Minutes of the Regular Town of Thatcher Council Meeting

MINTUES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE

THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

April 14, 2009

Present: Mayor Bob Rivera, Vice Mayor Bill Mulleneaux, Councilman Eric Merriman, Donald Innes, Charles Morris, Ken Larson, Wayne Griffin.

Staff Present: Manager Terry Hinton, Chief Mark Stevens, Engineer Heath Brown, Chief Mike Payne, Town Clerk Lona Duncan,

Visitors: Dennis Delaney, Mike Nelson Bill Sollers, Lena Mattice, Shaffen Woods, Jerry Robinson, Sergeant Dan Long, Officer Roger Shupe

AGENDA

Rivera Mayor Rivera called the meeting to order at 7:00pm establishing that there was a quorum. Mayor welcomed everyone and said God Bless our Troops, Families and America

Pledge of Allegiance lead by Sergeant Shaffen Woods

Roll Call.

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

None

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

A. Lena Mattice – Swimming Pool

I was in this position 3 or 4 years ago asking about the pool at EAC and I was told it would be fixed and it has not so I am back. I read the article in the paper of how City of Safford is going to raise the fee at their pool for any non resident. I am here to plead with you again to consider a pool in Thatcher we have to drive to Pima or Safford to take our kids swimming what can the Town do. I have brought with me more petitions that are not attached to the original set as you can see the community is concerned and there is a need for a pool in Thatcher. Lena said I have heard that Pima might not be able to open this year do you see that there is a need for Thatcher to have a pool. Mayor Rivera said partnering with the college they say the pool will be opened to the public two weeks after school is out. Mayor Rivera said they have fixed the problems and it will be opened we are also in negotiations to upgrade maybe the changing rooms and a baby pool. Mayor said that he and Terry had talked to Pres Bryce this morning and he will talk to Vice Pres. McEuen . Lena said we have heard that it is fixed for three years now. If you put more people in it will it really work? Mayor Rivera said it will be opened to the public we are looking at some hard times right now. Councilman Innes said there are some things to be said for partnering with EAC it makes it easier to keep it open with two entities working together. I know that my daughter has been swimming in it three times a week I believe it is fixed.

CONSENT AGENDA:

A. Approve minutes of the March 10, 2009 Regular Council Meeting.

B. Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

C. Police Monthly Report.

D. Approval of Invoices.

E. Financial Reports.

Councilman Morris made the motion to approve the minutes and reports. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. Vote was unanimous. Motion passed

OLD BUSINESS:

A. Cemetery Cross Donation & Location.

Terry said that some of you have gone out to the cemetery with me and looked at maybe a smaller cross by the flag pole I believe it is the only place we have to put it. Councilman Innes said I agree. Mayor Rivera said if the cross is not more than 10 ft or under that includes the base. Terry said the location would be next to the flag pole there is a map and a bench and then the corner would be the only place and it should be10ft high. Councilman Griffin asked if the community has said voiced any opinion I have had people ask why do we need it. Mayor Rivera said that Mr. Bibbs is just donating them and asked to put one in our cemetery.

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to approve cemetery cross and location as stated. Councilman Morris seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

NEW BUSINESS:

A. RESOLUTION NO. 541-2009: A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, GRAHAM COUNTY, ARIZONA, APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT (“IGA”) BETWEEN THE TOWN OF THATCHER (“TOWN”) AND THOSE PARTICIPATING PUBLIC AGENCIES AS DEFINED IN A.R.S §11-951 (“PARTIES”) FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFINING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVERAGE IN JOINT ACTIVITIES AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE THE IGA AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY TO EXIST

Terry said this is put forth by the League of Cities and Towns our insurance pool and the County insurance pool as a way to clear up who’s industrial insurance will cover some one say if we are on a fire in Safford as a mutual aid type of situation and someone is hurt we would take care of our own firemen and Safford would take care of theirs. We take care of our own.

Councilman Innes made motion to approve Resolution No 541-2009.Coucilman Larson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous

B. RESOLUTION NO. 542-2009: A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, GRAHAM COUNTY, ARIZONA, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, ARIZONA, AN IGA WITH THATCHER UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT #4 FOR JOINT PARTICIPATION IN THE JACK DALEY PRIMARY BUS LANE PROJECT.

Terry said we have talked about this before and I have included a picture of the changes. This is the agreement and the School Board has agreed to pay 24,000 and that should take care of the concrete. We will start after school is out which will take us about two months.

Councilman Larson made motion to approve Resolution No 542-2009. Councilman Morris seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous

C. RESOLUTION NO. 543-2009: A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, GRAHAM COUNTY, ARIZONA, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, ARIZONA, AGREEMENTS TO CONTINUE THE TOWN OF THATCHER’S PARTICIPATON IN AND THE FUNDING OF SPPR.

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to approve Resolution Not 543-2009. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous

D. Frye Mesa Estates Subdivision Performance Bond.

Terry said the minutes from P& Z discussed this issue on the Frye Mesa Estates Subdivsion is going to be built in three phases. The first phrase is along Valley View road we are being asked to allow them to bond for it in two phases. Staff agrees with Planning & Zoning when they start phase two they would have to bond for phase two and three before they could start. Councilman Griffin asked to abstain from voting because of business relationships. Councilman Innes asked is Valley View is half of a street the answer was yes Terry said they will take care of Valley View within their bounders and Mountain Vista will take care of their part of the street within there subdivision.

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to approve request to bond in phrases. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous not including a vote from Councilman Griffin.

E. RESOLUTION NO. 544-2009: A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, GRAHAM COUNTY, ARIZONA TO ADOPT THE 2009 REVISED AND UPDATED TOWN OF THATCHER EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN.

Terry said this is the revision and updated Emergency Operation Plan for Thatcher. It is almost identical to Graham County plan and similar to Safford. I would recommend it. Councilman Innes ask about changing the dates of 2003 & 2004 to 2009.

Councilman Larson made the motion to approve Resolution No 544-200. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous

F. Authorization for Fire Department Personnel to use blue lights to respond to fires.

Terry said in order to be in compliance with current State Statues and be able to use the blue light that we have provided to our firemen there needs to be a letter issued by the Fire Chief with the approval of the Council in the file of each firemen. That letter is in your packet to look at. It makes their vehicle and emergency vehicles for the Thatcher Fire Department however it does not give them any lee way to break the laws like run stop light or signs speed etc They will also have to have adequately insurance and proof of insurance shall be presented to the Chief prior to issuance and use of blue lights. I believe Chief Payne and Sergeant Long did some research as to what we should do to put us in complaints Pima & Safford have already done this. Sergeant Long said the only concern I have is in the current statue it says to display red and or red and blue and I understand yours is blue is that right? Terry said ours are blue and white. Chief Payne said he was told the Legislators are addressing that to change it to straight blue. Chief Payne said I can see about changing the blue and white lens with a red lens. Sergeant Long said I would be concerned with the liability to the city if you don’t have the proper light colors.

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made the motion to accept the red and blue lights for responding to fires. Councilman Innes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to A.R.S. Section 38-431.03 (A)(7) the Council may go into Executive Session to consult with the Town Attorney for legal advise. Terry ask for Attorney Welker and Lona Duncan and himself to stay for executive session.

Vice Mayor Mulleneax made motion to go into executive session motion seconded by Councilman Innes. Vote unanimous time was 8:25pm.

A. Decision on Executive Session.

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

A. Town Manager’s Report:

The new yard building is pretty well built there are a few minor things that need to be done and the electrical department is still trying to get moved in. One thing the Council should know is looking at the financial report we are about 62 thousand to the good in general fund and that includes paying for the shop building we have about a million dollars in there and we received a little under 300 thousand from the sell of the old shop yard so we have put 600 thousand dollars in that building and we haven’t had to pull out of fund balance we have just paid for it with revenue we have collected.

You may have seen the equipment by the ball field we have been trying to put trees in about10 ft apart. We should be finished by tomorrow and we have an Eagle Scout who will plant the trees the ground has been pretty hard so it didn’t go as fast as we had thought.

We are still in line for stimulus money of 600 thousand on Reay Lane from Golf Course to Ball Park Road we have a meeting with Adot in about four to six weeks for detail. Heath in the mean time is working on detail he has the title company working to show we have the right a way we will have a blue stake showing where the utilities are the bid doc’s done. The only thing we don’t have a handle on is the environmental clearance the consultant that is working with Adot said we may get an exclusion for it which is a one page letter that would take care of it but that is not a sure thing. We will bid out with alternatives probably down to the railroad tacks. Vice Mayor ask about using our own money and go ahead and finish it out to the highway. Terry said not until we get the right a way all the way down and not until we know if we are going to do about the intersection on Reay and Hwy 70. Terry said if you have noticed they are going to mill out two inches from Reay Lane to 2^nd Ave. and we will get their millings. It will do done on the east bound outside lane. It will be a ten day project starting Thursday.

