01-28-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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From:Adam Edwards To:Anna Carlson Subject:FW: Please Review: Speed Limit - Willow Date:Monday, January 28, 2019 1:54:31 PM For item 14 exhibit C From: ChaleenC.Almsted [mailto:ChaleenC.Almsted@target.com] Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019 1:26 PM To: Adam Edwards <aedwards@ci.orono.mn.us> Subject: Please Review: Speed Limit - Willow Please Review – sorry for the delay! Hello Adam – My name is Chaleen Almsted (husband Dave) – we live in a culdesac off of Willow and Watertown (Oliver Hill) – so the impacted area. We’re aware of the request to reduce the speed limit and definitely support it! We were the first house in the neighborhood back in 2015. We’ve seen the area and road become much more busy. We also spent many nights watching the road and people flying by at a very fast, fast speed! We just a got a puppy that is learning the ropes and have had a few incidents of running towards the road which has been very, very scary b/c of cards flying by! Additionally, we are expecting our first in 2-3 weeks. I can tell you that from all of our walks currently with our puppy – I am very apprehensive of walking outside of our culdesac with a stroller b/c of the tight walk area that’s so close to the cars driving at a fast speed. When walking and a car is driving 40 miles per hour – it feels like 80! It’s extremely unfortunate that will does not have a sidewalk as I know it would be used so much and would bring more people out of their areas/homes (if this ever becomes a topic to bring forward – let me know!). When you have a speed limit at 40 – people are driving 38-45. If you have a speed limit at 30 – people would drive 28-32 which is so much more reasonable and safe for everyone. This is something that should have been enforced a long time ago and we’re so please we are at this point. Also, knowing there is a stop sign at Watertown – when heading east down Willow - this would also prevent cars from rolling through the intersection as they are coming in hot – I’ve seen it numerous times.. very scary. Lastly, there are so many new kids around this area. Between homes rotating out and new people moving in and the two culdesacs – you have 30+ kids that leverage the park, ball field daily, etc. And as a soon to be parent and close with our neighbors – we really hate having to have conversation around safety and getting to the park or walking from home to home. We’re not lucky to have sidewalks in our culdesacs or fortunate like Crystal Bay or Brown or the other side of Willow. Knowing this change over the past 5-6 years – this should be a BIG reason why the speed limit should change. Before – this area was a lot of field and older couples… it’s changed a ton and the community should support this from a safety standpoint. I really hope you can review this and some of these points be part of the meeting tonight. We hope we can make it. Thank you for your time, Chaleen Almsted