Council - Special Meeting

I started technology that we're started Facebook or whatever.

Are you feeling it today? Oh, couple. Should I do the roll? I'll do the roll call before the

Okay. Okay, I will call to order this city council special meeting on February 5, 2026. The time is 8:04. Uh before we do roll call, I wanted to ask the chief if he had some comments he could share with us about the unfolding tragedy and kind of tell us what we what you know. Last night there was a active shooter in Flagstaff. I'm sure can microphone.

Last night there was an active shooter in Flagstaff. Um police arrived and engaged the suspect. There was shots fired. That went on for quite a while. Um it's in the area I believe west of where the Drury Hotel is up there uh on the hill. Um DPS ranger responded to assist and in the process of assisting it crashed and uh one trooper and a medic uh were killed. Um I was talking to the sheriff last night. an active shooter situation was going on and and uh while I was speaking to the sheriff, that's when I learned that Ranger had crashed. So, um just it's close to home. The SWAT team arrived and and apparently shot the suspect. It's close to home cuz that SWAT team was up here last week. Serena search warrant in our in our community, a lot of those some of those same guys. So, um just you know, it's it's crazy. flag is is is part of our community and uh for us in law enforcement, we all know each other. We all work together and uh you know, we'll provide updates as as as we can. But um if the city can can send something, it's DPS's folks that passed away last night. Um none of Flagstaff or Cookanino County's officers or deputies were were were shot, but um just really really dangerous situation. So, thanks.

Thank you. I'd like for us to start with a moment of silence after which we'll have our roll call. Thank you. City clerk, will you please do our roll call? Mayor Pidman here. Vice Mayor Pharaoh here. Councelor Hinger here. Councelor Peller here. Councelor Roundtree here.

Councelor Hammond uh has not joined us yet and may be joining a little later. Okay. Item number three, items for business for the presentations to council, including the general overview on large projects accomplished or planned for fiscal year 26 and potential fiscal year 27 projects or personnel needs for the purpose of budgeting. So, we'll turn the time over to city manager.

All right. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. Um, today we want to go through just a highle presentation of of mostly what each department does. Um, let you get to see the the leaders of the departments. um some of the accomplishments they've done over the past year and just kind of give you some uh some thoughts on what staff is thinking of maybe some of the larger items in next year's budget. And then I think after each presentation, if that spurs any uh thoughts or comments from council, we'd be happy to hear that as far as taking notes for what to include as we go in the budget process, too. So, um, we'll kind of play it by ear and see how that goes as far as the day goes, if that's acceptable to everyone. I will kick it off with the city manager's office.

You're good.

Oh, okay. Uh, so the city manager is responsible for translating um basically council's action, council's policies into action. So, um, is it chief officer of the city? Um, that's pretty much my task. Um, so we implement city council's policies. Um, most of the hiring and firing of the staff is under my office. Um, and then issuing directives for the day-to-day management of the government. So, pretty much the administration. So I like to say I lead the team but we ensure it follows the policy goals set by council. That's the driving force of everything we do is the policy set by you the council. So with that, some of the uh strategic priorities set by council in a in a meeting about this time last year was uh I highlighted some of those. Affordable housing support. We're looking to do a housing study to support that goal. Infrastructure growth and quality of life is the capital improvement program. There's many projects associated with that. that you'll be hearing about throughout the day. Um, safety and security includes things like emergency planning, um, the emergency operations plan and other items. U, some physical items such as we're looking at barricades for the for the especially for the larger events like Fourth of July and balloon riotta and the parade at Christmas time. Um, new fire station, Chief Reed. Um that's a big one to serve the the north end of the city. Um so communication

uh we will continue to develop public engagement and uh strive for as much transparency as we can provide and that the public demands and council demands. Uh we've made some strides in that with the new public information officer. you'll hear later. Um that's communications and tourism. Yes.

Okay. Still working that. Um quality of life. Uh don't want to steal Debbie's thunder on the Parah Club. We're working on that. That'll include a master plan as we move forward. Um the bicycle pump track. Uh council should be seeing that at the next meeting and there's plenty of trails and events. um economic development. We strive to enhance tourism while developing diversified economy. We have some we're working on the downtown beautifification project and other services like that. That's the big big items that will be a lot in my office is of course the potential data center. That ordinance or sales contract went into effect. So we're going to proceed with that. Next steps we'd be looking at is along the lines of how it affects how it can be related to the general plan and any zoning. So as the process moves forward, look for those items to come before agendas. um swimming pool. This we're looking this to be part of the the PAR club master plan to look at locations for that and start scoping some of that and bringing that to both the parks and recck board and council. Um and like I said, the pump track that we got proposals on that and you'll be seeing that on the February 11th agenda. Um I'm probably as excited as the kids about this one. So, um, take me back to my 80s BMX rad days. So, and then the downtown revitalization, it's gone through some trials and tribulations, but we think we have a good working relationship, a lot of involvement thanks to Sylvia and Adam and others on

uh getting the businesses involved. A lot of coordination there. So, uh, couldn't be happier with how this is going. And that's pretty much it. Again, most of the highlights will be through the leadership you see here um, as we go through the day. But any questions so far for for me, and we can have questions later, too. So, yes, ma'am. So, you're saying then some of the other things that we had under quality of life, they're still viable. You just did a a very broad thing here or right just just touched on it. And if there's items you want me to make sure we include in the budget, I'd be happy to take notes.

Earth K, I talked with you about that already. That's why I was wondering why it wasn't on there because it was one of our quality of life things we had last year.

Yes. And I'm I'm still looking to see I'm not sure where that made it in the budget for this year. So, um, we'll double check and if it's not, we'll bring it up as a budget discussion for the future budget. So, as we move forward for the process. So, thank you for that. Anything else? Okay. and and of course anything else such as that feel free to to bring it throughout the day and and we'll all be taking notes and make sure it gets in for the discussions as we move on to the process. Most of the other work sessions will be in May I assume. So all right and next up we have it. Good morning, mayor and council. Just a little recap on it. So, of course, you guys know the team. Just kind of put them back up there so you acknowledge that these guys do a lot of the work. So, our completed projects for 2025, we're always working on that that website trying to keep everything up to date. Um, we've got the 50th anniversary. We've done events. We implemented the the Gov app this year. Uh, we had have 550 people that have downloaded it. So much better than than the past one. So hopefully we can keep getting more and more people using it. We've uh really done really well on keeping our centralized website calendar of all events that are happening in page across all of the departments. We've worked on that public works new

office where we actually ran all the cabling. Then we had Johnson Controls come out and do the card access system and then we moved their offices over. So kind of helped save the city a bunch of money since we can perform a lot of the work ourselves. big security camera updates. We did the library external cameras all the way around. That was something new. The uh garage and public works. We actually redid Green Haven's communication building. We actually have a building out in Green Haven where we have our public safety radios and then also the Green Haven fire radios. We uh the golf the golf driving range. We actually have cameras out there now, connectivity, Wi-Fi, and that kind of helps set Jake up for if he wants to do more things with communications out there in the future. And then redid the public safety community room. Tom knows all about that room, but we kind of updated that room a little bit more. So, just a quick on our help desk tickets. Got a great ticketing system in place that kind of shows the amount of tickets we have. We're up. We had,298 and up 243 from 2024. I guess we could say if that's good or bad. Uh this just kind of gives the kind of tickets and kind of what's kind of spiked this year is the amount of website updates we were doing. We do a ton of stuff with events and trying to keep everything up to date. And then, you know, just basically, you know, another one that probably would stick out. It's not as big, but we've been really hit with a lot of spam spam stuff this year. So, so this kind of does it by by department. So,

you can kind of just get an idea. Again, the website one is is peaking and you know, so so I like to kind of put little pictures of our IT crew up there so you can get an idea. We do a little bit of everything. It helps helps the city with the budget, but it helps us complete many more projects within budget. So, uh, we've got got them up on the on the lift there. Oh, they even got me actually working. So that's up at the golf course. Um when we are tearing down the silo to get ready for the new public works stuff and then you know up in the new public works building kind of cabling and pulling all that stuff down. So library cameras. So projects for this year I think this year uh 26 27 we're going to see in the budget is you know security. There are more intelligent cameras and stuff, but the public safety has a really hard time tracking uh let's just say if there's a vehicle or something that we need to find, this new system will assist and hey, we have this color vehicle and it can actually search all of our cameras and stuff. So, pretty pretty neat system that we want to we'll put in the budget for this year. Um sports complex, we've got some more work to do out there. uh the park splash pad. So when we put that all together, we actually had them run conduit from the bathrooms at the splash pad all the way to the rec center. So we're going to be able to connect the splash pad. We'll have cameras. We'll have Wi-Fi out there. We'll have everything out there to kind of keep everyone safe. We've got John C. Page. We're going to be working on some more. again, lots of security camera stuff

this next year. Um, airport hangers, that's kind of L's thing. Uh, Horseshoe Bend. We're actually, they're right now running power out to the far south watt. And, uh, when we do that, we're actually going to be running extra conduit in the ground and we'll be able to connect up fiber connectivity out there. Right now we have a microwave link and we have it on solar and the solar is just not quite working. But this also brings the comics online for for Deb and a new storage facility out on that side. U and then the a big one for PD is we're doing a big dispatch remodel. What that's going to entail is us actually setting up a temporary we have to pull dispatch apart, put it in another little office while they rip everything out and that and uh so we'll be able to clean up wiring and do a bunch of stuff during that. So it's going to be fun year again it questions. Um hi good morning. Um, the conduit going out to the hangers, are you going to overshoot that? So, we might have some for a fire station in the near future.

Where at Horseshoe Bend? No, no, the conduit going to the airport hangers. No, we didn't we didn't do anything at the correct. But Oh, I don't That's a good along the way, right? That hasn't been that hasn't been brought to me. I want that to be the Rolls-Royce of fire station. um we will you know that's a great that's a that's a great thing to put down so we'll have to um sure that and then the other question I have is you mentioned a uh active guard system for facial recognition and whatnot is that all the processing and data for that does that happen inhouse or is that it's all in-house

so just ju it's we we currently have our video insight that we have and they've actually in done a bunch of work to that software so They've added this active guard that allows it to process all in house. Okay, cool. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Good. All right. Next. So, next we'll Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Couldn't be getting up. Sorry. I didn't mean to do that. But next we have finance. Good morning.

And just a little housekeeping before you start real quick. If mayor, if you or anyone need a break before I do, which I doubt. Um, just give me some sort of signal and we can do that or feel free to to speak up if usually I'm the first one that needs a break. So,

good morning, Mayor and Council and staff. Glad to see y'all here. Um, finance department is who I represent. I don't know. Okay, this is our org chart for the finance department. We have currently um five employees, one vacancy. Um I have five employees, not including myself, and one vacancy. So, we're going to go through each of these people and what they Okay, wait a minute here. the arrow.

These are some of the functions of our department. The some of the things that we carry and and take care of for you. Um I can't even read my slides here on customer service, accounts receivable, cashiering, ambulance. We cover ambulance for our depart fire department billing. Ambulance billing. Linda, can you grab that microphone while you're standing

while I read? Okay. Is this better? All right. Um, payroll obviously and all of those things, sales tax, budget management, cash, um, investments and all of those things, grant management, fixed asset training. Those are all functions of the finance department that we do. And so when you come in our office or notice, we'll you'll see these faces. So I am the director of finance and I have the oversight of all of those areas we just talked about. And you know, I've been here just a day or two and so, you know, sometimes you'll see me around. And Baldwin, she's holding a new position this year, fiscal year grant, as a our grant specialist. We pulled her out from being the uh finance analyst um and actually just broke out that position because there was so it was so overwhelming. So, she manages any um grant administration. She's also doing our fixed asset train uh tracking. Um she will help the department out as we need things, but she's kind of fills in special projects as well. But she's going to be your grant go-to person. She's going to look for grants for you. She's going to um push them your way and then once they're awarded, then they come back to finance for filing and tracking and all of that. So keep her in mind as you come up with things. She's very anxious to get this rolling and uh become what everything she can be to the city. Aspen Lindsay took her old position as a finance analyst. Aspen started with us. Um she's only been actually she's coming off of probation. She started as our cashier and she after four months of being in the cashier position, she applied for the finance analyst position and promoted to that. So she's in training. We have a lot of training going on. Um she covers sales tax reporting, our payroll review. She does all the month

monthly financial reporting that we prepare for the council and for the departments and she's learning the budget preparation. So she's going to be um integral part in us moving forward. Glenda Cassidy two years ago she moved into the payroll AP specialist position. So she's been doing this for a couple of years now. She's been with the organization I believe 23 years and um has moved up from in all those positions. So she does primarily our payroll and our accounts payable for you. Leah Stevens, she's our account clerk ambulance billing. She covers she works really closely with the fire department. We do hire a third party ambulance billing company um that actually prepares the billing. Um, what Leah does is she takes the EMS reports that comes in, reviews them, makes sure they're right, checks and deals with anything that's she's the conduit between the fire department and the um third party biller. So, there's a lot of work there in that position. Um, this is the one vacancy that we currently have is is to bring in another ambulance billing clerk and bring the billing home. So, we do it in house. We haven't budgeted in this year. I have yet to fill that primarily because of a logistics situation in my department. Really have nowhere to put another person. So, as we discussed the remodel of city hall, where we were going, what we were doing, that kind of ebbed and flowed and kind of made me have to wait or not. I can put this person in a corner. I really don't want to put him in a corner, but I can re fab the department and kind of put another desk in there if we need to do that, but that's my future goal for 26 uh 27. We'll go through that, try to make a decision there. Kimberly Dere is our newest addition to the cashier's office.

She takes care of all your cashiering in the front office, um accounts receivable, she does all our bill spend, um which is our credit card. She reviews all of those transactions for us and also is backing up am learning to back up ambulance billing and um at this point when our clerk is is not available. That's all of us. This is what we've done this year. We we did um complete the annual comprehensive financial report. This was just presented to the city council in January. Um, we've submitted this one for another uh award. The city's received the award 25 times so far. Last 15 years consecutive years have been since I've been the director. So, and we had no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. So, that's a pretty good thing. The digital budget book, this is another thing that we put into the GFOA for an award. Um I this kind of was headed up by Anne Baldwin in the past. Uh we'll be training Aspen to be taking this over. Um this is a a mistype here. I just learned that I can't count. So our award, we've received the award. At this point it was nine. I couldn't count my buttons because we don't have all the all the medallions. They're not buttons. They're medallions on the award. I've been corrected by the GFOA. But yesterday we did receive the fiscal 2026 um budget award. So we now have had 10 awards uh consecutive awards on this. So we're pretty proud about that. So that's the award. I threw this slide in here because I wanted I wanted everybody to really kind of grasp that

where our where our time is spent and why things have grown. I mean you can see this is last 10 years. This is our budgeted positions. You can see that in 2017 we had 102 FTEES and now today um in 2026 we're budgeting 202 FTEES. Um this is this is why we're hiring people is based on your events that are happening. Your departments are growing. Um this has an impact obviously on finance and how we're trying to structure getting time sheets processed. Payrolls done. Payroll is taking us probably more like a week and a half to process versus a week for payroll, a week for AP, a week for payroll. Yeah, it's taking us longer to do the payroll. So we are working weekends. We are trying to get things done and trying to make it all fit within the timeline so that the employees can get paid um in a timely manner. You can see that bump in 2020 when we added when the horseshoe bend opened um in that fiscal year. Actually it was April of 2019 I believe right Deb. Um so fiscal 2020 we were up and running and then we brought golf back from Aramark. So they were airmark was um managing that and take care of that at that point. So there's that little bump there and then it's just kind of creeped up. So cash balances and cash investments for those of you who know we have come a long way. Um but just to not go back but to say where we are comparing December of 2024 to December of 2025. We have you see your balances there. Um they we went from 58 million to 62 million in our cash um balances just in that month. You do see a little dip there in the general savings account

from one to the other. Well, we we invested money. You'll see notice here that this the public agency retirement services PARS is what we call it. We moved some money into there so it came from the general fund. What that is is an investment firm that manages our public safety um unfunded liability. So we send them money, they invest that money, and then once a year they'll make that payment for us. So that's kind of why you see the es and flows in there. Overall, we have an increase in um we have an increase in cash balances. We're also um we've also pulled some money out of the Horseshoe Bend account. I highlighted the um emergency reserve fund of 12 million in blue. That is what council had um directed us to do. So, we do have 12 million in emergency reserve. Um and it's sitting right there. We've not been in directed or instructed to increase that at all. So, we're were there unless council wishes for that to go up. Um, you'll see that the Horseshoe Ben checking account here locally, if you go down a few more lines, another 12.3 million. We don't really like to I don't really like to keep money in that account. It's sitting here locally um for if we need it. And I know we have some major projects coming up in our next budget year for that. Maybe in the next budget year or two. uh just spoke with the city manager yesterday about possibly moving some of that out, investing it, and then bringing it back when needed. So, um that's kind of we kind of keep an eye on that doing that. Um this just reiterates a little bit about what we just talked about in our LGIP. There at the bottom, we have 16 million in our general account and 1.8 in our HERF account. and we went over um those are all investments. So all of

these accounts I'm showing you here, $44 million is invested. So actually probably the top three are the ones that are with TVI and the investment. The bottom three are with the LG or the bottom two are with the LGIP. So I call them investments because they are but that's where your sales tax money goes is in the LGIP accounts and then we pull from there for our operating. This is a a familiar report to the council at least. Um, this is on our website for anybody who wants to look at our city sales tax um reports. Um, thank you to the IT department for posting all of these for us. Uh, I pulled this one up because it was June of 2025 and it showed a full full full year, right? You have fiscal 23, fiscal 24, and fiscal 25 with your bottom line numbers going from 15 million to currently 19 million. This is what we bring in in city sales tax at this point in time. Last fiscal year 19 just over 19 million. So, um, very good. The reason we're seeing a little bit of that bump between 2024 and 2025 was the council went ahead and increased in September of 2024. The council increased the city sales tax for the hotel motel category from whatever it was. It was 3% to 5%. We went there and then you went to the 4.263 and that additional city sales tax, you bumped it to 5%. That two million, we have over $2.5 million invested in that just in that sales tax increase. We increased that because we were supposed to bond this year for the pool and the fire station. We kind of put that on hiatus with the changeover of our management. Um Brian Hill didn't want to kind of push that in the beginning of the year when Darren first left. We wanted to get

Frank on board. So, we're having these conversations. We really don't know where it's going. And as it develops with the pool and the fire station, um we will probably want to come to the council again about bonding at some point, but know that we have that money sitting aside. We're tracking it. And whether that money will go toward your bond payment, which was the intention, or it reduces your overall bond amount by what you're asking for, we can have that discussion when it comes time. But just let you know that the sky is not falling. We've had a dip a couple months ago. Um, but it's it's normal that we have that dip um every year and from a sales tax perspective, we're still seeing increases. So, and now it's budget time and that's what brings us here. These are the highlighted dates on the calendar. Here we are presenting um well the budgets don't we're presenting to you that was also on the calendar but the budgets are due to finance and the departments will turn them in March 5th. We'll start our review process and then we will set up meetings to meet with each department head go through the session. Um the work session set for the city council is scheduled for May 14th and then we move into the adoption of the tenative budget and the final budget. Oops. Okay. Uh grant updates just to let you know we currently in fiscal 26 have 16.5 million budgeted in grants in all those various categories. Um we've received $4 million in grant funds this year and we have about 10 million 10 and a half million uh not spent yet. So it doesn't mean we will spend them all. Um but we are working with all of these various departments and this is what Ann's kind of going to be doing for us. Capital improvements plan. This is something that we started a few years back. I think 2023.

Um maybe. Yeah, about 2023. Putting money aside every year. When you have these big projects that cost millions and millions of dollars, um we put money aside every year so that we can accommodate that when the purchase time comes. Um like Jeff's fire truck, I don't know, we we discussed that picture. That may not be exactly it, but his his firet truck that he's going to get, we're putting money away every year. And I think um it's not even scheduled to buy like for two more years, maybe a year. Yeah, that's still

Okay. So, we're still putting money aside to build that pot of money for him. I think um I can't remember the dollar amount at this point, but they're not cheap.

They're not cheap. No. And the splash pad we've just completed, but that took a while. Um, and we're certainly currently working on the downtown beautifification project. So, just to let you know, we do have a capital improvements plan. Um, the manager said that we're going to be uh working toward that. Here is basically just a spreadsheet on that plan. And if we went over here to that truck in the fire department, you can see we're putting $400,000 a year. So far, we've got 1.2 million saved for his truck. And it does is scheduled here to go to 2028. But, you know, as Jeff said, we'll be having those conversations. But these are some of the projects that these departments are going are working toward. Um, these numbers will get adjusted every year in budget. We look at this and we say, "Okay, we need to throw x amount of money in here." So, uh, the city manager and I will look at this, we'll add to it, we'll take things off, we'll figure out how this is going. But I just wanted you to know that, um, this is what was in last year's budget. And looking forward, finance department goals. Um, my goal's always been to to make to train my staff to be the experts in their position. I don't want to do their jobs anymore. I've done them all. I don't want to do them. I want them to be the expert. I want to be able to mentor them, provide them with whatever knowledge and confidence they need. It's pretty much a new department. I mean, I have to say, even though I've got Glenda there at 23 years, she's doing virtually a new job. So, everybody else is three years and and younger um with the city of Paige. So, cross trainining is really important and we need to be covering for each other and doing that. So, that's a goal for us. I already talked to you about working toward transitioning the ambulance billing function to be completely in house um and not through a third party biller. Jeff and I have been in conversation over this for a couple of years. maybe not a couple years, at least a good year. And he's had some

transitions over at the fire department with their programming. So, as we're trying to settle into that, um kind of push this to the back a little bit and then I explain to you about the logistics of putting this person. But, um that's our goal. So, we'll see if we can get to that. Um there's a various amounts of training, in-house training, um clear gov training, Cassell training, you know, I mean, it's all over the board for our whole department. Um the professional side is all our outside training with our GFOA conferences, GFOZ conferences, Ragot. I mean, we're pulled in a lot of directions. This is including me. This is including staff. So, there's a lot of it out there that we're trying to accomplish and get them all the tools in their toolbox that they need to do their job. Uh, one thing that I haven't really done and I I want to this slide has been in here for a year at least last year was to make our accounts payable um paperless whereby when you're not going to do expenditure requests anymore, you're just going to go in and fill it out online and submit it that way and we'll go through an approval process. And that all sounds wonderful and good. It's going to put a lot more work on you department heads. But I say that and I go, "Is it really?" because you have to create the expenditure request form and paper. So, but it would be a training and we got a lot of new people here too. So, not sure when this is going to happen. I'm going to say that I'm still going to look into it and see if we can um push this down the road and get there. And that's it. Sorry that took longer than I thought. Any questions, comments?

Okay. I I have a couple.

Okay. Yes, sir. Just just to back Linda up a little bit. Um, as far as the FTEEs go, just want to let council know my philosophy on new employees. I'm really conservative when it comes to that. So, the leadership here will really have to push if they want new people because I'm always scared of hiring a bunch of people, having an econ economic downturn, and then laying people off. So just know if FTEEs come to you later on in the budget process, they need to be um well needed and well justified and especially with that because I don't like to play around with people's careers like that. So um just some of my philosophy and uh yeah and some of the big projects you talked about with the fire station that's ironically under the airport I put as the lead for that. So, um you you'll see why in a bit and we can talk more about it in detail. That's part of my concept with teamwork that um the airport and the fire is working as a team right now on the concept of that. And then we'll bring public works in with the construction management assisting with that with the consultants. And uh same with the pool as we develop the master plan for the pool that's under community services as far as the concepts go and then we bring public works in to assist with construction. So just wanted to add some of that too.

Council Pillar. Um hello good morning. Good morning. um the uh extra ambulance billing person or position that you have open. Um if that got filled and we got someone trained up and that all got inhoused, about how much time would that take for it to start paying for itself?

Oh gosh. Um I'm going to say within the year you're going to see that because right now I mean it's not that our third party ambulance billing company isn't doing their job. It's just that Jeff and I have a higher expectation than what they're doing. That's all. You know, we see what we're budgeting for revenue. We see we're not meeting it. Um I think we can do better. And I think I just have to work out all of those quirks, if you will, to make sure that when we make that investment, when we make that decision and move forward, that we can do it. I see how busy that um Leah is right now with checking. I mean, the EMS folks are doing a fabulous job on getting getting us the documents, but to read through every document sometimes takes a little bit of time and then we pass it off to the biller. The process of doing that um helps get that money to flow in quicker. So, it if they went straight from EMS to the biller, that that's an option. It could happen, but then there's, oh, this is missing. This is, you know, we need to call the hospital. We So, we're trying to get all those pieces together. So, um, we're trying to work that logistics out. When, when I took back ambulance billing back in 2003, we were only billing 300. I bu think I build 330 bills that year. We're in we're pushing 1,500 right now. So, um, and at that point in 2003, Page Hospital was doing the billing. They were charging us 25% of every bill regardless of collection. and I ran out of work as a cashier, so I needed something to do, right? So, that's when my boss brought it in and then I took it back. We we added it back to the city of Paige. Now, um with 1500 bills or so, we would need more than one person to do that. So,

can I throw out a radical idea? Sure. Um just just maybe can we think about finding like temporary office space to get someone set up and get going on this with the promise of you'll move to a nice office at city hall but I mean we haven't broken ground yet here or anything so it could still be a year out but that position could have reasonably paid for itself before they move

we could do that what I would do before I would relocate okay we've already pulled an out of our department and put her down the hall. So, she was the one position that I could say you need to act into. She's still part of the finance department, still trying to deal with that separation, if you will. It's kind of hard when you're part of a team. Um, what I would do is I would reconstruct Linda's office, filing cabinets. Would we go we'd go vertical instead of lateral and we would we'd make a corner office in there because I think that training is going to need to be cohesive there. I could move another person out. Um, we do have another vacant office here in city hall, but I really didn't want to go that way, but I could. I mean, and and it's not a bad idea. We could do that.

And I don't I don't want to like ban anyone off the island or anything. Um, but if if we're getting ROI on that, I would rather that money stay local and create a local job rather than go off into the void if we're getting better. Agree. And just so you know, currently our third party biller does charges us 10% of all the collected bills, not on anything built. So we made that transition in in 2003 and that's been the way it's been since 2003. They've not changed up their rates or anything. So I just want to grow that and make we see that there might be some lost revenue there that we could get. So that the only way to do that is for me to bring it home. That'd be great. Yeah,

I'll take it. Thank you. Appreciate that. Any others? Thank you, Linda.

Up next, we have Rachel with with human resources and and just a little prime or two on the city hall. Uh we can talk more about that in the public works section, too. May have a few discussion points on that. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Forgive me. I'm a little under the weather, so if I'm stumbling over my words or missing anything, um that's why. Um so, we have a new team member, Jennifer Lang. She joined my team after Rachel Carlson moved back to Massachusetts. Um already we've done a lot of great things with her being in there. Um, I'll just say that she's very eager to learn and um, is jumping right in. Um, it's made a huge difference for me in the department. So, I'm very happy to have her. Um, so what we do, guess I need to grab the clicker. Um, so human resources, risk management, there's a whole list of things we do here. I think that everybody pretty much knows what HR does and risk management. I don't need to go through the basics. Um, I will say that a lot of my time is spent on benefits management and simply counseling people and working with them, whatever it might be if just sitting and talking with them. Um, benefits management, I'm on the trust for the Ragot um or for our benefits Raget Rural Arizona Group Health Trust and I'm also on the wellness uh committee for that as well. and um we meet quarterly and I will say that we've got a really great benefit system um and a great team of all the other entities that are part of that trust. Um we do a lot of just keeping up with compliance, OSHA,

Bureau of Labor Statistics, EEOC reporting, um the e employee life cycle, um and you know, employee relations, whether we need to praise someone or um work with someone to adjust some things that they might be doing. That's part of my job. As far as risk management goes, um I handle all the general liability insurance and renewal um management for us and pee. Um handle all the asset and capital management for insurance, claim management, workers comp. That's a big thing. Um we do have some a good amount of cases. I will say that um this past year quite a few of them didn't even make it to um urgent care. So I'm happy about that. um restitution management that takes up a good majority of my time. So if somebody decides they want to kick the window of a patrol vehicle um I work with the county to get restitution on that and um with the garage and how you know fixing it whatever it might be. Um when the library's car was uh destroyed thanks to a boat trailer work with our um insurance to you know get the payments and things like that. So, a lot of that is my time is spent doing that. Um, obtaining the balloon rig insurance and then also our fireworks insurance. Um, and ensuring that we're covered for all of that. Um, and then certificate of insurance requests. Um, this is actually going to be something that we're really trying to revamp. Um, with Jennifer here, we're finding some things that necessarily were well, they've been kind of missed. So, we're going to really delve into that here soon. And then training. Um I'm in the process of kind of assessing what the um AMRP, our general liability insurance provides us um for free. They've upped

the um the um what am I trying to say? They've added new courses and things like that to the free program that we have. Um, but I will say that I'm going to be going through them and they get kind of repetitive if you get to watch them year after year. So, simply like just sexual harassment after every year, it's like the same video and it's kind of from 1995. So, we might need to be changing that up. So, and then goals from last year that we met. Um, the biggest thing for me was the comp and class study. Um, for those of you that have been um around for a while, this is something that I've been pushing for for quite a while. Um, and while it was approved and everything in the spring, um, there was still work going on to make sure that we were where we needed to be all the way through um, the start of the new fiscal year. Um, continuously increasing wellness event attendance. So, um, we provide preventative screenings for all of our, um, employees who are on medical insurance and any of their dependents. And this is just really something that helps keep our insurance costs down. Um, and I'm proud to say that Paige is one of the most attended and, you know, people actually come out for them. So, um, compared to some of the other trusts, some of them are pretty small, so it's kind of difficult. But um I'm really proud to say that I might have to bribe them with raffle prizes and things like that, but um it's something that I really want them to be participating in. So remember that all of you. Um um we've have started some new challenges, the wellness committee with Raget. Um, we've started like monthly challenges, maybe bi-weekly or bimonthly challenges, but um, so right now we're doing a mental health challenge where we're having everybody on this free app

do some meditation and if you do 20 consecutive days in a row over a month and a half, um, you're going to get a prize of some sort. I cannot figure out what that will be yet, but I have had at it's not due until I believe February 15th. I've currently have about 12 people who have already turned in their proof of what they're doing. I'm personally doing it. My daughter's doing it now. Um, and I have so many people who have come to me and said, "Thank you for giving this, you know, putting this out there. I really appreciate it. It's helping me, and I love that now I know about this app and it's free and I can continue to use it." Um, we did a water challenge. Had to drink so much water every day in a month. Um, and you know, all of these things, yes, they might cost us a little bit of money, but it's just one more thing that hopefully they'll continue on and promote their health. Um, last year, you know, that we had to do quite a bit of recruitment. And while we hired Duffy for that, um, that was still a lift on my end. Thank goodness not as nearly as bad of a lift if we didn't hire Duffy. So I thank you for that. Um this year my biggest thing is um migrating to electronic files. Um this is something I have wanted to do since I started here. Um that was in 2018 and um we're going to be we've already jumped on the laser fee system that uh the clerks have and because Jennifer has experience in that we're going to start moving everybody over to that and we'll start with all current employees and probably work our way back. I don't know that we'll get that far. We'll just probably keep those files until it's time to purge them. So that's very exciting for me. Um property appraisal. This is not on there um just because I kind of found out about it last week. AMRP is requiring all of their um

people all of their cities to go through an appraisal and we haven't had one since 2018 when we 20 yeah 2018 or 2019 when we joined. Um this one's going to be a lot more intense. It's going to be every single structure through pee through us. Um it's not a cap like last year or the last time we did it was $100,000 or more. It's just going to be basically everything other than um vehicles and inland marine. So that's going to be fun. Um and then um like I said, research um a new learning system. I already talked about that. Um and performance management systems. So we've had a performance management system. We have not been using it. Frank and I are on the same page about we do need to get back to um doing that and um we're going to start looking at the systems or I'm going to start looking at the systems and the one that we have I'm going to be saying goodbye to because there's no point and I don't really prefer it. So, um so we're going to try to find something that fits all of our departments and really um not just once a year like a continual let's check in and see how things are going. So, um, my philosophy is is that somebody shouldn't be finding out what's they're doing wrong once a year. It should be a continuous let's have these conversations. So, um, an I9 audit. I like to do this every year. If we can't do it every year, then every other year, um, we do do it electronically, but we do print out everything, and I just want to make sure we're where we need to be. And then one thing that I've really wanted to do for a long time is a hit by a bus list. basically how if if I'm gone, if Jennifer's gone, how do you hire someone? How do you get them in Cassell? How do you get them through E-Verify? How do you all of that? So, um I don't know that we'll get it all done this year, but we're going to start

trying and hopefully we'll get there. Um I'm sorry. And I realized I didn't change the dates of the years on there, but um and then create and distribute total reward statements. For those of you that aren't aware of what the total reward statements are, they're basically kind of what our paycheck subs are, but it's a breakdown and a letter of basically this is what you make, this is what you pay in insurance, this is what the city pays insurance, um benefits as far as retirement and whatever else it might be. so that people can see the big picture of what um what they have as a overall um income in a way you know so I don't think that a lot of people realize um how much the city pays on our end for medical dental and vision and um I every time I sit and do benefits with someone every new employee I sit and do benefits with them whether it's just letting them know what their um options are and then they go in and do them or I just have go through all with them and sign them up. Um I make it a point to say this is what the city pays and this is what you are paying. Um and usually people are like oh wow and I'm like yeah wow. So a little bit about that and then our overall turnover I'm really happy to say has gone down again. Um when I first started it was I believe in the 40s 40 percentile. Um so we are continuing to bring it down. This year I did not include any of our like temporary or seasonal staff just because with Debbie and Stephanie like let's get people in for six months and then because we really have to pay attention to that with ASRS. Um and then with Jake's crew we're kind of just we have the same people coming every year to come work for us. We're actually just keeping them on the books because it's easier to do that than going through the whole hiring

process again. So, and I will say that most of those people who are quitting are moving on. They're moving out of page. So, that's one of the good things. Um, so what can we do to retain people um and attract staff? Uh, this really hasn't changed over the years. Um, I will say consistent annual increases. You guys have heard this before. Um, when somebody asks me, well, why should I come for work for the city? are is you know well do you get raises consistently? I will say yes we have been getting raises consistently. However, it is up to the city manager and the council. City manager asking and the council approving and in the past for many many years there was no sort of movement on um increases and thankfully we've made up for that with the comp and class study but we need to continue that on um and I do have all the company we did that with on a contract basis. We meet once a month and anytime we have a job description update or add a position, anything like that, I send them the job description and they tell us where to place them. So, we're not in a situation where we're adding to compression and um paying them incorrectly. So, in the past, it was kind of like h this this is appropriate. We're making sure that we're keeping up with it so that it doesn't become a sloppy mess. So, um, daycare center. This is something that I have really wanted. Um, whether it's a city employee daycare center or partnered with someone or whatever it might be. Um, my girls are nine and about to be eight now. And I've said it over and over. My mom moved in with us and we were lucky enough to have that. She moved from Salt Lake when my daughters were born and, you know, took care of them. If I didn't have that, I don't know what I would have done. um I probably would have found

somebody in home. Um but that takes a lot of trust as well. So we need some sort of daycare center. Um it it's just how can we expect people to go work when there's nothing here. So um I would really like to see maternity and paternity um paid leave um maintaining the comp and class that's on the same thing as annual increases. um evaluate our current PTO policies. Um I have taken all of the information from other cities um to see if we can improve on that in any way. Flag staff, this information here on the right is from Flagstaff, city of Flagstaff, and they have the housing and down payment assistance. Um I don't know if it's something that we can make happen, but it's just an idea. And I believe that they've upped it since I actually put this on there. Um, tuition reimbursement. We have been doing some sort of tuition reimbursement, but at this point, um, thanks to Frank, we're at the point where we want to set a full program and have it all written out and, um, really be able to put it out there and say this is something that's really great. Um, student loan repayment assistance. This is something that the private sector and some cities, you know, um public sector are doing where, you know, I come in with a degree like I did and I still have student loan um student loans and, you know, getting some sort of assistance monthly to help pay for that. And then career development. This is something that I really um support and I believe that we do a pretty decent job of it. Um, we try to do at least two trainings a year where we bring somebody from the outside in. Last year we brought in Allison Vanhoer and um, I believe most of you are in there for it. She was really great in my opinion. She

taught us a lot of new things. Um, and I'd actually like to bring her back. So, we continue to do that. And if anybody ever comes to me, director or an employee and says, "Hey, I feel like I just need training in this." I will sit there and try to go through and find the best training that they can get. and I do have a line item for training that they can use if their department might be a little bit short. And then the fun part of HR. So the volunteer at work opportunities. Um these are the things we have done in the past. We do do our quarterly blood drives. I will say we have been lacking in this department uh in the past year, but we will be getting these things running and going again. um the food pantry. Um the new person running that has reached out to me. And we've got departments. I believe we've got wreck and parks and fire department when they need helping in different ways, whether it's weekly running down to Walmart, bringing up food for them, um moving boxes when they can, things like that. So, um we'll continue to do that and we will improve. And if anybody has an any ideas of other things we can do, I'm happy to take those suggestions. Our annual parties, um the years of service awards, retirement parties, we've been doing those and I think that we'll be doing quite a few more in the next couple years if they have their way, but if I have my way, that's not happening. Um the employee appreciation party and then um Christmas party, everybody, you know, came to that last year. Um, I've had people ask me why we don't do the, you know, at night Christmas party and bring a guest. We've grown too much. We don't have room. There's no location that could fit all of us in the event. Let's say that every single person came and brought a plus one. Um, so we don't really have room and that's why we do it during the daytime. Some people are mad, some

people are like, "Yes, I don't like that thing anyway." So, um, and then helping employees. This is something that is really um really my passion. Like I want to help you in any way I possibly can. Um whether it's just sitting there and talking to them whe and counseling them, maybe not giving them the best advice, but I try. Um helping them see their potential. Um I had somebody come in and said, you know, I don't know if I should apply for this job. Like I I'm a little nervous. I don't think I can really do it. I don't necessarily have the um you know the requirements for the job. And I said just apply. You're already in the city. Just apply. Try try it that interview and see how it goes. At least get that experience of the interview. And that person ended up getting the job because they deserved it. So um finding their voice. Sometimes I have people who are just a little too nervous to go talk to their supervisor or manager and I'll talk to them about, you know, best ways to do that. Um, becoming an effective leader. I think that with a lot of our new managers and things like that, I've tried to help wherever I can. Um, and then getting assistance with critical medical care. You may not realize this, but with our benefits, we have a um nurse um system that basically advocates for you. So, if somebody's going through a situation that's like an ongoing diagnosis, whether it's cancer or um you know, like have to have like a shoulder surgery that's kind of, you know, going to be a big deal, we can sign them up for it. They can sign themselves up, but if somebody mentions it to me, I'm going to be asking, "Hey, would you mind if I referred you to this service?" And it's been a pretty big help to a lot of people. So, um, and not just medical care, but going through benefits. If they have issues, questions, anything like that. If I can't answer it, I try to find the help that they can and or

the answers that I can get. So, um, and then training and assist them in their position. I've already gone over that. So, I think that that's it. Oh, and these are all of our gems from 2025. So, that is a fun thing to do. I generally yell when I come in the department saying the person's name and scare them. So, any questions?

