The Access Umstead Committee had several communications with Rep. Ty Harrell and his assistant Lara Swanson today. This included phone conversations with both.

They wanted us to know that they were completely surprised when told that Rep. Harrell's name was listed on this blog as having not responded to the petition. They had, in fact, replied to an email sent to them on January 9th by one of our more enthusiastic supporters. Since that time have been researching our issue.

We had a good conversation with Rep. Harrell. He seems down to earth and wants to do what is right for all concerned parties. He suggested that we get together to talk and offered several different alternatives for this conversation. He calls one of these a "Community Conversation". This is an informal meeting that takes place on a Saturday and can last for several hours. We are going to accept his invitation and will let all of you know when it is going to take place.

We thank Rep. Harrell for his response and anticipate his active participation in helping us satisfy the goals stated in our petition.

Correction To Yesterday's Post

We made a mistake yesterday when we reported that Rep. Grier Martin had not replied to our original mailing of the petition. In fact he replied last Saturday and informs us that he supports this effort and is a runner who uses the park frequently.

It is our hope that Rep Martin and his colleagues will act soon to address our issues.

Waiting For Reps' Replies

It has been ten days since the signed petition was sent to the state Representatives from this area. We have received several replies, most indicating they've made contact with DOT and DENR. We thanked them for their replies and are anxiously waiting for additional feedback. As indicated in a prior blog some positive feedback has been received.

Unfortunately not all representatives have replied/acknowledged receipt of the petition and yesterday we resent the petition to them. Here is a list of those reps that have failed to reply. Their email address is included just in case you want to voice your opinion to them.

Dan Blue danb@ncleg.net
Linda Coleman lindac@ncleg.net
Nelson Dollar nelsond@ncleg.net
Paul Stam pauls@ncleg.net
Vernon Malone vernonm@ncleg.net
Marilyn Avila marilyna@ncleg.net

We, also, sent the petition to several Raleigh City Council Members. A couple replied. We weren't sure they could do anything for us, but, decided to copy them anyway. Here is Philip R. Isley's reply:

I’ve been told by the city that we’ve exhausted our remedies for this situation. We have tried to get the state to modify their plans for parking (or lack thereof) to no avail. I’ll try to get up with some of our local delegation in the NC Legislature to discuss this with them. Unfortunately, the city is not able to do anything about this. Like many things in Raleigh, the State just does not care how actions affect this city.

We think Mr. Isley deserves our thanks for his effort.

This coming week the Committee will follow up with the Representatives who have contacted DOT and DENR for a progress report.

There are more than 1300 signatures on the petition. Thanks for your support.

Positive Feedback From Your Reps

Today we received some good news from several of the Congress people who were sent the petition. Representative Jennifer Weiss, Representative Deborah K. Ross and Senator Janet Cowell held a meeting and presented your concerns to the DOT and DENR. Here is what Representative Weiss wrote to us:

Thank you again for expressing your concern about access to Umstead Park. Sen. Cowell, Rep. Ross and I met with DENR and DOT today to share your concerns and to talk about ways to increase access to the Park. We have asked DENR to have a public process in connection with a General Management Review of the Park Masterplan and to engage the Park Citizen Advisory Committee and the community in looking at ways to address the desire of park users to preserve the park and increase access to it. We will provide you with additional information in the future.

Regards,

Jennifer Weiss, NC House 35

So we are beginning to be heard.

We'll get information on the General Management Review of the Park Masterplan and the Park Advisory Committee and post it on this blog. If anyone reading this blog has information on the above please email us at access_umstead@yahoo.com or post your comments here.

We also heard from Representative Neal Hunt today who writes that he has contacted DOT and the State Parks and is waiting for their response.

Senator Richard Stevens wrote us today to say that he hopes a parking solution can be found and he will be in contact with the state departments responsible for providing that solution.

On the downside, there are still several Congress people who have not acknowledged receipt of the petition. We'll be writing to them again to ask for their feedback and keep you posted on our progress.

Please continue to publicize our cause. To be successful we must exert thoughtful, considerate and constant pressure. Thanks for your support!

Petitions Delivered...Little Feedback So Far

The petitions were delivered to various Representatives and others last Thursday and now we wait. So far the number of replies received is disappointing. Although some of you have received individual replies we have heard from only two Reps; Deborah K. Ross and Jennifer Weiss. Others heard from include Mayor Harold Weinbrecht of Cary and Raleigh Council members Rodger Koopman and Philip Isley.

We hope that this lack of feedback is due to the Martin Luther King holiday. If this is the case, feedback should increase significantly today.

On a more upbeat note 1298 people have signed our petition and Joe Miller of the New & Observer discussed our cause and petition in a short column in Sunday's newspaper.

