We have faced a lot over the summer and are working hard to prepare for winter on these fronts.
The catastrophic flooding we faced this year needs to be addressed and done quickly. This was a primary part of the infrastructure discussion. Although this will take time to complete and fully fund, we are planning to repair and improve parts of Sunnyside neighborhood this fall to assist in mitigating future flooding, which could potentially even be occurring again this winter.
Back in June, Flagstaff City Council decided to place protective bike lanes on Beaver Street and Butler Avenue to help improve bike/ped safety. This was designed as a pilot program to improve bike lanes by installing protected concrete barriers between bicyclists and vehicles. The major concern with this coming into winter was: what were we going to do about snow plowing? I am proud of the ingenuity of staff members, who for this two-mile stretch of road (Butler from Sawmill to Milton, and Beaver from Butler to Cedar), will be utilizing new equipment and a new model for plowing. Rather than pushing the snow out of the road into the bike/ped lanes down the two miles of road on Butler and Beaver St., we will be pushing it toward the center and hauling the snow from there. We have heard for many years how the prior model has negatively affected those who walk or bike during the winter months and this pilot project will be a great way to test a new model that could potentially be used on other main thoroughfares in town. I am very excited about this new direction we are headed to promote bicycling.
On Oct. 12, Flagstaff City Council will be discussing the use of American Rescue Plan dollars from the federal government. After refilling our losses from the pandemic, we have $8.75 million to work with. There are certain restrictions on its use, however. Our discussions have been around using the funds for housing, broadband expansion, early childhood education, business and non-profit grants, and our alternate first response model, whereby a behavioral health specialist and medic will respond to certain 911 calls around mental health, substance use and other non-violent crises. I’m looking forward to this discussion. Please send us your thoughts on this issue to council@flagstaffaz.gov.
Another change I wanted to mention is that Flagstaff City Council meetings are going to be more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing as we install equipment to provide closed captioning for our livestream meetings. A year ago, we did not have closed captioning at all, and I’m hoping that this will create greater inclusion in who can participate in not only City Council meetings, but some of our citizen commission meetings as well. FBN
By Mayor Paul Deasy
These statements and views are solely my own and I am speaking for myself and not for the City of Flagstaff or Flagstaff City Council.
Paul Deasy is the mayor of Flagstaff.