MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE

THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

December 22, 2009

 

Present: Mayor Bob Rivera, Vice Mayor Bill Mulleneaux, Councilmen Eric Merriman, Donald Innes, Ken Larson, Wayne Griffin

 

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

 

Absent: Councilman Charles Morris

 

Visitors: Harold Judd, Clel & Sherri Flake, James & Vickie Sullivan, Tracy & Maurine Allred, Rose West, Jon Stewart, Drew John, Lynette Mulleneuaux, Wilson Gaethje, Eric Kramer, Raul Alaniz

 

                                                                          AGENDA

 

Mayor Rivera welcomed everyone and called meeting to order stating there was a quorum at 7:00pm. The Mayor wished all a Merry Christmas and asked us to keep the armed forces in our prayers. Mayor Rivera said God Bless our Troops and their families and America.

 

Pledge of Allegiance lead by Tracy Allred

 

Roll Call.

 

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

 

            None

 

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

 

A.           Christmas Decorating Contest Presentations – Mayor Rivera

 

Mayor Rivera thanked everyone for their gift to the community by putting up the lights on your homes. It is nice to take that one second to get out of your world and enjoy the pretty lights and decorations. Mayor Rivera presented the Grand Prize to Wilson Gaethje, First Prize to Eric Kramer, Second Prize to Raul Alaniz, Third Prize to Harold Judd, and Honorable Mention to Kay Mullenaux, Murlin Larson, Louis Enriquez, Joyce Flamm, GA Espinoza. Mayor Rivera thanked them again.

 

B.           Jack Daley School Proclamation.

 

Mayor Rivera said the Jack Daley Primary School received a very important award called the Blue Ribbon School Award of 2009. This is a national award given by the National Education Administration. There were 314 schools nationwide receiving this award and only 4 in the State of Arizona and Thatcher Jack Daley School received one of those awards. The Town of Thatcher has made a proclamation to honor them for there accomplishment. Mayor Rivera read the proclamation. The principal of Jack Daley School Tracy Allred stood and thanked not only the teachers who do a great job but the parents who have over 800 hours in volunteer work and the 90 hours given each week by Eastern Arizona College and that doesn’t include the community people who come in and let children read to them, help with writing and math. This is a community award and a great honor to us to have the Town of Thatcher proclaim January Jack Daley Primary School 2009 Blue Ribbon School Month. I would like to thank everyone for what they do.

 

C.           Graham County Library Board Committee Presentation.

 

Clel Flake stood and addressed the Council and thanked them for their interest in Libraries much has been said about the power of ideas and dreams books help to unleash ideas and hope and help each of us become better. We have put together a packet of information that we as a committee have talked about so far. What we need is some of your ideas so we can go on to the next level and know which direction to take. The ultimate goal is to be able to go before the public in a form of vote to create the Library District. We would like to know your goal or concept for a library. Terry said one concern would be the amount of tax rate increase. Our evaluation is much lower than most of these Counties my concern is that it won’t be enough to have four building unless the rate went up a lot. Mr. Flake said with the current tax rate and a 20 cent tax increase we would raise about 520 thousand dollars. We haven’t settled on anything yet but there are a number of things we can do to have the cost lower. Mayor Rivera said we like the idea of a Library but with the economic times it would be hard right now. Mr. Flake said you are right this is at least a three year off plan. Councilman Merriman asked if Graham County is in on this and the answer was they are still talking about it. Chairman Drew John stood and said the County is for a Library. I think the concept is not to finance libraries but to supplement and to have more buying power by working together and having more consistency.  The County doesn’t want to be in the Library business or the building business but we see the time is now to create some consistencies before Libraries fall apart. Forming a  district will help get grants. Mr. Flake said we want this to fit very Council or Board that is why we need your feed back. We will then start giving that information out to the public. We are hoping the tax increase will be on this next ballot in November 2010 and will take a couple of years for the funding to be given out if it passes.  Mr. Flake said you are welcome to call any of us or give your information to Councilman Morris.

 

Pole relocation – James Sullivan

 

James Sullivan addressed the Council about a pole in the middle of his drive way. The other night someone drove over part of the guy line. Someone is going to hit that pole and I would like to see it moved before someone gets hurt. Terry said we took some pictures of the pole and our Electricians have looked at it. There are several things that go on with that pole one is it is a dead end pole that’s why the guy wire is there to back it up. It also feeds Qwest and two other houses right there. The only way to move it is to put two poles in on each side of your property line one of the pole’s is going to have to have a guy wire. If we put in two wooden poles we are looking at around three thousand dollars in expense and the cost of metal pole jumps to six thousand dollars. What we could do is change the guy to a side walk guy. Right now it is probably out 25 ft from the pole and we could back it in and bring straight down that would be about 5 ft from pole. Mr. Sullivan asked about putting it east by the well. Terry said that was what I was saying if we do that we will have to put another pole in because that span is to long it is almost to long right now that’s why the two poles will be necessary. Councilman Merriman said it would be about 8 thousand to put it underground and Terry said probably a little more than that. Mayor Rivera said for right now how about putting a sidewalk there for a protector or maybe reflectors. Terry said we could look at that and we can move the guy wire but it will still be out there in the middle. Mr. Sullivan said whatever help you can give we would appreciate. Terry said we will move that guy wire first to see if that helps the situation.

