I see in last Sunday’s paper the members of the Albert Lea City Council and Freeborn County Board of Commissioners are talking about making Bridge Avenue wider again. I think that’s a waste of money. Just ask some of the people who live on Bridge Avenue and they will tell you. The street isn’t that busy all the time. There’s a lot of times and I mean a lot of times where you don’t see that many cars on the road.

I used to live on the street, so I should know. And my mom still does live on the street. And I can tell you it’s not that busy to make that street wider. If Albert Lea was constantly growing then I probably could see it. But it’s not growing. And in 20 years Albert Lea isn’t going to be any bigger. The smartest thing they can do is to put a traffic light down by Hy-Vee. And if they did widen the street, I heard that they were going to knock down the houses on the west side of Bridge Avenue south of the fairgrounds.

Do you really think the homeowners would get full market value of their house? I don’t think so. They should just use the money to fix other roads instead. I think a lot of you people on the city council are dreamers when you think the street has to be widened. If you lived on the street you would see that it doesn’t get that busy. Maybe we should go where you live and widen your street whether it needs it or not.

Steve Hansen

Albert Lea