Reader Notes That Some Areas Need Pruning

ELLISON MEDIANS NEED PRUNING: Barbara Shea emails that “the median landscaping is costing the taxpayer a bundle, but it is well worth it.”

Except.

“Except wherever I go in the city I see that no pruning is being done. For example, on Ellison between Golf Course and Coors Bypass the grasses in that stretch have not been cut back for at least the past two years. The whole area through there is a big waste of money. It looks really bad. Just look around, East or West side is all the same. What can be done?”

Stay tuned. The city of Albuquerque’s Parks and Recreation Department has a supervisor on the case.

ONE MORE TIME ON THE CIELO SIGNS: Kisty emails that after recent columns pointed out the lack of street signs in her neighborhood had EMS drivers scratching their heads, “Bernalillo County put up a new sign at the north curve of Cielo Vista del Norte – but the sign is wrong. The sign indicates Cielo Vista del Norte to the north and Cielo Vista del Sur to the south. The problem is that the sign should read “Cielo Vista del Norte” in both directions. The street name does not change – according to my land title and to my neighbors’ titles who read Cielo Vista del Norte – until the double arrows across from our driveway where the road curves again.”

“I had to call 911 for (my husband) Ed two weeks ago and go out in the street with a flashing light to guide the ambulance, which was lost. Unless this matter is corrected, the six houses on this stretch of Cielo Vista del Norte which is now mislabeled again as Cielo Vista del Sur will continue to be lost on the map and GPS. A simple solution would be to move the sign that the department just erected from the corner above (north) of us to the double arrows at the curve across from us where it should be.”

David Mitchell, director of operations for Bernalillo County’s Operation and Maintenance Department, says “it looks like someone, maybe rural addressing in the 60s – 1959 plat on paper, no roads or other was provided when it was subdivided – just arbitrarily picked a utility and ‘bridle path easement’ as a dividing line when building permits were issued. Lot numbers just go right by it.”

Where crews placed the new signs is “the most logical place where the road makes a sharp curve at the high point in the subdivision,” but Mitchell adds that “I’d like to do what works for delivery drivers, GPS makers and GIS mappers as well as the residents.”

And so, he has asked that a crew “move the signs down to the unused, undeveloped easement.”

Kisty says “sorry to be such a bother, but it is so important to us.”

Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, N.M. 87103; or go to abqjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.
— This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal