Riverview trail the result of a collaborative partnership
This past week, there was an article on the Safe Routes to Riverview School project in the Post Independent. While the article provided a great update on the status of the project, it did not mention the partnership responsible for getting the project to where it is today.
This has been a complex project with unique challenges, and the fact that we are planning to break ground this spring is the result of a collaborative partnership with Garfield County and RFTA. We are grateful to Commissioner Tom Jankovsky, who has been our point person, and to Commissioners John Martin and Mike Samson for their support as well. Deputy County Manager Fred Jarman has worked tirelessly on this project, helping navigate complex and complicated issues. Dan Blankenship with RFTA, along with other staff and the RFTA board, have gone out of their way to provide support that will help ensure this truly is a “safe route.” There are other individuals on the planning, engineering and design teams who continue to find creative solutions to these complex challenges.
This project has been a great example of when entities like Garfield County, RFTA and RFSD work together, a lot can be accomplished. We know that without their commitment, collaboration, and partnership, this project would not be possible. For that, we are extremely grateful.
Jeff Gatlin
Chief Operating Officer
Roaring Fork School District
Gutters need to be cleaned
One thing that has put a crimp in many a person’s mountain living style is a small but very, very large matter on our errands and yet there is an insurmountable problem: the icy, rock-hard, slush-filled gutter at the end of each sidewalk, which must connect to the other sidewalk at the crossing of the street.
The problem is insurmountable because we are not (usually) equipped while out and about with skis, snowshoes, crampons, ice choppers, hatchets and shovels to gain entry to the other side of this impediment.
Also there is the huge problem of pedestrian access to the safely shoveled sidewalk from the car we have parked in the street. In front of the library, for instance, you have to walk the length of the block in the busy street once you’ve parked in order to have smooth access to the sidewalks via a driveway. The law in GWS requires businesses to keep sidewalks that front their establishments shoveled and safely assessable. This should include shoveling out the gutter.
This year I have a knee I’ve tweaked. I signed up at the community center (finally) for their excellent programs for senior citizens. Within its walls I meet wonderful people. One problem stops me cold: the filled gutter blocking the entry to this facility.
On a day in which the sun melted such slush just enough for me to work with, I brought my ice hacker and shovel in order to hack out enough room at the gutter to step across to dry pavement. I chopped and chopped. I contemplated other scenarios in which I were to wear my yak tracks and take a three-foot leg spread, pivot precariously on my walking stick and launch my hind leg across but that is something my knee couldn’t do. I could take a running jump, but ummm, no.
Anyway, successfully hacked, I went in to talk to the gracious young lady at the desk. I told her that in order to be standing there telling her about my desire to work out today. She kindly said she would see to it that it was taken care of. Thank you young lady.
Let us all walk safely this winter…
Bobbie Meriwether
Glenwood Springs
