Our cyclist of the month is Jim Jones, Engineer for Town of Tonawanda and complete streets advocate. This month’s submission is by Rebecca Riley, fellow cyclist and author of Imaginomix, a blog about economics, diversity, creativity, and bikes.
In honor of the President’s new budget which cuts federal funding of the transportation budget by 13%, this week’s “Profile in Sustainability” is Mr. Jim Jones the town engineer for the Town of Tonawanda.
For those lucky enough to check out the Tonawanda Rail Trail, this beautiful bike and walking path runs from Main Street, behind the Metro Rail Station in the University District, all the way out to the Tonawanda leg of the Erie Canal dividing North Tonawanda and Regular Tonawanda. Jim is the Rockstar who shepherded the path.
Town budgets must cover everything that goes into running the town; paying police, removing snow, paying paramedics, highway garbage collection, street lighting, throw in a good snow season and the budget starts looking very small. Their budget is generally too small just to do regular maintenance and somehow, they do that and a whole lot more. I learned, when interviewing Mr. Jones, that engineers can be quite creative. On top of the fact that Jim is responsible for dealing with roads and buildings that are approaching their expiration dates, he is also sneaking in solar farms and bike lanes.
Read the full story at Rebecca’s blog.