Common Council - Regular Meeting

My phone says five. All right, we're going to call this uh combined work session, regular meeting, and possible executive session the town of Parker um today. Please silence your electronic devices. Um, roll call of council, please. Darcy, Mayor Hartas, here. Vice Mayor Wedell here. Council member Shant here. Council member Daniels present. Council member Deleó absent. Council member Grenalt here. Council member Grant present.

All right. So, the purpose of this meeting is for discussion for two items. items A and B, which we're going to switch. We're going to take item B first, which is discussion of draft ordinance to allow permitted use in an industrial and commercial zone to a medical recreational marijuana dual license holder and update the town code to conform with state law. Nora.

Okay. So, um couple of things to start off with. We have a couple um Trevor and David are on Zoom. there are some developers that would like to come in and they've helped a lot um with this as well. Um we took what we had uh and Christina and I have kind of reworked what it was. We had it zoned to only be in industrial zoning. Um, we, as everybody's pretty well aware of, we don't have a lot of, um, industrial zoning left in this town. In fact, I don't think we have any that is not already built on. Um, so we, if you look at page um, one through four um, of the ordinance, that part is just a draft of the ordinance. We really won't go through that. But if you look at exhibit A, um, recreational marijuana 2025 updates, this is what we would like to update in our town code and also our zoning code. Um, first off, we went through this, Christina and I went through this whole thing and um did what we thought were good updates. Um, I talked to the gym Courtsite. I also talked to Clay down in Courtsite um just to they have two down there um to see how things kind of work and all of those types of you know traffic um if it's caused any real major differences. Um they say it's going pretty smoothly and they don't really see any major differences in um crimes or traffic or any of that. Um the that I

would really like. This is done as a dual license and in talking to um several different people that have that do still own these and have owned these um the dual licenses are not being handed out and a lot of people don't have them. So, I would like to break that up where you can do either or um and it doesn't you don't have to have both. Um but kind of into a little bit of consideration while we're do this. It really would behoove us to break that apart. Um so on page five and six, that would be my only thing is to break that dual licensing up. And if you go to exhibit B, um on page seven, that is pretty, this is a pretty standard of what a C2 can be done. um that doesn't change at all. Um eight, there's no changes in that. That also explains some of the things that you need to get a conditional use for, but you can still have them in the C2 um zoning district. Um there's there would be a small um change. These are basically um a small change in um the 10 11 18 you can see that um on in 27 the biggest thing in the in that chapter is we took out the medical portion and we put um facility or and cultur cultivation. Um that last line we'd like to take out the word duel and just do a license. Um

chapter eight is the industrial zoning. Um it we're not changing anything there. Um that's that will stay the same other than 16. We are putting that in which would be um license subject to the requirements of section 10 1118 and we'll get to that here in just a little bit. Um marijuana facility and cultural use of this title. Um, if you go down into chapter 11 on page 10, um, we've changed the, um, dispensary again to facility. Those are pretty small changes. Um, page 11 similar to the same same um, just changing that dual license and also um, the facility. And then you get down to seven A and B. Um take all of that out. Um it gets by the wording above in just seven takes care of um that criminal violation and state andor federal control substance. So the passing of the recreational on page 12 um if you look under 10B um that is the hours of operation. So in the past we had it where it was 9 to5 Monday through Friday. Um looking at it um we had first thought 8 to Um I'm sorry 9 to 8 um Monday through

Saturday and then I pulled um state statute and I also spoke with the gentleman now. Dave is up there. Um David has been here before and spoke to you um in speaking with him and looking at state statute. The state statute gives for a C2 um 8 hours 8 to 10 Monday through Sunday. So you kind of would need to look at I mean how are you looking at this facility? Are you looking at it as a pharmacy? Are you looking at as just a regular C2 um commercial establishment? um do you want to have more parameters on it? So you we'll kind of go through all of this and then I will ask for lots of questions and then um going down to under C number four. Well, actually all of them, but um those are how many feet that are they have to be that the establishment needs to be away from residential, schools, um child care, and when this first came out as medical marijuana, the state was very strict in those boundaries. um since then and now that it's gone recreational, it they've loosened up a lot on those and I believe the only one that really still um exists is the 500 ft from schools, charters, education facilities, those types of things. Personally, I still would like to see

all of these at least um in part. Um the residential one we may need to look at and maybe go less feet um because of the way that our town and the way that our town is laid out. Typically, if you go in and you start a brand new town, you're going to have your residential in the middle and then you're going to go your OT, which is light um light commercial, and then you go your commercial and then you go um on to your industrial. We're kind of all over the place. Um here in town we have houses sitting on commercial property. Um we have industrial next to commercial. We have um next to industrial for that matter. And so we're kind of all over. I know the one building that they are looking at um is like there's a house like 4 80 or 90 feet from there. Um I don't know that we could get honestly I don't know that we could get a piece of maybe we could say I don't know if there's any properties that are that far away from a church, a school, or

a church, a school, a residential, uh, you know, um, if we, you know, the residential one is the only one that I'm really kind of pulls at my little um, brain a bit that, you know, yeah, we might could go less on that one. Um, the rest of them I would feel very comfortable in staying at the 500 ft. Um, but I do think we still need some kind of boundary between the residential zoning and um, probably not 500 feet, but I think we do need some over on page 13 at the very top. Um, number two, yes, number two. Um the very very top secure storage area for the marijuana store on site at the marijuana facility shall not exceed 500 square feet. Um that's a very small storage area for um security reasons. Typically what they do is they have all their backstock in this very secured area where they have extra cameras. The walls are thicker. It's typically in the middle of the um building. They roll in the evenings after closing they roll all of their stuff in that displays in that were um out to store those in there because it is that much secure. So I I know that we need um to have that any number um actually. But if we chose

to have a number, I would think that it would need to be bigger because you're not going to get much storage in in 500 ft. And they're going to want to put their their safe in that room as well. Um as you know, this is kind of a cash business right now. Um so Those are kind of some things to think about when we're going back through this here in a little while. Um, going down to G2, um, at the very bottom of that paragraph, the lighting must be sufficient sufficient brightness to ensure that the interior is readily visible from the exterior of the building from a distance of 100 ft. I'm not sure that we want people from the outside looking in. Um, I know that your business people aren't going to want to light that whole thing up. There's a lot of people that would go in and out that they really don't for medical reasons or whatever don't want to be seen from the road. Um, that's not a condition that we put on any other business here in town, I guess. Um, so I would really It's a safety issue more than anything um to me. So, we probably want to look at at that. And I try going through this, I really try to think about this more um is what would what would we do with a pharmacy? If a new pharmacy came into town, would we put these restrictions on that pharmacy? Um, so that's kind of how I came up with some of this stuff. And then also speaking with um the three gentlemen

that um are online be able to put some two cents into this and they've been doing this for a very long time. Also, if you go to down one more to number three, not have a drive-thru service. I'm kind of on the fence with that. We Um do have a few drive-throughs here in town. Little brown jug. Um the other little gas station. Um our brand new pharmacy has one. We love it. FYI. Um so that's something to kind of And in the bigger cities, they do have those drive-thrus. Um I think there's one in Havsu that has it. Um I'm not positive with that, but I think um but I know in Phoenix and in the bigger communities they do. Going on to page 14, you go down to number 14. Um it provide if um they it says in here to uh provide security patrol for two a twob block radius of the neighborhood. Um that just is there's more issues with that than I can even count. Um, we have we have enough and it and it does say in here that the town manager at any time can ask for that. We don't have to have it. Um, but I just think it could cause putting it in the town manager's hand could cause some problems down the road. Um, somebody gets pissed off. Sorry for the words there, but and then all of a sudden

town managers making decisions that aren't best for you guys or for the the business. Um, I also think if there's an issue that we would want to get um PD involved before we sent some security guard around to um site things out just it it to me has more problems than it would help. going down to 19. Um, not to store more than $200 in cash overnight on the premise. That tends to cause a little bit of issue with this being a cash business. Um, for the most part it is. I mean, they they do have banks and things that they can use now where in the beginning that really they really couldn't. And that's when this was put in. This is kind of a leftover from that. Um, you really don't want everybody to know that you're taking money out of there, when you're doing it, how you're doing it. Um, it needs to be pretty random. And if you put that $200 limit on there, I think you're going to we're going to run into more problems. They don't want their money gone. And um, PD doesn't want to have to chase anybody. Again, on page 15, um, it's just the on 21 that very line obstruct the view of the in interior of the premise viewed from the outside. Kind of want to strike that going back to where we talked about, you know, putting shades up or tenting the glass or whatever is probably a better idea than illuminating everything out to to the road. And that's it. So questions, comments,

one of the biggest portions that you talked about was to do a license portion. Can you explain more what that entails? So it looks like that there's a have to qualify both for a not for-p profofit medical uh and also a regular. Is that correct?

