Winslow’s Assistant City Manager David Coolidge presented survey results to the City Council last week. The survey, distributed from Jan. 14 until Feb. 11 both online and in person was to gather input from citizens on the use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds in the upcoming fiscal year. The City of Winslow was allocated $3.1 million to help combat the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including public health and economic impacts.
Coolidge began by sharing the demographics of the 413 responses recorded. “401 of the responses we got were inside the city limits of Winslow. The biggest age group represented was 35 to 54 but it was a pretty good span of all ages that took the survey. There were several different aspects of importance to all of our respondents, and they were all relatively close in percentage.”
According to Coolidge, those aspects were the appearance of neighborhood and public spaces, physical safety and security, range and cost of available housing, small business development, access to parks and recreation, the number of commercial building vacancies and blight, and community events.
According to the survey results, 24% of respondents said they felt strongly about utilizing ARPA funding to update existing parks. As Coolidge explained, “The following second and third ranking aspects of importance were water (22%) and police (17%). That is a broad overview of the report, but it does show that we had a pretty good turn out and we now have an idea of what our citizens are prioritizing. As we go through the capital planning process here in the next couple of months, we want to use this to help build that capital plan and start building for the next five years.”
The council also heard a status report from City Manager John Barkley. “The budget season has officially commenced and budget requests from our department heads are due early next week. They will work with their staffs to build their requests, then it will come into the administrative department and we will develop our budget that will come in front of the council in early spring. If you are interested in participating in the budget process, you will have real time access that is discussed along the way and the budget calendar on the city website.”
He also spoke on the city’s intentions to continue blight abatement throughout town. “We are pursuing demolition at 1100 W. Second St., a property recently purchased by the city. We have a quote from a demolition company and will be commencing that project very soon, making sure we are keeping the area and general vicinity safe as we move forward.”
In his written report he added, “City staff visited with the Historic Preservation Commission to provide an update on the planned demolition of the former Elks building located on First Street.”
The building, also referred to as the Desert Scene Lodge, located at 104 E. First St., collapsed on May 23, 2021. Since then, it has remained an obstacle for parking downtown and presents a safety hazard. The city has attempted to contact the owner of the structure, without success.
In other business, the council:
* Approved a project services agreement with C&S Engineers in an amount not to exceed $444,269 for the development of an airport master drainage study and report for the Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport.
* Awarded a bid and approved payment to Conco Concrete Specialists, LLC in the amount of $607,140. The project includes a splash pad, located at the corner of Maple Street and Pope Avenue as well as lighting, fencing, landscaping and a covered gazebo.
* Adopted a resolution ratifying the submission and authorizing the acceptance of a grant funding application to the Arizona Department of Transportation for transit funding for Oct. 1 until Sept. 24, 2023.
* Discussed a motion regarding advertising assistance to the Winslow Arts Council for their April 30 Arts Festival. President Monique Chavez requested $2,500 from the city council for radio advertising. Following a brief discussion, Chavez was encouraged to partner with the Recreation Department as they are also holding an event that day. The Mayor and Council all expressed support of the event, but tabled the action of awarding the requested assistance and instructed city staff to follow up with Chavez.
* Received a written quarterly report from Northland Pioneer College that included information on scholarships available for the Fall 2022 semester. Over $81,000 in scholarships are available to new and returning NPC students and applications are available on the college website at www.npc.edu/scholarships.
* Heard the monthly financial report for January from finance director Elias Jouen. Citywide revenues for the month were $1.7 million bringing the year-to-date total to $11 million. Citywide expenditures for the month were $1.5 million bringing the year-to-date total to $10 million.
* Heard a quarterly report from the Winslow Fire Chief James Hernandez. It was reported the SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) tanks used by the fire department are at the end of their life at 15 years old. A request for new SCBA will be included in the department’s upcoming budget guidance.
* Approved a motion by the city attorney Trish Stuhan to retract the annually signed hold harmless agreement between the city at LCMC (Little Colorado Medical Center). The retraction comes at the request of AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) citing redundancy. An intergovernmental agreement associated is already in place as a binding document for the purpose of distributing disproportionate share payments.
The next meeting of the Winslow City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, at the Hubbell Building, located at 523 W. Second St.
