The Wedgefield Examiner provides the following to the best of their ability. We suggest that you go to the WPA website, or The Wedgefield Times, to listen to the tape of the meeting, or start attending board meetings, and watch this board in action. The actions of the meeting will be provided in BLUE, and comments will be noted as such, and printed in RED.
One of the agenda items for the May WPA Board Meeting, under "Old Business" (Should be funny business.), was "tabled speed bump discussion". DeMarchi says that he has some hesitation regarding speed bumps each way, near the gate house. He doesn't feel we need them going in, and out, of the association. He has not heard a proposal that would work. Cline says speed bumps will work. John Walton says that he is against bolt down speed bumps. Someone at the board table says that the old story about them being problematic for ambulance, and fire trucks isn't so. Cline says cars were speeding in the day of the yard sale. It goes on and on, around the monkey pole. When the resident comment section opens up, a resident from the Wraggs Ferry area, says he hid out and watched the cars at the gate, and a high percentage of people are speeding. He further states that when he stops at the sign at the intersection of Wraggs Ferry and Wedgefield, he has almost been T-bowed, and it is just dangerous.
COMMENTS: First, in case you don't recall, McMillin brought speed bumps to the table at the April meeting. He had all his pricing, and put forth a motion to buy them. We covered this portion of the April meeting in another article, but to refresh your memory, he made wild claims about the speed of the cars exiting the circle to leave Wedgefield (60+ mph from stop sign to gate house), claimed his grounds volunteers and contractor were in danger, etc. Garrison stated at the time, that there hadn't been any complaints to the board. McMillin said there were complaints. I think Garrison was correct. If you are in doubt, make an appointment at the office to review the correspondence file.
This is not a new subject. Well over a year ago, DeMarchi brought speed bumps at the entrance to the board table. At that time, it was noted that there weren't any complaints. The subject died. Now, it appears that DeMarchi wanted it brought up under "Old Business", even though he doesn't like the plan presented so far. If you were at the May meeting, it could appear that the board has been cutting some more deals, in their "I'll wash your back, if you'll wash mine", style of legislating. Suddenly, every one is seeing speeders, large numbers of speeders, and their next move will probably be, to put speed bumps in. Once again, they'll be the experts. This time the safety experts, at our expense, and our inconvenience. It comes as no surprise to me, that suddenly we have, what could appear to be, manufactured witnesses, who never wrote the board before, to testify about the evil speeders in Wedgefield. Do we have some speeders? Yes, every community does. Should the law abiding pay for, and be inconvenienced by speed bumps? I don't think so.
As to the expertise of this board regarding road safety, it is probably no more, nor less than, former boards. I've lived here 11 years. About 5-6 years ago, a board decided that we needed stop signs at the intersection of Wedgefield and Francis Parker, and at another intersection on Wraggs Ferry, because of those awful speeders. Shortly after they were installed, there were reports of near accidents, because people were failing to stop at them. Then came complaints by people who stopped and claimed they were almost rear ended by the people behind them, who failed to stop. Then one day, no discussion at the board table, some board ripped them out.
This board appears, on numerous issues, to create their own statistics to benefit, their back slapping proposals. During the April meeting, there was a long pause, before McMillin even got a second to his motion. Now, we have Cline and DeMarchi verifying a need, with John Walton adding that he doesn't want the type of speed bumps that are screwed down. We have the resident, friend of McMillin, member of the dock dragging Water Amenities Committee, claiming he hid out where people couldn't see him, and reports, almost all of us, are speeders. I just can't wait for McMillin and DeMarchi, to get their speed bumps, (not screw downs, but permanent), at our expense.
