Sedona AZ (May 24 2011)–In January 2011, Sedona City Council’s Sustainability Commission held its first meeting. The commission is comprised of nine community volunteers who are enthusiastically dedicated to improving and sustaining our quality of life in Sedona. The mission of this commission is to “advise the City Council regarding policies, programs, regulations, and strategies that will increase public awareness, knowledge and action through best practices in sustainability with measurable outcomes to enhance and enrich our community.”
Among the Commissions goals are to pursue a Bicycle Friendly City designation and pursue International Dark Skies City designation, recommend water conservation policies, help develop Community Gardening Programs, and promote buying food locally, which ensures improved nutritional value of our food and decreases the energy required for food transportation.
Sustainability isn’t just about recycling, as important as that is. It’s a philosophy and a way of life that we all have to adopt considering our finite resources worldwide. In fact, Sedona unfortunately recycles only about 15% of its waste, while cities like San Francisco recycle about 75% of their waste. We have a very long way to go on this front.
In November 2008, Sedona City Council adopted a Zero Waste Resolution making it the first city in Arizona to do so and thus joining 200 forward-looking cities worldwide. The city of Sedona’s staff also has a “Green Team” that espouses sustainability practices and this past year their highly successful recycling event collected 10,450 pounds of electronics.
The Sustainability Commission also sees community education on sustainability issues as an important goal. Sedona’s elementary and high schools already teach and promote sustainability practices like recycling. The high school’s “solar farm” is a paramount example of alternative energy and serves as a valuable model for our city. Unfortunately very few homes and businesses in Arizona have solar panels despite the greatly improved tax credits. Sedona should lead the way here too.
As we move forward, it becomes increasingly important that Sedona “walks the talk” and becomes a recognized leader in sustainability practices. This is good for our community, our businesses, and as an example to our visitors from the U.S. and around the world, which look to the U.S. A. for leadership especially on alternative energy and environmental pollution.
We all have an important responsibility to preserve our way of life for our children and future generations and make Sedona all it can and should be. If you are interested in sustainability issues, please attend our Commission. These meetings are open to the public and are held the fourth Wednesday of the month from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the Vultee Conference Room at City Hall, 106 RoadRunner Drive in West Sedona.
This article is written by Sedona City Councilor Dennis Rayner and the opinions are not necessarily those of the Sedona City Council.
Mill And Repave of City Parking Lots And Streets Starts May 31st:
The City of Sedona will begin the process to mill and repave City parking lots and streets starting Tuesday, May 31, 2011 with an expected completion date of Wednesday, June 29. The parking lots that will be milled and repaved are Sunset Park, Posse Grounds soccer field and baseball field, Teen Center and Uptown parking lots.
Please note that the Uptown parking lot will be done in two stages so that only one half of the parking lot will be worked on at one time and the other half will be available for parking. The City streets that will be milled and repaved are: Stardust Lane, Rainbow Drive, Grey Mountain Road, Pueblo Drive, Arrowhead Road, Metate Drive, Pottery Place and Bow Drive.
Work hours will be 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Residents should expect minor traffic delays with re-routing of traffic. Please note that this schedule is subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances and/or unavailability of asphalt.
Brewer Brothers Contracting will perform the work. For questions, please contact Dan Neimy, City Maintenance Superintendent, City of Sedona Public Works Department, at 204-7109.
Street Striping in Sedona Begins June 1st: The streets in Sedona will be striped starting Wednesday, June 1, 2011 through Friday, June 24. Most of the work will be performed between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., but there will be some work done starting at 6:00 p.m. and continuing until dawn.
The night work involves the application of stop bars at stop signs and will be performed in some of the residential areas. The project areas include all City streets. Striping will consist of crosswalks, stop bars, pavement arrows, “only” symbols, bike lanes along with “long line” striping.
Traffic Safety Incorporated of Prescott Valley, Arizona will perform the work. For questions, please contact Dan Neimy, City Maintenance Superintendent, Public Works, at 204-7109.
City Grant Funding Available: Application forms for City of Sedona grants in the areas of community building, arts & culture, and economic stimulation funding categories are now available. $120,000 is available for the upcoming fiscal year.
The City encourages and may fund activities, programs, or events developed by 501(c) organizations that serve a public purpose, provide a fair return value to the City and are consistent with the City’s funding priorities.
An optional pre-application meeting will be held on Thursday, June 9 at 2:00 p.m. in the Vultee Conference room at City Hall, located at 102 Roadrunner Drive. Applications are due on Thursday, June 30 at 5:00 p.m. with awards made in late July or early August by the City Council.
Applications may be found at http://www.SedonaAZ.gov or by emailing Andi Welsh, Community Services Director, at awelsh@SedonaAZ.gov. For additional information, please contact Andi at (928) 203-5022. All city and vicinity meetings are listed on SedonaEye.com Calendar of Events and updated daily.