Correct. So they would have to if we keep the duel, they would have to qualify for the um medical license portion and then also the recreational portion. the state is not handing those out anymore any longer. Um, which causes some issues is if we want somebody to come here, they already have to as soon as this went, how do I explain this? As soon as this went um larger in the recreational um you can't you can't move medical. So in that transition time, all the medical and recreational kind of guys move to the to the city because now they can't move. Now they're there, right? Um so to get somebody to come to this area, we're not

so basically it's removing the medical portion requirement of that, right? which I I feel it's important to not mistake this with a pharmacy if you're looking at it from like a sales tax side of it, you know, just to not limit their their income potential um for other reasons too, but I I had a question about the lensure and the verbiage that talks about cultivation. I was wondering about that. I thought that this was for like a dispensary, not necessarily the cultivation because it it specified 3,000 square feet for cultivation.

So that um was put in there when we did the first round when we had it um before and we just left it in there. Um we could take that completely out um if we don't want any cultivation at all here. Um that's on page 13, right? Yeah, I I see that being the issue like with if there's a nearby residence or something like that, there's a difference between having like a retail location and then having them cultivating it right next door because if you've driven through needles, you're well aware of, you know, what goes along with that. So, um we're looking more at the facility and not necessarily the

right cultivation. So, that would be a good to to just take out again. But if they sell, couldn't wouldn't there be room for cultivation out there? Um, yes. In Parker South, there would be. I mean, there's room in town for that. I don't know that um we want it in town. I don't know that we want it in Parker South. That's just something for you guys to kind of decide,

right? true that that residential limitation could be increased or or applied specifically to the cultivation. That way it kept it limited to some like the only place they could do it would be Parker South, you know, or you could actually spell that out. We have you could say one mile then it would be impossible.

You um out in Parker, we do have other zonings out in Parker South than we have in in Parker Parker because where it's at and the size of the land that we have. So you could specifically say only in Parker South or some kind of verbage not I mean fix that. Yeah, that would probably be my recommendation. Just I this is David Basil had some comments on that if you are interested.

Sure. Um the licenses as the state has given them uh allow for multiple rights on on on different facilities. So each license is allowed a dispensary which is the retail a cultivation uh a manufacturing and then there's a a nuance on the cultivation. There's an on-site tied to the to the dispensary which are typically small like boutique type of cultivations limited in size and then there's separate cultivation facilities which are typically limited to industrial zoning and and more appropriately located uh for those types of businesses. Um so there's very few like on-site cultivations you know just finally as a business, it doesn't make sense. It's maybe more for marketing and attracting attention than really producing product. And then large cultivations, you know, practically aren't going to probably be located in in um Parker. Uh I mean, they could be, but just logistics and and and so on

probably is, you know, not going to happen. Um, so those are just some of the nuances of how the state has the licenses and how the different jurisdictions have then written ordinances to kind of separate dispensaries and cultivations. Sure. That may be a guideline for us to to to lay that out, you know, those restrictions,

right? Or or I would just, you know, for you guys to simplify it for for now. I mean, it's obviously up to you. this ordinance relative specifically to dispensaries. If you have somebody wanting to come in and spend, you know, $10 million to build a cultivation facility and there's some advantage for being there, you know, create a new ordinance or variance or something that allows somebody like that to come in. But, you know, I think it's a lot of extra work to add all that without much real opportunity. I guess

maybe you're talking about like a boutique uh cultivation area that might be more localized with that. Maybe we could say uh any area that has more than 100 square feet of cultivation area has to be located x amount of miles away from a residential compared to the other ones just follow suit. I mean, or we could just kind of like I like he suggested, just scratch the cultivation part and then if we do end up in a situation someday where somebody wants to cultivate, then we could address it at that point. Yeah. Based on the size limitations of the facility, I would think you would want to take up room and some boutique cultivation. You'd want to could be just a handful of plants or something with that that they're just trying to sell.

Sure.

The couple plants with that. Mayor and council, sorry to interrupt you, but I I did want to just chat really quickly about um so the cultivation as Norah mentioned is in the original uh you know provision and ordinance that was adopted for medical marijuana. So I would have to look I don't know that we can sort of start making changes to that because with the marijuana um requirement sort of once you give it's you know I don't know that we can pull back. So what we can do is I can look in to see what options you have if you're wanting to try to restrict cultivation at this stage or we can just leave that part of it alone and make sure it can't be expanded for recreational if that's what the concern is.

I think my concern is just cultivation. I don't the part I don't understand is why do we have even have medical when it's recreational is legal? Why why do we bother with medical, right? Anybody going to buy the different products?

I think this it might be helpful. So when the medical marijuana act was um first enacted by voters, no one really knew how this was going to play out, right? So everyone was very cautious and very conservative, especially in the ordinances uh the model ordinances that were provided because it gives you more flexibility, right, as as things have changed. So medical was was it for a very long time until the recreational um measure was passed by voters and then they had that dual licensing which we do have but as Norah said you know that's now becoming a little bit more restrictive because there's only so many licenses available for dual license. So now we're seeing more obviously the expansion of the recreational and I think some of the provisions that we had originally for medical, you're right, don't necessarily make sense anymore, right? Because we we've had this it's it's um I would say it's highly regulated in Arizona. Um and so even just recreational was regulated. So I think a lot of this just goes back to when it was just first enacted. And so certainly you can I would say loosen restrictions, right? Um it's just a matter that if you've already have certain things in place that have allowed for, for example, cultivation. I don't know that we can pull that back. Again, we don't I don't know, you know, we could possibly allow or you know, restrict because right now a recreational establishment is not allowed in Parker, right? Only medical. And then this draft was going to allow dual licensing. If you want to proceed with allowing a recreational establishment, certainly we can make those changes. Um, but like I said, you can always expand. It's just, you know, we can't take away.

But you're not sure. Well, I'll have to look because um I didn't know that you'd want to change to that that piece of it. So, I would want to make sure that you would have authority obviously to do that before we make those changes. Right. I'm I'm very much pro a dispensary and having that resource for people here, but I'm I'm not for the cultivation. Not saying that that's what they're going to do, but I just saw the verbiage that there was 3,000 square foot for for cultivation. Um that would that would cause a problem in town. I think

speaking of go ahead and see where you see uh speaking of being pro, when I think about a business coming here to open up something like this, whether they consider themselves a C2 or a pharmacy, I don't think that we should limit their hours between Monday and Friday 8 to 5 at all. Like

I think if they can only have unallotted hours, maybe Tuesday through Saturday stay open later, something like that. But I think Monday through Friday 8 to 5 is going to not they're not going to make as much money as they possibly could. I do think that we should visit the drive-thru. I know it says no right now, but I think that's something we should visit. A lot of people are using like even the picking up their groceries things. If these are people going to get it for medical, if they're having problems with their feet or their knees and they don't want to walk in there and stand, I think that is a good option as well.

Yeah. And basically, I was going to reiterate that point. It's uh this is a business. So, uh I'm more for deregulating the business restrictions that we have on it. So, hours of operations, drive-thru, how much cash that they can have, all those suggestions that you made. Uh I'm more in favor of deregulating telling what a business what they can and cannot do uh based off of their own business. Uh what drives that? Uh with the drive-thru, I do think it has a unique portion with that. Uh because say if the drive-thru is located right at a busy part of town, is it going to be backing up kind of like Alberto's is sometimes and going to the main street and causing a difference? So that's the only concern I have with the drive-thru, but of course with just putting the drive-through over at the retail pharmacy, I'm all for that, too. But just uh wanted to make sure it doesn't impede traffic with that. But

I have a lot of negatives about the drive-thru. But my thing is you're you're a couple years away from or past what used to be an illegal drug deal. Um and good wording, Dusty.

People try to circumvent the system all the time. So, who's to say who's sitting in the passenger seat is of age? Um, but if it's a car full of kids and mom wants to run by the drive-thru and now we're tossing a bag of weed in the back seat with the kids, you know, there's kind of a lot of things and hate to sound like the radical one or whatever, but that seems crazy to me to allow that. On the flip side, they're gonna

come up to the microphone. I just want to say I the just to throw out the dispensary in Havasu that has a drive-thru. Their drive-thru is only for like on they have like an online and it's only for online pickup. So I just want to make you guys aware of that. So it's not like you could just drive up and be like order from the menu and get what you want. It's for like online pickup only. So just let you know. So kind of like the Safeway or Walmart where you order it and then just pick it up. You've talked to Jim out in Courtsite. Yes. What about the other end of this? Like how are they doing on revenue and you said they they are not having any issues. They

um the revenue I mean they see a small um uptick but they're um courts they have two um and it dies in the summer. So with everybody leaving the snowbirds,

the stone birds slow in the summer in Courtsite. Um so that's what they're seeing. Um they do see a pickup in revenue during the wintertime um versus summer where here we have the summer crowd and we have the winter crowd. So we don't we used to see very cut and dry when people were the people were going to be here and then when the snowbirds were going to be here. That's kind of melded together and we don't see that hard little time in there anymore. It's kind of I mean there's a difference but it's it's more steady.

