2019/11/11 - Mayor's Column: A Few Tips to Help Improve the Community
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
O’Fallon is blessed with good citizens who give a great deal of time and money to help their community. From time to time, someone approaches me and asks what some needs or things people are can do to further improve O’Fallon. After some thought, I put together the following list of simple items or actions that we can all do to help our neighbors and assist in having a safer community. These have come from personal observation and through reviewing accident reports with our Public Safety Department and work orders from our Public Works Department.
- Observe the posted speed limits. Too many accidents are caused when the speed limit is ignored.
- Please come to complete stops vs rolling through because you don’t see another car. Too many collisions are caused by not stopping when you may not have observed the walker or cyclist preparing to cross.
- Slow down and be observant around our schools.
- Don’t rake leaves into ditches or streets. Yard debris in storm water drains and culverts block proper water drainage, causes flooding, and may cause accidents if the water freezes. Yard waste is included in your Waste Management service. We recently had an incident where we cleaned out a blockage from a culvert. Less than 24 hours after the culvert was cleaned out, someone filled it back up – please don’t do that.
- Please observe the yellow on traffic lights and don’t step on the gas to get through before the light turns red. Remember, the other person may only be watching for their light to turn green.
- Observe snow route “no parking” signs when it is forecasted to snow. These routes must be kept clear for emergency vehicles and allow snowplows to properly clear the roadway.
- When it snows, make sure that streets are clear of basketball hoops, garbage cans and other items. Items in the roadway may cause accidents and impede snowplows trying to keep the streets clear.
- Give snowplows room when they are salting and/or plowing. They can’t stop or turn on a dime and we would like to have them all plowing vs waiting to get repaired which slows down getting to all the streets.
- Please make sure that you check your fireplace chimney and that you have a guard on the front of your fireplace. Too many fires and injuries occur because of these two things.
- If using an outdoor grill or firepit, make sure it is far enough away from your home or other structure. Many fires have occurred due to strong winds blowing the flames or burning material against a structure.
These are just some small things that we can all do without any cost or big effort. Believe me, they can make a big difference if we all would practice them. Your fellow citizens, Police, Fire, EMS, Public Works and I would appreciate your assistance with these.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!