Minutes for Regular Town of Thatcher Council Meeting

MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE

THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

September 8, 2009

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

Staff Present: Terry Hinton Town Manager, Heath Brown Engineer, Chief Payne Fire, Dudley Welker Town Attorney, Lona Duncan Town Clerk

Absent: Don Innes

Visitors: Bill Sollars, Amie Staten, Steven Palmer, Mike Nelson. Tom Palmer

AGENDA

Mayor Rivera welcomed all and said God bless our Troops, Families and America.

Pledge of Allegiance lead by Councilman Morris

Roll Call.

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

None

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

CONSENT AGENDA:

A. Approve minutes of the August 12, 2009 Regular Council Meeting.

B. Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

C. Police Monthly Report.

D. Approval of Invoices.

E. Financial Reports.

Councilman Larson made motion to approve minutes and reports. Councilman Morris seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

OLD BUSINESS:

A. Performance Bond – Frye Mesa Estates Subdivision

Terry said they have a copy of the Performance Bond for Sollars & Nelson. This copy is what Mr. Welker presented Heath and I made some correction and we are submitting it to you. We have given a copy to Sollars and Nelson and I believe it is ok with them. Mayor Rivera asked if it was the same as the bonds with Cota and others. Terry said it is the about the same as Sonny Lee. Dudley Welker said this is different than any other I have done but I think this will work. Councilman Morris asked how does it work. Terry said they put up the 225 thousand dollars we take it and open an account at our bank. The release is objected to the infrastructure requirements signed by the Mayor or self only after the improvements have been inspected by us and approved by the Council. It is an interest bearing account and they will get that interest money. Bill Sollars asked so we will have to wait for the Council to meet in order to have it approved and the answer was yes. Mr. Welker said this bond does give you reasonable opportunity to correct a problem and if it still does not meet the requirements then the Town takes the money and corrects it. Mr. Nelson asked after we finish a portion of that can we take it out in draws. Terry said we have not done that before and it is not set up that way. Heath said this is for phrase one and they have three phrases. Mr. Nelson said the actual estimate which was done by the engineer was 144 thousand the requirement by the Arizona Real Estate Board was to be one and a half times that dollar amount so that is where the 225 thousand comes from. Councilman Griffin excused himself from the vote.

Councilman Morris made motion to approve the Performance Bond for phrase one. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous except for Councilman Griffin who abstained from voting. Motion passed

