City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call the city of Apache Junction council meeting of 05/05/2026 to order and ask everyone to put their cell phones on silent. The invocation be led by council member Cross and the pledge by councilman Johnson.

Heavenly father, we thank you for the privilege and freedom we have of being able to gather together and discuss city business. We ask that you give us clarity and wisdom in our decision making. Help us to be mindful that we serve this community. We ask you to watch over men and women who serve our military the world over. Keep them safe from all these troubling and turbulent times.

We also ask for your blessing on our first responders, especially our police, our fire department, and our EMS personnel, along with our park rangers. Please keep these brave men and women safe and all the duties they do for us. Thank you for the honor and privilege we have to serve the residents of this great city. These things we ask in your name.

Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag

Roll call.

Mayor Wilson?

Here.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Present. Present.

Council member Cross?

Here.

Council member Heck?

Here.

Council member Johnson?

Here.

Council member Nesser? Present. Council member Seller? Here. You have a quorum, your honor.

Thank you. Consent agenda. As a reminder, all items under consent agenda will be approved with one motion. If a council member wishes to remove an item for further discussion, the request will be made prior to approving the consent agenda and will be moved to new business. Do I have a motion for consent agenda? Mayor? Yes.

I move that the consent agenda be accepted as presented.

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Nesser? Yes. Council member Cross?

Yes.

Council member Johnson? Yes. Vice mayor Schroeder? Yes. Council member Suller?

Yes.

And mayor Wilson? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Awards and proclamations. I have two. Professional municipal clerk's week, whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk at at time honored and virtual part of local government exists throughout the world. Excuse me.

I'm sorry. Whereas municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of neutrality, impartiality, rendering equal service to all, and whereas the office of the municipal clerk provides professional link between the citizens and local government bodies, agencies, and government at other levels. And whereas municipal court clerks continuing strive to improve the admiration of affairs of the office of municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings of their state, county, international professional organizations, and whereas it is most appreciated that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the municipal clerk. I now therefore, Chip Wilson, mayor of City Of Apache Junction, do proclaim the week of May 3 to 05/09/2026 as professional municipal clerk's week.

Come on up.

Come on down.

Clerk squad.

The clerk squad.

Thank you, mayor and council members. It is an honor to accept this proclamation again this year as in years past and even more honoring to serve in the clerk's office with this incredible staff. Just to share a few fun facts about the municipal clerk's role, it's one of the oldest government professions and can be traced back to biblical times. We have come a long way since the days of ancient Greece when the clerk would open each official meeting by reading a curse on anyone who would seek to deceive the people. Serving as early keepers of archives, which is very much a current day task for clerks, they were often called remembrancers, and before writing came into use, their memory served as the public record.

Clerks were among the few who could read and write, but were also expected to be bell ringers and handle pest control. Early American clerks recorded births, deaths, land ownership, and laws, as well as all official election records. Over the years, municipal clerks have become the hub of government, the direct link between the residents of their community and their government. The clerk is a historian of the community for the entire recorded history of the city and its people are in the clerk's care. These services could not be offered in your clerk's office without this incredible staff that I'd like to introduce.

So we have Naomi Funk as our admin assistant, Rachel Miller is our, brand new business license coordinator. She started with us about two weeks ago. Heather Nobla is our office support specialist. She's kinda like the main frontline person. Next, we have Dana Tucker. She's our records coordinator. And then Amy Groening as our deputy clerk. So I appreciate them doing. And just one last thing, on, Thursday of this week from two to four, we're having an open house, light refreshments, really fun, cool city swag that we're giving away. You can get your picture taken with any one of these beautiful ladies.

We'd love to have you as well as any residents that wanna join us and learn more about what happens in the clerk's office. So thank you again, mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Problem getting hurt all

the time?

You do at the next meeting.

You heard it here.

Okay.

National Kids to Parks Day. Whereas 05/16/2026 is the sixteenth Kids to Parks Day organization organized, excuse me, launched by the National Park Trust held annual on the third Saturday of May. And whereas Kids to Parks empowers kids and encourages families to get outdoors and visit local parks, public lands, and waters. And whereas we should encourage children to lead a more productive lifestyle to combat issues of childhood obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. And whereas Kids to Parks will broaden children's appreciation for nature and outdoors, and whereas Kids to Parks will recognize the importance of creating response responsibility while enjoying benefits of outdoors.

