The city of Greeley now has two Real-Time traffic cams so we can check traffic before we leave the house.

Of course, “Real-Time” doesn’t appear to be accurate. I viewed them, they seem to be on a ten minute 1/2 hour cycle.

Pretty good for a town that can’t afford to pay keep more than one month of City Council minutes on the website.

One has to wonder, is this where the new sales tax money is going to go? Into trinkets like this?

El Voto Latino will have a barbeque to kick off their 2007 Latino voter registration efforts.

From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Jesus Rodarte Center, 920 A St., candidates will meet with residents. There will also be folk dancing and representatives from the Colorado Progressive Coalition, Congregations Building Community and several other groups.

Greeley City Council wants to hear from the public on a proposed sales tax that would be used to fund Greeley roads.

This is basically an alternative to RTA plan rejected recently by the council. The intention is to spend the money directly on Greeley road construction and maintenance needs.

The road maintenance sales tax is proposed as a .54% tax increase (54 cents on a $100.00 taxable purchase) and the transit sales tax is proposed as a .25% increase (25 cents on a $100.00 taxable purchase). These proposed tax questions could be placed separately or combined on the ballot. Options to include concrete repair and potentially other ideas brought forward in the public hearing will be considered by Council members.

This is the first of two public hearings on the proposed sales tax.

The meeting is to be held tonight, Tuesday, August 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Council Chambers at the old Public Safety Building located at 919 7th Street, Greeley.

Greeley’s Citizen Transportation Advisory Board has recommended a fare increase for Greeley Public Transportation.

Fares will likely increase from $1 to $1.25 come fall.

Greeley-Evans School District 6 Superintendent Renae Dreier wants the district off of the State’s watch list due to the moderate improvement in the school district.

“I don’t think another year of this (watch label) is going to do this community … an ounce of good,” said Superintendent Renae Dreier. “We have now in place systems that are going to improve student achievement.”

Of course, it took the State adding District 6 to the list to force improvement - I’m not sure letting them off the hook is a good idea until the process is complete.

Many Weld County residents met last night to discuss the extension or elimination of the State mandated two year term limits on some Weld County officials.

Paul Branham, former Greeley Police Chief, said he is opposed to term limits.

“They’re elected by the people,” Branham said. “If they’re not doing a good job, they should be voted out.”

Branham added that he doesn’t think there’s political support for a removal of term limits so he proposed that the limits be raised to three terms instead of two.

Anyone who knows anything about politics know it doesn’t work that way. Elected officials don’t get voted out just because they aren’t doing a good job. If that was the case people like Marilyn Musgrave, Ted Kennedy and Ted Stevens would be looking for work. Politically, one of the great things about the state of Colorado are it’s term limits. A change of elected officials every four years is a great idea and doesn’t hurt the system at all. Many things can be improved in Weld County, but this is not one of them.

The committee examining term limit extensions will meet for the final time at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6 in the Weld County Attorney’s office to decide on a recommendation to present to the Board of Weld County Commissioners.

Greeley City Council Member is in hot water with her fellow members of the Weld Technical Advisory Committee for talking too much.

After a few meetings, it became apparent to some committee members that Shaddock was speaking with the media about many topics, something the group had tried to stop after appointing Stan Everitt the de facto chair and spokesman of the group. Shaddock also submitted a short opinion article to the Tribune about the committee’s work, which was published July 15.

While Shaddock and I are not on the same page politically, I have to give her some respect for her stance on this. Her opinion article published July 15th does little more than encourage public involvment. Does the Technical Advisory Committee not want the public to know about their scheduled forums? What can they possibly be discussing that is not fit for public consumption?

Tuesday night, the Greeley City Council decided to have no further discussion on the Regional Transit Authority.

While it was not an ‘official vote’, so there doesn’t appear to be a record of which members supported it. Mayor Tom Selders did say he was for it, and Pam Shaddock was against the RTA.

“My belief is that we’re out of time and the RTA is not ready,” said Councilwoman Pam Shaddock.

The Council was stuck on two major issues. The lack of an ‘opt-out’ option and the fear that Greeley dollars would be used to improve the roads around Centerra near I-25.

This first issue seems legitimate, but the second is not. Highway 34 from I-25 is THE main artery into Greeley. Travel between Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins has already become problematic. Without a significant investment at Centerra, the problem will continue to grow. If the US 34 Corridor is not kept open Greeley will become even more isolated from it’s Northern Colorado neighbors.

The bottom line is that now Loveland is the sole remaining large city involved with the RTA project. Will Loveland be enough to keep the dream alive? Will the Loveland voters approve a project where they stand alone? If the RTA does come into existence, will Loveland reap the rewards and become the Northern Colorado transportation hub?

It will be interesting to see.

Regional Transporation Authority supporters have created a new brand, FastForwardNorth.

This new brand and website is focused on informing potential voters on the proposed Regional Transportation Authority, they even have a survey designed to get public feedback on local transportation needs.

The Fort Collins City Council has decided against a Regional Transit Authority because they can’t afford to contribute.

Ben Manvel, Fort Collins city councilman, said Fort Collins leaders pulled out of the deal because they didn’t feel the city would be ready to approve something for people to vote on by November. He also said the city was not financially in a position to be involved.

The “Citizens’ Steering Committee” has asked the City Council to reconsider.

Fort Collins needs to step up as the leader in Northern Colorado. Transportation Infrastructure is a huge looming problem for our region and the time to spend money on it is now. The longer we wait, the worse the problem will be and the more it will cost.