Just have comments. Um, so on the daycare center, we've had that money in the budget for two years in a way row and I'm hoping it's going to be um in there in the future. But the problem is um when I talked with somebody about it, they said, "Well, nobody in the community knows that this money exists and so there's a huge need." And so if we're not going to put the information out there that the city has this 150,000 on the budget for um budget for um the daycare, it's not going to happen because we didn't envision the city starting the dayare. We envisioned partnering with somebody and h providing those funds. So I hope that we are that's going to stay because it's our quality of life. So I'm hope it's going to be there. And then the housing, I loved the housing and we have discussed about that. So I hope that we move forward with that. And then lastly, um when I went to League of Cities, I attended the Helios program and it talked about how um employees sitting in their space here in Paige that they would actually create a degree for them. So they don't hand you a degree and so you have to complete this. they can actually work with you as a department head and they'd actually create a a a degree or a associates or a bachelor's degree that

and I gave the information to the city manager. So, I want you to know about that. So, I'm not sure if I'm saying it correct, but I think it's Helios. Um, but I loved the program and I loved the presentation they gave and I loved the other um, cities who talked about how helpful it was for city employees because you encourage an employee, they leave, they go to college somewhere else and then they don't want to come back. This way it keeps those employees here in our offices and then they become better employees and more dedicated to our our organization. So, um, I gave all of the information I brought back to to the man city manager. So, um, and thank you.

Yeah, I will say with the daycare center, um, I wasn't sure. It's not under my budget. So, um, my understanding was that before, Frank, it was under Darren's budget. So, yeah, it was under Darren's and, um, my understanding was that he had talked to the school district about it. So, yeah. Yeah. And I think what this my understanding is that as the school district moved out of the middle school building and they moved in now they don't have that space

and so it is back to looking for a space. But I think there are spaces. I think it's a possibility and I think there are plenty of people in this community that would love I know there were four of us that had been told no by past city councils and city mayors no. Um, and it wasn't until Darren when I got on council or that had told you yes as I had been talking to him about it. So, I know that um there's a big interest in town. So, they just we just need to get that information out there.

Right. And I will add to that that I've done some research on what is required of a daycare center or whatever it might be. And um I will say that it would not be my preference for the city to run that.

Yes. Me either. I I managed No, I I've I started one preschool and managed it and I was the administrator of another one. It's not an easy thing and we had never envisioned that the city goes into the daycare business. Um the vision before was that we would make the funds available and then asked other organization and I know I've talked to some other major players in the area and they said if we do one they're definitely interested in contributing funds or means or resources for that to happen. So we just need to find someone out there in the community. I hope somebody's listening or that we can get a PIO out on it um so that we can make it happen. Awesome. Anything else?

We've got a community services building right now with a suggestion box up. So, you know, maybe just anonymously drop that in there for a club. Um, so, uh, couple comments for me on that. What what we'll do with the, uh, early childhood daycare. Um, I'll get with Linda and Rachel and we'll go over the budget and we'll meet with you individually on this and go over this. if if we can't find it in the budget, maybe it's something we could bring to council as a contingency item and see how that goes. But we'll we'll figure it out, meet with you offline and and follow up on it for sure. Um and then just to reiterate some of the priorities that that I'm looking at with HR is um performance management's a big one for me to that helps in my mind helps with retention. That's another one. Retention. Personally, I'd like to see that number closer to 10%, but we can talk about goals.

But it's pretty good from 40. So, with with that performance management may not have it in time for like evaluations for this year, but we would start rolling it out next year, training leadership and staff and implementing the program. Um, I've even heard from staff members that they would appreciate a little more feedback that way. And with that goes um succession planning and tuition reimbursement. A formalized tuition program through HR I think would be a good thing to present to council through the budget process. So yes, ma'am.

I I hope that you look at that program that I brought to you because I think it's better than even tuition reimbursement because it helps a director know how she wants somebody to be trained and they said they would literally create the degree for that position. Yes. And so I I like that. And then I think you should be proud of the 20%. I bet you for a major employer like we are that we way beat any other major employer in the town with that. I was really impressed with those numbers because I've heard others employers talking to me about theirs and there is a lot larger than 20%. Yeah. It's been my goal to be the employer of choice. That's what I've said for eight years.

Yes. And and I appreciate that information. I'll be sure Rachel, as you can tell, has been under the weather. So, uh, but I have it sitting right on my desk by my right hand and and we'll make sure to get that to her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anything else? Uh, if if HR is feeling particularly bored, I would also love to see uh like a feasibility on um maternity, paternity. Um just just while we're throwing stuff on the agenda. Um I mean, we don't have much in that right now. The worst we can do is saying no. So, I, you know, would love to at least have discussion about it because

if, uh, we're not offering that and people are moving out of town to have kids, we're going to have a bigger problem like 25 years from now. Um, which I mean, for most of you guys, it's past your retirement date, so that's that's good news. But, uh, you know, want to think long term, right? Anything else? Thank you. Can Frank, can we take a five minute move around? Sure. Stretch and stand and then we'll

Frank, how are you? Good morning. Glad to have you. Okay, our recording is back on. So, we'll re reopen this meeting. For anybody who needs to during the presentations, if you need to just stand up, move around, just do so. The presenters won't be offended, will you? No. No. Okay, we'll just tell everybody they can do that. Okay, Frank. Where? Oh, one moment.

All right. Lord's made the big team now. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. We will continue on. And next up is one of our newest directors, Laura with the airport, one of our many new directors. Am I the newest or not? Well, not quite. But you won't be for long.

That's true. We'll have a new public works director soon. Good morning, everybody. So nice to be here. As Frank said, my name is Lore. That's like folklore without the people. and uh I'm your new airport director and I'm so happy to be here. So, let's uh see if I can make this do the thing. What do I Nope. Clearly not. What do I press? What am I doing wrong here? This is clearly not on the right. On the right.

Yep. There we go. Ha. Okay. So, here we are at the airport. Let's see. So, this is just a little Not everyone knows the air side of the airport. This is just a quick little video sweep of what you see on the other side. Starting with our contour secure area. It's the back of our terminal and the maintenance hanger. Classic, some of our fuel trucks, the beginning of our hangers, some of our aircraft that are tied down. Those are mostly tour planes. And then in the back there, you can see those gray hangers. Those are the new ones that have just been developed over the past couple of years and they're almost finished right now. Our beautiful view. And then back to Contour. So, here is our folks. We are small but mighty at the airport at the moment. There's three of us. I'm hoping we can make that four. I'll make a case, Frank, that we can have an admin assistant again. Um, so I've been the airport director for about a month or so, but I've been working at the airport. This will be my my eighth year in November. That's my anniversary. I started off as the admin assistant. I was initially made op supervisor actually just recently and then I was very gratefully promoted to airport director. Um, we also have our maintenance crew. They are amazing. Uh, Chris and Louie. Uh, really our watch words at the airport are safety and compliance. That's all that we do all the time. Um, as the director, I kind of oversee our FAA part 139 compliance. So, I do the certification manuals, the emergency programs, the security programs, really interesting things like storm water pollution prevention and wildlife hazard management. Uh, luckily all of which I also did under Kyle. Um, just the structure when Kyle was here. I was in

charge of doing all those as well and I'll continue to do so. Uh I'm a certified uh airport security coordinator and I also do all the fueler inspections. I'm a certified fueler inspector, so we do that too. Um I'll do things like work with finance and the DOT and the FAA and ADOT to manage our grants and I'll work with our engineering consultants with all the amazing projects we have coming up which I'm really excited to tell you about. So, we'll get to that pretty soon. And again, hopefully we'll have an admin assistant who will do kind of work with me to manage our leases for the tenants, the hanger owners, do gay cards, billing, general recordkeeping, public assistance, and my maintenance guys. They do our safety. They're the experts on the field. So, make sure that the actual airfield is safe. All of our lights are working, all the signs are in order, the airfield looks beautiful, the runway is clean and nice and safe for everybody that comes in. We make sure that the fences are secure for both people and coyotes, which is our main thing around here. And uh neighborhood dogs for sure, actually. Um, but that is us. Here is everyone else at the airport. These are our tenants. So, of course, as far as budgeting goes, tenants are where part of our revenue. They have all leases with us. So, they help out the city revenue-wise. We of course have Contour is our commercial airline service. We have some tour companies. We have FBOs, which I'll talk about in a little bit. We have two rental car companies and the TSA that are all there in our little terminal on the airport. And of course, we have commercial service. We're really fortunate to have an excellent commercial service here that connects us to Phoenix at the moment. And there it is. There is our contour jet in case you have not flown out of Paige to go anywhere else. It's an it's an Embra.

It's an ERJ135 and it has 30 passenger capacity which is really nice. And it's a jet. It's a big shiny jet as a lot of people say. It's nice to be in a jet perhaps as opposed to a prop, but it's very nice. And we've been there for quite a few quite a few years. We've had them. These are just some statistics in case you're interested. Contour inplainments and deplanements. So an inplanement is just parlance for someone who is in page. They get onto the plane and then they leave to points unknown. Right? Deplainments it's just the opposite people that are coming into page for all of our wonderful things that we have here. So you can see we've got blue at the top. That's 2025. So these are people that are leaving page going to places. These are all our locals that are using the services that contour is used for and our deplanements as well. Tourism that's going up. You can see it's nice. We're actually been increasing year-over-year from 23 to 2025. And we have our air tour companies too. They're the ones that when people come into town, they're seeing this gorgeous and beautiful place that we live, right? We have three primary or tour companies. We've got Analopee Air. Their most popular tour is Horseshoe Bend, of course, and Aerial View, right? We have Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines and Papyon Helicopters. Their most popular tour is Tower but because who would not want to take a helicopter ride onto the top of Tower but then get out and cry because you're so so far up. And we have Westwind. They do a lot of tours up lake to Rainbow Bridge. Also stats just for fun so you can see how we're doing this. So these are the air tour in plainments. So this is basically our tourism dollars at work

here. These are people that come in from all over to see who we are. Recently, we have gone down a little bit. Same colors. 2023 in orange. The green is 2024 and blue is 2025. Papon looks like it has the lowest numbers, but that's because it's a very small airplane, so they can't I mean a very small helicopter, so they can't of course fit as many people in there. GCA. They fly a lot of double prop planes everywhere. So, they're our most popular at the moment. Our other main tenants are our FBOs. They're called field-based operators. So, they're the ones that actually serve the pilots that come in. They're going to fuel the planes. They give them all the services that they need. We have three on the field, which is pretty amazing. Usually, an airport of our size has one, and it's usually run by the city. We have three and they're all independent contractors. So that's very nice for us as one less thing perhaps the city has to worry about. On to upcoming improvements. All right, this is the exciting stuff. So let's get ready. Um these are the things we have on our AIP. So all of our airport improvement plans. These are things we've already decided we're going to do. The funding is already in place as far as our federal grants go. These are the things we're planning to do. We have our terminal renovation project which actually is right now. We have our precon meeting next week. So, next Tuesday. I'll get all the nitty-gritty details of what that timeline is. And it could theoretically start at the very end of this month. And I'll show you guys just a little map of that in a minute after that. So, that's going to take about a year, they say. So, probably a year and a half. That's just how construction goes. Um, but that's a pretty exciting project. It's

really good for us and for all of our our tourists that are coming in. Later this year, probably in the spring to early summer, we have a taxi lane rehabilitation project. That's mostly for all of our general aviation pilots. It's going to redo the apron around a lot of our hangers, which is really nice. We're going to have a taxiway connector realignment that has to do with the runway and the taxi way. That's 2027. And then, as we mentioned, a new airfield rescue and firefighting truck, the ARF truck, and a building, which hopefully will happen before 2028, 2029. We are in the very early stages of design for that, and it's super exciting. I wish it could happen tomorrow. I know that Jeff wishes it could happen yesterday. So, we will we will get there. So, let's do just a little bit of a deep dive so you have an idea of what these renovations are. So, the terminal renovation, the main idea for this was to accommodate more for our passengers that are going on Contour Airlines right now. How many of you guys have actually been on a flight? Okay. Okay. So, you know how cozy it is right now, right? And that nice little glass, we call it the fishbowl, right? It's super nice and comfortable. So, we're actually going to bump it out. all of this. So, this is the existing building wall. Okay. This is all going to be new outside. So, they're going to build all of that first hopefully is the plan. So, that most of that is about 90% done before they really have to interfere with any of the TSA at all. So, hopefully there'll be very little disruption in service. We'll see. But that's very exciting. Yes, ma'am. So I have a question because we have tourists or individuals that fly into the airport that need extra levels of security. That was one of the concerns and so it

microphone Debbie because we have tourists that arrive in our area. They need extra security measures. Um they don't have a waiting area that's separate. So, um I had talked with Kyle and so I was wondering I thought that there was possibly in the new plans that there were going to be a place for those type of um travelers. Is that true or not? for you speaking about like for customs people that are actually arriving into Paige that need additional security or

No, I know that um we just I'm on and we're looking at bringing other in resorts and area that are bringing in um travelers that often request um security level measures of not sitting with the general public for security reasons. And so that had been something that had been brought up to me as a council member. I talked with um Kyle about it and when we were talking about it. So I was wondering if there are any considerations for that or not.

Not in the designs that I've seen, but again I'll see the full breath of them on Tuesday during the plans. At the moment this is mainly just for this is the area for Contour Airlines. So it wouldn't be uh for anyone coming in on a private plane or leaving on a private plane. At the moment we don't have any special accommodations for for that. I think that's what contour had been saying and then we also had the conversation with um Matt in regards not Matt but um Cody in regards that some people don't choose to use contour because they don't have that um ability to have that level of security. So, all right. Okay. We can certainly make sure that's addressed and I can ask all the construction guys when I the architects I make.

And quick followup. Do the FBOs's have facilities for people? Yes. For the general the general public, yes, they do. So, wouldn't wouldn't they be if someone comes in on a private airplane, wouldn't they likely go through the FBOs? Yes. For a private plane, absolutely. We do have people that come in to go to Airi on the commercial. Yes. Or leave. Um but generally speaking, they do go through our FBOs.

All right. Thank you. Next up is our taxi lane rehabilitation. Again, this is mostly for our general aviation pilots. They're the ones that are really excited about this. It's just redoing basically the pavement areas around these hangers. It's not all of them. There was a study done to see what areas needed the most assistance and these are the areas that were chosen by the engineers. So we'll be doing that sometime hopefully in May or June. Our taxway connector project this is actually redoing a bit of the runway and I don't want to get too into the weeds here. Um but it gives a little bit extra holding area. So when we have a lot of traffic and planes need to stop and wait for one another, something coming in, this will give them a safer way to do that than what we have right now. I don't know if this is the ARF truck. Um, but it was the coolest picture of an ARF truck I could find, Jeff. So these are the the strikers, right? So hopefully, again, I don't have any actual plans plans for these because we're right in the infancy of planning these, but um I hope we get one of those. Our current ARF truck looks super cool right now. It's lime green and amazing. So maybe like that. And next up is our project wish list. So I asked all of our tenants if they pie in the sky could have anything uh from the city, what do they feel they would need? I I also this is based on what the public would tell me frequently. I get a lot of phone calls in my office just about asking general things. So um here is our wish list. The first thing is and most important actually is the reorganization of our parking lot. So a lot of you I saw have flown out of the airport and you might have noticed that we've kind of outgrown our purpose. The airport was originally general aviation with air tours as well. Now we have an airline with regular

service and we have a lot of people coming in whether it's for the tours or for those airlines and we have a lot more employees than we used to with all those companies. So parking is at a premium and we would really love to at the very least reorganize it, maybe do a little renovation. There is technically possibly some future project. I've heard rumors of um being in one of our new master plans for a total redo, but that's way in the future. There was a program um in place under Kyle. He had consultants come in and kind of determine what they think the best use of that space would be. So, we do actually have that from them we can use as a guide perhaps. Um beautifification projects. This is general, but the point being that the airport is one of the first things that some people see, right? It is the first impression that a lot of people have of our town. And I think I love the airport. Like I said, I've been there for almost eight years. I'm there every day. And I think that we need a glow up. I think we do. I think it needs to be able to be our best foot forward in this town. both people coming in privately on the air side and people that are coming the locals. Let's give our locals something really nice to look at and be proud of. So that ranges from, you know, redoing the parking lot, but let's put some murals inside or out, some zeroscaping, some local plants, local art, heavy on the local ideally, but anyway, um we've had that. A coffee shop or restaurant inside the main terminal. We do have a gift shop and a gift shop area. Um, but at least six times a week, people ask me, "Where do I get some food or a really good cup of coffee?" Most importantly, where do I get a really good cup of coffee? So, that's something

that we're open to if that space becomes available or perhaps in the future we create a space for that for us. I think both the people that work at the airport and that come to the airport for services would really enjoy that. Maximizing space for our tour guests. Again, we've kind of outgrown our purpose. Sometimes in the summertime, we will have six buses and 700 people in my terminal milling about waiting for their tour, taking turns. Sometimes they're all eating Subway box lunches just sitting on the ground on our terminal. And that that's not great. That's not fun for anybody. And I feel like we could really put our heads together and make a really nice space that fits both of our commercial airline guests and our tour guests. It's really important. The other two have been talked about for quite a while. I think since I've started working at the airport, we've talked about these um installation of shaded tie downs. We all live in Arizona. We know that, you know, I recently learned just what the sun does to your car, right? It really can mess it up. The same thing is true for aircraft. We have a lot of pilots that come in and say, "Can I have a shaded tie down, please?" And I say, "I would love to give you one, but we don't have any at the moment." So, that's possibly something we'd like to put in the budget for the future. They're not super expensive, and I think that it would be worth it. And also we've tossed around the idea of implementing landing fees which is obviously not an expense but a revenue that we could get from the airport. That is it. I do want to say for any of council folk if you would like a tour of the airport to really see all of the areas and everything that we do, please do not hesitate to reach out and mass me. I happen to work on the weekends

currently just so we can have seven a day week service for everybody there. So I'm open to giving you a tour whenever you like. Just please let me know. I have I have a question for you. Yes, sir. Is there anything that you can share with council about the ongoing EAS or AES progress for renewing our airport air service by September? Sure. What specifically would you like to know, sir? I'll do my best. So, in getting that renewed, trying to work with um what's the name of the Bolair

Bolair out of Washington DC, is there anything that you can share with us about how how that is proceeding and in preparing us for this renewal in September?

Sure. Yes. So, because as you said, the renewal is in September. So technically the bids if if we're going out for bid to have possibly a new air carrier service um that's going to be starting pretty soon March it's like six to eight weeks six to eight months excuse me in advance is on contract to help us with that and they're actually going to be the primary point of contact for anyone that calls and says I would really love to put in my bid for service and it's going to kind of be filtered through Volair and they're going to give that information to Yes. Kind of a presentation is what I understand.

Yeah. And a little follow up on that, Laura. And now Josh is working with Laura and myself on this issue, too. So, he's kind of the legal expert. But if my understanding is right, it goes out to bid through the DOT, I think, as far as EAS goes. And then after that if um they can work with the low bid with the EAS and the alternate part comes if we want to choose the airline we work with right then we can take on running the payments through us and ask for an alternate EIS after the bids come through is kind of the process of that

right yes that's currently what we do is the alternate air service so we get the money uh we decide who provides our service um they give us a bill, we pay them and eventually they get re eventually right does get reimbursed. Uh whereas if we change to the EAS program um all of the money goes directly to the airline and we have a little bit less influence on who we might choose. It's a little bit more on the bid process instead. And so are any of the renovations um my understanding is that um some of the other airlines that were interested in coming in here that our runway is short and are any of the um renovations going to address that so that we have others that will be able to make bids or offers here or are is that not going to be done in time?

That is an excellent question. Uh there are no current plans to expand the runway in the next couple of years and certainly not in this year or next. So that will limit who will be able to will be something to take into consideration. Um as with the size of our our new, you know, we're building this brand new beautiful waiting area for our commercial airliners, but it's basically designed to the specs that Contour is using right now. So, as long as we end up with something the contour size are smaller, um, we'll still be excellent. If we end up with a larger plane, we'll kind of be in the similar situation where we don't have enough space,

but the the number of passengers right now with the 30 seat planes is sufficient for the foreseeable future until we expand the runway, right? Yes, it certainly seems like it. Um we don't always get we don't get a lot of different statistics from Contour at the moment. Part of that might just be that we don't ask for those statistics. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, it was just Sky West had come and given us a presentation was really courting and trying to convince us to to change over to them and there were some concerns. That's why we went with Valair Air was so that they could address it and we wouldn't make any mistakes. Right. Yes, that's a great plan to have Valair

and so that's the reason we went with Valair. But I I thought that there was some kind of understanding that there was something that they could possibly do because to the runway so that Sky West or others at that level would be able to be in the bid process. But

I think frequently what happens I know with Sky West, at least is my understanding from what I've been told is that the modification would come from the airline itself in the same way that you can actually have more people in the contour plane, but they've adjusted it for us and for our runway for maximum safety. So if you choose to have a larger plane, what you have to do is have fewer people or just like less weight is the most important thing. So they would be able to make some accommodations. It's not necessarily having a bigger runway does welcome larger. Yeah, because the larger units work on our employments and our and deplants and they have advertising and there's a lot that comes with some of them when they were courting us. Absolutely.

Did I answer all of the questions or they get derailed? My apologies. Okay. Thank you very much. Just just real quick, as part of my teamwork philosophy I'm putting in with a lot of the FAA money and grant money is is why Laura is running some of these projects such as the fire station, which will split duties between the airport and the north side of town. Yes. Because it's our funding from the FA.

Um so that's why she's in the lead on this. and then we'll bring in public works as assistants for construction when needed with consultants. But um I'm I'm really thankful for how the departments are coming together as teams for this and other projects. But that's I just wanted to start introducing that that that we have multiple departments coming together on these big projects and it seems to be working great. So

absolutely. Thank you. And next we have community services, one of our other I think newer departments, but Debbiey's not new. So I've been here 20 years since um in de December 15th. Um today I'd like to share, let me grab this really quick. Uh just a little snapshot of our community service department, what we do and who we serve and why it matters. Um, community service is about people. It's about how the city connects with residents and visitors at every stage of life from early childhood to older adulthood. Community the community service department exists to meet people where they are. Whether someone walks through the library doors, joins a recreation program, enjoys a city park or trail or attends a community event, receives a nutritious meal, or simply needs a safe place to belong. This department plays a role. Our work supports education, wellness, connections, and quality of life in Paige. This is our team here. Um, we have community center, parks and trails, uh, recreation, special events, and the library. While each area has its own focus, we work together with a shared goal, serving the community in a meaningful and accessible way. Community services leverages sil uh city facilities, public spaces and thousands of res and to serve thousands of residents and visitors each year through programming, events and accessible public spaces. These services reach nearly every household in Paige and reflect a high impact coste effective investment in our community. Um I have a couple of our c um key

points here. I won't go through them all, but our community service again is more than a department. It's how we connect with people, support families, and build a stronger page. Every program, event, and interaction contributes to a community where people feel welcome, supported, and proud to live. Um, as Frank said, we are a new um newer department. Um, we were created to align closely and connect services under one coordinated structure, improving communication, efficiency, and accountability. The city is able to maximize the use of existing facilities, staff, and resources while delivering um services in a way that reflects how residents actually experience them. So, one of the things that we're doing right now, um, is opening up the Par Club in early March. So, you can see that we've cleaned up. We're painting. Um, Parks and Trails has done an amazing job in the front um and in the back for the um outside facilities. See, we in the large room the far left up on top, we could see 234 people with tables. So, if you didn't have any tables, we could have more people in there. Um, we're excited to get this job going. Everybody's been pitching in. Uh, parks and trails, the library, public works, special events, IT, and the recreation department. We've been coordinating efforts to prepare the building for a planned opening in early March. Um, so some of our large projects scheduled for completion within the next month or two includes the splash pad and the

shell cave. The parks and trail um presentation will provide further information on those two projects. some of our goals. Um, since it's a new department, um, we I would we would really like to invest in staff development to improve performance, retention, and service delivery. That's this includes cross trainining everybody in every department. Enhance cross department coordination to reduce duplication and make better use of city resources. Improve operational efficiency to maximize the use of staff, facilities, and city resources. Adapt services to evolving community needs through feedback, data, and community input. Expand community partnerships to strengthen programs and leverage leverage shared resources. Grow volunteer involvement to support programs, events, and community services. Empower youth through leadership, education, and development opportunities. creating welcoming outdoor spaces that foster community connections for residents and visitors. Another goal is creating the trail from the dam to Horseshoe Bend. That conversation is going to start is starting to happen. Um so having been in this position for only a few months, I am learning the full scope of the city's needs and the wide variety of services that we already provide. Um, coming from a library back background to a community service director role has given me a deeper a deeper appreciation for how interconnected our departments are and how much impact they have in the daily lives of our page residents. I am fortunate to work with such a strong team whose all will be presenting um with diverse talents. Together we are well positioned to work collaboratively, strengthen service delivery and continuously improve how we serve our community.

I look forward to continuing working closely with the city manager, the city council, and fellow department directors to better understand our shared goals, strengthen collaboration, and help build a community where residents and visitors alike are proud to live, work, and belong. Sorry, I have a slight cold. Any questions? And let me jump in real quick. just this one's we're doing a little different than some of the other presentations. Being a new department, newly formed, we wanted to take a little bit and highlight the individual divisions that go in it. So, we'll have some of the managers doing some presentations on each division, too. So,

yes. Um, just a heads up on that.

So, if there's no questions for me, I'd like to introduce um Becky Reid. She's our community service um manager. Good morning everyone. I am Becky Reid. I am the community center manager. Good morning, Mayor Kidman and members of council. Um I'm a little nervous. This is the first time I've presented. So thank you very much for your patience and thank you Debbie for the introduction. Um I'm actually this is a new position for me as well. I have been here just a little bit less than three years and Debbie is my third director. So needless to say is uh I learn something new every day because all of them have done things differently. So um this is just a slideshow of what we do. I have an amazing team. I'm extremely extremely lucky. Um our executive cook has been there 26 years. So I've gotten a lot of knowledge from her. And my voice is shaking because again I'm nervous but thank you very much. Um Nora has been there 26 years. The rest of them Jr. about nine. Um the rest of them have been there less time than I have been. I have created positions for what I feel our seniors need and our special needs. Um currently how do I get this to work

just as Okay. Okay. Currently um these are our stata stat statistics for the last three yearsish. We did have a renovation last year so our numbers are a bit skewed but we are very proud of what we do. We do congregate meals which is uh dining in. We do home delivered meals um meals on wheels if that's what you want to call it. Um we have 20 of those people. We are limited due to the size of our building, the size of our kitchen. We would like to do a lot more. And we also do to-go meals. Some of you um actually uh purchase those and we appreciate that. I know that Councilman Pharaoh has actually come in and dined in quite a bit. Unfortunately, Councilman Auggie passing, but he was he was a regular that we miss. Um any questions so far? I know questions are at the end, but um anyway, these are our numbers. We are proud of our numbers. We get funding through Nikk Northern Arizona Council of Government along with the city of Paige. Um they uh we actually just got a bump so we're going to be able to serve more meals. Again, we are limited with what we are able to do with the size of our building and our staff. Next, uh we also do crafts. We have fitness, games, presentations. We kind of lumped all of those together, different types of crafts. Fitness has skyrocketed as far as our numbers go. We have we have yoga, we have chair yoga. Um we one of my girls Neil says she has created a fitness program and the next slide you will see is a gentleman went from size 48 to size 38 within a year just from attending her classes. So extremely proud of that presentations, meal preps. We've had Larry Jones at the community center. Um, luckily the second time

around was a good one and we didn't have a active shooter to interrupt. Um, but we we bring in Cookanino County, we've had the library, uh, anything we can think of that would bring knowledge to our seniors. So, our accomplishments during the renovation last year, we were closed for approximately 5 and a half months. During that time, we closed the building to the public. We still were able to serve over 6,000 people. We did our daily meals every day. We continued our meals on wheels program and we are proud of that. We didn't skip a beat. Our main focus are our seniors and our special needs and we were able to do that without any hesitation. Luckily, mother nature was nice because this was throughout the winter and we had two days of rain throughout that whole time. Otherwise, they were able to come in, come to the door, stand in line, get their meal. They would eat in the park. They would eat in their cars. It was It was actually really nice. They missed us and we missed them. So, we were extremely happy to open the doors back up. The community center was awarded a grant from Cookanino County, which with the help of Mr. from Marbury. Um, we were able to create a temporary position to bring in a registered nurse that is going to actually perform services for people in their homes that are unable to get to the community ser to the community center. Um, this was this was huge for us. This is wonderful. And as I was speaking, Mr. Overholes are here, which he did give us permission to use this picture because he is so proud of himself. But he went from a size 48 to a size 38 in a year. All just fitness yoga. Didn't really change his diet or anything. But again, that that's one of the services we provide

and we're proud of that. We have teamed up with quality connections to start. As we all know, we need transportation for our seniors here in Page. I've been here 30ome years and it has never been reliable. So, uh, we teamed up with them to try to work with them to help again our seniors and special needs to get to the community center or to get them to their appointments. It's it's been a great thing so far and I'm really happy that we are a part of that. And we also have some of the quality connections which used to be helping hands. Some of their clients come to the community service or community center to perform perform community service. They've helped clean, they've helped file, they've sat with some of the um seniors and it just helps them adapt a little bit better to the world. So, and we are very proud of that as well. The next slide, the community center, even in the short time that I've been there, we have outgrown what we are trying to do. Our building, part of our building is a 1970s trailer and the most newest part of our building is 2010. It has been pieced together for what we would really really like to do with working with Debbie. We're going to look at grants trying to enhance the building, do better with the building, just make it better for our seniors. We have goals, our future goals, just what we would like. Again, the building is just it's just there, but we can do so much more if we had newer technology, newer appliances, equipment, and everything like that. Uh, currently, and I don't want anyone blindsided, we are having plumbing issues. We have no working toilets at at the community center. This was due to part of the renovation.

the renovation, gutted out the bathrooms, fixed them, and since then they have not worked properly. We have worked with Debbie's helping me luckily, and again, um the fact that she's my third director, it was really, really hard. Past director didn't uh really push the issue too much, but we have no working toilets for our seniors. They are not happy. And unfortunately, you guys are probably going to start hearing about it. We are doing what we can. We do have a porta potty outside. Um along with that there is a horrible stench and they are not happy. I mean they are not happy at all. So we try to appease them. They come in for their meals. As soon as their meals are done instead of sitting in there for another two or three hours they go home. That's it. They come in for their meals. And what used to be a happy place for them to come into to visit, to socialize, to play games, it's it's just four walls now. And that's un that's extremely unfortunate. So I just I don't want you guys blindsided, but I do believe you're going to be contacted.

