NEW COUNCIL MEMBER: BEN VALLIERE
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Speeding in town, the interaction between cars and pedestrians, and a lack of a complete sidewalk network are a few issues that negatively impact our ability to safely move around the Borough, and I hope we can address the infrastructure needs that will make our community even safer.
We are in the process of a grand renovation and eventual reopening of Holjes-Sheppard Memorial Park. This is a historic undertaking that will leave us with an inclusive, ADA compliant, playground. We will be paving part of a gravel road which used to wash out with heavy rainstorms, which will help with school drop-off and pick-up. This project should be complete( fingers crossed) later this spring, if the weather cooperates. What I would like to focus on in the years ahead is a long-term plan to ensure residents can safely bike, scooter, or walk from their homes to our newly renovated park to make full use of it and do so without needing to hop in their car and drive.
In particular, I think the Borough should come up with a long-term infrastructure plan including maintenance of streets and roads, as we do now, but also seeking to finish our sidewalk network in town, further tying our community together and providing a safer way for all of us to travel. This will not be finished in one term, but I hope to use my position as co-chair of the infrastructure committee to push the Council to adopt a more inclusive and transparent approach to future projects – we can always do better. I hope that we as a Council and as a community can renew our approach to these types of projects and proposals, viewing them not as short-term individual piecemeal projects, but as generational wholistic investments in quality of life in the Borough that will benefit the community for many years to come, and well beyond any one term in office.
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