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I applaud Jeff Gill's reporting on our transportations issues in Hall County. I feel there are two distinct causes to our problems: the school board and developers.
The Hall County School Board has been repeatedly opening schools where the roads are not capable of safely handling the increased level of traffic. Look at the third-world traffic patterns Spout Springs Elementary used from 2000-2008, prior to Flowery Branch High School being opened, and even then it took another year before anything acceptable was in place.
I fear the rear entrance of that same high school on Elizabeth Lane will be the next location of a dedication cross for a child lost to a car accident.
How did they allow the 1,000-acre Sterling Lake Subdivision, and the Prince of Peace Church to open without the owners/developers improving the public facilities they now overwhelm? How did they allow the old FBHS campus to be built between Cash and Credit on Hog Mountain Road without signals?
Drive down Cash Road, enter any subdivision, and look at sight lines the residents deal with every morning. Thank God for daylight-savings time so at least we can see the headlights coming around the corners.
Politicians conveniently add the necessary improvements that should have been in place to the SPLOST list, a listing that has become little more than a continuous blackmail of hidden taxes they take from us 1 cent at a time for items should have been paid for by the developers.
Consider how the promises of the previous SPLOSTs went unmet (according to Oakwood) when we are again asked in 2012 to add another cent in consumption taxation for transportation relief.
Why do we open schools on road networks where we would not allow any other commercial entity to add traffic? Apparently to keep property taxes artificially low by forgoing necessary improvements for traffic. I completely understand North Hall's contention that too much of our resources are going to South Hall, but it is because the county commission has allowed too many developers to add traffic without improving infrastructure.
Pray tell the new commissioners will halt these practices or we'll be asked to spend millions again to provide utilities recreation, or transportation improvements that developers should have put in place for developments like Cool Springs and Sterling on the Lake.
Finally, our school board should be required to put in place all the necessary transportation improvements needed for our children to safely get to their next new school.
Bill Finnick
Flowery Branch