Yes. My question. Do do we know what is needed to fix that? Is that it is a tear out or

Let me let me jump in here uh a little bit. This is some more team effort. We're working with uh Brett, which is in development services. um our building official Gary and public works maintenance and our contractor that did the project um to to resolve the issue. It part of it is um just the layout of like she said that building's a patchwork quilt so when you start patching plumbing together it sometimes doesn't go together well. Um, but in this case with some of the high efficiency fixtures we have with the dual flushes and things, we think that's part of it and just the the hard layout. U we've ordered some new parts and some new toilets that kind of go back to the single flush with more flow um to to try and help that. And we're also examining the the venting and that patchwork of a building

um to make sure it's good. So, it's it's kind of a a multi-pronged approach. We're looking at trying to look at the cheapest solutions first and seeing what works and going from there. Um, right now the reason the the portallets are out there is is we're waiting on one more plumbing fixture to come in. Parts getting getting supplies here in Paige is we all know is sometimes difficult, but that's what we're waiting on. We're working on it. We're not neglecting anything. If the public is annoyed, I apologize. But it's just one of those things. It's if you're old enough to remember that movie, The Money Pit, The House. It's It's almost one of those situations where you do renovations and the bestlaid plans sometimes are a struggle. Um and uh so but but we're working on it. We know it. We've tied it several times trying to avoid digging back into concrete as much as we can, but uh but it's an issue and we're we're working on it. Top priority and council.

I have two things. Thank you. I appreciate what you're saying about working on that. That's important. I appreciate Becky's comment about Dave and I. Um, we spend quite a bit of time there and we've had the opportunity to watch that guy go from 48 to 38 and I I've attended most of those exercise programs. I should be able to recover my back doctor says soon. But the the is what I really want to be I really want to congratulate what what Becky has done there. um that place some sometimes that's the only meal some of these people get per day. Um that's just one example and sitting with them and watching them that's sometimes the only company they get that time that day and it's so important some of the side benefits that her team has done and her team proactively created some of these exercise programs taking them to different parks to do yoga different places to exercise. This is a model business approach to the community that Becky has led and you've done an outstanding job. Thank you.

Thank you. So, I won't mention, but one of your previous directors when I was on the park and recreation board, the city park has no restrooms and they're in desperate need of restrooms there. Families or people that are there have the same thing. There used to be outouses, but they're not there now. I think they go over and possibly try to use yours.

And one of the suggestions was to take the funds because I believe in the budget there is funds for um restrooms for the city park and we just still don't have those to put them as part of your building. Um and she had suggested to use those funds because you're in the city park and that would be the location for the restrooms and then it could be a dual um complete new restrooms for you. So instead of doing your old ones back then, her suggestion had been to, you know, and I I just throwing that back out there because I thought it was a great solution. It would have got you, you know, totally new um restrooms and there was funding from my understanding for that. And then it would get the park finally some restrooms.

And we do, we have we have tourists that come in uh they're visiting the park. They do. They come in and sometimes they even just sit and relax because they like the building. They like the feel of it. We like it to be home away from home. And unfortunately with no restrooms is we're not even getting that right now. Nobody's coming into the building. So yes,

Councelor Hinger. So then as we're thinking about the budget, I know that we're trying the cheap options first to try and get it fixed without having to redig into concrete, but looking forward into next year's budget. Is this something that we're considering maybe having a placeholder line item for that has some more funds in case we do have to do more extensive renovations for these bathrooms? Um because I think we're all saying the same thing that you can't have a building that doesn't have bathrooms and provide the services that you are. So, I think it's a priority and

it's going to be I I anticipated it to be rectified by now. It it just like Frank was saying is supplies. It's just really really hard. Um but they are they're brand new restrooms. They're beautiful. They just don't work. You walk in and they're white and they're they're sparkly and they but they don't work. They just don't work there. Nothing about them is efficient at all. So the the grant that paid for the renovation, it it was great, but and this was prior to myself being there, so everything was laid out before I got there, but there were definitely questions that I had that I never got answers to from previous directors.

Yeah, that must be so frustrating. So that would be very much so. Definitely something that I would be happy to see in next year's budget that I guess I would support in next year's budget is making sure we can get this rectified. And as we all know, seniors, they don't like change. So when something is not right, it if we have to if we have to serve peaches over pears, we hear about it. So I yeah, the bathroom issues is they're kind of at their their wit's end because we can't give them a solid answer as far as when they're going to be fixed. around. I agree with what Kenna says, but to me, bathroom is an emergency, and I know we have an emergency fund.

So, I I think that's something that falls in emergency fund is how I feel as a council member. And why can't we hold whoever was the contractor or whoever did it, they shouldn't they have a level of responsibility for the work that they did? But that's just a different thing. And then whatever. But I'm just saying to me this I don't want to see us wait until next fall to be getting them new bathrooms if they have to have it. Thank you. That that's what I was about to say that that bathrooms are not something that necessarily can or should wait for another budget year. We have contingency budgets for just that reason and we will use them if needed. Um, as far as liability of contractors, I'm not throwing a contractor under the bus because like I said, this is existing plumbing we're dealing with that they were dealing with. So, we're not sure if it was a workmanship issue. If it is, they will be responsible for fixing their work accordingly and we are working through the issues as we see fit. I it leads into my teamwork philosophy a little bit that Becky might have not been here when some of the planning stages of this building is, but in the future someone like her as our primary stakeholder for a facility like this just much like the police the fire station is with Chief Reed and we will be looking at that in the future. I think she would have liked to have had some things done differently, but not being here and and some of the things that happened before, you have projects in pro progress and have to live with those. But we will keep working at the problem until it's complete. It's not something we're neglecting and I will anybody that wants to talk about it can come to me and talk about it and I will handle it.

Sounds good. Thanks. Who do you got next? Or are you anything more for Okay, good job. Thank you.

Um I would like to say a few words about this young lady who's going to present for the library today. She was one of our teens attending our programs um when I first um moved to Paige. Um Michaela Lee and she also just received her master's degree in library of science in December. So I'm very proud of her and she will be presenting for the library. Hello. Oh gosh, I just felt the nervousness. Well, thank you guys for having me. Like she said, my name is Michaela Lee. I am on my ninth year working for the city as the reference librarian, and I'm presenting on behalf of Page Public Library, which is often referred to as the heart of our community. So, right here we have our library team. So we have Debbie Winlock who is the director of community services and then we have myself I am the reference librarian again and I am over Patrice Kurthers who is the circulation supervisor who is over Lindsay Smith and Maris who are both circulation assistants and then we have Simron Shifflet who is our library and oper operations support supervisor who is over Camila Santos who is our children's coordinator and then we have Havana Goldtooth who is our teen librarian At the bottom we have Megan Marx, our library specialist, Candace Sinigeny, our library assistant, Brian Bark, our adult programming and outreach, and Christian Porter, who is our general utility worker. So, these are some of our accomplishments along with some pictures of some of our programs. So, we have our photography 10 101, our adult open mic night, family cahoot night, adult board game night, our puzzle competitions, which have been very popular. We've had 72 in in attendance, and so far we've had five different uh tournaments for them. We have had diabetes education,

introduction to meditation, baby prom, which had 52 participants, and that one was absolutely adorable. basically prom but for babies five and under. We had an orphan train lecture, project archaeology, Taylor Swift album listening party, which this is actually our third successful Taylor Swift themed event. This last one we had 127 participants show up for it. So Taylor Swift is definitely popular in our library. We have the shop with the hero wrapping party. We had 432 participants in that. Youth Voices, Community Choices, Laser Cutting 101, what is AI introduction? And that one was taught both at our library as well as at the community center to the seniors. We had a lot of great feedback from that. And that was just teaching them about what AI is, how to stay safe, and how to spot AI because it's becoming so much bigger and we want to prepare our community um to really understand what it is. We had a foam party with 63 participants and there's actually a picture on the bottom left of one of the kids. It was they absolutely loved it. We had a big foam machine and they just had a party surrounding that basically. Um, and then we had our air fryer cooking class, which has been very popular. We've had three of them with two more to come. We've had our Grinch brunch with 56 participants. That one, uh, kids got to do pancake art, crafts, story time, and music, and they got to have brunch with the Grinch present. You can see a picture here on the bottom right. And we had family Christmas shop bingo with 46 participants. our adult prom with 65, a traveling museum which is called the

American two 250 traveling museum. Sorry. We have h we are going to have a speaks and youth astronet. So right here are some pictures from different some of our different programs. We have the Paige Library Con, our one of our Taylor Swift parties, family pumpkin carving, our adult prom, uh pictures from our puzzle competition with the winners. We have the Grinch brunch, gingerbread houses, teen terrariums, our Friendsgiving, trunk or treat, fry bread day, which we do annually for, and we have it separated where we do it for adults, kids, and teens. They get to learn how to make it and fry it all at the library. We have our movies in the park which is well attended and we have a picture of our job fair. And right here I just wanted to read a really nice um part of a letter that was written to us by the Arizona Department of Child Safety. So she said, "I've noticed over the past two months when writing my assessments that when I talk to families about how they cope with stress or how they promote healthy social skills, a lot of families have mentioned Page Public Library. Several families have suffered issues with their EBT benefits and expressed gratitude for how they were able to continue celebrating holiday traditions at the library with their children at no cost to their families. I have utilized the library as a location to meet with family members who have felt uncomfortable with meeting a DCS worker at our office or at their home. These families have recommended meeting at Page Public Library to complete assessment interviews or even to conduct supervised visits with their children. When court action is required and DCS organizes supervised visits between parents and children, parents have a preference to utilize Page Public Library as a visitation location. In my interviews with children, seven children, several children have disclosed how they leave their home to go to our library to separate themselves

from incidents of abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. A few children have even mentioned how library staff have assisted them with their math homework in learning how to utilize computers and to navigate the internet. I can say that Page Public Library fosters positive characteristics and victims of domestic violence and victims of child abuse and neglect. Page Public Library is a safe haven where people can grow into independent, self-sufficient beings and come to our library to celebrate all that they have endured. So here are some of our accomplishments involving partnerships. So we partnership with a lot of different organizations. Our very first one right here is with the ARP Foundation. They provide a free tax service. We had 434 people come and get their taxes done. And taxpayers were received 495,000 in federal fund federal funds alone. Um, and that was um, like I said, it was completely free, no cost to them whatsoever. Um, we have our seeds to supper program, our spring fall into health fair, which had 536 participants. In that program, we partner with Flagstaff Dentistry for kids and they were able to give approximately 350 dental cleanings and fluoride treatments during those two visits. We have partnered with we are water to bring an NSF STEM day. Diabetes education toys for tots with 231 children participating. Christmas angel we partner with Walmart and we had 82 kids participate in that one. Shop with a hero wrapping party. We participate with the city, the police department and the fire department. Um and we had 432 participants come to that Christmas at the ranch. We partner with Ranch House

Grill and that one had 863 participants. We actually received a grant to go to the design institute which uh three of us, myself, Debbie and Megan Marks got to travel to St. Louis to meet with architects um who helped us plan and go over the needs of our community and draft up uh plans for us. And then we had the job fair that is yearly. We partner with Cookanito Community College, the Courtyard by Marriott, and many local businesses to do that. Um, this list does not include all the partnerships and all the programs and outreach Page Public Library has. If it did, we would be here all day. So, some of our library statistics. So, these statistics are year to date. We have our patron count was at 21,215 which um garnered 47,4 553 visits to the library. We hosted 1,831 programs that were attended by 16,392 patrons. Our website hits were 43,386. Our Wi-Fi usage was 16,171. Our circulation was at 39,51. And that includes not only materials in the library, but we also have um an app called Libby, which people can download and check out ebooks, e audiobooks, and magazines. We have our public computer usage was at 23,154. We provide one-on-one uh computer classes in which we teach anything from Microsoft Office skills to

resume building or anything involving electronics. We teach them at the library. For our notaries, we did 934 of them. We have we currently have five notaries. We also offer notaries on Fridays and Saturdays, which many businesses do not. So, we have that available for the public to use. Our hotspot usage was at 741. We have multiple hotspots that get checked out for a week and they get to take it home. Uh, and then our Library of Things usage was at 860. This includes um things like pressure washers, tool sets, camping supplies, yard games, cake pans, electronics, cooking supplies, and so much more. And it is constantly expanding. Uh some of our annual program improvements. So, our job fair went from 354 to 385, an 8.7% increase. Our library con, which was one of our biggest um expansions, was went from 695 to 1,252 participants, which was a 79.86% increase. Christmas at the ranch went from 850 to 863, a 1.52% increase. And then you can see here we have some pictures from the orphan train lecture, our page library con family day over the summer, and our baby prom. I had to include this picture because it was my favorite baby that showed up. He was so adorable and he just had this cute little bow tie on. Um, and if you did not know, we also serve meals to kids after school as well as weekend meals. So, for our dinner meals, we had 5,946 meals served. And our weekend meals were

43 34 bags. And those include non-p perishable things like rice, noodles, cans, stuff like that. Um, and some things that are um not listed on here as well. We are currently, sorry, let me backtrack. Um, some things that we have recently gotten, we've gotten a new book drop. Our teen area has been moved closer to the children's area to provide a more cohesive youth department. And um our maker space, we're in the works of putting that together. That's going to include things like 3D printers, which we also teach classes on how to 3D print, laser cutters, also we have taught a class on that. And we have diecut machines and so much more that's going to be going into that maker space for the community to sign up and use. So here are some of our future goals. So we would like to offer intentional programming from early literacy to lifelong learning. So that will include things like early literacy and family engagement programs, teen leadership, financial literacy and civic engagement projects, adult skill building, and that will include things like budgeting, job readiness, and digital literacy. and senior connection programs in order to reduce isolation. Um, for the second one, we would like to let community voices help shape services, collections, and programs. In order in order to do that, we would like to conduct community surveys that guide programming priorities. Strengthen partnerships with schools, nonprofits, and city departments. Outreach at local events, festivals, and rural sites. Pop-up library services outside of the building. supporting parents and caregivers with resources and programs,

incorporating outdoor programming in wellness areas, and strengthening volunteers as well as partnerships for our staffing, ongoing training and leadership development, recognition of staff contributions. We would like to reduce burnout by balancing workloads and responsibilities. We would like to document procedure procedures in order to reduce loss of institutional knowledge and to develop internal leadership pathways for our facility. We would like to introduce RFID tags. So I have a little bit about what RFID tags are so you guys can understand it. So basically they are thin durable tags that are going to be replacing our barcodes. So they'll be able to enable bulk checkouts of the items by using a wand to check them out and in instead of scanning everything individually. So this can help our library by accelerating circulation because it'll produce less lines and it everything will go faster. It will provide enhanced security, efficient inventory management, increased staff productivity, improved user experience and automated material handling. I went over some on our maker space, but uh we would like to be finishing that up and getting everything together hopefully soon. We would also like to introduce a sound recording pod. So, currently we have three pods in our library. Two of them are new and we use them so that people can go in there to take phone calls, go in there to study, uh meetings, anything like that. It is a soundproof pod because we don't have meeting rooms that we can use. We have our program room but it is constantly used with all the programs that we have going on. So we have come up with that solution in order to provide that space

for people. We would also like to improve our outside sidewalk to make it more handicap accessible. people have a very hard time coming down the long I guess I would say like ramp kind of coming down that the long way in order to get to the library. So we would like to make it more accessible. We would also like to provide a story walk. We're currently looking for an area to place it. If you don't know what a story walk is, it's exactly like how it sounds. Uh you go on a walk and at certain points there's parts of a story that you can read. Um, and that is actually all that I have. Is there any questions?

No. Before we take a question, um, just wanted to welcome councelor Hammond who is able to connect on with us during the middle of your presentation. So, good morning everyone. Okay, good. She is here. Okay, where who did I see a hand up over here? Councelor Preller.

Uh, I just want to say thank you. Um, I love seeing all the um, wacky and unique events you guys are putting on. I think that's a fantastic way to keep it fresh and relevant. Keep people coming. Uh, I cannot believe you got 56 people to come out for Grinch brunch. Um, that makes my heart grow two sizes too large. Um, I I love the direction that you're going with the Library of Things stuff. Um, you mentioned pressure washers. That's fantastic. there is a weird like niche use case for tools that are expensive and that you need, you know, once a year that you don't want sitting in your garage. That's that's a great way to keep uh libraries relevant. I love it. Um same deal with the maker spaces. Um what I I think uh we might want to look into though is uh advertising and uh like calendar integrations, that sort of stuff, getting the word out better. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna blanket that as as uh advertising. Um, I know there's occasionally stuff coming out on on the app. Um, if we can do like, I don't know, a Google calendar tie-in that that sort of stuff. Um, I think that would be uh helpful for people to look at and go, "Oh, you know, there's I don't know, Nerf Wars or whatever going on this Friday." Um, rather than the colorful uh consolidated camera we have or calendar we have right now. Um, that's all for me. Fantastic. Love to see it.

Thank you, Council Roundree.

I was just going to say, um, that as I've had the opportunity as a council member to sit on the library board, and you hear people talk about, oh, the library, aren't libraries outdated? Aren't they closing across the United States? You can see the reason why our library is not closing, why our library is the heart of Paige, why our library was ranked number one in the United States, because they are making our library very relevant for our community. And it's amazing the foresight that they have and all of the things that they're doing. Um, I would hope that the city manager would take the time to work with um, the school district because we used to have more students that were being bust and that's caused some of our numbers to drop. And I think that that service is really important. The letter that you read, Michaela, I've heard people share similar things with me um, about how important the library is for some of our children, especially some of our atrisisk higher needs students in our community. So, I think it's important that our library is very accessible for parents and for children. So, as we consider um the new quality connections um um and opening that conversation back up with our school districts so that they try to get busing more busing done there. And I think our app needs to advertise what's going on with our library more so citizens know to get out because I think that is we all know that communication is a huge problem but getting information would only add to your guys's success.

Great. Thank you. May I go ahead and add something? I'm sorry. Oh, I was just curious on the patron count how that number works. 21,000 is amazing. Is that based off of library card registrations? Is it based on people coming into the library? Um, how is that? It's quite a bit more than the number of people we have in our community. So, are we serving a lot of people outside of the community or is that people coming to the library?

So, we do stats different ways. So, we have a door count for the library and that's everybody that comes in and we actually have a door count that counts those people coming in. Um but the programs that we do is outreach. So the Fourth of July is huge. We we include that number. The trunk or treat, we include that number. So those w those big events bring those numbers up. Amazing. Thank you.

You're welcome. I do want to mention that um I know there's some bike lovers here. So we do have bike bikes um for our library of things and I could use Rachel as one of them. Somebody came down for a meeting with Rachel and they outreached to us and he got to ride our rimtrail because we had a bike to check out. So, um, we're really proud of our library of things. Is there any other questions? Well, thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. Um, I'd like to introduce Justin who is our parks and trail manager. Um, I need to give kudos to this team also. They are so talented in so many different areas that every department reaches out to them to ask them for assistance. And Justin is such a good team player that he gets right in there and helps them. So kudos to his team. All right. I am not a great public speaker also, so I'm going to try to get through this. Uh, good morning, mayor, council, and staff. Um, the parks and trails team is dedicated to the upkeep and continued growth of the city parks, trails, city-owned landscape, and community events. By listening to the public needs through the parks and rec board in ongoing communication um with the community, we will continue to move forward with the import or improvements that enhance uh accessibility, expand recreation opportunities, trails, beautifies the city landscaping. Um our team is committed to serve the citizens of Paige and constantly go above and beyond uh to make our community a better place. Uh this is most of our current uh employees. We have um a staff of nine

including myself. Um most of them are new as our comm or our uh department has grown over the uh last six years. Um I'm not going to go into uh detail on all of the improvements that we've made this year on trails. Um I'll let you go through that. But just to highlight um some of the bigger ones. Um at uh the Red Mesa Trail, um we did collaborate with um the Canyon Club, which is a nonprofit here in Page. Um they provided a shade um structure or pavilion um that was up there. They did do the install. Um we came in and did footings for them um with our equipment um that we have. And then after they were gone, we went ahead and um uh provided picnic benches, um trash cans. So, we did put in a a bike repair station um kind of a walkway going to that um shade structure and then little area around it. Um, another big project that we did up there was, um, since we've developed that area, Lee has we see a large amount of people that park kind of there in Leashi on the border um, next to like they call it Mutton Curve and they they come and use the area in Red Mesa, a lot of walking, um, hiking, that kind of stuff, elderly people coming out. Um, prior to the development of Red Mesa, there was a a big off-road problem and um I I don't know, it was before my time. The way to solve that was there was kind of a a bottlenecked area. They dug a deep hole um that prevented off-road vehicles from going to there, but it also kind of made an unsafe or kind of hindered um people being able to walk from a um to use that area. Um, so this year we did go in, we built a new fence with a walkthrough gate, a parking area right on the border. Um, and then at that point that kind of prevented the off-road use, so we were able to go in and kind of fix that area and make it more accessible for um, the people coming in from that side. Um, it's great. There is a a

walking club in Lee. They have about 10 or 15 people that go every uh, twice a week. Um, when they started that um, we were kind of finishing up that project and it was great to see online. They're always taking pictures in front of the fence or through this area that that needed improvement. So, it's kind of paid. It's kind of nice to see people using what we do. We're appreciating it. Um the Rim View Trail, um not a whole lot going on there this year. Um just a lot of maintenance. Um when I kind of stepped into this position this year, we found that, you know, the trail is great, but it has kind of it just kind of needed some work. Um because it's a single track trail, a lot of that work is by hand. So it is very labor intensive. It's, you know, guys with hand picks and shovels out there um you know fixing that that trail. So we've done quite a bit of of that over the last couple months. Um we're also going to come in and kind of replace the delineators that are mile markers and and trail signs. Um I hate those. So we're going to come in with actual signage. Um we're putting in the signs. There'll be a vinyl um sign on them. Those can easily be replaced. We do them in-house, so all we have to do is send them out to printers whenever we need to. If one gets vandalized, it fades, it doesn't look good, it's a quick, easy replace and very cost effective. Um we're also working with the Canyon Club this year again on another project. Um they were looking for funding. So they purchased a bunch of park benches. They're custom park benches. They um basically people in town could buy them. they could put a little message on them, a business name, a memorial kind of a a thing. Um, they were able to raise funds that way. They're getting shipped to us. And then we've kind of picked out some areas um 10 different spots along the Review Trail that we will be installing that. And then I believe we're going to be working with them probably next year to do the Red Mesa Trail. Seems like this has been a pretty good success for them and the city benefits from it as

well. Um, Horseshoe Bend, we have um a ton going on out there. Um we are currently doing a large electrical um project um getting electrical and fiber um to the future build site and then the south end of the parking lot. So we're doing the trenching the conduit um basically all the initial work that needs to be done so that those projects can move forward in the future. Um we're installing or we installed two new shade structures, widened the um walkway already, and then we're going to be installing another two shade structures probably in a month or two. Um and then we're replacing all the trash cans, 30 trash recepticles. Um the initial ones that were purchased are great, but not for Paige. Um they have open tops and the birds and the wind is just an ongoing problem. So um we're going to be replacing those. And then we have the Shell Cave. Um I don't know if you know about that is behind Shell gas station. Um I did not pick the name. It was just picked for us by everybody. So um we uh we're working with public works to develop or they're helping us develop a parking lot um kind of up by the amphitheater there. Uh we've already started work on the trail. Actually that's a picture of of that trail. We just kind of have a sliver of property that the city owns that we're able to actually put a trail in. um probably not the best um area, but hey, we're going to work with it. Um we're doing a bunch of um erosion control to kind of keep stuff where it needs to go and and get a trail put in there and it'll change as um we kind of deal with the weather, the rain, and that that kind of stuff. Just some little pictures of uh some stuff that we've done. Um we have the uh Red Mesa trail there with the bike station. and also the new um shade structure that went up in the back. Um we have one of our employers, Clifford,

here who's uh doing some trail work. These are the two shade structures that we have already installed out at Horseshoe Bend as well as taking that used to be a solid sidewalk for about 5T to about 15 or 20. Um the picture down here in the bottom, it's um that's the building of the uh Lee parking lot and fence there. Um I have a very new crew. I have I don't know probably 50% of the guys we have are a year or less with um our department. Um we kind of hire people based on their previous skills maybe not based off of landscaping or irrigation that kind of stuff. Um we're more into we've kind of built it around um skills that maybe we didn't have like electrical welding fabrication those kind of things so that we can kind of move into other projects instead of having to contract those projects out. we're able to do them ourselves in in house. Um the guy in the hoodie, that's Chance. He's a supervisor with um Parks and Trails. And then the other guy is a new guy, Jonah. Um he's learning to weld. It's his first time. So um lots of training always going on. Um there's just a picture of the disc golf. Um the uh holders there. We um use you can see we we built those. Um again, they're fabricated. Um we were going to go out and have them and source them. Um they hit us with a price of around $250 a piece. We built them for 40 bucks. Um and then this is just the road up to Red Mesa. We um try to maintain it every two uh you know about every two weeks. Um sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Um due to the steep grade it does get washed out with washboards and stuff, but uh we do our best to maintain that. city buildings and landscapes. Um any kind of again like Debbie said, if somebody reaches out to us um we are not

we are a a yes department. We'll do our best to uh to help you in any way. Um so some of this really has nothing to do with parks or landscaping, but um these are stuff that we've helped out other departments with. Um the library reached out to us needing a new fence around the the kid area. It had rusted out and it was just a hazard at that point. But um so we did remove and it install a new fence there. Um a new bicycle station repair station and um new book drop boulevard. The uh trees were kind of getting out of hand. So again contracting that out. We came in and um trimmed all the trees this year. Um could even see a lot of the light poles or the signs that were along Lake Powell Boulevard. Um we did some improvements in lighting on the breezeway. um just kind of brightening that up, making it more of an inviting area, especially at nighttime. Um prior to it was a very kind of dark area. Um we kind of removed a bunch of obstacles in there. Um new lighting, fixed the lighting that was in there. Um we had to strip lighting through there and it was kind of funny. We kind of was reached out to by some of the businesses that wanted, you know, this hanging lighting and, you know, this whimsical feeling. And then we did half of it and then ironically the people that wanted it in the beginning were like, "Hey, we don't want it anymore. we don't want because we had to attach it to their building that they didn't want to do it. So that's why half of it is done and half of it is not. Um but I think it turned out great. Definitely inviting. Um the public works building um they got a received a new building and completed uh building there. We um just finished up the landscaping there minus the uh the plants. We'll come back here in spring here and put those in. Um that was a pretty big project. Um, we did the rock, the boulders, um, the mounding, the irrigation, all that stuff has been completed. Um, we just kind of hopefully next week, uh, finish up a project over at the courthouse. Um, they're having issues with some of the trees there. One was

dead. Um, the other trees were kind of creating a problem with the sidewalks. The planters that they were in had just overgrown and were were falling apart. And biggest issue was just the sidewalks. And they reached out to us. So, we did go in and remove those trees, uh removed the planters, and uh repaired or kind of redid the landscaping. They provided some benches that we installed as well as a bike rack. Um Christmas, that's a huge thing for us. Um we do light all of the parks, or not all the parks, but the the city park and do all the lighting throughout uh the city, all the um buildings. Um something we love and hate. um it takes about 3 months. So that's three months dedicated basically to Christmas lights and special events during that time frame. You know, we're doing the balloon riata, Christmas in the park, um Halloween, all those those things. So um the guys love the finished product and um I think the the citizens of Paige do too. So and then we're working on the par club um with Debbie right now. um just kind of you know the par club was just kind of left for a long time with maybe not the um all the maintenance that it needed. So we've come in and um kind of redid like we're redoing the bridge that is there because it was just unsafe and it was that was kind of the only access wheelchair access going down to the the basketball courts and to the um the playground. So we're redoing that. Um they had some steps that were in need of being replaced or just railroad ties. who come in and replace those with um castle block and just making them um easier and just not a hazard. Um same thing with the volleyball court, just kind of redoing everything. Um it's going to be kind of a a step project. We're going to at this point make it safe, make it usable, get it open to the public, and then um kind of move on from there. So

again, just some pictures of some of the work that has been done. um the one with the mini excavator that council um got us last year. Thank you. Um doing the tear out of the planters around um the courthouse and we've got in front of public works doing the landscaping the fence down at the bottom for the library, the Christmas tree in the park. Um it is not a fake Christmas tree and it is not there year round. Okay. I hear that um quite often. People are like, "Oh, it's nice. est fake Christmas tree we've ever seen. It is not fake. We bring that in from the kaab. Um it is a chore to do it, but um I think people enjoy it and makes for a really nice time to have that lit up. Um tree trimming along the Lake Pal. Um the top one there is from the parro club redoing the volleyball area. And then we have lighting and stuff down the breezeway. And then there's just another picture of the parrot club. city parks. Um the sports complex got a lot going on there. Um we took part in um the uh the batting cages. We did not do the install of the batting cages, but we did do the sod removal, the initial removal for the construction to go on. And then um we're going to go back and lay turf um on it. Um they have reached out to us and asked us we could do that. We're just waiting for temperature change. The uh the stuff to the glue to use has to be above 60° for 25 to 48 hours. So, soon as we get that, we'll uh finish that up. Um we are handed I don't want to say handed the keys, but officially handed the splash pad um just the other day. Um it is done. It is finished. It is working. It is great. um we are going to go in there and um do the landscaping on it and then um we will come up with a a date weather permitting to open it. I

believe special events and so on are going to do a grand opening for that and um put up signage obviously with times of use, those kinds of things. Um we have the BMX pump track. This was um kind of thrown at us last minute. Um it is coming together great. It's moving in the right direction. Um we plan to have that hopefully done by the end of the year. Um or shortly after. Um Gallier Park, we installed some new shade structures there. Um a new entrance on the west side of the dog park. Um we also we had some issues with the um drainage for the um sorry the dog fountain there. Um, so we kind of bypassed the sewer and just put in a French drain um with a leeching system and it has worked great so far. Um, and then public works is helping us out with the lighting there. Um, they did install a um a solar light towards the back of the park and then they're currently working on the two lights up towards the front and it is working on some cameras there as well. um John C. Memorial Park. Um the biggest things there is the skate park completion, the addition of the skate park um has been completed um and being used. And then the bathroom situation um we do have funding obviously you guys know that we have funding for a bathroom. I started looking at what the options were to um complete this project and bring bathrooms to um that park which are much needed. Um, when I started looking at either a prefab building or having a new building built, there was only a handful of places that it could be built. One would be to remove the current restrooms that have been closed for, I believe,

over 15 years. Um, tear them down, rebuild a new one or um put a new one kind of up on top. There's one area that we could have used. But between the price of a new building and getting the resources to that area, sewer, water, electric, all those things, um it was was fairly expensive. So, I went down and looked at the old building. I've never been in it. Um I don't think anybody's been in it. Opened it up and took a look. Kind of expected. I don't know what I expected. Maybe I don't know. It's just been kind of a taboo thing that has been closed for whatever reason and was just garbage. and found a very solid building with multiple stalls in it that um I believe like we could just refurbish. Um so I started I reached out to public works um they kind of came over looked at it Gary did said the same thing. So we had him start putting pricing together to um remodel the inside as well as the outside. We've contacted it um so that we can get look at um putting cameras, that kind of stuff around it so that it can be monitored. Um I believe it was closed for vandalism before. I think that was the excuse. Um doesn't matter if we have a new building or an old building, we're going to have the same issue. So we found with the skate park that putting those cameras up, having that presence, PD having a resource to actually, you know, go after people that vandalize is I won't say it's completely stopped, but it has it is much better. So, we kind of think that's kind of the way to go. Um, I'm kind of an ADA guy. So, um, in that pricing, um, I went out to some contractors. Um, we do do concrete work in my department, but nothing on on this scale to have all the concrete ripped out around the building, ADA um, concrete put in with handrails. So, it's wheelchair ADA except um compliant as well as a um sidewalk going from the the

park all the way down that we had a 5% grade which is well within spec for um wheelchair and ADA access also with a handrail. Um kind of put that all together in the last couple of weeks. Um we're hoping to kind of get together with all of everybody that's involved with it, send it up the chain. eventually it's going to end up with you guys and hopefully we can uh get started on that project because I think it's something that that I mean we all know that the park has needed bathrooms for a very long time. So just some projects um again um the big one there um again we try to do everything inhouse instead of contracting it out in the past and I I feel that we do a better job most of the time than contracting it out. So, in this case, these sidewalks, they're only I think they're eight years old. Um, I don't know why people don't put AB underneath sidewalks in this town, but uh anyways, we have a huge issue with them cracking and so we go back in um do them prop because of the tree. Yes, you are correct.

I'm with you.

Yeah. Um the top one here with the tractors, that is doing the the French drain over for the dog park. Um down the bottom we've got some work being done for the canopies, concrete pads being poured for the canopies at Golliard, the westside fence, and then again just some training. Um these guys are being trained here how to um drain backloss and palms, getting them ready for winter time. And then events. Um we uh we do all the setup the takedown um for special events, library recreation um and even non- city events. People who rent the stage or just reach out to us asking for help to um you know make make their event a success. Um we do site prep. Um we do the equipment, everything from stage maintenance to you know chairs, tables, whatever it is. Um and then we come in afterwards and uh clean everything up. Um our community impact um we're able to do this um in a safe manner. um making it um accessible um wellorganized event, strong indep department and nonprofit partnerships. And then our physical impact um we use our existing staff and the equipment um that we have available to us to um avoid as much as possible um using contractors. Um there's a list of of some of the events. I'm not going to go through them all. um parks and trails is kind of essential to the successful delivery of special events and community programs across the city. Um we participate with not only special events but the library um anybody that reaches out to us. So parks and trails play an important role in supporting community life and page by

assisting with the setup, take down and coordination of all major city events. Um, the team also plans and delivers the Fourth of July fireworks show, creating memorable celebrations for residents and visitors alike. In addition, Parks and Trails proudly partners with local nonprofit organizations to help complete projects that benefit our community. Uh, we work alongside the 4H club, the Canyon Club, the Paige Gun Club. I mean, those are just a a couple. Um, again, anybody that reaches out and we can help them, we we try to do that. So, that's all I've got. Any questions?