And correct me too. This facility the one that if we allowed this would only be if you had a medical card. It's not recreational is what we're saying. No, it would be recreational. Be recreational. Okay. The one or the other is what? That's what the duel. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because if it was just for medical well, you know, we've been over this before in years past and then the elephant in the room is the fact that we live within the boundaries of a of a tribal federal reservation and it's federal law says no.

So, I know one of the concerns before was we would get sideways with tribes um by allowing such a thing. there. Has there been any input? Um, I've talked to us one-on-one several council for the tribe and surprisingly I thought I would have more um opposition. Yes.

Um than I did. Um, a lot of them are the the few that I spoke to, I'm not going to say a lot, but the few that I spoke to were it's legal and it's are probably going to make it legal as well at some point. What do you know? What do we say? And one of those came from somebody I really thought was going to have some Yeah, that's one of my big concerns really with that. I think uh we do what we can do and uh you know, we put out the rules with that and you know at that point if another business wants to come in, they're going to have to uh go buy a by by all the rules uh within that. So, they're going to make that own determination for the business coming in.

And I kind of sit in the gray area there, too, because I don't want to ruffle any feathers that don't need to be ruffled, especially with such a partnership that we're starting to build with the tribes. Um, but then I start thinking of when they're bringing things in, do they have to pass on reservation land or tribes going to make that difficult? I think back to where the races and the tribes didn't want the races here and that turned into a whole thing. Could that affect them actually bringing the product in, passing on the reservation land? Yeah, there was talk before years ago when we had this conversation about stopping distributors at the border and not letting them in or seizing even

Well, they're going to want to tax it somehow. That's all I So, what is what kind of tax are they going to want to put on it on top of every other tax that applied? That's going to end up being the conversation problem. How much money can make because that's exactly what turned around the whole races. There's a lot of to digest. I'm I'm assuming this is state. This is a state thing here. This is ours. Actually, that is ours. It is.

Um Yes, this is this is our working copy. So, it it's all red. Oh, I see the red now. All the red and blue. Um, this exhibit A and B is um a cleaned up version of the red and blue. So, there's no action to have action tonight. No, but clearly there's a move

to get action at some point. at some point, you know, just the real discussion as to what you guys would like to see, if you want to see it, um where kind of give us a little direction as far as um staff goes. And then, um once we do that, um we'll Christina and I will clean this up and then we will present it to planning and zoning because it is a zoning change. So, it it will need to go to planning and zoning and then it will come back to you guys with a finished get their input and then I'll come back to you guys with the finished product. So, could we get a little clarification on the the cultivation thing also?

At least uh kind of summarize what I feel like we talked about. I think that we're

in consensus sounds like uh going with the single instead of the dual uh portion with that. Um, I think we do have questions or potentially concerns on the cultivation portion where we're maybe okay with the boutique style, but don't necessarily want to see large areas uh with that inside the town limit. So, if we can somehow limit that, I think that's a want of ours with that. It seems like, at least my personal want is a deregulation on uh what a business can and cannot do uh with that. So, uh, those hours of operations, those lighting fixtures, those other unique regulations on this, uh, the thought is just having that let a business be a business at that particular point and then, uh, maybe having you do a reassessment of the footage, uh, away from a residential facility um, to see what's a reasonable amount, but still doesn't put something right next door. um and hurts a res potential residential.

Sure. There's only a few places in town realistically, right? And and we know where it ultimately would end up, at least maybe some of us do. Um maybe a little bit of info on the drive-thru thing. And I just say that because I think if we do push this through, doing it in a way that's gonna be most wellreceived um is going to be important just to limit any of the probably obvious flak that will be had. Um and you know, I know there's one in Havsu that does drive-throughs, but I'm going to say that the percentage of drive-th through dispensaries is very very low. Um,

and is there any uh portion to go along with that? It's just having concerns about uh the flow of traffic issue with that. Uh, I mean that's I know you have different concerns about drive-throughs, but to me the traffic flow in uh impeding the that's going to change. Sorry to interrupt you, but um that will change depending on where that's located. So if we have it you down the street on California that may impact that traffic much more than if we have it on Riverside where the there's a flow

there's a flow already there. So that's the other thing you have to look at when you're doing these planning things is and trying to do these ordinances where what's going to be the most restrictive, you know, kind of hit that point. And I'm not sure uh if we can say uh that the drive-through has to be uh with that that it doesn't be traffic or having some sort of verbiage with that. I think we can to help my concerns but of course different concerns on that.

That's a valid concern too because I know that the one prime leaf and ble on any given Friday you can drive on the freeway and you can see the line from Albertson's all the way around to behind the building. And I mean if could you imagine if they had a drive-thru what that parking lot would look like you know and we will have that same influx of people. So that's to be anticipated for sure. Is there any restrictions?

I don't think so. But I don't know that for sure. That's worth looking at.

Do you feel like that was a adequate summary or uh is there any other particular questions that you had for us? You know, I'll check into the ADOT thing because I know that um we make them any business that comes into town, they have to get um an okay from AOT. um permit from to do the entrance and exit unless it's already there and there's nothing with the railroad to consider. Okay. No sir. Okay. I think I've got it. You guys are good.

Yeah. I want to talk to some people. I got specific that I want to talk to. All right. Anything else? Anybody on this? All right. Thanks for joining us, guys online. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Our next item is the Parker Regional Chamber of Commerce and Tourism lease discussion. Nora.

So, um, a few weeks ago, I had, um, several ladies from the chamber come in. They are, um, from the chamber board um, and wanted to speak about the property behind Spankies. Um, they are interested in that again um, now that it's back out on the market. We got no response from our like our little letter that we sent. Um we have not gotten back from them the assigned copy of the lease for the other piece of property on um California that we did several months ago for them. Um, but they are now

hang on. What property? Um, up on between the by the ice house and all that. By the ice house and the um I mean, ironically, this thing we were talking about with traffic into this establishment is my same concern with that property. I was really excited at first because there was no other options it seemed like, but I'm imagining motor homes trying to get in and out of there on 95. Have to make a real creative kind. Yeah, I think it would be super tricky and they would would they would definitely have to get ADOT's approval on that because there's nothing built. So, I love the idea of the behind spanky's idea. Um I'm just here to hear what you guys just you know,

I want to hear what they all think and then we've got I was going to say and then we have a good portion of the board here to um kind of give you their ideas and you want to jump in here. There's Oh, there is a few of them on the board that would like it in the park as well, right? Yeah. Go step up, please, Tammy.

Oh, Louis's here for the invocation. We're discussing the lease of property potential. Okay. They're they're they're trying to figure it out here. So, my name is Cha Marshall and I'm a VP of finance at the chamber and this is my co-VP of finance. I'm gonna stand back here because I don't like to talk.

So, we originally visited those um lots behind Spankies prior to them being released by the gentleman that had it. Um and that was a choice of ours other than being in the park, which I'm not sure that's a a doable thing on your end. But that would be their number one choice according to other members of my of the board. But um we are interested in if that's not doable. We are definitely interested in this the lots behind Spinkies. But we were told that it needed to go out to bid again if that was what was going to happen. Correct. Oh, really?

Yes. It has to go out to bid um just like we did before. Um now we say we say that we advertise in the paper. um they put in their kind of want as far as the bid goes. Um what's the bid specifically? The price. Um

so mayor and council. So this would be if it's a sale, even if it's a lease purchase, it's a sale of town property. So state law requires that you have to put that to the forbid and it's essentially the highest price, right? Unless there's a a reason like a valid reason why you wouldn't want the highest price. Um but that that typically is is what you would take. I mean obviously what $1,000 a year I think was in Well, this was a little different because the way this thing worked is the previously the properties were valued at $220,000 I believe the lots. So I didn't realize they had bidded on that on that lot. Yes. Yes, but they put down they bidded 22,000 apparently.

Correct. Or they agreed to pay 10% down and% and then a yearly lease which I would assume would be similar that we would do with the chamber is they would they would put a bid as a down payment sort of um and then we would agree to lease it for a certain amount of money a year. to me a nominal amount of money a year. But just curious, the last time this happened, did anyone else bid? No. Yeah. I figured that wouldn't be a thing. So, but it's 22,000 or it it's 220,000 per lot. And are we talking about two lots? No, it's per parcel. Per parcel. And there's two lots on the par. Oh, okay.

Parcel. So, so you would only want the one parcel. And they are only wanting I thought the cost was 110 per lot. 220 for both of them. 220 for both of them. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, if I can ask um what do you guys plan on building? We'd like to move our chamber to a building. Well, I mean, I know, but like what what's your is it a modular a stick built place? Um like what? So

that's that's the big concern when we talk about the park and and even the limited retail properties that we have here is um whatever does end up somewhere like that in my opinion should be something that's well thought out and I guess up to a certain standard in terms of like construction and we've talked about that with the board too and our our goal in my opinion this is just my own opinion and I'll put it out there is that Um, I would like to see us hire an architect and have a architecturally appealing building. Be it I don't know if it's going to be, you know, metal construction or but it wouldn't be it's not going to be a box, right? I worry about

it's going to be an architecturally designed building that makes sense and hopefully multiple use so that not only would it house our offices but we're hoping to house the museum in there as well and perhaps have additional space for maybe transient businesses that need an office to come and and use a facility copier whatever try to make it more business friendly is a good I mean that was a nice looking building it wasn't Not always. There was a trailer there at one point. I remember that. But I saw it today and they painted it. It looks really nice. It's a good building. So, I think they want to draw people in. So, they don't want to have something. Yeah.

