PSB to Vote on Purchase of Palisades

If you can make the Public Service Board meeting tomorrow at 9 a.m. at 1154 Hawkins, do so. It is important to support the purchase of the Palisades property. It is also important the the PSB/EPWU sees a large contingency of the public behind conservation and preservation.

Here's what is up:

The El Paso Times has already announced the pending sale of the Palisades by the Public Service Board. The Times has also endorsed the purchase in an editorial in this morning's edition. [I can't help this aside: the Times can mention the Palisades purchase but has never said anything about the Jobe quarry at Avispa Canyon. El Paso, Inc. even had the story about Mr. Jobe's granting easement to the PSB regarding Arroyo 41A. If I owned a canary, the Times would have some value. Enough of my aside.]

The proposed purchase of the sale is item 5 on the agenda. The supporting document is also valuable to read. Especially look at the maps.

Click to enlarge

In an email Attorney, Risher Gilbert, stresses the importance of coming to the meeting:

Fellow Hikers and Lovers of our Mountain: We have WONDERFUL news . . . Ed Archuleta has notified me that based on the appraisal of the property the EPWU has negotiated a price with the sellers for $2.465 million and the Palisades JV has accepted the price. This will be voted on by the newly expanded Public Service Board next Wednesday, January 13^th. The meeting starts at 9am and is at 1154 Hawkins which is a building across Hawkins from the Cielo Vista Mall. It is very important that as many of us attend as possible to show our support for the Board approving this purchase. If you have contacts with others-like the Frontera Group-and the Sierra Club Group-please encourage them to also attend. In my opinion, if the Board approves this purchase it will be a HUGE victory for our Mountain and for our State Park! Thanks so much for your part in working together as a great team to make this happen. I want to especially thank:

Jack Maxon who went with me to many, many meetings over the last 5 years with just about everyone we could collectively think of that might help us with this project, and who participated in the El Paso Inc. article that got this issue onto the communities radar screen;

Rosario who encouraged me to take Ed Archuleta on a hike through this 200 acres and was ever persistent in preserving this 200 acres;

Richard Teschner who set the example for all of us about making personal sacrifices of our time, treasure and talent to preserve our beautiful Franklins and their arroyos; and to

John Moses for being so supportive and hiking with us and other Austin Texas Parks folks as a way to tell our story of the importance of preserving this 200 acres, and for all his great efforts related to trails in the Franklin State Park.

Richard Teshner also encouraged others to attend for an additional reason: to let the Board see the support and strength of the environmental/conservation community. Such a showing may have an impact on another issue: the failure by the EPWU to pay for the damage it caused to Resler Canyon when it dumped tons of dirt in an effort to do some flood control. At first the EPWU said that they would mitigate at their expense. Then, they reneged. The matter has been in discussion ever since. The EPWU should be able to imagine the kind of turnout there will be if they fail to take care of the damage they caused at Resler.

El Paso Water Utilities' refusal to take responsibility reminds me of this great music video:

Open Space Advisory Board Chairman, Charlie Wakeem, does have this concern:

"I also understand that there may just be $3.1M in the budget for Open Space until 2011. If so, $2.45M from $3.1, leaves only $6.5K for open space acquisition for at least a year. Not Good!! Tomorrow I will ask the PSB that if the seller agrees to it, that the $2.45M be made in payments over the next few years so that other critical open space can be protected. The argument for paying in one lump sum is saving interest. However, the advantages of payments would be in time value and preservation of more open space."