Was that a secret meeting TxDOT held Tuesday night?

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Something odd happened up here in far North Harris County a couple of days ago.

On Tuesday, Nov. 1, Connie O’Donnell drove past Klein Oak High School at 6 p.m. to run an errand. At 6:30 p.m. she drove back past Klein Oak High School on her way home. It was then she saw a bunch of little signs stuck in the ground that said TxDOT was having a public meeting at Klein Oak High School — right then! From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.! But the signs weren’t there when she drove past the high school at 6 p.m.

Connie wasn’t able to run back to the high school to see what was going on, so she called Jerry Thomas, a leader in the Grand Parkway fight, and he hustled over to Klein Oak to see what was up. He got there at about 7:30 p.m., walked in and saw a group of men chit-chatting. He approached them, identified himself, asked what was going on and they promptly clammed up. Except for Jerry, there didn’t appear to be any regular public citizens at the meeting.

Now, what Jerry and Connie were able to determine is that the meeting was about the Gosling Road expansion. Right now Gosling Road ends (or begins, depending on your point-of-view) at FM 2920. The meeting was about extending it to meet up with Kuykendahl Road.

I can’t imagine that there would be any serious opposition to that — it seems to be a logical road extension — but why all the secrecy?

There is/was no notice of this meeting on TxDOT’s website and Connie couldn’t find a notice in the Chronicle. She drove past Klein Oak at 6 p.m. and there were no signs, but at 6:30 p.m. there were.

On Klein Oak’s website, in the calendar section, there is a blurb about the “Gosling Rd. Project Meeting” but that was the only notice Connie could find, except for the signs put up after the meeting had already started.

Oh, and Connie did see a car parked in the Klein Oak parking lot with a Jerry Eversole sticker on it. Did a staffer of Commissioner Eversole attend the meeting? Why didn’t Commissioner Eversole notify his constituents of the meeting?

If anyone can find the public notice of this TxDOT meeting, please let me know, either in the forum or in an email ([email protected]).

And what’s up with all the hush-hush surrounding a meeting that really didn’t need to be hush-hush? Transparency in government — that’s what we want.


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Anne Linehan is a co-founder of blogHOUSTON.