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Early voting for the May 10 general election began Monday. What issues concern you the most? If your city is not holding elections, what initiatives, if any, would you like to see your City Council take on this year?
Jerry Frankel, Plano: As a longtime Plano resident, there are several areas where our community does not provide vital services. In Plano, we have thousands of residents who lack access to health care because they are under- or uninsured. Many suffer in silence, eventually forced by severe illness to go to the ER late in their illness. Plano is a wealthy community, and nothing is more important than one’s health.
Besides establishing primary clinics throughout Plano, elected officials need to discuss with county commissioners how to re-establish hospital services for the uninsured as it was done before selling off the county hospital. There are several affordable options to provide these services besides building a public hospital. Related to public health, the air we breathe is polluted by a cement factory south of Dallas. Elected officials need to exert their authority as the responsible party for a healthy environment and urge the EPA and the state to clean the air we breathe by taking appropriate action against polluters and, if necessary, sue the major polluters of our land, water and air.
Charles Raper, Plano: My fear for the future of our nation is the loss of constitutional government and the laws which protect it. Another concern is the overt attacks by the administration on Christianity, the religion which has been the root of our form of government. I think Plano is a well-managed city, but I think we should go to single-member districting to get more people involved in the management and reduce the cost of running for city positions.
Carol MacDonald, Plano: My current pet peeve is drivers sitting in the right lane but not turning right. Especially during rush hour at Plano Parkway and Preston Road. Because there is no designated right turn only lane, it can take several cycles to make a simple right turn because one car is holding up six cars wanting to turn right. Perhaps there are other such intersections needing new lane designations?
Something the City Council needs to address soon is the deplorable condition of many of the aging community walls along our major thoroughfares. Back where I grew up outside of Texas, ownership of property extended from curb to back line and driveway to driveway. But not in Texas. Our homeowners associations are supposed to take care of the walls and landscaping facing the streets outside the walls. Evidently landscaping remains HOA responsibility, but walls are city responsibility. It’s quite clear that some walls are being ignored by both and those walls need to be identified and repaired. Perhaps a team of vigilante digital photographers can help document the worst areas. Park, Parker, Independence, Coit, Custer and Alma come to mind, but there are other areas as well.
Bob Jackson, Plano: We are very fortunate to have City Council members who study the issues from all angles before making any decisions with how our tax money is spent. For this we should all be very grateful. I’ve lived here for almost 40 years now and can truly say that for the most part, during those 40 years we have elected citizens who take their job very seriously and represent themselves in a very responsible manner. I really do not have any suggestions or ideas at this time. I truly do appreciate the time, efforts, and commitments that these men and women serve our community in representing our needs and making our city such a desirable place to live.
Ted Gold, Plano: The three most important issues to address both a locally and statewide: water, water and water. Nothing else to say.
Don Proeschel, Plano: I would first like to focus on what is right with Plano, having lived most of my last 34 years in Collin County and Plano. The changes in our population size — from 72,000 to 270,000 — and the addition of a number of world-class companies since 1980 have been wonderful to observe. We have an excellent public school system, low crime and numerous well-maintained libraries, parks and trails.
With the city nearly completely built out for constructing new residences, I believe our focus needs to be on continuing to attract new jobs and businesses to Plano, maintaining our infrastructure (roads, bridges and utility lines), eliminating decay in our older homes and apartments, and continuing to implement the county’s open space plans by building and repairing hike and bike trails.
Let’s energize our community even more to help repair and clean up aging residences. Recently, the Love Where You Live projects, involving more than 300 residents, many churches, businesses and city staff working together, was a terrific success, with potential for even greater impact. Finally, we need to determine how we can best serve the needs of our increasingly diverse population in our schools, places of worship and businesses.
Arnell L. Engstrom, Plano: In this time of serious drought and severely low lake reservoir levels, I would like to see Plano more vigorously pursue lawn sprinkler violations because, if truth be told, they seems a bit lax currently. And do it even if that means more money spent on enforcement monitoring.
I would also like to see Plano set up an annual or semiannual community-wide garage sale at one of their recreation centers the way Dallas does at the Campbell Green Recreation Center.
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