Attend City Council Tomorrow at 9 a.m.

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND City Council tomorrow morning (Tuesday, August 9) at 9 a.m. The results of the petition drive to save the Transmountain Scenic Corridor will be announced. Afterwards, the petitions will be filed with the Municipal Clerk’s office. Map to City Hall. Parking may be an issue. Take plenty of quarters – one will buy you 20 minutes at a City parking meter.

There are now more than enough verified signatures to request the City Council of El Paso to preserve the Transmountain Scenic Corridor. Of course, the Municipal Clerk’s office makes the final evaluation about each signature and whether there are enough. However, petition gatherers used current voter registration rolls to check signatures as they were gathered. Confidence is high.

Mr. Charlie Wakeem, the Chairman of the Open Space Advisory Board, created this excellent presentation about the Scenic Corridor:

Trans Mountain Scenic Corridor NOS 3-23-11

You can read the petition here

In a letter to Mr. Gregory Punske and Ms. Elizabeth Hilton of the Federal Highway Administration, Franklin Mountains Wilderness President Scott Cutler wrote:

“We are writing to assure you that if Council should deny our initial request, we fully intend to gather the second round of signatures. We are a motivated group of citizens who have dedicated ourselves to making sure that community values are reflected in the final alternative for a Transmountain Freeway. We believe that our petition represents these values and will ultimately be approved by the voters.”

Here is Mr. Cutler’s complete letter to the FHWA:

Fmwc Letter to Fhwa

As mentioned in the last elpasonaturally e-letter, the Federal Highway Administration has still not ruled on the TxDOT Environmental Assessment although word through the grapevine is that they will in the next couple of weeks or so.

If you are interested in having an information booth, being a vendor or a speaker or providing entertainment at the 7^th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta on September 17^th, see the list of contacts. Get more information about the Festival.

Also plan now to attend the El Paso Water Utilities/Public Service Board Strategic Planning meetings, September 8 and 9 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the TecH20 Center, 10751 Montana Avenue, El Paso, TX. (Map) EPWU/PSB is an agency of the City of El Paso. It belongs to you, the people of El Paso. It’s your water department. Your voice in strategic planning is important.

Finally, the Rio Bosque is DRY. Watering of trees, shrubs and grasses is a 5-days per week chore. If you can help, please call John Sproul at 915-861-4361.

Dry conditions are having devastating effects on El Paso’s largest park. Ground water levels are the lowest in five years. Three of the park’s monitoring wells are dry. The Irrigation District is continuously pumping from the Bosque into the irrigation channel. Due to the new concrete lining of the cannel, there is no recharge back to the ground water. Willows, cottonwoods and more are dying. Even the Tornillos are stressed.