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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022.0906.TCRM.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
1. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Dickey called the Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on
September 6, 2022, to order at 5:31 p.m. and led the Council and audience in the
Pledge of Allegiance.
2. MOMENT OF SILENCE
A moment of silence was held.
3. ROLL CALL
Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel; Councilmember
David Spelich; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Alan Magazine;
Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Mike Scharnow
Members Absent: None
Staff Present: Town Manager Grady E. Miller; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town
Clerk Linda Mendenhall
Audience: Twenty-six members of the public were present.
4. REPORTS BY MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS, AND TOWN MANAGER
A. PROCLAMATION: September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
Mayor Dickey issued a proclamation on Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Jean
Baldwin and Jamie Aiken were present to accept the proclamation.
B. RECOGNITION: Outgoing Board and Commission member John Craft, for his
service on the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission.
Mayor Dickey recognized John Craft for his service on the Strategic Planning
Advisory Commission and presented him with a certificate.
5. SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES/PRESENTATIONS
A. PRESENTATION: Recognition of the Community Services Department —
National Gold Medal Award Finalist
Rachael Goodwin, Deputy Town Manager/Community Services Director provided
an update on the Community Services Department National gold Medal Award
and showed council the video that was submitted.
B. PRESENTATION: Economic Development— Fourth Quarter Update
Amanda Jacobs provided a fourth-quarter Economic Development update and
answered council's questions.
6. CALL TO THE PUBLIC
Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-03101(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (Q
must be within the Jurisdiction of the Council, and (Ilf Is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restnctions. The Council will not
discuss or lake legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal
action. At Na conclusion of the call 10 the Public. Individual councilmembers may (q respond to cdndsm pi) ask staff to review a mercer, or
(ill) ask that the (natter be placed on a future Council agenda.
7. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
All items listed on the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine, noncontroversial matters and will be enacted by one
motion of the Council All motions and subsequent approvals of consent items will include all recommended staff
stipulations unless otherwise stated. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a councilmember or
member of the public so requests. If a councilmember or member of the public wishes to discuss an item on the Consent
Agenda. he/she may request so prior to the motion to accept the Consent Agenda or with notification to the Town
Manager or Maya prior to the date of the meeting for which the item was scheduled. The items will be removed from the
Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda.
MOVED BY Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel to approve the Consent Agenda, SECONDED BY
Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski.
Vote: 7 — 0 passed — Unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
A. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce for a beer
garden in conjunction with the Fountain Festival of Arts and Crafts on November
11-13, 2022.
B. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce for a beer
garden in conjunction with the Fountain Festival of Arts and Crafts on November
11-13, 2022.
C. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a beer garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on October 14, 2022
D. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on November 4, 2022.
E. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on December 2, 2022.
F. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on January 27, 2023.
G. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on March 3, 2023.
H. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on March 24, 2023.
I. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on April 28, 2023.
J. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on May 19, 2023.
K. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor
License application for Fountain Hills Theatre for a wine garden in conjunction
with the Fountain Hills Theater Opening Night celebration on June 19, 2023
L. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Resolution 2022-39 abandoning
the 10' Public Utility and Drainage Easements along the west and south sides of
16222 N Boulder Drive (Application A22-000007)
8. REGULAR AGENDA
A. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: to terminate the sister city status
with Kasterlee, Belgium.
MOVED BY Councilmember Mike Scharnow to terminate the sister city status
with Kasterlee, Belgium, SECONDED BY Councilmember Alan Magazine.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
B. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving Professional Services
Agreement 2023-032 with ASR Construction Group LLC for construction of
Phase II of the Panorama Drainage Pipe.
MOVED BY Councilmember Alan Magazine to approve the Professional
Services Agreement 2023-032 with ASR Construction, SECONDED BY
Councilmember Peggy McMahon.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
C. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving Professional Services
Agreement 2023-030, between the Town of Fountain Hills and Vincon
Engineering Construction, LLC.
MOVED BY Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski to approve Professional
Services Agreement 2023-030, SECONDED BY Councilmember Mike
Scharnow.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
D. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving the First Amendment to
Professional Services Agreement 2022-070 between the Town of Fountain Hills
and Visus Engineering Construction, Inc.
MOVED BY Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel to approve the First Amendment to
Professional Services Agreement 2022-070, SECONDED BY Councilmember
Peggy McMahon.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
E. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving the Third Amendment
to Cooperative Purchasing Agreement 2020-065.3 with M. R. Tanner
Development and Construction, Inc. for Pavement Preservation Treatments.
MOVED BY Councilmember Peggy McMahon to approve the Third Amendment
to Cooperative Purchasing Agreement 2020-065.3, SECONDED BY Vice Mayor
Gerry Friedel.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
F. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving Professional Services
Agreement 2022-072 A with Wood Patel & Associates for engineering design
services for the design of a roundabout.
Mayor Dickey opened the item up for public comment; the following residents
addressed Town Council:
Councilmember-elect Brenda Kalivianakis a Fountain Hills resident, addressed
the council requesting the vote be tabled due to other "need to have" items
requiring funding consideration over "want to have" items.
Bart Shea a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding the traffic
impact study he presented during the plan submittal for this area. He mentions
that the study does not indicate a need for a roundabout on either end of the
avenue.
Larry Meyers a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding safety
concerns and inquired about any documentation that supports those concerns,
as he does not see proof of that.
Crystal Cavanaugh a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding a
roundabout in this location, mentioning that it would increase safety concerns
due to the amount of pedestrian traffic crossing the road. She mentions that
these funds would be better served for street repairs identified as being
unfunded.
Liz Gildersleeve a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding the
roundabout, indicating that this project is a "want to have" and that council should
direct funds to the "need to have" projects such as road repairs.
Dan Kovacevic a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding the
roundabout mentioning it is not the safer solution for this area, and proposed a
three-way stop.
MOVED BY Councilmember Peggy McMahon to postpone approval of the Professional
Services Agreement 2022-072 A with Wood Patel & Associates for engineering design
services for the design of a roundabout to November 1, 2022, Council Meeting,
SECONDED BY Councilmember David Spelich.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Aye
Councilmember McMahon Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor Friedel Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
9. COUNCIL DISCUSSION/DIRECTION to the TOWN MANAGER
Item(s)listed below are related only to the propriety of (I) placing such item(s) on a future agenda for action, or (ii)
directing staff to conduct further research and report back to the Council
Mayor Ginny Dickey mentioned the Fire Study will be included on the October 4, 2022,
Council Agenda.
10. ADJOURNMENT
MOVED BY Councilmember Peggy McMahon to adjourn, SECONDED BY
Councilmember David Spelich.
Vote: 7 — 0 Passed — Unanimously
The Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on September 6, 2022,
adjourned at 7:59 p.m.
ATT T AND PR PARED BY:
L ndL nd ndenhall, Town
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of
the Regular Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council
Chambers on the 6th day of September 2022. I further certify that the meeting was duly
called and that a quorum was present.
D • T ! this 4th Da •f October, 2022.
Lda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 55
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Post -Production File
Town of Fountain Hills
September 6, 2022 City Council Meeting
Transcription Provided By:
eScribcrs, LLC
Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not
be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 55
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Please stand for the pledge and remain
standing.
[(Pledge of Allegiance recited)]
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Let's take a moment of silence, please.
[(Moment of silence observed)]
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Dickcy.
MAYOR DICKEY: Here.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmcmber McMahon.
MCMAHON: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Scharnow.
SCHARNOW: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Magazine.
MAGAZINE: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Spelich.
SPELICH: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Gryzbowski.
GRYZBOWSKI: Present.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much. We start with our reports from mayor and
councilmembers and town manager. Grady.
MILLER: Thank you, Mayor. I know other councilmembers- will report on this, but 1
just want to let you know that last week, we had the Annual League of Arizona Cities and
Towns, and it was a great conference. It was held here locally in the valley, and it was
great. The sessions were very, very helpful. So anyways, that's all 1 have to report at this
time.
MCMAHON: I second that. We really had a great time at the conference. It was really
very educational and informative. It was nice to meet other mayors, councilmembers,
and officials from all over the state, to listen what, you know, issues they're facing with --
and concerns about water and other things. So it was really nice to get to know them and
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
compare things like that.
Also, 1 wanted to remind everybody that this week on Thursday evening at 7 o'clock at
Fountain Park, we're going to have Ballet Under the Stars. It is a free event, so please
join us. It always is a wonderful evening. Thank you.
SCHARNOW: I do have one thing. It was postponed for a week because of weather, but
the Back to School Bash did go off, and the Coalition had a table out there with several
other businesses and groups and a ton little kids out there. 1 tell you. It was a fun night
and a lot of swimming suits and getting wet and a lot of -- just a lot of good information
and fun out there. So -- and I know we're going to recognize Community Services
tonight, but it was a good job on the Bash, so thank you.
MAGAZINE: Thank you. Our economic development director, Amanda, had a great
idea, which was to have her and Betsy LaVoie at the Chamber and a councilmember,
meet with the owners of the restaurants. And so we met at Bachelor's Pad, and I can't say
enough good things about the owners. 1 mean, they're doing everything right. One of
them has experience -- a lot of experience as a restauranteur, and the other is a PhD
economist. That's a heck of a combination. She and Betsy are working very close
together, and as issues come up in these discussions, if they need to be at least considered
by the town, then Amanda's going to act as the sort of ombudsman to try to decide what
to do with those ideas to see whether or not they require any additional action.
GRYZBOWSKI: We had our Make a Difference Day planning committee meeting. So
I'm going to use this as my reminder to tell y'all it's coming up on October 22nd. You
can still sign up to volunteer from the town's website, click residents, then click
volunteering. And like the town manager and Councilmember McMahon said, we
attended the Arizona -- the Annual Arizona League of Cities and Towns conference.
There were a lot of great breakout sessions last week, including one titled, Is the Arizona
Legislature as Chaotic as it Seems? Karen Fann, the Senate President said, yes. And we
concluded the meeting and that was the end. No, I'm kidding. That is actually how she
kind of started.
But during our open comments, she made it a point to say that the state legislature used to
he so much more nonpartisan than it is now. And that Icad to really good conversation
among the three panelists that were up there. The League really puts on an informative
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
conference, and 1 appreciate you guys letting us go to the entire week. And 1 was glad to
see two of our council elect members there. I think I ran by Hanna (ph.) on Wednesday
and Brenda on both Thursday and Friday, but there's so many people there, it's hard to
run into the same person two times. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Yes, we really had a great time this -- one of the
presenters mentioned how different it was because, you know, obviously we didn't have it
in 2020, and then in 2021, you know, they had it with trepidation, right? 1 mean, we all
still had that feeling, so this was a first time that all of us were together like that where we
really had that great feeling of togetherness.
The River of Time had a fundraiser, so that was really fun. And several of us were here
for that. We had our Fountain Hills Cares meeting. I didn't write the date of when it's
going to be. It's October, but it'll be a Thursday night and it'll be concentrating on
veterans. Had a MAG regional council meeting and our Mayor's Youth Council kickoff.
And that was fun, a great group of kids, a big group of kids, so -- and they all came to the
League and carried our flag and went to leadership sessions all day long. Sharron had
lunch with them, so that was awesome.
And again, I really appreciate everybody who went to the League. We had resolutions
that you all had seen, and they were all adopted, and then the business meeting adopted
them. So those will be sort of what they concentrate over the year during the session.
And then Mayor Carlat from Peoria stepped down, and then Mayor Nicholls from Yuma
is the new president. So it was a very good, unifying group, and I look forward to
hearing and exchanging some of the sessions that we all -- tried to go to different
sessions, so.
Our next item, 1 have proclamation and a recognition, so I'm going to come down there
and bring these two items. Our first one is a proclamation for Ovarian Cancer Awareness
Month, and then we're going to recognize an outgoing commission member.
So we'll start with the Ovarian Cancer one, please. And I think we've got Jean Baldwin
(ph.) and Jamie Aiken (ph.), if you want to come up and 1 will present it.
Well, maybe I'll start with John Craft if that's okay, and then we -- and maybe the two
ladies will get here. So you're up. Come on. I have your certificate and I'm going to
read nice things about you.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
CRAFT: Do you want me to (indiscernible)?
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, please. Certificate of Appreciation for John Craft for his
dedicated time and service on SPAC, our Strategic Planning, and I'm going to read this
right here. You hold it, sir.
All right. "We would want to take this opportunity to thank John Craft for his appointcd
commissioner on SPAC by the town council in November of 2014 and who served as
chairman of the commission from 2019 until April of 2022. During the duration of his
service on the commission, John took an active role on all of the projects and activities
that the commission undertook, including the development and council approval of the
2022 strategic plan. The knowledge, dedication, and contributions that John has made to
the process of developing a strategic plan for our town of Fountain Hills arc greatly
appreciated by both the council and your fellow commissioners and, I dare say, the
community at large."
