EDITORIAL OPINION

Around 1995, folks living on 174^th Street wanted some traffic control measures added to their street due to high traffic and safety issues. The County Council promised to put $2 million into the issues. That $2 million was reallocated to a project in Gig Harbor a couple weeks later.

Spanaway and Frederickson had already been advocating for the Cross Base highway since 1982. Traffic on the residential street leading to Spanaway Loop Road was becoming dangerous. The left turn from Pacific Avenue to 174^th Street was having frequent accidents.

Finally, around 2001, authorization came to build parts of the Cross Base Highway on JBLM west of 176^th Street and the interchange at I-5 and Thorne Lane. Traffic at Pacific Avenue flowed onto the extension, but soon the horse stable owners in Brookwood teamed up with Lakewood officials (incorporated 1996) and the Sierra Club. Between environmental challenges and rumors started by Lakewood that the military base might close if surrounded by civilian highways, the Cross Base Highway was effectively destroyed by out of town forces that did not have to drive the overcrowded streets in Frederickson and Spanaway. An Extension and widening project for Canyon Road happened instead. No matter that Canyon didn’t actually go to I-5 either. The North extension for Canyon had been discussed since 1965 when SR-512 was built. The truckers just got onto SR512 at Canyon.

Promises made are not kept in unincorporated South County. New roads, extended to accommodate new warehouses in Frederickson are improved and citizen are told, the trucks will not use this other road. Yet, the trucks are there on precisely the roads not built for the weight of trucks. 38^th Avenue from 176^th to 192^nd and 208^th Street from 35^th Avenue to the Mountain Highway are two such roads. They were never improved from the oil and gravel paths they were in the 1960’s. They have no solid base layer for the weight of a loaded truck. Yet, the County never put up load limit signs that should have been in place directing the trucks onto improved roads that could handle their weight. Hundreds of trucks are using them daily. They are not wide enough, they have no sidewalks, just ditches. They are totally unsafe and the County does nothing but turn out their empty pockets and scowl.

Then Spanaway was promised Bus Rapid Transit in 2016. We were told if we vote for this bond (that will cost you hundreds more dollars on your car registrations) we will get trains, lite rail and BRT. The bond passed, but all the services went to King, Snohomish counties and just a thread of rail along the same route as I-5 to Dupont, a Weyerhaeuser development. The heart of the County never has gotten the BRT. After one or two meetings, there was a long pause, then word that light rail cost overruns were stalling projects. Now all that is left is a bus called the Stream on the same #1 route with fewer stops. Right. That was not worth what we are paying folks.

All along, residents in the unincorporated area keep asking about the rail line from Tacoma through Frederickson to Graham. Why not improve an existing rail? Seems like a no brainer.

And Canyon Road North? More delays. Money moved to extending SR167 to I-5. Money again flows North.

Bridges over the Puyallup River? How long until the Milroy Bridge is actually retired? It was overdue in the 1960’s. It is frightening to be on it next to a truck. There is a weight limit sign, but how well is that followed?

Now, with a sewer pipeline improvement closing Spanaway Loop Road, the lack of roadway infrastructure is heightened even more. Traffic accidents are even more frequent. And since the County added the zoning for high rise apartment buildings, there are more house fires than ever and more homeless on our streets. It appears these things are tied together. Along with the lack of improvements in Parkland Spanaway that are obvious in South Hill, how can we not be suspicious? The County is trying to let us rot. Why? Cheaper to buy us out for developers comes to mind.

But the people of Parkland Spanaway are not going to stand for this much longer. They are stepping up and buying up their own community bit by bit. Family Promise to help with homeless families with kids, the purchase of the Parkland School for local services, revitalization of the Clover Creek Council as the Clover Creek Restoration Alliance, and more.

We have seen your promises and your taxes and come up empty handed over and over. You lie to us as much as Custer lied to the Indians, or the County lied to property owners moved off the range land for Fort Lewis. We have a long history in the South County of being misled. The airport, the dump, Port of Tacoma Frederickson, the tiny house village also come to mind.

If we hear, “Hi. We’re from Tacoma (Gig Harbor, Puyallup, Seattle) and we are here to help you.” Don’t expect a warm welcome. You don’t actually fool us. That’s why we vote no so much.

Let’s see those B Street sidewalks. Or, has the grant money already been wasted on greasy palmed consultants?

For once, try actually following through and doing something good for us for a change. Maybe commuter rail from Tacoma, to Frederickson, to Graham? Heck, take it all the way to Eatonville. Or improve SR507 to Centralia. Yes, it misses Olympia, that’s a good thing now.

Some wet behind the ears planners and officials need to listen to us old codgers before it’s too late. We are so behind on infrastructure, and it just keeps getting more expensive to put it off. But still, we get put off.

Please, share this with the brainiacs in Seattle at the Puget Sound Regional Council. Make them come to a meeting down here -preferably at rush hour.