Wonderful. Um, we'll do councelor Hinger and then councelor Preller, but make sure we're having feedback that they can't hear what the council members are saying, so make sure to get your microphone close.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to reiterate what you've said, having sat on the parks and recreation advisory board. You guys are so helpful. I feel like you're part of so many of these major events, making sure that the finishing touches are done. Um, involved with so many aspects of the community. So, thank you for all that you do. I'm also really grateful that you're thinking about security, about the bathrooms at Johnc Page. I don't know what makes parents more mad, whether it's a bathroom not being available or when the bathrooms are closed and they're expecting them to be available. Um, so I really appreciate that we're thinking about that ahead of time. On your presentation, you said it was scheduled for completion by year end. Is that fiscal year end or It's fiscal year end. Awesome. Thank you. Give or take.

Yeah, give or take. Again, we're kind of like at the rough estimate is moving along August. Yeah. And then council rry,

can I just say a a big thank you uh to this department. So, I sent off uh a sneaky email to Frank uh right before Christmas, and I was just walking the dog on the rimtrail like I always do. And the rimtrail is been looking worn uh everywhere for a number of years now. And I saw that suddenly stuff is fixed and looking good. Um and I thought, okay, surely that's some, you know, vigilante cyclist or or something. Um, I, you know, didn't assume that while you're in the midst of Christmas lights season, everything else, you're going out there and doing that stuff on top of all the other, uh, you know, new and improvement, uh, things that we've been seeing around the city. I think it's it's fantastic. You've got lots of pictures to back it up. Um, dog parks seen a huge turnaround. Um, I I think it's fantastic. Uh, I mean, you always he like there's always citizens that say that the Christmas lights look good. That's a given. Yeah. Um we know that that's a fantastic thing, but on top of that, uh the breezeway is looking fantastic. Um we're, you know, getting drainage. It's I'm I'm really excited for uh how this department's turned around uh since you've taken over and the the new crew you've got and I uh hope to see it for years to come.

Sure. Thank you, Council Rantry. I ditto some of the things they said for time sake. um really excited the way this department has changed around. Um so one of the things I've been asked and had phone calls for is and it never happened before. So are there um temporary restrooms out there now? Are there portable there is there there always has been. I don't know why. So right next right next to the old ones we have a contract with um Three Peaks. There is a ADA accessible um bathroom that is there. It is not because it is used by so many people. It is may not be the most the best place, but there is a bathroom there. There's always been one.

Well, when I was called, I said I insisted that they were out there and I argued with one person and they said they are not. So, I drove over there and they weren't there. So, maybe we have taken them and we're going to reset them a few days later, but that was way before I think right before you came in. Council round, we're missing some of your mic.

And then, thank you. And then the last thing is um for the dog park having managed the animal hospital the and I tried to convince the past that it's not healthy for our dog community to have a communial drinking spot there. And so of course it's important for them to be able to fill up their own bowl or whatever they want to bring for their pets to drink out of, but the communal one is really dangerous and it can spread that. So just for your information, good that it's gone. I can I can definitely understand that. But at the same time it was um that was a donated item to the city. Yeah, I understand that. It would be a a hard thing to get rid of with the citizens.

Probably should put a signage there or something, but I'm just saying a lot of people think it's great, but it's it is very dangerous and a lot of communities you do something else with them. Gotcha. Thank you. Is that all? Thank you for the great job. Thanks. Okay. Um, I'd like to introduce um Dakota from recreation.

The right side. Yeah, this one. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Morning everyone.

Was that a little bit closer? Good morning everyone. I'm Dakota Richardson going on my second year as recreation manager starting next month. Um, so this presentation just covers what we've been doing since July 2025 up to now up to this point. So going to the next slide. Since it's my second year, a lot of you don't know me. So my mission here and our recreation team came up with the mission uh of the city of Paige recreation department to create recreational opportunities for growth enhancement by developing diverse services and programs that promote citizen involvement and a strong sense of community while striving to increase the social cultural and physical well-being of the stu of its residents. And there you got me right in the middle. You got Ally Coldwell, a recreation assistant on the left. And then on the or on the right, and then on the far left, Kelly Meredith. And those are us, our department who we work with right now. Um, what we got right here is our kids programming since we've done since July. Uh, we got youth camps going on during the summertime. Something we added. Um, we had a pickleball camp, a weekl long pickup camp all through July, um, in the month of July, as well as a athletic development camp that carries from May, the end of May, right when school's out to the end of July. And then a mile challenge, so something kids could go strive for because kids love to get rewarded for their efforts, you know. So, we brought them in for a week. How many times can you run around the complex and whatever certain miles they reach or laps? They were going to get a reward for that. Um, youth leagues, we had youth soccer from August to October with 312 registered participants. Youth basketball, we had from October, midocctober to about mid December. There we had 134 registered participants. And then something that I feel like we're starting to see the fruit of our labor um because when I first stepped in the numbers were pretty low, you know, just because we lost a lot of trust um before I stepped in with the recreation department. But last year we had 67 kids and you can see from our flag football

we had 115 kids registered in this third year. So something I'm I'm uh happy for and seeing that seeing that growth. Additions to keep people interested in our leagues. We had a for our youth basketball we had an un um end of the year skills basketball challenges to reinforce player development and engagement and then skills development clinics in partnership with local high school teams. So throughout the seasons of our skills camp on Saturdays or end of Friday or Thursday nights, selective days of the week, we would bring in high school students or coaches from the high school and help them give us uh teaching opportunities to properly learn the sport and to help those coaches who don't who can't make it every night because of work and everything to uh make sure these kids are getting the right proper development and practices and then improving ongoing improvement in coaching quality through clinics, camps, updated training resources, and direct communication. So, making sure we're communicating on um all the time, having our phones available for those for those coaches when they need it, making sure the complex is open for them, make sure we're providing all opportunity. And then for our adult programming update, since July, we had three free pickle ball tournaments. I will say that we probably need to limit the amount Kane does this next couple months because he's been winning everything. Um we did have one cornhole tournament last month uh during the nighttime, you know, try to keep something active. We had all our heaters and everything going, but we'll probably wait a little bit when the weather starts warming up. Um, we had a summer league, adult uh adult summer league, softball, and then a winter league as well from that was from November to December. So, our goal was always to try to increase adult training camps, but sometimes um the last couple of camps just led to more senior citizens coming in. So I just classified as 60 plus adult training camps, but we're trying to make sure we incorporate more where to all g to all ages. And then we had a golden citizens morning ball pickle ball league throughout when it was a little bit warmer from in the summer period.

For our facility, we had batty cages installed to support player and um program growth, field improvements completed, which include base replacements and dirt reconditioning. So we we are in charge of all the um baseball fields and everything within softball fields and then parks and trails takes care of the grass itself. So we kind of work with them. U we renewed our concession stand license for use and operations of the concession stand. Um new field marking robot which is pretty cool cuz we would spend weeks and weeks trying to make sure we're getting the right corner right. Make sure they're perfect 90°. Make sure the fields and sometimes they're off. So, we purchased a robot, you know, and uh it's a GPS robot. It goes around and it's pretty cool and it'll perfectly draw out a field. So, it gives us more um opportunity to provide kids with the proper um um field. And then we getting we're getting um new sports lighting installations starting in March through April. Uh in we'll go back a minute. Just install new fence screens and upgraded outfield fencing. completed full replacement of uh field light bulbs and that just comes with the what was previously installed. They just keep burning out. So, we got to keep um working with public works to get those uh replaced every now and then. Establish a new we're we're establishing a new office at the par club and we're we're currently working on our open hours for that. And then we oversee the sports equipment used at the certain parks. So, like the tennis courts or the pickleball courts or the basketball hoops, we'll take care of those. Then anything that comes to the surfacing or grounding work will go with parks or public works. Some goals we're looking forward to go um going forward provide facility management and support for high school and softball little league. So we're currently in the midst of that. We're going on to our about our fourth or fifth year supporting little league and high school taking place at the complex. Um continue nightly field access for the public and recreation league. So we try

to keep that open to the public as as long as we can. So, we keep it open till about 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and then 9:00 p.m. Friday to Sunday. Um, a new electrical, we're looking to upgrade our electrical work in the concession stand. We we're looking to also take over our media, you know, cuz um our media right now is pretty busy with other stuff. So, we want to take our take over our media includes social pages and also a website. uh increase our quality of fields because our fields have just been patched up throughout the years that we're noticing we're finding clay after clay home plates dug into the ground. So, we want to look into possibly upgrading that surface and re re um ramping up the complex in their fields. Finding instructors for multi multi-age programming, that's one thing we struggle with because, you know, I can't do yoga, but I would like to have someone out there who can do yoga. And so, we're looking for those and always trying to find ways to get the right people in those programming. So we expand our services and then that leads to the next one. Expand our services through cooper uh collaboration and partnerships. Um increase volunteer participation for our programs. And that's one thing we struggle with and my suggestion is going to you know it's just a time right now where we need to compensate for those people who do volunteer. Some of them are having hard times leaving their jobs. Our employees don't leave. And so it's reflecting on us when we have to postpone our league starts or our dates or games because we're not getting the right volunt we're not getting enough volunteers to help us out in that area. Um conduct conduct conduct community surveys to guide program planning and improve improvement surveys. Create a strong and competent wellsupported recreation team. Create after school programs for kids. And we're working with the school constantly NGCOA to make sure we're we find ways to um we get our services to them as well their kids cuz at first our goal was to bring them all to the complex but some kids just can't travel that far. So we

want to reach out to the schools and incorporate our services over there. Provide opportunities for employ um city employees to achieve mental and physical health. So make sure you guys also have opportunities. Back in um we had a this lady over here in the great in the great top Celeste Claus. she's worked in corporate um business and physical mental health for their clients like intel and stuff and we want to try to learn how to provide that here for you guys. So you guys have the opportunity to get some of that clarity when you need it, you know, because it is shuffle job for all of us and then create educational and recreational field trip opportunities for youth but also for coaches as well. So making sure that we're getting the proper um trainings or leadership. So, back in the day, they used to offer a leadership um course and they would take kids out and go teach them how to be leaders in the community or in their sports. And I want to try to bring that back. So, one of the goals we're looking forward to and then I think that's it for me.

Counselor Roundtree or

I can go. Um thank you. Thank you for the improvements. Um our recreation is just grow. I thought it was leaning close enough is just growing and it's um doing so well. I'm really pleased with that. Um I would like to request that we go in and look at the old public works building because I've been through there and I think it can be completely gutted and possibly be turned into a basketball facility or indoor um facility. Could be a very unique um aesthetically, you know, old building that's pretty solid. I don't think there's any cracks in the concrete because it was made from the concrete from the dam and I know that the rumors about the best is not accurately true because I've had someone that deals with us best look at it. So I would like to propose that we um consider looking at that building instead of it being tear down. might be after, you know, somebody who's more professional than I looks at it. But I still think it's a possibility of a facility, a building that's sitting empty that could be transformed into a possibly a basketball facility because we have so much difficulty getting into basketball facilities in this town now with the middle school closing down and the other gyms not functioning.

Yeah. And so I would say that we do need to look into maybe some type of building. Um I think the school gyms was just a difficulty for us in basketball this year to get our programs going. We struggled with um having the right amount of teams because we had a there just wasn't enough time slots for us to fit. and with the school increasing in their size and combining theirs and losing a middle school gym and then all their gyms breaking getting renovated and stuff it was just very a tough basketball the season and then also kids were always pointed to work playing outside when it's you know the weather starts cooling down there so thank you Debbie we'll look into that

yeah one of the other things is that um I've noticed I as I've done research other communities have gone in to look at empty buildings um at large facilities that sit empty and they've rented those and they've turned into basketball facilities. So, that's another option for our community. Thank you, Hinger.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I love the idea of having a website and social media pages specific for recreation. I think that's a great idea. And then with the fear that bathrooms have become a talking point today as we think about upgrading the concession stand, I would also love to see upgraded bathrooms at the sports complex. So, I know that probably also falls under public works or CIP, but just while it's on my mind, um, we could definitely use some upgrades there as well. Thank you. That's a sports comfort. Probably yours was moving slow.

Uh, I just want to congratulate you on uh getting that cute little robot. Um, that is fantastic. Um, unfortunately, I don't know if you know this, but there's a very obscure ordinance on the books that says any whimsical piece of publicly owned equipment must be given an equally whimsical name. Um, so if you wanted to do like a naming contest, that might be a good way to launch a new socials and stick some googly eyes on it or something. It was a good idea. Same goes for fire trucks, by the way. Look forward to that. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Last but not least, we have Lette, who is our special events manager. Good morning everyone. My name is Lucetta La Cruz and I am the special events manager. I'm so excited to be sharing in some of the highlights from the past year and gain view all a clearer picture of the work of the special events department. Special events play a very important role in the city of Paige. They bring our community together. They support local businesses and showcase Paige as a vibrant and exciting place to live and to visit. Each year we produce and support a wide range of annual events. We have some of our community favorites like the PJZ balloon riotta, our Fourth of July celebration, our Easter egg hunt, and our summer concert series to even smaller communitydriven programs. Our goal is to develop um effective, innovative, and engaging events that enhance the quality of life for our residents while also supporting tourism and economic activity. I would like to briefly highlight some key events from the past year. The summer concert series continues to be one of our community favorites. It attracts an average of 700 attendees per concert, and this is a great opportunity for families and vendors to gather throughout the summer, enjoy beautiful sunsets at the John C. Page Memorial Park. The Paige Artfest is a very familyfriendly event. Um, it showcases local schools, community vendors, and artists from the region. This past year, we collaborated with the Paige Unified School District. We hosted the event at the community cultural, excuse me, the cultural arts building

and courtyard. It drew over 800 attendees. It showcased local art while also inspiring creativity and youth involvement in the arts. Our Fourth of July celebration is one of the largest city's events. It welcomes approximately 3,000 attendees and serves a very important opportunity for community connection and local business engagement. Our Christmas in the Park is going to be held every first weekend of December. This most recent event feature 20 parade floats, 31 vendors, and over 600 attendees. And it's continuing to grow as a very beloved seasonal tradition. And then finally, we have the PJ Balloon Riotta. This past year was in its 22nd year. It continues to bring national attention to Paige. The 2025 event, it brought in 61 balloon pilots, 59 sponsors, contributing close to $24,000, and 130 volunteers, which just highlights the event's immense community impact. Um the mission of the city of page special events department is to develop and deliver engaging programs and events that strengthen community connections. It is to enhance the quality of life here to support sustainable economic development. It is so important to us as a team to serve Paige residents by fostering that community pride to enrich the social, cultural, and economic well-being of our community. In 2025, our team we fully serviced 30 city hosted events including the planning preparation and on-site event operations and we also supported 43 locally hosted community events averaging one to four events every month. Now the city hosted events are planned and operated entirely by the department with the amazing help of our resource departments like Paige police fire and our parks and trails. Um, and the locally hosted events we

help with the permitting and the logistics coordination. While events may only last a day or a weekend, they do take months of work to make sure that they are successful. Um, our responsibilities include permitting and compliance, the coordination with our resource departments like police and fire, vendor and contractor management, risk management and insurance, developing the marketing and promotions, going out into the community to do our media outreach, ADA accessibility, coordinating with our volunteers, the event setup, cleanup, and the afteraction evaluation. After each event, we review what worked well and where our improvements can be made. It allows us to always refine the operations and improve on safety, the efficiency and the overall quality of our events. Um, our success would not be possible without our strong partnerships. We regularly collaborate with organizations like police and fire, um, the Paige Unified School Drift District, Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation, the Chamber of Commerce, Glen Canyon Conservancy, and many more to host local events. We are very happy to be serving our community to offer such a large range of annual events. We are currently very excited um to be celebrating America's 250 anniversary with a few events this year along with a few new favorites like our golden hour roller rink which was a big success and a lot of fun and I invite all of you to come attend in May. Um really in closing the special events department we are very proud of the work we accomplished this past year. Um, and we're so grateful for the continued support of our city leadership teams and our community partners. So, yeah, thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Councelor Frell, I want to also thank you for supporting some events that you that weren't on these books, last minute notices in many case, such as the Navajo Honor Writers. we come to town uh we where we're supporting veterans and gold star families and and that was perfect by your team and so and there's so many comments after a three-day multi-day ride to come here and have what you your the city host all these people can't thank you enough for that. Thank you. It was an honor to help with that.

Councel Per and then councelor Rantry. Uh I I love the amount and the diversity of the events you guys are putting on uh year round. It's no longer just like a seasonal summertime thing. I think it's fantastic that in our slowest time of year uh right now you guys are putting on the uh Paige movies again. It wasn't just a, you know, we tried it once for the 50th and it was such a success that it's back. Um I think that's fantastic. That could be an every year thing. That could be like Paige's version of the uh like Rocky Horror show, right? maybe without the like throwing of bread and but um that aside, I think it's fantastic. Um it it's fun for the community. It helps out local businesses. So um great great ideas. Uh I'd love to see more of it.

Thank you, Tom. Yes, thank you. I loved all the things. I'm just passing on something. I went and saw Maverick and Evolution in one of the other movies and um a citizen on the last one said to me, "This would be a great thing for tourists if they offered these free and the motel could if they could show that they had stayed at a motel overnight, they could get in free to see a movie that had been produced in the area." And um so I'm just passing it on because I was like, "Yeah, that would be a great kind of a tourist thing to keep tourists out at night or in our streets or stay another night because they get a free opportunity to go see a movie, especially since people from around the world love to see old um like Maverick. It's to see old cowboy movies and there's been a lot of them filmed in this area. I'm just passing that on. Great.

Thanks for the great job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for allowing us to present. Wonderful. Right. And maybe ask a question right now. Mayor, I'm thinking maybe we break for lunch after police if we get through the police department. Does that sound good? That sounds good.

Okay. So, uh, with that, our one of our our newest employees, our chief of police joke, I think he's been here a year or two as well. So, Take it away, guys. All right. Thank you, Mayor Council, for having us and allowing us to present to you today. Larry Jones. I'm the assistant uh chief of police for the Page Police Department. I'm going to be starting off talking about some slides and then I'll let the the chief take over. Um the first thing we're going to talk about because this kind of guides our department and what we do and our personnel is our mission statement and our vision statement. Uh these were created a number of years ago. We had a committee put together um from personnel within the department and came up with these and we really feel like this encapsulates what our uh mission and vision are for our department and the city. Our organizational overview. So, we're comprised of four different divisions, patrol, communications, administration, and criminal investigations. We currently have 48 budgeted positions with six current vacancies.

Two of them we actually have in backgrounds to be filled. So, we'll be down to four uh vacancies. Uh 21 of them are sworn positions and 27 are professional staff, but 24 full-time and three part-time. the 21 sworn and 27 P professional staff is kind of unique uh for most police departments. Uh you have a much higher number of sworn personnel than professional staff. And so we're going to kind of get into that in a little bit here of why that is why we went that direction. Uh for our sworn staff, uh this is kind of the breakdown of our personnel. Um, we do have one uh officer that we just lateral over that's was a former officer that's going to go through the waiver process and join our patrol officers on the street here in in the near future. This is our organizational chart um newly updated. The green are our professional staff employees and the blue is our sworn personnel. So this slide here kind of breaks down um the issues that we have when we lose a sworn personnel. They move on for whatever reason. The amount of time that it takes to get that position replaced is often up to a year. And so like I talked about earlier with the reason why we have more professional staff than sworn staff. um with with this timeline, you know, it's really hard to get people replaced and on the road again. So, we've had to come up with some different strategies to help our officers on the road. And and in doing so, coming up with new positions like our crime scene specialists, which are non-swarm positions who can be hired and trained much more quickly than a police officer. and they can be on the road helping our officers, uh, helping them with bookings at the jail, helping them with transports, with paperwork, with non-essential calls for service and

things like that. And so it allows our officers to to be out on the streets for the more serious calls for service. Um, and so you can kind of see the breakdown here of of the process it takes for a sworn officer from the day that they submit an application until they're actually on the road filling that position. Um, like I said, often up to a year. Um, just a little bit about our accreditation program. Something that we're very proud of at the police department. Um, the state came up with the accreditation program back in 2018. Uh, our department was in the group of the first agencies in the state to get get into the program and to become accredited. Um, since our initial accreditation, they've they've created two additional programs, one for our communication center and one for property and evidence. We again were the first agency in the state to get into the all three of those programs. And in um September of 2024, we became the first agency in the state of Arizona to receive accreditation in all three programs. So something again we're very proud of. The chief talks about it a lot to our staff. you know, we we're held to these standards for this program and if you can't meet those standards, um you probably need to go look for a job somewhere else because we're not going to lower our standards for for any of our personnel. And so, a little bit about the accreditation program, what it is is a set of standards um that that are created that are best practices for law enforcement. And so, for the the law enforcement program, there's 175 of them. And so every year we not only have to have a written directive in place that meets the requirements of the standard, we also have to show a proof of compliance that not not only do we say this is what we're doing, we have to show that that's actually what we are doing. And we have outside assessors come in every year. They check our our files online and every four years they send an assessor on site to review

everything that we're doing to make sure that we stay in compliance with our accreditation requirements. Um, very early on in the program, I became the accreditation manager for the department and I decided I we didn't really know a lot about the program. The best way I felt to learn more about it was to become an assessor. And so I go around and I assess other agencies around the state. And and to date, I've done more than 50 assessments for other agencies around the state. and I constantly find new things that the other agencies are doing that I can bring back to page and implement in our agency and make our agency uh more productive and more efficient. All right, we're going to get into each of our different divisions. I'll let uh chief take over here. All right, thanks Mr. Mayor Council. Um thanks. Yeah. So, our records division, uh, Ally Stamut is, uh, she's our administrative manager. She's also our records supervisor. Uh, she's the person that ensures everything going in and out is correct. Uh it's so important because the paperwork that's going in and out of records, uh court cases, both both in the magistrate, uh the justice court, the superior court, um if it's not right, um people don't get convicted and victims don't get justice in a lot of cases. So, uh we've had over 1,000 report requests and background checks completed. Um our our records department has two full-time records clerk. We currently have one vacant position that we're we're going to be trying to fill here pretty soon. One part-time records clerk, and as I said, they're they're supervised by Ally. Uh you guys know her. She's at a lot of the council meetings. Um all records personnel hold positions with Arizona Law Enforcement Records Managers Association. That's also part of our accreditation.

um video redactions and estimated at 750 to 1,000 hours completing video redactions and uh I know Josh Smith's office also helps with that. It's very time consuming. Our communications division we're extremely proud of. I I say it all the time. All the years I've been doing law enforcement, this is the best uh group of dispatchers I've ever worked with. They're the most efficient. um that that's been proven through our accreditation as well as just the day-to-day jobs they do. Um we have a communications manager who's Jackie Lines there in the middle. Our lead communication specialist is Taylor. Uh McN there on the left and uh um we have six full-time communication specialists altogether. One part-time communication specialist. Uh George just recently retired after many years. he was kind of our uh solid go-to on on the midnight shift and Melanie White moved from the full-time position into the part-time communications uh position. So, the Page Communication Center is a public safety answering point. So, it's a PACP 911 hub. That means any 911 calls uh from probably 50 to 100 miles out in any direction goes to our dispatch center. So the they the these these dispatchers just don't dispatch for PHP PD. They dispatch for all the surrounding agencies and even at times King County and into Utah. Okay. 2025 they took 26,588 non-emergency calls. It's huge. 7,218 emergency calls for a total of 33,86 total calls. and they also got 25 text messages during that time as well. Um,

part of our accreditation, 97.93% of of all 911 calls answered in 15 seconds or less. 90% is is considered excellent. You can't get to 100% because if there say there's an accident down on 89, they might get 15 911 calls at the same time. So, the fact that they they average answering all those at 97.93% of the time in 15 seconds or less is is pretty incredible. Um, we've had accidents out at the Utah border and um same they're getting all those calls. Well, they're still taking care of 911 calls and other calls for service here in town. So, they do an incredible job and uh you know, we're we're proud of them. criminal investigations, three detectives. Um, we have three detectives, four crime scene specialists, two cadets, and an evidence technician. And something that the assistant chief talked about, uh, civilian staff or professional staff. Our crime scene specialists uh, do a lot of the jobs, a lot of the duties that traditionally certified police officers uh, always took care of. That's bookings, intoxilizers on DUIs at times, transports, transports to Flagstaff, juveniles, title 36s. Uh they collect evidence. They run the ferro scanner at major crime scenes. And that allows us to get our patrol guys back out on the road so they're not tied up for long periods of time on investigations. And um that's really helped us in our overtime. It's helped us uh uh like I said, keep our guys and girls out on the road that need to be out on the road doing what they do. Um the incident in Flagstaff last night uh highlights the the importance of of being able to keep functioning even when when when bad things when when our certified people

are are dealing with with things that only they can deal with. So, our criminal investigations division statistics and and uh that this division is overseen by Lieutenant Ted Bernard and uh he's also in charge of our real-time policing uh project that that we're working on and and putting together. But, um our detectives deal with felonies. They don't deal with misdemeanor crimes. They deal with felonies, the serious stuff. And um so cases worked 1,1 jail bookings 298 area checks 2768 area checks that's something crime scene specialists do most of those in instead of real certified police officers. Um it it lets our officers work on other things where we still have eyes and ears out in the community. Traffic control 161 toes 94 transports 113. Total calls for service 5,047. Um, evidence, our evidence technician is Tamilly Fred. She's awesome. She she holds that down all by herself. I don't know how she does it, but she does. And she's always got a smile on her face. Uh, our evidence, property and evidence is accredited. Um, that means, you know, somebody else besides me is saying that it's it's being managed the right way. Um, so she's extremely busy. You know, I can go through all all all everything that she handles, but 1,062 total items um last year. And our detectives, the certified people uh that that need to be doing certain things, uh 16 sex crimes, seven death investigation, nine crimes against children, general investigations, 13 and other felony cases, 11 for a total of 56. We're we're crimes against children.

That's we're seeing more and more of those. Um it's it's something um that our our detectives are are dealing with more and more. Um and it it it kind of goes in line with a lot of the the major crimes that we're seeing across our country right now. Something else that Rachel brought up that I wanted to point out and throw in here. Um, we pay certified people bonuses and moving expenses. We've done that. We started that under under Mr. Caldwell when he was here. Our last detective um that we hired came from NAVO PD. She has extensive experience in federal court. Uh she's been through the court process. for us to to to get somebody at that level, it it would cost us uh internally way more money than it does to pay somebody for moving expenses and bonuses to bring them here with this experience that they already have. We have two Kines's uh right now, K9 Bacon and K9 Cooper. Um K9 Cooper is out because his daddy blew his knee out. So, most of the stuff you guys have been reading about is because of um Officer Alustin and K9 Bacon. Um the kids love these dogs. They're in the schools. They're they're approachable. They're friendly, but they're very efficient at at finding illegal substances. So, our calls for service um keep going up. I mean, from 2021 to 2025, it it's continuously going up. One thing that I can say from 2025 to 2024, our calls for service went up, but at the same time, our overtime went down. And that that that correlates with our crime scene specialists, our civilian staff, our professional staff that we hired, but calls for service are going up just like everywhere. Um

unfortunately across our country uh it's it's not getting any better um as far as calls that our guys and girls are responding to and as the city grows public safety is going to have to keep growing along with it and this is indicative of that. Um traffic traffic stops citations and warnings. Um, last year we were down a little bit from the the year before, but 2,397, those are a lot of traffic stops. A lot of a lot of people um complain about the fact that, you know, we don't do anything and like I think of my number one complaint I get from the community is traffic, but we are out there writing tickets and stopping vehicles. I think that part of the reason that traffic might be down from the year before is because calls for service are up. So, when our police officers are responding to calls for service, they usually aren't allowed to be stopping vehicles. If they've got prisoners in their vehicles, they're not allowed to stop vehicles either. DUI arrests, it's a problem. You know, it's like PAL um summertime in Paige. people come up here and and they overindulge and and unfortunately make bad choices. Drug offenses. Um drug cases are usually very time consuming. It's something that we have to work on. We have a few officers that specialize in in investigating drug cases. We we did a pretty uh high-profile search warrant last week that we used some of our uh uh regional partners on. That was a several monthsl long investigation. Um, while we're getting complaints on traffic and things like that, there's actually people behind the scenes that are working on on cases that we can't talk about until they they come to a conclusion. And drug offenses are are usually uh considered

in that as are crimes against children. Um, just we can't talk about them as they're going on. And so, uh, a lot of times the public wants explanations for things that we can't provide them. Animal control, Natalie, that's Natalie Fernando and her co crew. Um, they just do a tremendous job. Our shelter is a no kill shelter. Um, our staff down there works tirelessly, man. Uh, taking care of those animals down there and, uh, trying to get them in and out. Um, you can see the numbers. I mean, uh, animal related calls for service last last year was 508. It was up from 440 the the year before it, um, um, you know, stray animals and animal calls are are a problem in this town. Uh, people get animals and unfortunately they don't do their best job in a lot of cases taking care of them. So, mutual aid and partnerships, this is one of my personal most important things. Uh we can't do what we do without our partners. Um a few of them are listed on here. Uh and and um you can read it. Arizona counterterrorism information center. That's something that we work with. We have July 4th. We have our balloon riata. We have thousands of people in here. As Lette said, we start planning for those events months out and we start working uh with our partners um to to make sure that nobody is uh people aren't out there trying to do bad at our events. It's a lot of work. Um Banner Health, Bureau of Reclamation, we do training with the bureau every year um trying to prepare for for events that hopefully never never occur. uh regional Cookanino County Sheriff. I I mentioned them. Uh some of those guys that were out there last night were in our

community last week helping us with the search warrant. Couple weeks ago, we did active shooter training with King County Sheriff's Office out at Armagary. Um something that we don't advertise and talk a whole lot about, but we we're constantly training. Uh same Big Water, Fredonia, Canab. Uh Navo Nation, that picture, that's the captain from Navo PD there. I was out in Tuba a couple weeks ago with two of our detectives. Um they helped us track somebody down so we could charge a case. Um Department of Energy, NAVO Nation, like like like I just mentioned, I mean, National Park Service, the United States Marshall Service, that came into play. We had a homicide last year. Um and the suspect was hiding out by Kyatto. He was Native American. um our our written agreement we have with the marshals, we had extradition done on him and we had him in custody in in about 48 hours. Um that's because of the agreement that we have with with both the NAVO Nation and the United States Marshall Service. Um it all this stuff just matters. It matters uh all these relationships matter uh in how effective we are with completing our our duties. Okay. equipment and technology. This is going to be the single biggest, most important thing to our department this year. Um, and it's going to be expensive. Um, I you guys voted. You gave us a drone. Um, it it arrived, our new drone arrived. It it's it's at the PD right now. Um, the the drone we have up was used in our search warrant last week. Um, look what happened in Flagstaff last night. um these aerial views that we can get of suspects and houses and events and rooftops while the balloon riot is going on. The drones uh provide coverage

that we can't provide with people and um they're important. Uh speed play the speed trailer uh that goes hand inand with license plate readers. That's that's Thank you. Uh we have license plate readers. It's It's been controversial in other communities. Um we don't use them to hunt people or uh uh spy on people or anything like that. If somebody if somebody's in there, we we got a stolen vehicle yesterday uh from another community that came through here and we recovered it here in our community. It was a stolen vehicle. We've recovered children that were kidnapped in other communities with our license plate readers. They're important. If it's your child that's out there, you're going to wish that we had them. Um, and all these all these uh all the all the stuff we're talking about, it's real that's our real time crime center. We're building that. Uh, we want cameras. Uh, we want more cameras than we have. We want more uh surveillance technology than we have. We utilize all this stuff to keep our community safe. Um, I we can talk about it as much as anybody wants to and uh and there's always going to be people that don't don't support this technology, but if it's used in the right manner, it keeps our community safe. It keeps our citizens safe. And uh we we're we're building a real-time crime center right now, and that's what we're going to be asking for in the coming budget projects. Realtime crime center. There you go. That includes LPRs. Um the animal shelter, uh you guys gave us a building uh this past year. Um that's that's up. We we appreciate that. Um we're going to to keep trying to grow the animal shelter. And then our drone

is here. We're going to continue to grow our drone program. Um we found a lost kid on New Year's Eve. Kid took off on his bike. As it turned out, he had a flat tire. He didn't know where he was. It got dark. We posted a little video uh not actually finding the kid. I didn't want to get into that, but if you watch that video um you could see see the drone picked up a dog on the golf course. It's not where the kid was, but um we had another guy that was out in the desert that was having a medical episode. Our officers went out at 2:30 in the morning searching for him. Didn't find him. We got the drone up with infrared and we found him. Um medical staff said if we hadn't have, there's a good chance he would have died. This stuff saves lives. So, um, training, Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training requires the following minimum training requirements. That's a huge expense. We we we have a training budget. Um, we need a minimum of 12 hours of training every year. We do firearms qualifications. All of our staff has to also complete judgmental shoots. That's all required by a Post. But um our detectives uh belong to the Internet Crimes Against Children's Task Force. We belong to the US Marshals uh task force. All that stuff that we talked about earlier. Uh it doesn't work if we don't train with our partners and get our people uh trained to the highest level and and we do and we want to continue to do that. events. Citizens Police Academy. Um, assistant chief put that together. Uh, very proud of it. Um, councelor Auggie uh attended the the last one. It it just it gives the public an opportunity to get on the inside and see what we do and and get exposed to to some of the the duties and and uh departments in our in our department. Um, special offense, like Lette said, we

we work she does such a great job. We love working with with Lette. Um and as well as our other departments, but um National Night Out is is one of our big events. Um trunk or treat, of course, all the parades. We have to be involved with all the parades. Um the vice mayor mentioned mentioned the honor rides. Um July 4th, I mean, nothing goes on in this town without us being involved with it. And uh we enjoy it. And these are just um shop with a hero. Um that's our cops leaning against one of Jeff's fire trucks there. Um so um it it's really neat to to I don't know if if you've never participated in it. The library did gift wrapping for us this year. Um providing Christmas for for these kids or helping provide Christmas. It's just it's it's awesome. It's it's a great experience. So, that's kind of it in a nutshell. Uh, questions.

Well, thank you. Um, great job, Councelor Preller. Sorry, I was just scrolling. Um, so you mentioned your, uh, crime scene officers. Um, or rather you're having staffing issues with your patrol officers because it takes about a year to train. Um, is the crime scene officer designation, is that kind of uh meant as a stepping stone or is that separate? It it it can be that they're crime scene specialists. They're civilian staff. Sorry.