So first, let's say thank you and clap. And then you can say a few words.
(Applause)
CRAFT: Thank you, Mayor. I guess after eight years I'm fully vested: is that correct? I
don't know. It's been an interesting travel. We have a remarkable community. We have
gone from strategic plans that were very difficult to administer and today, 1 think, over
the last couple of iterations, we now have one that's measurable, that's dedicated to the
important priorities that this town has. So it was a distinct pleasure to be a part of this
group and organization. And I'm moving on to the Fountain Hills Dark Sky Association
to kind of help them, so thank you again.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much. We appreciate all your hard work.
(Applause)
FRIEDEL: Mayor, can I say something quick? Gerry, vice mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Sony.
FRIEDEL: I had the pleasure of serving with John on SPAC. So John, I want to say,
thank you. You're a good leader, and the town's going to miss you. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Perfect. Thank you. And yes, you made the strategic plan
comprehensible and doable. So we really appreciate that.
Is Jean here or Jamie? Jamie Aiken. No. Well, I'm going to read this. This is a
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
proclamation for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
"Whereas ovarian cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among women and
causes more deaths than any other gynecological cancer, and whereas it's estimated that
19,880 cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in the US this year with an estimated
12,810 women who will lose their lives. Whereas there's no test or screening exam that
can detect ovarian cancer in its early stages and only 20 percent of all cases arc found
early, and if the cancer is caught at stage three or higher, their survival rate could be low
as 30 percent.
"And whereas Arizona has the sixth highest incident and mortality rates in the southwest
with over 70 percent of its cases being diagnosed at late stage, and whereas doctors
across the country are currently conducting clinical trials and researching ovarian cancer,
the time being awareness through education is the best tool for early detection and an
increased chance of survival. And the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, Arizona, is
organizing a statewide event in September to light up for ovarian cancer in an effort to
promote awareness about the disease that whispers, to honor survivors and to remember
lives lost."
Therefore, 1, Ginny Dickey, Mayor of Fountain Hills, do proclaim September 2022 as
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in Fountain Bills. And we will light up our famous
fountain in teal on September l6th through the 18th to increase awareness in this
community and honor those who are or have been affected by ovarian cancer. And we'll
make sure that we get this to the folks who requested.
Thank you. Our next item is the aforementioned public appearance by our Community
Services Department. And Rachael will come do the honors. Thank you.
GOODWIN: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Thank you for having me
tonight. I'm often here, usually to discuss policy or projects that are going on in our
community and that affect our day-to-day operations. Today, however, I'm here to shinc
the light on our Community Services Department and the staff that makes our events, our
programs, and our services happen.
With that, I'd like to ask any of our staff that are here this evening, as well as our
commissioners, to please stand.
[Applause]
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
GOODWIN: These are the individuals who embody the spirit of our department's
mission. It is through their continued commitment and collaborative spirit that we are
able to succeed. Community Services is the largest department within the town. We
represent many things to many residents. We are the places of nature, of exercise, of
play. We are the trails, the home delivered meals, the movies in the park. We are an
integral part of family memories, of community pride and we nurture growth and
exploration at all ages. It is through our staff and our commissioners that we are able to
make an impact each and every day.
With that said, we are the liaisons with many of our community partners, including our
formal commissions, our McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission and our
Community Services Advisory Commission, but we also have our Mayor's Youth
Council, which you mentioned earlier today. We have our Fountain Hills Coalition, we
have Encore for More. We have the Fountain Hills Conservancy. We have so many
groups that we act and cooperate with.
And our staff takes play very serious. While many see our department as the fun group,
which we are, we are also very proactive in our field. Many of us serve in leadership
positions within the State Association. We have made commitments to further our
professional development as well as the development of our programs and our overall
department.
You are aware of our many high-vis projects and our parks, most recently our Splash Pad
renovations as well as the overhaul of our playground within Fountain Park. But it seems
our park team of six full-time staff outworks a crew of twice that size. We are lucky to
have a dedicated team that wants to not just maintain our parks, but make improvements,
both large and small. The details matter to this crew, and it can be seen each and every
day, from taking on internal projects to maximize tight budgets to creatively approaching
problems to find better and more effective solutions.
We love our events in Fountain !lilts. And based on community feedback, we have been
asked to increase the number of events offered. That is no small task with limited
funding and staffing, but our events team makes it look easy. With help from community
partners and sponsors, the support of our volunteers, our events have never been better.
The Spooky Blast, the newly designed Halloween celebration, is a great example of how
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
this team has reinvented an event, making it bigger and better than ever.
Moving from the Avenue of the Fountains to Four Peaks Park allowed us to repurpose
budget that was previously used for lighting and road closures and expand the event with
inflatables, a DJ, and a dance floor. The event was an overwhelming success, and we
look forward to hosting again later this fall.
As we all know, the Community Center is the heartbeat of Fountain Hills. The staff is a
dedicated bunch that supports programs for all ages, events, performances, parties,
dinners, and so much more. But the heartbeat of the community is more than a place. It
is the people, the staff, the members, the visitors that bring the Community Center to lift.
No matter what program or event is happening, the smiles, the connections and the
relationships that are built are what make the Community Center such a special place.
One particular component housed in our Community Center is our Senior Services
Division. Dedicated to providing recreation outlets and support to our senior residents,
this division is one of the most active and beloved parts of our community, whether it's
Mahjong, poker, chess, afternoon movies or country dance, or as I was reminded, Ping
Pong later tonight, there is always something happening with our Senior Services.
We arc lucky here in Fountain Hills to have hundreds of dedicated and talented
volunteers in our community, much like John Craft, who was just honored for his
volunteer service. Thousands of service hours arc contributed annually and make an
impressive impact. As we all know, these projects and programs don't organize
themselves, and it takes the effort of our small volunteer staff to help coordinate this
army of change makers.
Our Make a Difference Day is a good example of a large community effort that engages
more than 300 volunteers. But we also have ongoing programs, such as Care Cars (ph.)
and Give -A -Lift that connect our residents and our volunteers year round. The beauty of
our volunteer program is that we have opportunities for anyone that wants to get
involved.
From Top Programs to our Senior Softballers, our recreation division has something for
everyone. Through the diligence and creativity of our rec team, our teens and our sports
programs have both seen significant growth, and the addition of our Comhole League and
Skate Classic are just two examples of the new programming they have added. There is
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
no limit to the number of cool classes and programs that are coming down the pike,
because we want to make sure that Fountain Hills is, indeed, a place to live, work, and
definitely play.
So with all of this in mind, I'm proud to share that Fountain Hills has been named Gold
Medal Finalist for second consecutive year. As you might remember, this is a very
prestigious and challenging award to win and is recognized as the highest honor a parks
and rec department can achieve.
A lengthy, written application was submitted at the start of the process and from there
four national finalists were named in each division. It sounds rather cliche to say it is an
honor just to be nominated, but in this case, it is true. To be a finalist is recognition and
validation that we are leading the way in park and recreation management, in innovative
problem -solving, and in community collaboration. We will know which of the finalists
brings home the gold in two weeks as we attend the National Recreation and Park
conference in downtown Phoenix. So that means two weeks from tonight, so our next
council meeting we'll know one way or the other.
And as you also may remember, once named as a finalist, the staff was challenged to
develop a five-minute video to showcase our town and to visually articulate our written
application. That is no small task, because we had about three weeks to make that
happen. But tonight, I would like to share our video, our debut airing of our video, and
celebrate the staff that have Fountain Hills a gold medal contender.
[VIDEO]
GOODWIN: So we're excited. We'll know in two weeks.
MAYOR DICKEY: That was a wonderful video, and obviously we love what you do.
Anybody have any comments or questions? Alan.
MAGAZINE: Yeah. Rachacl, I want to thank you and your staff and the commissioners
for the incredible job you do. Your productivity is off the charts. 1 don't know -- even
though everybody stood up and it looked like you had a staff of 25, but 1 still don't know
how you do it all. So congratulations to all of you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. And thank you her staff It really is fantastic.
GRYZBOWSKI: 1 always tell Rachacl how much I love the Community Services
Department. I'm so excited you guys are actually here so I can tell you guys. I am so
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
proud of you. 1 swear 1 almost cried when I saw that video. And it was the first time I
saw it too, I promise. Anyway, you guys do a great job. We love you. The community
loves you and loves what you do. And yes, they want more of all of that stuff.
FRIEDEL: Rachael, tell people, how many visitors do we have to our community
center?
GOODWIN: We have roughly 80,000 folks through the doors on an annual basis. It's a
pretty popular place. So with that, thank you guys. We will keep everyone updated.
And once again, thank you to our staff and commissioners that are here this evening.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, staff. Thank you, all of you. Again, we have -- some of
us here have been around for a while and the skate park thing just kills me, because, like,
my son -- my 30-whatever he is now, but that's what he did, you know, as a kid. And that
was something new that, you know, Phyllis (ph.) and others put together and to just see it
like that and then have an event there is just amazing. And it just shows you how you're
adapting and growing and taking care of us. So we really appreciate it.
Yes, Grady?
MILLER: Just one final word. Rachael, to you and your staff, kudos to all of you as well
as the commissioners. So this is exciting. And I think what gets missed is that the
finalists in this organization is not the same as what you think of it in another award
category for different organizations. A finalist really means you are an award winner;
you're just not getting the top named award. So until the final final comes out. So what
I'd like to do is we do have our meeting, a council meeting on the same night, so if
Rachael could just text me. 1 know that the -- we're all excited and we'll make an
announcement live during the council meeting. Hopefully it doesn't run -- your meeting
doesn't run so late. I'd like to kind of not jinx ourselves. But let's -- could you do that
and try to --
GOODWIN: I will.
MILLER: -- text me if you do win.
GOODWIN: Absolutely.
MILLER: So we can get that live and out to our residents as soon as we know.
GOODWIN: Absolutely. What's that?
MILLER: When you win, correct.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
GOODWIN: We'll see. It would be fun to win in our home state. But there's no
guarantees. It's -- like I said, it's no easy task. And you're right, Grady. Being
nominated as one of the one of the final four really does illustrate that we do what we do
very well. It doesn't mean I don't want to bring home the gold. That is for sure. So yes,
we will keep you posted.
MAYOR DICKEY: Fountain Hills first and the Cardinals next, home field advantage.
We really, really, really appreciate it. Thank you.
GOODWIN: Absolutely. Thanks, you guys.
MAYOR DICKEY: Anything -- any other comments? Thanks. I believe that Jamie
Aiken and Jean Baldwin have come -- we already did the -- but if you want to come up,
I'll give it to you and if you have anything that you had planned to say, you're certainly
welcome to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Sure.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So we'll have you say a few words if you'd like. And
welcome to Fountain Hills.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you so much. And thank you, Fountain Hills, for
presenting us with this proclamation today. This might seem like a small token to you,
but to us, it's a huge step forward in our ability to fulfill our mission, which is to -- we
strive to prevent and cure ovarian cancer and provide support to ovarian cancer survivors
and their caregivers -- and awareness.
We constantly struggle up a hill teaching people about the signs and symptoms of ovarian
cancer because there is no early detection system. Sadly, this year the number of women
who were diagnosed in late -stage ovarian cancer increased from 70 percent to 80 percent.
So proclamations like this are huge in our efforts in getting broad adoption throughout the
state in teaching women to understand the signs and symptoms and to talk to their
doctors. So thank you. Thank you very much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you so much. (Indiscernible) gave us this
information and maybe we can put something up, and we will be turning the fountain
teal.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, my gosh. (Indiscernible).
MAYOR DICKEY: The date's on there are someplace. Yes. The 16th to the l8th.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You just gave me chills. Thank you so much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you for coming. We have another presentation now from our
Economic Development Department. And Amanda is here on her way. Welcome.
JACOBS: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council. All right. So thank you. I'll be giving a
fourth quarter update. So that's April through June of'22, and then similar to the last time
I was here, I may add a little bit if it just sort of makes sense, that is happening in this
first quarter. And if you guys have any questions, I know you waited the last time, but if
you want to interrupt me, feel free to do so.
So we'll kick off with business attraction. And so we had two store fronts open during
the third quarter, which is Chill Boutique, and that's near the vicinity of Sipps, and then
the Estate Interiors off of Verde Valley (sic) Road. Hopefully, I'm getting the streets
right. I'm starting to learn.
