Residents urgently plead with city council

    Snow fell rapidly, the roads grew slick and the temperature dropped - however the weather didn't keep Leavenworth residents subsided. The January 22 city council meeting was a full house so much to the extent, the meeting was standing room only. An impressive number of people joined their neighbors to vocalize their thoughts and grievances to their city representatives. After 20 people spoke and even those who didn't speak but murmured agreement in the audience, it was clear there was a shared opinion throughout the crowd - something has to be done about traffic.
    Each individual made it clear there was no question that there was an intense push for council to study peak traffic on the weekends rather than the week, as previously studied.
    "Realistically we just can't keep adding to the traffic load in the way that we are without looking at the actual traffic the way it exists during the peak traffic times which are not the ones you're using", Julie Hamstreet.
    With a two minute time limit in place, that Mayor Farivar ended up extending for some, residents came to the mic armed with notes, emotion and one man even had a graph to better demonstrate his point.
    "There's only 200 (peak traffic) hours they choose from (referring to WSDOT and its traffic study). Out of those 200 hours, 64 of those peak hours happened on Sunday, 72 out of the 200 peak hours on Friday, 55 out of the 200 happened on Saturday," said Zeke Reister. "So I would suggest the evidence is there and provides that to take care of this community we need those weekend traffic hours."
    Complaints typically fell under the umbrella of traffic concern - but several issues within  that subject ranged from air pollution, to fears of emergency vehicles being unable to reach elderly neighbors and just general frustration of being in a gridlock returning from an afternoon trip to Wenatchee.
    "Ignoring intense weekend traffic affects everyone and not just traffic delays. Stacked cars along Highway 2 emit much higher air pollution because they move slowly through the city," said Ann Crosby. "We do not need to wait another year for another study to be completed, rather we ask you tonight to change city policy and code to reflect the obvious weekend impacts. The council seems to be reluctant to maintain this environment: land reserves, efficient transportation, clean air and water."
    Most of the residents acknowledged that tourism is key to the city's flourishing economy and were self-aware that backtracking to decades prior when the city was near bankruptcy was not the solution that they were proposing.  
    "The population hasn't increased that much since 1910, though it did have a serious decline when the railroad and the mining and the logging dried up. The town pretty much died," Heidi Forchemer, a resident of the town since 1977. "Traffic is simply going to be a problem. We cannot change that people travel over Highway 2 on their way to other places and I don't think it's fair to suggest we don't go through our town. Let's focus on actual solutions and issues and not create a sense of hysteria."
    Those that filtered up to the microphone didn't just come to address their concerns, but some even offered what they had brainstormed as possible solutions or suggestions for the council to consider.
    "Please do not push this off for next year, please put this question of peak traffic into the planning commission docket for 2019," said Duane Goehner.  
    Mayor Farivar also suggested later at the meeting that the review of peak traffic hours be on the docket as well - but still encouraged using the resources and data provided from the corridor study before leaping into the peak traffic study.
    "I really worked hard to get the traffic corridor study funded by WSDOT, the CDCT and the city of Leavenworth. Moving ahead studying peak traffic before that study is completed, or at least its preliminary findings, feels very premature to me," said Farivar. "One of the things we need to know in our city is what portion of our congestion comes from Highway 2, something we can't control. How much of that traffic is through traffic as opposed to traffic that comes to Leavenworth. And we can't have that information without completion of this study. If we start studying the peak traffic question without all the data, I just feel like it's foolishness."
    The steady stream of traffic concerns and even the council member's own ranking of what they considered to be a priority for the Planning Commission's docket for 2019 prompted review of peak traffic hours to be a secondary 2019 project.
    "I would like peak traffic on the docket. Anything that we're doing we're hearing about that (and Adventure Park)," said Sharon Waters. "I think folks would feel like they were listened to if we make an effort."