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PrintHwy. 12 video nets attention
Further work on the half-finished sidewalk improvement project along Highway 12 in the Springs may not be an action item on the next Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 16, but 1st District Supervisor Valerie Brown will be showing a video about the lack of action on the project that a concerned citizen posted online two weeks ago.
Tim Wetzel, a professional videographer who runs 9 Mile Productions out of Sonoma, said he made the video, “to put a tool out into the community that the community could use to influence the legislative process at the state level.”
Wetzel watched with dismay as the project stalled – he drives the stretch daily to drop his 8-year-old daughter off at Sonoma Charter School on Highway 12 – and felt moved to do something. Making the video really drew the problem into even sharper contrast for Wetzel. He originally thought it might take a significant amount of time, maybe a day or two, to shoot the footage he wanted to get of scenes that would highlight the need for sidewalks, but, he said, “It took no time at all.”
He sent the finished video out to everyone he could think of, from local officials on up to the governor’s office, and created a Facebook page. The action by Brown to screen the video was just the sort of thing he had been hoping for.
“The video explains the Highway 12 project by narrative and visuals that are profound,” said Brown. “It represents all we have been talking about to the state DOF (Department of Finance) and in our Oversight Board. It is incredibly well done, capturing the public safety problem, and I wanted my colleagues and those who tune into our board meeting to see it.”
Wetzel will be on hand with his family at the meeting, and “Hopefully,” he said, “give my 8-year old a live civics lesson. Maybe we’ll all get one.”
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BRAVO TIM! Thank you for your time and efforts to bring to light through "sight and sound", a continuing threat to the safety of our community. I have a small business on Highway 12 near the end of the completed phase of the project and I see VOLUMES or people walking past during the day. I once heard a figure of 30,000 cars per day that pass by my shop...DAILY. Accurate or not, with that volume of traffic going by all day long,the people who live and work in this section of town REALLY need their sidewalks and bike paths! I know there are a lot of people working on getting the funds to finish this project but the immediacy of the problem is so deftly shown in your video that who ever views it cannot ignore the need that is there! WELL DONE and GOOD LUCK to you all at the meeting!
Thank you, Tim, for bringing into focus this huge issue of public safety and humankind well-being. My husband and I drive Highway 12 multiple times a day and have seen many near-misses over the 2 years we've lived in our beautiful Sonoma. What are we waiting for to complete the project? An innocent child, a handicapped person, a young mother or older grandmother to be run over?
Many kind and caring people live in our town and we cannot stand for the city,county and state NOT to prioritize this critical project. Let's pull together and GET HIGHWAY 12 PART 2 COMPLETED NOW!
Kay White