And then I've started reaching out to some of our property owners and our commercial
broker to just start making connections, introducing myself, trying to understand some of
the vacancies. And some of them are reaching out to see, you know, what does the town
want to see? And of course, not to be selfish, but, you know, if it'll generate sales tax,
you know, we don't mind that. And so I'll tell you with some of our property owners,
what we'll be seeing -- I always like to wait when there's a formal submittal and to be
transparent, but prior to COV1D you heard about the Amazon effect.
Then we're hearing about COVID. Things are really changing. Things are being
shooken up, and so talking to some of the property owners where we're reimagining sites.
And so some of that could be more mixed use that may be coming forward, scaling back
on some of the office space because a lot of people sent their folks home. Employees
enjoyed it; they're not necessarily wanting to go back to the office and so scaling back
some of that footprint. And so getting some of that data, not just nationally, but here
locally and again as we get some new stuff and formal submittals, we'll bring that to
council. And of course, have neighborhood meetings with our residents, because we
want their feedback. Its important.
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And then this list, 1 won't go through all of it. This is a minor change to what you have in
the packet, but a lot of you on council, some of our Planning and Zoning commissioners
have been very eager to know when Veeta's Vegan is opening, and so that is a plant -
based cafe off of Parkview, and they're having a soft opening tomorrow. So to our
members in the audience. our council, if you want to stop by to support our business, that
would be appreciated. And then Macilyn Method is going to be near Chill Boutique,
which 1 just mentioned earlier. And that is a lash extension lash studio that will be
coming, just in case you're curious.
MAGAZINE: Mayor? Question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
MAGAZINE: Amanda, quick question. How many of these are locating in what are
now empty store fronts?
JACOBS: So I'll say all three, except for one. Dutch Bros will be a new build.
MAGAZINE: Great. Thank you.
JACOBS: You're welcome. All right. And then Councilmember Magazine stole my
thunder a little bit. So business retention and expansion. So in June, the town and the
Chamber of Commerce joined forces to launch a formal business retention and expansion
program. And our goal is to try to meet with at least two businesses per week. We did
kick it off in the summer, so we've had some cancellations, but the goal is to meet with
the businesses and understand what is the town doing well, what arc areas for
improvement when it comes to the business climate.
And what were doing is not quite traditional with some economic development
organizations, but we're rotating in a councilmember. And so we've had three
councilmembers so far participate. And why we do that is it's good for our elected
officials to meet the business owners, but often time, some of the issues are policy
related, so it's good for you guys to hear firsthand our business owners' struggles. And so
we've met about nine or ten and some things that have come up is signage. And we're
trying to kind of narrow that down; what does that look like? And working with staff to
actually put something a little bit more visible. I don't know about you, but I'm a visual
person. But it's like, what can I do -- what can I do? So having answers to that.
And then some of our businesses left corporate American and they're, you know, a home -
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
based business here in Fountain Hills, and they would appreciate some type of checklist.
What does the town need? When is there an issue that is going to trigger the Health
Department? And so were also looking at doing that. And then having those business
owners serve as beta testers, right? We can kind of get stuck as government officials in
our own world. And so since they just recently went through it, did we get it right?
And so I want to thank Betsy for her partnership. She is helping coordinate the site visits.
She found out two months in our economic development specialist moved on to the City
of Phoenix for a higher position, so it's just been myself. And then obviously, she has
been with Fountain Hills for many, many, many years and has the relationship. So I just
want to personally thank Betsy and her team.
And then staff also met with the Fountain Hills Medical Center and 24/7 ER. This year
in this quarter they celebrated one year. So again, wanting to meet not with just their
public relations, but meeting with the entire executive team to let them know that when
they're ready to expand -- so when they built, they were already ready, you know, to
expand, that were ready, have our doors opened and want to make it as seamless as
possible.
And then just wanted to make some notes to investments that are happening in the
community. Hopefully, you're seeing external or interior, so the Discount Tire that is
located off of Shea Boulevard did a face lift on the outer part, but also hopefully you saw
they have installed some new technology. Fountain Hills is the first. That is called
RoboTire. And so basically, this technology is changing out tires. So pretty nifty,
happening right here in our back yard.
Last week, again, thanks to Betsy, we finally got into Fountain Park Hotel. Some may
know it as Lakeshore. Again, that was before my time. But just want the council and our
community to know that this is now a Best Western Signature Collection. We met with
the regional manager, and he's going to get back to me, but he thinks they've invested
about a million or over into renovations, interior. So lobby, completely different. They
no longer have a meeting room, which gives us an opportunity with our community
center and conference center. They've turned that into a fitness center. And then all the
rooms are getting also facelift. There are over 100 rooms, but right now only 58 are
available. So this is an owner too that is kind of contemplating rcimagining the third
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
level. So stay tuned, because he's still contemplating.
And then of course, the interior of W algrcen's, again, a facelift, expanding out some o the
aisles, new flooring, not the traditional photo center. Some of it's, again, sort of do it
yourself And so again, I think this is wonderful to know that these organizations are
making investments, and usually that's a good sign, right? They're here to stay for a
while.
All right. So I mentioned this during our last quarter, but we were kind of wrapping up
numbers. But the council approved a nonprofit grant program earlier this year based off
of savings from the ARPA fund, so American Rescue Plan Act, and the deadline was
January 24th. We extended it, because there was a little bit of confusion on who could
participate, so it ended April 29th. And I'm pleased to announce that we were able to
award 35 grants and each of those organizations received a $5,000 check from the town.
And then were starting to wrap up and then reapply on our grants. So our Arizona Office
of Tourism Prop 302 grants, the estimate last July was that the town would only receive
16,000. The actual -- you know, so basically, that money goes to all of the DMOs in the
state. Whoever applies, it's cut up into a nice little pie and we get a share. So it was
actually over 31,000.
So because we did not anticipate that, there will be close to $18,000 that will roll over
this fiscal year that staff will, you know, coordinate and see how we want to apply those,
but the project elements this past year was print placement, specifically statewide, as well
as to our partners in Canada We used some of the monies towards our visitor's guide,
and then there was a video at Phoenix -Mesa Gateway.
And then I will just touch quickly upon this, because I mentioned this a couple of weeks
ago. So our Arizona Office of Tourism Visit Arizona Initiative grants, which is also
based off of the ARPA funding, this past year we applied for three. We received two,
which was the partnership and marketing grants. And so I mentioned, previously, what
those were for. So we have already been informed by the Arizona Office of Tourism that
this year the estimate is 67K that the town will be receiving from Prop 302. And were
trying to reimagine and not do the same thing that we've always done, right, because it's
worked. We will do the print placement, and it's specifically going to be to our Canadian
visitors.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
We will be expanding, this year, the visitor's guide. And traditionally, the Economic
Development Department launched that in March. We're going to move that and have
that available in December for January. March is a little too late, just my opinion. Some
of our visitors, right, arc leaving. So wanting to get that in their hands. And again, for
transparency reasons, I've talked to the Chamber, I've talked internally, but I've asked
why we were duplicating efforts. So we were printing a separate dining guide, and it
roughly cost $1,200 to $1,500 -- not a lot, but if we can save money. So we are going to
eliminate producing a separate dining guide because there's a dining guide in the visitor's
guide. And so that will be promoting, and the Chamber produces that and distributes it at
the Visitor's Center.
We're also working -- so if you'll see sort of on the left-hand side all those circles, we
have hired a digital marketer to assist us as we are updating our seven -year -old
Experience Fountain Hills website. And so wanting to just base our decisions off of data.
That always helps. So if you see that little teal dot, that is Fountain Hills. So the point is
were not really on the map. So we're trying to make decisions where, again, were kind
of up to speed on the trends and getting us on the map. We will also be working with
DayLite Films in the next couple of months to produce a new tourism video. We haven't
done that in several years. And happy to use a local business.
And then on the bottom left, so a visitor analysis, what we're doing here too is tracking
sort of the visitors' journey before they're going to certain destinations and then after they
have left a destination in Fountain Hills. So again, we've been doing some print
placement spending money. Are we getting our money's worth? So we're hoping some
of this data will help support our future decisions as we start looking into the fiscal year
'23 budget.
And then again wrapping up, going back to the fiscal year'21/'22, thanks again to Ft.
McDowell Yavapai Nation, we received $10,000 again toward some print placements.
We have applied again for funding, 30,000, and were still waiting to hear back. And
then also, big thanks to our Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, where we
received 30,000 towards Music Fest promotion and scoreboard advertising, just in last
week. So we applied again, and we have received $30,000, and were waiting to hear
back from the community to see what they've approved that for. So we had three options
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
and just waiting to see what was approved.
As far as advertising, so Business In Focus Arizona several years ago did a feature on the
state of Arizona and asked Fountain Hills to participate for free. Usually, right, there's a
catch. It is trying to get some advertisers to pay in. And traditionally, what we've done is
we've had our staff promoted in the feature. This year, we did something different than
any of our cities and towns, but we asked them to talk to some of our business owners.
Why is it exciting. you know, to be in the town of Fountain Hills? So they spoke with the
Broker's Alliance, the International Dark Sky. So again, to just sort of put us on the map
and for them to hear firsthand. You can see there the readership in Canada and USA.
We also this past quarter -- and were reevaluating this partnership, but did some print
advertising in the Canadian Snowbird Association. So just wanted to see, you know,
does that continue to make sense? We are modifying our advertising to not just include
the fountain, but Canada is also big on cyclists. So promoting also that aspect.
And then partnered again with the Chamber of Commerce on an eight -week campaign.
You may recall last quarter as 1 was starting to meet with some of the businesses and
asking what can the town do, is that they really needed help during the summer, right? A
lot of our visitors leave, our locals are going on vacation, so we're really trying to
encourage the importance of shopping local.
And then marketing. Lots of exciting things here. So council approved a branding
project for this year, totaling $20,000. It will be a community brand. In June, we issued
a request for proposals, and we received six submittals. And then of that, we had a group
score that, and the award is going to Gordley Group based out of Tucson, Arizona, so an
Arizona -based company.
And yesterday, we kicked off a survey, so community survey. 1 spoke with Gordley, and
usually they anticipate, just based off of their experience 50 to 100 responses. We
already have 330 responses. And it's been live for, what, like, a day? And so getting
great feedback. From there, well start doing focus groups in the next couple weeks.
Again, internal. Council will be invited. Our council member elects, some of our
leadership team and then well be inviting our community leaders. So again, nonprofits,
representatives of our Boards and Commissions, just making sure we're getting those
voices heard. And then anticipating this will come back to council in mid -January for
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
council, you know, to see all of the results. There'll be about two to three options, and so
again to get feedback from council and also another opportunity for community feedback.
And then a couple months ago, we asked for everyone's feedback on our downtown street
banners. Some of them have been a little generic, if you will. And so wanting a call to
action. And so Play Dine Stay -- next will be installing those; I believe it's next Tuesday.
And then hoping to just keep it up, and then you'll see that there are photos of Fountain
Hills, not just, you know, a clip art from online. We're wanting to make sure, right, that
it's Fountain Hills related.
And then just wanted to provide an update on social media channels. Again, just doing
an assessment on best practices. Economic Development had a separate economic
development Linkedln page and Facebook page, and obviously that requires staff to
update it. We'll say that really hasn't been happening. And best practices to not dilute a
brand. Usually that funnels through a town page. So we will be taking those offline, so
there's no surprises. Again, if the community has any questions, fecl free to contact me.
But all of that will be going and directed to the town page. We will be keeping, though,
the Experience Fountain Hills Instagram.
And then our partnership. So not to go through all of these, so meeting with Arizona
Commerce Authority, looking at doing some small business workshops by the end of this
calendar year with them. Some of those are free. And then our Salt River Pima-
Maricopa Indian Community met with their Development Services and Economic
Development team and then meeting quite a bit with Discover Salt River, which is the
tourism arm of the community. And we met just last week. They will be going on a
trade mission to Canada, and they're happy to partner on some of that collateral material.
They said it just-- it makes sense. And as we're redoing our website, there's some things,
right, Fountain Hills just doesn't have. And so directing them to Ft. McDowell and Salt
River. Again, it makes a lot of sense.
I think we're getting close to the last slide. And so tourism specific to the experience
page, we had over 36,000 unique page views. And what that means is, it's a unique
visitor, so sort of like a one time, going to various pages. And I'm sure you won't be
surprised, but they go to the events page quite a bit. So that's in our top three. And then
we worked with Debbie Clason on a Stay Fountain Hills Summer social media campaign,
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
which was eight weeks long. It reached, so it got to 13,000 people, and then the
engagement is 8,000. And an engagement -- Mr. Larson (ph.) has to educate me. I'm not
really hip on the social media, but that is a like or a share. And since this is our first time
doing this, we'll see what happens next year. Hopefully, we'll grow those numbers.
And what that, Madam Mayor, Council, happy to answer any questions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much for that. Yes, sir.
