Listen here:
At last night’s Twentynine Palms City Council meeting – Kimberly Andromeda Zzyzx of the Desert Institute of Inquiry gave a presentation on the desperate need for early childcare here in the Morongo Basin. Andromeda says that children need to grow up with programs that let them be heard and give them opportunities to lead, along with other basic social skills that are developed early. The Morongo Unified School District has a 19% homeschooled population compared to the nationwide average of 3.4% – and San Bernardino county is ranked 56 out of 58 for childcare availability. Dr. Andromeda came with potential solutions for the dire statistics – including educating more childcare providers at Copper Mountain College.
Frontier Communication also had a brief presentation about bringing fiber optic internet to 29 Palms – and spoke with the city about notifying residents of the street construction that comes with the new high-speed internet infrastructure.
On the consent calendar – the council unanimously adopted the new state building codes – in accordance with the state’s plan to “get off gas” – new homes must be dual-plumbed for both electric and gas appliances – or forego gas altogether.
An unofficial policy of not charging issuance fees for swamp coolers and water heater was changed to official policy with a unanimous vote –
The city also had a review of their Yearly Comprehensive Financial Report.
A large portion of the meeting discussed the location change of the wastewater treatment plant, as well as an overview of why such a plant is needed in Twentynine Palms, which gets 100% of its water from the desert’s water table.
The meeting closed with citizen comments – there were concerns about mailbox vandalism, lack of homeless shelters in the high desert – as well as a resident of Adobe Road asking for the city’s guidance on how to protect the Peacocks that have inhabited that area since 1938.
Abandoned shopping carts – which mostly come from Stator Brothers – will soon be “geofenced” to the Stater brothers parking lot, and the city will work with an outside company to bring all errant shopping carts to the store where they will be fitted with device that stops the carts from leaving their parking lot.