B. Thatcher Recreation Complex Discussion.

Terry said we have been working with PLS and have gone through about 29 versions. What we are showing you tonight the best of the best. The amphitheatre will hold about 750 people will have electric to it, practice fields, play ground like Reay Lane, a walking path and parking . The library is 10 thousand square ft there is a snack bar that can be accessed from inside or outside the pool. The pool has 0 dept to 4 feet for little ones or aerobics and lap swim. The bigger pool has 8 lines with driving broads and seating for people to watch which will be heated. There is a racket ball court and restrooms. I have included a cost sheet that the engineers say it will cost for the complex. Heath’s estimate was about 4.3 million and this sheet has a contingence of 547 thousand and there was some restrooms added that wasn’t in Heath’s so they are pretty close. Mayor Rivera asked if this was with the contractor’s doing it all and the answer was yes. Heath said one of the differences is the pool was not covered in my estimate that is about 720 thousand and library was 5000 square ft where this is 10,000 sq ft. In your packet there is a sheet showing maintance costs of 323 to operate for a 3 months out of year and the year round jumps to 453 thousand. The last page shows current operational cost from EA, Pima, and Safford for comparison. I guess part of discussion we need to have is the 5 to 10 year capital project. The things that have changed since I first purposed is we all know what the economy is doing right now and in the year of 2011 we will loose the revenue sharing from Wal Mart. In years past I have not budgeted that amount but this year I had to use it. We are also looking at the purchase of a 642 thousand dollar fire truck it will be on a lease purchase for 7 years. The drawing does not show the lighting but it will be there. We would like Council to review this plan. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux asked if we could do some in house gravel work. Terry said some of it after we get the site leveled off but that dirt work is substantial. There are things we can do to trim it back like less lanes, not heating only one way into snack shop the library smaller that is what I would like to see Council do. Terry said another funding source could be a ½ percent sales tax increase that would make us the same as Safford but would probably still fall a little short of making up what we are going to loose in 2011. We don’t collect property tax so that can’t help us. The construction and building of this project doesn’t concern me as much as the operation and maintenance because we can probably do some in house building and find funds for the construction. Councilman Griffin asked if we had any research on what we would get back for revenue. Terry said no and we need to look at that but typically it is 10 to 20 percent. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux said building in phrases will work we just do what we can afford at the time. Terry said he was still waiting to hear back from Mr. Kincaid on the Safford Library to see if we can help them and be a partner with them and right know the EAC pool has been working. I thinking we may not get started on this until after next year but we still need to keep working towards it. Councilman Larson said at the last meetings he went to they are saying the economic recovery will be at least 7 years if we invest in some this big we may be in bad shape. The Town needs to take care of the citizens. Vice Mulleneaux said we probably need to have a work shop. Terry said it would be good to have a work shop after you have your public meeting so you can get ideas from the public and put there ideas with yours. Terry said if Council will go to the cost sheet and pull out some things like down sizing the Library from 10,000 sq ft and make it 5000 sq ft it would be half the cost and then look at your total. We can do that on a number of things and come up with what you think is best for Thatcher. Terry said after we get a master plan we can start phrasing it in. Mayor Rivera said we just need to keep on talking and then get feed back from the public and move forward from there.

NEW BUSINESS:

A. RESOLUTION NO. 554-2009: A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, GRAHAM COUNTY, ARIZONA, AUTHORIZING THE TOWN TO ENTER INTO AN INTERGOVENMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF ARIZONA FOR A ARRA/RECOVERY ACT FUND PROJECT.

Terry said this is needed for the Reay Lane overlay project which will probably be about March April or May before we get the job done. This IGA needs to be in place with ADOT to help administer the funds. Councilman Griffin asked are they the ones that awards the bid. Terry said yes they are the lead agency we have say so but they have the plans and will bid it out. Heath said he wanted to point out that this Resolution is for the 600 thousand dollars that was given to us through the stimulus package and there is another 280 thousand if we go over this is more like SEAGO tip money and would have to have another Resolution. Terry said if we use that tip money we will have to pay 5.7% match toward that.

Councilman Morris made motion to approve Resolution No 554-2009. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

A. Town Manager’s Report:

The crew is back at Daley Estates on the sidewalks and have had a couple of pours. We are looking at a way to have a pedestrian bridge across the far Frye Creek where we have that low water crossing we are looking at a commercial bridge that has an arch on the upstream side. If we do it that way we can get equipment in there to clean it out. Heath is getting estimates for the bridge and will be funded out of the CDBG moneys no extra cost.

We had some good complements on school project. Chief Stevens watched it for 4 or 5 days and it working well it is very functional.

We are looking at an automatic metering reading system hoping to get grant money to help fund that. What happens is we can read from a computer in the office. Our goal is to have the whole town metered that way. We are trying to decide if we want to put the money up to buy the program ourselves or have a company that will read and send us the readings and also perform the turn on’s and off’s for a lot less than what it will cost for a meter reader. The cost of the program is about 60 to 75 thousand which is a little expensive. I am leaning towards a company that will read for us. If you have notice we have a new bill out there. We have contacted with a company where we send the readings through a computer file and they print and mail the bill and it cost less than what it was costing us to do it. So far we are pleased with them. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux asked does the automatic meter reading require changing out every meter and the answer was yes. Terry said I am trying to get a grant through the Department of Commerce to help pay for the cost. This is the same system that SRP is using.

Mayor Rivera asked how the clothing store was going that are leasing the Val’s building. Terry said one of owners got a job out of town and it has put them behind on their opening date. Mayor Rivera asked about the old Wal-Mart building and Terry said he knew of nothing. Chief Payne said he talked to owner and he wanted the phone number of the mines to see if they needed the space.

