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Enjoying Summer Activities in Chino Valley

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Happy summer to everyone! The summer months bring a lot of activity and a lot of opportunities in our area.

From a recreation standpoint, the town is gearing up for its Fourth of July celebration. It is being held at the town’s community center from 4-8 p.m. There will be rides and activities for the children, along with free swimming at the Aquatics Center. We will have a live band, a beer garden and, currently, we are scheduled to have fireworks at dusk (approximately 9 p.m.). The last couple of years have been cancelled because of the fire danger, but we’re hopeful this year will prove different.

In May, the Chino Grinder wrapped up its off-road race, stretching across 100 miles for the longest event. This was the Grinder’s sixth year with more than 450 riders. The Grinder is getting a reputation as a difficult and challenging off-road race for the few tough enough to give it a try.

The Chino Valley Equestrian Association is busy with its activities at Old Home Manor. The town has a long-term lease with the equestrian group and supports its activities. The organization has been around for a little over three years and has really grown in the number of activities it offers for horse enthusiasts on 80 acres off of east Perkinsville Road.

The Chino Valley Mud Run is only a month out and then we gear up for our Annual Territorial Days, celebrating Chino Valley as the first Territorial Capital during the Labor Day weekend.

We’ve recently wrapped up both our budget and our special election. Although neither of our ballot measures passed in our special election, we don’t consider them failures. We specifically went to our voters to ask them about funding a road maintenance program because the amount of feedback we had received in our community outreach efforts regarding the condition of our roads warranted that we ask our citizens to participate in the solution. Overwhelmingly, we were told they don’t support a property tax to fund a road maintenance program. Our goal was to hear from our citizens, and we did.

We don’t have a solution for our road maintenance. With 153 miles of roads and less than $1 million in Highway User Funds for our roads program, it is impossible to keep up. Although we felt the maintenance plan was reasonable and fairly cost-effective, the amount of misinformation and lack of participation in our public meetings to learn the facts eventually became too much to overcome. Social media proved to be an obstacle that was difficult to stay on top of, and conversations in that venue were mainly non-factual and sometimes off topic and personal. I’m not sure how many people use social media as their news source, but if our election is any indication, it was probably more than we gave credit.

As for the other ballot measure having to do with purchasing water companies, that result was disappointing, too. It was obvious from our community outreach that many people in Chino Valley do not understand water and believe the town sold its water rights to the City of Prescott.

Although the town never sold its water rights and is not an assured water provider, the community seemed to think that the mere purchase of other water companies would lead to unfettered growth, which is simply not possible based on our water portfolio. The outcome will mainly hurt in our ability to expand from an economic development standpoint – making development more challenging, causing the town to come up with even more creative solutions for infrastructure in strategic areas.

One thing I’ve learned from this election and all the conversations I’ve had with the community is there is a deep distrust of government at all levels. Plus, we seem to be more on the rise of takers and not givers. Many people seemed to think we will come up with solutions by ourselves, but we are all a part of a community and the solutions should be agreed-upon by our constituents, not just by elected officials and town staff.

The sense of community and feeling an obligation to your community has diminished. Although at some level this is disappointing, I am heartened by the many good people I have met who came to our community meetings with an open mind and a sense of duty. All is not lost! QCBN

By Darryl Croft

Chino Valley Mayor Darryl Croft is in his second year as mayor and previously was a council member.

Planning for Growth in Chino Valley

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Happy spring to all. Most municipalities are working on budgets right now and endeavoring to be as responsive to their citizens as possible in their fiscal year. The Chino Valley Town Council met recently in a retreat to discuss our priorities in the next year as well as for the next several years.

The challenges we face with our infrastructure have been much discussed – the town has five different water companies within our corporate boundaries, and our wastewater treatment plant was just built in the last decade. Lack of infrastructure in some key commercial areas has made robust economic development growth complicated and, in some cases, impossible. However, this dynamic won’t change by itself, and the council is committed to begin incrementally working on our infrastructure shortfalls. We will need to take several approaches to begin tackling this, but our future will make it necessary.

As we continue to grow, our citizens will demand closer access to services and retail, and it will be necessary for the town to grow both its retail base and job base to sustain the community. Planning for the growth will be better than just having it happen to us.