We'd like to set a standard, not be the standard. Yeah. I I know. I I'm not saying that you guys would go throw a trailer on there or something, but that's just based on past experiences some of the other places around here. I don't know what your funding looks like and I know new construction and architects and stuff are very expensive. So, it may take us a while to get it done, but we but when we do that, we're going to do it right. Right.

And the thing about the the lot, the park lot, you know, it became complicated because of the the give and take. You know, we're supposed to get back commensurate in what we give. um that became complicated as far as the park where this lot is a there's a price on it. You pay the price. Um and the and the there was a lot of people that were against it, very much against it. So I I took that seriously and just said I don't want to do the park anymore. I I don't speak for everybody here. You know, I know Erica is trying to stay out of it, which she probably should, but there's, you know, five other people up here. If that's an option that you guys want to discuss that ideal of putting them in the park over there again that's not

passionate about the park if you want her view for me. Does it have to be in that front corner like that? It really does not. The point of being in the park is if you take the museum with us there was already that road where people could pull their big rigs in and they go ahead and exit either going either way. We would not tie up any traffic. The reason that I thought that the front part would be good is it's never been fenced. People don't want their kids up there. The only thing that is there are the transients sleeping underneath and the dogs. Oh, you're talking about the corner right across from USA G. But I'm not opposed going further down. That's what I'm thinking is the dirt lot where the big

pile of dirt and asphalt used to be. I mean, I know it's not on the main road, but access would be great. The reason that I didn't think that was great, Dusty, is because I eventually when I think of parks would abandon that put in another park. If I may that that would be around the same logistically as it would behind spankings. But the problem I have with spankings is that that can generate a lot of sales tax depending on the right business. Correct. I see that side of it.

Well, yeah, but yet it somebody leased it for years and we never got any sales tax out of it. And the other proposal that came to us for that place wasn't something anybody was interested in last year. I know some of you guys weren't on here, but you know, a tiny home community with a laundry mat. And

so yeah, so I I'm more completely in favor of your thought process is uh being able to have a building over there to fence off the uh road uh so the kids don't get over there. So that's where I always was a fan of that idea. Even saying having you know, brick wall going down to prevent say kids from come going into the road right there being on the major road uh is where I always like that particular idea. A wall where now are you saying? Yeah, just uh over to fence off the uh if uh it was uh the chamber building was over at that front corner uh

uh near Riverside with that and say just a wall going all the way down to prevent uh uh kids from going from the grass area over into the street. uh to further help that point. So that's always uh been my favorite idea with that as well. Now I guess uh and you guys probably have uh earlier discussions about I'm not sure the legality of uh having a park or area designated as a park um to be able to go for a uh property like that.

I think that part was okay. It was the, you know, it used to be we we could spend money and and we could um help somebody like the chamber and say let's give you this property and now the law is such that you know and Christina will tell you that because we've had a lot of discussions with Christina about you know how can we make this work for the chamber to to ease the burden of the cost and there was so much you know you have to do this dollar fordoll stuff and um that that lot over there kind of takes that out of the of the equation because you're paying you're bidding you're paying a price the same guy that guy theoretically paid um that was leasing it earlier. So there's no real give and take in that situation you know

about that too and my the only thing that I could come up with would be okay the chamber built a building and it would be something like what we had with the railroad but the caveat is something happens to the chamber or there is no more chamber or if there's still coppers for the chamber but we're just relocating or whatever um you guys would go ahead and pay fair market value for the building and keep it if it was in the park. See and I would think we would just get the building. The reason that I like the park is because, you know, we do have a little bit of money. Yeah.

And that would enable us, me and John talked about it. We want a nice building. We don't just want to put a modular up. We want something that's going to be very nice that can accommodate us. It can accommodate Corey and can and bring Deanna's museum right on. Sure. Yeah. And I'm more concerned with the construction of the building than the location personally. So

I just want something nice for the parts. And so we would be nice and functional so that people can use the meeting room for their place. So we want to be a kind of a service center for the business in the community that can our facilities if they need. So my question is because we have all these ideas, would it be appropriate maybe have a couple people and a couple of our people try to get together and figure this out? Yeah, I think so.

But I would want to include the people who were opposed to the ideal of the park to hear their thoughts. You know, the park and Rex committee people So, I know there's a lot of crossover. Um,

yeah. So, I will be the devil's advocate because I was I will say that I was the parks and w part of one of the parks. I don't want it in the park, but I love the chamber. I've been on the chamber for several years. And like Dusty had said, I have driven by I've driven around that block probably six times in the last month trying to figure out like what would be the best. And I really do personally like the back lot where they've just leveled it all out with the dirt and everything. I think that it wouldn't take away from the park itself.

It would still be, and again, this is my opinion, not speaking for anybody up here. Um, but one of the things that we also wanted to kind of incorporate in our building is storage. Right now, currently, the the chamber pays for two, maybe even three different stoages throughout town. So, we did want to have an area that was big enough to consolidate all of our stoages, which would make it, you know, cheaper for us not having to pay stoages. Um, kind of an outside area in my p in my, you know, in my mind. Um, so when I was driving around the park, I've noticed it's all flattened out. you know, there's grass to a certain extent and then it goes dirt. And I was like, you know, we could almost fill the whole block with something, whether it be part parking lot for the chamber, you know, maybe even add a different ramada out there, another gazebo type thing to kind of make that whole park usable. And so I do like the idea of being up front as far as visible and focal, like you see it, it's right there. Um, but I mean being in the building, you're going to get I feel like a lot of traffic that maybe wouldn't want to be warranted or you know um I can't imagine a block wall being up on there. You know that

picture that that just breaks my whole heart because I feel like that green grass is just such a beauty when you walk in and you know all of the events and stuff. But um like like we said, we all have different ideas. we all have something that that if we could sit down and just maybe say, you know, what are the options if it was some like like you said, we do have a good amount of money that we have, you know, grants and stuff like that that we do want to build a beautiful building. We're not going to put a manufactured home up. Lots of stuff that we want to do. We just I don't know if the front part would give us enough space to do all of that if that was the case. So, it almost sounds like we should have a big gathering and just go over there,

maybe walk all those lots, take a look together. We did that at one point. We did. Uh but it was just it was just me and chamber basically. There wasn't a lot of people involved, other parties like you know other ch other council people. Um so if we went over there and just did a walk around. Steve, go ahead.

Yeah. So my my concerns with the park is you have a at park. So my plan actually set me out. So there's enough room for a soft field and a skate. So like I said, if I was to go in one direction, I would drive that building out of the chamber attractive building, but parking adjusting the might take up a little bit of the park area to make it butility needs to be done. you have the opportunity to make that part just like until that's done in ideas.

I think the good news is we're we're not in a rush at this point. You guys are in a place. It's okay for now. Yes. It's not great, but the idea of them being able to invest back into the park is nice, too, because like you said, if and I heard what you said makes absolute sense, but if they were to end up in the dirt lot and let's say they had the budget to landscape a good part of that that acreage there to kind of expand the park, um, plant some trees and stuff, that would be that would be a benefit, too. Um, so it's just another thing to consider, I guess.

Now, that lot, that's uh be spankings that you're talking about with that, say if it is out for bid and they're the only biders with that, can it go severely below market and that be okay if they're the only biders and we accept that? Um, depends on how you how we word the bid. Um, so the way we did it prior was um we started the bid at 110 per lot. for 220 per um per parcel and then we negotiated the can we not set a minimum price and just uh say that this is uh we're open for all bids and we'll assess it for that. We have to we have to get

squirly out there. I'm like no you have to set a price who who comes up with market value. I mean market value that's fair. So, if they're the only ones who bid, uh, you know, who comes up with that fair market? Who says 110 is fair market? I think an appraiser. The appraiser does and I don't 110 is not unreasonable to me. I And I think it's a high enough because the the danger is if you go, you know what, we're going to start the bidding at 10,000. You might get 10 bids right off, you know, people because you have to publicize it. You have to make it, you can't do it underhand. And so you may end up getting somebody bidding on it that you don't really want there. You know,

we don't have to accept any bids if we don't want them over there as well. And we don't find that be careful. I mean, but I think what would help probably everybody also is if you guys had some kind of plan or a visual on what the building was square, like how many square feet do you need, things like that, you know, so that when you went and looked at a dirt lot, you weren't just going, "Yeah, it would look nice." in case you've actually got some numbers like that corner of the park right there. If we could actually walk it off and go, okay, 50 feet this way, 100, you know, so you could really visualize it and like Steve said or get some plans drawn up that shows what how much of a footprint it would.

