RR Citizens more important than Lkwd Children?

[Gary Rice]

With summer coming, and with the city's focus on wanting to see more sidewalks repaired, I fear that this sort of thing will not be an isolated concern. I've already indicated what was done on my street to re-route sidewalk traffic during Halloween time. I would hope that the concerns illustrated so well in this thread will carry over to ANY sidewalk repair/replacement that will be going on in Lakewood. The streets are no place for residential traffic. Lakewood is indeed a densely packed city, and we need to protect our pedestrian traffic even, and perhaps especially during construction periods.

The city needs to let anyone, whether contractor, business, or resident planning to upgrade or replace their walks, that they need to have some sort of temporary safe OFF-STREET pedestrian bypass available around the work until completion. If there is no law or ordinance yet insuring that this is done, there needs to be one drafted and implemented pronto.

Back to the banjo...

[marklingm]

It seems blame for the situation and credit for its fix are being tossed around by all parties. Just amazing that this is an issue at all and more so that it's one that took more than an afternoon to fix.

Jeff,

While there is a lot about the mayoral tweet and Fox 8 press release that is troublesome, they both highlight how out of touch Mike Summers continues to be with the residents.

How many times can Mike go to his overused, “I didn’t know so it’s not my fault” excuse?

Really, Mike?

You didn’t know about this major public safety issue until Ryan Salo called you?

In any event, thank you, Jeff and Ryan, for ensuring that this serious issue is addressed.

Matt

[Ryan Salo]

Matt,

I agree the statement made to fox 8 concerns me.

"Mayor Summers issued the following statement to FOX 8 about the situation: “Unbeknownst to the City of Lakewood, on Friday, RTA’s contractor removed several sections of sidewalk on the south side of Clifton Blvd."

I called and left Mike Summers a message a 1:00pm on Friday. This was only after my wife noticed the problem on the north side earlier in the week. This mayor is out of touch. There is major work being done in his city and he don't have any idea of the details or timeline?? Mike has done a really good job at blaming others, like he did for the salt and plow issues, but at some point I hope he wakes up and realizes he needs to take the reins of the city and proactively LEAD US.

Here is the link to the story Fox 8 did.
http://fox8.com/2014/04/07/construction ... in-street/

The picture by Judy Szentkiralyi needs to be a reminder of the significant risk Mayor Mike Summers exposed Lakewood children to by not acting when he was notified of the issue. Thankfully his negligence didn't lead to anyone getting hurt.

[Jeff Dreger]

Just want to share additional communication so as to keep as complete a record as possible:

"Mr. Dreger:

I know you have heard back from Tom Bullock and Cindy Marx on this issue, and I wanted to make sure you knew that the Mayor, Chief Malley and Public Works Director Beno spoke with the RTA project manager this morning, and they are to have something in place to get people around the site by dismissal today. If you have any further questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Ryan Nowlin"
(1:39PM Monday 4/7/14)


"Jeff,
The contractor is the entity who took the action here, and I've learned (from McDonald's construction and similar projects) that control over contractors at times is like riding a wild horse. I don't have the exact sequence of events, but I was glad to see a vigorous and immediate response by our city, and the mayor has been working hard on this issue today (RTA has hired a couple policemen to help with safety around these sites, among other steps).

Although not mistake free, the good news is that our City leadership is increasingly responsive and implementing measures to get it right.

Thanks,
Tom"
(3:09PM Monday 4/7/14)

I have not responded. Yet. I was afraid of how it would come out in the frustration of the moment. Perhaps they'll see this. Regardless, a few thoughts:

"The contractor is the entity who took the action here, and I've learned (from McDonald's construction and similar projects) that control over contractors at times is like riding a wild horse."
So, if I understand the comment correctly, city hall has learned that crap like this frequently happens but they've not connected the dots and learned that they should then be more proactive and provide more direct and immediate oversight?

"I was glad to see a vigorous and immediate response by our city"
Were the issue not serious and related to the safety of our children, I would LOL. My emails were on Friday. Ryan's inquiries/complaints were made even earlier than mine. It was almost 36 hours later that something was done about this. (A problem with a 5 minute fix as has been pointed out repeatedly.)

"the good news is that our City leadership is increasingly responsive"
Better perhaps. But not good. Our leaders being increasingly proactive and aware of situations and events would be good news.

Going back to Ryan's conversation with the mayor, I wish he (the mayor) had actually cursed during that phone call: "What?! Our kids are being put in harm's way?? Holy s***! I'll personally oversee the corrective action and find out how this was allowed to happen and institute immediate changes to prevent future occurrences!"

Perhaps RTA did start work that it had not communicated to the city about. Perhaps the contractor was taking shortcuts without notifying RTA or the city. Maybe there was miscommunication all around. I still don't know which party did or did not do what and it seems unlikely that I ever will. It is the response to the situation that is the main issue here. Of course, if it were to come out that city hall knew about this work and it either included no consideration for pedestrians or that consideration was actually nixed then I would be speechless.