City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call the city of Apache Junction Council meeting of May 5th, 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. [clears throat]

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 in 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 of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mayor Wilson. Here. Vice Mayor Schroeder.

Present. Present. Council member Cross. Here. Council member Hack. 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. Councilmember Heck? Yes. Councilmember Nesser? Yes. Councilmember Cross? Yes. Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Schroeder? Yes. Councilmember Soller? Yes. And Mayor Wilson? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, awards and proclamations. I have two. Professional Municipal Clerks Week. Whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk at at [clears throat] 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

[snorts] continuing strive to improve the amelioration of affairs of the office of municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings of their state, county, international [clears throat] 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 City of Apache Junction, do proclaim the week of May 3rd to May 9th, 2026 as Professional Municipal Clerks Week. [snorts]

Come on up. Come on down. Clerk squad. The clerk squad. [laughter] [applause]

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. [laughter]

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. [laughter]

Early American clerks recorded 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 the 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 2 weeks ago. Heather Nobla is our office support specialist. She's kind of like the main front line person.

[laughter] Next, we have Dana Tucker. She's our records coordinator. And then, Amy Greening is our deputy clerk. So, I APPRECIATE THEM VERY AND JUST ONE LAST THING ON THURSDAY OF this week, from 2:00 to 4:00, 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 want to join us and learn more about what happens in the clerk's office. So, thank you again, Mayor. Okay, thank you. You do, at the next meeting. [laughter] You heard it here.

[applause]

Okay, national kids to parks day. Whereas May 16th, 2026 is the 16th 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 respons- responsibility while enjoying benefits of outdoors now therefore I Chip Wilson, the mayor city of Apache Junction, do hereby proclaim May 16th, 2026 as national kids to parks day.

[applause]

Welcome to here. Okay. We'll save it. [snorts]

SAY SOMETHING. [applause]

DID YOU EVER KNOW JAMIE NUCKLES? I WOULD LIKE TO bring back the city clerk's tradition of starting with a curse of anyone who is against parks, but I won't, so. Uh Mayor, uh commission members, so National Kids to Parks Day is designed and and intended to connect kids um 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 in work in a city who believes in the power of parks. We invite the community to celebrate on May 16th by visiting any of our parks, but however, if they want to party with the parks team, they can join us at Flatiron from 9:00 to 11:00 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. Um 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 16th from 9:00 to 11:00 and you can find more information online or on our Facebook page. Thank you. THANK YOU.

[applause]

OKAY. REGIONAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL meeting updates from the council. Yes. Um This last weekend we had the uh construction expo and I know it's probably going to be covered by a lot of other people. Um Awesome. Absolutely awesome. And and a lot of comments from uh several different residents saying great location. They appreciated it a bunch. So, I know my grandkids had a blast. So, thank you. [snorts]

I'll say something. Well, Mayor Yes. I took my grandkids up there, both of [clears throat] them. They had a blast. Uh I do want to thank our staff. They were right in right there 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 uh I asked uh our assistant city manager, maybe next year let's move their table so it's not right in front of the big [laughter] truck. But other than that, it was great. Uh great location. I think everybody had a lot of fun. So, [snorts] thank you for putting that on. [clears throat]

Anyone else? Okay. Well, first off, I'm going to say as far as thank you for the development services to put together the construction expo this uh past Saturday. It was very well attended. And uh so far it's been the largest dis- group of displaying their equipment. And uh it was also a huge amount of uh visitors that came in and was enjoying uh like [clears throat]

like you said about the constant blowing of the horns, the air horns. The kids just love doing that. And uh we also had uh the fire department was out there as well. And uh so was our SWAT of our police SWAT vehicle. And uh it was uh 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 [clears throat] what I'm going to say very fascinating to watch what he can do up there and how he can do it. I for one I'm never going to be doing anything like that ever. [laughter] Valley on wheels. But [clears throat]

