The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has announced that it most likely will not make a decision as to whether to bring the Wyler Aerial Tramway back into operation until early next year. The tramway was closed by the department in 2018 after an engineering analysis indicated that the aerial cable car operation at the Franklin Mountains State Park had outlived its life expectancy. Now, input is being solicited from the general public as to whether or not the tramway should be upgraded and given a new life, and in what ways it could be improved. A movement to return the tramway to action was bolstered earlier this spring when members of the Texas State Legislature voted to appropriate $5 million to fix and upgrade the system. That funding would also pay for the renovation of bathroom facilities and a gift shop at the tramway site. Built by broadcast pioneer Karl Wyler and El Paso television station KTSM in the early 1960s, the tramway provided sweeping views of more than 7,000 square miles of land for up to 45,000 riders a year. The tramway was originally built to transport supplies up the side of the Franklin Mountains during the construction of a transmitter antenna for KTSM. If it’s decided to upgrade the tramway, it is expected to take up to four years to complete the project. By Garry Boulard
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Plans to demolish a one-story restaurant in Denver’s North Capitol Hill neighborhood have been put on hold while the city and the restaurant’s owner wage a battle over the historic significance of the structure. The restaurant, Tom’s Diner, located at 601 East Colfax Avenue, has for decades been a popular late night eatery, not only known for its menu but its Googie architecture - a design style typically emphasizing geometric shapes, and upswept roofs, among other so-called Atom Age structural features. The owner of the property, Tom Messina, has said that he wants to level the diner to make way for the construction of an eight-story apartment complex that would include ground level business space. Now, members of Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission have voted in favor of recommending landmark status for the building. That recommendation has since been sent on to a committee of the Denver City Council for further determination. That commission vote has proven controversial with Messina, who says that the property is his only means of income and that he should be allowed to do with it as he pleases. The Denver Post has weighed in on Messina’s side, declaring: “With any luck, Denver City Council members will reject this attempt to impose a landmark designation on a property owner against his will.” According to city records, the Greenwood Village-based Alberta Development Partners, hoping to purchase the property from Messina, submitted development documents for the site earlier this year. City officials have indicated that, as a possible compromise solution, they would like to keep the diner intact, while allowing Messina to develop the larger site surrounding the structure. By Garry Boulard The decks of six pedestrian-scale bridges in Albuquerque, spanning a large diversion channel, are now scheduled for demolition and replacement. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department is taking on the project as part of an effort to improve walking and biking trails throughout Albuquerque. The six bridges in question cross several North Diversion Channel drains and a concrete drainage ditch. Earlier this spring, the city completed its first bridge deck replacement job near the intersection of Osuna Road and Chappell Road NE. The wood decks were built in the mid-1990s and are showing the effects of time and use. According to plans, the wooden decks will be replaced with concrete, protected by a layer of epoxy and sand. Although an exact timetable for when work on the decks will begin has not been announced, city officials say the replacement project should cost around $500,000. All of the bridges are located on the west side of Interstate 25 between Osuna Road on the north and Montano Road to the south. The North Diversion Channel Trail is one of the most popular biking and walking trails in Albuquerque, running nearly 9 miles from the campus of the University of New Mexico to the Balloon Fiesta Park on the north side of the city. By Garry Boulard western governors asking washington for revenue and a more clearly defined energy permitting process7/25/2019 In a move to increase and enhance alternative energy production, the governors of 22 Western states are calling on Congress to better define the rules and regulations for pursuing such projects, particularly on federal lands. In an open letter to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, James Ogsbury, executive director of the Western Governors’ Association, notes that the West has an abundance of “wind, solar, and geothermal energy resource, including on federal lands, and accessing their resources is a critical part of our region’s and the nation’s energy future.” Ogsbury, the former legislation director for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, added that the governors of the West in particular want “clear and coordinated permitting processes to promote the responsible and efficient development of these resources.” But he additionally noted that the Denver-based governors’ group is also calling for a settling of accounts with Washington: alternative energy development within the Western states must be accompanied by “the disposition of revenues to states and counties to compensate them for the efforts of renewable energy projects within their borders.” In an earlier press release, the Western Governors Association noted that the states of the West today are at the forefront of “unconventional natural gas production,” with the Southwest in particular possessing “some of the highest-identified solar energy resources areas in the United States.” That same press release additionally noted that the West in general has the “largest contiguous areas of high-yield biomass energy resources potential in the nation.” The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources is currently holding hearings looking into ways to increase renewable energy projects on public lands in the states. By Garry Boulard Responding to continued enrollment growth, the Chandler Unified School District is taking steps to build both a new high school and elementary school in the southeastern corner of that district. Construction of the new schools is seen as essential in order to accommodate what is expected to be an increase of more than 3,000 new students in the district in the next ten years. Members of the district’s Governing Board have now given their approval to the purchase of nearly 74 acres near the intersection of Brooks Farm Road and Gilbert Road for the high school’s construction. The new elementary school is slated to go up sometime in the next two or three years on land near 148th Street and Ocotillo Road. That school, while also absorbing new students coming into the district, will additionally house students from the existing Weinberg Elementary School, which was built in the mid-1980s. The older structure will then be transformed into a facility for gifted students and re-branded as the Weinberg Gifted Academy. District officials have said that they would like to see work begin on the new high school by no later than early next year, with a general target completion date of summer 2021. Serving most of the city of Chandler, as well as portions of nearby Gilbert and Queen Creek, the Chandler Unified School District currently has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students, up from 39,000 in 2014. Those enrollment numbers reflect Chandler’s population boom, one that has seen a near tripling