Um, two of them are actually retired police officers. They actually have more experience than probably half of our certified staff at this point. So, no, they're not ready to go back in, but they really help out uh especially our patrol staff where where we can utilize them uh with some of our younger patrol officers on on major crimes than than you know pulling a detective out from something else that they're already working on. Um we have a cadet program. We actually stole one of Leette Lett's uh people. And we've got two cadets right now that that the they're cadets, but they're crime scene specialists. And yes, they're getting trained uh to get ready to go to the academy and uh we're hoping that when they get to the academy, it'll it'll be very beneficial for them the experiences they're getting.

Okay. Um thank you. That so that's that's not a feeder program. I just wanted to um kind of clarify that. Then uh the other one I've got here is about the LPRs you mentioned. Um you already said that they're they're controversial. Um, I've had people reaching out to me as well as there's been posts online, uh, people are afraid and and don't really know anything what what happens in the black box. Um, can I ask that we do some sort of public presentation outreach um, of kind of what they are um, and what what product we're getting uh, what data they're collecting, where the data is being stored, and who it's being shared with, and have some discussion about that. And until we've had the opportunity to have that discussion, you know, pause the the roll out,

we we can do that as an agenda item if if we want.

I I'm not sure if that would be advisable. They're in operation as far as I know. And if if someone wants to talk about some of the things, we can we can work on something like that. Um, I just hesitate of how much attention we want to attract to something that if So, it's it's that double-edged sword. If you talk about it, then more people will talk about it. Um, but maybe some So, we could look at some sort of educational component that it's not taking your picture, it's not following you to your mistress's house or whatever. Um, exactly what

that sort of thing. So,

so can I So, right now we have the power to run every single license plate in the United States. We could drive up and down the street at 3:00 in the morning and run plates to to see who's at whose house and what they're doing. That's illegal. That's a class 4 felony. If we do that, we need to be held accountable for that. We don't um the information that goes into a license plate reader. Uh we had a rape here in our community about 6 or 8 months ago. It was on a Sunday and we came in and it took us a considerable amount of time to figure out who the suspect was uh because he wasn't he wasn't documented. But we did and when we figured out who he was, we put the license plate in a into the LPR and he was picked up over on Craig Road on I-15 in Vegas. That's what it's for. Um, it's to find criminals and keep the public safe. We We don't We don't care about expired registration. We don't care about who's speeding. We don't care about who has a driver's license or who doesn't. It's to help us uh keep our community safe. That's and and I agree, education is a wonderful thing. It is, but it just like running plates in the middle of the night. If it's misused, there needs to be consequences for it. And and if it's not uh then I mean it's it's just wonderful equipment out there that helps us find not just suspects but victims, you know, I always say if it's your kid that's in the back of that car, you're you're you're going to hope that an LPR picks that car up.

Councelor Hinger, um I I agree that education is great because hearing about the results that you guys have achieved, I'm I'm a big fan. Um, and what I also really love is that as a department that's struggling and would like to hire some vacant positions, you guys are using a lot of resources available to you to help everyone's time go further. Uh, so I actually would love to see in the budget additional items for a uh real help me with the what is it again? Real time crime center.

A real time crime center. I I would love to see more of that in the budget. Um, I think education would also be a good idea depending on what you guys think makes sense to share with the community. I don't want to you want the community to be informed, but you also don't want to give away all of the stuff that the security parts that make you guys able to do your job. Um, so I agree with education. I would also love to see more. Yeah, we believe in transparency. I mean, we're not doing anything in a box. If there's an active investigation, that that's another thing. Councelor Roundtree

was going to say I've heard such great comments from the citizens about the drone and I had heard negative and now when they see and you share it and the same thing I've only had two people call me about the the the readers and um then they've brought up to me oh I see they probably caught that person because of and I said yeah it's just to help find criminals and I think with education and when you're being transparent I don't think we we have to go as far as as making it I mean I'm not trying to say I don't want it to make public but I think that just your posting and what's happening right now in regards to it I think is getting good feedback as it is existing right now and but I have only talked to two people about the readers lots of people about the drone who are really impressed with it

thank you appreciate all the comments um some with the dispatchers uh Um, understand there's a push for dispatchers to be reclassified as first responders. Yes, sir. It's a great idea because, uh, having worked with them and other jobs, they're the eyes and ears and the most important. They hear they should be first responders. So, I hope that's in your plan, too.

We're we're involved with that. What what the vice mayor is speaking of is uh dispatchers aren't considered first responders. So they don't they don't have the opportunity to get a lot of the the the counseling and benefits out there that that police officers do. A lot of times dispatchers don't get the closure that police officers do. Police officers go to a horrific scene. Uh they work it. They're there. Uh and and sometimes it ends well and and they go home with that. the dispatchers remember the screaming in the phone and and and what they hear and what they see and what they feel and they never get that closure and uh and they take that home with them and um thank you for bringing that up, sir. That that is a push that's going on right now and and we're we're 100% behind it and and supportive of it and involved with it.

Okay. Well, again, thank you very much,

Mayor. If I'd just like to add one quick thing, I thank you, Council Roundtree. I think that's a great way to approach the educational component, and we'll look at that. We've even been hesitant with some of the press releases with with how much scrutiny the public has seen with that with some of the because it's still assisting the police department even now. But, um, and we'll absolutely work on that. One other thing that I came up with the other night as chief and I were having one of our late night meetings over at the station is you might see in the budget I want to analyze the backup generator and power source for the police station and fire facility. I think it's getting up there in age and uh want to get some professionals in there to analyze it, see what the lifespan of that is. And since those are usually a large ticket item, just wanted to put that out in front if if that thing needs some replacing. Um, you might see that in the budget as well. Um, just because that's our dispatch area and we need to keep that power moving. So,

yep. Thank you. Evidence, too, right? Yeah. And it helps when the evidence doesn't lose power. Um, we councelor Hammond.

Hi, real quick. I love all the technology and creative leveraging to stretch our manpower, but I also um just want to make sure that we keep sight of the fact that nothing really replaces boots on the ground. And um Chief and Frank and I have all spoken about the importance of having enough boots on the ground, not only to keep our community safe, but to keep the officers safe who are protecting our community. So, um I know that's a longer term conversation that you all will be having, but um I hope that this year and in subsequent years we continue to see um growing numbers so that all of our officers are um at least on dual patrols.

Yeah, agreed. All right. Anything else? Councelor Preller, real quick. Um this is this one's for Frank. Uh if we're looking at doing new backup power at PD, I'm strongly urging we like look at solar options there to keep running cost of that building down full-time even when there's no, you know, need to run a generator level of emergency. But that's it. Yeah. Whatever new technology we can put in there would be Sun's been more reliable than any generator. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Well, with that, let's uh let's go ahead and suspend the or whatever. Take a break for lunch. And how how much time do you think? 30.

Okay, we We are returning from our lunch break. We'll turn it back the meeting back to city manager again. Thank you, mayor. Uh, next up we have fire department. Wonder if I sat still long enough you forget. So, I gave it a shot. No, thank you. Never forget about our emergency services. That's for sure.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Um as uh mentioned we'll be talking about the fire department here. So um I'd like to start off uh just with um the department. Uh we are an allhazards department which means medical emergencies, fire and rescue, tech rescue, motor vehicle collisions, hazardous materials, um fire prevention, inspections, public outreach and education. So we pretty much cover everything. Um here is a breakdown of our uh our staffing the org chart. Um we have a fire chief, assistant chief, um admin assistant, three shift captains which represent the A, B and C shift and then the staff below them. Um, we currently have 24 uh line personnel and have 18 of those uh filled, but as of next week, we are putting three more folks into those positions. So, we'll be up to 21 of the 24 members of uh that on on duty. So, um the uh we uh um all of our all of our members of the department, all the full-time members are crossrained with fire and medical. So, um that covers ALS, advanced life support, and basic life support. And like I say, everybody full-time is is part of that team. Um again, here's just a another shot of the of the staffing.

Um some of the issues that we still face with um attraction and retention is is is listed here. It's remote location, cost of housing, um limited resources just meeting in the in the city of Paige. So that still is a problem. But I did want to mention that you know just like what the PD did um fire did it previously but the step program and the pay scale has really impacted uh the retention portion of this. So that was a great benefit to to that and and because of that we have really reduced our losses. However saying that we did lose three in within the last calendar year we lost three full-time and one part-time. Um, one of the one of the members there just changed careers, but two of them actually went to went on to bigger, better paying agencies. And that's just something that I don't know that we're going to be able to ever completely uh get rid of. Um, yeah. So, uh, like I said, we have, uh, 2121 as of this coming week. Um, we still continue to build the reserve program. This is something we feel like it's a really good addition to to the to the department. It's it's part-time people that are trained uh the same to the same level as our full-time folks. So, they can fill in as um as needed for either for vacancies or just need additional staff. Um so, that is a program that we still highly regard and continue to push to increase.

Um, training is a big part of our operation. As you can see up in the upper left there, the 3,300 hours between the 28 personnel. Um that's actually mandated by our our medical direction which is Flagstaff Medical Center and ISO which is insurance services office which is what gives us our our ISO rating which I'll get to in just a little bit here. Um big thing that we added to our operations this year is a state accredited fire one and two program um which has been highly successful. In fact, the people that we're putting on duty next week are members that went through that program. So, the very first time we've had an in-house program, uh those folks are actually going to be on the floor full-time starting next week. So, pretty uh pretty excited about that. Um, we continue to partner with the community college here teaching um, the EMT class, EMT refreshers, and help with uh, CPR training. Um, we have one of our members currently attending the paramedic program down in Flagstaff um, with a scheduled uh, completion of October this year. So, we'll have another paramedic on board later this year. um ARF training. So yeah, ARF is actually a big deal. So this week for the first time ever, we have a uh mobile aircraft rescue firefighting uh simulator coming to Paige. So, out on the training out on the airport grounds, we're going to have our our annual fire training, which what this does is is it keeps these 13 members you see on the under the uh heading there from leaving the city. Prior to this this new

training, we've had to leave uh out of out of the city and go to San Bernardino or Dallas Fort Worth or Salt Lake City. So, um, we have this big training event on Saturday, which we're incredibly optimistic about and, uh, thinking that this should really help, uh, move us into the future. So, again, we're looking forward to that. Um, so here's a shot of our of our calls over the the past three years with um our EMS calls, fire calls, just a breakdown and um and the response time. The response time is something that we continue to track. Um we're still hovering around the five minutes, just under, but that is always something we're working on by potentially adding a fire station to the north end of the city. this would help improve that time as well. So again, it's there's a multitude of of reasons to have a station out there, but um one of them, like I say, would help improve our our response times to that location. Um, one of the challenges we have in that regard, and I don't I don't have it up on the screen here, but um, is we have a lot of overlapping calls, similar to what PD does, is we'll have, uh, hours of boredom interrupted by minutes of sheer terror, right? Where you get five calls in the same minute where you've been standing around. So um another reflection of our average response time is is also is that very thing where we have a 25 to 30% of overlap overlapping calls which means multiple calls in the same few minutes of time which sometimes with staffing and apparatus we just don't have enough uh equipment and people to go around. But that is something that it's just it's always been part of the operation here and

doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. Some of the big milestones for this past year, as I said, was the in-house fire academy. Um, it says there for five staff members. So, we were able to get two lateral hires that were not completely qualified, but qualified enough to put them on on shift and then to put them through our academy. So again, that academy um and this being the first time that we've been able to utilize that is going to be hugely beneficial for us going into the future. This means we can actually take uh local community members with with uh practically no u no experience in the city uh fire service completely through the EMS and the fire training and get them to uh shift qualified staff. And then that's actually what we've done with three of those folks that are going to be starting. Um, another one was we did receive the long range transport that council approved last year. We are in the process of of getting that in service. So, we're looking at February 19th, I believe, to actually be able to put that thing in service. So, we're excited about that. Um, remodeled some of the some of the fire department. We have to we're as we've mentioned before and not going to beat it up too bad, but um the uh situation at the station is still pretty pretty tough as we've outgrown it and that's because people live at the station all day long and 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it was never designed to have this many people in it. So we keep remodeling it to try to accommodate that and we're doing okay, but we are running out of room in a big way. Um, oh, and then we hired a new uh admin assistant, which has been really great.

Yeah, this is just a continuation of a conversation I just mentioned. The station established back in 2002. Um, we've uh we've exceeded we've exa exceeded all available space. Um, including repurposing one of the uh admin offices for an additional bedroom. Um, one of the biggest problems that we're having right now is the apparatus bays is we have more equipment than we have spaces to park our stuff. Um, and I was just talking with Laura is we're looking at getting another airport truck. We we need these trucks, but then the old trucks that we're getting rid of aren't like throwaways. They're still good pieces of secondary equipment that can fill in when you have a piece of equipment go down or whatever. Um, we are very soon going to be completely out of room. In fact, we currently have a couple of pieces of equipment at the current station that are parked out back and that's just not good for him. The Arizona sun kills them here. So, um, I'll be, uh, actually working with Frank on maybe a temporary solution until the new station gets built or somewhere thereabouts. But, yeah, I'd say that right now is probably one of our biggest issues. And as far as staffing goes, we were able to hire three of the six that you approved this year, but we can't go any further. we can't bring any more people on until we have an improvement in our facilities, whether it's b more bunk beds or is we just can't hardly house them. So, we're just about to the end of that to the end of that uh um ability, I guess. Um there's a list of just a brief overview. Um I would uh on this here um I think we you know again because of council's uh approval and seeing fit we

have a a very progressive but reasonable replacement program that's kept us in a pretty good place when you look at that. Um that's uh pretty much all of our equipment that we have. And the thing that can be deceiving, like the airport truck for example, it says it has 7,000 or yeah, 7,600 miles on it. It's 20 years old. Um, and it was parked outside in the sun for the first 10 years of its life, which aged it way beyond its its mileage years. And um, like I say, these uh these numbers are put up there for your reference, but also to understand that it's not exactly as it appears on here. So, but overall we're doing good. Um, I think uh as far as equipment goes, the next like front line would be a type one ambulances, which is what you see in in the bottom right hand corner of this slide. Is we're going to need to get one of those because our newest one is that one right there, which is 5 years old now. Has 30,000 miles on it. 60 to 70,000 with with the hours of idling and stuff like that. So again, uh they just they start getting older and becoming less reliable. There's a picture of all the equipment. You can see the airport truck down at the end there. We continue to work on finding grant opportunities. Um we just talked about this last week when we met on the on the new fire station. We'll be looking into any grant opportunities for possible funding on the fire station. We're looking at grant opportunities for the ARF truck. Um, a big one near and dear to our uh our career is um cancer screening. Um, there are there are actually grants for some of this

screening. There's some really high-tech uh screening and because of our really high risk of developing cancer through our careers, um, I think this is a really important thing that we look at. So again, this is stuff that we're always trying to stay on top of. Um, and looking for funding for it because nothing about our operation is inexpensive, right? Yeah, like I say, that's another and then just assistance to firefighters grants. So, we're we're currently working with an on on coming up with uh some of these opportunities and seeing if they see if we qualify for them and then proceeding as uh as needed. fire prevention. So, this is an area here where I feel like we've done a really great job. This is this was something when I moved into this position that I took as a huge need for the city of Paige and we're not out um kicking in doors and fighting fires, but that's because of the work we do here, right? Um so because of this um because of the fire prevention program, we're working with uh the building department um and the community and and our buildings, all of our new construction buildings are so much safer than they used to be. Um, we have uh implemented a a really comprehensive uh fire pre-plan and with our with our new reporting system, we can actually obtain all this information while we're in route route to a call. So, we get paged, we bring up the address, it brings up the pre-plan, so we see exactly what we're walking into when we get there, which is it just makes it safer for everybody, right? We're not surprised when we get there. So, that's another thing we added that we're we're doing good. uh um hydrant testing. We um collaborate with Red Cross on the smoke detector programs and also on on postfire um recovery for the the the people that

were involved in the fires. Um, yeah. And then the fire a firewatch program is usually because of failed equipment, failed uh sprinkler systems or alarm systems in our big commercial buildings, we we put them on a firewatch. So again, it just keeps the members of the community safe. Our ISO rating. So, this is another thing that we've been able to really improve on is by by better records keeping um maintaining equipment um inspections and testing on equipment, training, and additional staffing, we were able to reduce our ISO rating to a three in the city and a a three for the entire city, three and 3x for the undeveloped portion, which is actually really good for a department our size. There's uh not many small departments that have a rating that low. Like I say, that has to do with the equipment that we've been allowed to keep up with and the staffing that we've added. The new staffing that we added this year is actually going to benefit that ISO rating and that new fire station on the north end of the city will really help. So, those are two big two big steps in in even improving on that where it's at. As you see, I put those in the bottom of uh on the bottom of that slide where the platform truck ISO says we need a platform truck. Um, everything about our city says we need a platform truck. We're kind of working on that, but we also understand the cost of it and we're just patiently moving uh moving that direction. Public outreach. This is the the fun side of the fire department is um as you can see, we attend quite a few uh school events. Um we also have many of I think all the schools um for the younger kids they come over to the fire department for station tours

and we teach them the whole stop, drop and roll and whatever the whatever the the current campaign is for fire safety. Um seems like uh they all leave there pretty happy. So we're glad to be able to have that that connection with the with the public. Um, in addition to that, all the all the big city events, the the library, uh, summer reading programs, uh, national night out with PD, nightmare on Elm Street, trunk or treat, just all the events. And we're we're always very happy to, uh, participate in those. And that looks like it for me. Do you have any questions for me,

Councelor Roundry? And then councelor Preller. So, I've been meaning to come down since last fall when I attended the Morris and Institute um that ASU put down on for council members in the Phoenix area. Um I attended one of the classes and it was because you know the fires are going at the North Room and so one of the speakers was from Flagstaff but I was really shocked and um dis corrected in my way of thinking. Um, you want to think that your town is at risk because you have lots of fires around it like Flagstaff or other areas. And the presentation he gave, he actually said that towns like Paige can be at greater risk because wildfire or grass fires spread so quickly and then when they hit the edge of town, if you haven't and that's part of the reason why I had put out trying to do the code enforcer to try to clean up some of our properties,

right? But he said that they had um a screening thing where it's kind of like a drone and it can fly over and get an evaluation so you can um know and I shared that with um um Frank um our city manager.

So I don't know if you know of I'm sure you probably know who that is in Flagstaff. Is that expensive? Do they charge for that? I mean how much do they charge for that? And I would be interested in having them evaluate Paige to see where our um areas in Paige because basically when I talked to him afterwards, he goes, "Yeah, like for Paige, you just have your fire department to depend on by the time we could get there or others could get there. Those type of fires move fast in the summer when it's really hot and it's really dry and cleaning up yards and making sure people aren't storing paint cans and all that stuff outside and breaking ordinances is so crucial. So I I was just wondering about that in your fire prevention if you could consider something like that or if you have and I just don't know about it.

Yeah. No, we we've considered it. Um so the true threat from outside of the city, if you look at the sparsity of grass and and the vegetation and stuff is we don't really have as much a concern with it coming in there. There really isn't a a huge wave of fire that's going to get past us with our current operations. Um just because it's mostly sand, right, with bushes here and there. So he kind of misled. He made me believe that that wasn't true. Yeah. Well, he's talking about different areas. He's talking about high desert. But he knew I was from Paige, so he said that Paige was at high concern. So I'm I'm I'm not questioning you. I'm just telling you that's what he made me feel as a council member.

Yeah. would have to actually explore exactly what his uh his thoughts were on that because that's um like I say the the the grass thing which is more like uh Cortis Junction area where you have 2T 3T grass um that's a real concern but we don't have that here and we don't have the desert's not like completely solid u up to um the edge of the city where you know but I could certainly explore that and see what he's talking about as far as like um an overview is I was hoping to kind of work with PD on some of this when they're not using theirs if we have an issue like this that we could actually see what they see um with the drone. So

yeah, he said that they had some kind of um technology now where they can fly over a town and and they can tell you where your problem areas are and it does an evaluation and ranks it or something. He showed us a few examples in the presentation that he had done. So it's kind of interesting. So,

as far as as far as the city goes, you're absolutely right on on um some of the lots, some of the older properties and stuff like that that are unattended is those are a real hazard to our our community. Those can be a hazard to the all the houses around those. And that's the kind of stuff that um that you know in in the city that we really do need to uh try to address aggressively is making sure that those properties are cleaned up. the council.

Howdy. Um, I don't understand the technical intricacies of firefighting. Um, I kind of understand you guys put water on fire. Um, can you explain the ISO rating? Is three. Is that, you know, out of four? Like we're rating movies or is that 10?

Yeah. So, so thank you. Okay. Yeah, I will actually. Um, so ISO insurance services office. Um they actually it's a a full assessment of the department. So that's equipment. Um that's Can we bring that slide up again? P uh Kane. Um it assesses uh training hours, number of staff, equipment. Um they want to know that we're doing our pump testing, our aerial ladder testing. Um so all of our equipment testing um has to be done by a third party. Um Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So, um, so that's it. They, uh, actually meet with the water department and check our water supply. So, all of our hydrants, all of our underground water lines, all that stuff is done. So, it really is a very deep dive on the entire just on the fire side, but the entire fire side of the operation.

So, it's out of out of 10. 10 being the best. 10 is the worst. 10 is the worst. Okay. And that's what we were that's what we were when I took over. We were a 10. We were a 10. Um. Yes. So, thank you for asking that. Is it even feasible for uh a city like Paige to move up to a two to a two possible?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. In fact, that's what uh I kind of mentioned um that new fire station and the additional staffing that we added. Um, we're still a little bit short on the staffing. As I've mentioned in some of our previous conversations, is NFPA says we should have almost 20 people to respond on a fire at any any given time. We don't have any anywhere near that. Even with the addition last year, we're only going to have eight people on a day and then we're going to call folks in and hope that they show up. Um, so the staffing would be the biggest u hindrance to that going forward. But that new fire station on the north end of the city is going to help out greatly. That's because we did lose even though the old one wasn't manned is we still got credit for it. But by having a manned fire station at the north end which would improve our response times that's going to make a big difference in that. So it could actually bring us to a two at the next ISO meeting.

Okay, cool. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that question. I'm glad I got to share that. Councelor Pharaoh and then councelor Hettinger or go ahead councelor Hinger. Mine's a quick followup I hope. Um I believe last year we were at five. Is that right? No, we've been at three. Oh, okay. Yeah, we've been at three um for the last uh about six years. Yeah.

Okay. Uh this this kind of goes to both chiefs and Frank mostly. Uh uh last last budget season we talked about tac medics and we're we're starting to see an increase of activities within town. And in short, not to step on your guys' space, but when you have a police action, you have perimeters. And if we have a medical event for a responding officer or anything like that before they can get to you all or you all get to them, we're we're in a world of hurt for our officers. Agreed.

So we I believe we uh authorized I don't know exactly but you know some training and some equipment but uh I'm it's crucial that we that in my opinion and from my old days that we have tech medic capabilities. Now, that could be firefighter trained with police skills or it could be a police officer with finger-in- the dyke medicine as we call it. You know, quick quick stop the blood till they can get out to the safe perimeter. But,

I I do think that the chiefs and Frank need to kind we need to kind of move on for that. And if I'm wrong, but I think we would all agree that we need tech medics, at least two. I do truly. And I'm I'm I'm sure that Tim and Larry both do. Um Yeah. And so the reason the reason um we were unable to move on it is because it wasn't something something we budgeted for this year. So when we had the conversation, it was in this new fiscal year. Okay.

So now's actually a perfect time to bring that up. And I appreciate you doing that because in order to get fire equipped to do that and we very much we used to have a team uh Tim and I worked on one years back under under a different admin um and it was a very successful program that we'd really like to see get off the ground again. So we're very supportive if if the funding is available to um equip staff appropriately because we agree it'll save our first lives. It saves lives for sure. Yep. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Thanks. Right. And next up, we have you might be a new term to some here, but Sylvia can help explain it. It will be development services.

So, the right one, right? Here we go. Good afternoon. Um, been here three months now. Just starting to get familiar with the area, the streets, everything at this point. Um, have a planning and zoning background for about 20 years or so before I came and a little bit of economic development. So, with the three months I've had so far, I'm was just kind of seeing what type of projects we work on here, what kind of questions we get here because everywhere is a little different. You know, a lot of times it's how many chickens I can have or how high can my shed be. I think I've had everything much larger, like much more difficult than the standard planning and zoning questions. So, I would say data center was one of them, right?

Uh so, welcome, welcome, but it's worth it's fun. It's worth challenges. I I'm fine with it. So um yep we are slowly transitioning into development services department which does typically include planning and zoning building econ well in this case I have some economic development included um hopefully to transition into a couple more um positions in time as right now I'm doing both projects and the reviews at this time um so it's kind of it's kind of difficult sometimes but um the team is me at this point planning and zoning director. Um then Brett Slavven's a building official who I really appreciate at this time in my life. He has a lot of background on a lot of the projects. So we work really well together. Um indirect staff support from Sherry. Thank you Robin for sharing Sherry with me. Very helpful with a lot of the people coming into the window, setting up meetings and so so much more. I do leazison on the planning and zoning commission. Um I am also partnering with Adam on EDAB and attending the economic development commissions as well as working with Adam on some aspects of economic development. Okay. So what is planning and zoning? What is development services in in in essence? And Adam and I were kind of joking just a minute ago and you know it's like you know I really need to say what is planning and zoning? What is building? What is economic development? And it's like, well, if you didn't have any of this stuff, can you imagine people just building whatever they want, wherever they want, any materials, you know, road sizes, etc. And I was like, yeah, that would be kind of messy. I mean, I know we're tr doing our best now, but if there was absolutely nothing. Yeah, it could be pretty interesting. So, in planning and zoning, uh, we have the general plan that we implement, and I'll go into more detail

later. We work through our zoning code, subdivision code. Uh we review a lot of permits like your temporary use permits that are your often your food trucks. Those are temporary use permits. Um building review a lot of commercial and residential plan review, construction safety and compliance. And then on the ED side, um I have more of a a specialty I would say in the retail attraction and company and small business. uh attraction and uh retention. And then I will be working on city land cells, housing study updates, and other development and revitalization initiatives. These are some of the homes we have out there. Um it's not called Jake, it's Cold Springs. You probably know. Yeah, thank you. I was like, it's like I'm getting used to all the subdivision names, so it looked really good. General plan council adopted long range strategy. I won't go through the whole thing but basically it sets the direction for land use, housing, economic development, infrastructure and more. So this is our bottom to me our bottom foundation. What does the city want to see in the city of page for future growth um that had the participation of the planning and zoning commission stakeholders and it's council approved. So with that foundation where do you want your commercial? Where do you want to see future housing? What type of housing? Multifamily, single family, etc. Just industrial. So those are the land uses that are typically in the general plan. Then we have the zoning code. Um the zoning code many times reflects the general plan. Um at this point that's an area I would be working on in the future. Um, so with the zoning code, that's when we are actually defining the standards, the setbacks, the heights. Um, oh, that's the first one because

I've had that happen so much this week that I can think of, but there's definitely much more than setbacks and heights. Um, but it just helps with our development process. Oh, I actually want to go back to that. Um, the general plan sets the vision. The zoning code is the primary regular regulatory tool to implement it. And when inconsistencies arrive, the city addresses them through appropriate zoning updates or general plan amendments following required public processes. Kind of in a in a nutshell, the role of the subdivision regulations. So we have the general plan layer, then the zoning code. Now we're starting to build houses. So this this regulation will help with assisting if the proper lot sizes are in the right zoning district. um infrastructure, water, sewer, fire is involved on this one as well. We want to make sure you have your turnarounds for your trucks, right? And uh so much more. So that's where the subdivision regulations come to play. And in general, that's what we're doing from plans to projects. This every aspect has something to do with the outcome. So the general plan establishes the long-term vision. Zoning implements the general plan. Subdivision and site review shape the community form. Then building ensures safety and compliance. Economic development supports feasibility and recruitment. And then city land sales attracts housing and commercial development. So with that being said, all of that together, if they're all working together greatly, you know, can we have a really nice end product, right? And here are some of the city council goals that will be, you know, that are being achieved through these type of processes. I won't go through each one, but housing goal, quality of life, economic development, communication. And here's some projects we're working on. So, we are going to work on a

housing update. Um, we have some interaction regarding the short-term rentals. Um, we'll be reviewing like the general plan, zoning code, and also the building code. um the build like the three of them together. The building code is 2018 right now. So we'd like to bring that up to 2024. Look at the general plan and review it and see how we can maybe update that a little bit along with the zoning code. And when the three of them are meshing much better, development occurs a little better. So that's what we'd like to do. Um we are working on the downtown revitalization project as you know and as well as working with an in finance on a lot of the grants and you as well on that. So that was that's very fun to get into. Did some participation in the BMX pump track. And then for the ED side of things working with Adam we're going to start attending some conferences in Vegas where it's it's ICSC. Um it's big retail attraction conference. not only um stores we need but hotels, other uh commercial developers and um really it's not hard to see what we need here or what we could use here. That one was the kind of easy one. So, as far as um not knowing what we want to go for, I think we know a little more um retail as far as we only have a Walmart right for close and maybe a few places to eat, a couple more hotels and all that kind of goes hand in hand. That's something we've worked on in the past. So hopefully we can work on that for you guys and bring you some more uh sales tax dollars as well. Right. Um regional training planning and transportation. This is just a little bit I I'm kind of steering out of that. It's going to go more to public works at this time, but I do participate somewhat. Transportation has a little bit of of an area in the planning. Um so I'm more of a commenter I would say on that.

But really that's where we're heading. Um, I don't think I can think of anything else to add, but if you have questions for me, please let me know. Any qu counselor Roundtree?

Yeah, sorry. I do. So in talking with citizens um so in talking with citizens um specifically about our upcoming big project that there's a lot of negativity about um I asked some different citizens and um they said no they understood that there wasn't I mean everything w was handled the way it was supposed to and they brought up that they were more concerned about projects they knew that had entered page city government had been approached and that council never knew about and they mentioned projects and I was like, "Oh, I've never heard about that." So, I'm hoping I'm I'm so glad that you're here. But I'm hoping that those processes remain the same for everyone that comes through. So, they said they were more concerned. They understood how projects went through and felt that our project that we're having debate about in the community had followed correct channels, done everything it was supposed to, but they said, "It got through to you. Why did other projects not get through to you?" So, I was just passing that kind of perspective because I've heard it from a couple different people. And then I had a specific conversation with a realtor and they said, "So like if I'm in Flagstaff and I want to go buy a piece of property, I walk in and I find a piece of property that's for sale somewhere in town cuz somebody owns it." Cuz Flagstaff doesn't own even 2% of their land anymore. I mean, it's all been developed or bought. But they said when somebody wants to do something in Paige, they call us realators because they assume we're like every other town. And we're like, "No, you have to approach the city of Paige. They own that land." But they've been telling this realtor, "No, they don't. I've looked online and there isn't any property." And so I think that our placeholder for the term parks and open spaces used to be future development. So

she or they recommended that we do something to address that placeholder because on a regular basis they're having to tell people no that should be for sale and they're very confused at the placeholder. So I'm just passing on that information because they said for we used to not do that. We'd say go online you can see the city's you know map and what's available but now they're hearing since we updated last year no there's nothing for sale. though there's nothing for sale. That's all. Do you I think understand what I'm saying? I do. I do.

So, I wanted to pass that on to you that there was that concern. Um and I don't know how that happened or why it happened that you're the professional, but I do think it's a concern if people um are looking at our city map and thinking there's nothing for sale or no place to develop or to bring something in commercial because all of our property doesn't say future development any longer. Thank you. Um, we're definitely I'm working with this city manager, Josh, and those are some of the things we're looking at right now as far as like reviewing. I know you guys just went through the general plan update with 22 23. Same with the zoning code, but just using it over the last few months. There's some things we need to work on. And when those things are being revised, so will the zoning maps and the general plan maps as well. As far as when people are coming in for the lot sale process, that's a little I'm just not quite in that process yet. We're working my way into that. Um, we'll review that process. And then the same thing when we have new companies or developments coming in. You know, there's a I'm sure there's a way we can try be more um we're tracking them more and I can provide this stuff to you too of what's coming in. And

yes, and we've actually had the same conversations about that exact subject. So,

we're looking at options to to help. We we tend to agree with with what's been said, the citizens um without speaking. Sylvia is more of a professional and has more experience with this than me um as far as zoning goes. But uh for land of your CS and that's one reason she is the going to be the lead on all the land sales and bringing the businesses to town because you get that cohesiveness with the zoning and get that in there. And Josh has been doing Yman's work kind of filling in with all of the turnover now. Um, but again with with Sylvia taking the lead on that, we hope to it may take us some time to maybe get things how we're used to seeing them and maybe undo some things. Anytime you have turnover, different directors run things differently. So, I don't want to say they did it wrong. I just say they were different and Sylvia may have a different way she wants to run it as a zoning official. So, I will grant her that difference and it'll go through all the legal processes with planning and zoning and council as it as it needs to. But, we're looking at that. Um, and and that will be coming back to you. I I'm pretty sure

I'm sure it probably was then, too. But for whatever reason, there was there is a perception that things entered and never came to council and then, you know, they understand that process. A lot of our citizens do. I know that there are apparently a group that doesn't understand how things move through, but a great portion of our citizens do, but when I was asking what they thought about what was going on, and they were like, "Oh, no, no, we didn't. We we understand everything went well." My concern is, "How about this project? I heard that this came and it never got out." And so, I we can't go back. will never know how much. But I want our citizens to be aware of developers or anyone in this town that if they bring something in that they're going to follow the same process to some as someone else and that it feasible projects are going to make it to this council table for us to say yes or no because we're the citizens final vote. So that's just I was just relaying that to you and I think you'll do a great job with it. But

thank you. Yep. Anything else? Councelor Preller. Um, real quick, uh, so you are doing both P&Z and EDAB or EDAB is shared. Adam and I are doing that together. Mhm. All right. Fantastic. And not to put Adam on the spot. Uh, are you over Adam or is that in Frank's department? Nope. Yeah, I I can answer that. So,

thank you. They're both directors that answer directly to me. When you hear Adam's presentation, it'll help explain his duties um as well to where in the past I think it was Zach Zach was planning and zoning and Greg was economic development and marketing and tourism and we had no pio. So between their skill sets, I I've think we can handle those three different duties between the the two people. So that's why I've got Sylvia with development services and her landl background. They both have economic development backgrounds. But on the land sales and and property side of things, uh Sylvia's taken more of the lead. And then um as Adam will will tell you in his presentation on the the marketing and tourism and advertising sides of things, that's where he will come in and and they really will partner together as a team to recruit the businesses that come in and uh it takes some tight coordination and some some teamwork there, but that's that's what we're all about.

Y we'll cross over every every day basically on something. So, we'll work together on all that.