Tomorrow there is a conference call about additional money with Congresswomen Kirkpatrick it is stimulus or earmarks I am not sure but we sent a list of projects to her office and Allred Lane is next on the list of our projects. We still have some right a way work to do but I think we still have some time to work on that.

We are back to work on the CDBG grant sidewalks. We are working on getting the baseball fields finished. The lights from Central Ball Park for Thatcher High School we thought we were in line for the guy says we might have to buy them. Gary Mangum is working on that so I don’t know what is happening.

Financially we are in good shape the sales tax from the new business is making up for the lost from the older business so we are not seeing much difference in revenue. The State funds have fallen off a lot. There is a clothing store that is interested in the Val’s building. The electrical repairs to that building is a lot of work and money more than we had thought so they have offered to take the whole thing at a disconnected price so all we will have to do is finish a bathroom and some electrical. There is also a new drug store on main street that just went in that is cash only. I don’t have a lot of information on it yet.

Councilman Griffin asked when the speed signs for 1^st street will be changed. Heath said they should have been changed yesterday.

Heath said we are going to implement the County policy that states the private street have red signs so you will know if you are entering a public drive or a private drive.

Councilman Merriman asked if there were many calls on the clean up letters and the answer was yes we have been getting some. Councilman Innes asked if we are participating in the clean up next week. Terry said that us and Pima and County help pay for it so it should read in the newspaper add that way.

B. Fire Department Report.

Chief Payne said I would like to echo the thank you to the Police Officer they help us out a lot. Mike said this thing with the blue lights we had those years ago when DPS changed to amber & blue it fazed us out and we didn’t realize it With what we did here tonight it will help us be incompliance with the law. This does not give them permission to break the law no speeding running lights etc. It is just to let the public know we are coming and let us through. We were able to purchase video for Hazchem and Hazmat. We have had a lot of accidents recently we are not EMS we do however have some that can help but we try to stay away from it but they work real well with them. As far as the Ladder truck the committee is meeting tonight again they have meet with several vendors. There is an outfit that will take old ladders and refurbish them for about 200 thousand dollars less and it is like a new truck. We have training in Ft Thomas on extraction that involves the newer vehicles. There is a house being donated for training on Webster & Hwy 70 it belongs to Ted Prina and he wants it burned down. The bed for pickup is in process and should be done in a week we will beable to put all of our extrications stuff in one vehicle. There is a new fire grant opening up tomorrow assistant to fire fighter grant and we put in for some of that. We had a meeting with some radio people on revamping our radio system today. Mayor Rivera ask when we had our shop you had said you needed to buy a desk, carpet, radio, pagers, air lines etc. Chief Payne said we are working on the bed and we had the meeting on the radio. Terry said they have been working on getting those things like working on the tapes. Mayor Rivera said how about the air lines how to fix up the compressor to get enough air to release the brakes to get out the door. Terry said it is hooked up and is automatic but it is on a compressor. Chief Payne said it would be better it there where on reels so the cords are not on the floor. Terry said it is better on the reels but it is operational right now. Chief Payne said these items are important but it takes time to get it all completed.

