During a three-hour meeting Tuesday night, the Twentynine Palms City Council received an update on future traffic signals on the highway. CalTrans will install a signal at Utah Trail and Highway 62, with the state agency bearing 100 percent of the costs due to it being deemed a “safety issue.” The light is expected to be completed in the next fiscal year. A traffic signal at Lear Avenue is still awaiting the purchase of the right-of-way on the southeast corner of Lear and the highway, and the CalTrans permit process generally takes six to nine months. The signals at Encelia Avenue should arrive in mid-October. Council members asked about putting in a median or dividers on the highway east of Encelia to prevent motorists from making left turns into and out of the Stater Brothers parking lot. Medians are planned for the future, but staff will investigate installing temporary poles, similar to what’s on the highway in Morongo Valley. Council members were reminded that the entire construction costs for the lights at Encelia and Lear are funded through grants from the San Bernardino Association of Governments and state funds.
Also, Council members Cora Heiser and John Cole were appointed to an ad hoc committee with the Twentynine Palms Water District and Marine Corps Base to develop a wastewater master plan. Managing editor Tami Roleff concludes her two-part story about Tuesday’s city council meeting with this report about the pioneer women sculpture…
After rejecting the purchase of the Pioneer Women sculpture in June by noted artist Ricardo Breceda, the city council gave it a second chance at its meeting last night. The Public Arts Advisory Committee will pursue a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the sculpture, and as well as for one of a Chemehuevi Indian woman, with grants from local Indian tribes. The consensus was that the pioneer women statue should be placed near the Old Schoolhouse Museum.
TWENTYNINE PALMS CITY COUNCIL PART 2: TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND A SCULPTURE
