Council Member Garrott is pleased with many of the outcomes of the August 19, City Council meeting. The Council held its final discussion on the allocation of Capital Improvement Funds for 2008-09. District Four received funds for sidewalk improvements, street reconstruction, and several special projects that Council Member Garrott lobbied for.

   First, Council Member Garrott helped defend Liberty Park from over-development. There were two proposals, the "pole forest" in place of the old Children's Garden, a concrete ring around the pond and a boat dock upgrade, totaling $1.5 million, which were rejected. Council Member Garrott is strongly supportive of Liberty Park, but questions certain patterns of investment there. In short, he supports enhancing natural, aesthetic elements and opposes having more concrete in the Park.

   With the cooperation of the Mayor, the $1.5 million originally intended for Liberty Park, will be rerouted to improve 800 South and Sunnyside Ave. This is the site of Rocky Mountain Power's transmission line upgrade project, and mitigation of the larger poles is desperately needed. The goal is to redesign Sunnyside/800 South as a boulevard conducive to neighborhood residents, pedestrians, and bicyclists as well as autos. The first steps will be to reconstruct the median between McClelland and Elizabeth Streets and to conceptually redesign the entire street. Currently discussions are underway about how to best mitigate the new, larger power poles through redesign of the curb and gutter on the north side of 800 South between McClelland and 1300 East.

   In addition, Council Member Garrott was able to secure funding for a project that was not on the Mayor's recommended list: East Broadway street redesign. West Broadway, between State St. and 400 West, was recently reconstructed with medians providing significant traffic calming and aesthetic benefits. The Council agreed to fund a similar redesign of East Broadway, between State Street. and 300 East. Unfortunately, construction would commence in 2010 at the earliest. Council Member Garrott is extremely encouraged that the Council was willing to fund the $100,000 for the redesign, which is a necessary and significant step toward the allocation of funds for construction, estimated to be in the area of $1.7 million.

   Finally, the discussion on the Leonardo was quite productive. While there are still doubts about the viability of the Leonardo's business plan, the Board's scaled-back proposal is being taken seriously and greatly increases the chances that the $10.2 million bond will be released by the City. Council Member Garrott is in support of the new proposal and is encouraging the Council to release the bond, and the Administration to allow the Leonardo to permanently locate in the old library building.