FRIEDEL: I have two questions for you. One, you mentioned Prop 302 and the dollars
that are available from that program. At one point, there was talk of the -- I think it was
the Chamber getting a couple of kiosks and locating those around town. Can money from
that prop be used as automated, like, in a kiosk? And if so -- we get over 80,000 people
that visit our Community Center; would it make sense to maybe place a kiosk there
somewhere so that we can help build up stopping points to different parts of our town?
JACOBS: So Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor Friedel, the town partnered with the Chamber
on a submittal, since we're the designed DMO. The Chamber actually completed a
different grant application that we're waiting to hear from. And then not off the top of
my head can I answer your question. 1'd have to see. There's key categories that this
money can go towards, so we'd have to see if that would work.
FRIEDEL: Yeah, I'm saying in addition to that one.
JACOBS: Um -hum.
FRIEDEL: It might something to check out.
JACOBS: We will.
FRIEDEL: And then my second question is, so you were at the hotel, the Best Western.
Did they give you any indication as to what's going to happen with that restaurant that's
been sitting there empty for years?
JACOBS: So Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, good question. Right now, it's going to stay
closed. There is another new owner that is just seeing what opportunities there are, you
know, to have somebody come in to handle the F&B, and so that's food and beverage.
That's not something he usually does, so they're considering options. But right now, it'll
be closed. Good question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any other questions or comments for Amanda? Yes, sir.
SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Amanda, I guess I'm sorry that 1 had missed the
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
meeting that when you first came onboard and we were supposed to meet. Unfortunately,
I was stuck in court and I couldn't come, but I've preached to every Economic
Development director since I came on the council, and I believe what a game changer
would be is a small anchor employer in this town.
I personally was trying to look into biotech firms and things like that, somebody small
that would appreciate the community.
I know we're somewhat limited in being able to offer incentives to get people to come
here, like we just can't give a piece of land. There's a lot of restrictions; I understand that.
But in today's business world, we see so many businesses, I just made notes, that are
fleeing California, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Illinois. 1 mean,
you can just see that by going to Safeway and see all the different license plates for
people that come here.
My term is coming to an end, but I would love to see you with a new council really focus
on somehow trying to entice some small anchor employer that would come here. Like I
said, I always thought that that would really a big impact for the town as well as all the
businesses and everything having more people, more schools, enrollment in schools
going up and everything.
I don't know what it would take. 1 don't know what your ideas are. I know that you had
sent out a invite to the Economic Development, and 1 had mentioned a couple business
leaders in town that 1 suggest that you invite who both have sold million -dollar
corporations, who I think would be really helpful for your board. But I don't know what
your ideas are or what you could put together, but 1 think if there's any way that we could
even find out how you could travel to these states and entice some of these companies
that could come here -- maybe a small manufacturing company, 1 don't know. I'm just
throwing it out there hoping it sticks on the wall. But 1 really think moving forward --
I've expressed this a couple other Economic directors, and there didn't seem to be much
traction. But I really think that having an anchor employer in this town, no matter how
small it would be, would just be a step in the right direction. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Some of what you mentioned was the -- were the connections with
the Canadian and that -- some of that goes right along with what you were talking about
too, so I'm sure you're having those conversations. Over the last, 1 don't know, several
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
years, some of the folks that come here just for snowbird, for lack of a better word, but
they're here for a long time, are starting to want to do business here. And one of the
advantages has been nonstop flights now, and some of that is picking up, especially up,
like, Calgary area and such. So whatever, you know, the business happens to he, I think
there's a lot of that going on, a lot of financial sort of firms and such. Also, 1 know we
talk a lot about education and possibilities of universities or niche that can also he big
employers. And then, of course, we have health care and the hospital and such. So that's
a great idea, and you know, I think that that's something worth moving forward on. One
of the things, and 1 know it's just kind of starting, but several years ago there were some
members of businesses that are along the Fountain and -- I mean, along the Avenue of
Fountains, and they wanted to possibly set up some kind of a coalition or an association
and have some events down there. And so 1 know that you picked that ball up and you're
running with it, and I just really appreciate that. I hope that -- I know later, we talk about
the roundabout and such and walkability and overlooks and that whole avenue getting the
input from all the people involved and all of the -- you know, not just on the Avenue but
even surrounding there, I think would be great to get some of that input. So I kind of
look forward to where that goes if it takes off So I just wanted to say thank you for that,
because that was something that organically came from the area, and when I brought it to
you, you grabbed it. So 1 appreciate that.
JACOBS: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Anything else'? Any other questions or comments? Thank you so
much.
JACOBS: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Great job.
Our next item is a call to the public. Do we have speaker cards?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, we do not have any speaker card for call to the public. Just
for one item we do.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you so much. So our consent agenda is really big
with a lot of partying organizations, apparently. So unless you'd like something removed,
you could please give me a motion.
FRIEDEL: So moved.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks so much. Our regular agenda item begins with information
about sister cities. Grady.
MILLER: Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor and council, the item before is a request to
formally terminate the sister city status with Kasterlee, Belgium. Kasterlee, Belgium was
the very first sister city that was formed for the town of Fountain Hills back in 1999. It
was selected primarily because of its similarity to the town of Fountain Ilills in terms of
population, the culture amenities, and then also its proximity to a major metropolitan
area.
This, unfortunately, relationship has fallen dormant. There have been numerous attempts
at trying to revive it, trying to get civic and cultural exchanges, try to find out what we
can do to try to revive this relationship. Unfortunately, all the efforts on the part of the
Sister Cities Corporation and also the Town of Fountain Hills really were not successful
in trying to revive this. The only time that we have actually heard was recently the mayor
of Kasterlee had passed away, the mayor who was mayor at the time of the formation of
the sister city relationship, and the current mayor made Mayor Dickey aware of that, and
we formed -- we submitted or sent condolences to the town.
There's a number of other sister cities that are in the pipeline for potential consideration,
but I want to let you know at the May meeting of the Sister Cities Commission, the
commission that reports to the mayor and council, they formally voted to terminate the
sister city status. And this is a big deal. In terms of sister city relationships, when you go
to take one on, you don't -- you take it on for life, and so it's unfortunate that this is one
that's become dormant and one that we can't seem to revive, and there doesn't appear to
be interest on the part of our sister city.
So the next step, if council considers this tonight, would be to approve the termination of
the sister city status, and then the town would formally notify Kasterlee, Belgium about
that, and then we'd also let Sister Cities International know that this relationship between
the two cities no longer exists. With that, 1'd be happy to answer any questions that the
mayor and council have at this time.
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MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any questions? Did we have any speaker cards on this
item?
MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Just along the same lines, obviously, we're looking at
other sister cities right now and could have some visitors as soon as November from
Italy. So we'll keep going in that direction, and sorry for their loss and -- of the mayor.
And we'll -- I will take a motion, please.
SCHARNOW: Mayor, I just would like to comment real quick. I was part of Sister
Cities for many years. I've been to Kasterlee, and that was -- you know, Mayor Otten. I
don't think he was mayor anymore at that time, but we had a wonderful time there. Super
friendly people, and you know, it was -- 1 was there when Mayor Wally was the mayor,
so we had -- and that's when we signed Dierdorf to be a sister city. And you know, we've
hosted students from Dierdorf as well as Ataco, El Salvador. So it's unfortunate. We did
try a lot different, you know, means to keep them, but for whatever reason, they weren't
interested, so. But it is a sad loss, but hopefully we'll get another city and it's -- Sister
Cities is a good program. So with that, I'll move that we consider possible action to
terminate sister city status with Kasterlee, Belgium.
MAGAZINE: Seconded.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thank you. Appreciate your kind words. Our next
item is construction phase 2 of the Panorama drainage pipe. Justin?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmembers. This project right here is actually the final
phasc to the Panorama stonn drainpipe.
For those that are not familiar, nearly all of the water that drains in our Panorama
Saguaro Parkview area travels down a pipe on the Panorama and dumps currently into an
open channel near El Lago and Panorama. In that area, there has been standing water for
a considerable amount of time. Over 30 years ago, a pump was installed in that area to
push some of that water back into Fountain Lake. There was a dispute and discussion
between then -unincorporated Fountain Hills and the neighboring nation.
Since that time, the pump operated for approximately 20 or 25 years without any issues.
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And then at that time, it was under the Community Services, and the pump was rebuilt
and moved into Public Works.
With that said, we've had an ongoing issue for about 700 feet of that area, just outside of
the drainpipe, where due to, for lack of a better description. nature -made ponds, water
stands there year-round. We've certainly worked over time to try to pump it or push it to
get it back down to our pump and move it to Fountain Lake, primarily unsuccessfully
because its very difficult terrain to work in.
Having said that, went out for design, got the design, sent it out for bid and were
surprised that we only got one bid on two levels. One, we're delighted that we got at least
one. And two, we had four other projects recently that we released that nobody
responded to considerably less dollar threshold, so we're delighted to have this one. In
the end, what this will be is the final phase for that area. Anything south of that where
any natural spring water flows is on private property, and the homeowner's association
and the homeowners adjacent to that nurture and care for their little private nature walk
down there.
I would like to note that included in this is an updated pumping system that will
considerably more than the average 30 to 60,000 gallons every 24 hours back into
Fountain Lake. The reason I mention that is because all of this natural spring water that's
pushed in there helps decrease, just a little bit, the salinity of that water, but it also helps
to clear some of the triviity in there. The new system is designed to pump up to 100,000
gallons every 24 hours.
Now, the total gallon flow over 24 hours is subject to change by storm events and the
available flow of the spring water that's coming down there. It should also note that as
part of the renovations that have been happening, an additional T was put into that
section. So this project, because they have to dewater in order to get down there and
work, all of that water will also be pushed to Fountain Lake with our existing pipe.
So we're going to see a substantial increase over the next probably 90 plus days in spring
water push back to Fountain Lake, which is a benefit because it helps to improve the
quality of water. With that, if there are any questions related to this agreement, I'll do my
best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman.
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MAGAZINE: Justin, do you have any sense as to why companies aren't bidding? That's
the first question. And the second is, you only got one bid on this project; is it a
reasonable bid or is it worth rebidding it?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember Magazine, those are all excellent questions.
We spoke to two local reputable contractors that do this type of work and have been here
since the '70s, and 1 was admittedly surprised that neither one of them came. And each of
them expressed to me, they simply have too much work and not enough help. Based on
other projects similar to this but without the dewatering, this is right about the market
price for this type of project. There are some exceptions, and the primary one is the
supply chain for 66-inch-in-diameter concrete pipe. And several of the folks that we
dealt with as part of this project indicated they are up to 24 weeks or longer out,
depending on their supplier.
MAGAZINE: How urgent is this?
WELDY: In my opinion, it's urgent for a couple of reasons. One, we've received
numerous complaints from the country regarding the mosquito population down there.
And there are certainly several different types of treatment; none of them have been
completely successful. Two, we need to improve the quality of the water in Fountain
Lake, and this is an opportunity to do address that at this time by increasing the volume
moved back to it.
MAGAZINE: Well, and we don't know if or when the supply chain issue is going to be
relieved. And 1 think we expect interest rates to go up, so 1 guess if we want back out, it
could end up costing even more. Thank you.
WELDY: You're welcome.
GRYZBOWSKI: I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm going to take this
opportunity to once again say, if we still have an environmental fee that our state
legislator and attorney general have not gotten back to us on -- I realize the annual fee
was not a million bucks, but it sure would have put a nice little dent in this if we still had
that fee.
MILLER: I just wanted to give assurances to both Councilmember Magazine and the rest
of council that this dollar amount is very close to the engineer's estimate of what we got
for the design for the construction. So we're very close, within, you know, a few
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
thousand dollars of what was actually estimated.
So I think if we were to reject this bid and then go back out later, I think it's only going to
be higher. So were very lucky that the -- normally, 1 would just say reject the one, but
with it being so close and knowing the issues that we've had with some of our requests
for proposals, I do think that this is a decent bid. And I would highly recommend that the
council approve it.
MAGAZINE: If I may, can I just ask one other question? It really concerns me that
they're not bidding on these projects. Do we have other projects coming up that you're
concerned about?
WELDY: In fact, we do. With the --
MAGAZINE: That's not the answer I wanted.
WELDY: With the exception of concrete and asphalt, we are concerned about other
types of construction as we begin to release things. And were going to discuss this
certainly later on in this meeting tonight. We're relatively secure in regards to a concrete
and asphalt contract and contractor. However, what we are not certain of is the materials
that they need to perform those projects. And as we move forward in this year, we will
continue to bring capital projects. Depending on the scope, the complexity and engineer's
estimate for those projects, we may, in fact, going out for bid and, once again, may or
may not, have anybody respond or just have a sole contractor respond.
