Camp Verde 2025 Year in Review

January

■ Judy McBride and Joe Serreyn presented Rimrock Ranch: From Dudes to Mobsters as part of the Sedona Heritage Museum’s Sedona Stories program on Jan. 9.

■ The second half of Yavapai County District 2 Supervisor James Gregory’s town hall on Jan. 14 at Oak Creek Elementary School dealt primarily with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council approved two memoranda of understanding regarding a purported housing shortage and a commitment to maintaining a healthy Verde River on Jan. 15.

■ Yavapai County District 2 Supervisor and Board Chairman James Gregory [R] announced on Facebook on Jan. 29, that he was resigning after having accepted the position of chief of police in Williams. John Hughes, Camp Verde Mayor Dee Jenkins, Thomas Thurman, Anthony James Utz and Wiley Cline, Gregory’s opponent in the 2024 election, applied to fill his seat.

■ Verde Ranch Estates, a Camp Verde manufactured housing community, has been honored with CRR Hospitality’s Community Service Award at the company’s annual leadership conference in January.

■ Music in the Stacks at the Camp Verde Community Library featured performances by Ed Cooper, Paul Gazda and Bernice Lewis.

February

■ Kat Massey, owner of Rancho Almasomos in Cornville, held a public meeting at the Oak Creek Valley community clubhouse on Jan. 18 to update residents on her future plans for the 131-acre property.

■ The Town of Camp Verde celebrated the retirement of the Old Guys, a dedicated volunteer group. The Camp Verde Community Library hosted a retirement party in their honor on Feb. 26.

■ The Camp Verde Journal Managing Editor and Sedona Poetry Slam founder Christopher Fox Graham had a celestial body named after him with the recent redesignation of asteroid 1999 (AQ23) as 29722 Chrisgraham by the International Astronomical Union.

March

■ The Camp Verde Town Council approved five contracts for ongoing work on the Sports Complex on March 5.

■ The Town Council of Camp Verde unanimously voted 6-0 to demolish a home at 3195 S. Dinky Creek Drive on March 5.

■ The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum held a grand opening for its new exhibit, Indigenous Arts, on March 8. The exhibit features artwork and cultural items on loan from the Tucson Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

■ American Heritage Academy in Camp Verde, closed suddenly during spring break. Students will be relocated to American Heritage Academy in Cottonwood

■ The highly-anticipated Camp Verde Pecan & Wine Festival was back on March 15 and 16, promising two days of wine tastings, music, food a beer garden and an array of vendors.

■ Two K-9s join the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office, which now has three K-9s. CVMO has acquired a 3-year-old yellow Labrador retriever named Chopper and a 15-month-old Labrador retriever named Maverick.

■ Camp Verde Community Library staff marked the arrival of spring on March 20 by placing 14 eggs in an incubator on display in the library for a hatch-along event. Visitors could suggest names for the chickens.

■ Arizona State University professors Stephen J. Reynolds, Ph.D., and Julia K. Johnson released a second edition of “Roadside Geology of Arizona.”

April

■ The Town of Camp Verde, the consultant group Watershed Management and Arizona State University’s Project Cities program concluded their rainwater demonstration garden and rainwater harvesting tank installation workshop on April 3.

■ Students from Arizona State University’s Center for Innovation in STEM Learning and ASU assistant professor Nicholas Weller brought a video game they are developing, 2175, to the Camp Verde Community Library on April 25.

■ After four years in Camp Verde, the Turquoise Circuit Finals Rodeo moved to Cave Creek, north of Phoenix, for the 2025 rodeo season.

■ The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors appointed current Camp Verde Mayor Dee Jenkins to fill the District 2 seat on April 16, Vice Mayor Marie Moore was sworn in as mayor later that day, creating a vacancy on the Town Council.

■ U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego [D] held a town hall at the Yavapai-Apache Nation on April 17, introduced by Yavapai-Apache Nation Tribal Council Chairwoman Tanya Lewis.

■ The Town of Camp Verde began preparations for the 69th annual Fort Verde Days celebration in October.

■ Cottonwood’s Verde Valley Fair ran from April 30 to May 4, packed with thousands of visitors looking to take in the rides and the food at the fairgrounds.

May

■ The Yavapai-Apache Nation held a groundbreaking ceremony on May 1 for 40 new tax credit homes and three Helping Hands homes.

■ Dozens of Rimrock residents showed up to stand in the dry lakebed of the former Lake Montezuma for what they described as a stand-in on May 1, to protest the failure of the lake’s owner to refill it and call for it to be refilled as soon as possible.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council unanimously approved town staff’s prior applications for congressionally-directed spending funding for 10 town infrastructure projects involving water, wastewater, public safety and public works during its May 7 meeting.

■ Nicolas Resteiner became the new manager of the Camp Verde Community Library in February, succeeding Kathy Hellman.

■ The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $1,977,097.17 contract with CML Security LLC for a new door control system, camera system and intercom system for the Yavapai County Detention Center in Camp Verde on May 7.

■ Solstice Studios opened, run by two sisters, Chianne Hope and Lacey Rather, who are both artists.

■ The Moonshot Rural Arizona Pitch Competition was held on May 15 at the Camp Verde Community Library.

