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Public Safety

If you drive around Treasure Island you better pull that seat belt a little tighter. It seems that the Treasure Island City Commission is not at all concerned whether or not the city streets are safe. They are however, concerned about their own image, how to pass the buck, move on to other business or whether or not they are liable if they refuse to accept the recommendation from the City’s chief engineer.

Two studies, the recommendation of the City’s chief engineer and a total of 8 car crashes in the past two years might be a clue to any reasonable individual that there is a problem at a particular intersection and that traffic control devices are warranted. Unfortunately for those who traverse the streets of Treasure Island, try to find a “reasonable” person on Treasure Island’s City Commission.

The Commission hired a guy who claims he is the “traffic light guy of the year” to study the entrance to Paradise Island along with the intersection of 104th, 107th and 108th avenues. “The traffic light guy of the year” came up with new traffic light designs for both intersections and recommended the City follow his plans to replace the lights at Paradise in addition to installing lights at the triangle. In yet another display of disdain for the City’s business district, the Commission accepted the recommendation for the revamping of the lights at Paradise Island but didn’t want to hear anything about placing lights at the triangle. The “traffic light guy of the year” sensing the Commissioner’s deaf ears and not wanting to lose future business, backed down on his recommendation for the triangle’s proposed traffic lights.

Thankfully, there are Citizens who didn’t turn a deaf ear and want to make the City’s streets as safe as possible. Those Citizens stood before the Commission on June 28th and presented their case which is 8 crashes in two years at an intersection in a town as small as Treasure Island is unacceptable, the City’s top engineer has been saying for two years there needs to be traffic lights at that intersection, the 2nd phase of the City’s master plan includes lights at that intersection, most recent study showed a need for the lights and it was budgeted.

The reaction from the Commission was to be expected. Commissioner Kraus turned red and began to rant and rave. How dare anyone question a Kraus decision! Commissioner Collins, as he does with anything that’s not his idea, didn’t want to hear anything about it. Commissioner Gayton, as he does with every decision, wanted to pass the buck to a group of self appointed “City Leaders”. The Mayor just wanted to give out another beautification award and believe it or not, Commissioner Bildz wanted to know if he would be sued if he followed the rest of the Commission and ignored the issue.

The real problems are the Commission could care less about the downtown business district and the Citizens who want this safety measure enacted are not part of Treasure Island’s ruling elite. Two years ago while the east approach bridge was under construction and foot traffic was not allowed to cross the bridge, Olivia Cox demanded that the city build a temporary wooden foot bridge at the construction site so that people, mainly her hired help, could cross the bridge. Kraus and Collins tripped all over themselves to keep Olivia and the Ray Green machine happy by spending what has turned out be nearly $50,000.00 for a temporary foot bridge that I never saw anyone use. You could bet the bank that if it was Olivia, Marie Barba or one of the Daughtry’s asking for traffic lights to be placed at the intersection, those lights would appear overnight.