Terry said until the economic situation turns around we probably won’t see anything going in there. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux said that when the new temple opens up that should help the two hotels. Terry said he heard that Mr. Prina is getting ready to start that 65 unit development in the County and they will be 100 thousand a lot.

We have one new police car in service it is an SUV needs to be striped and the Chief’s truck will be in tomorrow so his car will be back in the fleet.

The College is not a big problem yet and their attendance is up 350 students. The rumor with Freeport is they are putting people back to work and I know of 10 because they used our back room for training.

B. Fire Department Report.

Chief Payne said we are going to school tomorrow and there will be13 going. We are having our annual Stake Fry on the 22^nd of Sept. if you could RSVP it will help us have enough for everyone. In October the Volunteer Firefighter Association meeting will happen and we have some excellence extractions set up we have cars form Ft Thomas and working on getting hybrid vehicle. We will have games at park should be a fun time. That event will be October 16^th & 17^th Terry said he has been working on fire truck looking at 4.3% from Zions Bank. Mayor Rivera asked if he could have a copy of the by laws for fire department.

C. Police Department Report.

Chief Steven said we received a 6000 thousand dollar grant from Governor Office of Highway Safety. We are going to use it for camera and radar unit. Chief said that the County had a 60 thousand dollar burglary it was solved by the investigation completed by Officer McClain and his report. We received a call from Detective Smith from County saying if it had not been for Officer McClain it may not have been solved. We have had some minor drinking calls with college students nothing to serious.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

A. Safe House- Councilman Griffin said we will meet again on the 29^th for quarter meeting.

B. Chamber of Commerce- Councilman Merriman said they had a meeting today there received 70 applications for the Executive Director position. They talked about the College enrollment being up. They are working on the Salsa Trail it is getting close they would like more people to entry the contest for making salsa. The books and in and in the newspaper it says the Governor signed document say this was Salsa Trail month. There are a couple of business leaving the valley. The dates they mention to remember was the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on the 10^th at 7:00pm and the Chamber breakfast on 18^th at 7:00 where Mr. Konopnicki is speaking.

C. SEAGO- Mayor Rivera again invited every on to the Mayors Prayer Breakfast. Ralph Smith crews is doing to make the food, the Gila Valley choir is always a treat. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux said it was good meeting the League had about the Prayer Breakfast. Mayor Rivera said as far as SEAGO information we had a meeting with AZQ and whet over where ADOT had gone through different Cogs since June and July and can back with all the input from elected officials. There was a lot of good information. The next meeting will be Oct 24^th in Santa Cruz.

D. Arizona Foundation. Councilman Larson said they had a meeting this evening. They are still working on donations which the applications will go into a computer program so they can be filled out online. The grant cycle ends Nov 5^th. On the 20^th of Sept we will have a program so they will be trained on how to use the program online. Aimee Staten said next year FMI wants to form a partnership so they give 100 thousand that will be added to what we already have. There mission is very similar to ours.

E. EAC Swimming Pool Committee. None

Councilman Morris said he was asked to attend the Library District meetings. We have been talking about a possible Library District for our County. We have been researching the other Counties and how they are operated. Most of them are mixed County and City organization it is founded by tax base so the Board of Supervisors want to get it on the ballot a year from this November to see if people want to have them. The Library District is set up just for that County most are mixed buildings some owned by County and some by the Cities. The Cities control there own through the use of IGA paid by the County and Cities. The money is to support the library to pay directors, tech help and support staff internet access. They also talked about moving books around between the libraries. They want ideas from Council on how to set it up. Mayor Rivera asked how do you divide up the money the answer was through the advisory board which would be one from each entity under direction of Board of Supervisor’s. The hard part is to get the voters to past the tax. Terry said one problem is we don’t have a good tax base to raise money from. Councilman Morris asked them to think about what they would like to see happen.

ADJOURNMENT