Shamp Echoes Gore in Note To Council

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In an e-mail, sent on the same day as Gore’s, former town council member Joanne Shamp also took issue with the public safety committee survey stating it is ” poorly designed and lacks credibility due to the ability to bias results.” Here’s Shamp’s full e-mail…

Dear Council:

I received a copy of the public safety survey through my membership in the Woman’s Club. I would like to express some concerns:

  1. It appears that anyone can fill this out, on multiple devices, or I can have a friend/relative out- of-state who has never been here fill it out with any street name. It lacks validity as a result.
  2. Several issues are more appropriately addressed by experts in the fields of lighting, street/crosswalk design and environmental regulation. We all know we want safe lighting… no reason to ask. How Council will follow professional guidance and balance environmental regulation is their responsibility to enact.
  3. Issues like e-bikes on the beach are bad environmental policy. Why ask when you know they are fun but so detrimental to shore-birds, the public safely relaxing and walking along the shoreline, and property/liability for beachfront residential and commercial property owners? If you open to e-bikes, anyone can claim ADA and we will be open to golf carts. Why ask when Town Council already knows better?
  4. You know we have a problem with public safety services. You know our ordinances are not being properly enforced by LCSO. Why ask the public? Evaluate our needs, shift funding priorities and make the decisions necessary to protect residents and visitors. That is your primary role.

I appreciate the effort for public input, but this survey well intentioned but poorly designed and lacks credibility due to the ability to bias results.

This Town Council and others before you have discussed these issues ad nauseam. Please step up and use prior discussions, informed environmental and engineering guidance, the LDC and COMP PLAN and state regulations to create the policy now.

I encourage the five of you to immediately drop any unsafe, environmentally detrimental ideas and enact the other important safety policies before the budget rolls around again. The citizens and taxpayers here will appreciate your efficient, sound, fact-based decisions.

Thank you for your service.

Joanne Shamp