 

CONSENT AGENDA:                    Action Item

 

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

 

B.           Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

 

C.           Police Monthly Report.

 

D.           Approval of Invoices.

 

E.        Financial Reports.

 

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

 

 

OLD BUSINESS:    Discussion, consideration and possible action

 

A.        ORDINANCE NO.158-2009:         AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, ARIZONA, RELATING TO THE TOWN CODE; AMENDING CHAPTER 7 OF THE TOWN CODE TO UPDATE THE UNIFORM CODES BY ADOPTING MORE RECENT EDITIONS OF THE CODES; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION.

 

Terry said on page 2 Article 7-1-6 of the Uniform Fire Code the only change is the last sentence. This will include: Exhibit A. Incorporated Appendices. We left that off and there are some appendices that Mike uses everyday so we thought it would be better that it was reapproved.

 

Councilman Innes made motion to approve Ordinance No 158-2009. Councilman Larson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

 

NEW BUSINESS:    Discussion, consideration and possible action

 

A.        Health Insurance Proposals.

 

Terry said as you know our current health carrier as of February has giving us a midyear increase of 40 percent. We have looked at a number of different providers. Currently our annual premium is 316 thousand and with the increase it will be 443 thousand and right now our out of pocket for employees is 1250 and family 2500. We are having a hard time coming up with a HSA that is compatible to what we have. Terry gave the rates of a number of plans and the dollar amount. The two that he was leaning towards was Blue Cross Blue Shield with a PPO or a HSA plan they are close to the fees we are paying now with the same coverage. Councilmen suggested letting the employees make the determination of which plan they would like and bring it back to us next month.

                       

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 on Monday we shut down Reay Lane for one day. During times when we used to get rain we weren’t getting the water flow so we put a culvert in there and will pour head walls on both ends that should be more efficient. This project will take this week and next to complete. We will then go back out to Daley Estates sidewalks. Mayor River asked when the sidewalk is being done will the bridge on Frye Creek be done. Terry said yes the bridge has been ordered and is in and we are waiting for additional environmental clearance from Seago.

Terry said would like to know if the January Council meeting would be a good time to have the Public Hearing Meeting about the Complex. Council agreed to that time. Councilman Innes ask if we would have an advisory committee in the future. Terry said yes but in the future we are not close to that.

Terry also said our sales taxes were cut in the budget by 25 percent and it is off about three or four cents from that. We do not have November, December and January’s totals which are the biggest so it might go up some but we are down right now. In April of 2011 we will have another decrease in sales tax by about ˝ million more dollars.

Terry said I am still working on the four day work week. I have been talking with the camp about the inmates. They don’t like it that the inmates will lose eight hours they feel the inmates will probably not want to come to us. If there were more entities went the same way it would work better so we will see and I understand the City of Safford and County are looking at that.

The infrastructure law suite on the town houses is before the Judge and they are trying to schedule a settlement hearing for I believe January 25th. I think it  will be settled before then I met with the Engineer from the Bond Company he is getting bids to finish the project by the 10th of January so this may be settled.

We have been served with a law suite by a retired Judge in the Elected Officials Retirement System. He is suiting all Cities and County in the State Retirement System because they would not let him take his subsidy and spend it where he wanted and not where they said it could go. The League of Cities and Towns has an attorney that is working on the response and will let us know.

We had a Water Committee meeting and you have the minutes to that. I have a meeting with Mr. Kincaid on January 29th with their water Engineer and a couple of their staff members to answer some of our questions.

 

B.        Fire Department Report.

 

 Chief Payne said we did get a map this last week for our water system and all the fire hydrants. It will go to ISO who have been asking for it. We have a live burn coming up in February in Central so we are working on that. We are still waiting to see if we received the grant. Mayor River said if you will relate to the Fire Fighters we appreciate there safety this year.  

 

C.        Police Department Report.

 

Chief Stevens said Sergeant Woods is off for surgery for about four weeks. I was out of town when the Bank robbery took place. I was told by the Sheriff and John Griffin the main reason he was caught was because of Officer McClain and his investigation. We received the Grant from the Governor’s office we have two in car camera’s and two radar units. We are doing pretty good. Mayor Rivera said again relate to the officers we appreciate the safety they have had this year.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

A.        Safe House – Councilman Griffin said we met last week for a quarterly meeting and they just added Tammie Milligan from the mine to the Board which might help with grants and things. If they don’t have any more cuts they will be able to maintain. They have a full house with nineteen kids if everyone comes through with their donations they will be fine for Christmas. Councilman Griffin said 50% of there cliental come from the reservation I thought that was interesting.

 

B.        Chamber of Commerce – Councilman Merriman said we had the introduction of Norman Hannah and the CEO was there. They handed out presentations to those Board Members going out which was Kerry Lawson, Rose West and Terry Johnson. The new members coming in are Jason McDougal, Steve Junion and Janet Oesterling. Councilman Merriman said Mr. Hannah told them the train was coming back. It was said that it cost 80 million that Pacific Railroad had to get the train from Globe to here. There will be three trains a day rolling hauling acid and copper.

 

C.        SEAGO - Mayor Rivera said he had nothing to report the next meeting is in February.

 

D.        Arizona Foundation.- Councilman Larson said they were still in the process of reviewing grant requests it will probably we the first week of January when we decide on who gets what.

 

            E.        Library Committee. Mayor Rivera said we had the presentation Clel Flake

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

Councilman Innes made motion to adjourn meeting with a second by Councilman Larson. Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm

 

 

ATTEST:

 

 

APPROVED:

 

 

___________________________                              ___________________________

Lona Duncan, Town Clerk                                          William H Mulleneaux, Vice 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 22nd day of December 2009.  I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present.

 

___________________________

Lona Duncan, Town Clerk