MINUTES OF MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING OF THE

MINUTES OF MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING OF THE

THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

May 13, 2008

MEMBERS PRESENT: Councilmember’s: Charles Morris, Donald Innes, Eric Merriman, Doug Hoopes

MEMBERS ABSENT: Bob Rivera, Bill Mulleneaux, Ken Larson

ALSO PRESENT: Terry Hinton, Town Manager

Mark Stevens, Chief of Police

Heath Brown, Town Engineer

Dudley Welker, Town Attorney

Lona Duncan, Town Clerk

VISTORS: Michelle and Preston Pursley, Lena and CJ Mattice, Stephanie Bernoski, Dan Williams, Mel Palmer, Tom Palmer

AGENDA

Councilman Morris called the meeting to order at 7:00pm establishing that there was a Quorum and welcomed everyone.

Pledge of Allegiance by Charles Morris

Roll Call.

PUBLIC HEARINGS:

A. Rezoning of property on 4^th Avenue across from Museum – Mel Palmer

Mel Palmer stood and explained why he needed the rezoning of the property. Tom Palmer my son bought the property and it had a few kitchens so he put in a wall and made it into a duplex. I am now going to purchase the property and the bank is saying that it has to be zoned commercial in order to finance the house the way it is. Mr. Palmer said he has talked with Linda Bowman who lives next door and she has no problem with rezoning her property. Terry explained that he and Heath have talking about making that whole block commercially zoned. That block already has the Freeport McMoran building the rentals next to Ms Bowman and the Thatcher School and the Museum across the street it just makes sense to change the whole block.

B. Thatcher General Plan Update.

Stephanie Bernoski from Willdan stood and explained they had been working on the General Plan since April 2007. We have had a number of public meetings getting the direction of where the Town is moving and coming with a vision for the Town. Terry said he liked the vision statement they came up with “The Best of the Best”. Stephanie had a map with the different zonings in the Town for Council to look at.

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

None

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

A. Higher Education Across the US – Pamela Singh

Terry explained they would be on the June Council agenda.

CONSENT AGENDA:

A. Approve minutes of the April 8, 2008 Regular Council Meeting.

B. Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

C. Police Monthly Report.

D. Approval of Invoices.

E. Financial Reports.

Councilman Merriman made motion to accept the minutes and reports. Councilman Innes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

OLD BUSINESS:

NEW BUSINESS:

A. 2006/07 Audit – Scott Powell

Scott Powell stood and thanked Council for letting him come and also thanked staff for helping with the audit. Mr. Powell said that all of your numbers are very solid and accurate. We looked at invoices, payroll, revenue income, tax revenue, utility income and expenses. We also look very close at Hurf because the State is very interested to see that all cities and towns are using the Hurf funds the way the state intended and you will be glad to hear the Town of Thatcher is doing just that. Mr. Powell told Council that the cash the town had was 8.8 million which is close to the same figure you had last year. The accounts payables and receivables were almost a wash. The impressive thing is the amount of debt you were able to get rid of this last year the ADOT Help Loan was paid off. That is very healthy. The expenses are within budget and you stayed within the State Expenditure Limitation. The total net assess is 18 million. Mr. Powell again said the Town was very healthy financially and if Council ever needed him to come down for any reason he would do that.

Councilman Innes made motion to accept the audit. Councilman Hoopes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

B. Mel Palmer rezoning request.

Terry said that P&Z approved the request and staff concurs. Terry said again we might bring this back to next meeting with the request to change the zoning for the complete block.

Councilman Hoopes made motion to approve the rezoning request. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

C. Bid award for sale of Town Yard.

Terry said that we received two bids one from Tyson Draper for $171,995.00 and the other from Nathan Brewer in the amount of 210,000.00. At this time I would like to ask Council to table the bid award for the Town Yard so that I can a letter of appraisal to see what the property is worth before that decision is made. Terry said we are going to have a meeting on May 30^th and we should have that letter by then.

Councilman Innes made motion to table bid award until May 30^th meeting. Councilman Hoopes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

D. General Plan Update.

Terry ask to also table this until May 30^th my reading of the law requires at least five of the seven Council members vote to gain passage of the General Plan update. I expect to have six of the Council there so I am asking to wait until that time.

