By Naomi Hatch “Twenty fifteen has been a monumental year for the community,” said Taylor Town Manager Gus Lundberg. “It’s been an exciting year. In April, Taylor Fire and EMS and the Snowflake Fire Department were joined under an intergovernmental agreement between the towns. “The committee got together and appointed Clint Burden to be chief of the fire department and shortly after that we hired Willie Nelson as assistant fire chief,” said Lundberg, noting that Nelson brings a lot of experience to the post, having just retired after 30 years with the Phoenix Fire Department. Nelson came to work in July, though he continued to work as an investigator for the Phoenix Fire Department once a month through December. Taylor-Snowflake Fire & Medical now has a 24-hour shift crew out of Station 1 in Taylor and a 12-hour shift crew out of Station 2 in Snowflake. “The next big thing is Walmart,” said Lundberg. “Throughout 2014 we had been working with the engineering consultants to resolve public utility issues and have the site plan updated for the store.” Walmart held a pre-bid meeting April 30 on site, and in July ground was broken for the Taylor store. “It’s huge for that kind of commercial development to come in,” said Lundberg. “Since Walmart broke ground, it’s initiated the ground breaking for Burger King, as well as a five-pad development and a junior anchor,” he said, noting that no other property transactions are in the process and no building permits have been issued that the town is aware of. Kirk Brimhall has The Silver Creek Crossing sign up, and the waterfall is being completed on the north side of the entrance into Walmart. The traffic signals are completed and will go live on Monday, Jan. 18. “Another accomplishment for 2015 is the new sign on town hall,” Lundberg said, noting that they had added onto the building about 10 years ago. “I thought the sign was a great addition to the building. We are also working on relandscaping the front area of town hall.” The custom iron for the sign was fabricated by Ty Sherwood and the sign was constructed by Double H Construction. Taylor Elementary School was in need of more parking to make the area safer for the children, explained Lundberg, so the town of Taylor worked with Snowflake Unified School District officials and District III Navajo County Supervisor Jason Whiting to improve the situation. Whiting contacted Steve Reidhead of Tri-Star Logging to take down the trees and haul them off the property. The next phase is town staff removing the stumps and getting the site cleared and leveled. “We got a new set of bleachers at the rodeo arena,” Lundberg continued. “That was a big feat. We got the ball rolling in early spring” explaining that they had to move a light pole, get the grade brought up and pour concrete. “We had a lot of great help from the community to get the bleachers up and going once we got the pad.” Bill, Monte, Eddie and Ray Hancock all worked hard on the project. Town Building Official/Zoning Administrator Alan Davis came up with the idea of the slab and found the bleachers at a good price. “The end result is great; we’ve got an additional 1,600 seats in the arena,” he said. Lundberg noted that the perimeter fence around the airport was a project that had been lingering. “We’re just about ready to finalize that,” he said. The town has received a $450,000 Federal Aviation Administration and State Aeronautics grant, which was slated to be finalized by the end of the year. The Lovelake Road project was an Arizona Department of Transportation project in Taylor that put a 2” overlay on about a mile and half on the town’s portion of the road. “I thought it was a great bonus,” said Lundberg. “It seemed to go pretty well. I was happy with how quickly it got done,” noting that they had a good contractor with Show Low Construction. The town also sponsored the live Nativity in 2015. “A few individuals approached me with the idea, which I thought sounded like a great thing,” he said. “It was performed on Monday, Nov. 30, and was a good evening to kick off the 12 Days of Christmas.” The Nativity was enjoyed so much that they performed again on Dec. 22. The Snowflake-Taylor Chamber of Commerce provided cookies and hot cocoa for both performances. “We retired three significant debts,” said Lundberg, including the biggest loan the town had, which was for the Northern Arizona Training Center burn tower. Northland Pioneer College officials agreed to pay the loan off early, saving them from paying some interest. “It was nice having that wrapped up,” he said. The town also paid off a lease/purchase loan on the Hole in the Hill water tank, making the last payment in November, and a loan for security fencing around Hole in the Hill and Sweetwater wells early. “The only outstanding debt the town has is the loan on the wastewater treatment plant,” said Lundberg. The town received its first Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting after making its first application for the honor. “Another monumental thing was the retirement of Police Chief Jerry VanWinkle, and we were very fortunate to find a very seasoned professional that’s going to bring a lot of good things to our department,” said Lundberg. “Larry Scarber has been a great addition to our police department.” One of the 2016 goals is to enhance and add spurs off the walking path to the soccer fields, and to add more handicapped parking and play equipment. “We’re trying to improve things to be wheelchair accessible,” he said.