park maintenance backlog is focus of new senate bill
11/22/2019
Members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have approved by a 15 to 5 vote a measure designed to provide funding for a growing list of National Park Service facility and maintenance needs.
The Restore Our Parks Act will create what is being called a National Park Service Legacy Restoration Fund designed to pay for what is estimated to be nearly $12 billion in park facility project work.
The legislation, sponsored by a bi-partisan group of more than forty Senators, would apply 50 percent of all payments for energy development to the backlog work over a period of five years.
“It is a burden we are not addressing, “said Montana Senator Steve Daines of the growing backlog. “We can’t continue to punt on taking care of the deferred maintenance on our national parks.”
An earlier version of the legislation has been approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on a 36 to 2 vote.
The deferred maintenance within the country’s national park system includes everything from roads, bridges, tunnels, water systems, and campground structures in need of work.
According to a report issued earlier this year by the National Park Service, deferred maintenance needs increased by about $313 million in just the last calendar year alone.
In Arizona the backlog price tag is nearly $532 million. Colorado currently has more than $238 million in needs, while the backlog in New Mexico is just over $123 million.
The Restore Our Parks Act is now being reviewed by the full Senate.By Garry Boulard
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much-anticipated new library set for construction in albuquerque
11/22/2019
It’s currently a vacant lot, but work could begin sometime next year on the construction of a library especially geared for Albuquerque’s International District.
The facility will go up in the 7600 block of Central Avenue on what was formerly the site of the famous Caravan East Nightclub.
That entertainment venue closed in late 2016, not long before the City of Albuquerque purchased the property with the idea of putting a new library there.
The building housing the nightclub was subsequently demolished.
With a population of around 30,000 people, the International District in southeast Albuquerque was created a decade ago reflecting a unique resident mix of Native Americans and immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, and other places.
City officials have long felt that while the district has restaurants, grocery stores, and other retail space, it has lacked the one facility that often serves as the core of any community: a library.
As proposed, the new full-service library will include space not only for shelves of books, but also a reading room, community meeting space, study rooms, and an adult lounge.
Funding for the project is coming from a variety of sources, including the $5.5 million approved earlier this month by Albuquerque voters as part of a larger $128 million general obligation bond package.
Earlier this year, the project also received $1.9 million in capital outlay funding from the New Mexico State Legislature.
The library, which will be a part of the Public Library for Albuquerque and Bernalillo County system, is slated to go up on the western side of the site, off San Pablo Street.
Planning and the design for the new library is being handled by the Albuquerque-based High Mesa Consulting Group, a firm specializing in surveying, civil engineering, and planning.
By Garry Boulard
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popular california-based burger chain is building in colorado
11/21/2019
Plans have now been approved for the construction of a nearly 4,000 square foot building that will serve as a new Colorado location for the In-N-Out Burger company.
That structure will be built at 9171 E. Westview Road in the city of Lone Tree in central Colorado and is only one facet of the chain’s ambitious plans for the Centennial State.
The Irvine, California-based In-N-Out Burger company is also making plans to build locations in both Colorado Springs, as well as Fort Collins, near the campus of Colorado State University.
The company is additionally putting up a 100,000 square-foot distribution center in Colorado Springs. The project should be completed and operational sometime next summer.
Members of the Lone Tree City Council have now given their approval to the Westview Road project, which will go up on a 1.5-acre site.
According to city documents, the Lone Tree In-N-Out location will have both indoor and outdoor seating space, along with an attached canopy and drive-though lane capable of accommodating around two dozen vehicles at a time.
The building itself will feature a stucco and stone veneer, with a roof made up of terracotta tiles.
The In-N-Out Burger chain currently has more than 350 locations in California, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas.
Two existing structures at the Westview Road site – a Conoco gas station and the Suds Factory Carwash & Detail – will be demolished to make way for the new In-N-Out Burger store.
Work on the new Lone Tree location is scheduled to begin early next year, with an anticipated completion date of fall 2020.
By Garry Boulard
