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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/05/1995 Regular Council Meeting MinutesPLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall December 5, 1995 L CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Honea at 7:05 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Honea III. INVOCATION Led by Mayor Honea IV. ROLL CALL COUNCIL Ed Honca Sharon Price Tom Clark Ora Mae Ham Sherry Mlllner Herb Kai Eobby Sutton Jr. Mayor Vice-Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member STAFF Hurvie Davis Dan Hochuli Sandra Groseclose Jerry Flannery Roy Cuaron Dave Atler Brad DeBpain Doug Maples Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Planning Administrator Finance Director Town Engineer Utilities Director Building Official 18 Members of the Public V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve the agenda as written. VI. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES A motion was made by Sherry Millner, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of November 21, 1995. VII. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Karen Berry, 14152 W. Hiram Dr. Marana, AZ: She would like to discuss the issue of Silverbell Road. This road situation has been a problem for several years and has been brought up numerous times and nothing has ever been done. It is very dangerous and there have been accidents. Mary Stokes, 14162 W. Hiram Dr. Maraua, AZ: She wants to get something done about Silverbell Road. She moved in seventeen years ago and she never had asthma until then. Somebody is going to get killed on that road. Arleen Baker, 12405 N. Insun, Marana, AZ: She goes down SilverbeU Road at least two or three times a day. It is a very dangerous road, somebody is going to get hurt or killed on that road. It is time something is done. Dave Atler, Town Engineer: Mr. Atler introduced Harvey Gill who is the Town's new Senior Engineering Technician. He has many years of experience and comes to us from Oro Valley. Sandy Groseclose: Mrs. Groseclose introduced Diane Mangialardi a new clerk for the Town. Bobby Sutton: We are trying to get the businesses that are in the Ina/Thornydale area and everything in the Marana Town limits into the white pages for Marana. Ora Harn: Santa Land is coming up again this year. It will be held in front of the stores on Sandario Road. A lot of the proceeds as well as gifts for the children will go to the Marana Community Food Bank. We are asking that people support this effort. VIII. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS A. Public Meeting - Community Development Block Grants [CDBG} Preliminary Discussion on Process and Projects for 1996. Hurvie Davis: This meeting is set up to receive input from the Public, it's not really set up as a formalized public hearing. It is an opportunity for the public to give input to the Council regarding the Community Development Block Grant Program. The CDBG Program is a good program for Marana, we get around $250,000.00 each year from CDBG funds. Dan Groseclose, the CDBG Coordinator is here this evening to give the Council a brief update. Dan Groseclose: Since 1987 the Town of Marana has received over $1,738,000.00 in CDBG Grants. Thc funds that we are looking at for the 1996 program will be available any where from November or December of 1996. Some of the programs that have already been suggested to him either through the first public meeting or in conversations with citizens, they range from fire equipment/station, senior citizens program and a senior citizens drug prescription program. We have been requested to make a room addition at the Park Recreation Center and also make improvements inside the Center. Another program that has been discussed is possibly a program to fund an administrator for public services of some type, this would include the Park and Recreation Programs. We have developed a three page cover sheet to go with all applications. For an activity to be eligible under the CDBG Program it must meet one of three criteria. The first criteria is that it benefit low and moderate income persons. Before the Town can make any approval of a CDBG program we have to identify that greater than 51% of the population will receive a benefit from that program. The second way the CDBG program would be eligible is to aid in the prevention of slum and blight. The Council would have to act on that first because to his knowledge there are no areas in Marana that have been designated as slums or blight. That portion would not be an eligible CDBG activity until and if the Town did so designate an area. The third area is to meet other community development needs posing a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community, And where other financial resources are not available to meet such needs. As you can see the CDBG Program itself can be built in a very wide range. Ora Ham: Regarding Silverbell Road which was discussed during the Call to the Public earlier this evening. Silverbell Road would probably qualify for all the categories for CDBG funds. She would like to know if Mr. Groseclose could look into that. We are allowed to do some roads if they meet the criteria for CDBG funds. B. Resolution No. 95-67 - Approval of the sale to Jones Cable Holdings~ Inc. the cable system serving the Town of Marana and \Intercable's Rights and Obligations under the Town of Marana's Cable Television Franchise. Hurvie Davis: Mr. Hochuli~s staff has done the research on this issue. Dan Hochuli: Resolution No. 95-(57 allows the transfer of the cable license pursuant to the Town's cable Ordinance. Any cable companies need to be licensed by the Town. Some years ago we licensed Jones Intercable Inc. to be a cable provider in the Town. They would like to transfer that to an entity known as Jones Cable Holdings Inc. We have looked into it trying to find any adverse reason that the Town would not want to grant the transfer and we can find none. We contacted one other community where Jones Intercable provides service, they also looked into it and have found no reason not to grant the request. A motion was made by Sharon Price, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 95-67 approving and