This afternoon, the city council's Quality of Life and Government Services Committee will discuss putting Global Position System devices in the city's sanitation trucks, following a trial run that commenced in October. Seems the council's found a lot of waste -- too much idling, for starters, hell of a waste of gas. (Notes the doc, "6 minutes of idling time = 1 mile of travel," though some estimates put it as low as two minutes.) But there's more to it than monitoring gas usage; seems the GPS devices found a few lead foots and slackers and side-jobbers amongst its fleet. (Has no one at City Hall ever seen Men at Work?) Alas, it'll cost $245,305 for installation and training and so forth in FY2008, with a cost that would reach close to $700,000 over 36 months -- all of it going to Remote Dynamics, Inc., which is based in ... Plano.
Also being discussed today at the Quality of Life and Government Services Committee meeting: the city's 320 boarding houses, at least 30 percent of which aren't in compliance with city regulations and shouldn't have certificates of occupancy. Methinks I buried the lead just to refer to Emilio Estevez's second directorial effort.
The Transportation and Environment Committee will, once more, also discuss today upgrading Love Field Airport -- for, oh. 'bout half a billion, most of which Southwest and the other airlines will cover, assuming airlines still exist by the time the project's completed in 2014. Of course, don't hold your breath:
The goal of completing the project in time for the full phase-out of the Wright Amendment in 2014 leaves only 6 years to design and construct the improvements. [Which] will require innovative approach to developing project in a streamlined manner.Southwest and the city must agree on everything before the project begins. Sometime in the near future. At the cost of $571 million. Or more. Probably more. --Robert Wilonsky