looking forward to doing continuing this on next year. Also I attended the Pinal partnership event uh this uh past Friday and we had representatives from the different mines in 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 starting 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 [clears throat] starting to work on a uh 100 more employees that they're willing to wanting to get and keep going going. And they're expecting full operation this fall. I also have received several I'm going to say emails and comment comments concerning our public art. And what I want to do is do a little bit of history on the aspect of how this happened. Uh when this was back in I'm going to 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 what how they did it, how they financed it, and started working and with Mayor Serty 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. Uh 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 multi-family developments or renovations and our mixed-use you know non-residential buildings. Uh the applicant or a developer [clears throat] may choose to do this art themselves. And you know the [clears throat]

they were showing some examples of some of the art that was you know 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. Uh 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 the you know the developer if they want to put art in themselves or if they want to contribute to fee in this for the entire city. And this uh this [clears throat] art this public art that's in the downtown areas roadways and civic spaces. It covers the maintenance, conservation, and repair of existing arts involved in this. The community-driven projects like murals and structures and culture um make [clears throat] play make places that initiates that what it is ensures the development and can of the community and it's uh supposedly uh it's going to I'm going to say help include the enhancing of property values and tourist uh appeal and local business activities. Um helps create a distinct sense of place that reflects reflects Apache Junction culture and environment. Uh we can go and uh on learn more about what it is across of course we have our arts commission and they're having their

meetings. Uh you can go to uh uh Apache [clears throat] Junction az.gov /publicart and view uh the commission and their meetings and see what they're addressing. And uh they hold uh regular meetings and you can actually go on to our website and uh YouTube channel and uh it is [clears throat] always open to the public. So this is something that again is not you know, being paid by our uh general fund. This is a completely different and it's uh something to really enhance our community and it's something that uh it is really you know, 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 and feels in that community. Something I wanted to bring up so that everyone understands what it is, and that uh we uh uh 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 Soler. Did you want to speak about the memorial last night? Oh, yeah. You're going to bring there some slides, yeah. Okay.

[clears throat]

Yeah, last night myself and Vice Mayor Schroeder had the honor and privilege of going down to the Arizona State Peace Officers Memorial. Uh 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, D.C. Uh it was uh really nice to be down there to support our police chief and the officers and the family, Officer Fossio's family, uh during that event and be there for them during this event. Uh hopefully this will help with the healing process. Uh and uh 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 Fossio family. Uh the rest of us couldn't attend because we were in work session. Same topic. Yep.

[laughter] And we appreciate you guys letting us go. Absolutely. Okay. City Manager's report. [clears throat]

Thank you, Your Honor. Brian Palace, 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 a before you start as a government, you got to 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 the 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 as it 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?

[clears throat]

All right. Hi everybody. I'm Jody, recreation coordinator. Um 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 and 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 Neveah and Liz. All right. 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 Neveah to help me present. And then we have our vice president Jade Schuster, our secretary Dublin, and our informational officer Leo. There we go. All right. So, that 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 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 teen leaders to help gain knowledge not only about local government, but we also broke out into smaller sessions and listen to public speakers as well as had [snorts] 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 helpers.

[snorts]

And then we also went to the Florence Teen Leadership Symposium, which was similar to the Arizona 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 Nived to talk about that. Thank goodness. So, for uh Youth Advocacy Day in Glendale, we um did a lot of different mini classes to help practice um advocacy for our self and our peers to be um more efficient with speaking in front of people in large crowds. And then another thing that we did was we visited the capital to uh 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 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 A.J. who came to our meetings and gave us these large poster boards, basically, and had us write motivational 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 A.J. and he would take it to his design team, who 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. Uh I'll be passing the microphone back to Nadine. All right, 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 um Angeli, the finance director, do 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 they still have all the branding things like for the cows and cattle, and we got to see things that were like a couple hundred 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 train 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 or teen takeover interviews. Me again. So, the teen takeovers was basically uh members of the Youth Advisory Council would interview city officials and learn about what they did for the city, well,

