Longmeadow bridge to bring headache
To all residents who will be affected by the construction of a $117 million Longmeadow Parkway bridge, I would like to invite you to come and stand along Randall Road between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m. Stand there. watch ... listen ... for this will be the effect on our currently peaceful neighborhoods.
At $1.50 per car it will take well over 50 million cars to use this bridge in order to "pay back" the state. If and when this happens will the state then remove the toll? Absolutely not!
The current toll roads were supposed to go byebye back in the Stone Age. But yet those fees keep going up. Please tell me how Wisconsin can afford to maintain/build their roads without a toll? Illinois might want to jump aboard that train.
Create jobs? More like temporary jobs. Seasonal jobs just like the census. Then when the job is through all the workers go back on unemployment for lack of work at the union rate.
The current speed limit on Longmeadow is 30 mph. Has anybody ever driven on a tollway with a 30 mph speed limit that is not a ramp?
The only thing that this bridge will bring these communities is noise pollution, air pollution and drunk drivers into our neighborhoods.
Bring in new businesses? Where? Which companies have committed to coming to our area? Will these new businesses get a tax break like the Algonquin Commons? My taxes still haven't budged since that place opened. The towns that this directly affects is all a part of the same Community Unit District 300. The state currently owes our district millions of dollars, and yet these towns can convince the state to pony up the dough for a bridge but not for our schools? Bridges before education - what a concept!
Laura Ozimek
Algonquin