Stop spending on Red Gate bridge
Stand up, St. Charles merchants and North High School parents.
Mayor DeWitte and the city council are ignoring the safety concerns at St. Charles North by proceeding with the Red Gate Bridge project. They also ignore the closed business locations already in existence in downtown by wanting to divert more traffic from the downtown shopping area.
Merchants need to stand up to the agenda that the mayor and his “yes” people are following on the expenditure of $20 million to $30 million on a Bridge to Nowhere.
What is his real agenda, I ask? If less traffic were good for business, Geneva Commons would have been built on Route 47 where land is much cheaper.
DeWitte’s rush is obvious as he knows that when left hand turn lanes and other road improvements are finished this summer on east Main Street and the Stearns Road bridge draws more traffic from the northern part of our city and South Elgin that there will be no need for the Don DeWitte Memorial Bridge or whatever he hopes to name it.
Citizens should demand he stop the engineering expenditures of tax money immediately until the new traffic counts are done and the mayor initiates a PR campaign that Stearns Road bridge is open.
He won’t do this as he knows he’d upset St. Charles business owners and thus he keeps a low profile on this. I spoke with 15 downtown merchants April 4 and all except for one thought the bridge was a dead issue and not going through.
Why does he not use his Red Gate bridge stash that is being collected from your property taxes in St. Charles to buy the downtown riverfront property that was once Blue Goose and the Manor restaurant for 30,000 residents to enjoy?
Our downtown would thrive for another 100 years. That could be a real legacy.
Nolan Day
St. Charles