Talk about shrinking.
This slide came from a presentation to the EPISD board relating to combining Basset middle school with their Young Women’s Academy.
According to the slide the combined enrollment of the two schools this year is 1,261 students.
Three years from now they are predicting 971.
Yet they want to build an entirely new facility.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | 
El Paso Independent School District | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Evidently city council is considering raising the franchise fee on our residential trash collections from $1.10 to $4.00 per month.
Help me to understand this please.
The organization that picks up our trash is a city department. How can a city charge a franchise fee on a department that it owns?
Does that mean that we might see franchise fees slapped on top of our ambulance service, police department, fire department, tax department…heck every department the city runs?
This is not a fee, it is a tax.
This is absurd.
We deserve better
Brutus
13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
This would be hard to make up but unfortunately it is true.
The folks at EPISD either forgot about a school or they want to slip one into the bond issue.
The bond issue as passed allowed them to either build a new school to replace Basset middle or spend money to renovate it.
They have chosen to build a new school up the road on military property.
According to this slide here was the deal:
Well now they are telling us that they forgot about Armendariz (the “Young Woman’s Academy”). Now they are telling us that it should not be a separate facility just for women but should be combined with the kids from Basset.
If they do this won’t they be combining a high school with a middle school? Also won’t they end up with an all female high school on a coed middle school campus?
It would appear that they are planning to use half of their construction contingency budget to make the changes.
The extra bill is projected to come to $15 million.
“Compact with the voters” my foot.
We deserve better
Brutus
14 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
It shouldn’t surprise us that some of our city officials have difficulty telling the same story:
City council is considering slapping a city sales tax on our electricity and natural gas purchases.
The city’s chief financial officer was recently quoted in a Times article saying:
Cortinas said reimposing the tax would generate about $3 million for El Paso that would go toward funding Fire Department equipment and vehicle replacement.
“We thought this was the right opportunity to make sure we don’t fall behind on replacing our fire equipment,” Cortinas said.
The city representative for district one (west side) wrote this in his recent weekly message:
In regards towards the proposed Utility Sales Tax, it would create 3million a year that could be dedicated specifically for street resurfacing of which there is currently no dedicated source of funding for street resurfacing by our city.
Maybe we should ask some other city officials.
We deserve better
Brutus
13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Since the city seems to have difficulty obeying its own ordinances maybe this suggestion would help with our roads.
Should there be a city ordinance that says:
All new roads must be uneven surfaces that have at least a two inch bump or depression every ten linear feet.
Utility man holes must not be level with the street. They must be at least three inches higher or lower than the street surface.
Utility companies must excavate part of every new road within six months of the original paving.
When patching the trenches that the utility companies make they must replace the asphalt with asphalt of a different texture than that used on the original road thus creating a rumble effect on vehicles using the road.
All patches must be depressed at least two inches below the original surface. When this is not practical the patch must end up at least two inches higher than the existing road surface.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
You must be logged in to post a comment.