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The Goldendale City Council met last night in a meeting postponed from its usual Monday night schedule by the Labor Day holiday. The two-hour session was notable for the number of people who showed up for public comment to complain about delays and problems with the major reconstruction of Byers Street.
Former council member Guy Theriault was among the most outspoken:
“The first issue I came up with was dust. It’s to the point that one of my neighbors, he had to move himself and his daughter out because they have respiratory problems.”
He and other neighbors complained about the rolled curbs that were laid along the street, including across the face of their driveways. He noted that residents had requested speed bumps to slow traffic on the busy street, but were told that wouldn’t be possible because it would cause difficulty with snowplows:
“But yet every single driveway on Byers now has a speed bump in front of it. We have to clean the driveway in front of our house. We can’t use our little snowplow or whatever. O’m going to have to get down there with a snow blower or a shovel or a broom or whatever to clear my driveway.”
Others told of how those curbs across their driveways were high enough that cars would get high-centered trying to get into their driveways, some of which are quite steep.
Theriault also said that crews had broken his water line and let rocks and sand in, which clogged his faucets, damaged fixtures, and left him afraid to wash his car lest he inadvertently sand-blasted it.
And finally Theriault said:
” And we were told our road’s going to be done in time for the fair. Well, that was last month. We’re only in our fourth month of construction – June, July, August and September. Four months for our road being tore down.”
City Administrator Pat Munyan, who has only been on the job a few weeks, said he and the traffic safety committee would meet today about the matter and see what could be done.