Though I enjoy reading some of your humorous comments that sometimes make sense but usually don't... I have come to realize that you really have too much time on your hands.

06-20-11 10:10 AM - Post#133651

Hello,
Hopefully I can clear the air a little. I am one of the people behind the www.stop-allenisdbusbarn website fighting the proposed service centerYou were the original mastermind, no?. First, it is not just a field. It has homes on three sides of it. And how about where it's currently going? Second, the traffic is not feasible. GUESS WHO SHOT THAT DOWN that argument with proof??? JROB.....funnyMalone is two lanes and cannot be expanded. Allen Heights is already slated to be expanded but that would force all traffic to go that direction.

Buying next to a field a bad idea? Actually VERY bad if something like this concerns you.
My home was built in May of 2009 and it was explained to me and my neighbors that it would be used for residentialFlawed rationale and I bet you had no agent represent you, which is what it is zoned in the city of Parker for. We understand that in Texas schools do not fall under zoning laws but that is what we were told. We are not negligent in buying where we didYes...you were. It came with responsibility to know better.

Bond money for teachers…
The money that will be used for the service center cannot be used for teachers or other projects outside of a service center since it was passed as a bond for that purpose. This is not a valid argument to stop this. However, just as building the $60 million stadium makes the district look insensitiveWOW....ANOTHER STADIUM HATER, this will do the same. Before anyone replies… I’m a huge football fan. I’m actually for the service center if it saves the district money in consolidating the facilities… just in a better location. HOWEVER, the money that will pay for the extra hours that the transportation employees need to complete their daily tasks, additional fuel needed, and additional maintenance needed will come from teachers.Really? No, this is a classic "NOT IN MY BACKYARD" argument.

AISD Board Members
I strongly believe that the board members are doing a good job in the current economic times with the state reducing the budget. I believe that they made a decision without all of the facts or information in this caseSo they probably weren't very organized and detailed....don't CEO's get fired for making similar mistakes?. I am hopeful that we can help them make a good decision to move it to an industrial/commercial area such as 75 or Greenville. An option is possibly breaking it into several sitesVery efficient for an engineer. For instance they could tear down the old Varsity stadium at the Freshman Campus and use that lot to store the buses. They could completely renovate the maintenance facilities located behind city hall. They could use the land in question for the secure test storage and or the food storage that they need. There is no doubt that they are able to use hills, trees, and other landscaping to shield the view from the neighborhoods. However, those items won’t stop the bus traffic and smell of all 125 buses and 200+ employee vehicles.IRONIC isn't it? You defended the move to the current location and you MOCK the people who used and had your same concerns. How selfish and wrong. People can do their own research and see your postings online

Get involved…
People can sit back and complain all that they want. If you do not get involved you do not have a leg to stand on. How can a city of 75k+ have only 3,500 people show up to vote for something as large as that bond?Whoa!!!! No one knew at the time of the election where the barn was going. You only complained when you figured out it was in your "backyard"

The school board is having their monthly meeting tonight, June 20, at 7pm at City Hall. The bus depot is not on the agenda but several of us will be speaking in the open forum to the board. Please attend if you are able to. The next meeting is on July 25 and the School board will be discussing the Service Center. It is an agenda item for that date. The best way to get the correct answer is to hear it from the board. If you attend the meetings you get the information. All of the information on our site comes from the board. If you are against the facility please go onto our site and complete the petition.Since they relocated the barn how many meetings have you been to?

Snowflake, I don’t know who you are but thanks for fighting with us.

Jeremy

08-19-11 05:04 PM - Post#137116

THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED IN A PHONE CALL TO SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT GARY STOCKER.

School district purchases land for new service center
From staff reports
Published: Friday, August 19, 2011 5:22 PM CDT
ALLEN -- The Allen Independent School District has purchased 42 acres of land in north central Allen to build a new maintenance, transportation and service center.
The center, originally proposed for the property west of Malone Drive in Parker, is now slated to be built on industrial-zoned property at the northwest corner of Watters Drive and Bossy Boots Drive.

