Amphi School District "Cheaps Out" on School Resource Officers
The Town of Oro Valley provides School Resource Officers (SRO) to most of the Amphi Schools in the town. It costs the town approximately $212,000 per school resource officer to do that.
The cost to the town is about $1.5 million. The Amphi School District reimburses the town for less than the cost of one of those officers.
Apparently, Amphi is perfectly happy that the Town of Oro Valley is paying for that for which they should be paying. Is there no shame?
Fortunately, the town puts public safety above money. Amphi puts money...
Last week, the council discussed a motion, put forth by Councilmember Solomon. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Greene. The motion would codify an existing policy and add a caveat that the town request a 50% reimbursement of the cost of the program:
"Every school in Oro Valley, that has an enrollment of 200 or more students shall have a resource officer or other alternate security approved by the Oro Valley Police Chief. Oro Valley shall request a 50% reimbursement from each school for the cost of the Oro Valley provided SRO’s."
The Council tabled the motion for discussion at the next meeting pending further research by Chief Riley.
Developers Representative Paul Oland lectures council on the criterial for approving Planning and Zoning changes
Paul Oland, owner of Paradigm Land Design, represents applicants in an estimated 80% of the planning and zoning changes that are currently being processed or have been requested in the past. He is the man that has changed the face of Oro Valley. And he's done so without even being a resident of our town.
Last week, Oland represented the applicant for an RV storage and self storage facility at Mercardo Del Rio. Possibly realizing that the council was going to reject the application, which it did by a 5-2 vote, Oland lectured the Council on what the major criteria should be for granting changes: Current Market Demand.
Oland was beginning to make his point by referring to the Kai Property on the southeast corner of First Avenue and Rancho Vistoso Blvd. This is a parcel that Oland was unsuccessful in convincing Council to change from commercial to residential use. We think he was going to make the point that the land still remains vacant. When he started to discuss it, maybe Winfield said: "Don't go there." Instead Oland made his point directly: no one wants to build on this property because it's been vacant for years so we really should change it to a use that fits the demand "right now." You can watch the conversation here.
Should Oro Valley code allow small farm animals?
Next week, the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider whether the Planning and Zoning staff should initiate a study of town code of a potential Zoning Code Amendment regarding the keeping of small farm animals. Staff expects this would apply to parcels that are not under the control of a homeowner association. "It is worth noting that most Homeowners Associations in Town have restrictions in place on the keeping of animals, so any potential allowance for the keeping of small farm animals would mostly apply to larger lot developments or where there are no Homeowners Associations." (Source)