Now, therefore, I, Chip Wilson, the mayor of city of Apache Junction, do hereby proclaim 05/16/2026 as National Kids to Parks Day.

Did you ever know Jamie not

to say that?

I would like to bring back the city clerk's tradition of starting with the curse of anyone who is against parks. But I won't. So, mayor, commission members. So National Kids to Park Day is designed and intended to connect kids, to the experiences that they find in our parks. The mission of Kids to Parks Day is to foster future outdoor enthusiasts and help developing in the next generation of park stewards.

We are lucky enough to live and work in a city who believes in the power of parks. We invite the community to celebrate on May 16 by visiting any of our parks. But however, if they want to party with the parks team, they can join us at Flatiron from nine to eleven, and we'll bring out all parks must haves Frisbees, and kites, and bubbles, and chalk, and all the good stuff. So please bring your families. You can find more information on those park activities.

Know that we are in our parks constantly, at least once a month with a free activity for families to participate in. But join us on the sixteenth from nine to eleven And you can find more information online or on our Facebook page. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Regional inter government meeting updates from the council. Yes.

This last weekend, we had the construction expo, and I know it's probably gonna be covered by a lot of other people. Awesome. Absolutely awesome. And a lot of comments from several different residents saying, great location. They appreciated it a bunch. So I know my grandkids had a blast. So thank you.

Do I see someone? Mayor? Yes.

I took my grandson up there. Both of them, they had a blast. I do wanna thank our staff. They were right right their table was right there and right behind was a big truck. And every little kid that went in there wanted to hear the big air horn. And I asked our assistant city manager, maybe next year, let's move their table so it's not right in front of Big Trial. But other than that, it was great, great location. I think everybody had a lot of fun. So thank you for putting that on.

Anyone else? Okay. Well, first off, I'm going to say as far as thank you for the development services that put together the Construction Expo this past Saturday. It was very well attended. And so far, it's been the largest group of displaying their equipment.

And it was also a huge amount of visitors that came in and was enjoying. Like like you said about the constant blowing of the horns, the air horns, the kids just love doing that. And we also had the fire department was out there as well, And so was our SWAT of our police SWAT vehicle. And it was an opportunity to get out there. And as you can see, there's one individual out there that uses a piece of equipment by balancing it.

It's what I'm going say very fascinating to watch what he can do up there and how he can do it. I, for one, am never going to be doing anything like that ever. But we're looking forward to doing continuing this on next year. Also, I attended the Pinal Partnership event this past Friday, and we had representatives from the different mines in the county, Pinal County, to include the resolution copper that's going in the aspect on. They brought us up to date.

The land exchange is going to happen soon now. And they will now start working on for officially starting and working opening. They just went out for 10 workforce employees to start, and they had over 35 applicants that applied. And so they're now starting to work on a 100 more employees that they're willing to or wanting to get and keep going, and they're expecting full operation this fall. I also have received several, I'm gonna say, emails and comment comments concerning our public art.

And what I wanna do is, do a little bit of history on the aspect of how this happened. When this was back in, you know, I wanna say roughly maybe nine eight, nine years ago at our League of Cities conference. We did a tour of Oro Valley that had a lot of examples of public art in the aspect on it. So we took a look at how they did it, how they financed it, and, started working. And with, mayor Surdy and the council at the time, we established a public arts program in 2020 as well as public art commission who leads this whole process.

The city's public art program is funded by the Art in the Public Places Fund, which is a art fee that's done with building permits for new constructions of commercial and multifamily developments or renovations and or mixed use nonresidential buildings. The applicant or a developer may choose to do this art themselves. And we're showing some examples of some of the art that was done throughout the community right now through this program. And this is all being paid for by the building permit fees that they receive for art. Now I mentioned the fact that a building or a developer may choose to do their own project.

And we have one from Verge. Next slide, second, please. There. That's that wall that they put in. They did that themselves.