Yeah. The the definite benefit of um I'm sorry about that of when you're working with retail attraction or bringing in the hotels, where's the first place they typically go visit. Usually, it is planning and zoning to check the use of the property if they can go there and then we move forward through the process. So I even worked in an organization where it was separate and I do have the planning and zoning background and economic development but a lot of times then the new companies would go to planning and zoning economic development wouldn't know or economic development would be working on the high confidential properties and planning and zoning wouldn't know but we all needed to work together. So honestly, this is almost the best bit to do it cuz then when I'm working with somebody and a new store coming into town, I can already tell them this, you're allowed this, you know, and just help them move right through the process. Another key coordin um needed a key player with that and when I used to go to the IC, I've been going that to about five years now and it's it's a very large conference honestly. Um, so over time I've like the first year I didn't know what I was doing besides walking around. But then I started getting used to the process and it was like the other key player is the building official most of the time too when doing retail attraction because time is money. They want to know how fast I can build it. What are the requirements? And so that's another key player in a lot of the development we bring to the city.

Councelor Hammond, do you have a hand up? Hi. Yeah, I just want to say I like the direction that we're going with trying to reorganize. I think we definitely had too many hats on one person in our former structure. Um, but I guess a couple of things. One, I want to be mindful of the fact that we still have a separate planning and zoning board and economic development advisory board. And things still feel a little squishy to me about who does what in terms of the staff. the staff the direction the staff is going doesn't neatly align with our current board structure. So that again I think is something that council needs to address and we need to align our board structure so that it fits the direction of of staff or vice versa. I mean we need to work together on it. But that's something that's on my mind. And then the other thing that's on my mind is we keep having this discussion about process and improving land process, land sale process and all of that. And I'm glad you're looking into it. But at the end of the day, I want to see a concrete written document that makes it really clear to citizens, us, and potential developers. This is the city of Pa's process. So that's just my ask for you, Sylvia.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any anything else? Thank you very much, Sylvia. Thank you.

Great. And just a maybe a quick comment on that about the boards. I have also heard that from other counselors. So we will be as we refine our our duties like I said with basically five new divisions or directors out of the 10 uh we will also be looking at that and and bringing suggestions and seeking input not only from council but from the boards themselves um and and as we go forward refining the process. So, that's not a unique comment that I've heard. Um, next we have Oh, I'm okay. Uh, public works. So, I'd like to introduce you to the acting public works director. So, which I was hoping not to be, but um, so right now with with public works, we're we're in between directors. We are currently recruiting. Thank you, Rachel, for all the help on that. Um, looking at public works directors and now I see the feedback I get from everyone else of why is government being so slow? Because now that's what I'm asking. Why can't I get some help now? But, uh, we're we're utilizing the Duffy group that worked on some other positions in town and and they're they're working on it and it's just I am impatient. Um, it's Rachel assures me that the process is no slower than it was for any of the other positions. But, uh, but we'll work on that and I'm sure they'll help bring us a excellent candidate that's just as good as the one we lost. We hope so. Um, until then, this uh might be a more brief presentation than I would normally like for public works, but next year with the new director, maybe he'll get some some better information and we can maybe do a

spotlight of it, much like community services was this year. And then Adam may have some input later on some of the strategies, too. So, uh, department overview, staff, departments, capital projects of what public works does. Um, so basically public works, it's it's always kind of the backbone of the of any city you work on. Um, it it's the glue that holds it together. So, we've got here we've got uh facility maintenance. There's many more buildings than you ever think of um with a city and they take care of all of them. We've got a street maintenance crew that does great work and that's both facilities maintenance and street maintenance. Their leadership, uh Gary and Mike have been here for a while and I'm trying to keep them as long as I can. They keep saying the rwords and I'm scared to death right now. So, but uh they're great people. Um, also fleet services or I think we call it central garage around here. We've got really only only two in the if you think about it, that's a skeleton crew for the size of the fleet vehicles we have here. Uh, the police, the fire, all the other vehicles. We've still got bulldozers from the landfill and even equipment down to as small as chainsaws and weed whackers that they take care of. So, that's a that's a big task in itself. We also take care of the cemetery um for the city of Paige. And in the engineering realm of things, pretty much most of the CIP projects run through um public works as our city engineer PUA and I say AK because I'm from Alabama and have trouble with everybody's names and he patiently uh puts up with that. So, uh, it's great

to have him. He was gone for a while visiting family back in another country, and now that he's back, I'm I'm breathing much easier now. So, um, but we've got six building maintenance, five street maintenance, like I said, the city engineer, two in the garage, two for the cemetery, and two for administration. Um, pretty slim crew for for operations like this. So, here's some pictures. And I regret that I haven't met all of them yet. I've met some of them and good ones. Um, they've all been great so far. Um, we do have a few positions we're looking to fill there. Normally, mainly the director. Um, so building maintenance, like I said, that's operation and maintenance of city-owned facilities. Everything from a clogged toilet to uh what you would call tenant improvements or remodels happens a lot through the maintenance division, renovations, repairs, capital improvements, uh plumbing, electrical, HVAC, they're replacing HVAC units. Um they do a lot of in-house work. They're helping me also with we talked about the plumbing issues at the community center. That's a capital project, but Gary's stepping in and and using some of his tools and cameras to help us diagnose things along with bringing in development services with Brett, the building official. Uh we've all been teaming up to to try and take that on and diagnose that problem. It's a bit like putting your finger in the dyke sometimes. But also, they're they've been helping um with the PAR club. That's another one where community services has taken on a lot of the work themselves, but getting work with public works and maintenance as well on that. Street maintenance got 46 miles of streets in town. They

also take care of storm drainage, traffic control, banners and signs, um desert trash, large projects, and and really with only five employees. My philosophy with street maintenance is if you don't think about it, then we're doing our job. So, I our goal is to have you drive to work or your place you're doing business and and not notice the pothole or the the rough road. So, that's always been the ultimate goal with me with street maintenance is and really public works in general. If you don't have to think about it, then we're doing something right. um we want to just get there and it dubtales into even police and fire without maintaining the roads. It takes them that much longer to get there. Um luckily I don't have to deal with utilities that Brian can deal with that. So the water supply is on him and uh happy to share that responsibility. So and they do a great job at that too. Um like I said central garage we've got auto technician and a heavy equipment technician. The new facility is probably the well it's definitely the biggest facility I've ever worked in my 30 years um for fleet. Usually you get whatever even though it is a handme-down they usually got whatever handme-down from some sort of rural electric cooperative or something. So still working on that. They've done a lot of work inhouse plus a lot of contractor work on that facility. Um, so, uh, the procurement of the city fleet, we're that's a constant work in progress. And then the tenant improvements, like I said, they've done a a ton of work at that facility, but there's still a lot to do. So, um, cemetery, uh, we maintain that. I haven't gotten into too much of that. Tamara handles the administrative side of that and they are working on an expansion that we're

dealing with and uh they keep reminding me that we need to make sure to get keep that moving so that we can serve the community with that. So that is a project that's in the CIP program and is moving forward. And so with some projects um this is where we might if we've left something off let me know. Um, we're still working on regrouping with a lot of this. Um, this is where I kind of feel like Sylvia, both of us are still learning street names. I'm still unfamiliar with with Border Street, but it's on our CIP program. Um, but I'm sure AK will help me uh figure that out. This is uh Vista Avenue. This one is probably on our current program and our future program. I I think they did some of the work right out here on this side of the street, but I think this view might be on the other side of the street. As you go across Lake Pal, it still needs a lot of work is an example of that. Um, when you start seeing that cracking, it's just going to get tighter and tighter and turn into what I what's we call alligator cracking. When it looks like the back of an alligator, you're you're starting to need some heavy work on that street. So, um, all road paracub improvements. There's been a lot of sidewalk work done on that currently and there's still more to do. Um, and it may be on here in a later slide. We're also looking working with Ann and finance um on some grant opportunities for a big roundabout project at Copper Mine and Hall Road that includes a lot of sidewalk work and multi-use paths. Especially with Copper Mine Road, there's a lot of foot traffic up and down Copper Mine Road from the high school to the communities out there. And I even uh have noticed the the fire employees use that as part of their physical training. So, a multi-use

path on that is is pretty well needed. So, again, this is Border Street. Looks like they may have done it. Um, again, you council probably can teach me more about this road than than I know right now. So, I apologize for that. I will get it up. Um, 89 and Lake Pal Boulevard. I'm This is North Lake Pal. That one's complete. We do have another project for South Lake Pal that our um, Hatafi is our senator, I believe. I'm still learning our legislators, too. So, that there actually has been a bill introduced down at the state to um ask for some funding help for Lake South Lake Pal. So, that one will be a project as well. Um we've also Sylvia and I have made contact with ADOT as far as Highway 98 and some of the access control along that. We're learning about their process for that. So if improvements at 98 and 89 come on or 98 and copper mine, um, ADOT will be involved in those. So this is some of the improvements they've made at public works. Um, I I think they may have been spread out before this and and in that old building that was talked about across the street. So, this this facility, they really love it and are still basically moving in and it'll take some time to to get in there. Uh, community center. This is the one that was the questions of, well, you had a project, why couldn't you get the bathrooms, right? And again, that's sad to say that sometimes things don't always go as planned. Um, but we're working through it and uh and we'll we'll get it right in there. So, um, that was part of a CDBG grant and uh,

most of the construction was new, but again, there's old features of that building. I think someone even told me there used to be a pool in or around that building and a lot of infrastructure to deal with. Um, but we will get there and the team will get it done. Um, again, this is part of the bathrooms. This may have been what they had to deal with before. Um, there are stalls in there now, but uh, we're we're working with that. That that's when you know you're a team. So, um, the encompass facility is CBI keeps coming up. So, we're working on finishing up that grant and getting that building. I think we still need a walkth through with Nikk on that to complete that project. Um Josh has been a big help, the attorney, um with some of the dealings. Ann and Josh have been working on that a lot as far as the paperwork side of things go. So that should be pretty ready to go. It's it's more of the paperwork and closing out the project that's on the end on that. So maybe some examples for upcoming projects. Let me get to my notes here as well before I hit these. So again, the copper mine and Hall Road roundabout. Uh we're trying to get what's called a raise grant. They keep changing the names of the grants on me. They build grants, raise grants. um but they're all basically the same process and we're working with with Ann, our grants analyst um to to work on that. Um and again for a roundabout project, we've got design money in this year's budget and I was thought the design money was I was like that seems

like a high amount just for a roundabout. But then I looked at the scope of the project and it's all of the sidewalks. It's even a potential street near the splash pad area that connects Hall Road to 98, another collector street through there. Um, when you look at all of that scope, then then the design budget makes complete sense. So, um, that project's moving forward and when we get the new director, we hope to to speed that up. Um, cemetery development. This is another one I mentioned that uh that Mike and the crew have said we need and and are working on. So, it'll be coming down the pike. Um, and I do have some notes that I took if I can find them. Bear with me. Oh, so that's it. Um, one of the big equipment purchases that that you might see that we're we're looking at right now is our road grader is rather ancient and I think they said something about it goes through nine gallons of hydraulic fuel just to start it up. So, um, those are those compete with the fire truck sometimes on their their cost. So, um, but we're looking at that, looking at options. Uh, even, uh, Scott from the garage and Mike from the street crew says we can probably find some sort of used equipment to to save that and we're trying to keep it under the half a million dollar mark, but um, that's a big ticket item I wanted you to know might be coming up. And then another project currently in progress that that we're working on is the city hall improvements here. um the architects going through the design

process and uh maybe with council's patience I would like to take a more holistic look. Um we started going through some of the um arrangements of the offices and and just want to make sure we we take our time and get some of those right to get the workflow between the offices right. And then there's some concerns about one of the ancient windows and and Gary has been teaching me about the heating and air conditioning system in here. So, um, we want to just take a good holistic of look at this project and make sure we're getting the right thing. Um, so it's going to take a few more meetings with the architects to make sure we're on the right foot and keep designing that and so it may roll into next year's budget. And uh but I think in the end if we get the the best value for what we're spending our money on, it should be the right way to go. So just wanted to to prep you on that that it may be slowing down a little bit because of the turnover in both my position and the public works position, but also just to make sure we if we do it, we only want to disturb all the the citizens coming in here one time and and keep everything going. It even affects next door over at the judicial center. um and some of the entrances and exits there. So, uh but we are working on it and and taking a good look at it and we'll bring updates to council as they're uh appropriate and when they get ready. So, any questions? I know there's probably a lot of input here. So, uh

we'll go counselor Pharaoh and then councelor Roundry.

Thank you, sir. the uh Indigo Ridge Boulevard where it goes down and meets with 89. Um because of Indigo and some of our property with rain off, it's drove some gravel onto that transition from Indigo to 89. 89 is an AOT responsibility. And so that curve there is dangerous for bicyclists, road bikes, and big bikes. And the question is is who who do we get to take care of that? So, and I would think that that might be a consideration for anywhere where we have a hill or a road that meets with um you know an A dot road, but especially if you haven't looked at 89 in Indigo Ridge, it's dangerous on the bottom for big bikes and road bikes.

Yes, sir. So, that that may lead into another equipment piece. Um, our sweeper, in my experience, sweepers are always notorious for being the hardest piece of equipment in the fleet to maintain. They're just designed to break with all the moving parts and the brooms and everything. So, we'll look at that both from a city perspective and I recently was introduced to Jeremy, the ADOT district administrator. So, I'll work with him too on on where ADOT comes in and trying to get them to come in and maintain their portion of the road and then also our portion of the road and where maybe we can help each other out and work with a handshake or something to to try and maybe double cover some areas if if we're allowed to. So, um, sometimes it gets touchy with ADOT and the permits they need, but, uh, from the first impression, Jeremy seemed like a great guy and willing to work with us and, uh, hope to build a good relationship with him on that.

Then my last question, does it seem like it's 98 degrees in here or what? It is here. I get everyone talks about they're new to speakers. I've been doing it for a while and I still get the sweats. So, thank you, sir. Councelor Rantry. So for the public works projects for the budget, I had brought to your attention that huge concern if I don't know if you've had that opportunity to go look at it yet of where that drainage is wrong across from Mesa and that we're going to have massive flooding. And I don't think that's cheap thing, but I don't see how we don't address it. And then the other concern I brought borders there,

sorry, the drainage across from Mesa um bikes there. If you haven't gone to look at that yet, and I can show you on a map if you want here today before I leave, so you'll know right where it's at. That has to be addressed because it's it's could be a huge when we get rain. We will get rain. When we get that big rain, we're going to be in trouble there. And then the other thing is you showed Border Street before it was paved and then they paved it for whatever reason where you come off of whatever that road is, Copper Mine.

Copper Mine Road and you turn into Border Street, they didn't fix or pave the beginning of it. So there's big holes and when those semis are the trucks or they're pulling those boats out of there, I'm told that that just really goes wonky right there. So, I don't know why that little spot did not get done, but it's at the top of Border Street right when you pull off. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Prowler. I'm thrilled that Vista might get some attention. That road has been awful since longer than I've been alive to the point that that's just like a stated fact, sort of like the speed of light. Um, the other half of Vista got done. I'm very thankful for that because that part of my commute is sublime now. Um, and I don't commute on the other part of Vista anymore. So, you know, no complaints there. But it's probably Paige's worst road. It's one of our one of our bigger, more important. I don't know if it's counts as a collector and arterial. I'll let the uh zoning people figure that out. Um, but it for how important it is, it shouldn't look that awful. Um, and it is overdue. So, hooray for that. and it looks better than what the parking lots do that haven't been repaved since 1970 that the city owns.

Council Heading,

thank you so much for the overview of kind of the bigger projects. Similarly, some of the items I had on my mind, it was great to see that they're already there and top of mind for you. Um the two things that come to mind though as we're thinking about um the roundabout at Copper Mine and Hall and sidewalks all through there. I know the parks and recreation advisory board has been spending a lot of time thinking about an urban trail. Um so if that I don't anticipate that's all going to get done in one year, but if that could be part of the thinking as we're looking at some of these big um sidewalk and just trail areas, that would be great. And then the other thing that's smaller but I think well loved by some of us in the community are the pickle ball courts. And um they could definitely use some love.

Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. I'll add mine to that one. All right. Got it down. Councelor Per to piggyback off the whole uh trail thing since we're bringing that up. I should have mentioned it earlier when uh parks and trail were in here, but we're going to figure out trail crossings of Rim Trail on Lake Pow Boulevard and Copper Mine. Um if you just need someone to head out there with a can of paint, you know, I'm free Sunday. Yes, that came up and we're looking at that. Maybe even augmenting that with some push button beacons and items like that. It's right by the police department. I'm sure they've got some extra strobe lights laying around. Council Roundry

and then I two other things if we're giving you our wish lists that I've gotten from citizens and I think this is what I've gotten more complaints about anything is the backout parking on sixth and how the big huge RVs and boats park and they completely block that entire road. Can we put some signage and ask them to park behind, you know, Safeway behind there and create some parking there or something so that they have a place to park because I see their need and those businesses need to have a place for oversized parking. So, I'm not trying to tell them they have no place to park in town, but create a a space for them to park so it's not blocking. And then I don't know you guys, but the pickle ball courts. The number one question I get, how in the world did somebody paint it the 70s swimming pool blue? And how did that get past the city? And why are our pickle courts and I know we just painted them, but is we looked at the beautifification. Is there any way we can go back to a color that doesn't look like the bottom of my swimming pool when I grow up?

Sure. It's only money. So, um maybe they were a Boise fan. So, but uh but I have heard that other two. And on the 6th Avenue, Sylvia, is that part of the downtown project Norris is working on. So, we might have some some good input as part of the EDA project on that as well.

Well, I think that's true, but in the meantime, I really do think it's a hazard. I've gone down there where I I couldn't drive down the one direction going towards the hospital. I still think that Mayor Kidman and I are correct. I think when they took the blueprint and they laid it on the street that they flipped it cuz if you look, you should be able to pull into the high hospital and it there should be a lane that goes straight, but when you get to the high school end, there is a lane that goes straight, but there's no place to go because the high school's there. So, I really think that the whole plan when they sat it down, it was supposed to be this way and they flipped it this way. So, I think that's what's wrong with that. But it there it's blocking and there is you can park there along that one curb where you shouldn't be able to park because of um who told me the other day to go over there and look and I did when I went to the mailbox and they're right. It it totally blocks and there shouldn't be parallel parking in that one little spot. I mean, it doesn't it doesn't fit there. So, I think the parking something needs to be corrected at least for those oversized vehicles so that they don't park there any longer. Okay, we'll look at it.

Just take the first 18 feet of those parking spaces and turn them into bike lane. That's the uh that's the fix. I agree with Tom. I think that's what they were meant is that in the front of all of those No. Well, then you get into the whole road. I don't want to say the term even. So, um

I I I agree it belongs with the beautifification, but I think there needs to be something temporarily done until that's done. Sylvia and I will look at it from a planning and safety point of view. Um her from the planning and me from the safety and even bring fire into it if we need to if there's hydrants or anything to look at. And we'll we'll look and see what immediate safety concerns we need and then look at it from both short-term and long-term perspectives. Fire should be thrilled about those parking spaces. They can fit their truck in there. So, okay. All righty.

But they can't get down. It's a hazard if they had to get down that street. I have not been able one time I could not get down. I mean, I l had to go in the middle and my little Honda I was wondering if I was going to get through from the big one on the one side and the big a fire truck would have never gotten down it. Okay, we'll we'll look at it. All right. Thank you. And next, um, quickly, mayor, yes, I just want to note that I'm recusing myself from item 311. Okay. I want to Thank him for his patience.

Absolutely. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Andrew Hettinger, presiding magistrate. Thank you for the opportunity to present this annual report today regarding the court. I'd like to start off just by recognizing our excellent court team. We've got excellent staff members who do a really nice job serving the public. Their teamwork and dedication to fulfilling our mission and vision really makes help makes the court go each day. One thing I want to start off by emphasizing here today is that misdemeanor non-tra criminal filings in our court are down 50% these last five years compared to the previous five years. And that's more than double the statewide average of 23%. Now, there could be many reasons why filing trends change, go up or go down, but I do believe that over the last 5 years, the court has placed an emphasis on increased accountability for repeat offenders. And this has been a real um cause and driver of this trend that you see here that does increase public safety in our community. And these non-traffic misdemeanor filings, these are the cases that make up about 70% of what we do. This is public nuisance. This is disorderly conduct. This is assault. This is shoplifting. This is alcohol in the park. This is what we see uh repeat offenders doing again and again. And we have programs and we have solutions that have helped to bring this number down. I believe from the court's perspective over the past several years. This is the foundation of what we do. Our mission is to administer justice fairly, efficiently, and respectfully. Our vision is to be one of the premier rural municipal courts in the state. And we're going to do that by espousing the values of justice, excellence, and teamwork. To that end, we have nine strategic

goals that we focus on to make sure we're tracking and meeting our mission and vision. The first one of those is excellent employee satisfaction. Every year, we do a survey with our employees that ask them 30 questions. How are you liking your work? Do you feel like you're being communicated with? how are things going? And this past year was a 4.9 out of five. Um, one of the things I was very happy with was that all four of the staff members rated a five out of five when they were given the prompt. I feel like my job contributes to the overall mission of the court. We have alignment and we have really good cohesive teamwork at our court. The second goal, excellent customer satisfaction. It's important that we serve the public. Um, and we need to do so respectfully. Um, recently we had the Cookino County Court Administration come up from Flagstaff and they administered the survey on a day we had a bunch of court hearings scheduled and the response rate on whether they felt like they had access to the court, whether they were they felt like they were treated fairly was 4.6 out of five. I will say that they brought up snacks and so that might have influenced a little bit these rankings here. Um, but the the number one response uh of the 15 or 16 questions there was, were you treated with courtesy and respect? And for that one, it was 4.7 out of five. So, I think we're really doing a fantastic job top to bottom in our courts with that. Maintain a successful recovery court. Recovery Court is about helping high-risisk, high need individuals who have been in the system continually be able to avoid jail, be in their families, be with their families, do their job, be in the community, and have a lot of accountability and supervision, and uh hopefully not commit new crimes and then turn their lives around. It's been a really awesome program. Last year at this time, we had 16 people in the program. Now we have 22. This time last year, we had six graduates total for the program's history. Now we're up to 16

and we look forward to continuing to see it grow. 68% of the people who are in the program who have graduated are crime-free. And again, these aren't first-time offenders. These are they have to qualify as high- risk and high need to be in the program in the first place. And because of this program, we've saved over $100,000 in jail costs. Uh again, because they're in this very intensive program, they don't have to go to jail. and we get to save the taxpayer dollars by being a part of this program. One of the nice things with this program is it's been run a a lot through a grant from the federal government. And so that's been footing the bill for this for the first few years of operation. We are going to eventually have to take on some of those costs, but it's not a super expensive program. From the course perspective, it's $25,000 a year and then an employee on police department side of it. establish a successful domestic violence court. So, this domestic violence court was set up just a year ago, brand new program, because what we found is that only 6% of people were completing their domestic violence classes within one year. 6%. They didn't have enough accountability and structure. And so, what we did is create a simple program. It cost less than $5,000 a year to run where people have to come in and they have to check in with the judge. They have to check in with me and make sure they're doing their classes. make sure they're abiding by the terms of their diversion or probation. And if not, they get the consequences. They have the accountability. But in the meantime, they're going to these classes. They're learning what they need to about proper communication in stressful situations, about limiting substance use, and getting better at being becoming law-abiding citizens. Our target completion rate for this program is 50%. Might not sound awesome, but it's a heck of a lot better than 6%. And we're getting a lot of positive feedback. People come in and I ask them, "What are you learning from these classes?" And they have great things to say. We've partnered with Encompass CBI on this

program and they've got good cognitive behavioral therapy things they're doing. They're working on meditation. These classes seem to be getting through to people and helping them out in their daily lives. This is my more most boring slide. Um, but it is important because the Arizona Judicial Branch comes and audits our court about every 8 to 10 years. We have financial audits every three years from outside agencies and they don't just look at outcomes, they look at processes. They want to make sure every single little thing is done correctly. And so this is just a way of us trying to do our best to make sure we're in compliance with all of those things. We have staff trainings and we work continually on on doing our own little internal audits and file checks to make sure we're being compliant. It's been said that justice delayed is justice denied. And this is what this slide kind of covers here. For those cases I referenced earlier, those nondui uh misdemeanor cases, disorderly conduct, shoplifting. Once that case is filed, there are time standards to see how quickly are courts getting those cases adjudicated where we're deciding guilty or not guilty. And what you'll see here is within 60 days, 75% of the cases in our court are done. we've gotten it finished compared to the statewide average of 50%. In 90 days, we're 83%, the statewide average is 64% and then at 6 months it's 93% compar compared to the statewide average of 84%. And these are right in line with those standards. Um the reason is it takes longer for some cases. Some cases are more complicated. Some morea some cases involve more discovery. They involve jail time. They involve attorneys. So they can take a little bit longer. And that's the reason why you have increasing percentages as it goes over time. Another one we have here is for DUIs. And for this one, I have three different bars here because what I noticed is that last year we were just hitting the

statewide average for our time to disposition. And I thought, hey, we're really exceeding it over here with all these other cases. Why aren't we doing that with our DUIs? And so I kind of got with our public defender, our main public defender and our prosecutor, came up with some processes to more efficiently process these cases. And so for FY 2026, what you're seeing here is that we're up to far exceeding the statewide averages again on these particular case types that do involve mandatory jail time, do involve big-time fines, and that take more time to adjudicate them. But we have found a way in our court to do them more quickly. Um, and this is the one that everyone made fun of me for last year. Um, but we we have 6,000 paper files within our court. It's a lot to keep track of. It's a lot to keep organized. And so what we do is called a file integrity survey. And that's me getting a stopwatch out. And I got a list of 50 different case files. And I hit the stopwatch and I say go. And staff go and try to track that file down. And they see how fast they can get each one of these 50 files. They could retrieve them in an average of 28 seconds. Now, the reason this is important, the reason this is good is that every time someone comes into court to make a fine m fine payment, to get a warrant quashed, to ask about their case, every time law enforcement needs to get a public records request or outside agencies need to know about someone's criminal history, we need the case file. And so, the fact that our staff are able to keep the files this organized, 28 seconds per file, really does mean we're an efficient court. We know how to operate well with what we have. I would like to say that we are um using taxpayer dollars well. Uh we're operating efficiently. Uh we have kind of five comparison courts that I like to compare us to. It's Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Kulage, San Louise, and Nogalas. These courts all have a full-time attorney presiding judge like we do, and they have about the same number of cases

that we do. Now, JPC is kind of a term of art, but basically it's just a weighted case average. DUIs take a lot of staff time, take a lot of judge time. A speeding ticket doesn't take much time. So, the JPC kind of averages it out and balances it out. So, what this means in practice is that a DUI case from the very beginning to the very end, till that fine's paid off, till the counseling's done, till the jail's done, it costs our court about $950 to do a DUI case. For like a shoplifting case, it's about $477. And for a speeding case like a a civil traffic ticket where they do defensive driving school or they just pay the fine or they request a hearing and the hearing takes 15 minutes, that's about $90. And so we are right in line with and even kind of doing I think a little bit better than average with our comparison courts. Maintain a safe and professional looking courthouse. Uh this past year we were really fortunate to have the chief security officer for the Arizona judicial branch come and do a security audit on our building and he spent some real time doing that and gave us some suggestions for some changes and improvements. We were we were able to make a lot of those changes and I would like to thank uh city manager Mr. Marberry for kind of already addressing with me that when the future parking is is planned here for this building that maybe we could get on board with that with the courts as well to have secure parking because that is one of the things that we do do need to address enhancing public trust in the court. Um, I was able to do a presentation for law day with Judge Barnes or Justice of the Peace with the Page Middle School this past year and I'm going to be partnering with a couple of the elementary schools this next year to do, you know, little presentations with them, read a book about um, what judges do with them that's age appropriate and continue to build that trust with our community. I was also able to present on our new domestic violence court to the Arizona Judicial Leadership Conference in

Flagstaff in October. that was to uh a leadership conference that involves all the court administrators for the whole state uh the the presiding judges from each county and the Supreme Court justices. So, it shows the good work we're doing here. The highlights and the goals that we've set that we're trying to achieve, I do feel like um really show that we're working toward our mission to administer justice fairly, efficiently, and respectfully, and that we're reaching continually toward that vision of being one of those top rural municipal courts in the state. Anything I can answer today? Councelor Piller?

Sure. Thanks. Thanks for coming in. Um I wanted to get some clarification on the um DV school that you mentioned where it's right now only uh 6% enrollment and you're looking for 50. Um what what's the efficacy of that class? How what kind of the recidivism rate on it?

It's a great question. So what I'm trying to say is that there was 6% of people a couple of fiscal years ago who were completing the class within 12 months. We're hoping to get that number up to 50% who are completing it within 12 months. The classes themselves are mandated by the state. Um, so you have to complete 26 classes for a firsttime DV misdemeanor offense in Arizona. So whether or not they're effective, I believe they're effective anecdotally, but the state legislature has said if you get a domestic violence offense, you have to complete these classes no matter what. And so, you know, the recidivism rate based on who's completing the class and who's not, our case management software doesn't have that capability to see it. Based on the studies I've read, uh it's not super encouraging the um from like a national standpoint, but it is what we have to work with.

Okay. Thank you. Anything else, Council Roundree? I'll just say thank you. I I've been able to attend your um substance abuse um graduations and um impressed with the work that you are doing and this student success and and keep it up. It's it's great work. It's something that Paige should be proud of. Thank you. Thank you. And I do need to say thank you to all the council members who have been incredible. All of you have come out and supported our folks for their recovery court graduations. It means so much to have the leadership there supporting these folks. They're they're great events. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Uh, sweet, right? Looking at the the schedule, mayor, would maybe now be time for a five quick five minute. I would love that. Stand up and move. Okay, we should be able to

We'll go ahead and get started again. And next we have to start the Is the recording going? Okay, we're good to go. Okay. Sorry to jump the gun. So, all right. Horseshoe Bend.

Yay. So, Horseshoe Ben, open 365 days a year, sunrise to sunset. Whether we're there or not, that's where we're open. Um, before I start any further, let me introduce Stephanie. Stephanie is my lead cashier. She's been filling in for me. As I get older, I might be retiring, so I'm hoping to have her trained. Um,

so Horseshoe Ben, awesome place. I don't ever get bored of it and I love what I do. So, it's been hard for me to say I might want to leave. But anyway, um, if we don't have shade structures, our people stand in front of the doors of the booths. Causes an issue of safety. Um, and so with Justin's help, we got two more new shade structures. Shade structures. um are replaced with the one that's I think I have a picture of that too. There's one that's down a ways and it uh it was a really neat idea and it came from the power plant, one of those things that we were trying to keep involved with Paige and it had the pipes that wind like out here in the front. Um, but we found that every time you do that, that top cable comes down and it's got a big old ball on it and it will hit somebody. So, we decided that we're going to take that down and we're going to replace it with two more like this. Um, so that people have a place to get out of the sun, especially when the buses are um coming and dropping them off. And then they leave, they sometimes will leave them there for 45 minutes or more and it's 100° outside and it's just too hot for them. We have not ever put chairs or benches or anything like that because the whole idea of Horseshoe Bend was you come there for 45 minutes to an hour and then you leave. Our parking lot does not accommodate picnic areas or anything else. And we have some awesome parks in Paige. So we would rather send them to Paige where there's a grassy lawn you can do drilling or whatever. Horseshoe Ben was not made for that. So, horseshoe bandan, we put a few rocks out there and people will sit on them rocks without a problem. Um,

so we are now, Justin mentioned it, um, we are now trying to take our electrical that we brought across the road of 89 and it's our backup for our solar system and it's used quite a bit in the wintertime especially. Um, but now we're trying to go around and if you're familiar with Horseshoe Bend, we're going around the front or like I should say the west side of Horseshoe Band going from north to south with electrical lines so that we can improve our cameras and our equipment. Um, making it ready for phase three if that happens. Um, and so they're digging that now while it's not as busy and they're doing a very good job of it and they're trying to get that down to that top picture over there on the left hand right hand side. So that and I know everybody hates ConX boxes, but ConX boxes are our life out there at Horseshoe Band because we have nothing else. A ConX box will at least keep the mice and the chickmunks out and my um thermal paper will stay nice. We've had to replace that quite a few times. So, I wasn't saying movable um movable things. We have a lunchroom that we made for the kids because it's like sitting out there in their car. After a while, you're running all your fuel and you're doing this trying to stay cool. So, we have a little lunchroom. It's a It's a pre It's a prefabbed uh what is it? U tough shed. We added a window and a door to it and our little office is the next door over and it is great place to get out of the sun and get out of the heat and still be able to have those movable. So when we once get phase three where there's a contact station and offices for us and running water then we can remove these very easily because there's not a foundation under them. There's nothing

there's there is um gravel underneath them. So we can take a forklift in there and remove it and it'll look back to natural like everybody likes to see is the natural look. We've painted them. We will paint the conx boxes down there as well to match. So, in general, we aren't taking up too much space, but we are getting a lot of stuff done. Um, we have our trail head is done. We're going to do some more work on that. Justin and me have decided that we need to fix from we we only had one entry and it went right where row five is, which is quite a ways about middle way of the parking lot and it went up the hill to the old trail. Now, it goes around and meets with this trail. And this trail is right by the booth. It's row one. And it's it doesn't matter whether we put fencing there or whatever. People would climb over those fences to get to the shortest place to get to Horseshoe Bent. So to do that, we made the the next trail so they meet. And so we have trail five coming here, trail one coming here. This is the most used area. So what we did is um we're going to have we did a capital project. So, we're going to have um Justin come in and fix that area again because it is it's not ADA approved, but it's user friendly. An electric wheelchair can go on that trail. Um strollers can go on that trail. Little wagons that they bring their kids in can go on that trail and it's very accessible for them. Um we put an information station up there. So now besides park service put this one and it's a little bit of a hazard because we're constantly putting ink pens in there and and paper for them to sign because it's a visitor's sign in. Um it's not working as well as I'd like but it's a place to put it. Um we put the

information board in the back. It's got weather for the week. It's got information about what's going on in town. It's big enough that we can put little posters that Sherry, great job she does, is making posters for us for anything that's coming up. We also post for all the events that are going in town or most of them um big poster boards that we have as you come into the booth. There's um those sandwich boards um removable. We flip them around for Halloween, for whatever things going on. Customers like that and they get good information. We also tell them about taking water, you know, drinking water and stuff like that. Um, a good walking trail. It's user friendly, like I say, nice hard packed, works well. There's, you know, there's only uh what is it 100 ft difference in elevation from the overlook to the to the um parking lot now, which is great. Um, our old trail went up the hill there. You can see the parking lot um just after it got done and before we opened the um fee booth, you walked up that sandy hill, you walked back down that sandy hill. I did that three times a day when I was working for Grand Canyon Airlines and it was hot. This is perfect. The overlook, I think this is the first time I saw the overlook, not have people by it, and that was during CO. So, I had to add that one picture over here because it's like there's an empty horseshoe bend. Never like that ever. Um, graffiti. We get graffiti, we get Karens, we get a little of everything. So, we are responsible for all the stuff. And now we kind of watch the parking lot and the trail because we don't get a lot of help from uh our co-ops. Um, but we did get a little gator with a trailer on it. It has a pressure washer on it so we can wash our trash cans. We

have since then, this is the old trash can. There was one small hole for cans because it was recycled and one for trash. And I've had more people complain about why are we dumping our trash into our cans of recycle because we don't have recycled service here. Um, so we're taking those out and we're putting a nice tan colored instead of the blue st tan colored trash cans with a lid on them that the birds can't get to because now we have more birds, nice little birds that take our trash out in between the three times we do it every day. And we had 52 trash cans out there and we do those three times a day. And as you can see, we're we haul trash more than most people. There's Vicki with our trash. There's Shane trying to rake up. There's our portable bathrooms. Um, we'll replace all of those trash cans here in the next couple weeks. Um, we've already got them ordered and we've already got them paid for. So, it's a nice a nice thing coming so that we can at least keep the trash in the trash cans and not have it all over the parking lot. Um, we have all kinds of vehicles and people come to Horseshoe Bend. One year we had 150 bikes come through. Bikes we do not charge for. Bikes we let them come in free as long as they're keeping them in one spot and they're just walking the trail and they really enjoyed that. So it was kind of a nice thing. We gave them a few trash bags. They brought back trash for us. So it was a kind of a win-win. um bus bus tours never really slowed down and they have actually picked up versus our um our visitors through cars. Um one issue we've had all the time is our springs get broke and people drive

through the oneway don't enter because we have spikes there. Um, we have 227 so far since we opened in 2019 and we keep counting. And we have changed the stop signs three times, I think. Now we have a huge solar operated blinking red lights on both sides and the thing that says wrong way. And the day I put those up, two cars drove through the no smart, no parking. And I'm just like, there's nothing else we can do. Um, it's a nice price for them to pay for new uh tires, but your people will sit there and go, "Look, I got flat tires." And I'm thinking, "And you did that because you were saving $10 or you just didn't read the sign that said don't enter?" Um, kind of interesting. We get a kick out of that. Um, new speed bumps. We got new speed bumps to slow people down because they tend to want to just fly through that fee booth area. Um especially if park services is closed or if park service at the other gates are closed when we had the closure for the government and they just thought everybody was free. So they'd fly through there and I mean I'm amazed that they hadn't hit or killed somebody because they don't slow down. It says 5 miles an hour. They hit that speed bump and they just keep going and you can hear things fall off the bottom of their car. Um we also had a few cars that decided they could drive to Horseshoe Bend. So, we put up little blockades there um for our traffic um control and we have locks on the bottom so the park service or the police and stuff can get in there. Our SUV, our little um emergency gator is parked right up here. We put a nice little shade over it and that's our emergency vehicle. It's on the side of the trail, but we can get a 4x4 through there and park service can go through there if

they need to. they just have to um move one of those and it'll work just fine. Um but we found it's a lot safer than what it was. Um emergencies, we have emergencies all the time. Um and that's the picture on the far side there is what happens. They go around the the overlook and stand on the very edge and try to look over or swing their legs and think it's all just great. and we all hold our breath hoping that they don't kill themselves, but then park service or city of Paige has to come out and haul them off. And so they have a nice gator for that. It's all for horseshoe bands, so it stays there and they take care of it for us. Um, and we just make sure it's got fuel. Um, commercial vehicles has gone up um 24 to 25, not by much, but it has gone up in in seasons. You can see below there, that was where CO was. Um, CO didn't last very long for us because it was an open area, so it was great. Um, private vehicles did go down some. Um, we aren't sure why because it seemed like according to park service in 2024, we had 8 million people come to Horseshoe Bend and um it surpassed the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So why we're going down with C um with vehicles, I have no idea. Our revenue kind of stayed the same over last year. So it wasn't bad. And I don't know if the new the new stuff that they're building on the other side of the road and on this side on the Navajo tribe side is going to make a difference. I'm sure it will in revenue, but I would sure like to get our contact station started in phase three. And that's one thing we're looking for. We still at Horseshoe Ben do not have running water. We do not have flushable toilets.