"The property only recently became available, and we feel that it will meet our needs," said Ken Helvey, AISD superintendent. "It is centrally located, has good road access and is better-suited for the current industrial land use."
The 55 acres in Parker will remain in the school district's land inventory for now and could be sold at a later date.

The service center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014.
Link to Allen American:
http://www.scntx.com/articles/2011/08/19/a llen_ame...

Now we need to throw our support behind the TRE passing to keep the schools great for our children. More on that to come.

This goes to show you that when people with a shared goal get together… you can accomplish anything.

Thanks again for everyone’s hard work and commitment!!!
Jeremy
www.stop-allenisdbusbarn.com

P.s. The website will only be up for a few more days…

08-22-11 01:42 PM - Post#137273

"How is the sizable difference in land cost being accounted for in a bond that was already voted upon?" Since you obviously know how much the land at both sites was purchased for maybe you can let us know since we have no idea. You can not simply guess that it costs more just because it is near Wal-mart.

"I hope they plan to add a few lights on Stacy and Exchange to accommodate the traffic." So now that the facility is being built actually in a commercial / industrial area you are concerned about the traffic? HUH? Where was that concern when it was going to be 100% on residential streets?

The issue has been resolved by the board choosing to move it to a better location. It will better server the schools where it is planned to go now.

Sure glad you didn't prove my point of too much time on your hands with really long posts. James... there is no reason to make this very personal in PMs either. We can argue back and forth in the public forum all you would like. As I said in my response to your attacking, threatening, and insulting PM... I honestly did not have an issue with you before you sent that.


Let's move this back onto the topic of the candidates, which is what this is about, and not a dispute between the two of us.

I've never met him personally but after I researched him I was totally impressed.

With all due respect, the libertarian platform is against ALL government funding of education period regardless of whether it is at the federal/local level, but that is probably off topic.

In case you are interested: This is from their website: (lp.org)

2.8 Education

Education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government. Parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children's education.

James,

Why do you think the board "has cost us millions"? If I were to guess it would be their decision to choose a different location for the service center. What you fail to realize is the district can sell the original property. I guess if you'd stayed off Facebook during that time you might understand what really happened.

I will agree with you on one point, probably the only time we will agree, the voters in the 2000 election did make a few wise choices.
http://www.co.collin.tx.us/elections/election_res u...

Since we are looking for candidates to vote on a bus barn... oh wait... aren't we? Why the sarcasm? I told you the BUS BARN ISSUE is evidence of their METHODOLOGY of making decisions. They are not organized well. Could you please provide the exact quote where "Jeremy" made the "Posh Community" comment? I very well may have said that but posh is not a word I normally use. Since you only deal in truth and facts send it my way. As I said... if I said it so be it... but help me find it.

Also most of the posts I could find from jrob were him in support of moving it to the west side. Your post was the only one I could find that stated Malone could handle the bus traffic.

So... let's drop the bus barn discussion since that was voted on by the city voters and built by the board members in place at the time. Whom ever is elected, incumbant or challenger, has new issues and bigger fish to fry besides digging up old issues.

02-28-11 02:19 PM - Post#126967
In response to banzaibill JROB said:

If they did sell the property, the proceeds could not be used to offset the budget crisis created by the legislature.

The proceeds would be used to pay down the bond or purchase additional property.

The bond money and money used for daily operations of the district cannot be mixed. Funny, didn't she said we could sell it? But for what purpose? See you in a few years on this one...we'll lose money.

The person I spoke with said the district plans to berm the property to help block the view of the service center and provide a sound barrier. No official drawings could be provided because the project is over two years away from starting.

