No Public Meeting about Park Entrance Scheduled as Promised

In spite of earlier assurances by TxDOT District Engineer Bob Bielek, there will be no public meeting about the an entrance to the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park off of Transmountain Road. Bielek told us on September 23rd that a public meeting would be scheduled before November.

Just yesterday I emailed him and asked him what was going on. Here is his response:

Mr. Tolbert,

There are a number of issues that have caused a delay, including developing the initial plans for the improvements needed in the area bounded by Montana, Global Reach, Spur 601 and Loop 375 to support the development anticipated by Fort Bliss disposing of approximately 2,500 acres that will go into residential and commercial development.  Since this will have a very significant impact on the congestion that will be experienced by many thousands of commuters, and the attendant air quality impacts, we have had to give priority to getting these initial plans developed.  A secondary issue is that the project manager for this project accepted another position (still within the District, but as the Assistant Area Engineer in the Alpine Area Office).  While Tony is trying to assist our Advance Project Development staff here in the District, his absence and the limited staff we have available has presented challenges that we are attempting to deal with.

I still expect to hold the public meeting to present alternatives in December. I am trying to get this accomplished halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we will have minimum interference from people traveling for the holidays.  I apologize for the delay; however, we do need to prioritize our workload based on the number of citizens that will be affected if we don’t get adequate facilities in place when they are needed.

Bob Bielek, DPA, PE
District Engineer, El Paso District

Texas Department of Transportation

What residential and commercial development? On March 25, 2011, the El Paso Times ran this story. The Department of Defense announced land for sale on March 10, 2011.

The Texas Department of Transportation will conduct a series of Open House Informational meetings to provide information on the plans of improving the mobility of the Purple Heart Memorial Highway (Loop 375) and the Liberty Expressway (Spur 601).

The series of Open Houses for this project will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the following locations:

Monday, November 4, 2013
El Dorado High School – Library Lobby
12401 Edgemere Blvd. El Paso, TX 79938

Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Parkland High School  - Cafeteria 
5932 Quail Ave. El Paso, TX 79924

Thursday, November 7, 2013
R.E.L. Washington Elementary School - Gymnasium

3505 N. Lee Trevino Dr. El Paso, TX 79936

Regarding a meeting about the park entrance, one veteran observer said: "It is very inconvenient to have a public hearing 'halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas' when everyone is busy to the max."