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Former Winslow City Manager Steve Pauken submitted his final annual report last month. Pauken served Winslow for just over five years prior to his retirement on Jan. 6.
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The report contains commentary from Pauken as well as department heads and City Clerk Suzy Wetzel. The report is an overview of public safety, economic development and infrastructure improvements achieved in 2018.
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Pauken said, “During the five years that I served the people of Winslow, we agreed that the city needed to emphasize its Renaissance and in more ways than one. We needed to re-establish some infrastructure projects that had stalled; we needed to polish our rough edges to be more appealing to visitors and businesses; and most importantly, we needed to foster a new spirit of optimism in the community. By our actions and with the assistance of many community volunteers and business people we managed to succeed.”
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Among the last year’s accomplishments was the demolition of 12 substandard or abandoned structures. Among them, the fire damaged Women’s Club, located at the intersection of Kinsley Avenue and Cherry Street. Local contractor Steve Adams is currently developing that property into a housing structure. Other parcels left empty following demolition are in the planning stages of development in the coming year.
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Pauken continued, “The city is a dues paying member of the Economic Collaborative of Northern Arizona (ECoNA). The City of Winslow and ECoNA staff provided comprehensive responses to six Prospect Information Forms for major industrial facilities (in 2018). Winslow’s natural gas capacity, water and wastewater system capacities, and lack of existing large airport hangar facilities were the limiting factors that disqualified us from further consideration for large scale prospects.”
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Pauken also noted that is the goal of the city to continue to attempt to draw smaller scale industrial prospects that can be accommodated by the existing infrastructure.
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According to Pauken’s report, the ECoNA staff continues to, “Correspond with a prospect who intends to locate a forest products plant in the area that would employ nearly 300 workers and involve more than $100 million in capital investment.” That relocation is contingent upon the receipt of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative contract for forest thinning, which is tentatively scheduled for award in July 2019.
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A story of interest last year was a creation of public transit in Winslow. A Federal Transit Administration 5311 grant has been awarded with a first-year award amount of $246,000 with a requirement of $34,000 local match. Only the first year of funding has been awarded. Aiding in the establishment of a transit system has been the hiring of Transit Manager Timothy Nelson who began work with the City on Dec. 3, 2018.
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In the Public Works Department, many projects have been completed and many are underway. Public Works Director Tim Westover mentioned last year’s paving of the Desert View Cemetery, a cross walk on North Park Drive, speed control devices in Coopertown, new water meters city wide and 600 feet of mainline sewer repairs near the wastewater treatment plant as some improvements made by his department.
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He said, “Early 2019 will see many projects including work on the softball field, cemetery and pavement at McHood Park.” Other projects include the sidewalk and lighting installation on the east side of Winslow as well as the repair and replacement of the city’s main sewer pipelines.
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Winslow Police Chief Dan Brown also submitted a section to the report. He noted the installation of NextGen 911 technology as a major accomplishment of 2018. “NextGen 911 has laid the foundation for the future in public safety communications as it will be capable of receiving texts, photos and live stream videos.” Winslow was the first in Northern Arizona and the fifth in Arizona to deploy the system. In 2018, Winslow public safety dispatchers answered a total of 46,482 calls. These include emergency as well as non-emergency and administrative calls. Of those, 99 percent were answered within 15 seconds, well above the national average. A total of 17,797 calls for service were generated and are broken down as follows: 14,655 calls for police, 2,876 for emergency medical services and 286 for fire. On average, each dispatcher dispatches 3,559 calls to field personnel.
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According to Brown, the Winslow Police Department (WPD) attended over 2,000 training hours in 2018, which far exceeds the minimum annual training standards required for police departments. Two of those trainings were hosted by WPD for crisis intervention, assuring that officers and civilian employees are well versed in de-escalation techniques as well as situations involving citizens suffering from mental illness.
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Brown intends to continue training with his officers and working on community outreach. “We are committed to keeping Winslow a safe place to live, work and raise a family, and we will do so with effective policing and community partnership.”
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In another area of public safety, Winslow Fire Chief James Hernandez highlighted improvements made to the firehouse in 2018. “The heating and cooling of our facility has been much improved, as well as lighting. As we continue to acquire more of the equipment that we need to perform our tasks more effectively, we are also in need of a larger space to protect the investments of our citizens from the elements.” Hernandez also noted needs for plumbing and kitchen improvements.
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The Winslow Public Library also celebrated improvements last year. Library Director Gaylin Worthington said, “As Winslow promises to be a city in motion, so does the library staff, services and programming have to be in a state of continual assessment to maintain growth and relevancy in the digital age.”
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Along those lines, the Friends of the Library recently donated $3,144 for a public use copier and $3,500 toward the summer reading programs. The group has already set aside $2,100 for the library in 2019 to increase the number of public access computer tables and supporting equipment.
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In 2018, the library partnered with the Navajo County Library District and Pennsylvania-based Library Laundromat League to keep boxes of books for children in two of Winslow’s laundry facilities.
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Improvements on the horizon for the library include renovations to the children’s room and additional programming and resources committed to young adults.
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Human Resources Director David Coolidge added to the report as well. He said, “In July, we launched our new website. It has helped tremendously in getting information to citizens in a timely manner. We also recently launched the City of Winslow Facebook page. The use of social media has been a tremendous asset and we expect the page to grow in popularity.”
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City Clerk Suzy Wetzel’s contribution to the report included information on what could be a referendum election. She explained, “There is a strong possibility that the city will be holding a Special Referendum Election in conjunction with our May 2020 General Election. Ordinance No. 1327, also known as the Human Rights Ordinance, was approved by the city council by a vote of four to three at their meeting on Nov. 13. Referendum petitions containing 317 unverified signatures were submitted to my office on Dec. 11. I am in the beginning stages of my initial review of the petitions, which will then be hand delivered to the Navajo County Recorder’s Office for certification. Once the signatures have been certified and returned to me, I will determine if there are adequate signatures to place the measure on the ballot. If the measure qualifies for the ballot, the ordinance does not become effective until the election is held.”
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She also mentioned that following the approval of the ordinance, multiple recall packets were obtained from her office. At this time, none of those petitions have been returned, meaning no recall is in operation.
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The entire report is available to the public at City Hall, located at 21 N. Williamson Ave. or on the city website, www.winslowaz.gov.
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