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Vote No on 410

Dear Editor:

The Yellow Jackets (Voice of Choice) have left out many important facts, and Councilors Litrell and Hamilton have consistently refused to tell the public the full truth about the ramifications to the residents of Sedona of taking on ownership of Hwy 89A.

Fortunately, Mayor Rob Adams has forthrightly and plainly shared with the residents that he opposes ownership of Hwy 89a for one simple fact:  the City of Sedona CANNOT AFFORD the cost of Ownership of Hwy 89A.

Mayor Rob Adams has been joined by past mayors as diverse in political opinion as Dick Ellis and Pud Colquitt in stating that the cost of ownership is too great in perpetuity for our community to absorb.

Our elected officials and many residents have shared many of the following reasons for their opposition to the residents taking on Ownership of Hwy 89A in perpetuity:

City of Sedona currently has over 60 million dollars in Bond debt. This debt will not retire for 20 more years.

  • Sedona has over 25 million dollars in deferred critical infrastructure repairs, including flood control. All currently identified capital needs come to over $40 million in today’s dollars.
  • Vice mayor Hamilton wants to create Wetlands at the sewer plant and is ready to spend over a million dollars right away, with the total project estimated to cost over 30 million dollars. Hamilton has voted to expend this cost and has buried it from the public by hiding the cost to this new project in sewer repairs and upgrades.
  • While all residents have had to take on an increase in their sewer fees,  many, many more residents paid years ago for the sewer hookup fee, yet the City of Sedona has failed to hook up their homes.
  • The city council has no plan, no firm construction costs, and no identified revenue stream to pay for ownership of Hwy 89A. After months of listening to Councilors Litrell and Hamilton state their vision for 89A, combined with the recommendations from the City’s engineering consultants, local and state engineers have estimated the near future cost of ownership of Hwy 89A at 60 million dollars.

After councilors Litrell, Hamilton and Rayner have lied to the public, exaggerated and distorted the true state of our city finances, we the residents of Sedona will finally get a chance to vote on Hwy 89A this November 8th in a mail in ballot.

Vote No on Ownership of Hwy 89A.  Vote No on 410!

Liz Smith,
SAVE SEDONA NOW

Mark your calendars to vote in the City of Sedona Special election November 8, 2011

11 Comments

  1. Eddie Maddock says:

    The most I know about Save Sedona Now is from a full page ad in the Red Rock News prior to the City Council voting on this issue last February. Had I known about the ad I would have requested for my own name to be included in the list of those opposing the 89A route exchange.

    Please let it be known that I was an avid supporter of Litrell, Rayner, and Mike Ward during the most recent election. Cliff Hamilton was already two years into his term at that time.

    I was opposed to the proposed ADOT lighting. At no time to my recollection was the matter of Sedona owning that State Highway an option to avoid the lighting prior to the election. These city council members pledged legal action against ADOT based on their own studies relating to safety.

    When the sudden push for the State Route ownership ensued after these council members were seated, I thought, oh well, OK, let us explore options.

    Then we came to the decision for the professional poll about which I had my own questions and through a Q & A with council members felt reassured that the experts would ascertain a true pulse of the acceptance for the transaction. That they did by, I believe, a two to one opposition to the idea.

    Not so fast! Foul, calls the city council members who didn’t receive the outcome for which they had hoped. Timing was bad, questions were not crafted properly, and most insulting of all “the people weren’t educated.” Really?

    That being said, we all know where we are at this point in time. However, I mostly take exception to the now accusation of “all those people who signed the LTPV Referendum petition were scammers” insofar that their true agenda was that they simply wanted the ADOT lighting.

    I wish dear members of that Sedona City Council for whom I financially contributed I believe a collective total of $250 you would kindly refund that money to me for the sole purpose that you have not only betrayed the promise you made to me as a loyal constitutent but now you insult my reason for having signed the Referendum. Acknowledging that there are, perhaps, people who did so because they want the lights, that issue had nothing to do with my opposition to the citizens of Sedona owning this State Route.

