An underwhelming public turnout to a budget workshop led into last night’s meeting of the Yucca Valley Town Council. Managing Editor Tami Roleff said after hearing some fiscal suggestions, the Council heard more on the effort to synchronize the Town’s many traffic lights…
About a dozen people, not including Town employees, showed up at the budget workshop prior to the Yucca Valley Town Council meeting last night. Ron Cohen, a candidate for the Town Council election this fall, suggested the Town increase the Transient Occupancy Tax, or TOT, to bring in additional revenues. Former Council Member Lori Herbel suggested the Council go through the budget line by line to eliminate fat and add $70,000 to the Hi-Desert Nature Museum’s budget to bring it back to its “glory days.” Town staff advised the Council that putting another tax measure such as the TOT on the ballot at the same time as the sewer assessment probably was not a good idea. Council member Bob Leone said the Council’s job was not to nit pick every detail of the budget, but to set priorities for the Town. In other business, synchronization of the Town’s traffic lights will proceed in two phases. If all goes according to plan, Phase 1 will start on the west end from Camino del Cielo to Church Street in late summer and will take about a month to complete. Phase 2 will synchronize the rest of the Town’s traffic lights. Traffic should not be disrupted during the project.
