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Council awards Palm Drive traffic-signal contract and backs five‑year streets funding strategy
Summary
The council awarded a traffic-signal construction contract at Palm Drive and 20th Avenue and unanimously supported a five‑year streets-and-roads plan that would use a portion of future cannabis-reserve revenue (conceptually ~$600,000/year) and consider 2028 bonds to provide matching funds for grant applications and to accelerate residential and arterial paving.
The City of Desert Hot Springs on July 7 approved multiple infrastructure actions: staff awarded a construction contract to DBX Inc. for the traffic signal at Palm Drive and 20th Avenue (low responsive bid $863,640) and authorized total construction-phase funding of $1,040,000 to cover contingency, inspection and testing. City Engineer Elias Garcia (S34) said the project is the first construction phase of a larger Palm Drive corridor improvement funded through an ATP grant and is scheduled for completion in summer 2027.
Separately, the streets-and-roads subcommittee (Mayor Pro Tem Dirk Voss and Councilmember Daniel Pitts) presented a five‑year prioritization of residential streets and major arterials and proposed two funding options to accelerate work: (1) reallocate a portion of future cannabis-reserve receipts into a dedicated matching fund (staff estimated roughly $600,000 per year) for five years to enable grant matching and quicker program execution; (2) issue bonds in 2028 to finance a citywide paving project. Staff said changing the allocation would not use existing reserve balances but would direct a portion of future annual cannabis receipts into the new reserve until a target is met.
Council debated tradeoffs. Councilmember Gardiner said she would rather not tap cannabis reserves but supported bonding; several councilmembers said allocating a portion of future cannabis revenues to roads would allow the city to apply for grants and complete more resurfacing sooner. Staff clarified the cannabis reserve currently holds about $4.4 million and that a formal plan would be brought back with legal and fiscal analysis. Council voted unanimously to adopt the subcommittee recommendations with the agreed cap and to authorize the traffic‑signal award.
What happens next: staff will finalize the funding‑strategy language, return with implementation details and timelines, and coordinate grant applications and bonding plans as appropriate.
