No more growth before roads fixed

I found it amazing to read in Tuesday’s paper that our elected Snohomish County Councilmen are thinking of relaxing the standards for road congestion, so that more developers’ permits can be issued. Perhaps they are not driving on the same roads that we are. Or perhaps they are too blinded by other factors to know that most of us in Snohomish County are dealing with choking road congestion on a daily basis.

Today on the way to work I averaged 10 mph crossing the trestle on the way to Everett. This is pretty close to the approved 13 mph that they now think is acceptable on our county roads. To allow an increase in the amount of building permits (read as, increased rate of home building and traffic congestion), while allowing our inadequate roads to go without improvements, is breaking their promise to us. Do you remember their slogan from the last election, “Fix this road!” A lot of us bought that line and have seen little to no road improvements. I guess they gave up on that once they got elected. Please call your councilman and express your outrage at this proposed change to further increase traffic congestion.

The Republican-controlled County Council obviously needs to have some changes made in its leadership, priorities and membership. Too long have they catered to big business and ignored the needs of the citizens of our county.

Mike Mashock

Lake Stevens

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