MAGAZINE: With the supply chain problems, this is really going to affect the timing of
everything. And I'm sure you're trying to factor that in as best you can.
WELDY: We are, absolutely.
MAYOR DICKEY: Grady.
MILLER: Yes. So I wanted to let you know there was a session actually on the same
very topic about this at the League last week that I attended. And it's a common problem,
not just for us, but for the larger cities that are taking much larger dollar value of their
capital projects. And the panel consisted of the -- essentially, the Public Works director
of Glendale and also there was ADOT director and a small town manager -- I believe it
was from Clarkdale -- and they were all talking about some of the issues that they've had,
and they came up with some solutions.
And one, in the case of Glendale, was having faster turnaround on their payments. And
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
they found that that has helped get more interest in having responses to their proposals.
So we need to also look and seeing what we can do to make it more inviting for these
business to want to take on the risk. If they have to wait a 45-day period of time before
they get their draw or their first payment, that does make it very, you know -- it's a
disincentive for them to get in it.
So we need to kind of look at seeing what some of our peers arc doing to improve this
situation. But a lot of it is labor shortages, supply chain issues, and just the market is just
really kind of out of whack right now.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman.
SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Justin, would this be a situation where we
discuss possibly some of the cost being absorbed by the sanitary district since the
Fountain Lake is primarily used by the sanitary district for water storage, so they have a
stake in this? Is there -- has there been any discussion with them or is this definitely
something that we have to incur the entire cost for? I'm just trying to wrap my mind
around the number.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember, that's a really good question. So this
particular pump that we are currently replacing was actually managed and maintained by
the sanitary district because of their expertise in this type of thing. It should be noted that
the water is actually spring water, and while they do have some benefit for storage in that
facility, most recently, they have been challenged because of the amount of water that
was necessary to sell to their customers and the requirement to keep water in Fountain
Lake. So while we do share some responsibilities with them, and they certainly provide
us support in regards to their expert knowledge of pumping and pumping systems, in my
personal opinion, this is the town's responsibility.
SPELICH: So we get their knowledge for free, but we pay everything.
WELDY: We certainly get a lot of knowledge and other benefits from the sanitary
district, because they have funding and equipment and staffing that provide support to us.
SPELICH: Just not money.
WELDY: Correct.
MILLER: 1 just want to -- it's a good point that Councilmember Spelich brought up. I
just wanted to remind, 1 think, the Public Works director, you know, answered your
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
question responsibly on that. The one thing is, probably to your point, perhaps, when it
comes time to a discussion about the lake liner replacement; that might be where we have
the appropriate discussion with them on it. We actually had a pump on -- that was, I
believe in January, went out on this.
WELDY: November.
MILLER: November. And so the sanitary district actually provided their pump and
hooked it up. And we also get -- I think the last time we valued it, I think we've had, like,
over a million and a half dollars of value of free water that we don't pay for. So we
always like to just keep that in mind that, yes, we do have this partnership with the
sanitary district, but right now, 1 think it's been working very well.
And I do think when there are opportunities to your point, Councilmember, that maybe
something like the lake liner or, you know, when we're just trying to talk about a storage
tank system, there might be opportunities for those projects to be more of a partnership
that we can work together with them on.
SCHARNOW: Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. Justin, it seems over the years, I've
noticed, you know, that particular area of the wash gets really overgrown and then it's
cleared out once in a while. Has that been the town doing that or the district or do you
know?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, it's actually town staff and our contractors.
Over the last several years, we've made several attempts to correct some of the low flow
or slow flow and stagnant waters by removing vegetation to determine whether or not we
could do some of this ourselves. Each time, we've discovered that it's all but impossible
to get a piece of equipment down there without it getting stuck --
SCHARNOW: Right.
WELDY: -- and requiring a larger piece of equipment. So we have managed the
vegetation over the last several years primarily in the last two years to get all of the
survey information we needed because it's quite active little area down there --
SCHARNOW: Yeah.
WELDY: -- with creatures and things that enjoy living in that type of environment.
MILLER: So that's one aspect that'll be taken care of in terms of ongoing maintenance or
staff commitment to that kind of a maintenance issue. So that's one positive.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MILLER: We have to be very careful too, because under federal law if we don't do what
were doing to get that cleared out, it could be declared a repairing habitat of which case
it's a protected area. And so we have to make sure that that doesn't become a repairing
habitat. So that's why it's important to get that cleared. Plus, if you noticed the
vegetation that's in there, that's, you know, the high reeds and such, that's actually
invasive species that are not native, necessarily, to Arizona. So it's all --
SCHARNOW: Right, yeah.
MILLER: It's good to get that cleared out.
SCHARNOW: And so the stockpiling of dirt that's part of this anticipated project,
correct, and that's -- it'll be taken care of?
WELDY: That is correct. As part of our cost -saving efforts, that large pile of dirt there,
which is nearly enough to cover this pipe, was delivered to the town or given to the town
by numerous, several contractors working on projects here. There's several benefits to
that.
One, we do not have to pay for this material which is suitable for this type of project.
Two, it reduces the overall cost for the new or soon to be new homeowner and/or
business owner, and lastly, it reduces the amount of truck traffic that is required to travel
not less than ten miles from this community to dispose of that dirt. And 1 don't have the
number in front of me, but I think it's a -- it reduced our cost by about $150,000 for that
free dirt. And for clarification, I should note, this pipe does not require a trench. The
hole already exists; it simply needs to be leveled, the pipe set in there and that dirt put
over it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any speaker cards on this item?
MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. 1 want to thank you, Justin, for your input on this
design because you made it personalized for the use in Fountain Hills. And also to
Sharron's point, the storm order fee in the four years or so that it has been, you know,
removed or under threat, however you want to say it, was probably getting close to $2.5
million. So that -- it does add up. So it really, really would be helpful for situations like
this and the wash later when we talk about the washes. And again, the spring water or the
ground water going in and it's going to be so much more with using this pump now, so
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
it'll help with the level and with the quality.
Any other comments or questions? Can 1 get a motion, please?
MAGAZINE: Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. sir.
MAGAZINE: I would move to approve Professional Services agreement 2023 with ASR
Construction Group, LLC, for construction of phase 2 of the Panorama drainage pipe in
the amount of $1,88,543.21 and the associated budget transfers.
MCMAHON: Second
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thanks so much. Our next item is along the same
lines. This going over to you, Justin?
WELDY: Yes, ma'am.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Yeah, just get started. That's fine.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmembers.
MAYOR DICKEY: (Indiscernible).
WELDY: This is one of the contracts that we've discussed over the last several years,
and this particular case the city of Chandler with their resources and staffing put together
a scope and fee for concrete replacement and repairs and set it out to bid. VinCon
Engineering and Construction was the low bid for this multimillion -dollar contract. Over
the last several years, they have managed to be the low bidder on not only this one for
Chandler but an adjacent one for Scottsdale. Each of these agreements, cooperative
agreements, have greatly bencfitted the town. Again, they've done all of the leg work on
this by putting together the scope and fee and soliciting bids, opening bids, and making
sure all of the background was there.
I noted after I finished this staff report that there were a few things that 1 probably could
have included in here, but 1 didn't want to make it so big that no one wanted to read it. 1
listed several projects that we have, including some capital, some street fund, some
community services/parks, and those are relatively small dollar amounts compared to
what we're asking you to approve, which is the $800,000.
The $800,000 will not only cover the rest of the work this year for council approval of
capital projects when they are approved, but also when we get ready to do any future
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
paving, and this is coming up in the future, we'll go in there and fix and repair any
sidewalks or curbs or curb opening ramps. Also for any trip hazards that we have in any
of our parks, this will cover that. And any -- and this will also be included in our
sidewalk infill. Two different projects. Not the $2 million grant one. If this construction
company wants to bid on that separately, they probably will.
This is for the $300,000 that the mayor and council approved in that. So I know that
$800,000 is a big number, but two and a half years ago, we had to come back to council
on an emergency basis and ask for an amendment to one of these because we did not
have the contract authority to finish some of our capital projects. We're being --
proactively trying to get these dollar thresholds a little bit higher so we can be prepared.
If there are any questions related to this one, 1 will certainly do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Justin. Oh, yes, Councilman.
SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So Justin, as part of this 800,00, 275,000 is
based on the renovation phase 2 of the Community Center. So taking a trip back memory
lane, before the $800,000 vote to improve the Community Center, I had brought up the
issue about water mitigation and what the water problem was. And 1 was assured at that
time that, barring any catastrophic event, you know, the renovation should move forward
and, you know, were not worried about the water damage. Well, to and behold, in the
last meeting, the vice mayor had brought up the fact that the Community Center had
water intrusion that was major.
And so I want to hear from you tonight, is this $275,000 towards the renovation of the
Community Center going to once and for all mitigate any water damage to that building'?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember, I would like to give you a definitive yes, this
is going to fix it. However, we are not at that level here. We did have the assessment,
and that firm will be in front of this council at the next meeting to give an update on that
assessment. I put in an estimated dollar threshold to address some of the work in the
event that we can do so this year based on the complexity.
SPELICH: That was the best roundabout backdoor answer. That's masterful. Masterful.
Okay. Well, let me tell you what my concerns are.
My concerns are that that 275,000 is not going to scratch the surface of what is really
going to be needed to once and for all fix the issues at the Community Center. So the
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
reason that 1 bring this up is Item F on the agenda today -- or this evening is the old
roundabout study. And anybody in this room or anybody that's followed me will know
that I'm not a big fan of studies. I would hope that the council take Item F and seriously
consider spending money on a study for a roundabout instead of taking those dollars and
putting those dollars to fixing our infrastructure, fixing buildings that desperately need to
be repaired.
Those monies set aside before we even get into the discussion of what we could have in
the future. Lees put off what we can have in the future and let's focus on the present day.
We've already got damage there; we don't know the estimate of those damages are.
Hopefully the carpeting and the tile and all that and the smell can be remediated, but I
caution the council to please, please think about this money that were going to discuss in
Agenda F and think about better ways to use that money because I truly believe, and 1
think you can read into Justin answer, that there's going to be more than $275,000 needed
to fix the Community Center once and for all. I would think that the number would
probably -- twice or three times that.
So I just want to talk about it. I appreciate you putting the effort forward to getting This
on the agenda and getting us to approve it and everything, but I think that that number is
really low. And I would just caution spending money on studies and future when wishes
when there's a present need. Thank you.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, if I may add some clarification. This is just for the exterior
concrete, an estimate. Because as we've discovered, the building is considerably lower
than it should be and all the concrete around it slopes in. This dollar is just to change that
slope to away from the building, not the store fronts or any other remediation issues that
are necessary. This is just the concrete.
FRIEDEL: Mayor. Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, I'm sorry. So basically this is a -- this could be a pretty good
estimate for this part of it? So you don't think this low balled it too much, because you're
just talking about concrete right here?
WELDY: This is just the concrete. In the event that we are able, through the process, to
secure a firm and get some direction from an architectural engineering firm, that will be
the first thing that we try and tackle. But we don't want to just jump in there.
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Unfortunately, all of the information -- and we will discuss this in more detail at the next
meeting. All of the information that Public Works and Facilities had indicated the lion's
share of the water was corning up through the foundation with some nuisance waters
around the doors. We believed that we addressed the issue at the front door by adding a
drainage structure there and in fact, we did reduce if not almost eliminate that with the
exception of a little bit of surface water. This other stuff in regards to storefronts, door
and walls, we were simply unaware of that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Vice mayor.
FRIEDEL: Councilmember Spelich, if that was a motion, I would second it. I can't
agree more. I think we really need to think about what we're doing here with this
Community Center. We've got a lot of money in that building right now, $800,000
renovation. This is just, like Councilman Spelieh said, probably just the tip of the iceberg
to help remediate some of the water intrusion on the outside of the building. We don't
know what we're going to find when we tear that all up either, probably. So again, I think
a wise decision has to be made here.
The roundabout study is something we don't have the money to do the roundabout. I
would like to see that pushed to a future date if possible. I know were not on that item
right now, but at any rate, we've got a lot of money going out here. We need to take care
of this Community Center. 80,000 people a year go through that Community Center. 1
think it's important.
MILLER: Grady. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify. This is a concrete contract that Mr.
Weldy identified all potential uses, including what may be used for the Community
Center. The idea is that we would get this contract in place so that as our needs evolve
and change, it could be used now and in the next couple years. So that's what, you know,
we're talking about tonight.
Again, as Mr. Weldy said, again, I'm getting off the topic a little bit, but when we did the
remodel of the Community Center, there was some water mitigation efforts that were
done and that, at the time, is what we anticipated based on previous facilities reports on
where water intrusion came into the building.
