At a special meeting on Friday, Feb. 8, the Camp Verde Town Council spent hours hearing requests from town staff and others seeking funding for their capital improvement projects from this year’s budget. Representatives from Parks and Recreation, the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office, Public Works, the Camp Verde Library, the Camp Verde Arena Association and others made requests for dozens of projects requiring various amounts of funding from the town’s general fund.
When hearing the many requests, the town council faced limited funds—around $1.5 million out of the total Fiscal Year 2019-2020 budget of $10 million to $11 million to allocate, meaning that many projects will remain unfulfilled this year.
“I love all these people but I can’t feed all their mouths,” Town Manager Russ Martin said at the meeting, reflecting the feelings of council. “These are real projects, soit’s tough.”
Staff members came bearing requests that ranged from simple maintenance, such as chip seal on roads throughout town, to improvements, such as planting new trees at the entrance to town to improve it visually.
Although no funding requests will be officially approved until Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Feb. 8 meeting did allow the council to indicate some priorities. The only essential project for the council to fund was an improvement of information technology systems at the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office, which is required by the FBI to be implemented by 2021. The CVMO has received over $100,000 in grants to pay for the upgrade but the town needs to pay for theremaining funding.
In addition to funding the necessary IT improvements, the council expressed interest in funding other requests from the CVMO, including new radios and vehicles.
The most popular request for the council came from the Camp Verde Arena Association, who is moving forward with its plans for a rodeo arena in Camp Verde. According to the CVAA, the group has already raised $525,360, more than half of its projected total needs for the project over the next two years. It requested about $250,000 from the town per year, and while the council did not commit to that number, they did express their interest in paying for some portion of the request. Martin suggested perhaps paying for the bleachers out of thetown’s funding, since that could have other uses in addition to the arena.
The council also expressed support for certain improvements to the town’s visuals, including improved business signage and monuments on 260 while entering the town.
They also expressed enthusiasm for replacing the heater and pool filter at the Camp Verde Heritage pool, as well as other potential projects.
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
