An E-mail sent to TxDOT (01/28/05)
(The following speech was to have been read today at the TxDOT meeting in Houston to discuss the Grand Parkway project, Segment F-2 in Spring, Tx. Because their agenda items went way over on time, this speech has been e-mailed instead to Texas Transportation Commission board members; Ric Williamson, Johnny Johnson, Hope Andrade, Ted Houghton, and Robert Nichols at dsulliva@dot.state.tx.us)
Please feel free to send along your own comments to the board members at the same e-mail address.
I appreciate that TxDOT has chosen to have their meeting here today that allows us to bring our concerns directly to you.
My concerns are two-fold today but both involve improving communicaton. I have heard Ric Williamson say that this is one of the main goals of TxDOT these days.
This past Tuesday, January 25th, 2005, at the meeting of the Harris County Commissioner's Court, we heard from Art Storey, who referred to a new supplemental study and schematics being done as a $6 million dollar joint project between Harris County Toll Road Authority (or HCTRA), and the Texas Department of Transportation (or TxDOT), and that the Grand Parkway Association (or GPA), was in fact a division of TxDOT. Yet no one from the Grand Parkway Association was in attendance at this meeting and when questioned later, they had never seen the map produced by HCTRA and TxDOT and supposedly the GPA. Commissioner Jerry Eversole of Precinct 4 (in whose district the new map was drawn) claimed to have not seen this new map dated January 2005, which showed only one route, Alignment "E" for Segment F-2 of the Grand Parkway, which as we all know by now is less than 1000' from Klein Oak High School, home to over 2,000 students. Next-door to Klein Oak High School is Hildebrandt Intermediate School and across from that school is Northampton Elementary School. I don't care anymore who's not telling us the truth, I'm tired of getting different stories from every person you ask. Art Storey, Mike Strech, David Gornet, Jerry Eversole, Robert Eckels and Jon Lindsay all tell different tales when asked about the progress of this project. My point here is that we need to have as soon as possible one entity in charge, to which the public can go to and get up-to-the-minute honest answers regarding Segment F-2 of the Grand Parkway. Not TxDOT, not HCTRA, not GPA, but one place who can tell us the truth as it stands that day. We need to have the means to contact that entity by e-mail, by phone, by fax. It needs to be immediate and available to anyone.
Also, Judge Robert Eckels made the comment at the meeting of the Harris County Commissioner's Court, regarding the Grand Parkway project, Segment F-2, that there have been several meetings just in the last few months that the public had been invited to. The one and only meeting that I heard about (after the fact) was the private meeting put together by Senator Jon Lindsay where he only invited developers in the area and where NO CONSENSUS was reached. It also needs to be said here that NO LAND WAS OFFERED TO BE DONATED TO THE GRAND PARKWAY PROJECT BY THE DEVELOPERS AT THAT MEETING. This is contrary to what was erroneously published in the Houston Chronicle story, as quoted to them by Senator Jon Lindsay. No developer offered to donate land to the project, no consensus as to where the route should be was reached either. My point here is that I would like to respectfully request of the Texas Transportation Commission members here today that the citizens living in the "affected area" be not only invited but encouraged to come sit in on these planning meetings, and not just informed of the Public Hearing dates. We want to be allowed to "sit at the table", so to speak. And, we want these meetings to take place IN THE AFFECTED AREA AND AT CONVENIENT TIMES IN THE EVENINGS. It is very unreasonable to hold planning meetings that will disrupt people's lives and forever change their quality of life in the middle of the day in downtown Houston. It may be slightly inconvenient for the people who have to work on this project and attend these meetings, but how can they possibly reasonably reach out to the public whose lives they will be affecting unless they do so? I have called and talked with many individuals from TxDOT, HCTRA, and GPA regarding this project over the years. It is extremely disheartening to hear someone tell me that they've never even heard of Klein Oak High School, much less visited there.
I am very concerned and worried even, that if the Harris County Toll Road Authority (or HCTRA) is allowed to wrest control of the project away from the Grand Parkway Association (or GPA), that our voices will be completely silenced and we will shut out and kept in the dark on the very decisions that will determine our future quality of life. We ask that the Grand Parkway Association be allowed to continue their environmental studies so as to work together to determine the best possible "long-term" solution for all of us, and that the Harris County Toll Road Authority put their "fast-track" plans on the "back-burner" until then.
Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to your responses on these issues.
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