In any case, we will be coming back, as was mentioned by Mr. Weldy, with a very
thorough report to you at the next meeting after having some assessments, preliminary
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
assessments by an architectural firm that's looked at the problem, and they'll be issuing
some findings and recommendations that will be shared with the council. So this is really
just a concrete contract before you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. And the reason these items are before the last item is
because that discussion will be had as far as -- well, it's not a study, it's a design, but, you
know, we know that there are a lot of things swirling around now, including some of our
previous discussions. So anyway, this is for concrete. This is, hopefully, going to be a
close amount to what that aspect for remediation wilt be. But it gives us the leeway to go
ahead and start to do some of that in this fiscal year.
Do we have any --
SCHARNOW: Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh.
SCH ARNOW: As quick --
MAYOR DICKEY: Sony.
SCHARNOW: Quick question. You know, we've had several CIP presentations, you
know, since our retreat back in February, and the number escapes me, but how much do
we have in the budget for CIP improvements this year, approximately'? Just to put things
in perspective.
MILLER: Six or seven.
WELDY: Seven.
SCHARNOW: Seven million? Okay. Thank you.
FRIEDEL: 1 have one more question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Sure.
FRIEDEL: Justin, do you know off the top of your head, we spent $800,000 in
renovations for the Community Center. How much of that was spent on water
mitigation?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Vicc --
FRIEDEL: Ball park.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Vicc Mayor, $50,000 separately just for the front door and
several thousand dollars on other issues in regards to sealing and caulking and that type
of stuff. But just the front doors, $50,000 by itself.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MILLER: There was a solution that we had a third party recommend that you probably
remember. We've talked about a vapor barrier, which would keep the moisture that is
naturally in the foundation from percolating up into the floor coverings, and there was a
innovative way of using a particular glue product on the carpet tiles that we used. And so
that is something that we're still evaluating if that's really working or not.
MAYOR DICKEY: One of the things I asked Justin about and Grady earlier was the
relationship between us and these other cities that we piggyback onto and -- because
sometimes it looks like do these projects go through some other entity, and they really
don't. But what this is helping with some of the discussion that we had previously about
getting bids and getting, you know, supply chain and all that other stuff So the
relationship with Chandler is not that they are there to be an in-between, but we get a lot
of information and we get a lot of good economic benefit from part of them. Yeah, so.
Did we have any cards? I'm sorry.
MENDENHALL: Mayor, no, we don't.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any other comments or make a motion, please?
GRYZBOWSKI: Move to approve Cooperative Purchasing Agreement C2022-030 with
VinCon Engineering Construction, LLC, in an amount not to exceed $800,000 during the
initial term of the agreement with an aggregate not to exceed, inclusive of all renewal
terms, of $4 million.
MAYOR DICKEY: Easy for you to say.
FRIEDEL. I'll second that BMF motion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thank you.
So our next item is along the same lines with Visus Engineering and -- right? Is that it?
Yeah. And this is about our pavement. Justin. Oh, wash maintenance. Sony about that.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers. This one right here is storm cleanup
support. A few years ago, we solicited requests for proposals and also pricing for on -call
day and night storm services to provide support to the limited town staff street
department and parks. Two local vendors submitted and also Visus submitted. Those
other two contracts have already been amended and have multiple year. This one had
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not. And this is our primary trucking and heavy equipment. The unit prices in here just
cover that, and we certainly discovered over the last several months with these rainstorms
that come through that $100,000 really doesn't go very far when you've got to remove
thousands of tons and get equipment to do so. So this contract is directly related to
trucking and heavy equipment, primarily related to post -storm and pre -storm preparation.
GRYZBO W SKI: Broken record here again. Once again, had we still had the
environmental fee, which Mayor Dickey pointed out that we'd be $2-plus million here,
this money could have -- or its money could have been applied to something like this,
because it's storm water. Okay. That's the only time I have to bring that up again today.
We're done.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any other questions or comments? Do we have any speaker cards
on this?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, no, we don't.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you. Anybody like to make a motion, please'?
FRIEDEL: Move to approve Amendment Number I to Professional Services Agreement
2020-070 with Visus Engineering Construction, Inc. in the amount of $100,000.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MCMAI ION: Seconded.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thank you so much. Now, pavement preservation.
Thank you, Justin.
WELDY: You're welcome. Madam Mayor, Councilmcmbers. This one right here is
directly related to our pavement maintenance. As stated in the staff report, a resolution
was passed, and the staff follow the direction of the mayor and council and stopped the
zone approach and began to save the roads that could be saved. This was about almost
ten years ago now, but not quite that long.
At that time, we spent the limited funding we had based on the direction given and the
assessment of the streets, go and save those roads. We did so. Those roads are now up
for their first treatment, which historically is to fill the cracks with a rubberized product
and then put a preservative seal on them. There's a relatively small number to finish that.
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It should be noted that last year, we came before the mayor and council and asked for
funding for this contract. Since that time, we have been out there milling and overlaying
streets. We've been crack -filling streets. And each of those phases, we have provided
exhibits. I didn't include them all here tonight. And we are still continuing to move
forward on just our basic maintenance to continue to save the streets that we can save
with the funding that we have.
It should be noted that this -- we are asking for your permission for $2.5 million. We're
not going to spend near that to get the preservative treatments down. What we do want to
be able to do is be prepared when we get direction from the mayor and council, based on
the assessment recommendations from the committee, the town manager on moving
forward so we can get started sooner rather than later on any of those projects when they
arc selected. And I am confident, based on the amount work the town manager and the
pavement committee has put in, that we will be moving forward with some of that
shortly. With that, if there are any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any questions? 1 know I was asking about the big picture, because
obviously, when people see that we're moving on pavement maintenance, they look for,
you know, their areas and just to know what you just said is a good way to wrap it up.
It's a big, big picture. We have a lot to go; we have a lot of finances and funding that is
dedicated for this. And we look forward -- I don't know that well have our full
committee report from our citizens, but we could possibly give an interim committee
report in October. And I think along the same lines as what Gerry and David were
talking about earlier is it gives us a better picture of where we're at overall if we know
where we're going to go with this. But this is exactly the steps we need to take now for
these particular roads. Did we have any speaker cards?
MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Maybe you should just tell me when we do.
MENDENHALL: (Indiscernible).
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Well, gee. Would somebody please like to make a motion?
MCMAHON: I'll make a motion. I'll move to approve Amendment Number 3 to
Cooperative Purchasing Agreement 202065.3 with M.R. Tanner Development and
Construction Incorporation (sic) for paving, preservation treatments in the amount of $2.5
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million dollars.
FRIEDEL: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Appreciate that. So our next item is the roundabout,
the discussion for the design of the roundabout. I was tempted -- I almost took this off
because of the same reasons that you're talking about with, you know, wanting to get full
information from other areas. But since this report was put together so well and I wasn't
sure if anybody from the firm was going to be here, I figured we'll hear the item and we'll
discuss it and likely look forward to discussing it again in the future, so. Justin.
WELDY: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, this particular design contract
goes back several years to the downtown visioning, the swaback (ph.), and several other
elected bodies that are looking to make improvement to several intersections primarily
around Fountain Park, Avenue of the Fountains, El Lago. And I'm mentioning some of
those other areas, because those improvements, including the construction of a traffic
signal at El Lago and Saguaro, have already taken place, an upgrade to the traffic signal
at Panorama and Saguaro. This one of the keys.
What we have is a three-legged intersection controlled by an all -way stop. All -way stops
are an ideal situation for traffic calming. We have just one minor issue -- is there's a
distraction if you're headed northbound out the right side and if you're headed southbound
out the left side. At any time, you could sit near that intersection, and if the fountain's
going off, more often than not, unprepared drivers go straight through that stop sign.
Law enforcement does an excellent job of enforcing that intersection and our other roads
as often and whenever they can. They just simply can't be there all the time. This is
simply a concept and an option for that intersection based on analysis of improvements
made at other three-legged intersections.
We're bringing it forward tonight because we have a list of projects that are going to take
a considerable amount of time. And if this is going to not move forward and be held for
any number of reasons, it's a benefit to the limited staff that we have so we can
concentrate on some of the others and bring them forward for approval, because it's
important that we do what we can in that intersection to eliminate the conflicts between
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the pedestrians and the vehicles.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilman?
MAGAZINE: Justin, do we have any accident statistics?
WELDY: At this -- Madam Mayor, Councilmember, yes, there -- I have been --- we do a
five-year diagram, and 1 don't recall that number because I didn't include it in this report,
but there are a few crashes in that intersection on a regular basis over the five-year
period.
MAGAZINE: It would -- this is not a criticism, but it would seem to me that in trying to
determine how to go on this, we should need -- we should have some very specific
statistics: speeding, crashes, whatever it is. And I for one would like to see that.
WELDY: Understood.
MAYOR DICKEY: Pardon me?
SPELICH: May I speak?
MAYOR DICKEY: Sure.
SPELICH: I welcome your staff to work on other projects. I wholeheartedly support
your staff to have their ideas and their work channeled to another subject, because I agree
with Councilman Magazine. Come to me with hard statistics, come to me with how
many accidents happen there, not a guess. How many hard accidents happen there,
pedestrian versus vehicle and vehicle on vehicle. Also come to me with how many traffic
stops have been made there and how many tickets issued for people blowing that stop
sign in any direction.
I will reiterate my statement that there's things that we want, things that we need, things
that we would like. I just would like to see this money -- sorry that I called it a study,
Mayor. I didn't mean to -- design -- I'd like to take this design money and funnel it
towards something else, mainly fixing the Community Center once and for all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman?
GRYZBOWSKI: A couple of things. Two or three years ago -- I've lost track of time --
the council at the time voted to put the safety corridor signs up instead of -- I don't know
if you even considered anything else, 1 always thought 35 was too fast for right there
between El Lago and Palisades. So I always thought it should be 25 anyway, which 1 feel
like will mitigate some of the issues.
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That being said, I'm also a firm believer in, we can't get a grant if we're not shovel ready.
Are there any grants out there that we are looking forward to applying for? To me, that's
very important to know. Also, a question for probably Amanda: Did you talk to any of
the business owners on the Avenue or in the area and what are their thoughts on this kind
of traffic mitigation?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible).
JACOBS: No.
SPELICH: No?
JACOBS: As the mayor mentioned the downtown group is just like the third meeting, so
we have not talked about this. So sorry, no. Add it to your next agenda, please. Thank
you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilmember.
SPELICH: Thanks, Mayor. So let's just say, Justin, for the sake of saying things, let's
just say that in the next three minutes I suffer a traumatic brain injury and I want to vote
in favor of this, okay? If we had the money and this design in made, what is the
estimated cost? I'm not going to hold you to it, I'm not going to, you know, come back in
January as a citizen and yell at you. I'm just saying, what do you think or what would be
the estimated cost if we had the money, we did the design, and were ready to roll? How
much money are we talking about?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember, based on the geometry of that intersection,
it's above a million dollars.
SPELICH: Thank you.
WELDY: You're welcome.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, Vice Mayor.
FRIEDEL: A couple of things. 1 wholeheartedly agree with the statistics being really
important before we move forward with this. So the total amount was 392,000 for this
design and study, 1 believe, right? Just under 400,000 at one point we were talking
about?
MAYOR DICKEY: I think that was for the (indiscemible).
FRIEDEL: Oh, so that include the whole package. How much of that, Justin, can you
tell me -- is any of that money dedicated or earmarked for supervision of
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
the construction of this project or is that all design and study or does it get into anything
else'?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, this contract is simply the design. So the post -
design services, when it gets ready to go to construction, that would be separate. This is
just to design improvements to that intersection.
FRIEDEL: And 1 think you're probably light on your million dollars for this whole
project. I'm just guessing. I just think it'll be a lot more than a million dollars for the
staircase, the overlook, the whole nine yards. We're looking at a big package there. t
almost would like to make a motion to table this to another time when we have statistics
and information so that we can make a better, more informed decision and again use that
money for our Community Center, which is in dire need.
MAYOR DICKEY: Can I ask you to hold off on that motion?
WELDY: For clarif---
FRIEDEL: Yes, 1 will hold off on the motion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, for clarification, the million dollars I referenced is just for the
intersection, not the park improvements. That's a separate project altogether.
MAYOR DICKEY: Grady.
MILLER: Yeah, and for clarification purposes when we have these projects designed
and engineered, that's when we get the engineer's estimate. So that's when we really have
a good -- but Justin was giving his best guesstimate to answer your question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks. Yeah, and also, you know, just going back on the one that
we did here and, you know, we had an issue that we had to correct, so it was more. But 1
think that one originally was about 700 -- but anyway, it's a lot, obviously.
