01-27-1997 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Richard F. and Jane Thomas Noland 1395 Orono Lane Wayzata, Minnesota 55391 January 20, 1S>97 JAN 2 1 1997 The Hon. Gabriel Jabbour. Mayor it Orono City Offices 2750 Kelley Parkway Orono, Minnesota. 55356 Dear Mayor and Council Members: As the only resident of Orono Lane who lived here in 1929 and has seen the traffic on the Highway 15 steadily increase in volume and speed. I've become more concerned every year —every day — about safety. My fears are not only for the lives of Orono Lane residents and their visitors and service people, but all those Highway 15 drivers who zip around our blind comer from the West as we try to enter the highway from Orono Lane. In the '30s. we who were children on this lane could cross the road to pick up mail from our mailboxes (located on the north side of the highway) or wander across to Orono Orchard Road or Fox Street to visit friends. Now. a kid takes his life in his hands to cross the highway from a schoolbus stop! And there are times during weekday mornings and late afternoons when the traffic is so deadly that we've learned not to try to get in or out of Orono Lane. We plan our lives around the traffic. When my parents moved to what is now 1395 Orono Lane in 1929. we understood that Orono Lane had been part of the only road around the lake, connecting with Femdale. When the present county highway was built. It cut off that part of the old road that is now Orono Lane at a particularly dangerous spot, creating what has turned into one of the worst hazards on 15. Although Orono Lane is a city street now. the street was not—as some » might think— added as a bad idea after the present highway was built. Our lane WAS the old "highway." And the hazard was created by the county road-builders back in those very early days, (jiven this histor)'. doesn't the county bear responsibility for a safe access? Of course there's no turning back the wheels of progress —and there are a lot more wheels! But your present drawings, apparently already approved, do lot seem to solve the safety problem. If the access remains where it is. there is little hope of Orono Lane residents and visitors crossing the highway to go straight up Orono Orchard Road, or turning left to go w est. We're seldom foolhardy enough to take those chances now. and w ith an "improved" road, drivers' speeds can only increase. At the very least, wc need an access lane (kept clear of snowbanks) to join the traffic going east—and a longer sightline around the cur\ e to keep from getting broadsided. We realize that you've been tiying to deal with this problem for ten years or more, but we don't feel that it has been solved. With the impending "upgrading," this may be our only chance to try to fix it before we have more accidents and a spate of lawsuits. What can we do to help you help us? Please answer. SincerelK'\ jane Thcnhas Noland