IMPORTANT NEWS ANNOUNCMENT: The City has reached consensus to direct the City Manager to move forward with negotiations as originally preformed in 2022. This means, WE DID IT! The City will be working with the Federal Government to secure new grant money for the repair option. Here is what that means for us, 

Repair -

• The City will move forward in negotiations to get a repair option going that will try to adhere to an amended deal with the Federal Government paying a majority of the cost of repair including the new estimate on the additional damage,
• The City will continue mitigation operations and hopefully secure the bridge during the process of resecuring grant money for the bridge 
• However, the process will take an additional 6 months to negotiate, eventually agree or disagree, and then if they move forward design a new bridge 
• Some good news is that if the repair goes through and they move forward with it, this will extend the Bridge's life expectancy to 2053, 20+ years! Which is amazing news for the Bridge. 

There is one major Caveat, which is also why I am not taking the petition down for the time being. This was a consensus, not a vote, they agreed without objection to informing the City Manager that the intent of the City is to go forward with the repair. However, the City Manager convinced them to agree that, should the deal fail with the Federal Government the City will return and make another decision regarding the bridge. This was due to the fact that, should the federal government fail to amend their contract and or completely revoke their contract, the total cost to the City is near exact to permeant removal. So, the decision by the Federal Government is paramount for the safety and security of our community, and it will inform this City on how to move forward as time goes on. Prepare everyone, the road will be long, it will be an estimated 6 months before a deal can even be made and most likely longer before repair begins to be tangible. If anyone has any questions, comments or concerns let me know, this petition will stay up until the Federal deal is confirmed and we get a binding decision by the City Council rather than a consensus, but this is progress in the right direction and this is what we have been fighting for! 

P.S. for those interested, this was a decision made at the City Council meeting on July 16th. The specific time stamp for when the Sands Blvd Bridge Discussion began started around time stamp: 1:04:00 and went until their consensus was made at 1:32:48. This is the link to the YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/mTS6QgyQOCE?si=eJ3-wW9915lZfA0F&t=3843