To the Editor:
We moved here eight years ago when Marion Oaks was a beautiful place to live. Since the last strong hurricanes, an explosion of construction started, to the point that now, there are several houses that can not be sold. It seems that some houses were built to be rented, well they are empty too and they are still building more houses.
With the great amount of people moving in, many houses have two, three, or four cars, so at times the cars are parked over the grass on the median. The grass has not only been damaged by the construction trucks, but also by the parking of personal cars.
Most of the people that have moved leave home early in the morning and do not respect the speed limits, they are in a hurry so they speed or just drive over the grass to pass the cars that are in the areas with just one lane.
The corner of Marion Oaks Boulevard and Marion Oaks Manor is the worst one, people do not respect the stop signs, and to make it worse, it is the corner where the two lanes become one. There are bicycle lanes that are practically not used, but by adding it to the road, it makes the one-lane road extremely dangerous.
In the last accident last week, a 28-year-old died because the car from Manor Oaks Manor did not complete the stop. Now, the insurance quotes will be raised for all of us in this area.
There are so many people in the county signing permits for construction without realizing that the roads are not built to meet the demand in traffic. County Road 484 is the one with terrible traffic patterns.
The county must be congruent with the state and stop the overbuilding or delete the bicycle lanes and reconfigure the one lane area with two lanes and, if necessary, put in place lights and cameras to fine the violators. Those cameras will serve also to fine all the ones that litter on roads.
Well, they messed up SR 200/College Road too, with heavy traffic, so now we have rush like it’s Miami. Panhandling is also increasing in several corners, with accumulation of trash. Beautiful Marion Oaks and Ocala are becoming very dangerous and dirty places. Please, something must be done to correct all these mess.
Matilde Leopold
Marion Oaks