Councilman Innes made motion to table until May 30^th meeting. Councilman Morris seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

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.

A. Decision on Executive Session.

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

A. Town Manager’s Report:

Terry said that we have been working on 1^st Ave which is the big project for the budget year. Heath and I have made a deal with the land owner on the corner of Church St and 1^st Ave to obtain some right a way in exchange for putting up a fence with his material. We won’t be able to widen the bridge now because of the canal being full of water. We are putting a walk bridge across the canal to tie the sidewalks together so we should have sidewalk from there to Eagle Drive by the end of the summer. Our plan is to start in October when the water is out of the canal from Church St and 4^th Ave that bridge needs to be rebuilt. In conjunction with that we would like to relocate the power lines from Church St. to the Highway behind the existing sidewalk. The next big project is to pave Church Street from High School Ave to the Highway and from sidewalk to sidewalk. Down the road a little bit on 1^st Ave from the Highway to 1^st Street we will complete the sidewalks there and pave to the end of road that is the direction we are going with our streets.

Terry gave the Council an agenda for May 30^th meeting.

Terry also told Council with resent developments Heath and I have been looking at our annexation plans we have the Daley Estates that we are working on now that we will have the public hearing for on May 30^th meeting and hopefully finished up in the June meeting. We have two more annexation maps one will encompass the Central area and the other will be from Mullins addition south basically between 1^st Ave and Reaye Lane. We will put together a fact sheet showing the pros and cons and a detachable part on the form asking what they think about their area being annexed yes, no or don’t care and other comments plus we thought of having public hearing for each of the different areas and get feed back to see if there is any interest. That is the direction we are moving for annexations.

Terry told Council that he attended the Safford Council meeting on Monday due to the Daley Estate annexation being on their agenda. They ask a few questions and I explained that the annexation was to get the area in the Town and that they couldn’t receive sales tax even if it is annexed or not annexed therefore it is not a lost to them. I tried to point out the fact that because they own land on one side of us and we don’t annex that will stop us from growing and the other thing is there can’t have a county island. They can not annex the Golf Course into City of Safford.

B. Fire Department Report.

Chief Payne said last week we had United Fire in and they started working on the air packets they are about 2/3 complete and hopefully they will complete the rest before the end of this fiscal year.

We had a problem with the water line in the Fire department building and that is taken care of.

We also had a problem with the tanker and Terry and I have talked about the chance of getting someone to go in and rebuild our tank that is on it and redue the welds for the third time. They are saying it is the water causing the leak and he took a sample of our water and it is not the water.

We are looking at the agreement with the District and what we want to do in the future on the equipment and starting that process.

We have Fire fighter 1 and Fire fighter 2 class that will take the State test this week-end. That is just the Gift Class from the college we didn’t have adult that went through at this time. Next semester they will have an adult class.

C. Police Department Report.

Chief Stevens said they are in the process of rehiring an officer since Officer Bodine resigned and went back to the County we wish him the best. We do not have a lot of applicant right now hoping to get more before the closing date.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

A. Safe House – Jean Crinan resigned in March and they have an interim director Jennie Sturgeon.

B. Chamber of Commerce – We had a speaker there today Harry Swanson from EAC and he is over the Discovery Park. They are doing better they are open from 8:00 til 5:00 and Saturday 4:00 to 9:00 and of course the telescopes tours are available. They are draining the pond to get rid of a certain type of fog. The mining complex that is there they are going to get a school going so they are moving the right direction. Chamber talked about their Washington Trip and they talked to a number of Senators. The annual Chamber event is July 26^th if anyone would like to buy tickets for the dinner. The EAC graduation was the largest they have ever had they had 388 students. EAC is having the College for Kids program this summer from age 3 to 17 the cost is $15.00 to $30.00 depending on which class is taken. The sulfur plant that Freeport McMoran is going to build will be hiring at least 300 hundred construction workers. There was a growth membership meeting and they gave us a plaque for the Town of Thatcher.

C. SEAGO – No report

D. Arizona Foundation – No report

ADJOURNMENT