So when we first talked about this and we first had it on the capital improvement plan,
not first, it was the fifth time we talked about it, but it was June, and David had said that
in November he'd be coming back with better numbers. We're going to have the audit
and we'll have our quarterly report in November, so that's one of the items that I was
hoping that, you know, we would have before we had this item brought back. The street
committee, I really want to hear from them. I want -- you know, we'll probably get some
preliminary ideas about using the ARPA money and the, you know, millions of dollars
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that we've put in, hut also what's coming as far as possibly a bond in the coming years.
So I want to hear about that. I do also, as you mentioned -- I would like to hear from the
Chamber and from some businesses, do they see this whole thing -- and not just the
roundabout, but the overlook and the ADA access, do they see that as something that's
worthwhile pursuing from that point of view, from an economic development. And then
last, but not least, if you know we have kind of a big decision about fire coming up,
which is another expense, and so I know it's not the same, it's not capital, but it's -- you
know, it's all going to be in our minds as far as money.
So 1 would suggest again to postpone this decision, but it's not for that long. It's probably
the first or the second meeting in November where I believe we'll have most of this
information that I'm hoping will help us make a decision going forward on this, whether
we think it's something that's worth doing. I do want to say, I really agree that it is the
safest option for that intersection. I think most people realize that this roundabout has
worked out pretty well when it comes to traffic.
This one would be a little different; two lanes is a little bit of a different story, but there's
so much -- there's so much research, there's so much history, there's so many examples of
how this is absolutely a safe thing to do for our community. It's not really any other
reason than that. That's the number one reason. So 1 don't know if you want to make a
motion or if we can just agree to postpone until after we get the quarterly report.
FRIEDEL: I want to make a statement, though, if I can.
MAYOR DICKEY: Of course.
FRIEDEL: I know you're -- the way that this thing was designed and written up, safety is
bike safety, driver safety, pedestrian safety. I'm not convinced and maybe I'm wrong and
all wet, you're pulling stop signs out and you're going to have a designated truck route at
30 or whatever miles per hour going through there with pedestrians trying to cross.
Nobody has convinced me that it's safe.
Now, some of the examples in your presentation, in the package, were rural areas out off
of Dynamite Road where there's no pedestrian traffic at all. And those roundabouts seem
to work fine. We have a lot of people crossing on foot at this intersection, and I'm not
convinced -- you're pulling stop signs out and having traffic roll through, that that's any
safer for pedestrian traffic there.
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And again, maybe I'm all wet, but my common sense tells me that there's going to be an
issue when you're going from a dead stop to a roll through and people trying to cross.
We have a lot of people that cross there versus Dynamite Road where those roundabouts
are. There's nobody out there. So they work fine out there. It's in a rural area where
there's no pedestrian traffic. That's my point.
MAYOR DICKEY: I appreciate that, but 1 -- you know, and if we do get to that point,
there are just tons of examples of why it's safer for pedestrians. Yes, sir.
SPELICH: 1 just want a clarification and full disclosure for all watching at home and in
the audience. I don't remember you and I having a discussion about this in November.
You had made mention that David and 1 spoke about this. I don't know what you're --
MAYOR DICKEY: David Pock.
SPELICH: Oh.
MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry.
SPELICH: I was like you just scared me, and I was going to make an appointment.
MAYOR DICKEY: I said he said --
SPELICH: Because I don't remember that.
MAYOR DICKEY: He's all for this. No.
SPELICH: Whew. Thank God.
MAYOR DICKEY: It was David at a public meeting saying that this --
SPELICH: Two Davids.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- would he a good time when the numbers would come back to --
SPELICH: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- discuss this and these other --
SPELICH: Because I've never had a discussion with you and ever been in favor of this,
ever, ever, ever. Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman.
MAGAZINE: Thank you, Mayor. A month or more ago, 1 shared an article with the
entire council about roundabouts and based upon reading that, 1 am convinced that
roundabouts are the safest way to go. That's not my issue. My issue is the cost today and
the cost in the future. And I want to ask Grady or Justin, if we were to get grants, what
percentage of the total is likely can we get? Is it 60 percent, 80 percent? Do we have any
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
idea?
MAYOR DICKEY: Grady can.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Grady.
MILLER: Usually on -- it depends on the grant. If we arc able to get like this federal
infrastructure grant, they're going to be paying the lion's share of it. We may have a
small match, like a six percent, that we may have to come up with. They may even allow
the towns contribution to the design to be count towards that. But it's a very competitive
process, and what were hearing is that the key words are resiliency and also
collaboration. So I would say that we might have a better chance on -- and I'm talking
about just the federal infrastructure act that was passed by congress. Other potential
possibilities, we may have to have as much as a 10 or 20 percent match, depending on the
type of program. Typically, if you have the design, they want to have some assurances
it's going to happen. So they typically look for the design to be done already, and they
also have confidence level that with that design you also have an engineer's estimate,
which helps them in determining whether they want to grant you the money or not.
MAGAZINE: 1 would really like to see a roundabout and overlook. 1 really would. I
think it would greatly enhance the town. 1 think it would be safe, but 1 am very
concerned about the cost. And after hearing -- and the Mayor just mentioned it-- after
hearing the presentation at the last meeting about fire service, we could be looking at a
very, very big expense to do whatever it is we need to do, depending upon which option
we take. We also have -- and you know I've mentioned this before. We've done -- we
did a survey and the number one priority for our citizens is the roads. I don't think we
can ignore that.
MAYOR DICKEY: It's a road.
FRIEDEL: Aren't most of those grants, though, based on projects that are needed for
towns, not nice -to -have projects?
MILLER: Yes, but transportation projects are considered needed, and in this case, you
know, you're asking for safety, like accident data and things like that. That would also be
used to justify. and they'll look at that as well as part of a grant application. But no, I
would say any kind of traffic improvement, they definitely look at that as being
something that would be more favorable now. The other part of the project, which is
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
the -- that park enhancement, that would be one that -- the nice to haves. May work, just
depends on what type of grant program. It may be like, for instance, we can apply
through the state. They have this heritage fund, and heritage fund monies are used for
park enhancements and things of that sort. And so that would be something that if we
mentioned that the underserved population -- for instance, the handicapped have a hard
time accessing that park from the Avenue; that would probably give it a very high rating.
And probably would make it likely that we'd get a big chunk, but it may not be the full
amount that it costs to build it, so we would have to come up with the difference.
FRIEDEL: And sometimes with those grants you have to be careful because there's a lot
of stipulations with them as well. Sometimes the compliance for the grants end up being
more than the grants themselves in some cases.
SCHARNOW: Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman.
SCHARNOW: Yes, thank you, Mayor. That's a good point, Grady, on the heritage
funds. You know, it went away for a while, but I'm glad it's back. And I know the town,
early on, after incorporation, you know, was very successful in getting several of those
heritage grants to basically build, you know, half, if not more, of Golden Eagle Park. so
that's definitely a possibility.
And you know, we can debate the pedestrian safety, I guess, all night long, but another
aspect to look at is from a motorist standpoint. And that's one of the reasons why I think,
say a traffic signal up on Palisades, you know, and Adero (ph.), Palomino, is a good thing
because a lot of times, you know, there's -- the bulk of the traffic is on Palisades, so it's to
their advantage to go through a green light and just keep going rather than stopping and
all that kind of stuff And you know, years ago when the three-way stop was put in at
Saguaro on the Avenue, there were a lot of complaints from people because they were --
they didn't want to stop, you know. And I know the pedestrian traffic has increased since
then, but 1 think from a motorist standpoint, you have to look at those things as well.
And I understand the money thing and the prioritization, but on the other hand, it's like,
you know, you could debate that on just about any improvement or project looking
forward, and, you know, if some of the decisions that were made the last 30 years were
all based on just money at the moment, I mean, half the things we have probably wouldn't
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even he here.
So you know, 1 think to enhance our downtown and to benefit our citizens and businesses
and that kind of thing, you know, we've been concentrating on the downtown quite a bit
the last almost four years that I've been up here in terms of the paving and the safety
enhancements. And 1 see this as another --just another piece of that puzzle. And 1 think,
you know, it just benefits the whole special events thing and just the flow of everything.
So 1 look forward to the future data in a couple months and see where we land on that.
But you know, with a $7 million CIP budget, yeah, I mean, we could spend the 260 on
something else. I get that.
But we could spend a lot of other money on other things as well. And you know, we just
heard this report from Community Services, 17 full-time employees, five parks, two
Railheads, and you know, that's all quality of life, lifestyle, economic development that
all ties together. So 1 think we have to look beyond just black and whites and just the
money. There's more to it than that.
SPELICH: Thanks, Mayor. Also, Justin, in the packet, it seemed like all of the studies
and the diagrams and all of the things were specific to one -lane roundabouts. I didn't see
a lot about two-lane roundabouts. And the reason I'm cautious about a two-lane
roundabout, and the audience can back me up on this maybe, is if they've traveled down
Hayden in front of the Harley Davidson dealership on your way to Costco, you're literally
taking your life in your hands. As you drive around that loop, you either find somebody
who's recreating vacation, Big Ben, spinning around in circles and circles because they
can't get off the loop, or the one person in the number 1 lane halfway through making the
roundabout entering into the number 2 lane so that they get to Gunsight. So if there's --
you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that all of the things that were included by
the designers were one -lane and it really didn't address the problems that are associated
with two-lane roundabouts.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember, the initial from several years ago indicated if
a single lane was built at that time, that by 2022 a second lane would need to be added to
address the capacity, including the trucks. So the exhibits that we provided show an
option of a one or two.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks a lot. I know we have a speaker card, correct? Yeah. This
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time we do. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. First, we do have written comments, and one is
from Thomas Gone (ph.), and then the other was from Ed Stizza. So now we do have
seven speaker cards, and they'll be called in the order that they were received.
So the first to speak is Brenda Kalivianakis, councilmember elect.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you for reading my name right. Ms. Mayor, Town Council,
Vice Mayor, thank you. The first thing I'd like to address tonight, Grady, is thank you for
the invitation to go to the Arizona League of Cities and Towns conference. I had a really
nice time there. I learned a lot speaking to the other managers, mayors, and council
people. It was very informative. And then all of the cities elected their elect officials, so
thank you for that invitation. 1 really appreciate it.
I'd like to request tonight that either we vote this down or we table what has been
discussed till a future date. It's way too much money to study it, way too much money to
build it. This goes back to the want -to -have versus need -to -have projects, which we seem
to talk about quite a bit. I think we need to tighten our budget. I think we have
hyperinflation looming. We are in a recession and possibly looking at a depression if
things get much worse. We're looking at tough financial times.
These kind of expenditures at this point doesn't seem to be right. Our need -to -have items,
which were mentioned already, fixing our desperately flawed and leaking Community
Center, which I think is on the top of our list, fixing the roads, upgrading our
infrastructure, flood mitigation. The original flood plan was flawed and engineered
poorly, something that's gotta be addressed by us.
In the report by Justin, he mentioned safety. The presumption that roundabouts arc safe
is a contested item. Has the Mayor or the town council been given reports or expert
testimony on the danger of roundabouts'? Okay. That's something that we should be
looking into. Maybe before we take a vote, we should take a look at the negative effects
of roundabouts.
Bishop Legal, which does litigation in this area, has a five -point study on the dangers of
roundabouts, one of which was, again, the multilane roundabouts, which were not
mentioned in the packet. That's a big issue that was not addressed tonight. Now, I won't
go into this all specifically. I can make it available to you after the meeting, but until we
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get the other side of this, 1 think we have to put it on hold.
We talked about traffic calming and traffic flow, and I -- simply put, I don't think there's a
traffic flow problem here. 1 sit at the All American Sports Bar, and it seems to be a very
nice flow situation. I don't see stoppages; I don't see back -- people backing up. It seems
to work very well. I don't see where that's an issue. It also affects -- climate impact was
another reason that we should be able to build this. And I think that's a real stretch, and I
don't know how that got put on your report.
The effect of one roundabout in one little city in one little town in this great big globe
would be infinitesimal. The difference in our carbon footprint to make an analogy would
be so insignificant, you'd have to search for it with an electron microscope. For those
who don't know what an electron microscope is, it gives you images of nanoparticles and
things at the atomic level, really small things. I don't think building this roundabout
would affect the climate at all.
The bottom line is, we need to fix the items that are important and arc need -to-do, and we
have to put the want -to -haves. The one other thing I'd like to address is the minimization
of amount of disruption caused by construction, which was another thing on your list.
Well, if we don't build it, there won't be any amount of disruption caused by construction
because it won't be built. So thank you for your time tonight. 1 really appreciate it.
MENDENHALL: Next up is Bart Shea.
GRYZBOWSKI: Mayor, I think our buzzer over here is broken, so Linda was trying to
wave at you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: I'll try again.
