By Mary O’KEEFE

The Glendale City Council started its Tuesday night meeting on a positive note by honoring students whose artwork was chosen as part of the Metropolitan Water District’s “Being Water Wise is….” 2024 Calendar Art Contest.

The chosen cover art was created by artist Sophia Doh from Monte Vista Elementary School. She was at the Council meeting to accept the recognition by the City Council.

“Each year Glendale Water and Power and Metropolitan Water District host the [contest],” said Mayor Dan Brotman.

Sophia is now in fourth grade but was in third grade when she submitted her artwork. Her parents and teacher were at the meeting to support her.

“I hope my artwork will remind people how easy it is to save water. I got my inspiration from my garden that has lots of succulents – also known as drought- tolerant plants,” she said. She added that it was “real exciting” to have her artwork on the calendar.

Moving forward, Mayor Brotman asked for clarification concerning the funding for the federal transit administration grant for dial-a-ride vehicles and service. The City will be purchasing six new dial-a-ride vans that will not be electric. Mayor Brotman said when he first saw this he was wondering why the City would not purchase zero emission vehicles since that it is their plan to move in that direction. Staff explained there were some issues with the purchases of electric vehicles. The City will be replacing six minivans and staff said there were not currently electric minivans available to purchase. (Chrysler has a plug-in hybrid minivan but not full electric.) The dial-a-ride minivans presently use a ramp for wheelchair accessibility instead of an electric lift, which has worked well for the City, according to staff.

In addition the City does not have enough charging stations to accommodate additional electric vehicles. The minivans have about a four-year life; therefore, when new vehicles need to be purchased the City will be in a better position to purchase electric ones and will either buy larger vans that are electric or electric minivans may be available when new vans are needed in the future. The City will also have to install more charging stations.

Councilmembers Ardy Kassakhian, Ara Najarian and Elen Asatryan then spoke about traffic concerns in the City, from traffic light timing to speeding and collisions.

Najarian stressed the importance of knowing what the causes of traffic collisions are throughout the City.

There was a discussion on the Bicycle Transportation Plan. CVW will be covering this issue more in-depth next week. There appeared to be some disconnect between the City, the bike coalition and neighborhood groups like the Verdugo Wash Neighborhoods Coalition.

There were also concerns voiced by the public about the overall safety of the streets and proposed bike paths. There were many speakers who wanted the process streamlined while still making it safe for bicyclists.