of people in the last two decades to more than 257,000 today. By Garry Boulard Land is currently being acquired in order to build a new fire station that will serve the northwestern New Mexico town of Waterflow, a census-designated place with a population of around 1,700 people. According to San Juan County officials, construction of the new facility could cost as much as $1 million, money that will come from a combination of county bond sources, state funds, and grants. Last month, members of the San Juan County Commission gave their approval to the $70,000 acquisition of a two-acre vacant site off New Mexico State Highway 64 where the new station will be built. A site soil test and environmental site assessment has already been completed for the property in question. The facility will be a part of the Aztec, New Mexico-based San Juan County Fire Department, which currently has 24 operating stations scattered throughout ten districts in the county. The new Waterflow station will replace an existing facility located at 3524 Highway 64. That two-stall station is officially a part of the county’s District Number 1. By Garry Boulard Military spending for a variety of purposes, including construction projects, will see a multi-billion increase as the result of a budget deal reached by President Trump and Democratic Congressional leaders. The details of the agreement call for defense spending to be capped at $738 million in 2020, and $740 billion for fiscal year 2021. Non-defense spending will jump from $632 million to $634.5 billion during that same period of time. The agreement additionally removes restrictions on using some of the funding to pay for a portion of the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. In a statement after the agreement was announced, President Trump called the deal “A real compromise in order to give another victory to our great military and vets!” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the agreement as one that will “enhance our national security and invest in middle class priorities and well-being of the American people.” Senate President Mitch McConnell described the budget deal as “necessary to continue rebuilding our national defense after years of neglect. And it’s the deal that was possible in divided government.” Altogether, the new budget carries with it a price tag of $1.4 trillion. The measure is expected to be voted upon by the full House later this week, with the Senate weighing in most likely next week. The agreement, if finally approved by both chambers, means funding for a number of facility construction and upgrade projects at military bases in states across the country, including Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. A specific blueprint for individual appropriations in the new budget, reflecting 2020 spending levels, will have to be worked out and agreed upon by both chambers in September. By Garry Boulard The State of Colorado is hoping to secure over $128 million in federal funding for four extensive road projects designed to improve access to military installations in the Colorado Springs area. The funding, to come through the federal Department of Transportation, would pay for the $84.2 million widening of a stretch of Interstate 25 running for seven and a half miles between South Academy Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue in Colorado Springs. That work will also include the replacement of two bridges, the rehabilitation of six other bridges, and installation of medians. One mile of South Academy Boulevard between Bradley Road and I-25 will be widened from two to three miles at a cost of $23 million. Some $7.5 million will go for the widening a one-mile stretch of Colorado Highway 94 just to the north of the Patterson Air Force Base and Schriever Air Force Base; while a $12.6 million reconstruction is slated for Charter Oak Ranch Road, running from Santa Fe Avenue to Gate 19 of the Fort Carson Army Base. Colorado Department of Transportation officials are hoping to secure funding for these projects through the federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant program. In a public statement, Colorado Governor Jared Polis asserted that, as a result of the increasing number of military personnel living in the Colorado Springs area, it has become imperative “to help ensure that our military installations can be safely and predictably accessed, even with the challenges of our growing population.” A timeline for when work on any of the projects might begin has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard The site of a shopping center in northwest Phoenix that suffered extensive fire damage a year ago could soon see a massive redevelopment. A Scottsdale-based commercial real estate investment development company called SimonCRE has announced plans to bring the Park Northern Shopping Center back to life, spending up to $18 million in the process. That 2018 fire most affected a Safeway store at the site, which subsequently closed its doors. As proposed, the Park Northern project calls for demolishing the former Safeway space to make way for some 60,000 square foot of newly-built space. The arc-shaped shopping center, located on 15 acres at 3428 W. Northern Avenue, was originally built in 1981. Work could begin on the redevelopment work later this year, with a rough completion date of early 2021. Since its founding in 2010, SimonCRE has developed 155 projects in some 20 states. By Garry Boulard A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives gradually hiking the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour is expected to face tough going as it moves to the Senate. The measure, approved on a 231 to 199 vote, would effect an immediate mandated minimum wage this year of $8.40 per hour, up from the current $7.25. The schedule, approved in what is being called the Raise the Wage Act, then calls for yearly increases of one dollar and ten cents for each year heading into 2025 when the rate would hit $15. In praising the legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the legislation honors workers by “giving 33 million Americans a long overdue raise and lifting many out of poverty.” The Speaker also said that the legislation “grows our economy and increases families’ purchasing power,” adding that it will create economic growth that “lifts up all communities.” An earlier-released analysis by the Congressional Budget Office said that up to 1.3 million people could be gradually lifted out of poverty should the House proposal become law. Tacking a different tack, the Nashville-based National Federation of Independent Business is predicting that up to 6 million people could lose their jobs if the new minimum wage bill is passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Trump. In a statement, Juanita Duggan, chief executive officer with the NFIB, remarked: “In states and municipalities across the country, a mandated minimum wage hike has consistently led to lost jobs, production, and income, and it must not be replicated on the federal level.” Construction sector analysts, noting that the average wage in the industry today is just a little over $30 an hour, expect builders to be minimally affected should the legislation become law. A press release issued by the Associated General Contractors of America noted that in the last year “average hourly earnings in construction—a measure of all wages and salaries—increased 3.2 percent over the year to $30.73.” The federal minimum wage has been raised nine times since it was first implemented in 1938. The current $7.25 per hour was passed by Congress in 2009. According to Department of Labor statistics, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico have minimum wage rates varying between $7.50 and $11.10 an hour. By Garry Boulard |
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