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. - ~ Arden Hills Council March 29, 1993 7 is OK. Convenience is the least of my concerns. Safety is of the utmost importance; the speed of T.H. 51 needs to be lowered or at least enforced. Steve Lambros, 1313 Skiles Lane: I am new to the community and was interested in hearing all the angles of this issue before commenting. MNDOT's goal is supposedly mobility, yet they have reduced mobility be closing the Snelling/51 intersection. I wonder where the 1,200 vehicles per day that previously used the Snelling/51 intersection have gone since MNDOT claims that County Road E is not more highly traveled than before. Rave those vehicles just vanished? The added miles to access our homes does not seem significant until you consider the number of people affected, times the number of trips, times the number of miles. When you consider the grand total of all additional miles traveled, the additional fuel used, and the additional pollution, it is very significant. I would like to see the Snelling/51 intersection reopened in a safer design and also the speed limit of T.R. 51 reduced. I understand the complexity of this issue and the emotions that are involved, but it is time that a position is taken and something is actually done to bring the entire matter to a close. Mayor Sather invited comments from anyone who had not yet spoken; no further speakers came forward. In response to comments from citizens to the effect that the Council has not been responsive in this issue, Mayor Sather explained that the Council did take action to suggest that MNDOT evaluate the Snelling/51 intersection, then Council accepted the closure of the intersection, and now Council is responding to the request of citizens to revisit the issue. Regarding the idea of keeping the intersection closed except to emergency vehicles, he questioned whether it would be possible to monitor and enforce that type of arrangement. Councilmember Aplikowski stated that she is very disturbed that MNDOT has now taken the position that a redesigned, signalized intersection is not a viable alternative. She recalled that in the late 1910s or early 1980s, the City apparently had the option of a signal at Snelling/51, but that option was turned down and a signal was located at Lydia/51 instead. She stated that her concern is safety, not convenience, and one large factor to the safety issue is the matter of the high rate of speed on T,H. 51.