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, um the current um 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. Um now that I've got you here, I want to talk about a little bit about um community service and what we with the Youth Advisory Council do for the community. Um believe it or not, this slide is actually slightly incorrect. We have actually committed to 500 hours of community service. Um some examples include um we volunteered with Make a Difference Day, which basically um we helped pull buffalo grass on top of South Mountain Park and just made the park in general look better. Um the mud run, we we had the mud run happen, um volunteered with Mad Science Night, contributed to the Halloween Festival, um ran the holiday program last December, um did the VFW Valentine's Day party, and the Youth Advisory Council as a whole went Christmas day shopping last year. What? For angel For angel tree shopping.

[laughter]

Uh I'll pass it back to Nadine. So, our big like overall theme of the year this year was animals, so 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 a photos with Santa Paws 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 paws 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 with 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 a bunch of people come out and help. We had the library help us as well as animal control. It was pretty successful. My goodness. All right. Any questions? And you can also feel free to reach out to Jody if you have any questions further on. Yeah. All right.

Yes. Are you guys having a good time? Absolutely. We're really happy that you came here tonight and and and informed us about all this. This is awesome. Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do. Of course, thank you. Yes. Um first of all, I love this organization. Both of my daughters were in YAC. Oh, thanks. Um and the state of the city, when you guys do your poster boards for the state of the city, you 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. You know, go big on this thing. Um no real pressure, but every city in the state's going to be looking at. So, we want we want Apache Junction to stand out, right? So, let's let's make something pretty fantastic this year.

I won't be there next year, but Well, it'll be this year. Yeah, hopefully. It'll be this year. [laughter] Go ahead. She's ready. Challenge. I may actually be your president next year. So, I'm coming for her job. I think I'm going to win. [laughter] Well, what's Get that off the record. coming up in August. So, Do you have any ideas what our theme should be for the poster boards? I know like Bisbee was bees. Do you I will absolutely not give you any of my ideas. This is all you. [laughter]

This is all you. I want it to come from you guys 100%. Okay, well, 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 I just [snorts] have to know, how did you like the simulator for the police? Oh my goodness, I should never be A COP EVER. [laughter] I WENT WITH THE CLI CLASS, and there was this guy on the simulator, and I thought he was the bad guy, AND I THOUGHT I SHOT HIM. It wasn't even him. It was the guy right next to him, and he shot [laughter] us. And then the next time I was one of the tasers and the other lady had the gun and I started tasing this guy and then we got ambushed. I It was not good. [laughter]

It was fun though. The simulator was fun though. [laughter] Were you guys wearing the shock vest? Uh, no. Although my friend got me shot. [laughter] He stood there and watched me get murdered. So that was fun. [laughter]

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 liked it. It was fun. Well, I want to say a special thank you in the aspect on it and one of the things that I've 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 on it as you learn what we do and how we do it. Thank you. THANK YOU GUYS. HEY LIZ, DO YOU EVER GET ANY REAL WORK YOU GET real work done?

[laughter]

I'm just not tall. [laughter] Be gentle. Be friends. Liz, try to be still. [laughter] Perfect. Thank you so much. All right, Nadine. Nadine, come on up. Don't go too far. We have a special award tonight, Mayor, 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 the Mayor's. [laughter] Your's and then the Mayor's.

And then the Mayor's. Okay. She Well, yeah, let's turn it to you, Councilmember Johnson. And the Mayor, please come down here. So, 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 7968. I am from 9399. 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 seriously about how you're going to be staying involved with the city that you have so dedicated yourself to. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[clears throat]

SQUEEZE IN THERE. AND THEN YOU GUYS CAN POSE.

