Genesis - Carla's version

In September 2005, there was a public hearing on the budget of the Montgomery Planning Organization which was duly advertised as required by law; however, I don't receive the Montgomery Advertiser, did not see the notice, and would not have known what it was if I had seen it. Would you know that this meant, "we are budgeting money to turn the 3-lane, heavily residential road you live on into a 5-lane major 'corridor'?"

OK the print's a little small, but what it says is the MPO will hold a public involvement meeting to gather input for the draft Fiscal Years 2006-2008 Transportation Improvement Program.

That was it, no contact by our city our county representatives, nothing. No indication of which roads or residents would be affected. Then last Fall (2006), we saw an article in the newspaper about the proposed widening of Perry Hill Road from I-85 to Harrison Road, which doesn't sound like that bad an idea, but again, nothing about the rest of Perry Hill to Atlanta Highway (fondly known as Phase II).

We heard nothing else until February 2007 when my boss, a public official, brought me a letter from the Alabama Department of Transportation (DOT) which solicited comments on the proposed widening of Perry Hill Road from Harrison Road to the Atlanta Highway. If I had not seen this letter, we never would have known this was in the works.

We immediately began research and fact gathering, and I was personally informed when I went to the DOT to look at proposed maps that there would be a public information meeting on April 5, 2007. I never saw a printed notice placed in local businesses as DOT indicated they would be, and never saw a notice in the paper for obvious reasons. If I had not made the effort to do some digging, I wouldn't have known about the public information meeting, either, and neither would most if not all of the neighbors who we encouraged to attend.

Because of our concern about this issue, we joined the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association. At its meeting on March 18, 2007, our esteemed councilman, Jim Spear, presented a map of the proposed widening project, and indicated that everyone thought this was a good idea except for "two little ladies" who just didn't want to see it happen. Greta being one of the little ladies, she stood up and said she felt he mischaractarized us, that we were not completely opposed to the idea, but that we had very real and important concerns and felt alternatives should be studied. I don't think the public involvement meeting was discussed or even known about at the time.

More history later . . .