    For the proponents to state that 89A once transferred will no longer be a State Route is, to be kind, untruthful. The status will not change because ADOT is not proposing an alternate bypass.

    Now I have discovered these same folks are lobbying through “God” in a different online network. Who, pray tell, is this “God” of theirs who would insult the intelligence of those who once supported our candidates and have now been let down.

    A council member recently commented about the decision for the Yavapai County redistricting as having been made behind close doors prior to the public meeting whereby the vote was taken. Well, that is exactly how I have felt all along . . . you people hit the road running, amok I might add, to get this route transfer approved without batting an eye at future repercussions.

    It seems quite safe to predict that none of you will even be in the potition of making decisions about the road design when the time comes. I just hope you are all around to help foot the bill.

    Shame on all of you. Not for airing and expressing your desires but being deceitful. Voting on an issue with knowledge of full disclosure is one thing. However, your twists, turns, and now judging those of us who simply wanted a legitimate vote on this issue are being called scammers.

    I suggest you all take a look at yourselves in the mirror.

    My comments reflect my own opinions and I speak for no one but myself.

    Eddie S. Maddock

  2. Liz Smith says:

    Eddie – Well said and your views reflect the opinion of many of the residents that signed the petition. A repetitive point was that they had supported Litrell and slate for city council then felt betrayed by the same council members when they calculating went after ownership of Hwy 89A the minute they were elected.

    During the campaign Litrell and slate were pointedly asked if they would support ownership of Hwy 89A and repeatedly they stated NO.

    Now councilors Litrell and Hamilton have spent months telling the community that we will have a choice on exactly what we want Hwy 89A to look like and that we have plenty of money. No remorse for their lies, no respect for us as residents of this fine city!

    If you voice a different opinion than Litrell and Hamilton you are informed by them that you are uninformed and need to be “educated”. How insulting, as If we are children that are incapable of forming our own opinions and need them to tell us how to vote and think!

    These councilors have lost my support and my future vote as they have done exactly what they accused the last council of doing, ignoring the Will of the People, twisting the facts to fit their own agenda and saying anything that will turn a voter to their view.

    What can we do as mere residents?
     VOTE NO 410! No to Ownership of Hwy 89A.

     Tell your neighbors and friends about the urgency of voting on this issue and the extreme financial burden Sedona will carry for generations to come if we own Hwy 89A.

     Keep informed at http://www.savesedonanow.wordpress.com

    I also recomend the group Let The People Vote On 89A at http://www.letthepeoplevoteon89a.com for information.

    Liz Smith

  3. Another Point of View from West Sedona says:

    A lot of VOC (Voice of Choice) people seem to be obsessed with the fact that ADOT has proposed installing 108 lights on 89A.

    1) The number 108 is considered sacred in many Eastern religions.

    2) The distance of Sun from Earth divided by the diameter of Sun is approximately 108. The distance of Moon from Earth divided by the diameter of Moon is approximately equal to 108. It is claimed that the great sires of Vedante knew of this relationship and thus 108 is very important.

    3) In Japan at the end of the year a bell is chimed 108 x’s in temples to finish the old year and welcome the new one.

    4) The pre-historic monument Stonehenge is about 108′ in diameter.

    5) According to Ayurveda there are 108 pressure points in the body.

    6) An official Major League baseball has 108 stitches.

    7) There are 108 cards in a deck of UNO.

    8) Volume expansion of freezing water is roughly 108%.

    9) The British television series “DOCTOR WHO” has exactly 108 missing episodes.

    10) There are 108 beads on a Mala for repetitions of a mantra.

    11) The number 108 is used in Islam to refer to GOD.

    If this issue is really about the installation of 108 lights on 89A then I say Sedona could go down in the record books for having the foresight to install 108 “dark sky compliant” lights on a five (5) mile stretch of road and there must be someone looking after us to come up with the number 108. We should be praising GOD and thanking ADOT for helping “LIGHT” the way for the “LOST” travelers along Sedona’s dark and lonely stretch of 89A by adding 108 very important lights.

