The Saratoga Springs City Council took a big step toward making the city a more bike-friendly community Tuesday night Sept. 21, unanimously approving a resolution that Bikeatoga and the Safe Cycling Coalition submitted. The council committed $330,000 to new Complete Streets projects over the next three years.
"I'm very pleased that we have the Council's support and I welcome Commissioner Madigan's announcement that funds will be available for this work," said Ed Lindner who presented the resolution to the city council. Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan had included the resolution as part of her agenda.
"I'm hopeful that this demonstration of overwhelming community support will encourage the next city council to build on this work and start putting paint on the road," Lindner said.
The next step, the board agreed, is to identify priority projects, a process that will coordinated by the Complete Streets Advisory Board with a consulting engineer.
While the 2016 Complete Streets Plan adopted by the Council lists a number of priority projects that might be implemented, Madigan noted that other priority projects might be identified.
"As we pass this resolution, I want to assure the council that we want to work with the [Department of] Public Safety, traffic, the Complete Streets Advisory Board, and Bikeatoga and come up with some good projects that we can implement to really start connecting our community," she said.
"I have the greatest respect for the Complete Streets Advisory Board, their technical expertise and their devotion to this issue," Lindner added. "But this is a collaborative process. Public Safety needs to be involved. Public Works needs to be involved. It makes no sense for Public Safety to stripe the street this week if Public Works is going to repave it next week. We need to coordinate these projects so that over time we can get them done."
SaratogaCoLab will work with Bikeatoga, the Safe Cycling Coalition, and the Complete Streets Advisory Board to host and publish conversations that help to move these projects forward.
Editor's Note: This story comes to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com in its collaboration with SaratogaCoLab: "Content with Purpose." Its purpose is to help students to learn various facets of journalism while following stories in the public interest in Saratoga County. Read about the CoLab here.