Expanding faster than the galaxy

June 4, 2018

Why is the city working so hard to finance urban sprawl?

We learned the other day that EPISD has decided to close underpopulated  schools in order to save money.

Evidently they have around 30 schools that are running at 65% of capacity or below.  According to the EPISD website they have 94 schools.  That means that nearly 30% of their schools are one-third empty.

Wouldn’t encouraging infill projects help us fill the schools and reduce the need for additional roads, utilities, fire stations and all of the other things that the city does.

Won’t the school district end up having to build new schools to serve the new areas?  Won’t that cost us even more money?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

13 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Bad apology

May 31, 2018

Our soon to be ex-city attorney has done it again.

According to  a recent El Paso Times article she wrote an apologetic email to the mayor and city council members the day before two agenda items dealing with real estate that her husband had an ownership interest in were to be considered by city council.  From the Times article:

“Items 24.2 and 24.3 on the agenda for next week involve real estate in which my husband and his law partners have an ownership interest.  I am sorry I did not disclose this earlier but I did not even know these items were on the agenda.”

Not prepared

I guess that now we are to believe that she does not study the agenda when it is first published so that she can prepare legal advice for city council.

Misleading

If the Times article is correct she wrote the email the day before the council meeting in question.

Yet she tells everyone that the items are on the “agenda for next week”.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
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Send city council back to school

May 30, 2018

EPISD sends a document to parents of kindergarten children titled “Understanding Your Child’s Kindergarten Dual Language and Monolingual Reporting Document” (the report card).

Under economics they use this criteria “Explains the differences between wants and needs”.

Citizenship includes “Uses voting as a method of group decision making”.

Responsible Decision Making “Considers the well-being of self and others when making decisions”.

Refresher course needed

Can we send our city council and mayor back to kindergarten?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Planetarium

May 27, 2018

EPISD is finally trying to do something about the planetarium that will be destroyed when they vacate their current central office location.

From the Tuesday, May 15, 2018 EPISD agenda:

SUMMARY:
On November 16, 2017, the Board of Trustees approved the submission of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium to be located in City District 4, or a location that will best benefit the district community.  In addition, the Board of Trustees approved for the application to be submitted with a 10% cost match with a funding amount to not exceed $1,390,218.00. Through a recent project defense, the City of El Paso has recommended an adjustment of the cost share. Therefore, the Department of Fund and Partnership Stewardship proposes for the Board to approve Ms. Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Operations, as the District’s appointee to be able to negotiate the amount of cost share for the CDBG program that will not exceed $500,0000.00.

It appears that they think it will cost 1.39 million dollars.  The district is hoping that the city will pay all but half a million of that.

City district 4 covers the northeast part of town.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Neighborhood disruption

May 26, 2018

Our thanks to Helen Marshall for this:

Have you driven around Kern Place lately ??  The City’s Robinson Avenue works have now consumed one year and nine months and there is no sign they won’t get to start year three…about three-quarters of the trees planted along this stretch appear to be dead…They forgot to put an entry ramp on the bike and pedestrian path coming from the roundabout at Piedmont…Phase Two, Piedmont to Ochoa, will get underway later this year!
Meantime, Robinson, Madeline, Cincinnati and Baltimore are all undergoing works by EP Water, and have been closed to thru traffic from Piedmont for weeks!!!
And EP Water is undertaking major work on the water tank above Canyon Terrace, projected to last until summer 2019, with occasional drops in water pressure or loss of supply entirely to homes at that end of Robinson.
Do folks in these agencies ever talk to each other when they plan their schedules???
We deserve better
Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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