Dear editor,
Like it or not the new Thomas street is here.
When Wausau opened up its completed version Thomas street a few weeks ago it was a long overdue headache relief for many City residents. From what I’ve experienced the traffic at the four-way stop at Third Avenue moves smoothly while we wait for the reported new traffic signals to be shipped from the vendor.
First Avenue looks nice. I doubted the single lane there at first, Yet traffic seems to move smoothly with the wide single lane. And now with the snow the perfect place for it is in the bike lane. The street lights look beautiful, which beings me to the point! Where are the street lights for Thomas Street?
Why would you open up one of the busiest streets in the City without any street lights? Have they not been shipped from the vendor yet? Would you let your child walk down this street with all these dark vacant lots? Does this not put residents property at risk?
Once again the Thomas Street neighborhood is feeling the effects of the City’s shortcomings, with poor planning from City Hall that could lead to potential dangerous situations. Would Thomas street have lights if there were an alderman living on it and First Avenue left dark?
I travel frequently down Thomas Street and I have yet to even see an attempt to installing any street lights.
My question to City Hall: When can we expect to see street lights on Thomas Street? We’d like answers, not excuses. We, the citizens of this community, deserve better.
Add this to the list of blunders: Riverlife, our million dollar ice cream stand, the mall, the out of control debt load we’re facing, just to name a few.
The real question is, how can City officials come up with a million dollars for corporate welfare within a matter of weeks for mall development to people who haven’t even presented a plan to the public, and not put up street lights to protect its citizens?
Things need to change at City Hall. We cannot continue with this constant string of incompetence ruling our City any longer. We cannot afford it.
Not all of City hall is bad. We have some very smart, competent, caring people on our City Council who put Citizens first. Unfortunately they are not the majority. Their vote rarely counts.
Check out your alderperson, Are they acting in your best interests? Are they the ones feeding Corporate interests? Look at the Mayor’s record. We need to take back our City. Put people in office that are competent & put us first!
Get out and vote in the next election!
Louis C. Larson, Wausau
