The in basket: Fred Chichester writes, “I have lived in the Navy
Yard City most of my life. I have found a
perfect walk from my house off of National Avenue. I walk up to
Loxie
Eagans and take a left and head up towards the State Patrol office.
There is sidewalk to that point.
“I like to walk up the Werner Road hill to the end up by the UPS
business at the end, and back. This is a challenging
walk with the hills and is a perfect 3 1/4 mile one-hour walk round
trip to
my house.
“I know numerous folks walk this route but you’re always
very
cautious with the traffic on the hill especially since there is no
actual
sidewalk. I always face traffic so I have the last ditch
option if a car ever comes toward me.
“(It) would be ideal if we could get a sidewalk at least on
the
side facing traffic going up the hill as it would make the walk a
lot safer and I bet even more folks would use it.”
The out basket: I’ve been of the impression that new sidewalks are built only as part of a larger road project, or as mitigation required during some business development.
But since providing for bicyclists and pedestrians is so much in vogue in the road building business these days, as evidenced by all the shoulder paving listed in Kitsap County’s six-year road plan (called the TIP), I asked county officials if that’s no longer true.
The county’s answer was brief. Greg Cioc, Kitsap’s transportation planner, said, “Mr. Chichester should submit his request and solution to the TIP process and it will be ranked with all other requests. Go to http://www.kitsapgov.com/pw/Tip_Project_Proposal_form.asp to submit an idea.”
The county commissioners approve the TIP each December, listing what is planned for the subsequent six years.
