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Archive for the '9 History July 2007' Category

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07/03/2007  7:32:33 PM

Hope It’s not Discrimination

What was the real basis behind not letting Councilman Arismendez vote telephonic-ally the other night. Why didn’t Councilwoman Bails want Councilman Arismendez to vote? They have had telephonic votes in the past.What was the real basis behind not letting Councilman Arismendez vote telephonic-ally the other night. Why didn’t Councilwoman Bails want Councilman Arismendez to vote? They have had telephonic votes in the past.Not knowing the back ground or where our City Attorney came from, he’ll have to show us where you can stop an elected official from voting.

What was the real basis behind not letting Councilman Arismendez vote telephonic-ally the other night. Why didn’t Councilwoman Bails want Councilman Arismendez to vote? They have had telephonic votes in the past.Not knowing the back ground or where our City Attorney came from, he’ll have to show us where you can stop an elected official from voting.Councilman Arismendez’s constituents are mostly Hispanics, you can imagine the outcry from Councilwoman Bails district if the situation was reversed and she was not allowed to vote. It’s been claimed that Bails has always been against the original town site.

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07/03/2007  2:03:53 PM

Sinking Ship

 

With everything happening and the ship appears to be sinking, the City Manager, one of the Assistant City Manager and the City Attorney have abandoned the ship, going on a vacation for 1 to 2 weeks.

 

Hope Assistant City Manager Kathy Rice is strong enough to hold the ship together.

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07/02/2007  10:34:42 PM

Health care for children

 

Health care for kids shouldn’t be a state secret

The Tucson Citizen

There’s a secret schools want to share with working parents: If you can’t afford health insurance for your kids, you might be able to get it for just $10 to $35 a month.Unfortunately, the state of Arizona has a policy designed to withhold this information.

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07/02/2007  7:12:43 PM

What Now

 

The City Manager has put himself in the position of put up or shut up, he can’t play games. 

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07/02/2007  10:58:32 AM

Northwest Lefted Out–Why

  

Burgeoning Maricopa takes closer look at commuter rail options

The associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.18.2007
PHOENIX — Commuter rail service is being considered as a possible way of helping to ease some of Arizona’s traffic woes.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman, who is among the leaders pushing for commuter rail service, asked his staff to begin looking at transportation options, including commuter rail.
The city produced a regional-transportation strategy map showing three commuter options for rail lines that could be built.  
One would run through Gilbert. Another would cut diagonally from north Phoenix through Casa Grande. The third option would lead from north Tempe to Tucson, through Maricopa.
The commuter-rail lines would be in addition to light-rail lines under construction from the southeastern part of the metropolitan Phoenix area and into the city of Phoenix itself.
The Arizona Department of Transportation has proposed several freeways to bypass Interstate 10 from Phoenix to Tucson and Interstate 17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff. It also is working on a study that would double the width of I-10 through metro Phoenix to 24 lanes by creating one route for local traffic and another for express traffic.
Hallman and other mayors also are pushing for construction of a proposed freeway through Ahwatukee that would allow motorists and trucks to bypass I-10 and complete Loop 202 around metro Phoenix.
But even with the proposed freeway through Ahwatukee, transportation planners say the state can’t keep up with rapid growth coming from the city of Maricopa and other parts of Pinal County.
The Maricopa Association of Governments is studying the possibility of commuter rail. Gov. Janet Napolitano had ordered the transportation agency to prepare a transportation-options study.
The study was due in April, but transportation officials asked for a 90-day extension and are still working on it.
The department and the Governor’s Office won’t reveal details until the study is done.
“We are seriously looking at commuter rail,” Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer said last week. “I don’t know specifically the details.”
Jim Dickey, director of the department’s public transportation division, said the agency is using federal transportation funds to study commuter-rail options.
The study includes using Interstate 8 near Casa Grande as the southern boundary for Pinal County in a possible route to build a line for commuter rail.
Freight trains, once floated as an idea for carrying passenger cars, cannot be used for commuter rail because of federal railroad rules and safety considerations.
Besides, the freight lines are running at or beyond capacity and operate at irregular schedules, according to community leaders.
The other hitch is that the freight lines are privately owned and have little incentive to give over any of their track capacity for commuter rail.
Hallman said state leaders need to work now to designate a route and buy land for commuter rail before businesses and homes are built.
“The most important thing we can do right now is protect the right of way,” he said. “If we don’t protect it now, it will be too late to do so in the future.”
           

