In last week’s meeting of the Winslow City Council, the council declared a state of emergency to speed up the process of adopting the city’s property tax, that without the state of emergency would require a 30-day delay. Mayor Birdie Cano asked the city administration to clarify the need for a declared state of emergency so the public would not be alarmed by the declaration.
City Attorney Trish Stuhan clarified stating, “Whenever you adopt property tax, you know you’re allowed to do that by law but you have so many quick deadlines and normally the whole point of a 30-day delay is so someone can do a referendum but realistically you’re not necessary allowed to refer a property tax revenue generation. Its common place. We always recommend when you adopt property tax levy you do it on an emergency basis. It goes into effect immediately, we can get all the information to the county quickly and we aren’t having referendums on those anyway.” Councilmember Samantha Crisp said that even though this is how they adopt the property tax every year, she still likes the logic to be explained at the meeting, so the public fully understands the reasoning behind it. The tax rate adopted by the council is 1.3245%.
The council also heard in the city manager’s report about the development of broadband internet in Winslow. Currently Navajo County has a major broadband infrastructure project planned in order to get middle mile networks, essentially building the infrastructure to different towns and then letting private companies build the infrastructure to reach homes and businesses, for a large portion of the county.
City Manager David Coolidge said, “There was a statement made at one of the recent [Navajo County] meetings that Winslow was now included in that project but that is not entirely accurate.” He went on to say that even though the county does not have plans to get the fiber internet and broadband infrastructure, Arizona Public Service (APS) has plans to build similar infrastructure from Flagstaff going east to Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City which will go directly through Winslow and provide residents the same quality internet as if they were included in the county’s project. He added that APS has plans to be finished with their project in the spring of 2025, which is the same projected end date for the county’s project, so residents aren’t losing out on anything without being included in the county project.
The council also heard a few comments from the public. Judy Howell spoke about how the increased fees for adopting animals the council imposed in the last couple of months has prevented elderly and low-income residents from adopting animals. Mayor Cano directed staff to look for some sort of avenue to be able to reduce or waive fees for individuals who could not afford the adoption costs.
Another individual who did not state their name said that they were concerned with the traffic on Maple Street near the outdoor pool, Vargas Field and the city’s splash pad. She stated that from her nearby house has seen many children almost get hit by cars in the high traffic area and asked the council if they could have reduced speeds for that street in the summertime when the traffic is high because it seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
Another member of the public, Anne Schmidt spoke about an item the council would vote on in the consent agenda about excess noise from animals which dealt within what circumstances the city could cite someone for excessive animal noise. Schmidt did not like that the ordinance required an animal control officer to hear the noise and thought that requiring video evidence of animals making noise was too bothersome and may not be possible to get a direct line of sight on the animal to satisfy the evidence requirements of the ordinance. The council actually pulled the ordinance out of the consent agenda and amended it to allow for any law enforcement officer to be able to issue a citation upon hearing the animal, which would make it a lot easier for residents to do something about the noise.
The council ended the meeting with executive session to discuss and receive legal advice for two items, one to discuss the sale or lease of property in the Airport Industrial Park and two to direct staff on negotiations for the professional service agreement for economic development. When the council returned to regular session Mayor Cano said, “We have directed staff to move forward as directed.” Which was followed by a vote to adjourn the meeting.
In other business the council,
* Approved the check register and last meeting’s minutes.
* Approved special events liquor license application for Standin’ on the Corner Festival.
* Approved an ordinance allowing for the required amount of parking spaces in the entertainment district to be waived by the city manager upon finding that there are alternative parking spaces.
* Approved leasing property at Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport to Flagstaff Medical Center Inc., and Guardian Air Transport.
The next meeting of the Winslow City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, in the meeting room located at 523 West Second St.
