada Street traffic solutions are up in arms over a perceived lack of regard shown to their work by city planners. Lyn Horstemeier, Al Bodin and Lance Bisaccia are three members of the committee who are taking their concerns about the process public. Relatively calm now, traffic on Nevada Street is expected to increase as houses in a nearby development (including structure at right) fill up. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings The committee was formed in December in response to a city planning department plan to slow down traffic on Nevada Street with sidewalk bump-outs or speed bumps. The committee has met for the past five months and come up with ideas for other ways to slow traffic. Included in their work were several surveys of residents on Nevada and surrounding side streets. In May, they gave City Traffic Engineer Jim Olson seven proposals. The city responded by narrowing the field to three plans, none of which the Nevada Street committee likes. "I feel the city shafted the committee," Horstemeier said. "We spent many hours collecting input and taking surveys to find out what the neighborhood wanted. Then when they didn't like it, they ignored our proposals." A public meeting set for Monday at Helman School will go over the final three plans so residents can see and comment on them. However, the three committee members said they have not received notification from the city of a meeting. The city's ideas The city is asking residents to approve one of three plans. o Plan 1: Narrows the street from 36 feet to 31 feet. Sidewalk and planting strip on the south side, textured crosswalks. o Plan 2: Some bump-outs at crosswalks that would be 6 feet wide on both sides of the street, none on side streets (except Helman and Cambridge). Elsewhere, Nevada to remain 36 feet wide. Sidewalk on the south side, textured crosswalks. o Plan 3: Sidewalk on the south side. Some bump-outs, including some on side streets. Some crosswalks but not at every intersection. The committee's plan The committee said they are not happy with the three plans the city created from the original seven. The three committee members said these three final plans have very little to do with the seven given to the city. "(The committee) plotted a course and identified concerns of residents," Bisaccia said. "We then pared it down to seven and gave them to the city, the simplest being sidewalks on the South side of the street and marked, textured (pimpled) crosswalks. We gave our plans to the city and asked them to develop three plans that incorporated what were in the seven plans." Bodin said people need to know they have a choice about how to solve this problem. "We do not have to do what the city wants," he said. "We have a right and an obligation to demand the city give us what we want." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams