89A

• Should you be mad at the City Council for their vote?
• Is it true, as some people say, their hand was forced by ADOT?

Sedona expects the check April 11, 2011. The transfer takes place officially the next day.

ADOT discusses forced abandonment of SR89A

Councilor Mike Ward asks ADOT if there has been a shift in the position of the State Board regarding abandoning the roadway (transferring it to the city) without compensation – “will they just dump it on us if we don’t agree with the lighting?”

Councilor DiNunzio asks if ADOT would have to have cause to give the road to the city if the city passed a resolution asking for the lights.

ADOT replies “the board doesn’t have to have cause.”…

“If this council decides it’s not in the city’s best interest to agree to the route transfer, I think that, that, if that was the decision and there was no uh statement on the lights, what the board then would have in front of them would be two resolutions from the board uh from this council, one saying we don’t want to take back the road and one saying we don’t want the lights. That doesn’t leave the board much room to maneuver. So what I have told your staff is if for some reason this first resolution failed us but the second resolution acknowledging that the department would be putting in the lights would pass that I would recommend to the board that the board not do a forced transfer….”

ADOT rep says he’s given his word to our staff that if we ask for the lights and ask ADOT to keep the road, that he will recommend to the board that they do not install the lights then force a route transfer. However, he cannot speak for what the board will do.

Update to clear confusion about the paragraph above: Mr. McGee requested two actions from the Council if the Council voted to ask ADOT to keep the road. (1) City would ask ADOT to keep the road. (2) City would ask ADOT to install the lights. What Mr. McGee did not want to see happen was the City to ask ADOT to keep the road, then remain silent about what ADOT would do with that road. What McGee promised City staff was that if ADOT kept the road (for now), and installed the lights that ADOT would not then turn around and force a transfer. But that was his word, not the Board’s.

“The worst result would be that at the end of the process all the board has to work with is two negative resolutions.”

Mayor asks transportation attorney about forced turnback of SR89A