Yeah, footprint would probably be the same on either property and it's something you have to do either way. So, I like I like Steve's plan doing a feasibility study and actually figuring out what we can do with with Western including the chamber. I really don't think purchasing a piece of land is, you know, that we can benefit from would be something great. So, I I'm personally for Western Park and getting a feasibility study done and figuring out. The only issue with that is, you know, when we did the feasibility for city parks, I mean, we spent quarter million dollars on that thing,

which was a grand scheme, and I'm thinking it won't be that big, but there there is going to be a cost involved. It's not cheap, right? The feasibility was expensive for city,

but maybe it'll be a lot less, but That gives you what other parks going through that process. So you have the ability to go achieve that. and mayor and council just just so that another um I guess just kind of keep in the back of your mind.

So parks are designated as public land districts which are only supposed to be used for by the public. So we'll have to look at a code change as well if you're going to be changing the the nature of that that district essentially because right now this would be prohibited under the code. But we have the ability to change the code. Yes, you should. Um, but I will I'll just make sure just that there's no state law that that you adopted and that's why it's in the code. But, um, if there's no state law prohibition, you should be able to change the code.

Just another funding question really fast. say if again going back to spankings with that I know that uh we typically fund uh the chamber x amount of dollars uh per year with that and they give us uh appropriate amount of services back to us. Uh can we say reduce some of those per year and basically uh just say rent over you know that 70 years and we just rent it out to them uh and basically reduce their annual contribution or they come up with I don't know if that's even involved in that lot because they're paying fair market that guy we don't have to do it typically I'm saying if they don't purchase and it's more just rent with that. So we would purchase. I think their funding is is the point where they could

Yes, we would just purchase. That would take all that off the table and we could still continue to give them our contribution in exchange for the services they offer. Yeah. But it might that might all change at the park possibly. I don't know how that would work. So ultimately I think we probably need to have some kind of study doneever. whatever scale of feasibility study. I mean, it's got to get done either way. And without it, we're just assuming that things will work. Is there such a thing as getting a quote for a study before you actually pay for the study? Yeah.

How many millions? because I mean you guys might be in better financial shape than we are at this point. That's the only reason I'm throwing that out because awesome. It's also curious just to know the scape of like what kind of building you want and and see where we can fit that too. Like so

yeah and that's kind of what I was saying when we were talking about the front of the park. we really wanted to utilize everything that we needed. I have walked the park. I have looked at dimensions and I just don't think it would be wouldn't fit big enough. I think it would take up too much of the park that we wouldn't necessarily want to. So, you guys have obviously have differing opinions, but we do absolutely board generally. Are you really stuck on that lot or stuck on the other lot or it's just a everybody's got their own thing?

Sounds like My opinion is that I think we've got people for both. But I think that if it came right down to it, we'd rather have one or one of those parks than anything else. That's how behind spankings or the park. Yeah. No, I agree. This one is kind of off the table for me. This California thing at this point. It was good when we were desperately in need of a place, but it's not ideal. And and the most un ideal part of it is the traffic in my opinion. I'm just seeing rigs trying to get out of there onto onto the boulevard. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We have differing opinions on the board, but we kind of wanted to just come back and bring it back to council's attention because we feel like it just it didn't get I don't know. I don't want to say didn't get enough attention. We kind of just maybe we should bring it back to you guys about bring it back to the park and maybe put that idea back in your head. I just think the the simplest route and the least um painful, the most legally sound route is to go with those lease lots on the other side and then we don't have to change town code. We don't have to I mean if that's a viable option for you guys and it's not like ah we had to be in the park then I you know I would lean towards that myself. But I I just think it would be we could keep things like they are. you guys could lease them just like the other guy did.

I just wanted to throw out the possibility maybe we could do a lease purchase to where maybe we would do a lease for a little while. That way we could use our money to help us get our architect and build our building. Um and then at a certain point in time we could buy out the Are you referring to the lots behind spies? Lots behind spankings. I think that's already a mechanism is that that was offered basically you put that down payment of the bid or whatever it is and then whatever the balance is you if you pay $1,000 a year if that's what we agree to. Yeah. There could be a point where in the future you go, we're just going to pay this thing off, you know, like like the chamber did with the railroad.

You just don't want to be stuck in the same situation that we're at right now. Whereas, you know, 30 years later and then sure, you lose your building yanked out from underneath us and Yeah. and that that building because it's on land that you are leasing. You're right. If you guys left that and I'm sure we could work out an agreement where we would have to pay fair market value or you would sell it to somebody else that would want the building, you know, and they'd leave us out of it. So, yeah, I only work session. We're not we don't we don't have any action on this. So, it sounds like we've got it somewhat narrowed down at least.

Thank you. We'll do a little bit of homework on sizes and

Yeah, I agree with Dusty. Figure out what you're looking at, the size of the building, you know, and then uh we can talk about feasibility. Well, we wouldn't have to do that over there. That's that's not even something we'd have to worry about. So, because the feasibility study is great. You know, the one we did on City Park is beautiful, but we'll have the money. Now we got the sewer thing going on. So we really don't have the money. So it's it's a great thing to have. It's done if we ever get the funding to take off with it. But we wouldn't have to worry about that if it's just that lot over there. And it's more legally yours than ours where the park would be an entanglement perhaps. So all right. Anything else for anybody? All right. Thanks guys. So, Lou, you're going to stick around for a minute, right? Okay. All right. We're going to adjourn the work session um and call the regular meeting to order. And we'll do another roll call of counsel.

Mayor Hartless here. Vice Mayor Wedell here. Council member Sha here. Council member Daniels present. Council member Deleó absent. Council member Grenalt here. All right, please uh join me for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for Louis's invocation. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be here tonight to gather together. We pray you'll bless our leaders as they look at how to make the town of Parker a stronger, better place to live. Help us have open minds and creative thoughts about the the issues we face. And we pray you would guide and direct us to the right decisions that will be a blessing to everyone that lives in this area. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, now is our time for a call to the public. Uh Chief Chamberlain from Buckskin Park Fire. Good evening, council, constituents, and staff. Um, just real quick, um, I come to you tonight, uh, kind of three points. One is from a frustration standpoint, one is an educational standpoint, and one is hopefully for a collaboration standpoint. Um, I've heard some negative connotation coming back about the fire district recently. Um, and it was been in particular uh about the downtown experience and our uh our attempt to I guess it would be recover the costs the operational costs that were directly related to the uh to the event. Um, from the educational piece, most people don't realize that the fire district is 100% tax based funded. We receive no sales tax. It's grant funded or property tax based. So, when you look at that whole downtown experience, um, we basically subsidized millions of dollars worth of toys and toy haulers and people coming in. We ran some additional calls. We had an uptick in in in staffing that I requested. I was invited to one meeting um at the 11th hour. Was not involved in any of the race activities either, you know, before that. So that was kind of the frustration aspect of it for me. When I asked for the original dollar amount, I came up with what I felt was a very reasonable amount. The fire district chipped in um half of a staff member for uh the four operational days. Um and we asked um the vendor who was a for-profit company to in fact offset a small portion for two additional personnel. Um I didn't ask him to eat anything more than an hourly figure. A very nominal fee. wasn't a big deal. Received

immediate push back from multiple members of uh of commerce within within the town. You're going to drive this out of town. You're going to do this. You're going to do that. Okay. Not wanting that to be ruined. I took a look at it, drilled it back down, took a bigger chop on behalf of the fire district, further augmenting the event, and still took heat. To date, I build literally zero dollars. Not one penny. I want to put it a little bit further than that. I actually have pictures of your vendors stealing electricity from the fire station. So, when I hear negative connotation coming back at us um about how we're billing for stuff or we're not cooperating, etc., etc., I I kind of take that to heart because it's it's frustrating. So, what I'm asking from you is a collaborative effort. If you hear that, by all means, please put a stop to it. I know it's out there. I know there's some chamber members that have discussed it. I know that I've I've gotten push back from it. My staff reported back to me. And it's disheartening because just last Sunday, um, my staff at Parker, um, arranged an Easter egg thing. Easter egg. Uh, there was a thousand eggs donated. Think that through. What's the cost of eggs right now? And that's probably 12-500 bucks just on that. Zero cost to the public. 200 kids came in, got free Easter baskets. We're going to give 65 baskets to um ELA tomorrow. Uh we did the Santa thing. We have hot chocolate stuff. We do a lot of benevolent stuff for the community. We're about to do the the water day for the school, different things like that. So, what I'm asking for you in return for all those activities that we do do that we don't get recognition for is please just refer those people to me. If they have a question or you hear

something like that happening, by all means, please just kick them my direction. My phone is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I'll leave business cards here. Norah can tell you I'm immediately responsive. Kofa, she called me. I was on it the next day. um your Le Pa pharmacy, the drive-through thing. They called me. They've been waiting three months for the state inspection. We were in oversight. They called me, cleared the schedule, was there the next day. I am being as absolutely responsive as humanly possible to the town and their needs. Please do not let us get beat down on the back end of this. It's not fair. Randy can tell you I'm working collaboratively with the college. Um I just don't I can't fight the wind. I need people to actually help me stand up and defend that. So, thank you for your time. Um, that's all I'm asking for. Thank you.

