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Council Meeting November 3rd, 2005 Council
Meeting Agenda (Opens in separate Window) Audio Formats (56k modem) Low Bandwidth Video (56k modem) High Bandwidth Video (DSL or higher speed) *Hills2000 research on item 5.4 on the current agenda includes the documentation in the council packet, specifying: "Recommendation: That the City Council approve the proposed Year Round Riding Program Arena project (uncovered) at Westwind Barn in concept, to be undertaken as a Town Capital Improvement project funded by Park Bond Act funds at an estimated cost of $100,000. This project will be submitted to the Planning Commission and thereafter to the City Council for consideration at a noticed public hearing." The responsibility to spend this money rests with the council, not Parks and Rec (P&R). As recently as August 2005 (official document submitted by Jimmy Forbis) P&R was planning on building stalls and paddocks for 4 horses on the Westwind property. Parks and Rec has had the difficult task of negotiating with Friends of Westwind which holds a ten year lease to Westwind. It's time for the council and general public to become involved in these negotiations. The public deserves to have input in this process before this proposal comes back to the council for final approval. As we said in our recent email: With regard to spending $100,000 for a third arena at Westwind, it's time to put this before the public. There needs to be a Town-wide mailing and significant public discussion before the Town considers spending such a considerable portion of the Park Bond (PB) money. The proposal is to add a third arena, at a cost of $100,000, to Westwind for the benefit of the Year Round Riding Program (YRRP), to be paid for with PB money. However, there is no established need for this arena at this time. The YRRP will start using just four hours per week, which can be easily accommodated by the existing arenas. There is no rush to spend the PB money which doesn't need to be spent for several years. Perhaps because Dan Alexander (Friends of Westwind), in a September 2003 Parks and Rec Committee (P&R) meeting is quoted as saying that the YRRP has no use rights to the lower arena, there is an established need for an additional arena. But, isn't it more reasonable to just request from Friends the right to use the lower arena? It can be reasonably argued that there is absolutely no reason why the lower arena cannot be divided in two and during YRRP use, with riders using the other half of the arena told that they cannot jump horses. If the YRRP is successful, and, it could prove to be - that's the time to consider putting in a new arena. The council has to justify to the public the spending of so much money for a horse riding program which is not yet proven. There are other proposals, including upgrading the Town Ring on Purissima, for use by the Year Round Riding Program. The public needs to have its input, and the right time is now. |
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