The focus areas that developed from our Strategic Planning Retreat remain constant with what we developed last year, and they continue to be the following: Water/Water Companies; Old Home Manor Industrial Park/Jobs; Roads/Maintenance and Funding; Infrastructure and Town Utilities; Maintaining a Rural Community and a Business-Friendly Environment.

Some of the specific action items that have been identified with respect to our focus areas include the extension of sewer or water in high density areas or in commercial areas. We have an opportunity with our Business Park at Old Home Manor to offer land to potential employers. But the employers are going to want more than just raw land, and that takes money. We were fortunate with federal grants to get utilities to the lot line of our 200 acres, but we will need to prepare about a half-dozen sites so they are ready for future employers and we can build momentum from there. Our Utility Committee members will develop a scope they consider reasonable and will bring it forward to our council for consideration of costs and level of improvements.

The town has recently hired an economic development project manager, and this person will help us create a strategic plan for our business park and identify the types of businesses or industries that might be a good fit for our community. But the business park must be ready to accept them.

As you might recall from a previous article, the town has proposed a Roads Maintenance Program to be funded by a property tax. Should this initiative pass with the voters on May 21, our road infrastructure should begin to improve, enhancing economic development and helping to maintain property values. Thus, it hits another of our focus areas and also continues to emphasize town infrastructure.

The town has many demands for development, much like our surrounding communities. We will continue to try and maintain the rural lifestyle, providing one-acre lots as much as possible, but the pressures are ever-present and difficult to accommodate. The more infrastructure we have for water, sewer and roads, helps any growth to be more responsible and less impactful upon our neighbors. We are transitioning from five-acre parcels to somewhat smaller lot, and impact on our neighbors becomes more prevalent.

Investment in infrastructure by this council will one day be considered forward-thinking and responsible. We have some work in front of us! QCBN

By Darryl Croft

Chino Valley Mayor Darryl Croft is in his second year as mayor and previously was a council member.

Keeping Chino Valley Clean

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In the last couple of years, I have worked diligently to reach out to citizens and hear their concerns for our community, Chino Valley. I have heard from people one-on-one, sometimes in group meetings, sometimes at a committee level, often at council meetings, and sometimes in targeted community outreach where I make myself available and have no topic or agenda, just schedule time to listen to what people have to say.

One of the items that continues to come up is cleaning up the town. With 64 square miles and one code compliance officer, the town was challenged to keep things tidy. It seemed the biggest complaints were weeds (especially after a big rain), abandoned vehicles and businesses that were storing things outdoors.

To that end, the council decided last year to fund an additional code compliance officer who could help develop a clean-up campaign and provide the additional manpower needed to communicate with our residents, businesses and community organizations as well as perform follow-up work.

The clean-up campaign has begun! And, Chino Valley is looking nice! We have split the campaign into two categories: commercial properties located along Highway 89 and residential properties. We are using two taglines with respect to the campaign.

“Keeping Chino Valley Business Friendly,” is the campaign to clean up commercial properties along Highway 89. The major areas of focus will be weeds, outdoor storage, outdoor sales, screening and car sales. The town will be working on voluntary compliance, attempting to work with the property owners to voluntarily clean up their properties. The compliance officer will try to meet directly with the property owner to explain possible violations, the code compliance process and council’s initiative to clean up our community. Only if the compliance officer is unable to get the property owner to work with him to clean up his property will we begin the compliance and citation process. We want a citation to be the last resort.

The second focus area of compliance is on residential property, titled “Be a Good Neighbor.” On the residential side, the town will be focusing on weeds, trash and debris around residences, inoperable and abandoned vehicles, fencing and exterior maintenance. This campaign will be segregated into eight sections within the town. Compliance officers will send out letters in advance and will leave “Friendly Reminders” as door hangers regarding violations after inspections are made. Again, only as a last resort will we begin the compliance and citation process in effort to gain the compliance requested by our citizens.

This community belongs to all of us and we all have a responsibility to maintain it. We hope this approach with our community is effective and maintains or enhances your community pride. At some point, we would like to see more community involvement when it comes to cleaning up public rights-of-way.