 

State tracking shuttle-train ideaKerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic

 

 

The Arizona RepublicJun. 17, 2007 12:00 AMIn February 1980, Valley residents stood in lines dozens deep to board trains and get to work.Then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt had declared a state of emergency to get Amtrak passenger trains to shuttle workers and others throughout the Valley after massive flooding destroyed highway bridges.Fast forward to 2007, and once again shuttle-train service is being weighed to solve the state’s traffic woes
This time, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman is at the head of a line of leaders pushing for commuter rail service.”There is a groundswell of interest in commuter rail,” Hallman said. Last fall, Hallman asked his staff to begin looking at transportation options, including commuter rail. The idea was to ease bottlenecks along the Broadway Curve on Interstate 10 and other traffic jams along U.S. 60 and Tempe arterial streets.     

“U.S. 60 has become a bigger parking lot, as we predicted,” he said.

The city produced a regional-transportation strategy map showing three commuter options for rail lines that could be built. One would cut through Gilbert. Another would cut diagonally from north Phoenix through Casa Grande. The third option would lead from north Tempe to Tucson, through Maricopa.

The commuter-rail lines would be in addition to light-rail lines under construction from the southeast Valley into Phoenix.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has proposed several freeways to bypass I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson and I-17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff. It also is working on a study that would double the width of I-10 through the Valley to 24 lanes by creating one route for local traffic and another for express traffic.

Hallman and other mayors also are pushing for construction of the proposed South Mountain Freeway through Ahwatukee that would allow motorists and trucks to bypass I-10 and complete Loop 202 around the Valley.

But even with the South Mountain Freeway, transportation planners say the state can’t keep up with rapid growth coming from the city of Maricopa and other parts of Pinal County.

The Maricopa Association of Governments, which is made up of municipal and Indian community leaders, is studying the possibility of commuter rail. And Gov. Janet Napolitano in her State of the State speech in January ordered ADOT to prepare a transportation-options study.

The study was due in April, but ADOT asked for a 90-day extension and is still working on it.

Neither ADOT nor the Governor’s Office is revealing details until the study is done.

“We are seriously looking at commuter rail,” Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer said last week. “I don’t know specifically the details.”

Jim Dickey, director of ADOT’s public transportation division, said the agency is using federal transportation funds to study commuter-rail options.

The study includes using I-8 near Casa Grande as the southern boundary for Pinal County in a possible route to build a rail line for commuter rail.

Freight trains, once floated as an idea for carrying passenger cars, cannot be used for commuter rail because of federal railroad rules and safety considerations. Besides, the freight lines are running at or beyond capacity and operate at irregular schedules, according to community leaders.

The other hitch is that the freight lines are privately owned and have little incentive to give over any of their track capacity for commuter rail.

But Babbitt, in a guest column that ran this year in The Arizona Republic, suggested the governor and the State Land Department agree to sell land to the Union Pacific on the condition that it give the state “trackage rights” for future passenger-rail service on the existing line between Phoenix and Tucson.

Tempe Mayor Hallman isn’t sure that strategy would work, but said the railroad might consider that anyway to be “a good neighbor.”

In either case, Hallman said, state leaders need to work now to designate a route and buy land for commuter rail before businesses and homes are built.

“The most important thing we can do right now is protect the right of way,” he said. “If we don’t protect it now, it will be too late to do so in the future.”

 

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07/02/2007  10:02:46 AM

Municipal Credit Cards

 

The Havasu News.

Former Lake Havasu City Finance Director Mike Ashley pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of theft, a class-one misdemeanor, in Lake Havasu Consolidated Court.His was the second criminal case settled involving former top city officials’ use of municipal credit cards.

He will serve no jail time, pay the city $349.14 in restitution, be placed on one-year summary probation and perform 20 hours of community service.

 

 

 

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