So this is something that is a choice for the developer if they want to put art in themselves or if they want to contribute to this fee in this for the entire city. And this this art, this public art that's in the downtown areas and roadways and civic spaces. It covers the maintenance, conservation, repair of existing art that's involved in this. The community driven projects like murals and structures and culture make make places that initiates that with us. Ensures the development in of the community and is supposedly is going to, I'm going say, help include the enhancing of property values and tourist appeal and local business activities.

Helps create a distinct sense of place that reflects reflects Apache Junction culture and environment. We can go and learn more about what it is across. Of course, we have our arts commission, and they're having their meetings. You can go to apachejunctionaz.gov backslash public art and view the commission in their meetings and see what they're addressing. And they hold regular meetings, and you can actually go on to our website and the YouTube channel, and it is always open to the public.

So this is something that, again, is not, you know, being paid by the general fund. This is completely different, and it's something to really enhance our community, and it's something that is really when you go into a community that has public art, it's something that's really something to see and understand what's going on and how it feels in that community. Something

I

wanted to bring up so that everyone understands what it is and that we're working on it. We're coming forward, and we have a commission that's totally in control of it and is overseeing the entire thing. Okay. Your honor. Yes.

Councilman Solo, did you want to speak about the memorial last night?

There's some slides, yeah. Okay.

Yeah, last night myself and Vice Mayor Schroeder had the honor and privilege of going down to the Arizona State Peace Officers Memorial. Officer Fossio, our fallen hero, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this community was represented and his name was placed on the Arizona wall. Next week, it will be placed on the wall in Washington DC. It was really nice to be down there to support our police chief and the officers and the family, officer Facio's family, during that event and be there for them during this event. Hopefully, this will help with the healing process, and you can never get over it, and you never should never forget the ultimate sacrifice that he made for this community, and we will never let that be forgotten.

But, again, it was an honor and privilege for myself and vice mayor to be there for our police officers and the Fossio family.

And the rest of us couldn't attend because we were in work session, same time. Yep. And we appreciate

you guys letting us go.

Absolutely. Okay. City manager's report.

Thank you, your honor. Bryant Powell, city manager, adding my thanks and support and love to, Evie's team. They are the bedrock who, keep the democracy, as I say, keep going. They are, they were we rely on them so much on so much when it gets into elections, and that is just the before you start as a government, you gotta have that transparency and that trust. So I thank them so much.

I'm also so thankful for Leslie and her team in the building expo. That's been a great event that's been growing. We mentioned it tonight, but I wanted to specifically mention her. It's been a work of just her work of a personal effort to make it happen and work with the vendors to get the construction expo out there. Part of our goals that started is to bring to the community this effort to help folks know about like the trades and get our trades that are out there working so that we continue to help our youth understand there's some great jobs, don't get into debt, learn about these trades and go to work. And it's been going great. I would now like to turn the time over to Jody as she will bring up the Youth Advisory Council. And Jody, why don't we come on down?

Alright. Hi everybody. I'm Jody, recreation coordinator. I am here with our Youth Advisory Council tonight. I am just here to introduce them. They are going to do all of the presenting for you guys, But just a quick refresher, our youth advisory council was created by the city council, in order to give teens a voice, gets them involved in learning about their local government, involved in their community, and a chance to develop their leadership skills. So I'm going to turn it over to Nadine, Naveh, and Liz.

Alright. My name is Nadine Owen, and I'm the president of the Youth Advisory Council. Here with me today, we have Liz, our treasurer, as well as Nevea to help me present. And then we have our vice president, Jade Shuster, our secretary, Dublin, and our informational officer, Leo. There we go.

Alright. So the throughout the year, we did a lot of youth leadership development with a lot of help and experience through public speaking and just gathering more ideas and information. So at the beginning of this year, we attended the Arizona League of Towns and Cities along with many of you and a bunch of other local and state government officials, as well as a bunch of other team leaders to help gain knowledge not only about local government, but we also broke out into smaller sessions and listened to public speakers, as well as had our own experience public speaking, and we gained ideas on what we could do for volunteering or different events that we could host for our city from other teen. And then we also went to the Florence Teen Leadership Symposium, which was similar to theirs in the League of Cities and Towns, where we met with a bunch of other teen leaders and did the same thing. We listened to public speakers talking about what you can do to be better, what you can do for yourself, what you can do for your city.