C. Police Department Report.

Sergeant Woods said I am here to represent the Eastern Arizona DUI Task Force. As most of you know back in 2003 the Thatcher Police Department and the local Graham County agency all joined together with the Southeastern Arizona Task Force out of Cochise County. In the year 2006 we split out and became our own Task Force called Eastern Arizona DUI Task Force. The Town of Thatcher has been the coordinating agency since that time. Chief Stevens is the project director I am the project administrator .We join forces with the other agencies and do saturation controls, check points and education seminar to reduce the number of impaired drivers. The program from GOHS in 2008 has given us 80 thousand which is sent to the Town and then the Town reimburses to the different agencies that work. We would like to recognize some people whose performance has been out standing in the Task Force. I would ask Chief Steven to present the Officer of the Year 2008 Award to Officer Roger Sterling Shupe from DPS. In Graham County there were a total of 427 DUI arrests that is a reduction of 112 from last year. I tell you this so you will know what kind of problems we are facing and the exemplary performance of Officer Shupe he had 47 arrest by himself. The DPS squad in Safford made157 arrest which is extremely high with only nine officers. Officer Shupe is also a phlebotomist and he preformed 80 blood draws he has advanced training in phlebotomy. He is a QAS officer and checks the intoxilizer for the different agencies Officer Shupe is also HGNSFST certified. We appreciate him for his efforts in the Eastern Arizona DUI Task Force. Chief Steven presented a plaque to Officer Roger Stewart Shupe as the 2008 Officer of the Year. Sergeant Woods informed Council that this year the GOHS has awarded us 55 thousand and 35 thousand of that is for a vehicle. We have three agencies in this grant and as of this last week they are giving us another 10 thousand dollars. As you can imagine with that kind of money and the reports that are due that puts an extreme burden on Lona. We would like to recognize her tonight. Chief Steven said we would like to give her a certificate of appreciation for outstanding support to the DUI Task Force. Chief Stevens said he would also like to thank Sergeant Woods he does 99 percent of the work I appreciate his good work thank you Shaffen. Sergeant Woods said we have a really good squad in Thatcher we had 108 DUI arrests they work every well together.

Chief Steven said out of that 10 thousand we just received I believe we will pull 2500 for a car camera. Chief said that Terry has been working on a grant for two new police officers it closed today. What the grant does is they pay for 3 years of entry level salary and we have to keep the officer for 12 months after the three years is over. Mayor Rivera ask Chief Steven to thank his officers for what they do and a thanks to you also.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

A. Safe House- Councilman Griffin said he attended the first meeting and they elected him as the Treasurer. They have alot of budget concerns they had to move from their office into the Safe House Building. Jason Kouts just got put on the Board form Safford and he was going to see about find a place in Safford there they could go. They have had to let people go and so the director and the program director are working themselves into the shifts to keep it going 24 hours. They asked that the Town Council remember them during budget planning. Mayor Rivera said he saw on the news that the Safe Houses in Arizona may be cut from state. Councilman Griffin said they have lost a couple of their grants but they are still hanging on and still providing the services and they are being used.

B. Chamber of Commerce- Councilman Merriman said at the meeting today Freeport said their copper is at 1.19 which is not to bad but China is buying it right now. Safford has the construction starting on the 8^th Ave Bridge. We had a speaker come in from BLM talked about still having a lot of hoops to jump through to get signature he was talking about the solar panels. They are talking about a power line from Roswell, New Mexico around Mount Graham and head to Chandler. They showed a lot of pictures of the wind turbines and gave us a web site to look at there are right now in Arizona 38 locations where they are trying to get land from BLM for the wind turbines. Councilman Merriman said on May 4^th the train will be going from Safford to Pima giving rides and the money will go to the Boys & Girls Club. Also on May 14^th will be a Chamber Breakfast where the Mayor’s will talk. The colleges started the nursing building bids and had about 80 contractors. The Salsa Trail book will have about 500 issues. The Chamber budget is holding true as it usually does but this year they are having Safford sign a contract. I also attended the meeting with SEAGO it seems like Sierra Vista is trying to be another Mesa and getting moneys donated to Sierra Vista.

C. SEAGO- Mayor Rivera said we have talked about 600 thousand stimulus plan that helps us out a lot on Reay Lane. We hope that Congresswomen Kirkpatrick will share more money.

Mayor Rivera said as you know I am on the Rural Transportation Board the purpose of that board is more of a lobby in Arizona. We hear from Jennifer Topp from Adot said there are so many people moving around right know it is hard to hear all the planning from the different ACOG so the communication is not going anywhere right now. She promised the new director would be on board and hear their concerns. The past director Victor Mendez was nominated by President Obama to be the Highway Administrator Directors. SEAGO maybe be the lead COG in this valley for next years meeting. They will need to rent about 250 rooms for that meeting. We would like to have it here but Yuma also wants it. There are a lot of good things for them to see the telescope or a golf tournament we would like to keep them here as long as we can so the valley can benefit.

D. Arizona Foundation. Councilman Larson said they had no meeting this last month.

ADJOURNMENT