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Have the downtown Sandpoint streets revisions been thought through? Having spoken to several downtown business owners recently, I have the following questions that require answers from our city officials:

1. Is it true that First Avenue and Cedar Street will now go to two lanes, one in each direction?

2. If No. 1 is true, where are the delivery vehicles supposed to stop to make their deliveries? Or is this a planned source of revenue for the city, through parking tickets for every delivery vehicle that blocks the one lane going in its direction? If so, plan on prices going up, fewer parking spaces for downtown streets, and a lot of driver frustration for having to wait for delivery vehicles to move. Can you say “road rage?”

3. Is the latest concept of downtown Sandpoint, as presented by our city officials, somehow being modeled after Carmel or Monterey, Calif.?

4. Wouldn’t the monies being spent on these new traffic lights, street direction changes, concrete flower box extensions into the existing streets, be better spent on repairing/replacing our downtown streets’ infrastructure, so we can avoid street flooding due to street drains backing up whenever we have extended periods of rainfall and snow melt?

5. How are any of the proposed changes going to help alleviate the downtown parking problems?

I look forward to the city of Sandpoint responding to my questions, with a written response published in the Daily Bee, as soon/quickly as possible.

MICHAEL HARMELIN

Sandpoint