Then we also, again, talked with other people about ideas of what we could do to help. And then we also went to the youth advocacy day, seeds of the future, but I will hand the floor over to Naveh to talk about

that. My goodness.

So for youth advocacy day in Glendale, we did a lot of different mini classes to help practice advocacy for ourself and our peers to be more efficient with speaking in front of people and large crowds. And then another thing that we did was we visited the capital to talk to two representatives about not my story, which I will then pass on to Liz who can explain more about that.

Hi, my name is Liz. I'm the current treasurer here with the Youth Advisory Council. And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the Not My Story project. The Not My Story project was set up by stand up AJ who came to our meetings and gave us these large poster boards, basically, and had us write motivational quotes, public PSAs, like messages we wanted to spread out to the world. Super simple.

And then we'd give them over to Travis, who works with Stand Up AJ, and he would take it to his design team, of which would take our ideas and make them into more genuine products, such as the posters you have right in front of you. This is my own. My message was to talk to a real person rather than talking to artificial intelligence.

Mhmm. I'll be

passing the microphone back to Nadine.

Alright. Throughout the year we got a lot of chances to speak to local government, not only just to get a better sense of our community, but also to learn about how the local government works behind the scenes. So we got the opportunity to go to the state of the city address and listen to the mayor's presentation and speech, as well as we had Joel Stern come in to us and give us a presentation about what he does for the city. And we also had, Angelie, the finance director, did the same thing, come to one of our meetings and explain what she does for the city and what her job is like. And then we also got multiple experiences and chances to visit some of the places.

So we went to the Apache Junction recorder's office. We got a tour of what they like, the old books of this. They'll have all the branding things, like, for the cows and cattle, and we gotta see things that were, like, a couple 100 years old and what they meant, as well as how the voting process works, how they make sure the votes are real and legit and everything like that. And then we also went to the police station, got a tour of the actual police station, and then went down to the training center where the firefighters and police trained together, and we got to try out the simulator. It's pretty fun. And then I'll hand the floor over back to Liz to talk about our teen leaders our teen takeover interviews.

Me again. So the teen takeovers was basically members of the Youth Advisory Council would interview city officials and learn about what they did for the city,

or what they're doing for

the city, and how we can improve, or how we can involve ourselves more with the community. I personally got to interview Liz, the current Parks and Recreation Director, parks and recreation director, and got to know what she did for this she does for the city, and how we can help. I believe this is community service. Yes. Now that I've got you here, I want to talk about a little bit about community service and what we, with the Youth Advisory Council, do for the community.

Believe it or not, this slide is actually slightly incorrect. We have actually committed to five hundred hours of community service. Some examples include we volunteered with Make a Difference Day, which basically we helped pull buffelgrass on top of Silly Mountain Park and just made the park in general look better. The mud run, we we had the mud run happen, volunteered with mad science night, contributed to the Halloween festival, ran the holiday program last December, did the VFW Valentine's Day party, and the Youth Advisory Council as a whole went Christmas Day shopping last year.

What? For tree shopping.

For angel tree shopping. I'll pass it back to Nadine.

So our big, like, overall theme of the year this year was animals. That's what we decided to help with the most. So we did a lot of collaborations with animal control just to help donate more stuff that they need for the local animal shelter. So we did a few different smaller events. We did photos with Santa Claus where people could come to the dog parks and take a picture with either their animal or else their family with Santa Claus in exchange for a donation of any kind.

And then we also helped with the story night walk for national love your pet day. And then for our big end of the year event, we hosted a pause and donate event. So it was at Lost Dutchman Park, and we had everybody come in again in exchange for something that they donated. It could be food, blankets, anything that animal shelter really needed. They got a picture with their animal or with their families of the Blue Heeler sisters. So we got well over 10 bags of food. You can see in the picture everything that we got for that event. We got a bunch of stuff. We had bunch of people come out and help. We had the library help us as well as animal control.

It was pretty successful. My goodness. Alright. Any questions? And you can also feel free to reach out to Jody if you have any questions further on.