  4. Very Funny But Not Laughing says:

    The Yellow Jackets aka Voice of Choice 89A have posted signs around town advocating a “Yes” Vote on Proposition 410. The signs state: “OUR CITY, OUR ROAD, OUR CHOICE.”

    Has anyone else observed a very stark omission, that being “OUR MONEY.” Oh, but then why confuse this issue with a true portrayal of facts at this late stage of the game?

    Based on that prevailing attitude with these obviously devious people, what better reason is there than to vote an emphatic “NO” on Proposition 410 which will properly maintain the cost of improvements and maintenance as ADOT’s responsibility which is appropriate for State Route designated roadways.

  5. Bill says:

    The only thing that Liz Smith, Eddie Maddock, and others have proved is that the takeback of 89A is necessary and that reasons for not doing it are 1) future solved issues while 2) the present issue of having 108 lights shoved down our throats isn’t resolved any other way but by taking that road back.

    Why do people keep forgetting that ADOT designed the present highway mess that we have?

    Why do you think that the Arizona Department of Transportation gives a tarnation about Sedona tourists, residents or businesses? It’s not their job to know one thing about those issues.

    Their job at the department of transportation? Install lights and lay asphalt. That is the business that they are in.

    We are on the list of 1) where to dump asphalt and 2) get rid of lights to 3) justify not dumping state workers for a bloated agency.

    And for “Another Point of View”: Here’s a 108 Uptown reason for telling ADOT to take its lights and ship them back to China:

    108 jackasses are employed where only 18 work.

  6. N. Baer says:

    To “Very Funny But Not Laughing” – Just would like to clarify for other readers that “Our Money” comes to us from ADOT, who obtains its money from the Federal Highway Works Administration, who in turn obtains its funds from gas taxes, etc. In other words, us.

  7. Very Funny But Not Laughing says:

    And when and if the City of Sedona owns this State Highway will they receive the same amount of funding from the Federal Highway Works Administration as is presently allocated to ADOT, including but not limited to gas taxes?

    Also, by your own admission, N. Baer, available funding to ADOT expands far beyond taxes collected from only the residents within Sedona City Limits. Isn’t it true that will no longer be the case if City of Sedona holds the deed to this five mile stretch of State Highway which runs from at least Prescott through Jerome, Cottonwood, Sedona, and up Oak Creek Canyon though Flagstaff?

  8. N. Baer says:

    Here’s your answer Very Funny But Not Laughing:
    http://tinyurl.com/http-WeCanOwn89a-com

  9. Very Funny But Not Laughing says:

    Old news from the “Great Authority.” May I ask by what power has Cliff Hamilton and other certain members of the Sedona Council been deemed perceived Sainthood?

  10. Ray, west Sedona says:

    Getting damn tired of fat cat businesses/businessowners & dumped politicians trying to line their pockets on 89A with my tax dollars. Been listening to both sides now. I know owning the road is an investment. Our Sedona lifestyle is worth it.

    Quality of life should trump fat cat ADOT dollars spent on 108 lights that will cost a fortune to keep lit for 10 hours each and every day. Add it up. Our city electric bill is enormous now. Quadruple it & times it by years. Give me a road instead.

    LIGHTS in a poor economy? Thousands and thousands of $$ to keep the night sky lit for drunks and coyotes & it ruins quality of life. Own the road.

    Businesses on 89A don’t care about residents and tourists except as wallet-vultures. I know, I used to own a business & let me tell you, my bottom line loved your wallets. If I could have had lights to keep you in my store 24/7 I would have dug the holes and turned the switches on every night myself.

    Stop inviting the shaft from Scagnelli/Frey/Colquitt/Surber & business cronies. Bad politicians for Sedona then – worse for its future.

    Stand up. Those power hungry buffoons were soundly ousted in the last election. Hold firm. Show some backbone. Send your ballots back marked clearly with A YES ON 410.

  11. Bettye, west Sedona says:

    Thanks Ray, I couldn’t have said it better. Vote YES ON 410!

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