Kind of kind of a big issue. Um all kinds of visitors come to Horseshoe Ben. Our pot belly pig, our rattlesnakes. Occasionally we have to get those taken out of the area and put somewhere else. Our mice that try to climb in our windows. Um but we have people come from far and wide to see horseshoe band and even from different galaxies. So other than that, we're done. Got any questions? Hinger.

Uh, thank you so much. So, I've heard rumors of phase three. I would love to have more information about phase three as we're moving forward. And one of my questions is, would that include more parking? like if we're thinking about adding additional things

at this time, if you look at phase three that was done way past before my time, it did not have it. Um, since then, Brian was talking to me before we had um a change and he was always asking me, he said, "Why didn't you do FA phase three?" And I says, "Well, there were certain things that were told me we don't list that, so I haven't listed it. Seven years I've been waiting for that." So, um phase three is mainly that contact station and getting water, electricity and a road hopefully, um the frontage road on the opposite side and then maybe do a roundabout there to slow people down because that's another really scary area that I am amazed that in the seven years I've been here, we haven't killed more people just there because you can see all the white cones we have on both sides. I mean, those guys, DOT comes out there and they fix them. And I mean, three minutes later, bam, five or six of them are down already. And he's like, "What do you do?" And I says, "We don't do anything." You know, they just come out and we've even made the turn lane there and it doesn't help us. I mean, those trucks are coming down that road at 65 and these people are pulling out at 2 miles an hour and look and just I mean, it's like quit sightseeing and step on it. Um, we've got slow down signs. We've got everything. I don't know if we get phase three, which I would love to see. It did not have parking in it. Um Brian asked me to do what I would think because I've been out there so long. I would think that on the we have our um booth one, two, and three is what we call it. So the parking lot is to the south, booth one, booth two, booth three is to the north. on the north area, you could make a big parking lot and you could put another booth in, which we would need, not necessarily in the winter, but in the summertime, and you could do commercial

on that side, private cars and RVs in our side, and you would double the size of parking. If you've ever been there on Memorial Day, we literally have to park people. And I mean, you're sitting there saying, "A little bit straighter, little bit more," you know, and I mean, we have it packed in there. I mean, I park cars in places I didn't think I'd have to park cars just to get them in and get them out without trouble. That's the other reason why, you know, it should be a not a public picnic area or stuff like that. We don't need that. We need in and out as fast as you can get them because that's what makes your money. That's what makes your turnaround. you don't have time to do graffiti. You don't have time to do those kind of things. Um, we have an electric gate that closes in the evening. So, we close after sunset. We open before sunset. We're open not enough hours of the day that somebody shouldn't have to be in there after dark. We do do the the stargazing still. Um it's a great project and we made a area um that's pretty large and we have three of our own telescopes and we have park service and volunteers come out there and do stargazing at night but we only do it once a month um in the summertime when it's warm. Don't have to worry about people getting cold. We don't have to worry about anybody left behind anything like that. So we do still do some things at night. There's still room to grow. Um advertisement. I was talking to Adam and I was like I don't really need advertisement. And I says, "I have free advertisement everywhere you look. I mean, you go to Best Buy and there's Horseshoe Bend pictures on every TV. Um, we have the entry signs at South Rim at South Rim at um South of um

Don't Look at me." Utah border.

Utah border. Yeah. Arizona Utah border. We have a sign there that says, "Welcome to the Grand Canyon State." And it's a picture of Horseshoe Bend. You have one on the other side of Flagstaff and it's like welcome to And I'm thinking, okay, great. you know, don't don't complain. Just take the take the stuff. So, I don't know if we're going to get a uh we haven't raised the rates in a long time, and I don't think we need to. I think I think it's a good price, $10. I mean, you can get a whole car in with Park Service raising their rates. They've been asking us about that. And I told him, I says, I'm not raising our rates because I says, I would like to see people come enjoy it. It's the cheapest thing in town to go see if you're going to pay for something. So,

yeah. And but phase three is I would love to see a parking lot on that side and it would be very easy because it's our land.

Awesome. And then on the note of the rates, I saw that we've got 12.3 million in the Horseshoe Ben checking account. And so, if we could look again at like an annual locals pass, if you could pay $10 once as a local and have it for the year. I know a lot of us have friends and family coming to town and we're at Horseshoe Bend a lot. Um, so something like that. I don't think I mean again I'd be interested to see how much that would impact, but I I think that could be a nice perk for our locals. And the only reason I've kind of not jumped on that bandwagon is because of the fact right now I have Analopee Canyon coming over charging people $12 and they're only paying, you know, 10 to come in and they're charging the people in their in their car $12 a piece to come to Horseshoe Ben. And they're going to say they are citizens of Paige. Where does the citizenship of Paige stop and start? and when are these your family and just people you're charging and I'm going to give you free. So there's a little bit of a hesitation on my part. Not that I'm game for whatever you think would work. I just haven't come up with a good solution for a a pass that's be yearly that wouldn't interfere with you know charging everybody

bringing a piece of mail. If you're willing to put up with pages of post office, you belong here. Thank you, councelor Roundtree.

So, she covered a couple of mine. And if we can't do the past, then can you do like Analopee and of some other areas do where there's two days that are citizens days so local citizens could go and that would be easy because if they show their driver's license, it's going to have their page address on it. But that's just a suggestion. If you can't do the pass that you might just offer once or twice, but um so one of my um cons I've been there a lot this year. I don't know if you've known I I was just sitting here thinking five or six times. I don't know how many people have come this year and visited and wanted to go see it. And so Jerry or I or both of us have had the opportunity to go out there and every single person that I've taken out there has said, "Why don't they have danger signs? Why don't they warn you about getting close to the edge?" And then when you were giving your thing about signs, I was thinking, well, I guess it's a little different. they're getting a flat tire, but this, you know, and so

and if I don't know, um this this summer, this past summer, we put up a um a safety sign that blinked, please take water, you know, watch da da da the whole thing. And I had it there for two months, hoping that people I went back and got water, at least drink water and all that kind of stuff. And on our receipts, we because we don't do brochures now.

On our receipts, we have the whole information about how far it is, anything and everything you'd want to know about Horseshoe Bend, per se, that used to be on our brochures. Um, but if you've noticed, there's a ton of signs out there. And there's t there's signs that I feel like I've outsign people. Um, we could put something down there. That's, you know, the part of park service that says, you know, the overlook part is does belong to the park service. Yeah, that's what I told them. I said that's probably because it's park service and they have decisions whether it's not Yeah.

and it's not the cities. And then the last thing is because it is getting so popular, you have to stand there for quite a while before somebody exits. if you want to stay on the safety rail. Um, have we thought about extending the safety rail to the right and the left some so that more people could feel like they get closer to the edge and take pictures from some of the other angles is just one of my things cuz we thought the same thing. I mean there was I mean I went down there five times and a few we could it wasn't much of a wait just you got up there but there were two times when we had to wait for a long time and then people were fighting to get to the edge and um so I thought why you know and I don't want to go down to the other end

and that's not that's not the city's property 300 anything 300 feet off Colorado River belongs to National Park Service. So, we should be asking the National SARS service to be making more safety gales cuz they're whatever money they're making has to be similar to what ours is. I don't know what Well, they we pay them right now. Do I say that? 20% off of our top line goes to park service and I have not quite seen what they're doing for me for that. So, we would have a right to approach them and say we would like more safety rails and possibly some signs.

Okay. Thank you. And then for phase three, I mean, I'm thinking a little bit bigger than more than just the needed parking lots, which I agree with. I was hoping that there'd be a visitor center or a museum that we're losing museum things could be placed down there and a dual convention center like combination because the city of Paige needs a convention center, but it would look beautiful. It was there and it was a multi-purpose building that could be used for all of those things. But and and like I say, until you get parking. Well, I know it. Yeah, the park the parking has to come.

Parking is a must. And I like your idea. I think that that would be great, especially because when I when you're down there and the buses start packing and moving, I know that they're not supposed to back up unless someone's out there watching them. So, they need to pull through. So, if you had a bus parking where they could just pull straight on through and out. And and one of our Great idea, Debbie.

One that I didn't um I didn't do much for future projects because I've got like four or five in the in the works right now. We're adding this, you know, the electrical. We're doing this and that. We are also going to put new asphalt on the whole parking lot now instead of just the dirt because the dirt is just not working. The little um discs that they put for marking the where you're supposed to park are all coming up and they stick about this high up and they make flat tires. So, we are just going to asphalt because if you look at where the buses park right now, that's been there seven years because I've been there. There's no cracks in it. There's nothing. But we did it the right way. We did um what is that? Road base underneath such and such so that it doesn't mess it up. So we are in that process right now. We have the the um the capital project for doing that. And it's supposed to get done before May. So we're going to do it in sections. We're not going to do the RV park where we have it kind of separated out there because they tend to forget to not dump their water there. Um, but we're going to have a nice parking lot, which will be great if we could take that and picture it on the opposite side for buses. You could keep your commercial away from your other people. They could walk right straight to the trail. And if we do this contact station that's not necessarily a visitor center, but a contact station. Then the bathrooms would be there. Everybody's coming to the trail. That's where they would meet. That's where the bathrooms are going to be. Councelor Hittinger,

sorry, more thoughts because there's money in the Horseshoe Bend account. Yes. Um, I love the idea of the commercial parking. The one thing I would be scared of is if from the overlook you're looking to the right and you can see the parking lot. I think that would be sad. So, just I'm trying to remember like the whole area in my mind right now.

It's kind of it it would need to be it would need to be level off. There's an area there where all our water and everything has been draining to. So, there's a little puddle right when you're coming into the booth, but I'm talking about south of that third booth, just out in that area. I don't think it's going to take too much of your view away, but it would be very beneficial to keep buses away from vehicles so that it's just a nicer a nicer flow and a nicer, you know, we can contact the buses when they leave somebody behind. They're right there. We know where they're at. you know, that type of thing. Yeah, I think that's cars and RVs don't want to be by the buses either,

right? And then reiterating councelor Roundtree, I would love to see stuff I can buy at Horseshoe Bend. I would spend a lot of money there. I think other people would spend a lot of money there and I think that would be a way for the city to make revenue off of Horseshoe Bend that would be a little bit easier to spend than the Horseshoe Ben checking account. So, that's another thing to consider in the future. One past council did not want anything retail there. We actually have a tiny tiny little sticker that we give, you know, that we not give out that's only $2 and we back out the tax. We've tried to do everything we possibly can because people were asking for some kind of souvenir and there was just no space to put it anyway. But we do do bottled water for a safety issue. So we have bottled water in every booth and it's a dollar a bottle. we go pick up the bottle our or we go pick up the water ourselves, buy it, purchase it, and we give it to the, you know, customer for a dollar and that's backing out the tax. So, they're not paying for anything except a flat dollar for a bottle of water that's ice cold or whatever. So, we have made as many accommodations for something to sell at this point until you get a visitor center and then it'd have to go back to council to say that we could have retail there because there's a lot of people that want to do retail in our area and we cannot.

So, maybe we could consider a future agenda item. I would agree with the future agenda item because I can see and I respect the council's past vision, but now we're having a resort built on all the way around Horseshoe Bin and it's going to have the travel, the gas station um and everything that's in that complex and the resort on the other side. And so, but what I'm saying is it's going to um become a retail spot in town. And you know, that's out of our control. And I it looks like it's going to be a very nice project. Actually, I'm pleased with the way the aesthetics and the way it's going to look. So, I think we could reconsider us adding to that spot. And I wouldn't mind because we have

I would like it to be on a future agenda item. We have a ton of lists of things that people have wanted to buy, you know, so I've left that list so we can always look at that as well. Hey, councelor Hammond and then councelor Peller. Did you Did she hear me or did she take the hand down? Yeah, sorry. My um mute was frozen. Just a quick question. How many of those bottles of water do you go through a year?

Oh, not as many as I thought we would. The first year we went through a lot, but now that everybody is told, you know, please bring water, and I think it's gotten out there on our website and on the page site and everything else, we I think it was $6,000 worth of water. I could look up that precisely, but it's not it's not that many. Um I think we probably have more calls for dehydration even though we tell them to take water. I mean, that's one of our things right out of our mouths at the booth is the training is, you know, please take water. Please pay attention. Please, you know, please, please, please. And people just think they don't need water. And but we have water. It's available to every booth and every person if that's what we need. But it hasn't sold. We've only gotten like 6,000. We were going to put a label on it for Horseshoe Bend and I didn't want a label because then it would be blamed for me when they're all down the canyon. So, but yes, we we we do have water, but we have not sold anything like we thought we were.

Councelor Prell, thank you. Uh, yeah. Merchandising. Um, I mean, the people that bring water bottles to stuff have stickers on them. So, like, let's sell some stickers. And we do have a little small sticker, but that was all we were allowed to do. So, we were trying to appease the customer and still not with it. Sell some horseshoe ben themed mud flaps or something. Um but I mean if if we don't someone else is going to sell that look, right? Um and you guys are enterprise fund where you're kind of sort of a business. Um so you know the law

I'd love to and like I say we have a whole list of things you know playing cards. Um, you know, one thing that would be really great is umbrellas with horseshoe ben on them because it's good you've done it. Not because it's raining, it's because it's sun. It's No, that's smart that you've been out there cuz like that's something I don't think any of us would have thought of. Uh, however, I think that's going to reduce heat casualties and then ambulance building is not going to hit 3,000 this year. So, you might need to clear that with Linda first. Yeah.

Okay. Um, but on a this is this is beating a dead horse at this point, but whatever we build out there, I think we're going to be putting down shade structures again with the damn solar panels. Uh, you guys get lots of sun. It turns sun into energy, which translates to money that we can subsidize the G fund with. But that's and we do have, you know, I mean, we're run off of solar. Unless it's cloudy for three days, that solar panel is working just fine for the boost and it runs everything. and and because they're working just fine as we continue to build out and increase we should just maintain that course.

That was my question is is that you have had solar and obviously it's not done what you thought it would so that's why you're bringing in electric. That was a question I did have down here. We we were going to put solar down on top of that ConX box and then we decided that if you're going to build a contact station, unless you're going to do it with solar and everything else, it's going to be larger than what we're ready to build for solar. So, we were trying to do electrical just to get some security cameras down on the other end, keep my ConX box cool so that I can put my credit card paper in there and things like that, keep things out of the way of mice and and rodents and stuff like that. That was the first thought was solar. And when we all talked about it, including Kyle, he's like, "Well, why don't we just start with electrical so that when we build this contact station, this visitor center, whatever you want," he says we would do it with electrical. So, that's the only reason.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Stephanie can do it next time.

All right. Thank you so much. And next on the agenda is Jake with the golf course. All right. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh we got the Lake Pal National Golf Course 2025 year in review. We're going to start off with a revenue comparison of the last five years. Um starting with golf revenue. So this would be our green fee revenue, cart fee revenue, and rental revenue. So over the course of the five years, we've gone from 603,000 to 819,000, a 36% increase. Food and beverage revenue, uh our Mulligan's Pub and Patio up 55% over the five years. Merchandise revenue up 34% from 151,000 to 203,000. We've hit the $200,000 mark each of the last three years. And our total revenue uh from just over and that was the first year we hit a million dollars in revenue in 2021. And this last year we were at 1.47 uh up 40% over the course of the five years. And our rounds. So we had an enormous jump this last year. Uh almost a 1600 round jump. and really hitting a milestone uh of exceeding 20,000 rounds. That's that that was kind of on my goal list when I started years ago and we finally did it. Um and not only 20,000 but 21,136 rounds. So pretty pretty awesome to see that. Uh and then our rounds per revenue. So this is just a stat that I like to keep track of. It just kind of is a overall picture of of how we're doing. um $56

per round in 21 and we are at nearly $70 per round now. Um some highlights from 2025. 20 25 was a was a big year. Um a banner year, we'll call it, I guess. Um so we had the driving range upgrade open June 12th. We've sold 6,532 tokens in the first six months and we've seen a 49% increase in range revenue. Uh youth activity, the kids are loving this place. Um and that's great to see. That's how we grow the game. Uh and it also has opened up uh venue opportunity. We've had many inquiries and have actually rented the whole thing out. So that that provides another revenue stream. We switched the nines. So this uh few reasons why we did this. Uh proximity to the driving range. Uh better first tee control. Old number one was on the other side of a hill. People would disappear. We didn't know who was teeing off. Now we we can see who's teeing off. We have better control over the first te. Uh also the scenic nine available to all. That's probably the primary reason why we switched to nines. Uh we've gotten busier. Uh we used to have a lot of requests to play what was the back nine that we couldn't honor. We have groups coming off of nine to 10. So we would have to send everybody off of number one. Now that's not an issue. Everybody gets to start on the scenic and more popular nine. So even if you're just playing nine holes, you get to see our our signature holes. And it's and it seems to be going really well, really smooth. New course signage. You can see the before and after photos there. We got a and another one there. So, the previous signage was all over the place. So, now we've just kind of got uniform looking nice dark green

signs all over the golf course. It all all looks nice and clean. New carts purchased. Another big item. So, we got our new 2025 club car. Lithium batteries, GPS technology. Uh you even have the ability to order lunch from the golf carts. uh USB ports, sand bottles, and beverage coolers. So, they're very impressed with them. They're they're holding up very nice so far. And this will only help cart path repair. So, on the left before, we identified 18 areas where the car paths have just continued to buckle and deteriorate over the years in the in the hot and the cold. Uh and then the after. So, we've replaced those areas with permeable pavers, and that'll just do nothing but help reduce the wear and tear on on our fleet. Tournaments. We hosted 18 tournaments this year with 1717 tournament green fees and uh raising tens of thousands for local charities. There's a fun picture of one of our ourmed tournaments. It's from our Halloween nightmare scramble. And those are our our costume contest winners there. I think it's from uh Lorax the movie, right? Um LPN Golf Club, 148 members last year joined the LPN golf club. We hosted 36 events which led to 1870 rounds played and that's our club champion Kelsey Dalan who I actually I think is the only member to have won player of the year and the club championship. So she's she's become quite a player. Course improvements bunker renovations as pictured there. That is hole number 17 and it is almost completed. Uh we ran out of sand so we were waiting on a shipment of sand to complete that bunker, but it looks fantastic. Just night and day. I wish I had a before and after picture. Uh but course cleanup and

just just our uh our general uh purpose of improved playability and enhancing the scenery. It's the most one of the most scenic golf courses you you'll ever play. And we just want to do everything we can to make sure that that that scenery is is is visible. All right. Marketing and promotion, social media. We got before Jacqueline and after Jacquine. So that's about my skill level on the left. Jacqueline has been an enormous help and really adds to professionalism and uh and boosts tournament of play. This Igloo Open, she got that out on social media. Um and we sold that tournament out a week prior to the uh to the start date. Just um Google ads, we this is something new from this last year. We started that in April and we seems to be working. We've got a 8.26 ROI. So, we've invested 7,600 and our revenue of nearly 63,000. Another ad, Dixie Direct, attempt to get more golfers from the St. George area, receiving a seven times ROA, ROI on that ad. Uh 2026, goals and priorities. Goals, continuous improvement. Um, that's kind of our our motto at the golf course, I guess. Um, 10% increase in total revenue. That's kind of been our trend. We want to maintain that trend. Um, add two more tournaments to the calendar, increase non-golf event revenue by 50%. So, that's our weddings, parties. Um, prom is one we just confirmed we're going to host prom again this year. Um, at a couple's league in the fall, um, we only have the one league. Uh, the summer league, it's summer league and then individual stroke play league. It's all kind of lumped into one. I think I think we've had the demand now to where

we can add another league in the fall. Uh we can do a couple's uh nine and nine or nine and wine spelled W H I N E or W I N Either way, but I think the the demand's there for another another league. Um complete two more bunker renovations. We have 21 bunkers on the course. We're focusing on greenside bunkers and we're probably about halfway there on the greenside bunkers. So if we get two more of those knocked out this year would be would be nice. And then improved turf coverage on the ridge by 30%. So that's the rest 15 of the holes are fantastic, but we have holes three, four, and five which are up on top of the mea that we struggle with a little bit. So we really need that to be a focus to improve those that condition. Uh priorities staff support retention. We have a phenomenal staff. Um, maintenance staff is just the best maintenance staff I've seen since I've been around. Just a great group. Uh, customer service, exceed expectations, anticipate needs, um, successful league and tournament operations, clubhouse improvements, patio shade and audio system. Patio shade, that's on this fiscal year's budget. that should be arriving any day and we'll we'll have that installed which I think will be a game changer for that patio just even even more. Um and then audio system that's something that's that we would like to add to the uh upcoming year fiscal just to add some more professionalism to our to our events and clubhouse.

How much you do now? Yeah. No. So, I I just have a portable JBL boom box that I carry out to the golf cart staging area and it's doesn't sound the best. I mean, Larry, I'm sure has seen it and it would just and and also first tea announcements. That's that's another area that we're busy enough now to where that would eliminate a lot of confusion and congestion on the first tee if we are able to actually announce who's up next on the tea. And then uh you know priorities junior golf programs lessons uh and then targeted advertising promotion. Looking forward to working with with Adam on some new ideas to uh promote the golf course. And then finally something I'm real excited about. So this is the Bandy at Horseshoe Band April 5th through 7th. So we are hosting a college golf tournament. It's a giant feather in our cap uh hosted by Arizona Christian University. Um, first college golf tournament in course history that I and uh we got up to 10. Right now we have nine confirmed. 10's the the cap. Still potential for one more team being added, but from all over Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, and as far away as Florida. Uh the this is NIA level, but still next level golf and going to be a top priority for for this spring to to host this event. Um, yeah, Arizona Christian University. Um, actually just found out they've offered one of our locals, Preston Ross, a scholarship, so potentially could have one of our locals playing for for ACU, but I think he's D1 level. So, we'll see what happens. All right. Anyway, all right. Thank you all. Thanks. Any questions?

Any comments, questions? Councelor Ramry and then councelor Preller. I'll start. Um, I would encourage I'd like to encourage you, I mean, to work with the park and wreck or do it yourself. You have a golf club with 148. I'm assuming those are all adult members. Could you possibly consider um just doing a a club for youth so we can continue to increase our youth because those are our future players. And so, absolutely. And then the last one, I'm sure you've already heard, but I've heard it too many times, so I have to bring it up because I've been asked to, and that's the lights from the driving range and the homes on the rim, right? So, I'm sure you're probably already addressing that, but I was asked by more than

Well, we did initially address I mean, there's a little bit of a learning curve there when we first opened or those lights were facing straight out and we're just lighting up the the Hyatt and those homes. And since then, we have tilted those lights down 15° and so the lights do stop below Lake Pal Boulevard. And then we have a timer. So, we're right now they shut off at 7 o'clock and then nine o'clock during the the summer time. It probably won't be quite as bad. People probably won't be golfing as late. How will late will you be open in the summertime? Nine. They'll stop at 9.

Yeah, that's that's what we did this last summer when we open. So, they'll shut it off right at 9:00. Couple of the complaints were just uh like Fourth of July. We uh with the concert and everything where we were asked to turn them on late late, you know, after the fireworks show, the timer got messed up and then the next night they came on at like 3:00 in the morning. So that that was quickly resolved. I didn't ask the time or anything. I asked, but I did drive over there because someone was saying, "No, you have to drive over there." And then when I went over there, I was like, "Wow, you're right. That is excessive." And if we have a dark if we have lighting requirements in town, they said, "The city's not following their lighting requirements." So, thank you. Great job.

I'll just follow up on that a little bit. And that is one of the things I was going to work on and get Sylvia involved, too, because it gets into the lighting ordinance. We'll look at that and maybe drag Jake kicking and screaming, but uh cuz I know his goal is to break even at the golf course. We'll see where we can get the money, but if if we need to maybe raise those lights up on some poles with a future capital project, at least start planning for that. So, um we may look at a lighting analysis to because I have heard those same complaints. So,

yeah. So, I I did encourage people to call you, but sometimes they don't. So, I have no idea if we are talking to the same people or different people. I just know it's not been as much as I've heard about the blue pickle ball. That's been my I've only had less than a handful three people. I'm just glad we don't have blue greens. Yeah, me too.

Council, I was really looking forward to this presentation. Um I still don't golf. I'm sorry. Um, but I walk around there on the trail a lot with the dog. Um, and it is looking nice. It's looking good. The greens are looking nice and healthy. Um, you those those pavers look good. I think that's a good long-term fix. Um, the dog and I collectively uh pick up the golf balls that get overshot and uh, you know, we save lots of money on dog toys. Um, and I've noticed that the number of golf balls has gone absolutely through the roof. Um, which means you were either gonna pitch data on how your, you know, round sales have gone up, golf ball sales,

or your golfers have gotten way worse. So, I was looking to hear, you know, which one of these are pitching. Um, combination of those. Can you um I I noticed the Mulligan's revenue went up significantly in I think like 23 or 24. Was that when the renovations happened? So, 23. So, you you actually could see a dip between 22 and 23 and that's when the renovation what's going on. And then since renovation 24 and 25, you've seen the big increases there. Okay, fantastic. And I mean, I imagine a good chunk of that is um just the renovations, but some of it would probably also be trailing the increase in just overall visitorship. Right. Right. Cool. Looks good.

Yeah. All right. Thank you. If I may, thank you,

mayor. One more thing that that council might be looking at. We're we're trying to analyze it at a staff level, but the utility board has requested that the city help participate in some of the pumping costs for the the water going to the golf course. So, I'm going to be working with with Brian on that and um figuring out how best to approach that or put some sort of proposal in the budget or bring it to council for their consideration or something like that. So, I just wanted to recognize that the board has made that communication and and we are uh looking to address it. Okay. Thank you.

And next we will have Adam with communications and tourism. And just a heads up, I probably will just have just a couple comments after him to wrap up. Sounds good.