Yeah.

Alright.

Yes. Are you guys having a good time?

Absolutely.

We're really happy that you

came here tonight and and informed us about all this. This is awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing what you do.

Of course. Thank you. Yeah.

Yes. First of

all, I love this organization. Both my daughters were in Yak. And the state of the city, when you guys do your poster boards for the state of the city, I always seek it out. I always want to see what you guys do, and it's always been a wonderful job. But I want to challenge you this year, go over the top. Go big on this thing. No real pressure, but every city in the state is going be looking at it. So we want Apache Junction to stand out. Right? So let's make something pretty fantastic this year.

I won't be there next year, but

Well, it'll

be this year.

May hopefully. It'll be this year.

Go ahead. She's ready. I

may actually be your president next year. So I'm coming from her job. I think I'm gonna win.

We'll get the other one coming up in August. So Do

you have any ideas what our theme should be for the poster board? Because I know like Bisbee was bees. Do you

I will absolutely not give you any of my ideas. This all this is all you. This is all you. I want to come from you guys 100%.

Okay. We'll try.

You'll do it. I know you will.

We won't try. We will.

There you go. Great attitude. Great answer.

And just have to know, how did you like the simulator for the police?

Oh my goodness. I should never be a cop ever. Went with the CLI class, and there was this guy on the simulator, and I thought he was the bad guy. And I saw I shot him. It wasn't even him. It was the guy right next to him, and he shot us. And then and then the next time, I was on with the taser and the other lady had the gun. And I just started tasing this guy, and then we got ambushed.

I it was not good.

It was fun though. Like what? A

simulator of fun though.

Are you guys wearing the shock vest?

No. Although my friend got me shot.

Of course.

He stood there and watched me get murdered, so that was fun.

Gives a whole new respect for the police department, doesn't it?

Oh, yeah.

They got a tough job.

It is really cool, though. It's really realistic. I didn't think it'd be that good. But I like this. Was fun.

There you go. Cool.

I wanna say a special thank you in the aspect on it. And one of the things that I really was excited when we got started on this is getting this all going and going forward. And it's been fantastic watching your group as you continue on and keep growing. And I want to say thank you for being involved and continue being involved with the city in the aspect of it as you learn what we do and how we do it. Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

I'm just not tall.

Be friends.

All right, Nadine. Nadine, come on up. Don't go too far. We have a special award tonight, Mary. And we'd like to have Councilmember Johnson come on down. I've known Nadine for a little bit. She's been around in the high school for some time, and and she's always told me she's coming after one of our jobs. I can't remember if it was mine

or It's the yours. Okay. Yours

and then the mayor's.

And then the mayor's. Okay. She well and yeah. Let's turn it to you, Councilmember Johnson. And the mayor, please come down.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Auxiliaries has always been very involved with the youth of America. And what we see in our youth advisory council is that we see young people who dedicate themselves to the patriotic pursuit of helping their citizens in their communities. You have been so involved with all the different departments. You have touched the lives of so many people in Apache Junction that Heather is from 'seventy nine, 'sixty eight. I am from 'ninety three, 'ninety nine.

And we are making it a tradition we started last year that graduating seniors from the Youth Advisory Council will be receiving a certificate of achievement for their service to their community. And we hope that you take that with pride and also that you think very Council seriously about how you're going to be staying involved with the city that you have so dedicated yourself to.

Thank you so much. Frank, squeeze

in there. Let's see. Up, down. Up, down. Up, down.

Alrighty. Eli, why don't you come on up and

turn a bit.

We wanna see you top that now.

Yeah. Can't top dogs and

dogs and kids.

Let's see.

Yep. WC Fields.

Alright. Evening, mayor, city council. Just one thing to cover tonight as the the winter comes to a close, it gets hot. We have a little bit less events going on. We are in the middle of free dump week right now. Quick reminder about this for for anyone here, for anyone listening. This is one free truckload of of trash you can dispose of at the landfill. You'll need to bring proof of residence, few other requirements as well, safety equipment, a lot of things to keep in mind. So take a minute to go on our website and make sure you've got your t's dotted, your i's crossed, and take advantage of this before May 9 as that's the last day. But this is a quarterly event, so if you miss it, you'll still have a chance coming up in a few months.

