Tuesday, October 22, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., Eastsound Fire Station
— from Jesse Douglas-Seitz for San Juan County Public Works —
San Juan County Council Member Rick Hughes along with Public Works will host a Community Meeting to discuss the Prune Alley street Improvements Project. The meeting is set for October 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall located at 45 Lavender Ln, Eastsound.
Public Works is finalizing the conceptual design and hiring a consultant to prepare final engineering and construction documents. Construction is planned in phases during the shoulder seasons beginning in 2020.
This project provides for complete street improvements, including full pedestrian accommodations with curb, gutter, sidewalk and accessibility improvements, intersection improvements, storm-drain infrastructure upgrades, onsite stormwater treatment upgrades, on street parking, lighting, landscaping, a pedestrian corridor between Prune Alley and North Beach Road at Fern Street, as well as other urban streetscape amenities.
Total project cost estimate is approximately 4.5 million dollars. Join in the conversation to learn more about the project scope and timeline.
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The costliest – and least accountable – phrase in public policy; “hiring a consultant.”
It is super important that as many Eastsound and Orcas Island residents attend this town hall meeting as possible. The designs being discussed for Prune Ally have evolved and are different from what you may have seen as recently as a few months ago. Take this golden opportunity to give your input on the various features of the project, especially what you want to see for Street Lighting, a topic near and dear to many of us. Please make your preferences known for what you want Eastsound to look like for the next several decades. Those who attend will have a huge influence on the look and feel of Eastsound!
Does it really need to be improved? Why?
Oh boy, here we go again… Why don’t we just clearcut everything and put concrete over it right now, and get it over with? THIS is what happens when you take federal and state grant monies – consultants, a gaggle of engineers, exponentially more cost in everything and the greatest cost to our environment in a time of worsening climate crisis. We are MANDATED to widen all of our roads now. Be prepared for more like the Horseshoe Highway project and mass deforestation and in the end, a road surface that is worse than washboard – and for what?
The rich have won….
The current Prune Alley is almost a non-functional thoroughfare, barely serviceable as one of Eastound’s three main arterials. There is no place for pedestrians or bicycles, no lighting for avoiding pedestrians at night, and no pedestrian access between Prune Alley and North Beach Road for its whole 1/4 mile length (except for the new narrow wood chip path at Fern Street). The road surface is also failing. It is time for this well planned project which will make Prune Alley the attractive, important and working streetscape that it very much needs to be!