[laughter] OH, let's see. Alrighty. Uh Eli, won't you come on up and We want to see you top that now. [laughter] Yeah. Can't top it. Dogs and kids. Let's see. [clears throat]

Alright. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Um just one thing to cover tonight as the uh 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. Um quick reminder about this for for anyone here, for anyone listening, this is one free truckload of uh trash you can dispose of at the landfill. Um you'll need to bring proof of residence. Few other requirements as well. Um safety equipment. Um other 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. Um and take advantage of this before May 9th. Um 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. And that's it for current events. Okay, but don't go too far. Mayor and council, I want to share with you that this is Eli's last week. He's been with us 3 years, and he will be uh in a new position with Pinal County and their budget shop. So, uh lives in San Tan Valley, going to be working with Pinal County. We lost him there, but we we wish him the very best. It's been a great 3 years, Eli. Appreciate all the great work you've done for us. Great research, great analysis, great writing skills. Going to give them a great work, and we'll we'll see him around the county, but he will not be with us next week. So, want to say THANK YOU, ELI. THANK YOU, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. THANK YOU, RYAN. THANK YOU, ALL. THAT concludes my report. Yeah. Okay. Excuse me. [cough] Why when I go to talk also I have to cough. Okay. Uh presentation, discussions, consideration, resolution number 26-20. Good call. Good evening, uh city council members. I don't know how I'm going to follow all of that up.

[laughter]

I'll try, though. Uh here to present a resolution 26-20. Uh it's 26-20's a intergovernmental um agreement amendment with the Arizona Department of Transportation uh to construct and finish out Tomahawk Road improvements on Tomahawk Road from the US 60, the Southern Avenue, and portions of Southern Avenue. A little bit of background. Um when we first applied for this project, uh it was back in 2021. Um and we we applied uh through um Pinal County Arterial Program, which has a cap about $1.4 million. Um Um so, we applied for just that amount. Um And then then we applied again in 2022 um through MAG closeout funds for design. That's the only time that we can apply for design. Um, unfortunately, MAG, that's they like to fund everything else, but design, they don't typically um, fund design. So, so we received MAG close-out funds in 2022. And now that the project's ready to get constructed, um, um, MAG close-out funds became available again. Uh, we applied in October, um, for the remaining a portion of the amount of the project, um, which is roughly about $2.9 million.

[clears throat]

Now, I bring up this close-out timeline because, like I said, we we applied for it in October 25th. We were awarded the notification, um, beginning of February 2026. Um, with that, there was stipulations in regarding that the IGA request had to be done by, um, February 13th. And that the execution of the deadline, um, of the execution had to be done, um, by May 15th. So, we we we applied by the, um, 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. Uh, city requested some changes couple days later after that, and then we finally received the final draft of that in April, and we're here today, um, to go through the execution. Uh, so very briefly, um, cuz this project's been a long time coming since 2021. Um, like I mentioned, the blue portion there, you see 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 we had some others some new developments come in there with the current Campground USA, and they came in and they put in their half-road streets improvements, so we've currently have right now a sidewalk that ends on Southern Avenue. You can see it's just all dirt right now, um but portion on the other side of Weeks Wash is sidewalk, curb, and gutter. So, we hope to fill that area in there um with the same so that it will be one continuous walking path for for pedestrians. Um the same there where you can see with Tomahawk Road it's just really beaten up and this public works we do our best to um with with the dust control we'll just, you know, put in some recycled wrap in there so that we can kind of keep the dust down and and and take care of the

um 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. Um we're [snorts] going to add bicycle lanes, curb, gutter, sidewalks, and we're also going to include some drainage improvements cuz currently right now the water just kind of just flows from top from from Southern Avenue and it just flows um and it just spreads out continuously. We've also had um issues where the water would um get stuck and it would go across the across the way and it would cause problems at um at Horn Ford. Um and then some that's why sometimes you'll see like all those rows of sandbags right there trying to protect protect all their inventory. Um so, with this drainage we'll be able to capture the flow and put it in the eight out basin where it's supposed to go. So, we got eight out on board with that so that we can actually put their basin to great use now. Um Southern Avenue um right at Tomahawk it narrows to three lanes, but on the Weeks Wash it's it's already five lanes. So, we're just going to just keep that going to five lanes and then and then that'll be used as a city bypass in case there's an emergency on the US 60. So, by 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. Uh this comes at a cost. Um so, I said that we got um an additional $2.9 million. That comes at a um city match of 5.7%. Um so, you got a total construction cost of about $5.1 and for construction and design, the city's um of uh we're we're paying about $908,000.

