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Townsend hears feedback at Town Hall meeting
BY KEN ROGERS krogers@dothaneagle.com
Feb 13, 2020
Enterprise City Councilman Turner Townsend,
who represents District 5, discussed ongoing
issues and upcoming projects with his
constituents at his annual Town Hall meeting
Tuesday night at the Farmers Market.
“We had a good meeting,” Townsend said.
“The folks that come to these are usually
engaged in the community. What I updated
them on is basically what we’ve been talking
about in my council comments.
“We’re working on a big retail development.
We’re discussing with Parks & Rec about a
soccer complex. We talked about the fact that
there’s going to be some incentives involved
with a new hotel and the retail development.
And we talked about the net revenues that are
expected to be generated (by the
development).”
There were follow-up questions, as well. He
said people asked about a new recreation and
aquatics center, which he called “a hot-topic
Townsend
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issue the last three years.” He also heard
specifics about street conditions, traffic lights,
street lights and nuisance properties.
“Everybody has their own opinion on what we
need, what we should be in the business of and
how much money we should be spending,”
Townsend said.
Among a consensus complaint was the
condition of several roads, particularly those
affected by pot holes created by the water main
project. Patience will be required, he said.
“We’ve got a road resurfacing project that is in
the works,” Townsend said. “But you can’t do
a major road resurfacing until you dig up the
roads and get that (water mains and subsurface
infrastructure) updated. Most folks
understand that. But they’re not wrong. You
ride around town and there are some roads that
are embarrassing.”
While admitting some frustration with the pace
of the project, the scope of the work is
enormous, especially in Phase I of the project.
“We’re dealing with first generation water
pipes,” Townsend said. “Think about it, we’re
basically coming to the end of the first
generation of water systems. Really, we didn’t
have water systems until these pipes were
being put in the grown in the early 1900’s and
the first half of the century. We had a good
discussion about that.”
As far as street lights, Townsend said the
replacement lights are going to be all LED,
which should give them a longer life, which
means there should be fewer outages in the
future.
He added recycling has been a big topic,
particularly since Enterprise eliminated curbside
recycling