Bloviations

The City of Jacksonville’s Trails and Greenways Commission (a citizen advisory board met last night at the Jacksonville Commons Senior Center.

According to the City of Jacksonville’s application for and descriptions of the Citizen Advisory boards (warning: It’s an Adobe PDF), the Trails and Greenways Commission

…advises the City Council on all aspects of bicycle and pedestrian trails
and greenways within the City of Jacksonville. This Commission meets the third Monday of each month at 6:00 PM in the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Complex, 100 Recreation Loop Road. Qualifications: Six (6) members shall reside within the city limits; two (2) of which may be residents of the City’s ETJ. Membership shall also include one (1) member from each of the following Boards: Recreation and Parks Commission, Planning Board, and Beautification and Appearance Commission, plus one representative from Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base.

Almost everything regarding the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan and Rails-to-Trails is covered by this Commission, and so I felt that attending the meeting would be a worth-while use of my time.

And it was.

I discovered several bits of information…

• The City has delayed funding for the Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd. portion of the path (connecting downtown Jacksonville to the Rails-to-Trails path near the old Camp Knox entrance by the pedestrian bridge) until 2010. Why the delay? It seems that the Camp Lejeune leadership failed to return to the City a letter of support (most of the construction for the path would be within Camp Lejeune’s borders) for the path.
• The ribbon-cutting for the Rails-to-Trails project is planned for June 28 2008. The location is yet-to-be-determined, but the Commission is hoping to use the old Camp Knox entrance by the pedestrian bridge over Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd.
• The City is looking at expanding the canoeing/kayaking opportunities. Several sites were identified as possible canoe/kayak launches along the New River and Northeast Creek. Possible sources of funding were identifed as well.
• There is a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, April 23 2008) at 11am in the City Hall (meeting rooms A and B) about the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to attend, but I’d really like to be there. Also, there is talk of a display in the Jacksonville Mall related to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan and a requirement for an additional public hearing.

I’m disappointed in Camp Lejeune’s refusal failure to provide support for the City’s path from downtown to join with the path in front of the Tarawa Terrace housing areas. I understand there was a change of Base leadership, but that didn’t affect staff and it is the staff that drives these types of decisions. There is no valid reason, none at all, that I can see where Camp Lejeune should not have sent the letter supporting the construction of the path. In fact, I’m willing to guess the Base also has some monies that could be used to assist in the construction.

If you’re interested in writing the Base Commander and requesting his support for the construction of the path, the address is below:

Commanding Officer
Marine Corps Base
PSC Box 20004
Camp Lejeune, N.C. 28542-0004 

On another note: It’s important that citizens be active in the activities of the City. The City Council and Mayor can’t take intelligent action on items if they don’t know how their constituencies feel. AM and I were the only non-commission members at the meeting last night. Take a part in your government, people. Otherwise, shut up and stop complaining when the City doesn’t do what you want.