Issues and Information 26-May-2016: East-West Connector and State Land, a Discussion with Senator Dayton

Thanks to those who attended the meeting last night, especially, Senator Margaret Dayton, Rep Mike Kennedy, Rep Kay Christofferson, and State Auditor John Dougall. I counted over 60 people in attendance. Lots of questions were asked, most were answered, and everyone was very respectful.

For a background on some of the history related to the land and the east-west connector please see my earlier post entitled  “Highland East-West Connector History“.

City Council 19-Apr-2016: Roads Work Session, Spring Creek Park–Sell Land, R-1-30 Zone …

About 65 people attended the meeting. At least half were there to speak during the public hearing on whether or not to declare the 12 acres that comprise the undeveloped Spring Creek Park as surplus. This was an interesting discussion.

Roads Work session

We reviewed the work to date on the road study. PEPG confirmed that their final report would include an estimated timeframe the work should be done to a road after which the cost to repair would increase. Click here to view a copy of the presentation made by PEPG. Their general findings were that:

Gender Politics: Bathrooms, Locker Rooms …

I attended a local school board meeting (Alpine School District) today and made the following comments to share my views on the recent edict from the Federal Departments of Justice and Education (click here to see their Letter on Transgender Students). This is what I wrote in advance and not necessarily the exact words I used.

I would like to speak to the issue of gender identity based usage of bathrooms and locker rooms. With the assumption that students are being harmed by the current birth gender policy and without regard to whether this is a federal  overreach I have several concerns:

City Council 5-Apr-2016: Utility Rate Study, Library Re-write …

About 30 people attended the meeting. Most were there to participate in the discussion on a rezone request for 7.25 acres of land located in the northeast quadrant of Highland. One of the most interesting items on the agenda was the library report. The other was the Utility Rate Study update. 

As a preamble to the meeting notes I would like to give some background and share personal thoughts relative to the Utility Rate Study underway which will recommend rate increases for each of the utilities. Please note that since I am publishing this so late I’ve included the utility rate data from the May 3rd council meeting which has the final recommendations (see item 10).