In today’s Baltimore Sun!

Turf Valley needs more access roads

Early in the morning in January, during one of the high-wind days, there was a traffic mishap on Turf Valley Road. An automobile went off the road and into the golf course pond. The automobile ended up totally submerged. All traffic in both directions was unable to pass for close to one hour while emergency crews hooked up and extracted the automobile from the pond. The lines of traffic extended as far as the eye could see in both directions.

This issue seriously demonstrates just one of the many concerns of the nearby residents. Before any additional building takes place within the Turf Valley properties, other access roads need to be built. This comment does not exclude other issues, as well.

Suppose for a moment that if a person in one of the dwellings in the complex had a heart attack, or a house was on fire, or some other tragedy had occurred. The well-being of those involved in such a situation would be seriously impeded if not outright compromised.

This is something that the Howard County Planning Board seems to have dismissed out of hand during all of the long hearings that have taken place relative to the desired build-up to capacity of the Mangione Family Enterprises property at Turf Valley. It seems to me that the Howard County government ought to start acting responsibly when it comes to the issues facing the community in the region.

The consequences of not doing so are formidable to the people, the region and the county government. Failure to do so may well create a problem which it might be very expensive and very difficult to resolve.

People need to be assured that they are not facing a problem of massive congestion in the area. For a change, the members of the Planning Board need to practice that rare virtue of thinking before they collectively decide the fate of so many people.

Robert W. Hertz
Ellicott City