My lovely City of Westlake

Fed up with the fact I need to replace my mailbox once if not twice a year I sent this wonderful email to multiple members of the City of Westlake including my council rep who has never once gotten back to me. The only person that has is Dan Glauner and he was a pretty decent guy minus the fact he couldn't do much to help me out.

Hello all,

After exhausting multiple people to try to speak with on my issue I thought I would send this mass email to everyone I could think of that might be able to help. I have been a resident of Westlake for 8 years with the last 5 being at (insert address here). In that time I have replaced 6 mailboxes due to people whipping around (Street) and (Road) at excessive speeds. Multiple cars have ended up in my ditch or the neighbors ditch as well.

I came home yet again to a shattered wood post mailbox. My mail floating in the ditch, skid marks on the road in front of my house, the lawn torn up by the ditch and of course no contact information from the person that hit the mailbox. No accident was reported to the Police, of course, and I am left here to again replace yet another mailbox post and dig out the 50 pounds of concrete that secured it in place.

First off times are tight. I do not have the money to hire someone to come out and do this again for me, for the 6th time. The problem is this is a very dangerous intersection yet no one there seems to believe me. Imagine myself or my wife out there getting the mail when this happened? We would be dead. Never have I once witnessed one police car to monitor speeds and traffic around my house or the intersection even after multiple cars being pulled out of the ditch and 6 mailboxes being destroyed. The only thing I can even think to do is put cinder blocks on the tree lawn and look like complete hillbilly's. Of course if I did that guess who would get sued for damages? Yeah, me as the homeowner.

These incidents alone tell me the small stretch of road in front of my house is a hazard. I am just wondering if someone actually has to die before anything is actually done because it sounds like that is the only way anything is going to done here. Guardrails, signs, filling in the ditch completely would remedy this I would imagine yet any time I suggest it it's not the problem of the city. Never mind the road in front of my house has sections of the road that dip right into the soil and ditch itself. I already had that battle and lost it last year. Even though you can visibly see the indentations in the roadway where it is eroding into the ditch the Engineer says, nope nothing is wrong here. I welcome you to come on over and cut the grass out there and see how much fun that is. I am not an Engineer at all so I don't know about grading and road maintenance. What I do know is I am livid at the fact that nothing is ever done or it can be done however I would have to pay for it out of my own pocket.

I do not have the extra income to replace the mailbox at this time. I have replaced six of them already to the tune of about $600 in total. Am I just supposed to build this into my cost of living when some careless and reckless driver does this once or more a season? I don't think I should as a tax payer in this city. I would appreciate someone coming out and looking at it and even fixing it if possible this time because I am absolutely fed up with it. It is not my problem anymore. I feel it is the problem of the city of Westlake. I don't ask for much of the city besides my safety and the safety of my family. I think allowing this to go on for 5 years without putting up warning signs, guardrails or other safety measures including Police involvement is a blatant disregard of that safety. I have no intention of fixing the mailbox this time around. If it hangs by duct tape and becomes an eyesore as well I am done. The city has known about this problem going on 5 years now. Nothing is being done about it, obviously no one cares about it so why should I at this point?

Sincerely,

Jason