“The other prohibits “all truck traffic,” with the exception of local deliveries, on W. Burdick St. between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.”
This is one part of a local ordinance that was passed a few months ago in Oxford Village.
The ordinance was meant to extend the life of the new road surface on W. Burdick. What I find interesting is that no longer does anyone on W. Burdick have to tolerate truck traffic of any kind between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. while those of us on East Burdick get to listen to empty gravel trucks bouncing along E. Burdick starting as early as 4:30 a.m.
This part of the ordinance obviously has nothing to do with extending the life of the roadway but was meant to give residents on W. Burdick a privilege not granted to anyone else in the Village of Oxford.
The article goes on to quote a W. Burdick resident stating how the lack of truck traffic has improved the quality of life for them and another states that there shouldn’t be trucks running up and down a residential road. (Here is a bulletin for the council, there are no more businesses on E. Burdick than W. Burdick so I would surmise that makes us residential as well).
I can appreciate how the W. Burdick residents feel about having the truck traffic removed from their street, given that those of us on E. Burdick get to listen to empty gravel trucks bouncing down E. Burdick as early as 4:30 a.m.
This is a particularly enjoyable experience in warmer weather when you may have a window open at night or are attempting to listen to the television.
Since we now seem to have a village governing body that passes ordinances to benefit certain residents to give them what the residents themselves will tell you is a better quality of life and possibly even improve property values for them and do nothing like this to benefit the rest of the residents makes me stop and have second thoughts about some things.
I knew when I bought my home that there would be truck traffic on the street and have listened to it for years, as the pavement deteriorates the noise level increases as has the traffic, however, when the village passed the new ordinance they gave benefits to some people that all Village residents should be able to enjoy.
As a resident of Oxford for 43 years, 22 of which I have been a village resident, I have seen many changes to the area and watched it grow.
When we begin passing ordinances that benefit a specific group and in general does nothing for the rest of the residents I think it’s time to look at how this happened and why the council thought that passing this ordinance that benefits only a few was proper.
Perhaps we are approaching the time when we need to look at how we are governed and consider some alternatives.
Dennis Moser
Oxford Village