All right. Good afternoon. So, I'm going to spend a moment just to explain what this department is because it's well, it's a new department and there seems to be a little bit of confusion as as far as as the roles of economic development. Um, so to start out, I just want to say I'm really impressed with all of these presentations. uh all the directors and managers uh just have been doing such a good job and and wouldn't it be great to have maybe something like this but more public facing. So, uh Frank and I have been discussing about the potential to do a monthly department spotlight. And so every month we're going to look at a new department and and that could include um interviews with the director, social media posts just to kind of get the information out there to the public of what the departments are really doing. So kind of a a neat idea and I think, you know, we really need to improve public participation um with with the municipality here in general. If people have an idea of what we do, it's just going to make that conversation with the public so much easier. So, all right. So, to start out, you might notice that this is a new logo. Well, it's a refreshed logo. The old one had kind of like uh very very rough lines to it. This is this is more of a a realistic logo that's kind of based on the travel uh stickers from the 1940s and 50s um that were popular on Route 66. And uh there's there's an even more retro version of this with some bright orange and red colors, but I designed a couple different ones. And uh and the idea is is, you know, it's it's a new era for Paige going forward. And we have a new logo and we're going to be doing

things a little bit differently than we've done in the past. Also I want to mention so our motto here center of adventure that that's kind of the evolution of a previous slogan I believe uh center of grand circle adventure and that was a little problematic because you know if if your circle if your adventure is around the grand circle you don't actually go to Paige because Paige is in the center. So um I'm working on uh kind of reimagining that idea and I'll I'll discuss a little bit more of that later. So my department includes myself as well as Jacqueline Niri and uh so she's the marketing coordinator. Um many of you know her. She's been here for four years now and I've been here for for three months. So relatively new. I'm going to talk a little bit about the reality of our economy, which is a tourism economy. Um, you know, there's there's talks in the air about potential slowdowns in tourism and what that could look like, how that could affect us and, you know, and that's that's pretty concerning to think about. But if you look at the numbers, uh, pretty much every month, uh, for for this fiscal year and calendar year, we've seen month-on-month increases or year-over-year increases, sorry, um, in in both the bed tax and sales tax with the exception of October. So October, we did see a little bit of a slowdown, and if you kind of backtest that before the the hotel tax increases, it then looks a little worse. However, by November, those numbers recovered. So, um, as economists say, one bad, uh, month doesn't really make a trend. So, we'll

just monitor that really carefully going forward. Um, you could read the slides or or not. There's some extra information on here, but, uh, I'm just going to explain everything the way that I kind of think it should be. So, so what I was talking about as far as doing things differently, um, what this is going to be is more of a data-driven approach at marketing. I think, you know, previously, uh, you could say the approach was more of a a spray and prey. So, uh, how do we get data? And that's that's kind of the first piece to this is looking at reliable information that we can use to have measurable KPIs going forward. And so that gives us goals that we can actually work towards and see if our marketing efforts are paying off and to get a clear understanding of the the true ROI on that. Um, and of course, uh, you know, you'll never get, uh, 100%, uh, accurate data when it comes to determining that ROI because some of some of your ad spend is awareness driven and there's really no measurable action from that. Um, but I'd like to get away from that in a way and and look at things we can measure. So, uh, one new platform that we got this year is Placer AI. And what that does is it looks at cell phone pings and it's able to get all sorts of information, no personal information. Um, and the way that the platform uh works, it's it's very careful to to make sure that all of that information uh that we get is is uh filtered and uh and delivered in a way that's non-intrusive to to people's privacy. So um there's just so much on this platform that we can do. We can look at retail leakage. We could look at retail trade areas. Um, but for for all

intents and purposes for now, we're going to be using it for tourism. And we'll be able to track how many people are going to our events. We'll be able to uh see how much foot traffic our retail and our hotels are getting. We're going to see where people are going uh and where they're coming from. And we're also going to get some demographic information on them as far as uh age, um income levels, and and this is things these are all things that we can use to to better focus our marketing efforts going forward. So, you know, with with marketing, uh the average uh tourist um basically sees our ads, which you call like a touch point. So, they're seeing something with us. They need to see three to four things before they decide to come here. So, it's easier to reach people that have already had one or two touch points about page and then and then give them a few more to close that deal. So, kind of looking at things uh from a sales strategy, too. And I'll talk more about this in terms of economic development. Um and and a lot of these platforms are going to be extremely valuable for economic development purposes too. Uh so Co-Star uh the old Star Reports that have been the the tourism industry standard for many years uh got bought out by this other platform called Co-Star and they're actually part of LoopNet and uh land.com. Um a lot of websites they they have a a network of sites basically where they where they gather data and information. So they're uh they're one of the best standards as far as figuring out what's going on in the hotels. And so you can't talk about tourism without talking about hotel data. And now we're going to have access to that. We're going to be able to check occupancy, revpar, um all sorts of different metrics. And we're going to be able to see uh per property. we can actually

filter out uh more budget properties versus high-end uh properties. So, you know, it's going to give us a much more clear example. And uh we have about 20 hotels and that equates to roughly, I think, 1500 rooms. I've seen a few different numbers, but um but that doesn't really paint the whole picture of of our hospitality industry because we have a lot of short-term rentals, and that's where AirDn comes in. Um, if you're looking at the AirDNA data, I'll I'll say right now, Paige is in really good shape. Uh, in fact, we actually have a badge from AirDNA ranking our community as one of the hot spots and one of the most likely areas for success for opening a short-term rental. Uh, Moab and some other communities, uh, Canab do not have that. We do. Uh, also Google Trends is another really valuable tool. So we can look and see how many people are searching for hotels and page um at any given time. Uh people that are searching about the community in general are searching horseshoe band. Uh it's really unlimited what we can use Google trends for. And uh that's something that I have used to kind of uh back test some of our previous advertising uh ad spending that we were doing to see is this working. we were doing uh uh sports radio ads in Los Angeles and we were spending quite a bit of money on that. And so what I was able to do is see everywhere that that broadcast was going to highlight that area, look at the times of those ads and when they went out um during that period and and determine is there any measurable lift for people searching for hotels, searching for Horseshoe Bend, any information about Paige, is there any additional uh traffic to our websites for those areas? Um, and so using multiple data points, I could

defensively say that there was no lift. So we cancelled those. Um, you know, another thing that we're doing is every time we do a click-through URL, which could be a banner ad, could be a streaming ad. Whenever there's a click involved, we're adding UTM tags. And those tags will enable us to get a much more clear idea of where that traffic is coming from on our website and also see what people are doing on the website. So, uh, for example, we we tried to continue some ESPN digital marketing, uh, and so I gave them the UTM tags this time and I could go in and I could say, you know what, the dual time is only two seconds for everyone who's clicking on this ad. And sure, we're getting a lot more impressions, but we can kind of guarantee that those impressions are low quality, just like the clicks. And so, nope, they're out. Um, and going forward, I only want to do things that we can actually measure the success because, you know, I kind of have a a fiscally conservative uh idea of how things should go. And I know that, you know, that's not too common in uh in advertising, but I think there's a way. um you know our our resources are just too precious to not really a fully analyze where where the spending is going. So also Google Analytics is how we check our websites to see the traffic and those UTM tags. So um so we said this is all of our digital marketing. It's story driven and what does that mean? So uh in advertising stories go a lot further than just banner ads. So for example in Kingman I did an article about Yucka and there really was no information on the internet about it and I did a deep dive and and all this historical context and and opportunity and the community and

what could be built and and this the page be ended up becoming one of the top pages as far as visitation on the website. Um and today uh Angle Homes is building 300 single family homes in Yucka. The their their big attraction, the sphere is reopened again. Things are good. You know, sometimes you just need to plant that seed to get things moving again. And that storydriven uh aspect for marketing, it just goes a lot further. Uh so same with activations, and I'll talk about that uh later. And it's kind of counterintuitive to the way that things have been done in the past um about building connections and trade shows and conferences um and and big ad spend. You know, with with social media, things are just changing really quickly. So let's say for example in in Kingman I one activation I did is I restored an old pay phone and I I set it up to where if you pick it up you listen you can hear stories about UFO crash landings and songs about UFOs and historic Kingman like the Route 66 song. Um and the amount of traction that that gets on social media the equivalent ad value would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Um, and and it cost me nothing because we already had the phone. Uh, cost me like 20 bucks for an MP3 player and a battery. So, it's little things like that where activations can go so much further than traditional ad spend. And that's that's kind of what I'm all about. Um, but with that said, of course, paid social, paid video, other digital uh options we still have to keep up with because a lot of those do have value and but they're ones that we can prove have value. So, uh, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, paid social, uh, for paid video. YouTube is the gold standard as far as bang for your buck, uh, on on digital, uh, video promoting. Um, so the ESPN streaming we were doing and we're going to we're going to stop that in,

uh, January was the end, so we're not doing that anymore. Uh, Peacock ads, those actually work out pretty well from what I've seen. We're going to probably continue with those. We're doing Tik Tok ads, so we actually have a Tik Tok account now. Um, and we've gotten over 30,000 views uh to the videos that are on those. And you know, we we're not ever going to compete with all the influencers that are creating these videos that get millions of views, but the one advantage is we get to tell our story. And if we have something specific that we want to tell as as the city, as our DMO, uh we can. And so that's that's one advantage to actually having a presence on TikTok. Um, and so as far as traditional digital distribution here, Trip Advisor has been a pretty successful program. We've done it in the past, so we're continuing with that. Sojourn, we look at uh uh people looking for flights, and we kind of tie into to that data, the flight data, flight search data, and then we uh we serve them ads based on that. Arizona highways, uh, doing a digital platform. Um, and then eblast, too. our our idea is to have um two newsletters going out. One for economic development for potential businesses uh or or existing businesses in the community and it's going to include a lot of that data that we're uh gathering. And so we're going to help businesses make informed decisions on whether they want to come here and start a business. And based on the data that I've seen, it's going to be a pretty easy sell. Um we we've got a lot of opportunity uh for for expansion and sustainable growth here. So another big part of it is the marketing co-op. So um you know doing all this yourself uh is a lot of work and it's very timeconuming and so if we go with a co-op um for example I was able to even though it was closed I was

able to rejoin the AOT Arizona office of tourism's rural co-op program and so I was able to get the city uh $50,000. it's a onetoone contribution for advertising and uh but most of their uh opportunities are more for domestic. Um and so that's why now uh we're going to be going with Brand USA, which is the federal uh tourism organization, uh that promotes our our destination internationally. And uh so there's a number of opportunities and there is actually they're a they're a one to four. So for every dollar we spend, we're getting $4 in equivalent ad value. So going with co-ops is a way that our money goes a lot further um in terms of marketing our destination. And then we have some traditional placements here. Um, and what those are are, uh, we're doing a full page Arizona Highways ad, uh, Grand Circle, uh, the USA Today Cactus League, and then we're doing some broadcasts, which is Channel 12, ABC Las Vegas. Um, and then another thing that I want to do is the printed visitor guide. So, we have this beautiful digital visitor guide. I guess we've never printed it. um and to have something on really high quality paper uh with and we kind of control the messaging. Um no paid ads whatsoever. And uh so we're going to print these and it's going to be really nice like a keepsake. And so um we were discussing maybe that's something we could sell at Horseshoe Bend for $5. Cost us about a dollar to print. Uh it's it's 28 pages. It has historical information about the community. um top attractions and uh and also I've expanded it to where now it includes surrounding attractions um such as Monument Valley, uh Grand Staircase, Escalante, um the Navajo uh National Preserve, and

uh and as we look at some of the the increased costs associated with visiting national parks that are going into effect with the fees, um I really want to focus on on kind of trying to market some of these other locations. Um, I noticed this this PowerPoint is actually not the most updated one that I created, but I uh as far as billboards, so we actually um have two billboards up right now. One on the 40 as you're leaving Winslow and heading into Flagstaff and then another one on the 68 as you're heading into Kingman. And we're on waiting list for uh the 17 and then the 40 eastbound before Flagstaff. And the idea behind that is it's the Route 66 Centennial. We're anticipating getting a lot more uh visitors driving the route. And so the whole idea and you know uh as Debbie was saying, Horseshoe Band advertises itself, right? But the the value added is that we're saying it's two hours north of Flagstaff. So, as you approach Flagstaff, you're going to realize that you can see this this bucket list uh uh feature, and it's only a two-hour additional drive um from where you're going. So, that's kind of the idea is to pull some of that Route 66 traffic that we anticipate getting. Um and not only that, I've created an itinerary for 89 to kind of look at it as an offshoot of Route 66. So, you know, it was created around the same time in the 1920s and there's a lot of really interesting history along that just like Route 66. So, just it actually, you know, connects right to Route 66 in Flagstaff, but as you go, there's Mary's Cafe from 1960. Um, there's the Trading Post. There's the the uh the Cameron Bridge and the Navajo Bridge. There's little bits and pieces of the old uh road from the 1920s and the bridges that are still out

there. So, there's just so many tie-ins to Route 66. 89 used to connect Mexico to Canada, and it hasn't really seen the kind of resurgence that Route 66 has, but I think it's it's welld deserving, and I think that's something that, you know, is it will definitely be of interest to that crowd. So, I've created this itinerary uh where you start at Route 66 in Flagstaff and then you end at the Glen Canyon Bridge. Um, and uh, just kind of highlighting all the different stops along the way. Um, and I'm also working with a company that kind of gifies that and creates like a scavenger hunt. So, you get credit for every destination that you go to and you build points and if you get so many points, uh, you can come in and get a sticker or get mailed a souvenir. So, it's kind of a cool uh, little addition to that. Another uh another thing we do and we just did one on Tuesday, FAM tours. So this is a really uh coste effective way to get um to get important and influential media and tourism operators to uh to come and visit our community. Uh so the one that we just did uh was a an Indian uh international press trip. Another one that's really interesting is we're doing there's going to be the inaugural uh direct flight, the first direct flight from France to Las Vegas and they're actually coming to Paige. And so they're going to come and uh we're going to take them around and and show them what we have to offer and and try to open up uh a little bit of tourism here from from that um from that new flight. So uh we have additional ones in development. So again, this just talks about what I was saying before with the story driven content. Um, you know, what's going to be the next horseshoe bend? When you see it once, are you going to want to come

back? Um, that's that's something to think about. And the thing is is most communities, you don't have that option to have a new horseshoe pin. But but here we do. We have some pretty incredible things that aren't really on people's radar. Skylight Arch, Waw Wei Pudos, the historic Highway 89 that I was discussing, uh, Grand Staircase, Navajo National Monument, uh, Lease Ferry, U, South Coyote, uh, just a lot of things that that, you know, and and a lot of these destinations the average tourist isn't going to really know about, I would say. Um, and they're kind of remote and they're probably not going to get a permit to go to the wave. So, one one thing I'm trying to think is how can we bring those items here in the community so they can experience them in some way. And it could be something really simple. So, um, in other places that I've worked, we've had these trash cans called Big Bellies, and they have a poster insert, and you can swap out posters for anything you want, community events, and it's a really cheap way to advertise. you could have a picture of of the wave or um you know just just things that people aren't typically going to see and you're kind of bringing that back in and making it a part of the community. And so when people are here they get a good an understanding of what all we have to offer which is which is really a lot. That's kind of what this slide is talking about. Um, and another point to this about bringing everything that's out there here. One thing that I want to do is I'm going to be renting some 360 3D cameras and I'm going to be going to several locations. Also, AOT is going to be assisting. They have a special drone, one of the only drones that's licensed

to fly in the national parks. And so we're going to collaborate on that and I'm going to take my 360 footage and they're going to do their drone footage. And you know, the the internet is is is craving unique 360 content like that because there really isn't a lot of it. And we're an ideal place. You know, that could be another uh revenue generating source for us. Um and it's same with filming and film productions, but this is kind of a new spin on that. That's what this slide pretty much goes over. All right. So, let me put on my PIO hat. Take off the tourism hat. Well, also have an economic development hat as well. Um, so you might have seen some of the press releases that I've been releasing. The plan is is to continue with those uh more press releases, more information, more public transparency. Uh we have pages now like the the data center FAQ where we can respond directly with the public and uh and get some of that information out there. Um and uh you know there's there's a lot to the PIO portion of this role as well. And I think we do have issues with communication um as far as getting messaging out to the public. And that's something that um that my department is looking at and we're moving forward to try to figure out uh the best ways to do that and make sure that we're providing uh clear and accurate information to the public. Um so I can get into the more budget specific things. I just kind of wanted to give an overview of what my department actually is. Um, and so as far as ED, uh, economic development, uh,

my role in that is going to be more in the marketing. So I have a plan to redo our website, uh, which is actually just a web page now, but I'd like a dedicated economic development website. And when it comes to things like land sales, so I wanted to do what's called MLS integration. So, all of the current uh listings in the community are going to live there, but then we'll have the ability to add our own. Um, and then that could be a place where some of the available land uh lives as well for the public to see. And it's going to include uh dashboards and all that economic information about the community, things that new businesses like to see, like retail trade area information, um, and and all the stats that are pertinent to, uh, deciding whether you want to open a business here or not. Um, on top of that, I want to do uh newsletters and those could be in the form of eblasts. Uh, we're we're working on building a database of potential projects uh that we can go and kind of uh follow up with the different leads and sales leads and things. So, when we do trade shows, which we have quite a few planned, um, ICS, MUFC, uh, we're going to be actually engaging with the businesses that we think would be a good fit. uh before and after those shows and and trying to set up meetings and and really be a lot more aggressive than than things have been done in the past as far as reaching out to business because other cities are doing it and we have to be competitive. So, um that's kind of my my plan for ED marketing. A few other aspects of of ED that that um I'd like to assist with include housing, uh vocational and workforce development. Uh, so these are things that that I do have experience and knowledge with and I'm excited to to share that with the city of Paige and come up with some new ideas and plans and I've only been here for three months. So, uh, you know, a

lot of the things that that we're discussing here is just kind of an initial assessment. Um, as we go forward, uh, we'll be able to refine a lot of things. So, um, as far as getting into the the nitty-gritty of the budget itself, uh, you know, I I kind of have an opposite, uh, idea here. I'm not going to ask for more funds. I'm going to ask for less. I think we can do more with less. And, uh, so part of that is, and I've talked to Debbie at Horseshoe Band. Previously, we had a 500K line item for Horseshoe Band advertising. We don't need that. Uh I think that that you know we could cut that in half safely and defensively. Um at least and I' I'd rather see th those funds go to improvements at Horseshoe Band and to activations and things that are going to deliver uh far more impact um than traditional ad spend. Um then also previously we had a uh a marketing co-op uh program line item. Uh, I don't think we want to move forward with that at this time. Um, a business facade program, that's a yes. I think there's a lot of value in that. Sylvia has a lot of experience in in business facade programs. She uh operated our our one in Kingman and so I'll defer to her, but I think that is something we should move forward with. Um although we didn't do anything uh with it this year, I think for next fiscal year that would be a great opportunity and it and it really ties into the downtown beautifification uh project that's that's going on now. Um so another thing, let's see. Um as far as I guess I'm supposed to talk about big things that that could potentially be uh occurring and and one of them is the Vermilion View Trail. Uh, so I've been talking to NP uh NPS about that and

I guess what happened last year is uh they they created uh they kind of formulated a plan of of everything that they wanted to do to get that trail um in check with uh with trail markers with three kiosks and entry points including uh grading and and trail maintenance to to get that to where it could be something bikable. Um, and so where they're at now is I guess they didn't really have the bandwidth, uh, last year. They said reach out again next year. And so, uh, we've reached out this year to see if if they do have that bandwidth to move forward and we'll be finding out shortly to see if we can proceed. And if that's the case, we'll be looking at about 300K. That's the perfect example of where activation is far more valuable than traditional ad spend because think about a new trail, a trail that has incredible views around every turn and think of all the the influencers that are going to be documenting that on social media. You're going to get tens of millions of views at the very least. That's something that if we used our entire budget, we couldn't buy with with paid ad spend. So, you know, the the activation part is is huge and I'm really big on that. So, um, I think that pretty much sums up the the actual budgetary aspect of this. Um, and so I'll I'll just open it up for questions.

Councelor Pharaoh.

Wow. I don't know where to start, but I'm going to start with your opening. Your opening is what I had on the page as a closing. Uh, from what I heard today from Frank with all the departments all sharing what they did in 2025, who knows? Who knew? You know, we don't know what we don't know. And to follow what Adam was just saying, wouldn't that be a great state of the city brochure, comment, literature, something? But when you sit up here and you listen to each one of the departments state all these good things they did, nobody knows that. They only think that we have a count meeting every every couple weeks and then this happens or this doesn't happen. But what we saw was every all the success stories through the city. So, I want to make sure that when we're talking about communication, I want to follow on what he started with and that call it state of the city or something. But you have a great story to share from all your department heads and it sure would be nice to to get that out because we don't know the successes. People don't know the successes and you can certainly help us share that. So, uh people don't know what they don't know. I really thank what I heard and I thank you Adam for that as your opening statement.

Thank you. Councelor Hammond and then councelor Roundtree.

Uh Adam, I'm such a huge fan already and you've only been here three months. I'm so glad you're here. So glad we have your position. You're doing great things already and I'm just really tickled with um with what you're doing and your direction and your vision. Um, I want to kind of ask the same thing of you that I did with Sylvia is just I I understand you, Sylvia, Frank, you're all new. You're all kind of figuring things out, but um with the changes that you all are making in terms of economic development, marketing, uh, planning and zoning and and the overlap, I just hope that like a year from now, you all can help us, um, have some clarity over who does what. Um, so that would be one thing that I would ask of you. And then, um, the other thing is as you're thinking about marketing and outreach, um, I just want to mention that the area, and I think you you've you've, um, tapped into this already, the area attracts 3 to 5 million visitors a year, visiting all these sites that are part of the Grand Circle, some of which are closer than others. We definitely do not have three to five million people sleeping in our hotels and dining in our restaurants and that sort of thing. So if thinking about economic leakage, I I see a a lot of leakage in people who choose to bypass the town of Paige see these sites but they're choosing to sleep in Canab, they're choosing to sleep in Flagstaff, they're choosing not to really spend time in the town. So, um, I would just ask that as you're developing your marketing plans that you think of ways to make page itself a destination, if that makes sense.

Absolutely. Thank you for that. In fact, part of our plan with using Placer AI is to put traffic pins down and we can actually see who's coming up the hill and who isn't and we'll get an idea of who we need to market to specifically to get them up here and spend money in page. Um, I think that another thing I forgot to mention too is that um, since we've started doing this this digital advertising campaign, we've increase traffic to our website by 40%. So, you know, we're we're at a good start, but I I'd like to hit 100%. Um, yeah, within the next few months. So, um, thank you for that.

Yeah, that's fantastic. I look forward to seeing everything that you and Frank and Sylvia and the whole team do to grow in the coming year. Okay, Council Roundree. Well, I have four pages, so I don't know if I'll address all of them today or come in and talk with you, but um first of all, just like councelor Hammond, extremely impressed. Um, as I sat and was for two years involved in city government before as and then I ran and then got on the council, I saw how badly Paige needed a PIO and what you just said.

Thank you, mayor. I'm sorry. Um, what you said was my vision and the lack I saw in Paige and what we needed. And so I love your vision. I love everything that you said. Um, so I'm going to make a few comments. Um, some of them or whatever. The first one when you said about the Grand Circle, so having been here as many years as I have and in in remembrance with Dave Augie, um, it used to be the hub of the Grand Circle. And so they would say that Paige was the center hub and they encouraged people to stay here and go visit Zion, come back, go to the North Rim, come back, go to whatever. And those were long trips, but I could add to your list of places for people to see now that we could start advertising and not to do your 360 with. And I don't know if you know, but at the top of House Rock Valley in that little pull out, there's a 360 up there. So if you stop there and you look, someone's put a 360 so you can see on your phone. It's pretty cool actually. But we could do our own grand hub now of just page of the stuff that's just right here and not even include all of the rest. Also, um, Highway 89 has more national parks on it than in any other highway in the United States. So, I didn't know if you knew that. So, you can go from here and see all the great things you said and just continue straight to the Can Canadian border. And it's crazy if you've seen that map of all the things to do on Highway 89. And then, um, there's a concern about like in my age, you wanted to go to work and my parents wanted to couldn't wait till they went in and bragged to all of their co-workers. I took my kids to the Grand Canyon and now this generation is they want and this I learned from tourism meetings when I went to Phoenix. Tourism can quickly change. So Horseshoe Bin became popular and it can become

unpopular just as quickly because of people don't do the bucket list as much anymore. It's a real trend not to. They want to be to the coolest place no one else has been to. That's why I think finding other spots here in this area to add to that wonder um would be important to maintain. Um and I've had some conversations with citizens about that. Your place, your AI um is exactly um Cody um Thomas came and gave a presentation um what an airline could do and they use a similar thing and he said you could find out everyone who walks through here and who their all their demographics. Um is Shell Cave on the Google maps yet? because I tried to tell somebody when I wasn't here and they said they couldn't find it. So, is I don't know if you want to add that to your list to make sure that somebody gets that listed on Google so people can find it. Um, and then um I'm hoping are you going to share that information with our local tourism or businesses? Come in and have them come in and have meetings with you so you can share some of the research in these great places. Um then my next thing is I've the VBOS's have been calling me because of our thing that's going to be on the agenda and they're all telling me that they're down 50%. And they're going into detail about it. So they are seeing a trend of changing right now. Some of them um you talked about the touch points in positive but touch points in the negative. And so what they were expressing to me is they feel like Paige has some really tough touch points that are negative right now. Um um I agree with the fact that someone has a right to have concerns about a data center, but the false narratives, the propaganda that they're pushing out is doing more harm negatively touch points right now. And so they're concerned that a data center might hurt tourism, but in actuality, they're doing more damage to the reputation in Page right now. And then the Colorado River, the negative

impact there, and then the North Rim closure and the talk about it not opening up. I've heard um from several several that this negative touch point right now they're concerned that that could be driving down their their VBO and they're afraid about the tourism in the future and page because of these negative touch points. Um and I so I didn't know how you felt about that or if you're addressing that. And then the tour bus business is from council members I've talked into Canab supposedly next year tourist bus and large amounts are now staying in Canab instead of page. Um I'm not sure. I think there's a list of some reasons why they're doing that. Um I haven't done enough research so it would be things I'm hearing from local businesses and somebody inside the tourist bus um thing and so they're concerned about that. I have heard that there's a couple businesses that are trying to be open by bus season um to be able to service us as buses, but Canab now has three restaurants that can serve buses and we have one that's not doing what it used to do for buses. So, um and then could you give us a presentation quarterly about these numbers? Is that too much to ask? Can we like all of this information you said you're going to be able to have? How can we get that as a council so we can kind of see how things are turning or where things are going? Am I talking too fast? Um, I love the pre printed visitor guide. Um, then when you were talking about economic development, I have one thing here. I've heard over and over again about recruiting to get a senior care facility. A lot of people see the middle school turned into one, but I I have no idea on that one. it would be a great place. But um so a senior care facility is so greatly needed in this community. I know I just went with a loved one that couldn't stay here any longer who'd lived here for 50 60 years

and had to go to St. George at the end. Um it would be great if people could keep their loved ones here so they could stay close to them. Um, I'm excited about the business fat program staying and I'm going to insist the one business who took it up took us up on it and did a beautiful job of remodeling the front of their business be retro or grandfathered in and that when that program does get affected that they get the benefits from it because they trusted it was going to happen and it didn't. And um I have a list of PIO posts here, lots of them. And I guess my last concern is you didn't address um I am really proud I think other members of this council of what we did and how we changed things this last year and I think we have a list of things that the community doesn't realize that we're doing. I don't think they understand that we're not doing, you know, land grabbing or land banking any longer. That um how hard we fought for transparency, how hard we dropped on a contract to bring it out to make it transparent that we have said no since basically last year to no more NDAs and that this council hasn't signed an NDA. I think there's a lot of things that I would like to see that the citizens um and it's only fair that they understand like I said earlier in the meeting when I asked some individuals how they were being affected by some of the propaganda and social media posts they said oh no I understand how social or the city government works that didn't bother me but a lot of people didn't and a lot of people think that we were involved in activities that weren't appropriate and I don't feel that we were matter of fact I think we were fighting really hard to make things work the way they're supposed to and I appreciate the staff being so supportive of our goal to be clear and transparent. I just feel like everyone has been great that way. Um but I would like to see

some social media posts to help us clear up some of those misunderstandings and for citizens to have a better understanding about how their um city government works and how our offices work and the great job our employees are doing. You can see it today. I mean, all they would have to do is watch the presentations. If anyone would take enough time to watch this entire meeting, I agree. They would be really impressed with what they saw today. Councelor Hedinger,

um, I'm going to reiterate some things that have already been said. Thank you for all the work you've done in the three months you've been here. I've seen infinity% more press releases because I saw zero before you started. Um, I love the approach of really diving into marketing data. I think that is absolutely the way to go. The one thought that I have is um I wouldn't want to be so conservative that you kill the top of the funnel. And I think you have a good mind for that. So I'm not worried about it, but it might be interesting to look into a multi-touch attribution survey at some point or model at some point in the future to see how those impressions that are hard to measure might be driving actions further down the road. Sorry, can you repeat that word?

Multi-touch attribution. So, it just instead of looking at the very last click, it gives credit to someone who saw your ad on Peacock and then a month or a week later came and visited the website and a week later saw a Facebook ad and then finally booked their trip to page. So, Adam will teach me what it Yeah, thank you. That was one of my thoughts in my head.

Thank you. Um yeah, so we can kind of do that through uh through retargeting. So people that have already um responded in some way to one of our ads get a higher uh um chance of getting more ads delivered. So we can kind of back test that and see how that funnel uh worked um ultimately. And that's something that I'm working on with Brand USA is that, you know, the problem is um with a lot of tourism is we can't see when someone makes the purchase, which would be the hotel, uh the vacation package, uh the the flight tickets. Um and so how do we know that our advertising is actually working? Um and the best type of uh data is when you control the entire funnel and you can see from the start to the finish. And that's the thing in tourism, you know, a lot of uh municipalities have kind of struggled with I know uh Lake Havsu um they actually put a uh a lodging platform on their website so that you can actually book rooms right from there and then they can kind of control that. Uh those are a little uh pricey. Um but uh another way to to look at that um is to uh to say uh and this is what I'm working with with Brand USA is to actually engage um the OTAAS which are booking.com uh Trip Advisor and a lot of the these other sites where people do the booking on. um they actually have uh a plan where we can dive into some of that data as well and and see that that final uh point of sale. Um and so uh we'll we'll be able to give them our our UTA uh tags and so then we'll get all that data too. And so that's kind of uh the goal. One thing I forgot to mention that I I started to mention at the beginning of my presentation was the Grand Circle. Um, and so the idea is is, you know, one

time we were the the hub and then uh the spokes were the different destinations that you could go to. You know, we're if uh looking at two-hour uh drives, there's so much around us. Um, but looking at Grand Circle information, I noticed that there really wasn't any good maps. There was some maps, but there really wasn't like uh a road map that you could see every direction of how to take and the exact route and all the national parks. And so I thought, wouldn't it be great if Paige could kind of be the owner of that? We could kind of take ownership of the Grand Circle. So, um, if you go to visit pageaz.com, uh, I've created that and we have the best Grand Circle map on the internet right now. Uh it's a custommade map that I did and it shows you every single direction and road that you can take, every national park, every point of interest and and it's kind of a rough framework. So I I plan on enhancing this uh to where it can actually become an itinerary to where you can actually click on every destination on there and go to their official site. So if we kind of become the ownership of that information, people will think of us really as the the center of the grand circle. Um, another part to that is is just basically, you know, search engine traffic is going down. And the reason is is because people are getting their information from AI now, not so much search engines. And so if we can be the definitive authorative source on on some of these subjects, that's an advantage where AI will pick up our information. And so then it's telling our story the way we want to tell it. And if we want to tell the story that we are the center of the grand circle, then we can own that and we can basically build something that no one else has and and and really uh become the the the center point for that. Um let's see, just to cover some of these other points. So the

Shell uh trail, that's something that, you know, I would love to market. It gets so many views on on Tik Tok. Um but you know until that trail is resolved I'd say let's just wait and then once we have the roll out for that uh then we can we can go full boore and and really do something special maybe a groundbreaking um and then really tie in all the marketing with that too. That'll be a city asset. Um about the negative touch points. So yes uh could the data center affect tourism? Oh, thank you for bringing that up. Um uh yes and no. So I was told that Analopee Canyon uh wasn't really on people's radar and then they had a series of horrible floods in the in the 1990s and it got national coverage and that national coverage is actually what started uh the popularity of those canyons. Um, and so sometimes negative negativity can be good in a roundabout way, especially when you're looking at search algorithms and the way that that social media um does stuff. How many people might have never even heard of Page, but then they heard about the data center at Page, now they're going to look up Page. So, it's it's not optimal, but it it isn't 100% a negative, too. Um, see what else? uh senior care facility at the middle school. I think that's something that a lot of communities are going to be facing as our our population and demographic uh tend to to become older. Um and so I think that we could kind of look to other communities and as an example, uh there's um a lot of cities are doing medical main streets and and really ramping up the the medical around that to prepare for that demographic shift. Um,

so and then the department spotlight, uh, look forward to doing that pretty quickly. I think that, you know, that should be a great project to really give more exposure to what we do to the community because there is a disconnect there. A lot of our, uh, council videos are only getting a few hundred views for the council meetings, and I that's just such a low buyin for the community that we really need to pick that up and do what we can to to get that buy in. Um,

and and I just want to jump in on that because uh I want to thank councelor Roundtree for that too because some of her urging to to with all the new people we've got here to get them introduced to the community um I think that's a a good point and we're still going to have one more coming with public works. So, uh getting those people out there I think is critical. So, uh I appreciate that. And uh as far as getting more information on our tourists, so we haven't had a tourism uh survey uh or study since 2015, and a lot has changed here since then. And so I think that that's something that uh we'd like to move forward with. I know we have quite a bit of studies that we're going to be doing, housing study and and some other ones. But I think that, you know, doing a tourism survey is just another piece of that puzzle to get us get us the data we need to to make clear and informed decisions for our marketing strategy going forward. Not only that, when businesses are going to get funding from a bank, if they have this documentation that they can take to the bank and say, "Look, we get four to five million visitors a year. Uh, look at, you know, they uh we're we have retail leakage in these categories. uh our trade area extends into the Navajo Nation and and almost halfway to Canab. You know, these are things that that a lot of um site selectors aren't really looking at. And if we can bring that information to them and uh and tell our story, then that's going to definitely help us to attract more business. Um so, yep. Any more questions?

I do I have a I have my last one that I didn't ask you, my most important one. But first of all, when I used to work with the county, they used to say 15 10 15 years ago that our shopping district was 50,000 then for Northern Arizona. And so that's how I know a couple fast food um got in here is when they used that statistic from the um county of saying that though we have a shopping district of 50,000 um because you know fast foods won't let you come in if you've got a population of 7,500. All right, so my last one was the communication problem. And so communication is vital to healthy business. It's vital to it was to my animal hospital. An educated clientele makes a thousand times better pet owners. And the same thing, an educated citizenry doesn't have the reaction that they do to some of the things that happen if they understand those things. And so um and I had the opportunity to to meet with another major player in the community recently and they agreed. And so if you we all have our phones and some of you guys might be getting the news breakak that comes now and you know you can scroll down and see national news and all the different ones. I still love our app and it's great and I'm excited we're up to 500 people but I would how hard would it be to take that app where when people opened up the app it's just scrolling news. It doesn't have any algorithms nothing. it just has all the things you're posting because a lot of people are going away from um Facebook and page the negativity that's been occurring and they said they just don't want that in their life. They're just shutting it down. They're they're moving away from that, you know, and our paper comes out once a week and we know it hasn't been the healthiest and making putting accurate, you know, information. So the school district, the hospital, park service, other major entities, if we just had a landing page where you anyone could put something, they advertise and it just scroll down so that we were receiving our own news

breaks daily. Is that just too labor intensive? I mean, if everyone else is creating their own stuff and they just have to pass it through you or or I think that would be so healthy for our community if they were getting just that factual news article once a day or twice a day. And so that's probably my biggest p push that I would like to see or if I have to put it on the council agenda, I'm willing to do that. I really would like to see an app where we can get information out.

So our current app one. And then the last thing, I don't know if you guys also have the legislative notice, but yes, it got out of the Senate and it's going to for a vote that we don't have to advertise anymore in newspapers so we can put our public notices onto our website or if we have an app if cities have a website that's well attended. That's why we need to get the numbers up there because then you're allowed to place those announcements. school district can put it on their web page. The hospital will do theirs, we could do ours if it the Senate approves it, but it got out of the house this time quite successfully. Uh six to one vote. So,

uh so in terms of our app and and having 500 people on there, so not everyone wants to really use an app or in install an app. Um so what I did is is we added to the website the ability to get text notifications as well. So you can just enter your phone number and then get a text. Then we've also added the ability to just go by email. Enter your email address and then you'll get that too. So, u it's it's not just the app that's getting those messages. It's also the email subscribers and the text subscribers. And we'd like to promote that more um because you know not everyone wants to install an app. Some people don't have smartphones amazingly in this day and age. Uh

that's true. But um the app is just a landing page to take you to the city's thing. it doesn't have um any announcements there about any activities that are coming up. And so for all of our library activities we talked to about today, all of our events, there's so much that citizens aren't hearing about. The police posted about, you know, leave the black vehicle alone. It's not whatever. That type of information I think is crucial that we get out to the um to the community. And I think the app would still help. Um but okay

so uh so we are putting all of those notifications on the app but the app is for for just notifications. It's not really a news platform. So that's why we redirected back to our website and we could reformat our website to where it looks more like news breakak and it's it's arranged in a way that is is more fun to scroll and and get in informed about things. And you know, if any departments have things that they want to go out on these notifications, uh, you know, please let me know. We'll we'll get those out there. Um, and I think the more information we have, the better. And, you know, once it's on the notification, it's also going to email and text. Um, and we can actually control where that goes to. And we can actually have uh different interest categories based on that. But ideally, like what I was saying with the newsletter too, I think that, you know, that's we need to work on on having more regular um uh emails going out to those subscribers just with with updates and information. Uh but again, anything that we want to go out, uh send it to me and and we'll we'll vet it and uh and get it out there because, you know, I it's going to add value to get more content. No doubt. Okay. Okay.

And if you want to get with Robin and set up a meeting with Aban Adam and I to talk about strategies for this, that's fine. But more just that'll be good. This is more budget. So I appreciate the things he just said, but for most seniors that's difficult. But if it's just on your phone and you're just scrolling and that's all you have to do, like you're reading the newspaper, I think that's very easy. But if you have to go from there to there to there to there and you get it in your email, then that to me is more challenging than the other. But yeah, it's for another day and time because or I need to put it on the agenda. Okay. Thank you, Adam. Right. And um city manager, did you say you have a couple of closing comments?

Just a couple bookkeeping things of what to expect next. So over the next few weeks, we're going to have a lot, and I mean a lot of internal meetings at the staff level. Um weekly, if not daily, with Linda and I, we're going to see be seeing way too much of each other. um along with the staff. But when council will come in, we're looking to have a study session in May, early to miday, and uh we'll get with Cindy and um Josh and the other staff and and try and work up that for council and put that out probably in an email form, maybe a kind of a cursory survey of what council can uh wants to look for there in the in the May time frame and then finalize the budget end of May and and approve it in June. Okay. All righty. Sounds good. That's plenty.

That's plenty. Okay. Well, I I want to thank everybody for your presentations, for the information you shared. It was wonderful. Um, so I will go ahead and adjourn this meeting. the