The Snowflake Town Council unanimously approved the creation of a committee to research information to determine whether the town should implement a method of funding the fire department by imposing a municipal fire tax or by creating a fire district.
Fire Chief Pat Hancock was present and requested a committee of seven people comprised of a fire department representative in a non-voting capacity, two council members and five community members.
Mayor Kelly Willis suggested Hancock, Vice Mayor Jason Whiting and Councilman Larry Matyas.
Council members were asked to give their suggestions to Town Manager Paul Watson. The committee will be appointed at the next council meeting.
In other action Feb. 28, the council:
* Unanimously approved an agreement between the Town of Snowflake and Dean Porter to take over Heritage Park, located between the Chamber of Commerce office and Heritage Antiques, contingent upon resolving the type of deed to be utilized to convey the property to the town.
Recreation and Parks Director Don Camacho said that they have been maintaining the park, and council members noted that it was an asset to the town.
Town Attorney Robert Hall reviewed the contract presented by Porter. He suggested that rather than a quit claim deed, it be transferred through a special warranty deed or warranty deed because there is a clause that states the park would revert back to Porter if not used as agreed, and a quit claim deed does not provide for that type of agreement.
* Unanimously approved a special event liquor license requested for the eighth annual White Mountain Submarine Veteran Golf Tournament, scheduled on Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Snowflake Golf Course.
Buck Biddle was present to request the license, noting they would be selling beer.
The tournament will consist of 18 holes of golf, including a cart, lunch, a golf goodie bag, a raffle and an auction to raise money, with the proceeds going to charity.
For more information contact Buck at (928) 242-3822 or Frank at (928) 243-2573.
* Unanimously approved an agreement with Payment Service Network and National Bank of Arizona for online payment and bill payment services, and a credit card merchant processing account.
Finance Director Brian Richards explained that Payment Service Network is a third party processor for online bill payments and e/check transactions, and National Bank is the credit card processor and merchant account servicer. Richards said that it would take approximately a month to get the system up and running.
“We want to keep it local, too, so I’m glad we can do it,” said Councilman Larry Matyas.
* Unanimously approved a request from Snowflake-Taylor Police Chief Jerry VanWinkle to purchase a new copier from Perfect Printz of Snowflake.
“The agreement with Xerox expired January this year, so we’re on a month to month contract,” said Chief VanWinkle, noting the price is going up at least 10 percent.
The chief noted that they could buy a copier from Ricoh Company for $5,261 plus a $29.40 service agreement, or Perfect Printz for $5,433.19 with a monthly service agreement of one cent per page, which would mean if they didn’t make 3,500 copies, they would pay less. He said that the number of copies varies monthly, but they made 3,500 in January. The cost of copiers is about the same, said the chief, but he requested that they use the local company and the council agreed.
