Community Corner

Turko Blames City of Santee for Dead End Resulting in 'Deadly Detour' to Lakeside

KUSI's Michael Turko: "They need to step up and do the right thing; people's lives are at stake."

"The Turko Files" said they "know who's to blame" for the "deadly detour" caused by the unfinished connection of Mast Boulevard from Santee to Lakeside in a new feature aired on KUSI on Tuesday: the city of Santee.

"They need to step up and do the right thing, people's lives are at stake," said Michael Turko.

The investigative TV news show is sticking with the issue, and said in its second piece on the topic that the county has done their share of the project in Lakeside, building a boulevard to Santee city limits. 

Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Turko said Santee "walked away from their end of the deal."

The dead end pushes traffic headed to and from Lakeside through a residential neighborhood on a windy road. Neighbors described numerous wrecks and close calls, and at least two fatalities along the stretch. One resident said he don't allow his kids out front of house because it's not safe.

Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Signs for a new housing subdivision along the detour path, with the promise of more local traffic, have renewed calls for completing the connection.

Two-thirds of project lies within city of Santee. The project was started and abandoned, but it was done so long ago, the city told Turko they'd have to start over.

Turko said the city response continues to be that they have no money or plans to complete the project. He said the city needs to "get real."

The show then questions why the city is spending $25 million of redevelopment funds on the Prospect Avenue Widening Project, while the Mast connection project remains unfinished more than a decade later and could be completed for under $6 million.

"The city has money for projects they want, but not projects they don't care about... leaving projects undone for years that are unsafe," a resident told Turko.

The city said that the redevelopment funds for the Prospect project can only be used for that purpose.

Turko said that in his next report on the topic he will talk to a former Santee mayor that told residents that Mast Boulevard would be connected once the SR-52 expansion was done, which happened two years ago. He did not specify which ex-mayor he would be interviewing. The Turko Files sunk their teeth into this issue in a critical report released last week.

Watch the Turko Files here

Read a letter to the editor on the topic


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