Thanks, Chief. All right, let's see. Our first item is Oh, I'm sorry. Erica Daniels, Parker Chamber Regional Chamber of Commerce director with a report.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Erikica Daniels with the Parker Regional Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. This Thursday, the Parker Chamber of Commerce and Tourism will host our monthly mixer at Pirates Den starting at 5:30. We are still accepting door prize donations and we encourage people that attend to bring plastic Easter eggs so that we can donate them to the town of Parker Parks and Wreck for their Easter extravaganza. On Friday, April 18th, CRRCS will host their sexual assault awareness walk starting at Pop Harvey Park at the Splash Pad. Registration opens at 5:30 and the walk will start at 6:00. Then on Saturday, April 19th, the town of Parker's Park and Wreck will host host their Easter Extravaganza kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Western Park. And the chamber will actually be running the concession stand with a refreshing lemonade. So stop by, grab some lemonade, and enjoy the festivities. To close out the month, CRCS will be leading the denim day on April 30th. We encourage everyone to wear denim to stand in solidarity with victims and survivors of sexual assault. In exciting news news, we have over 700 people that have already registered for the Parker Tube Float. Help us spread the word and encourage others to pre-register at parkerfund.com. And finally, last but not least, save the date for Monday, May 5th, which is Cinco de Mayo. We're launching our first ever Cinco de Mayo Chamber Chingo in partnership with the VFW Post 761. We're celebrating big. So, be sure to be there. You can purchase your tickets in advance at the chamber office. Let's keep the amenity the community energy going. Shop local, support local, and celebrate together.

Thank you. Thank you. I like that. You take your hat off. Put your other hat on. Okay. Our next item is consent agenda. Uh we can approve the two items together. The town of Parker meeting minutes April 1st, 2025 and a special event application for Parker High School annual graduation parade, May 23rd, 2025, 5:30 to 7:30. Um, anybody want to pull any of this and discuss? Are we okay? If we're okay, I'd entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. It's been moved and second to approve the consent agenda as listed. All those in favor? I I

I motion carried. Um discussion possible action to approve deny invitation for bids for the library zero escape with a grant project. Steve Good evening, mayor and council. Long time no see. It's been a minute. I'm sure you missed me.

We did. Sure did. Uh public works department respectfully requests the mayor and council to authorize staff to publish the invitation for bids for the library zero escape project funded by WIFA grant agreement WC3-109-2024. Uh on January 2nd 2024 uh staff received a fully executed WIFA grant agreement for three projects totaling 1,230,78363. This was one of the approved projects. Uh the grant will pay for um 923,87.72 of the grant match amount and the town is uh was required to to pay $37,695.91 for all three projects. Uh the Zeroscape Library project will save approximately 2.8 8 million gallons of water annually. Uh this project goal is to implement a zercape design to minimize water usage, create a handicap accessible trail that will be used by the library to educate the public about the importance of water conservation. Enhance the aesthetic appeal of the area. Utilize water retention techniques in the design. Promote awareness about sustainable landscaping practices. Lower maintenance costs. Enhance biodiversity. educational opportunities for the community. The IFB will be published May 7th, 2025 on the town website and the online bid site pipeline dop pipelines.com as well as being published in the Havsu Herald and Parker Pioneer. Uh there is a pre-bid conference scheduled for May 27th, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. and the bid opening is scheduled for June 12th, 2025 at 10 a.m. Uh the fiscal impact, as I

mentioned, the grant amount, the grant match amount of $37,695 has already been satisfied by the town partner. Uh so all the um in addition, staff has two pending reimbursements. one actually we've re we've received um we are still pending the reimbursement from WIFA for the $733,000 artificial turf project. Um so we have a balance of $152,533 for this particular project and the three projects were the Aaron Hill Field, the library and

the meter project. Okay, got it. I mean, this looks great out front here, that way. Yeah. So, this is what we're looking at. Yeah. So, it's going to be similar to that. Um, it incorporates the whole front of the library and on and on all these sections around as well. Looks like it's ready to go. It It is ready to go. Um, it won't impact the library's garden area. Uh, so that's not included in this project, but everything else pretty much is. The side of the pump house closest to Mojave that is touched or no? Or not the pump house, the tanks? No. So, it'll go as far as the the fence line to to uh Mojave. Yes.

Okay. Where those oleanders used to be. Correct. Yes. So, all that will be included. Yes. All right. Sounds like a no-brain. You want to make a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Move the second. Any discussion, questions? All those in favor? I. Marian shots. She must be on a potty break. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Council.

Thanks, Steve. Discussion, action to approve, deny the recommendation of Park and Rex Advisory Board to fill the vacancy and appoint two alternate members. Amy's not here. Um, so to move the council to approve and re the recommendation of the park and Rex advisory board to fill the vacant seat and to appoint two alternate members at their April 8th, 2025 advisory board meeting. Members discussed the applications. A motion was made to approve recommend recommendation to the council to appoint Zachary Comm to the vacant seat and to appoint Katrina and uh Kathleen as the alternate members. All members of the advisory board were in favor of this recommendation.

That call though, you still on the parking r Yeah. on the library board. Jack's a go-getter, man. He's a He's really great. I I just think he'll be fantastic. I will say as being the liaison and being there when parks and wreck discussed this, they did speak about these alternates because all three applicants were so good, so involved in the community, involved with the kids, did they all sat on different boards. Um, we weren't sure if there was any alternates before, but that's why I suggested that there's two alternates because there was such a good representation in the applicants. Yeah, it's a good idea.

Are we within our rights to appoint alternate members? Yeah. Okay. And what's the other Who' you say? Katrina. Karina. Oh, Karina. That's a Oh. Oh, Karina Santi. Yeah. And then Kathleen, better known as Katie. So, right. Cat Torres or Cat, sorry, better known as Cat. Sorry. All right. I make a motion to approve. Second.

Move. Move and seconded to approve Zack Col as a fill the vacant seat on Park and Rex and Cat Torres and Karina Santion as alternate members. All those in favor? I I motion carried. Item three, discussion action to approve deny summer wreck program. Nora

summer program has been um p was paused for several years due to COVID and staffing issues but um was restarted last year with Aaron Romo as the lead program director. The program ran for about 15 days. They were half days split into two sessions with approximately 30 kids attending each session. Park and Rex committee met on April 8th to discuss the following. Teacher salary. It was noted that um reducing the hours last year brought the pay up to a comparable rate to the summer school teachers um location. Last year they used the they had to have two um alternate locations because they were going to redo the floor in the Blake. Um it ended up that they didn't have to use that second one. They did a water week and a

Yeah, they went to the college for a few days.

Um it was also discussed in there that possibly um charging a fee of $5 a day. Um but that was met with some big concerns with some of the other um members due to um nobody else really charges for their their summer program. Um the number of attendees the teacher to student ratio was discussed and we need to get this started if if this is what you guys are going to do. Um because that was a lot for to do on her own. Um they talked about um getting the S club involved, maybe um the couple of the other summer workers involved as well. The committee voted to continue the program this year. However, due to financial concerns, the town has been hesitant to move forward. While the program was successful, it was a significant expense in terms of money, staff time, and resources. If approved, um we'll need to move quickly um to get the schedule in additional meetings and open applications for the summer program. Um last year, the program cost the town approximately $5,394, excluding staff time and addition insurance that we had to pay. If the program continues this year, we can expect similar costs.

Didn't we just have to name the school district as additional insured? We had to actually get a policy. We did have to add to our policy last year like a writer. I have I have many concerns about us doing this. Um it's a lot of money for a very short period of time. I know our kids don't have a a ton of stuff to do during the summer. However, um we're struggling as a a community and as a town right now and I think adding this to it is, you know, a little bit strenuous on our budget.

When was the program held last year? Um they did I believe two weeks in June and two weeks in July. There was a period in the 1 of July that there was only like a 4 day week. I well they only did it on Mondays through Thursday anyway. And then that week of 4th of July um I think they took that it was like 8 to 11 or 9 to 11. It was a short it was very short day. How many kids? There was 30 kids per session and we ran two sessions. So we ran two weeks in June and then two weeks in July. So were any of those kids that were in the first two weeks in the same Yes. So we possibly only had I don't usually It's usually the same handful of people.

Hate to take anything away from the kids though.