Highway 89, running down the center of town, is under the jurisdiction of the state (ADOT), and representatives have been trying to participate with resources when they can. For instance, in the last year they have worked on repairing and fixing sidewalks along the highway that had buckled or heaved. The roundabouts through town have a tendency to collect silt and other debris because of their curves. After speaking with the folks at ADOT, they have agreed to try and sweep Highway 89 and the roundabouts more frequently. The cleanliness of the town is important to people and businesses who want to relocate here, as well as our current residents.

If you have a code compliance question, complaint, or suggestion, you may call 928-636-4427. QCBN

By Darryl Croft

Darryl Croft is the mayor of Chino Valley.

 

 

Voters Deciding Whether Chino Valley Can Buy a Water Company

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 As I mentioned in my last column, the Town of Chino Valley will be focusing on several initiatives in 2019 and we are excited about what some of these initiatives will mean for our community. Two of these initiatives will be voted on by our citizens in a May mail-in ballot.

Last month, I wrote about the Road Maintenance Program the Town is proposing, which would be funded by a property tax. This month, I will speak about the second ballot item, the ability to purchase water utility companies within our corporate boundary. This is a separate ballot item from the Road Maintenance Program and has no cost to the taxpayer.

Obviously, water is always an important topic in this area. Each community, the entire region and the state endeavors to manage water on some level. Many people don’t know this, but in the Town of Chino Valley, there are three private water companies and one municipal water company, in addition to the town’s water utility system. One of the town’s biggest challenges for economic development is the lack of infrastructure in strategic places within the town to foster economic growth.

With several different water companies and the town being fairly new to the utility business (we started water and sewer in the last 15 years), the ability to serve potential commercial businesses along the highway is challenging. Most businesses are interested in locating close to Highway 89, which runs down the center of our community. Most businesses also desire, some even require, to be on a municipal utility system. Most corporations do not want the risk that an exempt well might present; their business model might require municipal utilities. If the town does not have utilities close to its desired location, there is no guarantee that another utility will or can serve it. 

Chino Valley recognizes that if it were able to purchase any of the four other water companies within our corporate boundaries, we would be able to interconnect the system with the town’s and grow our infrastructure footprint. We would then be able to service commercial development through our service area correctly, as the town is not a designated water provider. We would also be able to provide fire flow, which could save a substantial amount of investment for a commercial building. Furthermore, several of the water utilities within the town have expressed an interest in selling their water system as the principal owner ages. Often, the family has no desire to or competence in running a utility and may want sell the asset.

Although this doesn’t sound complicated – someone wants to sell and the town wants to buy – it isn’t quite that simple. In 2014, there was a Supreme Court case between the Town of Marana and Pima County regarding the sewer system and the ability for the Town of Marana to serve its citizens. The county had established a sewer system before Marana had incorporated, and over time the Town of Marana knew it was in the citizens’ best interest to own and operate its own utilities. Although Marana ultimately prevailed, one of the steps that had to be performed was to ask citizens for express permission to purchase a utility within the corporate boundaries. 

Therefore, our ballot measure will be expressly asking our citizens for permission to purchase any of the utility companies within our corporate boundaries, should any of the companies be in a position to sell. 

The companies the town is considering include:

Wilhoit Water Company

Appaloosa Water Company

Chino Meadows II Water Company

City of Prescott water distribution lines

The town has had an outside firm perform appraisals on all the water companies and would be required to make a reasonable offer based on the formal appraisal. If the utility company were to sell to the Town of Chino Valley, we would likely borrow money from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) for a low-interest loan. The appraisals we have had performed all demonstrate that, using the town’s current rate schedule for our water system, the loan would be paid back by the ratepayers, who would be paying the same rates as other Chino Valley water customers. In most cases, these rates are lower than what the customers are currently paying. Put simply, the purchases all pencil out from a business standpoint.

Another important consideration is the fact that should a water utility want to sell to the town, whether it is the heir of a current system or the current owner, the town would not be able to purchase without permission from the voters. This may leave current customers and companies in a challenging position. The town would likely step in and help operate a water utility if it were an emergency, but would not be able to make any capital improvements or interconnects until there was assurance that it would become a town asset. For that, we need voter approval.

