MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN COUNCIL

                 NOTICE OF MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING OF THE

                                     THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

                                                            September 11, 2007

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:                                           Mayor, Bob Rivera

Vice Mayor, Bill Mulleneaux

Councilmember’s: Ken Larson, Eric Merriman,  Charles Morris

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:                                             Doug Hoopes, Donald Innes

 

ALSO PRESENT:                                                     Terry Hinton, Town Manager

                                                                                    Mark Stevens, Chief of Police

                                                                                    Heath Brown, Town Engineer

                                                                                    Dudley Welker, Town Attorney

                                                                                    Lona Duncan, Town Clerk

 

VISTORS:                                                                  Lance Layton, Jay Layton, Mike McCarthy, Roy & Patty Curtis, Brenda Stevens, Jon Johnson, Phil Prey

 

                                                                      AGENDA

 Mayor Rivera called the meeting to order at 7:00pm establishing that there was a Quorum. He also said God bless our Troops, Family and America. Mayor Rivera ask for everyone to take a moment of silents in honor of those that died on 9/11.

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE lead by Vice Mayor Mulleneaux and he ask that we remember those who died on 9/11.

 

ROLL CALL.

 

PUBLIC HEARING

 

A.        Preliminary Plat on Who’s On First Subdivision - 1st Avenue

                       

                        No one addressed the Council

 

B.        Consider Re-zone request for the area at Reay Lane and 4th Street.

 

Mike McCarthy stood and introduced himself as living on 3738 W 4th. Mr. McCarthy said the original rezoning included the old Roseberry place and the City Yard and those are the only two that I am against. We came here to live in a quite neighbor and we just had 40 apartments built on Hwy 70 and Reay Lane and building 350 up by the town houses most of Reay Lane is going to end up commercial and we are trying to keep that small portion to be residential.  We are asking that the old Roseberry home and the City Yard stay the same and Planning and Zoning did that.

Lance Layton stood and said he was here on behalf of the rezoning he said they would like to rezone the area just north of the railroad and west of Reay Lane in order to build storage units because we can not farm that land.

 

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

 

Mike McCarthy stood again and said he was read an article on how in the City of Safford that per citizen they had so much debt that Safford is caring and they gave a dollar amount. Mr. McCarthy ask if the Town of Thatcher had debt per citizen and if so what would that be. Terry explained first that it is not the citizen’s debt but the City they may have said it that way for an example. To answer the question about the Town of Thatcher the answer is no the Town is not in debt however on this agenda is the Resolution to let the Town bond out so that we can purchase a portion of the Graham Electric lines here in the Town and also to purchase the Val’s appliance building for future expansions. We have the cash reverses to pay for them outright but our expenditure limitation won’t allow us to spend the money so the State is forcing us to go into debt even through we have the fund to pay for the purchases.

Mr. McCarthy also ask about the house next door and the weed problem they have can the Town do anything? Terry said they had been since a letter and the law requires they have 45 days to act so they have about two weeks. The other question is can you get rid of the old houses that haven’t been lived in for twenty years. Terry said that is another issue that has to do with private property rights we really can’t do anything.

Jay Layton stood and said he spends a lot of time at the cemetery and I am very impressed with the way it is taken care of. Mayor Rivera thanked him for expressing that it isn’t often we get positive feed back.

 

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

 

 

CONSENT AGENDA:

 

A.        Approve minutes August 14, 2007 Council Meeting.

 

B.        Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

 

C.        Police Monthly Report.

 

D.        Approval of invoices.

 

E.        Financial Reports.

 

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

 

OLD BUSINESS:

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

A.        Decision on Preliminary Plat for Who’s On First Subdivision .

           

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to approve the preliminary plat for Who’s On First subdivision. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

           

B.        Decision on Re-zoning request.

 

            Terry stated that he understood the concerns expressed here tonight and P&Z did strip both of them off. The Roseberry property is no problem at all but the next day we did get an inquiry on the City Yard for apartment. If it was rezoned and we could sell it for a higher price we could use that money to move our yard up on the hill. I not sure which is the worst the city yard and the prisoners or apartment but that is a thought for the Council. Councilman Larson ask how many apartments were they looking at putting in there. Heath said they could put in would be 40 units. Mayor Rivera ask if it was the suggestion that we don’t rezone. The Roseberry property we just through in we tried to get a hold of them but got no response. Terry did say that on the new General Plan that area on both sides of Reay Lane is designated as regional commercial so the chances of single family dwelling going in that area are probably not real good. Heath did talk to the home across from the yard and they didn’t have a problem with the rezoning. Councilman Merriman said if the college goes a four year school you will have six thousand kids that will need housing I know that is thinking in the future but don’t we need to do that?

 

            Councilman Merriman made the motion to change the zoning all except the Roseberry property to C2.  Vice Mayor Mulleneaux seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

 

C.        Reimbursement agreement to facilitate electric system and Val’s building purchase.

 

            Mayor Rivera read the Resolution 517-2007

 

            Terry stated that this is a reimbursement agreement we have 90 days to complete the purchase agreement with the Co-op on the electric system and the agreement with Val’s they are every achieve to get that completed so they can take the money we are giving them and put it into their new location at the old Wal-Mart building. In order to do that we will pay them out our reverses right now and once we sell our bonds we will reimburse ourselves. As I have said the only reason we have to do that is because we can not spend that much money at one time due to the expenditure limitation.

