A (nice) letter to Az. Dept. of Transportation

Hi Jim,

I just sent an email to Sen. O'Halleran RE: the Sycamores. I've pasted it below; it's a little impassioned, but maybe that's what's needed. Hope it helps... I'm in Ca, but hope I'm back in time for your meeting. I have some medical stuff going on at the moment so I can't commit, but please advise me when your meeting will be and I will do my best to be there.

Thanks
Jim DeGeorge



Dear Senator O'Halleran,

ADOT appears out of control and empire building. One of the most scenic highways in America, "Hwy179 through the Village of Oak Creek and Sedona," has been fully turned into a long term ADOT Boondoggle, at the complete expense of the one of a kind resources they are destroying, almost in secret and without a blink, such as the historical Sycamores along and across from Tlaquepaque, as well as all those they have twisted land from to do it, and all businesses now facing failure in the Village of Oak Creek, that were unprepared and taken by surprise the long and drawn out megaloexpanded mess ADOT turned what was supposed to be a reasonable road improvement project into. They rammed this thing down Sedona's throat and arrogantly implemented a succession of large footprint "Roundabouts" (BAD IDEA) on a road where tourists in motorhomes are likely to encounter them for the first time on a daily basis. For the Bureaucracy called ADOT, I guess that's OK with them, as long as it expands their project regardless of what is lost, and whom gets hurt... It is possible I may be of use in putting those injured in accidents in touch with the appropriate imported Contingency Trial Lawyers when it's time to Sue the State for allowing a dangerous succession of roundabouts to be built there in the first place. ADOT will have turned our scenic Hwy into what amounts to a live action reality Motorhome and tourist driving school, complete with real blood....

This brings me to my appeal to you, to do whatever is required to rein in that rabid Bureaucracy called ADOT, with a spiked choke chain if need be, because they are hurting real people...badly, and destroying one of Arizona's most scenic corridors, all in the name of their expanding Bureaucracy. I never did buy into the integrity of their "DATA DUMP" public hearings, and when last minute oily tactics such as what they are pulling on Wendy at Tlaquepaque, regarding the destruction of those Historic Sycamores happen, all such misgivings are fully validated, and a call to statewide action is required. After all, if ADOT has grown so arrogant that they would pull this crap in Sedona, then the folks in "NO Name Butte" don't stand a chance, now do they? If our elected officials are unable or unwilling to stop this kind of corrupt garbage, then it falls upon a concerned public to use what influence they have, to get rid of those elected officials and to tie ADOT up in so much red tape and culpability, that a dollar's worth of work costs thousands of dollars, and to do this statewide until ADOT's activities are in line with actual needs and our "newly" elected officials keep them that way.

I may be singing to the choir here, as I'm told that you have been very helpful in assisting Wendy with this matter so I thank you, and ask that you continue to move this matter forward without relent. Also, let this letter help serve notice that many outraged voices are being added to Wendy's, many in silence, and if proper address through our good faith appeal still fails, and this bad faith outrage is allowed to come to pass, the currency of future communication on these and similar matters shall likely and rightly come in the form of high expense and mountains of red tape.

Yours Truly
Jim DeGeorge