During Tuesday’s Winslow City Council meeting, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) traffic signal project at the intersections of Williamson Avenue and Second and Third streets was the subject of more than an hour of discussion, including remarks by the contractor, an ADOT representative and over a dozen members of the audience, as well as council members.
A motion was passed instructing staff to meet with ADOT and the contractors to enable the closure of the Third Street intersection for a month. The motion passed 5-1, with Councilwoman Marsha Juergens in opposition. Councilman Peter Cake was absent from the proceedings.
A level B project services agreement with Woodson Engineering was approved for Transcon Lane South reconstruction and widening, scoping, environmental and design services for an additional cost of not more than $166,000.
A correction was approved to the contract with McCauley Construction for the Renaissance 3 project. This was for an item which was approved, but inadvertently left off the summary of the project. It added $27,657 to the cost for a total of $1,597,131.86. It was noted that both the city and the contractor had agreed to the project with the item included, and that the project was still under the estimated cost.
Reallocation of unspent capital sales and bar and restaurant tax funds for fiscal year 2010-11 was approved in an amount of $16,500 for cost overruns on several park and recreation projects. The projects include work at the Standin’ on the Corner Park, carpeting and painting at the Winslow Library, and work at the Vargas and Little League concession stands and restrooms.
A resolution was tabled which would have authorized the city to enter an intergovernmental agreement with Navajo County for court collections and criminal justice services. The cost estimate, which will require verification, would cost the city $93,855 in the 2011-12 budget. A representative of the county spoke about the proposal, but Finance Director Regina Reffner said that she had been unable to get the county to confirm some of its revenue figures.
A discussion regarding trash service vacation charge options was tabled after some discussion. Reffner said that partially because of state requirement that the city handle commercial trash collection differently than in the past the garbage costs are expected to increase by about 30 percent.
A discussion regarding the order of city council agendas resulted in approval of a motion to move the call to the public portion to the end of the agenda and to enforce the five-minute time limit.
Three persons spoke during call to the public earlier, including Doug Kilburg regarding a Peace Day event and broadcast at the Rock Pile on Sept. 21; Steve Slaton regarding several items, including filing a campaign violation charge sent to the attorney general and the county attorney regarding the upcoming city tax election; and County Supervisor J.R. DeSpain regarding the county’s efforts to get the Little Colorado River Levee fixed and recertified.
City Manager Jim Ferguson reported on recent city activities.
Reffner presented the city’s audit report for the year ending in June 2010. She gave a lengthy oral report on the audit, which showed a few deficiencies, including the Public Housing Fund.
The check register and minutes of April 16 meetings were approved on the consent calendar. An agreement with the Winslow Cheetahs softball team for use of city facilities was also approved under the consent calendar.
May 9-13 was proclaimed as Police Officers Week and May 11 was proclaimed as Police Memorial Day in the City of Winslow.
A request from the On-Call Firefighters’ Association for assistance with a Fourth of July event was tabled until the next council meeting.
Prior to the regular meeting, the council met in a special executive session to review Ferguson’s performance.
A third meeting as the Winslow Housing Authority continued the long night for council members.
During this meeting, two resolutions were passed at the request of Public Housing Director Jesse Fernandez. One would require the housing authority and the city finance department to use the same method of accounting. This was also thought to remedy one of the concerns of the auditors. The other resolution also dealt with record keeping, and was intended to comply with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requirements.