 

            Councilman Morris made motion to approve Resolution 517-2007. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

 

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

 

A.        Town Manager’s Report:     

            1) Terry said for the next Council meeting we should have back the bid for the repaving for the remainder of Daley Estates streets. Right now our crews are repairing curves. We are going to try and complete that during the summer and we will do a little more work on it ourselves so it won’t be as expensive as last year but we are still looking at about 300 thousand dollars.

            2) With some of the building that is going on we will have to relocate a couple of power lines one on Reay Lane from Ball Park road down past the bottom of the hill the developer wants that underground and he is going to pay for it. The other one on Ball Park road we have two main lines coming out of the sub station one goes down Reay Lane and the other goes across Stadium Ave and down and cuts across the corner of their property so we have about three poles to relocate.

            3) We should be getting the material to install the water line from 12th Street to Daley Estates. Mike Payne and I were talking today and we believe that will increase the flow to the hydrants if they are marked 500 they will go to 1500 and above will the added pressure.

            4) The stop light at 3rd Ave we were told it will be going by the end of week. Heath said the last update of being finished was September 27th. At the present time the ADOT local office has requested the Tucson office do a traffic study on Reay Lane & Hwy 70 to see about a signal there but there choice would be a round about. We do except to have a round about at the end of Stadium Ave & intersection of Ball Park, Arena Way and the cemetery. We are also looking at Daley Stop for a round about they says they are safer and they are much cheaper than a signal.

            5) Our building is continuing on we are getting ready to bond for the infrastructure on the hill for the town houses that should be done by end of month they are doing some ground work. No new project but around the first of the year we expect Val’s to open in their new location at the old Wal-Mart building. We hope that because of that move that we will get that building filled up.

            6) Councilman Morris ask about moving the next October Council meeting. It was agreed to have the meeting October 23rd.

            7) The annual Hospital Silent Auction on September 22nd and also the Prayer Breakfast is on September 14th at 7:00am

 

B.        Fire Department Report.

 

            Chief Payne said to keep Oct 16th open that is the date for the Annual Firemen’s’ Steak Fry.

            1) Chief Payne said they just came back from fire school in Phoenix it was a real good education and the families and men that were there did a lot of bonding it was good. I believe we had six men that attended the tactics and procedure class which is a basic what do you do when you walk into a fire. We had 12 men that went and BK Merriman represented the Volunteers Firefighter Associations they paid for him.

            2) We did have a Risk meeting a couple of weeks ago and I did get some more feed back at the school we attended.

 

C.        Police Department Report.

 

Chief Stevens thanked Chief McEuen for staying on and helping with the transition and make it as smooth as possible. I have been trying to getting to know the officers and I have talked to Terry about possibly bar coding our evidence Safford and the County has that system and we are getting quotes to see what that would cost us. One note we received notice that there was an escapee out of Tucson that might be hanging around Gila River Apartment due to the excellent job of Officer McClain and watching we ending up with an arrest. Officer McClain did some great police work and one of the Sergeant wrote up and accommodation for him. I appreciate what the Council does for us.

 

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

A.        Safe House- No report

 

B.        Chamber of Commerce- Councilman Merriman said they had a meeting this morning. The Salsa Trail is at the end of month on September 29th it is a good thing has attracted a lot of business for the restaurants. We have a thing going on to attracted more business by make phone calls. The Freeport and McMoRan Exploration Corporation CEO’s were in town looking that the different area’s they have purchased. The memorial Bell Tower in coming up on September 15th. The Focus Future meeting will be on Thursday in the County Building September 13th. Also I received the news today that the Langley Company bought the LDS church property. On November 9th this is a Chamber breakfast. Pat O’Brien is headed to Colorado for retirement this next week. We do have a new business in Pima that has the wood carvings it is really nice. Council agreed that someone in the Town of Thatcher needs to be on the Economic Development committee so we can hear and help develop new business.

 

C.        SEAGO – Mayor River said there was nothing to report will have a meeting next month. The Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast is in the Ag Building.

 

D.        Arizona Foundation – Councilman Larson said they did have a meeting and they talked about way to get more people involved.  It is time for the application to be completed and we ask that the Town let us bring some application over for people to pick up. We thought also that the Chamber and the City of Safford would be other location for applications. We will have a monthly meeting on the first Thursday of each month and see if we can get this up and going again.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to A.R.S. Section 38-431.03 (A)(3)(7) the Council may go into Executive Session concerning negotiations for the purchase, sale, or lease of real property and legal advise on possible or pending litigation.

 

Terry stated he would like for Heath, Lona, Dudley and myself to stay for the meeting it will be from 7:50 to about 8:30.

 

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to go into Executive Session. Councilman Morris seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Time was 7:50pm

 

Councilman Morris made motion to reconvene into Regular Session. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Time was 8:21 pm

 

            A.        Decision from executive session.

            None  

 

ADJOURNMENT.

 

Councilman Morris made motion to adjourn meeting and Councilman Innes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous meeting adjourned at 8:22pm.

 

ATTEST:

 

 

APPROVED:

 

___________________________                       ___________________________

Lona Duncan, Town Clerk                                        Robert Rivera, Mayor

 

CERTIFICATION

 

I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the regular/special meeting of the Town Council of the Town of Thatcher held on the 11th day of September 2007.  I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present.     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ___________________________

           Lona Duncan, Town Clerk