High speed rail summit will come to Palmdale Jan. 28
Community can get educated on future plans
The second High Speed Train Diversity Summit in the Desert, hosted by Veterans Southwest Industries, the Antelope Valley African American Chamber of Commerce, Minority Business Roundtable and the city of Palmdale will be held on Monday, Jan. 28, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Chimbole Cultural Center, 38250 Sierra Highway in Palmdale. Admission is free.
The summit is designed to educate, organize and support businesses and professionals for the opportunities available with the arrival of Xpress West High Speed Rail in Las Vegas, Victorville and Palmdale. Architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, faith-based groups, veteran job advocates, small business owners, attorneys, insurance agents, bankers and area chamber members are encouraged to attend.
The keynote speaker will be Robert E. Land, director of Brookings Mountain West, Brookings Institute, UNLV. Honorees include Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder and CEO of Act-1 Group, Henry T. Wilfong Jr., president of NASDB, Inc., and Kenneth McNeely of AT&T. Other presenters include Rev. Dr. Robert R. Gains, a Vietnam war hero and owner of Veterans Southwest Industries, Roger A. Campos, Esq., president and CEO of the Minority Business RoundTable, and Palmdale Mayor James C. Ledford Jr.
XpressWest is an exclusive, dual track high-speed train which will be the most advanced and fastest in the United States. With a top operating speed of 150 mph, the service will reduce travel time between Las Vegas and Southern California to 80 minutes at an average cost of $89 for a round trip ticket. XpressWest is the only construction-ready high-speed rail project in the United States as it has completed all of its permitting requirements and has applied for a Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement financing loan established through the Federal Rail Administration in 1998.
To register, visit www.veteranssi.com. For more information, please contact Stanley Washington at (702) 581-2687 or by email at swash57@gmail.com.
After years of planning, followed by delays, lawsuits, recession and a slow economic recovery, the California High Speed Rail Project will at last begin construction this summer. The first major leg will stretch from Madera to Fresno in the Central Valley, and then extend 114 miles south to Bakersfield. A second portion will run from Palmdale, through Victorville and onto Las Vegas, Nev.
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris last week called on Antelope Valley residents to serve alongside him at the city’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Saturday, Jan. 19.
This week Palmdale will kick off its Semester of Service program with an orientation meeting Saturday, Jan. 12, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Chimbole Cultural Center, 38350 Sierra Highway in Palmdale. The meeting to provide an overview of an innovative tree-planting program that will take place in 2013 throughout Palmdale.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) will hold a Social Service Transportation Advisory Council meeting and a Transportation Development Act Article 8 Hearing Board meeting in Palmdale to review oral and written comments previously made in the North County and the city of Avalon public hearings. These meetings will follow up on the Article 8 Unmet Needs Public Hearings held in April.
