Hats off to P&Z, city engineer
Hats off to the City of Yuma Planning and Zoning Commission for denying the zoning exception for the proposed 85-unit development at 9E and 24th Street.
In the last year the dramatic increase in the traffic has changed a neighborhood road into a traffic clogged nightmare. The 9E/24th Street bike path is the primary bicycle infrastructure in the eastern section of the city. It is used by bicycling college and high school students, commuters, retirees and a variety of recreational cyclists. But it is getting dangerous to use. The traffic builds up, especially after a train passing can stretch for over a mile – it’s ridiculous.
As a result, you get folks on bikes weaving through traffic, hoping for a gap to “take the lane” and thankful when a motorist or a school bus stops traffic, flashes their lights and makes a safe opening for a group of cyclists.
The proposed development would have made a very bad situation so much worse. The proposed development would have also put more traffic on 24th Street, making the school drop off and pick up by parents even more congested than it already is. And if it were not for the school crossing guards, the elementary and middle school kids who bike to school would be at risk from the traffic volume.
The lines getting into the school driveways often have 10-15 cars blocking the bike lane because they have no other place to go.
Hats off also to the city engineer for exploring methods to relieve a level of traffic that goes way beyond anything envisioned when both 9E and the 9E/24th Street intersection were designed.
Jeff Brand
Yuma
Last chance to stop billboards along Hwy 95
The Yuma County Board of Supervisors is poised to take final action on Monday morning to allow billboards along the entire stretch of Highway 95, from near Quartzsite to the Mexico border.
Gone will be the fantastic sunset vistas of the mountains with their dramatic shadows of inner canyons with those fantastic sunsets, or “purple mountains majesty.” Gone the views of the green agricultural fields ((across the fruited plain). Gone the blooming ocotillos and other desert plant life with their bright red flowers and associated hummingbirds, burros and roadrunners; Gone the front door to our beautiful valley. These to be replaced by “BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT,” “EAT MORE CHICKEN” and “CHEAP INSURANCE, CALL BOB.”
This is the very last step in the process being promoted by the billboard lobbyist. Your thoughts and concerns need to be presented in person at the meeting at 9 a.m. in the BOS meeting room on Main Street.
If you put off this last chance, kiss your scenic drives away. We will be “just another roadside attraction.”
PS: You will probably need to arrive early and register to speak. Get it off your chest. STOP THE BLIGHT. It does matter!
This is not just a minor step backward, this is a major fall back 75 years.
Jay Meierdierck
Yuma
Agree with classified military leak concerns
I agree with Jessica Cupo in her letter “Classified military leak deeply concerning.” The military and their spouses are held to a higher standard when it comes to safeguarding information. For sure, if it was one of us who leaked this information, we would have been fired, would have lost our clearance, and probably would have been prosecuted.
The current administration is saying the information that was leaked was “no big deal.” I feel the opposite and think they endangered all military personnel involved.
This is yet another example of how our leaders are letting us know that the laws and rules that apply to us, don’t apply to them.
John Parriett
Yuma
Unnecessary government spending in Yuma?
Do you remember Hurricane Hillary? It was more than a year ago. At that time a portion of neighboring fencing surrounding the dog park was damaged, about 20-30 feet of a cinder-block fence was damaged at the top and is leaning. Approximately 650 feet of fencing (Google Earth measurement) has been rented by the city since then to ...? I don’t know the purpose actually, but it’s been up for all this time, not only costing taxpayers (like me) money, but reducing the size of an already small dog park, the only one in the city.
I’ve called the city with regards to it about 9 months ago and was informed that they were in negotiations with the neighbor. The city was responsive, in that they met with me and removed an additional ~350 ft. of fencing that was not structurally connected to the damaged portion.
As a taxpayer and a dog park user I wish it could be taken down, surely the cost of renting alone would have sufficed to repair the neighbor’s fence if they refuse to do it.
On the other hand should the city be liable for the neighbor’s fence? When will we have access to the entire park again?
Catherine Hill
Yuma
Social Security Trust Fund
The federal deficit reached $1.8 trillion, or 6.4% of GDP, last fiscal year, a record outside of war, recession, or emergency. Musk and Trump have promised to attack it by cutting federal spending.
One simple step would be to stop adding to it. And yet, in 2023, the Social Security trust fund had a $41 billion shortfall, $20 billion Social Security Fairness Act was passed in 2025, and $50 billion to eliminate the Social Security income tax is pending.
Add all three up and we’re looking at $111 billion in expenses to the Trust with no effort to pay for them.
Spending is popular with both voters and both parties. This is why commissions, think tanks, and efficiency evangelists have been papering Washington for decades with ideas to cut spending and the deficit---and mostly gotten nowhere.
Will this time be any different? The Grace Commission utilized methodology, which realized that congressional approval was necessary to achieve identified cost savings. This approach means that savings actions become permanent vs use of executive orders alone.
Mike Sphar
Yuma
