Plan for New Berlin alderwoman's own street angers neighbors
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Tom Murray reports Video by tmj4.com
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NEW BERLIN- New Berlin Alderwoman Laura Karvala is under fire from her own neighbors. Residents say Karvala is using her powerful position to ease traffic on her own block, while making surrounding streets more dangerous.
Karvala says cars speed down Wilbur Drive, turning her quiet neighborhood into a short cut between two busy roads, W. National Avenue & S. Sunnyslope Road.
Karvala pressed the common council to move forward with a plan to build a cul-de-sac that would cut off drivers who want to pass through. Neighbors on nearby Redwood Drive fear the plan will cause a traffic spike on their street.
"We've been stabbed in the back by our alderwoman," Redwood Drive resident Andy Kowske wrote in an email to TODAY'S TMJ4.
"I think that's unfair," Karvala responded. "I'm trying to do what's best for everybody in the subdivision."
New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero disagrees with shifting a traffic problem from one street to another.
"To close down all the other roads and funnel it down one road is wrong," Mayor Chiovatero told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray.
Karvala argues that all of her neighbors win with her plan because it would create so many twists and turns, that most outsiders would avoid the subdivision altogether.
"There's a curve and then another curve, then you have to stop, then you've got to stop again, then you've got to take a left, then you've got to take a right," Karvala said. "We're trying to make it inconvenient."
Cost estimates for the cul-de-sac range from $70,000 to more than $100,000.
Karvala proposes putting temporary road blocks in place to test her plan.
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