Proposed apartments
will exacerbate dangers
I'm writing this letter out of concern over a large multi-family apartment complex project (RZN 19-6716) planned behind the Panera Bread Co. restaurant and along Mud Creek in Fayetteville.
The Lindsey Co. hopes to have rezoning of the parcel approved by the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
My wife and I have lived in the Brookhaven subdivision above Mud Creek since 2010. We walk almost daily along Mud Creek as do thousands of others.
I'm not against construction in general. Property owners have a right to develop their property and people need jobs. But high-density construction in this narrow little area between hillside and creek will ruin a delicate and, I think, irreplaceable part of Fayetteville's future.
What has to occur first is the extension of Vantage Avenue, spanning Mud Creek, to join East Sain Street. It has federal funding.
I wish there had also been federal funding to create a better traffic outlet to College Avenue. We can expect to see much more traffic coming out of these new Lindsey apartments trying to enter and exit one of the worst intersections in Fayetteville. I'm talking about the Millsap Road/Whole Foods demolition derby.
I know the City Council struggles to get the recipe right between development and preserving some of the natural beauty that makes Fayetteville the place it is. It can't be easy and there has to be enormous pressure from the different constituencies to vote one way or another.
So I'll just suggest that voting "no" won't bankrupt this builder or even put a dent in their profits.
I see a lot of undeveloped Lindsey property on the other side of Joyce Boulevard that they are trying to sell! That's where they could build their apartments.
I urge readers to contact the City Council immediately and tell them to vote "no" on this example of "progmess."
Jeff Reddekopp
Fayetteville
Womack doesn't listen
in town hall sessions
I attended the town hall on Wednesday, Aug. 28, hoping for more than U.S. Rep. Steve Womack gave in West Fork two years ago. It was the same request for civility, which collapses after listening to his speech quoting figures on budget numbers and he conveniently failed to state that Medicare and Social Security spending is up as the Baby Boomer population ages and gets better health care. Just wait until 2022 when the 1957 class turns 65.
Mr. Womack called the Mueller report a sham, and then went on to blame single parents for the gun violence menace to our lives, while stating that the people need more corporal punishment and God in their lives.
Mr. Womack fails to understand the premise of a town hall, which is a place for citizens to express their pleasure or dissatisfaction with their representative's votes. It is a place for the representative to listen, not to give the audience a lecture. He would listen to a question, and then give a 15-minute speech about it. The audience, including me, gets frustrated by his inability to listen, and his pompous preacher-like attitude.
Vote him out. He is not listening to any of his constituents. We need more reasoned intelligence in our representative to Congress. We deserve better.
Linnette Garber
Fayetteville
Editorial on 09/15/2019