Holbrook Mayor Kathleen Smith hosted a community meeting last week to receive input from citizens regarding potential improvements to Hunt Park. Over 30 community members were in attendance, with a third of those under the age of 18. In addition, all members of the city council were in attendance. The approach suggested by Smith was to improve the assets they already have and then discuss some of the things they may not have thought about that could be added to the park. It was noted that the approach would be measured and that grants would be sought for the upgrades.
Smith approached each person in attendance and asked them what was important to them for the park. Ideas ranged from basic upkeep and improvements of existing amenities, to the development of a multi-purpose wellness facility.
Adrian Padilla started the discussion by expressing the need for more ball fields. “We need more baseball facilities. There’s baseball travel ball, softball travel ball, mens league, co-ed league and everybody’s fighting over two fields,” he said.
Robin Gonzales noted that she would like to see the BMX track near the library brought back into usage and for the existing buildings at the park to be kept up and restored. It was noted that some of the ball fields are actually hazardous in their current condition, and could lead to injuries and that the bathrooms are in dire need of cleaning.
The youngest members of the gathering, the ones who use the park most, were looking for skate park and playground equipment improvements, better and more basketball courts and for the park to be cleaned up.
Teenagers Matthew Pecotte and Tyler Brown presented a slide show on what they are hoping to see brought to the skate park, starting by stating, “This is our dreams.” Then continuing with specific equipment that could be purchased to improve the skate park, at a reasonable cost.
Steven Carbonneau had some real changes he wants to see. “I’m the one with the huge vision. I think the entire area needs to be completely redone from the library over to the swimming pool. That would include a community center, with softball fields, skate parks, bike trails and an indoor facility with basketball. I think we relocate the gym to where there’s truly a community area, where everybody is. We can even get rid of Hunt Park Road and we can start increasing the size and add parking and shades.”
Others agreed with Carbonneau, saying that a wellness center where community can gather is key. Also discussed was replacing the existing swimming pool with a pool that would be partially indoors to allow for year-round usage.
Smith liked what Carbonneau had to say, adding, “Quality of life matters and this is how we get people to come and stay here. If you have a good quality of life for your citizens, you’re going to attract tourism. You’re going to attract economic development because anybody coming in wants their families to be happy.”
Those in attendance discussed ideas from parks throughout the region and what they offer those who live there and those who visit. Several people said that they travel to enjoy some of these parks with their families even though they may be an hour or more away.
Rusty DeSpain was on hand representing the Navajo County Fair Board to say that the fair board has a great interest in seeing the undeveloped land between Hunt Park and the fairgrounds developed. “It would be great to see some beatification going on at the (fair grounds) parking lots. I think there’s great potential between the two entities if we would partner together and clean up some of the mess between us. There’s a lot of old dead trees,” he said, adding. “It wouldn’t cost much. Basically, a partnership between us and the city.”
Kyle Gardner said he knew it may sound terrible for Holbrook but when it comes to the park, they need to get rid of the dirt. “You can do that in creative ways. You can put concrete in select places, you put wood chips in certain places and you put grass in certain places, you could even put trees. Because dirt makes things look dirty, weeds grow and you have to keep battling the weeds. Just replace it.” Gardner felt that if there were to be a major overhaul it should be tearing down the pool and make a recreational center there. “Start building from that direction.” He also suggested better bathrooms with a concession stand attached.
Gonzales said, “I think the most important thing we have to get back to, is that 90% of the things I’ve heard boils down to the city not maintaining what we have. We have to really get a commitment from the city.”
Some council members expressed concerns for the tax burden that may be imposed on residents with new construction. “You’ve got to think of what $5 million is between the 5,000 inhabitants of our city. What are we willing to bear as taxes because most grants are participatory grants,” stated Vice Mayor Mike Nilsson.
Smith agreed that planning is key. “Because there is maintenance involved. If we don’t have a strategic plan to maintain it, we don’t do it.” But then she added, “You have to increase the quality of life to increase economic development and entice people to come. One will finally offset the other but you’ve got to put the right amount of investment in.”
Padilla complained that discussion such as that ends in no outcomes. “We’ll come back next month and just have the same meeting. It falls on deaf ears. I’ve been to multiple meetings with this.”
Smith reminded him that this was the first meeting with all of the council members in attendance. “Also, ASU (the Arizona State University Just Energy Transition Center) actually got us the $10,000 beautification grant after that (last) meeting and now they’re helping us on a railroad study grant. So, ASU didn’t leave us high and dry,” she said.
Gardner spoke up again, saying, “I agree wholeheartedly (with Nilsson), there has to be a balance but I think in Arizona, you can see a couple examples statewide where investing turn into amazing things,” citing specifically Tempe Town Lake, which was originally the Little Colorado River that was dammed to made a lake. “They’ve got to be generating millions in tax revenues. I know Holbrook is not going to be turning something into that but the same thing happened with the Mesa Arts Center. If you remember downtown Mesa, it was turning into, well it looked like Holbrook. They invested into a beautiful multi-million-dollar Mesa Arts Center and all of a sudden business started to build around it. I think it’s important that we as a community have to say, I’m willing to invest in it and so I agree that as a community we have to decide about what that amount is.”
Council Member Tim Dixon addressed those in attendance and acknowledged that great ideas were presented and that input is important to them as a council. He expressed concern with Navajo County owning the property and if the city should invest in property that doesn’t belong to it. Dixon suggested negotiating with Navajo County to purchase the land. Although, it should be noted that the city park is already on the property and it is adjacent to the Navajo County Fairgrounds, which is also county-owned land.
Dixon said he would like to see a walking trail and perhaps a water feature. He also wanted to know that there would be quality work done and to improve equipment or add more.
But then he stated, “I’m also not willing to go into debt as a city to do these projects. I would never go into debt to buy a toy. This is quality of life, but it’s more about something that’s not infrastructure. It’s a park. What’s the return on investment? Is it going to bring millions of dollars to the community? I doubt it.”
Jonathan Henderson replied to the comment stating, “If we make something great, people will come from all over the place to come to our facility. That’s going to generate revenue, that’s going to generate economy,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen. When they built that Snowflake skate park, I saw people coming there from Flagstaff, Payson, all over the place.” That statement was added to with additional comments of support by residents.
Carbonneau cautioned with a recent conversation he had at a softball game with a fellow resident. “Both of us said if things don’t change, we’re probably looking to moving. That’s just the reality. We are down in population. If we don’t do something, people are gone. We’ve got to invest in ourselves. These are people that are young, they could keep a business here and continue to provide services and those are the people that are looking and saying I’ve got to get out of here because there’s no growth and everything is going down,” he said, adding, “The people that are going to these (meetings) and bringing ideas from other communities to here and their voices are falling on what seems like deaf ears. Because we either get something done, or we lose people.”
Padilla also had a response to Dixon’s comments. “If you build a four-plex facility for softball, I just went to a travel ball tourney and there’s 40 teams there coming from all over. They stay for two days and that brings in a lot of money.”
Mayor Smith expressed her appreciation for all of the input provided and encouraged those in attendance, as well as other residents to continue to reach out to council members and to City Manager Jakubowski Wolz with their ideas for improvements. For their part, Smith said the city is actively seeking funding to bring these ideas to fruition.
