Council agrees to pen letters in support of ECHO

ATASCADERO—The Atascadero City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 6 p.m. The hybrid meeting was held in the City Council Chambers.

The agenda for the evening passed unanimously. 

Kendall Flint, the task manager for public engagement from DKS Associates, presented the council with an update on the US 101 North San Luis Obispo County Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan. 

“Many of you know the fun that is the 101 and 46 confines, whether you’re on 46 and going to 101 or you’re trying to get the other way,” Flint said. “It’s a real challenge. And so one of the things that we’re looking at in this study area is really looking at the Cuesta Grade to the Monterey County Line. We’re also including SR46. One of the things we’re looking at are ways to envision improvements or enhancements that will help us connect this area in a multimodal capacity.”

She said that they are not just looking into how cars travel the area. They’re also looking at bike and pedestrian access as well. They’re also looking at businesses like the wine industry and how they transport their products. She added that their objective is to figure out ways to build on the Multimodel Mobility Master Plan, which was established in 2014.

Items 1 through 5 and item 7 passed unanimously on the Consent Calendar. Mayor Heather Moreno pulled item 6, Authorization to Repair Various Roads Damaged in the 2023 Winter Storms, for extra clarification.

“This is really an effort to repair many of the streets that are still damaged from the last series of storms,” City Manager Jim Lewis replied. “I appreciate the Public Works Department’s effort to be creative in finding approaches to get these done quickly before the storms come through. I did want to highlight that we are asking for allocation of the Del Rio road repairs.” 

Lewis added that they have a plan to have all the work completed before Thanksgiving. Item 6 passed unanimously after the discussion.

During updates from the City Manager, Lewis shared an update on Fire Station 1 and Police Station/Public Safety Renovations.

“We had our first project kick-off meeting a couple weeks ago, with the goal being a decision has been made that we are going to build the fire station where it is,” said Lewis. 

The fire station will be a complete rebuild, and while the construction is happening, they will pursue using the Armery site as a possible staging area.

Then, Moreno proposed writing letters of support for a local nonprofit and Allan Hancock College.

“I’m going to ask for, I can write a letter on my own behalf, but I think it’s more powerful when it comes from the entire council, and so there are two letters I would like to write in support of ECHO (El Camino Homeless Organization) that would both go to county,” stated Moreno. “One is supporting their funding for the expansion of 20 beds in Paso Robles. The other is for the NOFO, which is their standard annual request that they make of the county, but the county is changing the way they do that. So now letters of recommendation are weighted towards their receiving of their annual funding. So I would ask staff to write a letter that speaks to the importance of ECHO to our community.” 

The third letter Moreno brought up would support Allan Hancock College in making an application to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to offer a Bachelors Degree in applied professional studies. 

Going forward with writing all three letters was approved by all members of the City Council.

The next Atascadero City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m.