Red Gate bridge is a luxury

The Daily Herald’s April 1 front page states mayors are concerned should “state Republican proposal to cut $300 million from cities and villages become law.”

At the Government Services meeting March 28, St. Charles was discussing the expense of $1 million for the beginning of an electrical service project to cut power loss down time from approximately 20 to 30 minutes to 5 to 10 minutes. To do this throughout the city would cost $10 to $12 million. There is a strong chance that electric rates would need to be increased to help fund this.

The Red Gate Bridge has the city putting between $800,000 and $1 million a year toward that project. With the new, separate fire district building fire houses on both the east and west side of the Fox River and the Stearns Road Bridge taking most of the truck traffic off Main Street, the Red Gate bridge is no longer an emergency project in this economy.

The original goal of the proposed bridge was to remove the truck traffic from Main Street to make downtown more pedestrian friendly and reduce traffic congestion there. Now the city admits the bridge will not be constructed for large trucks so we will not be benefiting downtown.

Let’s put Red Gate bridge on hold and if the electric upgrade is enough of an emergency use this money to fund the upgrade, saving residents other cost increases for a while.

The city needs to tighten its belt, just as the residents have had to, put their priorities in order and stop expecting the taxpayers to pay the bills for their luxury items.

Larry Norgaard

St. Charles