authorizing the transfer by Jones Intercable, Inc. to Jones Cable Holdings, Inc., the cable system serving the Town of Marana. C. Town of Marana and Marana Unified School District - Discussion for setting a Joint Meeting on the impact of development and growth on the Town and School District. Hurvie Davis: We were recently talking about ~rowth, development and impact in the area. The issue of the impact on the schools came up and it was requested on a future agenda. He has been in contact with the Marana Schools Superintendent on this subject several times. Mr. McLean is going to talk to the Board and see about establishing a joint meeting if the Council so desires. The School District said the way they build schools is when the demand is there, the actual demand is there, then they build the schools. He assured Superintendent McLean that the Town is interested in working together with the School District. They are looking at building a elementary school in Continental Ranch soon, it looks like roughly a $10,000,000.00 facility. The building and permit fees for that facility would be $53,417.00 approx/mately. If we look at the direct expense that the Town would incur, we estimate approximately $20,000.00 would be our direct cost. If we could cut down our fee some what and just charge the out of pocket that would help. Mayor Honea: Mayor Honea would like to check into possibly holding the meeting with the School Board the first available Tuesday in February. Ora Ham: One of the things that is happening with schools districts is that the State is cutting funding for schools more and more. The Town wants to help where they can but one of the things they have to look at is schools have always been more or less supported by State funding. To see the State pulling their funding back really puts the schools into looking to the Town or the County or somebody for help. Mayor Honea: We've done two joint programs with the School. We had an auction in which the school and the Town held jointly. There are other things like that where we have been able to work together. Hnrvie Davis: Mr. Atler and Mr. Davis have a meeting with Mr. McLean and some of his staff on Friday. We are going to talk about Lon Adams Road, Mr. McLean has talked to Mr. Davis about funds he has which could possibly be used. These funds are available to enhance the appearance of the schools as well as to increase safety for the students. He would like to work with us with that federal money that he has in doing something with Lon Adams Road and perhaps Grief Road when we get to that point. We have an excellent working relationship going with the School District, and it can grow into bigger things. Joe Murray, 3230 W. Hardy Tucson, AZ: Mr. Murray talked about the problems the schools are having with overcrowding. It is very important to educate the youth. He would like to see a stop to rezonings. Everybody thinks that by building more homes and bringing more people here it's going to help the schools because the schools will get more money. This is not true, he knows that from talking to Mr. McLean and from attending School Board meetings. The more people you put into the problem the bigger the problem gets. Carol Duffner, 3910 W. Potvin Tucson, AZ: She is not a resident of Marana but her son attends school in the Marana District. It is very important to responsibly plan for the future of the Town's growth. And make sure that it does not negatively impact the school system in the future. We need to work hand in hand with the schools systems so it will be a win win situation for everyone. Eva Grove, 13735 N. Jarvis Ct. Marana, AZ: There are programs that are being funded through the Marana School District that she disagrees with. The government starts these programs and then require the schools to continue with them at their own expense. D. Fire Protection Proposals - Update on efforts to provide fire protection services to the Town of Marana. Hurvie Davis: This item is on the Agenda as an update and for the Council to provide Staff with further direction. We will be receiving the proposals from the fire agencies on December 8, 1995. Included in the Council's packet this evening is the request for proposal that the Town went out to the various fire agencies with. We had a pre-proposal conference a couple of weeks ago and we had five fire provider agencies here, Avra Valley, Flowing Wells, Northwest, Picture Rocks and Rural Metro. He is not sure that all of them will submit proposals, but they all attended the conference. We are going to get a number of proposals back and we will open bids on December 8, 1995. Staff will review those bids and they will be brought back to the Council. We have tried to send out and RFP that would give some creativity and so forth to the fire service providers. Hopefully we will get something back that we can afford and will satisfy the need. We need to move forward to serve the entire Community as it grows. E. Appointment to Planning and Zoning Commission. Hurvie Davis: We have a vacancy on the Planning Commission created by the resignation of Viola Golden. There are three individuals who have indicated an interest in filling this position, Mr. Bill Schisler, Mike Reuwsaat and Patti Comerford. Mayor Honea: Staff is working on getting together some policies for appointments to committees in the Town. The Planning Commission is one of the most important commissions we have. In the past it was done where the Mayor came up with the name of an individual and submitted it to the Council to get approval. His recommendation is to appointed Patti Comerford to the Planning Commission. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: We had previously appointed Patti Comerford to the Planning Commission based on what we thought at the time was a resignation, which was subsequently recalled. He is also in favor of the Mayor's recommendation. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Bobby Sutton, Jr. and carried unanimously to appoint Patti Comerford to fill the vacancy on the Planning Commission made by the resignation of Viola Golden. F. Parking Along Irrigation Ditch between Park and Barnett Road - Discussion and direction to Staff. Hurvie Davis: This issue is back before Council again, it was before Council some months ago where Staff was directed to close off the access to the Park on the Barnett Road side. We proceeded to do this. Mr. Kern notified the primary user of the Park, Marana Little League. There has been some concern over this being done. The reason for this being done was for the safety factor, cars were parking on both sides of the irrigation ditch. We took that action to close the road and it was asked to be put back on the Agenda for this evening. Mr. Atler has been looking into some alternatives to this issue. We need to look at the parking needs for the Park as well as the Town Hall. Dave Atler: He has done some research on the area and talked with Council Member Clark on this issue. The concern is to try and keep the children out of the irrigation ditch and keep the area safe. The only other thing that we could do is to design new parking on the east and west ends of the Park. One of the things that we are looking is possibly putting some parking on the other side of the street. We have determined about what size we would need and that would provide more parking for the Park area. Hurvie Davis: Within the past year we expanded the parking availability at the Park, we opened up a large area by the Recreation Center. The problem is that people like to take the shortest path, to park as close to the ball fields as possible. One of the problems that we have is that the main ramada is in the middle of the Park and the parking areas are some what remote. We have been looking at possibly finding some way where we can get parking more centrally located to that main ramada. When we do that perhaps we could get it closer to the ball fields as well. Tom Clark: He has become concerned over the last several years. There has been more and more parking on Cortaro's easement, which is private property. He is concerned over the safety issue with children near that irrigation ditch. We talked to Mr. DeSpain and it is not up to Cortaro to put that canal underground and even if it was it is still private property. We need to do something. Hurvie Davis: If Council would like Staff can go back and look at some alternatives and come back to the Council. Herb Kai: He thinks maybe the Town should look into possibly covering the canal. If the Town could look into funding and closing that canal and covering it up. The only problem involved there would be when you do cover that canal up traffic will probably be driving on top of the canal. We would either have to keep traffic off of it or construct it where it would be strong enough to handle traffic. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: If we put something on top of it to allow people to go over it we assume liability for that. Dan Hochuli: The greatest liability is the Town Park being directly adjacent to an open irrigation canal. If we were to cover it, it would certainly decrease the exposure for Cortaro and the Town. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: He likes the idea of covering it. Tom Clark: In the end that is probably the best solution possible, but what about in the mean time. Mayor Honea: One of the reasons we closed that was not just the canal but people coming both ways and kids running bet~veen cars. Even if we covered the canal, the idea to park at an angle would probably still be a good thing to do. If we just put parking stones there we may not have to pave and stripe it. Dave Atler: The Engineering Department can look into several different options on closing in the culvert. Ora Harn: When we start to do Lon Adams Road we're going to have to do something to take out that hook at the end of the road, we may also have to broaden the entrance as well. It might be a good thing to look at what we need to do about the culvert now. Mayor Honea: This is possibly something we could do in conjunction with the School District. Tom Clark: He likes the idea of allowing people to park at an angle, putting in parking barriers and moving the cable in to allow them to back out with more room. G. Resolution No. 95-66 - Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the Town of Marana and Pima County for Joint Administration and Funding of an Asphalt Overlay on 3.2 miles of Tangerine Road; Maximum cost $105,000.00. Hurvie Davis: Some months ago Council approved the transfer of $200,000.00 to overlay Tangerine Road. In proceeding with that project we found out that half of the roadway is in the County and half is in the Town. We further found out that the north half of the roadway which is in the County is not even public right of way, the County has some kind of long term lease or something for that as an easement. Mr. Atler has been working with the County on this issue. The County has agreed to fund half of the overlay project, they will do this through the contractor that they have on a continuing basis. As a result of that, it can be done much cheaper, so we're looking at a cost of $105.000.00 to do that roadway. The IGA commits us up to $55,000.00 on the project. We would recommend Council's approval of Resolution No. 95-6§ to allow us to enter into the IGA with Pima County. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 95-66 authorizing the Town to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the P/ma County Department of transportation relating to the shared cost of overlaying approximately 3 miles of Tangerine Road. H. Town Motto - Discussion of a Motto for the Town of Marana. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: We received about 30 -40 suggestions, ali of them were good. We do not want to be to quick in selecting a motto because it is going to be something that will stick with the Town for a long time. We have decided to form au initial committee to get this contest going. We are going to lay it all out, with a press release and do it the way it should have been done in the first place. This committee will be put together next week. I. Executive Session - Pursuant to A.R.S. Section 38-431.03 (A) (4) for discussion and consultation with the Town Attorneys in order to consider the Town*s position and instruct its attorneys re~ardine Marana's position in the pendine liti~iation "Marana v. Li'l Abner's" A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Herb Kai and carried unanimously to go into Executive Session. Council returns from Executive Session at 8:53 pm. J. Reallocation of Funds from the Surplus Reserve Account for advancing traffic safety improvements at Interstate 10 and Cortaro Road in cooperation with the Arizona Department of Transportation. Hurvie Davis: At the last Council meeting a rezoning was addressed in the general area of 1-10 and Cortaro Road. At that time the Council expressed a considerable concern about the existing traffic problems at that interchange. Since that meeting he has been working with the State Department of transportation on that interchange. As a result of the Council's about the existing and future traffics problems, he had some discussions with the ADOT staff. He also had discussions with the Mayor, Council Members and developers. The Tucson office has requested $4,000,000.00 to make improvements to that interchange. They are pretty confident that the funds will be approved, but they are not exactly sure as to when. They said if there was some way to advance some money for a partial solution, they would be willing to expedite that in any way that they can. What we are proposing is to advance the Department of transportation $1.4 million to move to improve the west side of the interstate, the frontage road and the ramps. He has a traffic report that was prepared on the interchange in July of 1994, and the traffic has increased considerable since then. The summary of the report is that it is concluded that 3 of the 4 intersections meet traffic signal warrants. The frontage road on the west side, the east bound on and off ramps which are on the west side of the interstate. And on the east side of the interstate it would be the west bound on and off ramps. From 4:30 to 5:30, 73% of the traffic coming off of that ramp in the west bound direction is turning right on Cortaro Farms Road and going east. 27% are turning left and 0% went straight through. We are recommending that we advance $1.4 million to the State Department of Transportation, $1,000,000.00 coming from the Town of Marana and $300,000.00 from Southwest Value Partners/Ranch Holdings. In our negotiations on this with the private sector we were selling on the factor that in his discussions with ADOT, they said that if we could advance the money to them to get the work done early on, we will reimburse you when the money does come up in the five year program. We proceeded on that basis. He is excited about this as well as ADOT. They have assured Mr. Davis that they will move quickly on this. There is a meeting set up the first of the week with ADOT and the developers. The developer on the west side will contribute the right of way. He appreciates all of the guidance and leadership and support that we have done on this. Herb Kai: He would like an update on the Linda Vista cloverleaf that he believes is on the General Plan. Is there any commitment to do that. Hurvie Davis: Not at this time, there are no commitments to advance that project. It is an excellent project to put in place, it would relieve some of the pressure on Cortaro Road that we have today. Within the past year we came to the Council and identified a number of projects that we would request 15% funding for. That was the funding that was originally identified for Tangerine Road that the City used $150 million of for Aviation Parkway and so forth. This project is basically finished, at least the programming of the funds. The interchange at Linda Vista and Twin Peaks is an ideal candidate for these funds, the County would probably support it. Herb Kai: Would 15% Fund also fund the crossing at the Santa Cruz River and also Twin Peaks to the west or is that the developers function to bring that road through. Hurvie Davis: He thinks it is the developers responsibility. Primarily because it serves Continental Ranch. We have been searching the files and cannot find any agreement that the developer would pay for that improvement. A motion was made by Sherry Miilner, seconded by Ora Harn and carried unanimously to approve actions in order to advance traffic safety improvements at 1-10 and Cortaro Road in conjunction with ADOT, Southwest Value Partners/Ranch Holdings and El Dorado Holdings. K. M-AYOR~S REPORT Mayor Honea: He has spent about 40 hours in the last week talking with E1 Dorado Holdings, Ranch Holdings and others, they have been working together and believes that they have put together a good project that will be brought up for reconsideration. L. TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT Hurvie Davis: Over the past couple weeks he has also been working on the same issue that the Mayor has. Mr. Davis attended a luncheon with Council Member Ham, hosted by the City of Tucson to discuss the legislative agenda coming up. A big issue was tax equity for Pima County. It was a very positive meeting. On November 29, 1995 Mr. Davis and the Mayor met with Mayor Miller and other jurisdictions to talk about the same issue~ tax equity. Mayor Honea talked about the relationship that Marana has had with Oro Valley over the years. He met with the Sportspark representatives and they discussed the July 4th event and various other types of attractions for the complex in the future. Ora Harn: The Air Guard will be holding their national softball tournament at the Marana Park. She would like for Marana to have something that the Town could give to the winner of the tournament. IX. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Mayor Honea: He would llke to have some discussions on Silverbell Road near MTC, to talk about dust control. Ora Ham: She would like to start thinking about what we can do to get Marana involved on the Internet. We could contact Jones Intercable and find out ii' they have some way to help get this done. X. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Tom Clark, seconded by Herb Kal and carried unanimously to adjourn. TIME: 9:28 p.m. AUDIO TAPF-~ OF THE MEETING ARE AVAILABLE AT THE MARANA TOWN HALL CLERK'S OFFICE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of the Marana Town Council held on December 5, 1995. I further certify that a quorum was present.