SHEA: Mayor, Council, thank you for the opportunity. 1 brought hard data. This is a
traffic impact study. It was done on the southwest corner of the Avenue and Saguaro. It
was updated as recently as June of this year when l submitted plans for the phases on this
project. Nowhere in this, not one spot, is it warranted for a roundabout on either end of
the Avenue. They have the stop signs that were installed as traffic calming devices are
not warranted with traffic for safety or any other reason.
Your estimate for the roundabout, it's about four million bucks. But that roundabout --
you can shake your head all you want, but the reality is, I do this for a living. That's what
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that's going to cost to put a tunnel in. Why? Because 1 offered to put a tunnel in and
handicap access into the park in conjunction with phase 1. Never even came up. No one
wants it. Now, all of a sudden, we want to go back and get a tunnel and a stair and
everything else and get a grant on something you can't prove as a need in any way, shape,
form, or function, and with finality, this is a want.
And when it gets to the grant level, and it's written up as a need, they're going to look at it
and go, it's not. You can put competition with 700 other cities that have actual needs for
items that go into this. This is not a need. You can't gerrymander the numbers well
enough to make any portion of this a need. If you took all of the traffic that runs into
Fountain Hills on the highest day ever -- because I did, which is great fair. It's the
November, not the February. If you took all of the traffic and times it by two and a half,
you still don't reach the numbers to put that avenue up. And ironically, to get to those
numbers, the Avenue is closed; that intersections closed to get to those numbers. So do
you not have a great fair to install this roundabout? Is that what this is?
Because there isn't any way, shape in the world that you can call this as a safety item for
the need in Fountain Hills unless this is a national firm that updates this for me. I spent
$120,000 gathering data and doing analysis on the corner. I don't have an opinion. I
don't have a thought. I have hard data that says it's not a need.
And if it was a need -- here's the irony in this statement. If it was a need and even close
to a need, I would have had to pay for it as an impact, because I put 400 units on the
Avenue. The town would have made me install a roundabout if it was even close. It
would have been in negotiations, and it's not. 1 guess I'm out of time. Thank you,
Madam Mayor. Thank you, Council. If you want some data, I'm always available.
SPELICH: Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
SPELICH: I know we're not allowed to comment on --
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, now we can't get it to stop.
MENDENHALL: Yeah, now it won't stop.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: As long as it works now.
SPELICH: I know we're not allowed to comment on call to the public, but --
MAYOR DICKEY: This is a discussion.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Not a call to the public.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You're good.
SPELICH: Oh, okay. So I can comment on it. All right. So if towns -- if this has been
submitted to town staff, like he just claimed, how come we don't have it? How come it
wasn't made available for us to read?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I don't think he said that.
SPELICH: Yeah, did -- Mr. Shea, did 1 misspeak? Did you say that you provided this to
town staff?
SHEA: Town council's been in possession of this traffic analysis since 2016 when it was
done, when it was agreed upon how many multipliers we'd have to put in to make it
work for all the traffic. Then we spent $40,000 doing traffic analysis on every entrance
into Fountain Hills, including Rio Verde, (indiscernible) Verde. We had the correct
math to know what the traffic was for 30 days. Then we used the town's analysis on
traffic for the great fair, which Paul Mood insisted on, to make sure that we had all that
could be. SPELICH: Right. But was your statement to the council in your remarks --
SHEA: Yes.
SPELICH: -- saying that you --
MAYOR DICKEY: 2016.
SPELICH: Oh, no, 1 thought he said June.
SHEA: No, no, no. I have to provide updates on every project I put in. I have to put an
impact analysis, so there are only four pages. The town has been in possession of this
since 2016. As a submit new plans or I submit product type, I have to provide an impact
analysis as to how many -- because we changed the parking down on the Avenue, I put
underground parking in. And I also, at the town's request, took the entrance off the
Avenue of Fountains to make sure that we could do our 28 different things. All that was
negotiated back then.
SPELICH: Okay.
SHEA: So yes, the town does -- is aware of all of these -- all of this information.
SPELICH: All right. So John, if 1 could have that sent to me? 1 don't know if the other
councilmembers want to read it, but 1 want to read that study and I want the update from
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June. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Okay. Our next public speaker is Larry Meyers.
MEYERS: Mayor, Council, Vice Mayor. Well, I don't know how you follow that. But I
was hoping to take a break from all this stuff, but you know, 1 saw the opportunity for
going back-to-back in agreement with Councilman Magazine. And I couldn't resist it.
And I'm coming back next time to go for a threepeat. So quote, "The intersection of the
Avenue of Fountains and Saguaro Boulevard has been difficult for pedestrians and
vehicles to traverse since the early 1990s. The primary cause of these issues is the wide
median on the Avenue of the Fountains and four travel lanes on Saguaro Boulevard
which creates an extremely large intersection footprint." Justin Weldy.
The new design has pedestrian crosswalks crossing four lanes of traffic with a median in
the middle, only this time, no one has to stop because it's a roundabout. In 1981 -- since
1981, I don't recall any pedestrian accident, let alone a fatality, at this intersection. Prove
it and I'll stand corrected. I see no words, no proof of safety issue. Have any of you been
down there at this intersection at 5:30 in the morning? I can assure you I have. It's a
truck route with lots of people going to walk at the Fountain Park before the heat hits. I
see no overwhelming call from residents for this waste. 1 hear them call for road repair.
And during the election campaign, 1 recall a certain campaign publication presented,
quote, see issues first through the eyes of the residents, prioritize residents' wants and
needs. That was the mayor's publication. And a certain political action committee was
called mean for pointing this out. If you spend 4 -- S260,000 to study, just to study,
knowing full well that the incoming council majority does what they campaigned on, this
will never get built, and that'll be 8260,000 you can just flush right down the toilet.
Once again, during the campaign, a certain political action committee called for a point,
quote, remain financially healthy with an eye on future operational and capital needs. I
think I've heard that here tonight, so I'm really happy. And that was Mayor Dickey as
well.
We were criticized for calling that out and said that that was untrue. So for once, I would
like y'all to try listening, not demanding anything. Try listening. Use the money to fix
the Community Center or whatever else needs to be done and take a pass on this for now
or maybe forever. Thank you.
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MENDENHALL: Our next speaker is Dave Long (ph.).
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: He left.
MENDENHALL: Okay. Next is Crystal Cavanaugh.
CAVANAUGH: Good evening, Mayor and the entire council. I like roundabouts in
certain locations. I know the rules and I know how to use a roundabout. 1 understand the
purpose of a roundabout is to keep traffic flowing. That being said, why would a multi
lane roundabout be a priority or a smart choice in a location where there is a truck route,
fountain tourism, and pedestrian traffic?
Traffic flow will be interrupted, and it won't be safer as cyclists and able-bodied or
disabled walkers abruptly cross into the traffic flow, some slowly, with children and
strollers, some with dogs, some with walkers, canes, and wheelchairs, all in the midst of a
design that works best when traffic can flow. There is a big potential for many more
pedestrian injuries and fender benders as traffic stops abruptly in the circle or as drivers
look towards the park when the fountain goes off, now with a moving vehicle, just not at
the stop sign.
And considering that the citizen's street commission, as has been mentioned, recently
reported $60 to $80 million in unfunded backlogs for street repairs, this unnecessary,
excessive spending for a design of a potentially unsafe roundabout and additionally a
park project is irresponsible. Plus, where is the money going to come from anyway to
implement a completed roundabout project'? If we can't even afford the finished project,
why start spending the money for a design that is unaffordable for us to build'? And
tonight, 1 was wondering about the $300,000. So that is -- it's almost $300,000,
$260,000. Before 1 had heard it was $392,000, so I'm assuming that does include the
after cost with the supervisory and the labor and things of that nature.
Even so, it's a big amount if it never gets built. And in 2013, when a roundabout was
discussed by the council, which did include Councilwoman Dickey at the time, the
engineer at that time estimated at least a $940,000 cost for the roundabout alone. That
was nine years ago. Labor and materials are certainly not cheaper; current estimates
suggest that it will actually cost millions to complete this roundabout and park project.
And at what cost do we want to have this discretionary, nonessential spending added into
our budget?
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This is clearly a want, as been pointed out. It's not a need for Fountain Hills at this time.
So please be responsible and don't ignore the input from the citizens. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Our next speaker is Liz Gildersleeve.
GILDERSLEEVE: Good evening. Liz Glidersleeve, Fountain Hills resident. I'm still a
little stunned by what Bart Shea shared with us tonight. Not only is this roundabout
design -- should be taken off the agenda for tonight or at least a motion to put it to some
further time, but I think even November is too soon.
But anyway, the design for the roundabout at the Avenue and Saguaro is clearly a nice to
have, as people have said, not a need to have at this time. Hopefully, you can all see that.
That's not to say it shouldn't be done. I just believe it's financially unwise to do it at this
point in time. With road repairs recently projected to be in the range of 60 million to 80
million, considerably more than our $46 million annual budget, does spending $260,000
on a roundabout design study seem like a good idca to all of you for a project that will
ultimately cost more if roundabout construction even moves forward?
Plus, don't forget there is now a $67 million park place lawsuit pending over the town's
head that needs resolution. The roundabout design study is like a homeowner who wants
a pool in his backyard despite the fact that whenever it rains his roof and windows leak.
So tonight, do you opt for the shiny pool or do you choose the responsible path and reroof
your house and replace your windows?
Do you choose, in other words, to place hard-earned dollars toward a roundabout study --
a roundabout design study, excuse me, or do you put the money and focus on road repairs
and other need -to -have items? And please, resolve the park place lawsuit quickly with
Mr. Shea. Enough of this nonsense. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: And the last speaker card 1 have is for Dan Kovacevic.
KOVACEVIC: [Kova-sev-vickj.
MENDENHALL: Kovacevic.
KOVACEVIC: Yeah. Hi. I'm Dan Kovacevic. Some of you might recognize me as
sitting on Planning and Zoning. I'm here tonight as a private citizen. And the first thing 1
noticed when the roundabout was installed at La Montana and the Avenue was that 1
could not see any pedestrians catacorner.
If you build a roundabout, you gotta have something in the middle that people drive
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
around, that blocks basically 90 degrees of the 360 degree circle. It is not a safer solution
in an area of high pedestrian traffic. It's a safer solution in an area of low pedestrian
traffic where you're trying to slow traffic down. But you can't get any calmer than
stopped. And the three-way stop is the best solution and the safest solution. It's safer for
the pedestrians; it's safer for the bicycles; it's safer for the drivers.
I happened to see what happens when somebody makes a turn and goes about the
roundabout the wrong way in Michigan this summer. And it wasn't me, but it's not a
pretty sight. So my point is, you guys were elected to manage the town budget; that's
your decision. It is not the safer solution than what we have right now. A yes vote puts
our citizens at risk, and no vote is for safety. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So do we want -- do we need a motion or we just
decide that we're going to go ahead and look at it in November when we have the
numbers? Pardon me?
SPEI.ICH: How about January?
MAYOR DICKEY: No, not letting you off the hook.
MILLER: We can -- for purposes of tonight, we can take a motion to postpone
indefinitely, if that would work for the council.
ARNSON: Or (indiscernible).
MILLER: Or two dates or ignore indefinitely or either. Either/or.
MAYOR DICKEY: When were going to have the audit and the -- is that going to be the
second meeting in November or the first?
MILLER: It's the first meeting. It's November --
MAYOR DICKEY: November 1st.
MILLER: -- 1st or2nd.
MAYOR DICKEY: The 1st, I believe.
MILLER: Yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah.
MCMAHON: Okay. So make a motion to move this to November.
MAYOR DICKEY: 1st.
MCMAHON: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Did —1 think that was her motion, right?
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That was a motion?
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: November what?
MAYOR DICKEY: 1st. The first meeting, that's when David will give us his report.
SPELICH: Seconded
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You're welcome.
MILLER: Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, sir.
MILLER: I'm sorry for interrupting, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking a
brief break for the council.
MAYOR DICKEY: 1 think I'm going to adjourn this.
MILLER: Oh, I'm sorry. 1 apologize.
MAYOR DICKEY: But before we do that, 1 wanted to mention that for our future
agenda, probably October 4th, after we've been talking about wanting -- whoops -- more
information.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, you're done.
MAYOR DICKEY: Never mind. We'll -- we need to talk about the fire -- you know, we
had that great presentation, and so could we bring that back so that we can all discuss
that? And I think October 4th will probably give us enough time. And I also wanted to
say that I know that we're all going to be thinking about those who were lost, you know,
the heartbreaking changes in our country on -- 21 years ago, in fact, on Sunday,
September 1 lth, so I want to thank you all for that. We'll adjourn right now and were
come back for our work study in ten?
MILLER: Yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you.
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