AISD Board Members
I strongly believe that the board members are doing a good job in the current economic times with the state reducing the budget. I believe that they made a decision without all of the facts or information in this case. Supports what I've been suggesting. They make decisions on a whim and then change their minds just as quickly. Not the type of decision-makers I want.I am hopeful that we can help them make a good decision to move it to an industrial/commercial area such as 75 or Greenville. An option is possibly breaking it into several sites. For instance they could tear down the old Varsity stadium at the Freshman Campus and use that lot to store the buses. They could completely renovate the maintenance facilities located behind city hall. They could use the land in question for the secure test storage and or the food storage that they need. There is no doubt that they are able to use hills, trees, and other landscaping to shield the view from the neighborhoods. However, those items won’t stop the bus traffic and smell of all 125 buses and 200+ employee vehicles.

06-21-11 07:11 AM - Post#133686
In response to Bueno

To Bueno,
According to the school board, as nice as it would have been, the land was NOT donated. It was purchased, very cheap, but still purchased. It was purchased with Bond money. This was confirmed last night at the school board meeting by two board members. I am sure that you don’t live anywhere near the site because you would not say these are not issues. I agree that the facility is needed for so many reasons but it is needed in a more commercial or industrial area such as along 75 or Greenville. There are no other commercial facilities near that location with the exception of the schools and this is a far cry from a school. It is all residential here. “There is really no such problem as "extreme traffic, fumes, and noise." It is no different than any other section of town (except posh neighborhoods).” I’m not sure what neighborhood or section of town you live in but the issues listed are not common in neighborhoods. It sounds like you need to move to a better neighborhood. Noise from kids and neighbors is one thing but 125 buses making 4 trips a day is another. The fumes from those same 125 buses starting each morning, making the 4 trips, maintenance, and fueling makes it difficult to understand how that is normal in neighborhoods. 125 buses, 200+ employee vehicles, and the “white” fleet of AISD vehicles on a two lane Malone Road that does not have the easement to be widened will make for a traffic nightmare. We do not live in a Posh Neighborhood but we are all proud of our homes and investments we have made. A lot of people are making comments that are unnecessary, untrue, and just rude. If you do not live near the site and are not going to be affected, there is no reason for you to tell people that are concerned about their home values and safety of their kids to essentially suck it up. There are three subdivisions South of Shelley Dr and the children that live in those subdivisions go to Chandler Elementary on the North side of Shelley Dr. Safety is an issue when traffic will dramatically increase on that street where our children cross. There is currently not a crossing guard along Shelley Dr so that would be another expense for the district. Before you say anything, yes, we DO walk with our child to school but that does not make it any safer. Along with the bus pollution issue, the extra personal car pollution will increase. More parents will drive their children the short distance to school increasing car line for both drop-off and pickup. They will not want to risk their children crossing the busy street. As for not complaining without offering suggestions, a large group of us has been reaching out to the board with suggestions almost daily. We have suggested reusing some of the existing facilities after complete renovation. We have suggested tearing down the 9th grade campus football stadium and using that lot after the new one is built. We have suggested splitting the facility between a few locations and both reusing older facilities and use the new land for less impacting parts of the facility such as the test facility or food storage facility. We are not just yelling to move it.

As for other people calling the board members integrity, intelligence, or ulterior motives into question we all just need to stop. I fully appreciate the tough job that the board is doing in the tough budget times for schools. I am proud of what they have done to build AISD into the exemplary district that it is. That is the main reason that I moved to Allen. I believe that they made the Bus Depot decision based on limited information that they were provided. We are hopeful that we are able to open their eyes and realize that there are alternatives that they need to explore and realize the true impact that facility to have on the community which they were elected to serve.

www.stop-allenisdbusbarn.com

Jeremy

05-23-11 01:06 AM - Post#132013

It's amazing what you can learn by asking knowledge people the right questions.

The original plan for the bus barn in Parker included large hills or berms with trees and bushes on the perimeter of the property to block the surrounding neighbors from seeing the location. Additionally, a private road would connect Malone to Allen Heights so the buses could take Chaparral west to Greenville and also connect to Cheyenne.

Cities have little control over where schools and churches are built. Zoning does not apply.

My neighbor sent an email to the district and received a response that they were reviewing alternate locations for the bus barn.