Holbrook City Manager Randy Sullivan reported to the city council Sept. 12 on meetings that he had with representatives from the Northern Arizona Council of Governments to think of grant opportunities through NACOG that would benefit the community.
“There’s not a whole lot of movement. We used to receive money from NACOG every four years, but we got out of that because it was only about $500,000 and 40 percent of it would go back to the state for administration. By the time we worked out the numbers, we weren’t getting much on the ground,” he explained.
Sullivan noted that NACOG officials are talking about a program they used to implement called HURF (Highway User Revenue Fund) Exchange under which federal dollars were provided directly to the state for its big projects and in exchange, the cities would get their HURF monies back. “If that happens we will get back into that rotation, because we won’t have to provide that 40 percent to the state,” said Sullivan.
He also reported that pre-kindergarten crafts classes are being held at the recreation center and work continues on the soccer field expansion at Hunt Park. The splash pad will be closing at 6 p.m. until Oct. 1, when it will be shut down until next spring unless warmer weather persists. Work also continues on the proposed fishing ponds to be built on the property at the west end of Buffalo Street. The engineers are planning a site visit in the first part of October.
Sullivan also reported that he has met with five people in the last few weeks on potential economic development opportunities. “The land hasn’t been bought in any of these instances, I just wanted you (the council) to be aware of them,” he said.
The city is partnering with the Roxy Theater to host the annual Zombie Run on the property on the south side of the Little Colorado River on Oct. 28, with a movie to be shown afterward.
He also noted that the city audit had to be postponed until the end of September due to a death in the family of one of the auditors.
Councilman CJ Wischmann stated that a film crew is in town and will be for the next month as they film a movie on reservation, adding that the mayor is planning a welcome barbecue in October for the crew once they all arrive.
“There has been a little bit of price gouging once people found out who they were. I’d like to remind the citizens out there that just because they’re here for a few weeks doesn’t mean we need to take advantage, because we want to continue the process with future movie crews,” said the councilman.
Through an email to the city manager by Open AZ it was requested that the council make a unity pledge to advance workplace equality and equal treatment in housing and public accommodations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and their allies. After consideration, it was determined by the council that the city already encourages equality and no action was taken.
The council also approved claims and payments totaling $161,867.