More news to follow.

Thanks for your continued support!

Signed Petition Sent To Your Representatives

The following letter accompanied the signatures and comments from our petition:

The Access Umstead Committee was formed in response to strong concerns voiced by many Umstead State Park users about the continued loss of safe, convenient access to the park after the elimination of parking at the Reedy Creek Road and Graylyn Drive entrances. With plans to pave Old Reedy Creek Road, its future as an access is deemed uncertain at best. Many Triangle residents feel that their viewpoints went unrepresented as these decisions were being made and that their needs were not considered as these plans moved forward.

We provided an on-line petition as a forum for the public to voice their concerns about the impact that this restricted access to Umstead has had on the local community. In less than a week, the petition, which can be found at www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/609803273, has enabled more than 1100 individuals to voice their concerns about the impact that the restricted access has had on their lives. Most have expressed the need for a reasonable solution for safe, convenient access to the park with restored parking at the Reedy Creek Road and Graylyn Drive entrances and preserved parking at the Old Reedy Creek Road entrance.

Please take the time to review the comments in this petition to learn how residents feel about this issue. They feel ignored and unrepresented and are looking to their elected officials to enable a solution allowing greater access to Umstead in the near future. We look forward to your efforts toward a common sense resolution to this issue and know that the people will remember those representatives who have made a difference.

Access Umstead Committee

Margaret Cooper

Carlton B Cooper Jr

Gary Baum

Paul Fisher

We believe that this signed petition makes a strong case to our elected representatives that something must be done to provide safe and convenient access to Umstead State Park.

We expect to hear something soon from the representatives who received the petition. We will provide you with their feedback as we receive it.

Thank you all for your support!

Contact Your Representative

The Access Umstead Committee believes the best way to achieve our goal is by exerting pressure on our public representatives. They rely on you to put and keep them in their current position. If everyone who signed our petition were to write their representative they could not ignore us. As one of you pointed out in a letter, most of them were elected by margins of less than 1000. By numbers alone, we should have quite a lot of leverage. Below is a link to a website with all the representatives information. Please use it and let them know that you insist on the restoration of safe and easy access to Umstead State Park.

copy and paste this link into your browser
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/GIS/Representation/
Who_Represents_Me/Who_Represents_Me.html

House Members Marilyn Avila (District 40) Dan Blue (District 33) Linda Coleman (District 39) Nelson Dollar (District 36) Ty Harrell (District 41) Grier Martin (District 34) Deborah K. Ross (District 38) Paul Stam (District 37) Jennifer Weiss (District 35)
Senate Members Janet Cowell (District 16) Neal Hunt (District 15) Vernon Malone (District 14) Richard Stevens (District 17) Thanks for your continuing support.

Thanks For Your Support

Thanks to all those who signed the petition. We reached our minimum goal of 1000 signatures this Sunday afternoon!!

Please continue to tell your friends and acquaintances about the petition because we believe that the more signatures we have the more influence we will have in getting the decision makers to support our goals of safe and easy access to Umstead State Park.

Please Consider The Neighbors

This morning I met one of my fellow committee members at the main gate of Umstead just before 7 am. Of course it wasn't open , since it wasn't yet 7. We wanted to do an early run, not as early as we might have if the park was still accessible from Graylyn Road, but, early enough. Well, at around 7:10 we got tired of waiting for the ranger to open the gate and headed back to Ebenezer Church Road, with the intention of parking on one of the neighborhood streets. We found spots and no sooner had gotten out of our cars than a resident left her house and met us on the street. She wasn't very happy about us parking on the street and informed us that if we did not leave she was going to call the State Police to have our cars ticketed. She had done this before. Apparently, since the Graylyn entrance had been closed to parking many cars were parking on her street and around the neighborhood. She was clearly upset about this and actually suggested we park in the lot of the church at Ebenezer Church and Graylyn. So it wasn't okay to park on the public road in her neighborhood, but, it was alright for us to park on private property! I started to discuss the situation with her but quickly realized there was no point. So we got back into our cars, found another place to park, and finally went on our run.

Lessons Learned:
1. Other people besides the users of the park are being impacted by the closing of the Graylyn entrance.
2. You can be ticketed on public streets even if there are no "no parking" signs.
3. Don't expect to enter the park through the main Glenwood Road entrance at 7 am.

Welcome To The Access Umstead Blog

This blog was designed to communicate information from the Access Umstead Committee to all interested parties. Information will be posted whenever something relevant to meeting our goal of restoring safe and easy access to Umstead State Park is achieved.

This blog is available for your comments.

Thank-you for supporting our cause.