Totally agree. I would hate to see this go. Um I'm 1,000% for a summer program if we do have to charge the kids a very very minimal amount. And then we were talking about and I know that parks and wreck would love to like even sit down at a work session like yesterday if we needed to to discuss how we could get different clubs involved at the high school to maybe help because it was 30 kids was a lot for Aaron to take on um and if we start moving today contacting crit so we can get those summer workers locked in. And I know last year was kind of slow, so we didn't get the summer worker in time. So, it was Erin doing this all by herself, but if we had a teacher that wanted to, because we would have to go back out for a teacher this year. I know that Aaron is not she's not able to do it this year. So, we'd have to go back out for a teacher that was interested in doing this, we could reach out to the S club and they could help the first week. Um, maybe the FFA club, they could help the second week or something of that sort. But really getting if we're gonna charge a fee, I would love not to. Like,

oh, we can't. Yeah. Even if you charge kids five bucks a kid, it's only $150 you bring it in. So, and in my experience, when you charge kids for those don't already have posted. Oh, we cannot charge fees because they're not posted. So, there's that. So you charge the kids for stuff. It comes with a whole another set of expectations like everything better be on or you're going to hear from everybody they pay five bucks. So does this person who leads this have to be a teacher because I know a lot of teachers have already guaranteed this. Well I I think the the good side of that is they have a fingerprint clearance card. They

and they're used to working with large groups of kids so it makes sense to we've always done that. I don't Is there any opportunity to collaborate like with the other big program that does summer camps in the community? So, I think right now the issue that we're having is it's we're coming up to a very short time period before uh we have to post for a teacher and get all that and get everything situated. So, it seems like right now needs to be that time for that decision. I think that's good for parks and recck to look more into the future, but it seems like right now we're at such a time crunch to say no or go or no go with that.

It's basically a few hours of gym time supervised, right? They play in the gym at this high school. I mean, if AW wants AWC wanted to donate their facilities, I mean that was that was part of the co the cost as well. We did AWC and then we also have to pay for the school. So that I mean that was pay for the school. You didn't pay the college, I don't think. You don't have to pay. We never paid the high school anyway for both gyms for our summer. We paid $900 for Blake last year. Gotcha. Oh, they use Blake. Ask them why Blake because I mean Wallace's dome their AC wasn't working. If I'm correct, they were doing the floor in the other gym.

Yes. Yes. I even thought and this is way wishful thinking. Nor is probably going to stop me before I even finish the sentence, but I know that the senior cent's attendance kind of goes low in the summer. I even thought of closing the doors or the what are those called? Those the sliders and sliders and using the back part because it's a town facility. Community center. Yeah, the comm because it's a community center and using the back part for the kids, but then there is like the bathroom. You would have to open it for the kids to use restroom. So, there's other things to think about when thinking about that as well. But it was a thought in my head. I would I'm trying to think of everything besides no that you want to mix the the kids and the seniors and I know that's what I thought about the restrooms

because there is no restrooms on that side of the building. So that would also affect their program, right? I'm just curious about the school charging because we do parenting programs over there. We've been doing it for 20 years. They've never charged us. We had to add them as additional insurance on our policy. You maybe you know somebody that sits on the board over there. I don't anymore. So, it puts me in a better position to ask. Oh, okay. Well, it outsider now for anything. Anytime we ever reserved the gym for SDP's camps, it was calling up Brad, telling him our dates, he'd get back to us if there was anything conflicting or not. And then it was a thumbs up or a thumbs down, never any money. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk. Yeah. But go ahead.

Um, I will say like Erica said, last year it was a rush. like we did things. We didn't get the credit workers because we didn't have it in time. You know, it was one of those things that we tried to revamp because it had been done, you know, hadn't been done for a while. Were you in April or were you in late May? I mean, I mean, it I can't recall exactly, but we did, you know, rush in and get a lot of stuff done. So, I think if we had a little bit more time, we do now, we could have more conversations with sale. we could find cheaper sponsors, donations, and stuff like that. So, we just didn't want to just put it to bed without fighting a little bit for it because, you know, that's what we do.

I don't want to say no, but I feel like we could get that cost way down and make it affordable. What's the pay for the teacher? Total cost was 5,000 change, right? 5,394 was the total cost. excluding staff time and additional you're basically talking about 16 days whatever they're buying half days 15 half days and you're paying them how much an you get an hourly rate or the hour you said it was pretty good pay it was more than to teacher I've seen those I was thinking of a guy like coach Bell who I think would be fan he he works with 50 kids at a time over there at the lake auditori

I am the biggest fan of doing for the kids in this community. I am 30 years of doing everything we can with these kids, but I'm also right now looking at the town's budget and I have employees that don't have ink in their in their because we've held off. Are we g are we going to see the money? Yes, we will. Is it going to come back around? Yes, it is. But right now, cash flow is um Steve finally got to to hire at least one new person. Um so if we could get this to where we get donations and we can get the cost down then

um that that would be you know great and wonderful. But the way they the way that the um kind of the committee spoke the other day, they are kind of like to the to the top of asking for donations and going out and doing those kinds of things. So I know my staff doesn't have time to go out and do that. So I just some things to think about the start date for this is when

there's no start date um that could change like before I think they did it just four four weeks and that's why like last year Aaron was able to do two weeks in June two weeks in July so we worked over her schedule um where if it was like a teacher that was like I'm leaving all of June but I'll do four weeks in July or something we're willing to work with that that I think I like the two weeks how she did it uh each one because that takes a couple weeks right before school to

and they really based it last year like of kids that weren't able to go to the PACE program and were kind of young too young to just sit at home by themselves. We worked with all of everybody else's summer happenings and looked at like when Crit was having theirs so they didn't coincide or if they did coincide we'd have a different people that were coming to ours. Um I think right now if, and I'm pushing for a yes. Very encouraging. Um, if we could at least get a yes and maybe even do a work session with parks and wreck and say, "This is what we're willing to do. Can we do this? Can we visit this?" Um,

that's And then I lost my train of thought. We would be moving to approve the program, not necessarily the budget. Right. Well, tonight probably the budget if if you approve the program all in I guess it depends on how you make your motion as to how you do this. If you use, you know, the verbiage, yes, you want to continue with the program or whatever, then you've basically just given us the okay to do whatever. if you put in there in your motion that you want to look at doing whatever looking for alternative funding or something. Yes,

visiting stuff like because if we could talk to the school that's going to cut $900 off, right? Right. I have some ideas too in terms of finding money. There's ways to cut cut some of this budget given your the reason I say that we I wish that we could do like a work session as of yesterday is because April 30th PACE has their huge meeting with all of like the summer programs out their summer schedule. Yeah. And that goes everywhere to Leaz County. So it would be perfect even if we didn't say this is what you're going to come to our but if we had town of park is going to have our recreation summer program June 15th through the 29th and July 2nd through the these are dates that I'm just pull out of hand that could be Saturday

and I know they did that last year you the um committee actually invited KRIT and all of the programs to come and they really worked with them as to um what dates they were going to do And that's a little bit how we started with Aaron in the the two weeks and then we had to kind of work around her a little bit schedule. So Parks and Rec has have done their their due diligence as far as um timing and what works for the kids and what works for the families. I have a plan. Yeah. If we can get the school district to wave the fees, I think I can find half that money. 2500 basically.

So I'd like to make the motion to approve the budget with the caveat that there's a separate work session with parks and recck to in order to try to further reduce cost. I second that motion. Cool. Been moved and seconded to approve the summer program with a understanding that we'll talk about budget, try to try to bring the budget down. Yeah. and maybe some potential collabs, too, because if you involve the right people, there's money attached to it. So, sure. What was your What was your motion? My motion was to approve the program uh with a caveat that uh there's going to be a separate work session uh to try to further reduce the cost of

Well, you're talking about a council work session or just a with parks and rack. Could we do a because we have to throw a meeting together pretty quick here. Uh hit that April 30th. I wouldn't necessarily say it has to be a work session as a whole. It could be a couple members uh on Yeah. Leaison specified with that. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because I would like to get that April 30th deadline, everything pinned down so that you can go to that meeting and say this is what we're doing. These are the dates we're doing it. Okay. Perfect.

All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the summer program with the understanding that we'll try to bring down the costs. All those in favor? I I Marian's gone. Uh motion carries. Okay. Item four, discussion, action to approve, deny the amendment of the Healthy People, Healthy Communities Grant Contract. Council may vote to discuss this matter in executive session. Is that something we want to do, Christina? You think? Um, that's just if you need legal advice. So, we can always start now and then if you guys decide you need to, we can move into session.

All right, let's let's roll then, Nora.

Okay. So, our um Let me grab it here. Wrong one. specially request that mayor and council approve the amendment to healthy people healthy choices grant contract. That is our um CHOP program that we have. Um the county um we would like to amend the contract to end quarter and not renew it at the beginning of the year. the county um has offered to transfer that contract to or pick up that contract. Um they transferred it to us several years ago due to layoffs and the program typically um requires about four people and a department head to run efficiently. when the senior center um lead changed the program chopped program and um the senior program merged. However, we've discovered that while the programs are similar, the healthy people healthy choice program is deemed to require specialized staffing and specific times. Um, additionally, we found that the county already provides many of the same services that are covered by the the grant um they're doing now. It's doesn't cost us to um not finish out this. We we won't be able to collect the um fourth quarter um but we won't have the program either. So, the the cost will kind of out just itself out. And then um we'll the following steps will be for the staff to coordinate with Arizona

Department of Health Services to close out our grant cycle and move it on over to the county.