Chino Valley’s Town Council considers this ballot initiative to be more of a housekeeping item to ensure we have the authority if the opportunity arises to purchase a water utility. As mentioned, we understand the need to grow our infrastructure footprint from an economic development standpoint, and know it is necessary for our continued and managed growth. The most cost-effective way is to interconnect with other water utilities that are more strategically placed in areas where commercial development is more likely. As the town’s motto states, “Looking to the Future,” we feel this is a reasonable and responsible initiative. QCBN

By Darryl Croft

Darryl Croft is the mayor of Chino Valley.  

Paying for Chino Valley Road Maintenance

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Happy New Year! I wish all in our community a prosperous and healthy year. 

The Town of Chino Valley has several initiatives it will be focusing on in 2019, and in today’s column, I’ll share one that I believe to be critical to economic development, property values and public safety. When I was elected as mayor more than two years ago, I participated in open community outreach sessions with Town Manager Cecilia Grittman. When we talked with our citizens about their concerns for our community, one of the main items that continued to come up was the condition of the town’s roads.

The Town of Chino Valley receives approximately $1 million a year from Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF) from the state. These funds come primarily from gas taxes. They have decreased through the years as the state struggles to fund the Arizona Department of Public Safety and its unfunded pension liability. Once the town pays for materials for the roads, equipment upkeep and road department salaries, we have approximately $400,000 left to put in our chip-seal program. 

Chino Valley has about 153 miles of roads; with $400,000 a year for chip sealing, we are only able to maintain about 3.5 miles a year. This calculates to almost 50 years for the town to complete a rotation on all roads within our corporate boundaries. A solid road maintenance program should have a chip seal rotation closer to seven years. 

The town’s Roads and Streets Committee, comprised of two Chino Valley Town Council members and five citizens who have road maintenance experience, has assisted in creating a road maintenance program that meets the seven-year rotation. Funding for this type of program then became the challenge. To fund a road maintenance program that treats every road at least once every seven years equates to $1.9 million a year. If we account for the HURF funding received, we are approximately $1.5 million short annually to successfully maintain our roads. 

After exploring different funding mechanisms: sales tax increase, bonds, etc., the committee felt the best mechanism is a property tax. Chino Valley incorporated in 1970 and has never had a property tax. We will be asking the voters to approve a property tax that would levy $1.5 million a year to fund a Road Maintenance Program. The money would be restricted and accounted for in a separate fund, which will be audited annually by independent auditors to ensure all funds are used for the program. We will also sunset the tax in 20 years, allowing voters to monitor progress and see that the money is invested as approved.

What does this mean to our taxpayers? To calculate what this means to you as a taxpayer, take the assessed value of your home (which is about 50 percent of the market value) and multiply it by 10 percent. That figure is the net assessed value. If you take the net assessed value. Multiply it by 1.97 percent, you will get the annual tax. The average amount for a $200,000 home would be $197 a year; less than a dollar a day. Commercial properties use the same formula, except the assessment is 18 percent, not 10 percent. 

The Town Council and I feel this is a responsible and reasonable way to fund our roads, and hope you support it. The mail-in election will be held in May. I am available to answer additional questions or speak to any neighborhood group or association. Please contact our Town Hall at 928-636-2646.

Again, I wish you a happy and healthy 2019. QCBN

By Darryl Croft  

Darryl Croft is the mayor of Chino Valley.  

April 19th, Watters Hosts Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Mixer

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Local business owners or those Interested in finding more about the Chino Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and local business initiatives are invited to their next business Mixer on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 from 5-6:30pm. The event will be held at Watters Garden Center, 1815 Iron Springs Road in Prescott.

Watters Garden Center is a locally owned nursery that specializes in providing avid gardeners and novices alike with the expertise and products to get things growing in the mountains of Arizona.  The Quad City Business Newspaper is co-hosting this event and serves the region with news about local business, healthcare, and education.

Featured Non-Profits will be The Rotary Clubs ‘Grapes 4 Grades’math and reading clinic and the Chino Valley Boys and Girls Club of Arizona.  Some exciting news will be shared at the evening mixer.

Chino Valley Area Chamber of Commerce is a local business coalition and nonprofit organization. It works locally to create a stronger economy, build vibrant communities and produce better local job opportunities. This event is an opportunity to meet and connect with existing members, as well build a stronger network of local, independent businesses in the region.