Countdown to City Council July 17

This week elpasonaturally is going back over issues concerning a conservation easement. Please follow the posts daily. Yesterday’s post again talks about why a conservation easement in the northwest is necessary. Today’s shows documentation that land belonging to the Texas Parks and Wildlife is not necessarily preserved as park land forever.

All of this is leading up to next Tuesday, July 17, when , Planning and Development staff will present their proposal to City Council that land in the NW Master Plan be conserved by transferring the land to the State Park with a reversion clause that the land will return to the City if it doesn’t remain in use as natural open space recreation.  Elpasonaturally believes that the same plan presented to the PSB in June will be the proposal by staff to City Council in spite of the fact that the PSB endorsed a conservation easement.

There’s much more ground to cover this week, so please bookmark elpasonaturally and visit daily.

More and more we will discuss water conservation and the need to reform water policy now. One major reason for doing so: climate change. Read: This US Summer is ‘what global warming looks like’. Grist reports heat records melting all over the U.S. Keep up with the record drought and the daily heat index.

So what is the history of water in El Paso? U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official, Bert Cortez, will be the guest on the El Paso History Show with Jackson Polk and Melissa Sargent on Saturday, July 14, from 10 to Noon on News Talk 690 KTSM. Visit ephistory.com. Like them on Facebook.

Most of you have probably been following the sad stories of scandal, corruption and incompetence in our school district. Former Senator Eliot Shapleigh is leading an effort for reform. As parents, grandparents, students – or none of the above – you will be interested in a Town Hall that he is holding at the EPCC Val Verde campus tomorrow, Wednesday, July 11^th, at 5:30 p.m. For maps to the campus and of the campus along with a special letter from Senator Shapleigh to El Pasoans as well as a letter from him to disgraced Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia, go here. Two more Town Halls are being planned.

Finally, sustain your spirit. Go see Moonrise Kingdom. Word to the wise: Stay through the credits. Don’t leave.