I believe that important public comments made during town meetings, often omitted in Times reporting, be provided to the public.

I made a comment at the last Council meeting that the town has yet to set the condition acceptance criteria for our pavement maintenance program. This should’ve been done over a year ago. Establishing these criteria is essential to our budgeting process. Costs go up exponentially with higher pavement condition index (PCI) maintenance criterion. This could result in over a million dollars per year more in additional spending or substantial savings.

I made another comment regarding the La Montana/Avenue of the Fountains roundabout as a retired engineer. I said that pedestrian traffic currently is protected by long, straight lines of sight for the drivers. The roundabout exits to pedestrian ways will be much shorter and curved and drivers will have far less time to stop after sighting pedestrians.

I also noted that it appeared that most accidents seemed to be the result of inadequate right of way signage and recommended that a “cross traffic does not stop” sign be added on the Avenue to mitigate the problem before spending more on the roundabout, which may cost over $1.3 million. The council ignored these comments and proceeded to spend $70,000 dollars for design.

I also made a comment that it appeared the town was paying extra for services required to be provided by the Sheriff by statute and we may be unfairly paying for the MCSO unincorporated area law enforcement. This may result in a million dollar annual overcharge.

The Times chose not to report such comments despite their value to informed readers.

If you think public comments, even if critical of government, should be reported, feel free to contact Publisher Brent Cruikshank.