HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-14-21 Public Comment - R. Carpenter - Kagy BlvdFrom:agenda@bozeman.net
To:Agenda
Subject:Thank you for your public comment.
Date:Tuesday, December 14, 2021 11:56:33 AM
A new entry to a form/survey has been submitted.
Form Name:Public Comment Form
Date & Time:12/14/2021 11:56 AM
Response #:1434
Submitter ID:46872
IP address:47.45.130.131
Time to complete:25 min. , 41 sec.
Survey Details
Page 1
Public comment may be submitted via the form below, or by any of the following options.
Public comment may also be given at any public meeting.
Email:
agenda@bozeman.net
Mail to:
Attn: City Commission
PO Box 1230
Bozeman, MT 59771
First Name Randy
Last Name Carpenter
Email Address randy@future-west.org
Phone Number 4065828937
Comments
Madam Mayor and City Commissioners,
I understand that the Commission is considering the community's Capital Improvement Plan at your next
meeting. I request that you reschedule the Kagy Blvd expansion project to out years.
I believe that the City needs to give this project further thought for several reasons: 1) the public
engagement process for this project fell woefully short of the City's stated goals for citizen involvement; 2)
it is quite likely that a widened Kagy will, after its construction, incur many times more costs to the taxpayer
in maintenance and replacement than the benefits the city will reap; 3) traffic counts on Kagy have been
dropping since 2016 and the need for this project at any cost are uncertain.
A further note on public engagement: I believe that the original public engagement for this project almost 6
years ago was pretty good. However, since the project was brought back to the Commission early this year,
citizens have been largely left out of the process, save for the ability to speak for 3 minutes at the City
Commission meeting last spring, in which our minutes were opposite the long, (surely expensive)
presentation made by staff that in my opinion was egregiously one-sided.
After that meeting, I thought, if I "owned" the City of Bozeman, and my staff pitched a $16.8m road to you
(37% of the cost of our public safety center!) without giving both the upside and downside of it, I would ask
for a 2nd opinion. If staff kept insisting that their proposal was the only viable option, with no downsides,
no risk, while an alternative carried only risks, and no upsides, I would respond, you're not making a fully-
informed, balanced case, and this is too much money to risk. The numbers you and your team presented to
me seemed to be full of assumptions about the future but were cloaked in the language of assured science.
Go back and do a legit comparison of the two and come back to me - not to make an argument, but to
present both sides and let me make the decision.
I request that you consider this advice and move Kagy off the near-term CIP.
Thank you,
Randy Carpenter
1108 South Black
Bozeman, MT
If you would like to submit additional documents (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .gif, .jpg, .png, .rtf, .txt)
along with your comment, you may alternately address agenda@bozeman.net directly to ensure
receipt of all information.
Thank you,
City Of Bozeman
This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email.