Avoiding comments?
I saw a recent post on this page that talked about how so much of the whole region's state and federal transportation infrastructure money is going to Northampton for this main street bike project. To be honest it really ticked me off to find out that so much money is being spent on a bike project in Northampton when the whole region's roads and bridges are falling apart. Do they really need that much of the money? I don't think so.
I decided to call my town official to let her know how I feel. She said I should make a public comment at the upcoming Pioneer Valley Planning Commission meeting because they decide how the funding is divided up and I should tell them how residents of other towns feel about it. Me and a few friends checked to see when the next meeting was and we told them about our concerns.
We were all set to comment and then come to find out they cancelled the meeting. Then, there was another one set for later this month where we could make a comment but come to find out they cancelled that one too. They made some statement saying that after careful consideration they decided to cancel it.
I don't like to jump to conclusions but to be honest they didn't seem happy to hear from us. They said Northampton has plans to get this design officially approved soon. Are they trying to get this pushed through before other towns have a say how they money is spent? It really makes me mad that they knew we wanted to make our concerns public and then they cancel the only two chances we had.