Cottonwood

Cottonwood council supports AZ League Resolution to reinstate Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund

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[Source: Jon Hutchinson, Verde Independent] – Five members of the Cottonwood City Council are attending the annual conference of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns this week. The annual meeting is in OroValley at the Hilton El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort. The gathering brings together most of Arizona‘s 80-plus cities and towns.

Cottonwood City Manager Doug Bartosh said meetings such as this allow council members to see and learn what other municipalities are doing and to share what Cottonwood is doing, especially when faced with similar issues. They network, return energized, and bring back ideas for Cottonwood, said Bartosh.

The expenses cost the city just over $4,500 for the five council members including food, lodging and the $290 registration fee per person. Ruben Jauregui and Vice Mayor Karen Pfeifer did not attend. Mayor Joens and Jesse Dowling drove city cars. Others were compensated for driving their personal vehicles. There was no car-pooling.

Mayor Diane Joens left early for the conference since she is a member of the Legislative Resolutions Sub-Committee that met early Tuesday afternoon.

Cottonwood Economic Development Coordinator Casey Rooney was scheduled to make a presentation at the conference.

Among the many issues facing conferees are presentations on the Affordable Health Care Act, Wildfire Management, Bridging the Digital Disconnect, Civil Discourse and Conflict Resolution, Destination Marketing and Branding among many others issues.

Resolutions supported by Cottonwood and the Verde Valley

• Ensure the viability of Arizona State Parks and restore the Arizona State Park Heritage Fund, including to allow municipalities to enter into long-term leases of State Parks.

• Allow the final list in a procurement process until a contract for construction is entered into.

Sedona is sponsoring legislations to:

• Restrict trucks in urban areas to the two right-most lanes

• Legislation to restore the Highway User Revenue Fund distribution to cities and towns and to prevent any future sweeps of HURF funds.

 

Finding common bonds: Camp Verde Town Council to look at shared issues

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[Source: Camp Verde Bugle] – At its meeting Wednesday night, the Camp Verde Town Council has a short agenda, with the biggest chunk taken up by proposed resolutions coming before the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Like other municipalities, CampVerde is being asked which resolutions it is supporting.

The Town of Camp Verde is already a co-sponsor on a couple of the resolutions going before the LACT. Of these, the major advocacy is for legislation “to ensure the viability of Arizona State Parks, including but not limited to allowing municipalities to enter into long-term leases of state parks and the restoration of the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund.

Yuma and Sedona are sponsors of the resolution, with CampVerde, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome, Flagstaff, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Somerton, OroValley and Sierra Vista as co-sponsors.

Mayor Charlie German has also suggested that CampVerde join up with Cottonwood and Clarkdale in sponsoring an application to display the art exhibit “A River Runs Thru Us” at the State Capitol in January. That item is also on Wednesday’s agenda.

The exhibit is the product of a Verde Valley Land Preservation outreach effort that sent scores of artists down the Verde River in CampVerde. Their resulting works are now in a mobile exhibit that will be at the MANHEIM GALLERY in Cottonwood until Aug. 25 and then comes to the White Hills Gallery in CampVerde.

VVLP Community Outreach Director Steve Estes said the exhibit was looking for a quality venue in Phoenix when they saw that the ArizonaExecutiveTowers had an opening that month. A municipal sponsorship is a boost to an application.

“I think it would be a wonderful display of regional support for the Verde River if all three communities along the river co-sponsored this exhibit,” Clarkdale Mayor Doug Von Gausig wrote to German and Cottonwood Mayor Diane Joens.

 

State Parks petitions hit the street

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[Source: Steve Ayers, Camp Verde Bugle] – The move to put an initiative on the November ballot that supporters hope will stabilize and sustain Arizona’s 27 state parks, is underway. It is known as the Arizona Natural Resources Protection Act. With five state parks located in the Verde Valley, along with the Verde River Greenway, the initiative is getting plenty of support locally.

“This has everything to do with the value of state parks to the Verde Valley and to Yavapai County,” says Chip Norton, president of the Friends of the Verde River Greenway. “It means a lot to our communities and the opportunities it provides for school kids as well as the residents. The tourism component is really big. The amount of money it brings into the valley is pretty phenomenal. They have been hanging on the edge for too long, forcing local communities to keep them going.” Norton and the friends group launched the petition drive at a meeting last Thursday, at a meeting in Cottonwood.

If the initiative makes the ballot and it passes, it would fund the operations of Arizona State Parks as well as the Heritage Fund, which was also raided by the Legislature, with a $14 donation attached to annual vehicle registration. The charge would be automatically added to the registration cost, but vehicle owners could opt out. Supporters hope it will raise $30 million a year. The initiative protects all money donated to the fund from legislative sweeps and re-establishes the Arizona State Parks grant program, which pays for municipal and nonprofit recreation projects across the state. It also provides for free admission to state parks for school-age children when on school sanctioned field trips and sets aside at least one day every year in which anyone could come to a state park for free.

The initiative was launched by the Arizona State Parks Foundation after House Bill 2362, which overwhelmingly passed both the house and Senate, was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. “We have been watching for some time and realized there was growing support for long-term support and a long term funding mechanism of some sort. So we began forming a coalition,” says ASPF Director Christy Statler. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was the governor’s veto. And no legislator wanted to stick their neck out for a referral to the voters, so we mobilized and are moving forward with the Arizona Natural Resources Act.”

Volunteers will be circulating petitions around the valley over the next few weeks. To get on the ballot, 175,000 signatures will need to be collected statewide by the July 5 deadline.

League of Arizona Cities & Towns Adopts Parks Resolution

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At the 2011 League of Arizona Cities and Towns in Tucson, the Resolutions Committee adopted a State Parks Resolution submitted by: City of Sedona, Town of Payson, Town of Clarkdale, Town of Prescott Valley, City of Kingman, City of Cottonwood, City of Bullhead City, Town of Jerome and Town of Camp Verde.

 The Resolutions are the foundation of the League’s Municipal Policy Statement, which guides the League’s legislative agenda. Go to: Resolution#3.