Good interest in Poinciana

Home

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Good interest in Poinciana

Opinions

Thursday, 04 February 2010 02:02

It was good to see so many Poinciana residents turn out for a town hall meeting last week with Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington. And it’s good to see commissioners holding such meetings.
Most of the residents were interested in talking about roadwork, road problems and the potential dangers of trying to leave the area in an emergency, since there is basically only one main roadway – Pleasant Hill Road – running through the community. The meeting was mostly an opportunity for residents to sound off on issues important to them.
One man said: “It seems like we just get more roads leading to nowhere.” Another resident spoke of a dangerous left-hand turn from Pleasant Hill onto Poinciana Boulevard, which prompted a response by county staff at the meeting that the situation would be looked into.
Unfortunately, county staff reported that the third phase of the Poinciana Boulevard project was on hold until funding rebounded.
The Poinciana Parkway, which would be another way into and out of Poinciana, is on hold, too. The 10-mile parkway, as proposed, would begin on Marigold Avenue and stretch northwest into Polk County. The latest proposal is that the county and Avatar build it together as a toll road, and that the county would control it through an expressway authority.
Avatar Properties, which we were told has spent $40 million so far on designing the project and needs the road to be able to continue developing Solivita, apparently cannot line up funding, given the recession.
Another topic was the high-speed rail system planned to run between Orlando and Tampa, as well as SunRail, the commuter rail system that would run to Poinciana. Arrington said there would be $40 million coming from the federal government to help fund SunRail. However, there is still no dedicated source of funding in place now for the county to pay for its portion of SunRail costs.
While not related to the town hall meeting, it was encouraging to see a new group recently emerge in Poinciana, the Committee for the Advancement of Poinciana, from the various factions that had disagreed over the incorporation issue. The new group has the worthy goal of making Poinciana a better place for all residents regardless of its municipal status.