Um I come before you because, like I mentioned in a previous slide, that um uh we've got a deadline of May 15th to execute this um IGA amendment um with ADOT. Um so, that's why I'm here to present and 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 um semi-annual um utility meetings with Pinal County, which Pinal County invites all the cities in in Pinal County. They also include the utility companies SRP, Arizona Water, AJ Water, gas, Cox, I mean, all all all the public utilities. Um and we've been attending these, like I said, semi-annually. Um they usually meet on Fri on February's and in August, in which we've we've communicated our project ahead of this of of all this, and this just kind of got swept in between there. So, we didn't know that it was actually coming forth. Um it wasn't communicated in these meetings that we've been attending since pre-COVID. Um, 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 um, beef up the road a bit, make it a little bit more um, solid. Um, also fill in those potholes that they kind of failed to to fix. Right. So, just to be clear, Yeah. not financially supported by Apache Junction.

Correct. Yeah, city had no financial aid.

occurred over the last week or so was strictly done by the county. Correct. Thank you. What is the time frame for when they think that this would be completed? Um, so with this after this execution of this amendment, um, we have the ADOT has to um, advertise um, by the end of the fiscal year. Um, so by the end of June it's going to be advertised and after that, um, ADOT typically runs about 3 months before they can get started with construction. However, since it's going to be June, we're going to say uh, September. Um, I mean, it can get started as early as October. Um, for for a couple months, probably like 6 months, probably less than that. Um, but then we run into the period where we have the holiday period where you know, 2 weeks, you know, Christmas and the New Year's. So, that's always kind of a That's That's why we kind of like like to say a little bit more beyond what we think that their project's going to end, but earliest would be October and they could get started. Okay, thank you. And Yes. Not a question, but just a little comment. When you're heading east on uh, Southern

[cough] there's stop lights that end at Cactus, just before Weeks Wash. Correct. I won't object if you don't put the stop lights in because I live on Cactus and if you put more stop lights in, I'll never know how to get home. Right. [laughter] It's true. It's very dark down there, too. We just did that. I always tell everybody go to the last stop light and there's And there it is. So, you put in the more stop lights further on, I'll find my way home. [laughter] [snorts] Anyone else? Uh thank you. Uh [clears throat]

I'll have I I request for a motion for resolution 2620. Your Honor. Yes. I move that resolution number 2620 authorizing the city to enter into an intergovernmental 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 Solor. Yes. Council member Heck. Yes. Council member Johnson. Yes. Vice Mayor Schroeder. Yes. Council member Naser. Yes. Mayor Wilson. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you.

[clears throat] Okay. Since we don't have anything else, I'd like to now go to call the public. I would I'd to remind everyone the call of the public is a courtesy and not required by law. It's a time for the public to express requests, communication, compliments, comments, excuse me, and suggestions.

We'll take calls. Requests to speak forms must be completed and handed to the city clerk before the end of the city manager's report. All issues should be presented in a professional manner without personal attacks. Under the the open meeting law, council 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 a future agenda for the council discussion. There's a 3-minute time limit for each speaker, and I have just one, Donna Carr. Donna Carr, Apache Junction resident. I'm bringing up the um battery factory that's being put into Queen Creek. And the reason I'm bringing 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 30 35 battery factories across the United States,

[snorts] 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, um 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 ground water. Um, that's all I have to say. Thanks. Okay. I will now adjourn this meeting. Thank you.