Blvd Area

Some additional areas of concern are the small access road from Bellevue Boulevard to the park. This has presented a problem for patrolling, and we have a lot of people who avoid being detected while dumping trash by utilizing it. The area residents have also voiced their concern because of children that would like to bike not feeling safe due to the activities occurring there (i.e., prostitution).This can be reversed and area become childrens bike area.

We've had several homeless individuals living in their cars along this right of way. We would propose temporarily blocking this road with bollards, at least at the Omaha end, and letting the children use it for a bike path. If the cameras were installed at that corner, they would overlook the playground area, access from 13th street from the ball diamond area as well as the boulevard. It is an optimal position to be placed to see all those who enter the park. We also need to remove two vehicles that have sat on the property adjacent to this roadway, unclaimed by either County. This gives the impression there is no one who cares about this area.

We have long advocated that the boulevard have a bike trail that leads through that small section of roadway into the park through a pothole free roadway onto a new pathway from the north end of Mandan Park to the north entrance of Mount Vernon Gardens. This would connect all the bike paths from downtown and around the bridge and levee areas to Bellevue. This would also alleviate the bicycle traffic on highway 73-75. Saturdays and Sundays we are seeing crowds of about 40 cyclists. Those would be great patrollers to send through our park on a regular basis, and they would have little to no impact as well as reduce speeding. It would be much safer for them to travel through the park than to be on the highway. We'd also like to see some type of marathon bike run on the roadway as an annual event to keep area residents interested. (Include poster or a map with approximate distances for sidewalk. Also a map to depict the small extension access road to Bellevue Boulevard and location of the camera and cars,)