That's it for current events.

Okay. But don't go too far. Mayor and council, I want to share with you. This is Eli's last week. He's been with us three years, and he will be in a new position with Pinal County in their budget shop. So lives in San Tan Valley, gonna be working with Pinal County. We lost him there, but we're we wish him the very best. It's been a great three years, Eli. I appreciate all the great work you've done for us. Great research, great analysis, great writing skills. Gonna do them a great work, and we'll we'll see him around the county, but he will not be with us next week. So I wanna say thank you. Thank

you, mayor and councilor. Thank you, Ryan. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, your honor. That concludes my report.

Excuse me. Boy, I go to talk also I have to cough. Okay. Presentation, discussions, consideration, resolution 26 dash 20. Good

evening, mayor, city council members.

I don't know how I'm gonna follow that up. I'll try, though.

Here to present our Resolution 2,620. 2,620 is an intergovernmental agreement amendment with the Arizona Department of Transportation to construct and finish out Tomahawk Road improvements on Tomahawk Road from The US 60 to Southern Avenue and portions of Southern Avenue. A little bit of background. When we first applied for this project, it was back in 2021. And we applied through Pinal County Arterial Program, which has a cap about $1,400,000 So we applied for just that amount.

Then we applied again in 2022 through MAG closeout funds for design. That's the only time that we can apply for design. Unfortunately, MAG, they like to fund everything else, but design, they don't typically fund design. So we received May close out funds in 2022. And now that the project is ready to get constructed, May close out funds became available again.

We applied in October for the remaining portion of the amount of the project, which is roughly about $2,900,000 Now I bring up this closeout timeline because, like I said, we applied for it in October of 'twenty five. We were awarded the notification February 2026. With that, there were stipulations regarding that the IGA request had to be done by February 13 and that the execution of the deadline of the execution had to be done by May 15. So we applied by the we requested the IGA beginning of February, so we met that deadline. Then ADOT sent us the IGA draft back in March the end of March.

City requested some changes a couple days later after that. Then we finally received the final draft of that in April, and we're here today to go through the execution. So very briefly, because this project's been a long time coming, since 2021. Like I mentioned, the blue portion there, you see in the North and the South, that's Tomahawk from The US 60 to Southern Avenue. And then the portion that goes East west is Southern Avenue from Tomahawk to Weeks Wash.

So, while we had some new developments come in there with the Campground USA, and they came in and they put in their half road streets improvements. So we currently have, right now, a sidewalk that ends Southern Avenue. You can see it's just stalled dirt right now. But on the other side of Weeks Wash is sidewalk, curb, and gutter. So we hope to fill that area in there with the same so that it won't continue as a walking path for pedestrians.

The same there, where you can see the Tomahawk Road has just really beaten up. Public works, we do our best to, with the dust control, we'll just put in some recycled wrap in there so that we can kind of keep the dust down and take care of the erosion that happens when it rains. So the improvements that we're looking at on Tomahawk, we're going to widen it to five lanes. We're going to add bicycle lanes, curb gutter sidewalks. And we're also going to include some drainage improvements.

Because currently, right now, the water just flows from Southern Avenue, and it just flows. And it just spreads out continuously. We've also had issues where the water would get stuck, and it would go across the way, and it would cause problems at Horn Ford. And then, that's why sometimes you'll see all those rows of sandbags right there, to protect all their inventory. So, with this drainage, we'll be able to capture the flow and put it in the ADOT basin where it's supposed to go.

So we got ADOT on board with that, so that we can actually put their basin to great use now. Southern Avenue. Right at Tomahawk, it narrows to three lanes. But on the Weeks Wash, it's already five lanes. So we're just going to just keep that going to five lanes.

And then that'll be used as a city bypass in case there's an emergency on the US-sixty. So when we finish this portion up, we'll have everything from Tomahawk to Idaho, all five lanes. And then of course, we'll add bicycle lanes, curb and gutter, and street lights as well, too. This comes at a cost. So, I said that we got an additional $2,900,000 That comes at a city match of 5.7 percent.

