It was standing room only at the Nov. 7 meeting of the Camp Verde Town Council, with dozens repre- senting Camp Verde Arena Association showing up to push the council to join them in building rodeo grounds on land just east of the future Camp Verde Sports Complex.
Teenagers wearing cowboy hats and large belt buckles abounded, showing off the kind of aesthetic that will accompany this kind of cultural touchstone in town.
“I am so excited for this arena to be in our back yard, for I and so many people who are part of the rodeo community to show off our skills,” said Reagan Warren, a 13-year-old rodeo enthusiast who spoke before the council on Nov. 7. “This is what we love to do. This is our passion.”
In September, the CVAA made its rst presentation before the council, seeking support for their project.
Since then, the group has met with Town Manager Russ Martin, as well as Public Works Director Ron Long, Community Development Manager Carmen Howard and Steve Ayers from the Economic Development of ce, about what the next steps are. They are pushing the town to move as quickly as it can.
“This is a group that has organized quickly and effectively, and has done, from my perspective, every- thing they can do without a lot of resources,” Martin said at the Nov. 7 meeting.
In the past few weeks, the CVAA has successfully incorporated, sought 501(c)(3) nonpro t status from the Internal Revenue Service, and come up with bylaws for its board. The next steps are setting up plans and evaluating what an arena would mean for the town through an economic impact study, drainage report and further preliminary matters.
The CVAA came to the meeting seeking funding for these early stages so that the project can get off the ground and that is what it received.
The council voted 6-1 in favor of allocating up to $80,000 for these preliminary matters. Councilwoman Robin Whatley was the no vote, citing concerns about the budget.
“We all live here, and we want to have a productive successful community in which we live,” Vice Mayor Jessie Murdock said before voting. “I’m ready to invest for our community. But I don’t want it to be a nancial burden.”
The council vote was followed by an enormous round of applause from the supporters in the room.
Martin said he expects that the CVAA will not need to use all $80,000 it has to work with. Jessie Sharp, from Sefton Engineering Consultants, spoke at the meeting about the engineering rm’s desire to help with the project and willingness to donate time for planning pro-bono.
The funding comes from the town budget’s Capital Improvement Fund, which includes money not allo- cated in advance that can be used for projects like this one. Martin and the council expressed support for using these funds for this project, but also concern that in a town with a limited budget this project not take resources away from other town projects.
The town hopes to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the CVAA for the project going forward, allowing the two entities to work together closely as plans develop. Martin hopes a preliminary agreement can be reached in December, but stresses that a full MOU may not be reachable for a few months, once the studies paid for by the allocated funds are complete.
“It’s tough because they’re volunteers trying to work through a government process,” Martin said. “I have to be able to talk with council about the difficulties or the process and budget, all of those legal requirements. And sometimes that’s the part that I think volunteer groups, and frankly people not asso- ciated with government, get really frustrated with government because of. But it’s intended to protect the taxpayer and make sure that these things are done properly.”
“We are pleased with the outcome. We are excited to work with the town of Camp Verde and hopefully get everyone on board,” CVAA President Mary Phelps wrote in an email. “We are currently working on the MOU that we had agreed upon and we’re ready to take those next steps. We are excited to nally make a differ- ence here in the town of Camp Verde and you de nitely won’t see a slow down. We’re going to keep moving forward making sure that the town and the community is with us and we are going to do all the necessary steps correctly and we are going to have a rodeo grounds.”
“We just hope that everyone’s on board, we see everyone at ribbon groundbreaking day in the near future, and that everyone is with us in the grandstands at our grand opening rodeo,” Phelps stated. “We de – nitely don’t want this to go under the rug again. Those [arena] panels are rusted enough, it’s time to put some new paint on them, weld them together and anchor them in the ground for permanent location. We’ll put our cowboy boots on and let’s rodeo.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