Yeah. And to me, this is this is like the end of a ridiculous era. We should have never got involved in this thing. you know, it was done for nefarious reasons in my opinion. It wasn't just about, you know, we're going to lay people off. It was personality clashes at the county. And we were sold this this um bag of goods that, oh, this is a great thing and it's not going to not only is it not going to cost this town anything, we're going to make money because there's overhead costs and we get that money. But that's none of that was really true. We this this program cost us money and there's no benefit to the town. There was a point where there was not even anything happening over there at that at that chop shop. They're all at the community center working. Um they merged those positions. They got exorbitant salaries and and told us they were all paid for by the grant. Don't worry about it. And I don't think any of that was true. So I'm really glad to to be able to get rid of this program. Um, again, I don't think it's benefiting anybody at this point, and I don't feel like we're cutting off people that need services. Um, the services they were doing are are being done by other organizations as far as I can tell in this town. Um, and that that chop shop was serving the entire county. It's a lot like the meals program. Um, it was serving the entire county. Of course, it was supposed to be paid for all that, but um I think the town of Parker is being served by by other organizations that are taking care of those things. So, I feel really good about this. I'm I'm glad it's finally um because I know you guys some of you guys weren't on council at the time, but the the way they brought it was, hey, it's just temporary. It's only for a year. Just for a year, then we'll put it back to the county. And then next year it became, well, we're going to do it for one more year. Well, that was 10 years ago. I mean I maybe eight years ago but

um so to me this is hooray let's get rid of this thing is how I feel just putting that out there really cost us a lot of it doesn't really cost us money but the employees are I mean they need to be very specialized and we're down to one employee in this this group and she's only been with us for a year it's it's a lot of work um and I think the com combining the two programs were kind of where we went sideways. Um,

and that office that they rent is, you know, it's I don't know, it's like 2,000 a month or something. Um, that'll go away, too. So, my only concern would be the U of A. We rented UOVA a space in there, I believe. But,

yes, we do. We rent them one office in there um a month. Um, I've spoken with her. we have a place for her at the senior center if she chooses to go over there. Um the county has also offered her a spot within their facility. So we have spoken with her um and we've met with um Arizona Department of Health Services and started that close out kind of process. Feel like there's a storage unit involved in this too is there. Okay. So, you know, they used to keep the car seats or something. Car seats are in there. And you guys are on You guys are on that. Okay.

I will just say for record, too, um, if this program was run correctly, I think it would have been amazing. The mental health portions, the teen prevention, pregnancy prevention portions, suicide prevention, all that stuff. But I don't think it was ever able to really run correctly. So, I don't want to say the town's getting rid of it and we don't think these things are important. I really want that to go on record. like these things are very very important. It's just that we weren't meeting these. So therefore, it was like you said, I would say it was run very well at one point. It was very well at one point. Yeah. The the senior center mixup mashup is when it turned into a big gray area. Yeah.

And I think the county will do a wonderful job picking this up and getting the services back out there the way that they need to be. Yeah. Makes much more sense for being a county function instead of a town function. And With that, I'll make the motion to approve, lend it over to the county. I'll second. Okay. And that's the amendment that we're giving it up on June 30th, basically. Okay. All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the amendment to the healthy people, healthy communities grant contract. Um, all those in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Um, council member liaison reports. Um, anybody have anything? This Saturday is the parks and wreck Easter egg extravaganza. We would love to see you guys there. The Easter Bunny will be there. We have lots of eggs. If you guys are bored tomorrow, stop by the chamber and you can help parks and wreck stuff some Easter eggs. Um, and then I don't think we meet again before the 25th. It is on here, but the town of Parker has the APS tree planting ceremony at Western Park, and that should be interesting as well.

Well, that's Friday. Friday. Yeah, that's Friday, April. Okay. Friends of the library, uh I think last time I said that they were trying for a Pepsi scholarship. Uh they did receive it and they're going to begin the Gatorades for their uh summer program here soon. Uh the friends library did donate a few hundred dollars worth worth of books uh and they did receive all them in. Uh they just had a rumage sale and their fundraiser uh went very well raising about $450. Uh and it's going to be an annual rumage sale that they're going to be holding in March every year. Uh they're working on getting their building delivered which is expected in the May I believe uh they stated time period.

Um it's a storage building. Uh I think that's where they're going to be having uh some of their book sales and uh with that out of um and one of their main uh major focuses uh what they're going to try to go forward is trying to work on getting uh more friends more members uh for the friends of the library. I know council sh isn't here tonight um but I did attend joint venture just to hear it and I will just Oh Josh sorry I'm speaking over you. You go ahead.

Going with the joint venture. We're still working on funding right now. Um, as we speak, we are the town's progressing very well towards their funding. Um, that's about what I got. What does that mean? It just means we're working. So, um, we have we applied for, um, in conjunction with joint venture for the WIFFA grant. Um, it's a $5 million grant, uh, loan with 2 million of that um, forgivable. It's like one to 2% interest or something.

And the rest of it is 1.5% at this point. Um, we've made it through three of the hoop or two of the hoops were on the last one to be approved for that. Um, it hasn't been completely um completely decided exactly how that three $3 million is going to be split between us and the and the tribe. Um, but so that that's kind of in the works. And then we've applied, we will be applying again for the congressional, which is a $2 million grant. Um, we've kind of figured, um, and there's a little bit of heartburn between both entities here as to who owes what and how much and all of that. um the way that the taking the water and how they figured all this out. I'm not exactly sure um how the math was done, but um joint venture is telling us we will our percentage is $7 million. So with the WIFA and with the congressional that I'm sure we'll get again because we were approved for that for last year before it got swept. Um, we have another million dollar grant that we're working on trying to get as well. So, we'll at the end of the day, we are hoping that all of ours will come out of a grant slash very low maintenance or low interest loan. Um, at this point at the meeting, Crit has not applied for any grants. They haven't um I know council was meeting I I believe the next day um to to do some business with that. I have not heard how that has worked out. Um the um manager of joint venture Aaron

has turned in his resignation and his last day was last week. So, they've appointed a um temporary manager. Um, and little Sarah is working her heart out over there trying to get everything accomplished that she can. Um, I know that Christina has been trying um her best to get a hold of their attorney. Um, so WIFA's attorney, Christina, and the joint ventures attorney can all discuss the contracts. um we haven't had much success in getting in touch with him. Um Sarah is working on that as well. So that's kind of where we stand with that.

So the anticipated total cost to us is $7 million. Is that what I'm hearing? So the total That's what you're hearing. The total project is it closer to 14 million. It's closer to 19. 19. Yeah. So we're assuming that we're not going to be that they're taking a larger No. will probably we may be way off track here, but I think that's their vision of what based on the breakdown, that's how much we should be paying. That doesn't mean the other entity is going to go, "Yeah, you're right. We'll just we'll just do that." They might just want to do a 50/50. And there may be a point where we just have to suck it up, do that to get it done. Absolutely. you know, to try to just get the project finished. But,

uh, but getting this WIFFA thing going and that will get the project at least started. Um, and that's yeah, what we need right now, engineering and stuff, isn't the congressional grants, I think, due next week. Yes, at the very end of next week. Yes. And meanwhile, their permits are still pulled for Head Start and everything, right? They can't connect Head Start or anything. They cannot connect Head Start.

Um, we were given the ability to um hook three small um projects up to the sewer. Um, so there was a a home down on Fifth, I believe. Um, and then there's another one over on the other end other side of town, which is on a lot she was able to hook. And then Bob Longo's building was able to hook. So, the bugs are getting worked out. Um, we just hope every day that, you know, the other tank doesn't go down. Small small projects.

Okay. Okay. Any other llays on reports? Anything? Um announcements? Wednesday, April 16th, joint venture meeting. That's tomorrow. Yeah. Uh they switched it to Okay. Second Tuesday or second Wednesdays. Oh, so it was last week. Yeah. Okay. Thursday the 17th, the chamber mixer at the Pirates Den 5:30. Friday is the um Colorado River Services annual sexual assault awareness walk. Is that takeoff? Oh, it takes off from the splash pad. And at that same time, is isn't that the APS thing or is that next Friday?

No, it's the Okay. Next Friday at 10 a.m. All right. So, that walk is at 5:30 at the splash pad. Saturday is the uh egg extravaganza 10 a.m. at Western Park. Friday the 25th is the tree planting ceremony at Western Park. Um to be determined. I thought it said 10 nine or 10ish. 10. Okay. Monday the 28th, streets and traffic. And then Tuesday, May 6, next regular council meeting. This meeting's adjourned. Thanks, Christina. I can see