So, you've got a total construction cost of about $5,100,000 And for construction and design, the cities we're paying about $908,000 I come before you because, like I mentioned in a previous slide, that we've got a deadline of May 15 to execute this IGA amendment with ADOT. So that's why I'm here to present for discussion and consideration tonight. Any questions?

Yes. For

clarification, the current chip seal that just got placed on Tomahawk Yes. Did the city of Apache Junction have anything to do with that and or did we communicate with Pinal County?

So Public Works attends semi annual utility meetings with Pinal County in which Pinal County invites all the cities Pinal County. They also include the utility companies, SRP, Arizona Water, AJ Water, Gas, Cox, all the public utilities. And we've been attending these, like I said, semi annually. They usually meet on February's and in August, in which we've communicated our project ahead of all this, and this just kind of got swept in between there. So we didn't know that it was actually coming forth.

It wasn't communicated in these meetings that we've been attending since pre COVID. So it's just kind of unfortunate that the work that they did is going to get torn up. But we're hoping that with this project, with the drainage project, we'll be able to beefing up the road a bit, make it a little bit more solid, also fill in those potholes that they kind of failed to fix.

Right. So just to be clear, it's not financially supported by Apache Junction.

Correct. Yes. City had no financial The

seal that occurred over the last week or so was strictly done by the county?

Correct.

Thank you.

What is the timeframe for when they think that this would be completed?

After this execution of this amendment, have ADOT has to advertise by the end of the fiscal year. So by the end of June it's going to be advertised. After that ADOT typically runs about three months before they can get started with construction. However, since it's going to be June, we're going to say September. I mean it can get started as early as October for a couple months, probably like six months, probably less than that.

But then we run into the period where we have the holiday period, where you know two weeks you know Christmas and the New Year's. So that's always kind of a that's why we kind of like to say a little bit more beyond what we think that their project is going to end. But earliest will be October and they get started.

Okay, thank you. Yes?

Not a question, but just a little comment. When you're heading east on Southern, there's stoplights that end at Cactus just before Weeks Wash.

Correct.

And I won't object if you don't put the stoplights in because I live on Cactus, and if you put more stoplights in, I'll never know how to get home.

Right. It's true. It's very dark down there, too.

I always tell everybody, go to the last stoplight, and there's

And there it is. So you put in the more stoplights further on. I'll find my way home.

Anyone else? Thank you. I request for a motion for Resolution two 620.

Your Honor.

Yes.

I move that resolution number twenty six twenty authorizing the city to enter into an inter government agreement, IGA amendment number one with Arizona Department of Transportation for the city's Tomahawk Road widening improvement project from Highway US 60 to Southern Avenue for additional construction costs with the city's financial contribution being $908,143 and federal contribution of $4,866,101 for construction total of $5,774,244 be approved. Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Cross?

Yes.

Council member Solar?

Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Council member Nesser? Yes. Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Since we don't have anything else, would like to now go to call the public. I would like to remind everyone to call the public as a courtesy and not required by law. It's a time for the public to express request, communication, compliments, or comments, excuse me, and suggestions.

We'll take all.

Request to speak forms must have been completed and handed to the city clerk before the end of the city manager's report. All issues will be presented in a professional matter without personal attacks. Under the the open meeting law, counsel cannot engage in discussion on issues presented, but may respond to criticism may direct staff to follow-up with speaker directly or place this matter on the future agenda for the council discussion. There's a three minute time limit for each speaker, and I have just one, Donna Clark.

Donna Carr, Apache Junction resident. I'm bringing up the battery factory that's being put into Queen Creek. And the reason I'm bringing you up here is because we had a member of the council bring up the fact that they took a tour of the battery factory, and they're doing everything right. Well, I don't know what makes a person a professional, but it's not like corporations haven't lied to us in the past. I think that due to the fact that there's about thirty, thirty five battery factories across The United States, And out of those battery factories, six have contaminated the water or the ground around them.

And Queen Creek, I suggest, should put in and they are a part of Pinal County like us in that area anyway, that they should put a well, probably at least two wells, one on each side to keep an eye on any contamination that could end up down into the groundwater. That's all I have to say. Thanks.

Okay. I will now adjourn this meeting. Thank you.