Sunday, December 09, 2007

Kingman Crossing discussion...

Greetings from cold country.



I left Kingman last Tuesday, the morning after the latest City Council meeting. I watched the meeting via the city website on Wednesday and read on Friday the KDM article about an agenda item that I thought was worth noting.

Watching the video, I could not hear the motion made by Council Member Tom Spear because his microphone either wasn't on or he wasn't speaking into it. I'm assuming that he moved to pass the recommendations by staff... one to finish the Design Concept Report with the URS Corp. and two to terminate the contract with S&Y Capital Group.

According to the Council Action document on the city website, the staff recommendation was approved. My confusion at this moment is that I counted two recommendations by staff under item 4 Old Business and the following is how the Council Action document reads...

Staff recommends that the Design Concept Report for this project be completed. The report is 90% complete and would be valid for a period of at least five years.
Staff recommends terminating the development management and brokerage agreements with SYCG, and authorizing up to $250,000.00 in contingency funds to reimburse their planning expenses. STAFF RECOMMENDATION WAS APPROVED BY A VOTE OF 6-0.


I have to admit that when I first read the KDM article... the beginning almost made it sound like the Design Concept Report was scrapped. I suppose that concern stemmed from the fact that a RAID member spoke at the meeting on Monday that there was no need to continue with the Design Concept since 60% of the voters voted against the Kingman Crossing proposed interchange at the last election (although I must have missed that issue on the ballot because I never saw such a thing).

But the following from the KDM article seems to clear this up... for me at least...

Once that report is official, it will remain valid for approximately five years, meaning that while the most recent Council action puts a stop to any direct city involvement for now, the report will be available if future officials choose to pick back up the project. If that happens, with all the preliminary work complete, officials could begin actual design of the project.


Now that there are 4 seats for wide open for new members of Council, it is nice to know that the Design Concept Report will be around for the new Council to at least consider. As I do believe the new Council will have to work towards solutions for both proposed interchanges along I40 and hopefully with as many options on the table as possible.

I return to the home office after a few more games of 'shinny'.


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