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Show TARDY TIMES « AUGUST 1992 - 7 To Pave or Not to Pave As a result of a chance conversation between Castle Valley resident Paul Sizemore and County commissioner Dave Knutson, the issue of paving Castle valley Drive (and maybe more), is once again before the commu- Castle Valley, if we were to become a higher speed community. Would we be willing to enforce speed limits if we had a higher speed - road built? We were told at the last Town Council meeting that the state speed limit for residential communities is 25 mph. That is Castle Valley's that now stopjust over Pace Hill be current speed limit How would we enforce this? Obviously the dust problem would be greatly reduced if we were to pave the main road. The dust situation is particularly bad for the people living in the lowest part of the valley, where there is both the most traffic and where the dust seems most inclined to drift towards the end of the day. While the FDA voted to spend tempted to come right on through our nity. Subsequently, in a meeting between Commissioners Knutson and Torres, our Mayor John Groo, and our roads supervisor Don 'I‘uft, we were told that there was a good chance that the county would chip seal Castle Valley Drive possibly sometime next spring. However, this same offer was initially tied to paving Shafer Lane and creating a connection at the end of Shafer Lane to the main paved read out $5,000 on experimental dust control by the Fire Station and the Seventh Day academy. While the pros and cons of whether to pave Castle Valley Drive are substantial by themselves, when the issue of turning Shafer Lane into a through road is added, the problem becomes a juicy one indeed. First, the offer from the county Commissioners was to chip seal or Armor Coat the road(s). The Town of Castle Valley would then be responsible for maintenance of the pavement. The roads would not be dedicated to the county (at least in this early version). Chip seal‘is the cheapest and least durable version of pavement. The 50 yard stretch of pot-holed pavement between our mailboxes and the Loop Road is an example of what is pro- traffic problems in the bottom of the valley? How much time would be saved by the school bus if it could cut through at Shafer? If we had a driving loop through the center of Castle Valley, would the huge Greyhound Trailways tour buses methods at the annual POA meeting last spring, that has not been pursued and may be dropped altogether if the chip seal seems to be a real possibility. .' The one choice we don’t have is to remain as we are. With our community growing as rapidly as it is, we are going to be changing in one direction or another. With increased population, we can choose between ever worsening dirt roads or various levels of surface treatments, ranging from chemical bonding agents to full pavement. Why is the County commission offering to do this? For one thing, they’ve had a surplus of funds in their roads budget this year. To try and use up these surplus funds, they‘re paving the mountain road up beyond Willow Basin (where Commissioner Torres has a summer home), they’re paving a road posed. However, this would be a large in Arches National Park, and have community because it‘s so beautiful? It certainly would make a nice loop for them and they are not going to care how it affects us. And would these various considerations outweigh the antagonisms within the community if any of the side roads were to become a connecting road, against the will of the majority of the people living on that road? For such a substantial decision to be made, it would seem that there should be very clear and compelling reasons pointing overwhelmingly in the direction of the action. —Jack Campbell 0e“MOO/v «9 Qt: W43? yea “5.7 6:4me PR‘ improvement over our current road tion continues to increase. (We are only 1/4 to 1/3 developed at this point.) At least for the first few years, we would be looking at substantial savings on grader maintenance of our main road. Another major issue is that of vehicle speeds. Even with the roads as rough as they are now, it’s common to see cars, and even cement trucks, barreling along Castle Valley Drive at high rates of speed. Parents worry that their kids are less safe as traffic speed increases. It‘s great to see the kids out riding their bikes and horses along the main street. Many would hate to see this feature lost to the kids and adults of scheduled road construction work way out in the extreme western part of Grand County just north of Canyonlands Park near the Green River. (And of course there's an election this fall.) Shafer Lane connection. Ah, yes, another of the perennial problems. Why was the paving of Shafer Lane sud- denly tied to the free paving of Castle Valley Drive? A delicate question possibly best deferred at this time. But, do we want to be a more private community, or do we want a through road running through us? Do we need a paved emergency exit which could become a regular through road? TRANSFORMATI ONAL BODYWORK Swedish, Deep Tissue, Lymphatic MASSAGE ENERGY BALANCING RADIANCE BREATHWORK LAURA MACERSKY, Ms.T. CVSR Box 1705 MOAB, UTAH 84532 801-259-8702 What about eh people who bought property on a side road because they didn't want to be on a main road? Would another access help future i‘r . surface, which turns to car abusing washboard ever more rapidly between gradings, as our Castle Valley popula- |