This cats’ name is Buffy. It Belongs to Biha Wachira, whose phone number is (817) 925-2238. Buffy did not come home on Wednesday of this week. Please call Biha if you know where it is.
Reminder: There are several known apex predictors in our area. Bears, Bobcats, Coyotes, Eagles, and large Hawks have been seen here. Any one of these can make short work of pets.
Another missing cat! Tink escaped her home on 5/16. She is mostly gray, some white and long-haired. She may be scared but very friendly. She’ s a new kitty to the neighborhood. Last seen near the north end of 136th Ave E. Please call her owners if you have seen her. 253-820-2580 or 206-992-2577
Elvin Lerew aske me to post this for the SR162 Community Group.
The SR162 Community Group has been working alongside the Tehaleh development and Tehaleh has submitting a formal request to the legislature that SR162 be examined along with the other possible state corridors to serve the traffic from Tehaleh’s new highway down to SR162/128th.
The Tehaleh development will be bringing a massive amount of traffic to the valley when their new road is built. A large portion of that traffic will be westward bound and will be using Military Road as that east-west corridor. As you may know, the SR162 Community Group has proposed that the county consider a 128th street westbound extension from SR162/128th to reduce traffic on SR162 and Military road. The county has completed an initial study on this proposal and have agreed that it is viable.
We need to move ahead with the next level of a feasibility study. Because this new corridor would serve to lighten the load on SR162, the state has a stake in the success of this new corridor and should support it by joining with Pierce County on the assessment process of how to create it.
Your support is needed to convince the legislature that SR162 is an important corridor for Pierce County and needs to be included in the ongoing study for an improved east-west transportation corridor that would improve traffic flow on SR161 (Meridian), SR7 (Pacific Ave) and SR507 (Spanaway McKenna Hwy).
The legislature is now in session, but only for 90 days. Please contact your legislature now and ask that SR162 improvements be examined along with other possible state corridors to serve the traffic from Tehaleh’s new highway. You can find an easy reference to key legislators and their email addresses on the SR162 Community Group Please Help web page, https://sr162traffic.org/Please-Help/
We need your help so that Military Road does not end up with stop and go traffic and so that SR162 does not become even worse than it is.
Elvin Lerew ask that this be posted. We need to answer this survey to get our voices heard.
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Currently new roads are being approved or updated without looking first at what the end result of those projects will be. Three good examples come readily to mind.
In all three cases the result has been/will be greatly increased traffic on 122nd St. E. with vehicles trying to get to South Meridian and/or points south. Already Military Rd. E. is a virtual parking lot at certain times of the day.
I live east of Shaw Rd. E. and must take 122nd St. E. to access the main part of South Hill unless I want to go down into the valley and take SR 162 in a very circuitous route. As you know the traffic on 122nd St. E. has increased several fold over what it was as little as seven years ago. I no longer take Military Rd. E. to the intersection of 122nd St. E. and Military Rd. E. when I am going down into the valley as I feel it has become too dangerous to do so. A couple of years ago I was entering 122nd St. E. from Military Rd. E. traveling towards Shaw Rd. E. and had accelerated so that I was a hundred yards or so on 122nd St. E. I was overtaken by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed which swerved into the oncoming lane to pass me and then swerved back to miss the oncoming vehicles. Fortunately, this is not a common occurrence, but I remember it many times when I go onto 122nd St. E.
Now we have another potentially serious problem at the corner of Shaw Rd. E. and 122nd St. E. where a housing project with 120 dwellings is being built. I understand that homes 300ft. from the project were notified of it and a yellow sign was posted along Shaw Rd. E. at some time. Since there is no place to pull off and read the sign it was not very informative. Therefore, the project was kept pretty quiet. I understand that it is estimated that the project will generate almost 1000 trips a day, and this was deemed as insignificant. So insignificant that a dedicated turn lane was not even required. When the road from Tehaleh is pushed through and traffic uses 122nd St. E. to access South Hill, South Meridian and all the subdivisions to the south, things will become truly horrible.
It seems to me that Pierce County is going at things backward. They have known for a long time that their plans will funnel traffic through 122nd St. E., turning a sleepy secondary road into a nightmare for residents who live along it. Especially since some homes have driveways which meet 122nd St. E. directly. Would not it have made more sense to first connect 122nd St. E. to S. Meridian even if you had to exercise Imminent Domaine to do so and widen the existing 122nd St. E. to accommodate the increased traffic that other road projects will bring? Or perhaps extend 128th St. E. so that it meets 128th St. E. on the top of South Hill. Instead, Pierce County has chosen to create a problem by not looking at the consequences of their actions and doing things backward. When Pierce County closed Shaw Rd. E. for a long project, people discovered that they could go from the valley and up Military Rd. E./122nd St. E. to bypass the construction on Shaw Rd. E. This greatly increased the traffic on Military Rd. E./122nd St. E., and it remains increased to this day. The plan to drive a new road into the valley from Tehaleh will surely increase the traffic up Military Rd. E./122nd St. E. many fold.
It is past time for Pierce County to be proactive in its road planning and to look at the problems new roads will produce. Then they can start at the correct place to alleviate potential problems the increase in traffic will cause.
Wayne Reibold wanted this posted. Sounds like Puyallup may be ready to listen to the people who actually use the roads.
Please Check out this link.
Puyallup Announces Shaw Road Open House | Puyallup, WA Patch
https://patch.com/washington/puyallup/puyallup-announces-shaw-road-open-house
Wayne Reibold and Jeff Sparks both asked that we let the Neighborhood know what was going on with State Route 162 and the roundabouts proposed. To read about what is happening go to: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/puyallup-herald/ph-news/article248066285.html
Below is some information from a County Traffic Planner about the traffic study which was just started. If more information becomes available we will let you know.
Dan Cardwell, Long Range Planning Supervisor, referred to me your question regarding the presence of traffic counters in your neighborhood. I passed on your inquiry to our traffic engineering group. They indicated that they are now collecting field data to assess and evaluate an community member’s concern at the intersection of 136th Ave E and Military Rd E. Scott Moeller, ( scott.moeller@piercecountywa.gov ) , Civil Engineer, of the Traffic Section staff is the point of contact for this project. Based on the timeline of 4 to 6 weeks for this investigation, you may want to contact Scott at the end of December or beginning of January to check the status of this assessment. I am copying Scott on this email for your reference and to make him aware of your possible interest in this issue.
Wayne Reibold has alerted us to another future traffic problem at the bottom of Shaw Road. The City of Puyallup is looking at a huge expansion of warehouse space in what was formally Knutson Farms, between East Pioneer and East Maine. This will adversely impact the traffic entering and leaving Shaw Rd. at East Pioneer or East Maine.
Please go to the link below and check it out. This is just another example of the failure to have a realistic traffic plan for this area, and we the residents are the ones who will suffer for the lack of foresight.