By Linda Kor The Taylor Town Council met last Thursday and approved an agreement with the Arizona Department of Transportation for the upcoming Papermill Road project. Town Manager Gus Lundberg explained, “We get a rotation of federal funds that come through the state and NACOG (Northern Arizona Council of Governments) is involved as well. This is federal transportation funds. The last project we did similar to this is when we did an overlay on Love Lake Road.” Lundberg said that the last project was an ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) project so approval by ADOT was required for the engineering firm that handled it. The firm was unfamiliar with the area and their estimates “were severely off” stated Lundberg. By those estimates, there wasn’t enough money for the project and as a result the project was scaled back by two-thirds. But when the work was completed, the project was well under the estimate and if done properly, could have been completed in its entirety. Now, four years later, the project on Papermill Road is to continue widening the road and building a sidewalk on the south side from 700 West to about Highland Drive. The funds can be allocated towards engineering and design, and also for construction. “Rather than once again having to go through an ADOT approved engineer, the town used its own funds to hire a local engineer, Painted Sky Engineering Services, several years ago to get the project ready,” stated Lundberg. He noted that this time ADOT and NACOG had approached the town with the option to go through the HURF (Highway User Revenues Fund) Exchange Program. With this program, those same federal monies still go through the state and are filtered through to the town but through the HURF Exchange Program the town is able to make it a Town of Taylor project. “We get less money because ADOT still has some administration fees but it allows us a lot more flexibility and we get to be the project manager and we do not have to follow all the ADOT rules.” Under the previous project, the allocated funds totaled $857,221 for construction, under the new agreement $771,499 would be available. The timeline for the project is to have it completed by this coming winter or next spring. With that information, the council approved the canceling of two previous agreements with ADOT and signing the new agreement that would allow the town to do the project under the HURF Exchange Program. An item on the agenda for a lease/purchase agreement with Zion’s Bankcorporation was tabled after Lundberg stated, “As you may know, the town was served with a restraining order to prevent the closing of the transaction on the Business Park. After consulting with our legal council we request that you table this and we could come back to it at a later date.” No further details were discussed on the matter. The council also dismissed a development agreement with Cedar Ridge Enterprises, Inc. after Lundberg stated, “I believe I have found a way to accomplish our desires and the desires of Cedar Ridge Enterprises without the need for a development agreement. It would be basically working with them and establishing a cost in which they would bear the full cost of the necessary line extensions.” Fire Chief Willie Nelson went before the council with a request to trade in a fire tender. “We currently have two large tenders. We have a 4,000 gallon one that’s out in Snowflake and a 3,500 gallon one that’s out here. There are two purposes for trading that truck in. One, it’s just a really large truck. The reason we have the tenders is to get into remote areas with water and this is just a really big truck. It doesn’t suit the need as well as it could.” He explained that the other component is that the department makes a significant part of its budget going out on wildland fires. “We currently do not have a tactical tender. We have two support tenders but last year we had three assignments we had to turn down because we did not have a tactical tender.” He requested that the department be allowed to trade in the 3,500-gallon support tender towards a tactical tender. “It’s a water tank. It’s 1,500 gallons but its smaller so it’s easier to get into the remote areas. It’s also more desirable for forest service to go out on assignments that would also bring in revenue.” He noted that there would be some money left with that trade-in. “We get about $100,000 for the truck and the new truck is about $70,000, then the rest of that money could go towards a remount of an ambulance. A comparable ambulance to the one we’re looking at is about $50,000 to $60,000 more than a remount.” Nelson explained that the remount would involve a new box on a new chassis. “So what we are hoping to do is trade in the truck, use some wildland funds from last year to augment the trade, and then we just paid off all of our ambulances and continue that payment for another two to three years to finish paying off the new (ambulance) and then cycle in every two to three years a replacement schedule on those.” The council approved the plan and authorized a trade-in with Fire Trucks Unlimited as outlined. Lundberg informed the council that a pavement project has been completed, paving approximately 1,800-feet along Brimhall Lane and Siesta. The next project is several intersections on the east side of town. There will be work on Center Street and 500 West, outside of Town Hall with a different channel put under the street to mitigate the water that rises in that area. Hatch Construction will be working on 700 West in the middle of the month to install the 2-inch overlay of asphalt and the concrete 4-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road. Town crews are also working on Airport Road installing culvert under that road. “This is the outlet to the basin that is existing right now that does not have an outlet. After that they will be installing additional culverts on the inflow side of that basin, adding three more 48-inch culverts. Airport Road will be closed with a bypass road going around it,” stated Lundberg. Chief Robert Martin addressed the council regarding dispatch. As of May 11, dispatch services transferred to Show Low Police Department. He noted that two of the dispatchers transferred to that location. Lundberg anticipated opening town hall beginning May 18. Precautions will be made to ensure there will not be an influx of people and sneeze guards have been installed.
