/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
In 2018, Winslow began a campaign to bring public transit to the town. The process has been slower than initially expected, as originally, busses were supposed to be on the road this month. Public Transit Manager Timothy Nelson updated the Winslow City Council on the matter last week.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
“We have gotten a lot of work done in the 10 months since I’ve been hired. At the moment, we are awaiting a copy of an agreement with the Northern Arizona Public Transportation Authority, or NAIPTA. They ran into some setbacks with ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) that set the entire process back. One of the issues that came up NAIPTA was that they hoped the City of Winslow would be able to transfer funds to them to operate the commuter route. ADOT stepped in and told them that the money given to Winslow is only for Winslow. This has given us a bit of a delay.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Nelson continued, speaking about other aspects of the NAIPTA partnership. “Initially, the city was looking at purchasing two heavy duty busses that would run us about $500,000 each. NAIPTA has found a solution. They have some spare vehicles and we would be able to pay for the balance of their match funding, which at last count was around $17,000 plus pay for the renovations to the busses, like forward facing seats and seatbelts. That would run about $25,000 each. Of course, these vehicles are no spring chickens so they would have to be maintained and there would need to be a system in place to replace them eventually. So, we are at about $100,000 versus the almost $500,000 that we initially thought we would be spending for each vehicle. That helps us quite a bit.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The entire transit initiative in Winslow will be subsidized by grant monies. The initial ADOT grant awarded Winslow with $208,000 and requires the city to match 20 percent annually.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Nelson continued, “We got another grant as well that will give us another bus and some security, dispatch and computer equipment. Because of our savings on the busses, we have the match funding for that grant.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
“Yet another grant comes from the Maricopa Association of Governments. With that grant, we are in a position where we are obtaining a wheelchair accessible minivan to focus on the elderly and handicapped and getting them to their destinations. We should have a soft launch of the minivan somewhere in the middle of November. We were supposed to pick up the vehicle this week, but I made an error and forgot to put our account number on the invoice.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Nelson also mentioned the plans to establish Winslow/Flagstaff and Winslow/Holbrook commuter routes as well as local demand response routes.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
“Which leads me in to ordering busses,” he said. “That has happened. We have ordered busses as of Sept. 30 and we will move on to the vendor procurement process, so we are looking at an April to July delivery date.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
It is unclear to Nelson what, if any, fees will be attached to utilizing the public transit services in Winslow. “That is something I will have to work with the finance department on. I can tell you now that we have a 25 percent poverty rate. There is no way you are going to make money with transit, it’s heavily subsidized. I think maybe one or two dollars would be feasible, as a token payment.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Further updates will be provided by Nelson at future council meetings, “We will continue to work at this and update you as we make progress.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The city’s attorney, Trish Stuhan offered an update on the investigation of the city’s finance and accounting practices. This was an investigation brought about by former city budget analyst Olivia Todd during the call to the public portion of recent council meetings. Todd has repeatedly addressed the council with concerns of alleged accounting errors and abusive behavior toward subordinates.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Stuhan began, “I’m reporting to council to confirm that the city has opened an investigation into the comments that were made during these council meetings.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Winslow City Manager John Barkley had already explained that there was an investigation opened in the Aug. 15 edition of The Tribune, “They said they didn’t have enough to go on,” Barkley said of the investigation. “But in my mind, I think we will let the audit process ride it out.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Stuhan stated, “The allegations involved potential violations of law and policy and specifically, the comments regarding the city’s accounting practices. We take all complaints with these types of allegations seriously. The city manager’s office is spearheading the investigation and he has been working with the attorney general’s office, the auditor general’s office and the city’s third-party, independent auditing firm. We will return to council to present the final investigative results once it is complete. I also want to note that there were personnel issues that were raised, and it is the city’s policy and practice to not comment on personnel matters publicly. The city will take those seriously and investigate those as well.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
In other business, the council:
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Heard a presentation regarding the 2020 census and jobs available. Those seeking census jobs can apply at www.2020census.gov.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Heard a quarterly report from the Winslow Chamber of Commerce in which Chief Executive Officer Bob Hall reminded the council of the annual Christmas Parade on Nov. 23. Applications to participate in the parade are available at the Chamber of Commerce, located at 523 W. Second Street.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Accepted a grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in the amount of $10,000 to support personnel services and employee related expenses for traffic enforcement.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Accepted a grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in the amount of $15,000 to support personnel service and employee related services to continue DUI enforcement.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Approved a liquor license application for Tom’s PT’s Bar, located at 1500 E. Third St. Mayor Tom McCauley is the applicant and recused himself from the vote.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Accepted a declaration of a vacancy on the Arts Council.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Appointed Lisa Sahmie to the Arts Council until April 1, 2021.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Appointed Kenn Evans to the Board of Adjustments until April 30, 2022.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Heard an update on the Winslow Bark Park by Public Works Director Tim Westover. The dog park is now open for public use at the east end of town between Second and Third streets.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Proclaimed November as Native American Heritage Month in Winslow. The month will feature a festival, dancers, a film festival and a pageant to crown Miss Native American.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The next meeting of the Winslow City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12, in the council chambers located at 115 E. Second St.
/wp:paragraph