June

■ The Yavapai-Apache Nation hosted the University of Nevada, Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism’s Elevating Native American Voices in Journalism and Media workshop at the Tunlii Community Center from June 2 through 8.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council unanimously approved the town’s fiscal year 2026 capital improvement plan on June 4 meeting. The plan includes $78,461,355 in proposed expenditures over five years, including $40.9 million in FY26 expenditures.

■ The Butterfly Enthusiasts of Northern Arizona hosted a presentation on butterfly coloration at the Cottonwood Public Library on June 7.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council unanimously approved the town’s fiscal year 2025-26 budget of just under $64.3 million during its June 4 meeting.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council interviewed eight candidates on June 5, to fill an open seat. Council interviewed seven applicants: Patricia Seybold, Cristine McPhail, Sylvia Strobel, Fredrick Hayman, Stephen James Reynolds, Ph.D., Tanner Bryson and Megan Asbury. Council appointed Seybold on June 11.

■ The Sedona Police Department, working with other law enforcement agencies, apprehended 49-year-old Adam Christopher Sheafe on April 30. Sheafe was a suspect in the murder of a New River man on April 28.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council heard a presentation from the Copper Canyon Fire and Medical District Governing Board on June 11 about the district’s concerns regarding what CCFMD Chief Danny Johnson and Town Manager Miranda Fisher described as the limited tax revenue generated by RV and trailer parks in proportion to fire services to those areas.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council awarded $50,000 of community outreach funds to 12 nonprofits serving the community on June 18.

July

■ The Camp Verde Town Council adopted the town’s final budget for fiscal year 2025-26 at the special meeting on July 2.

■ Verde Valley residents celebrated the Fourth of July.

■ Northern Arizona Healthcare met with about 32 stakeholders on July 6 to discuss the nonprofit health care provider’s 2030 Strategic Plan.

■ Noah Decker, 9, planned to compete in the American Cornhole League’s 2025 World Championships from July 18 to July 20 and the American Cornhole World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina, from July 28 to Aug. 3.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council discussed the future of housing in Camp Verde and the Verde Valley at the special session on July 9.

■ Homeland Security Investigations led other law enforcement agencies in executed federal search warrants at five Colt Grill restaurants and 12 residences in Arizona and Alabama on July 15 after a three-year labor exploitation investigation.

■ Corn Fest returned to Camp Verde for its 30th anniversary on July 19.

■ Camp Verde Arena Association and the Town of Camp Verde are involved in a dispute over a lease and use of the town’s Camp Verde Equestrian Center.

■ Peter Andrew Andy Groseta died from pancreatic cancer on July 22 at age 74.

■ The Arizona Com-mission on the Arts hosted a community conversation at the Verde Valley Archaeology Center on July 24.

■ The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office expanded the use of automated license plate readers.

August

■ Arizona schools will finally receive $124 million from U.S. Department of Education grants that were halted in March by the Trump administration

■ Michael Wayne Mest’s remains have finally been identified, more than nine years after his body’s remains found in the Camp Verde area on May 25, 2015.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council unanimously approved the final plat for the development of a 167-lot subdivision in the High View at Boulder Creek planned area development on Aug. 6.

■ Thanks to the Cub Scouts of Pack 7193 and the Camp Verde Public Works Department, residents can now enjoy a refurbished Welcome to Camp Verde sign.

■ During the Town of Camp Verde’s first-ever State of the Town address on Aug. 13, Yavapai-Apache Nation Tribal Council Chairwoman Tanya Lewis gave a brief history of those native to the Verde Valley.

■ Camp Verde Post Office carrier Brandi Rowse and clerk Cynthia Petty saved the life of supervisor Brian Flanagan, who was found unresponsive and not breathing.

■ A storm on Aug. 24, disrupted service to more than 2,100 residents across Camp Verde after 10 power poles were knocked down along Salt Mine Road.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council held a work session with representatives from the Camp Verde Arena Association on Aug. 27.

September

■ The Camp Verde Town Council approved the final plat for a 20-lot commercial subdivision for the Verde Commercial planned area development on Sept. 3.

■ Members of the Camp Verde Artists Group exhibited works of five featured artists at Salt Mine Wines from Sept. 5 through Oct. 4.

■ Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called our on Sept. 7 after a report of an injured pregnant woman lying in the road. The 29-year-old woman sustained serious injuries and was transported by air to a hospital in Phoenix.

■ The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum unveiled three new interactive digital kiosks on Sept. 12.

■ Dirk Van Leenen spoke at the Camp Verde Community Library on Sept. 15, recounted stories from his time during World War II, where his parents helped rescue Jewish people in Holland while under Nazi occupation. Van Leenen and his parents were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

October

■ Yavapai County Manager Maury Thompson gave his immediate resignation to the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors on the morning of Oct. 1.

■ The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office hosted National Night Out on Oct. 9

■ The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum held a celebration for Indigenous Peoples Day with a Native American Artist Market and speaker on Oct. 11.

■ Fort Verde Days was delayed a week by heavy rains.

■ Science Vortex expanded to Camp Verde and Jaslo, Poland, the proposed second Sister City of Sedona.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council discussed staff recommendations for changes in compliance with House Bill 2447.

■ The Camp Verde Visitors Center reopened Oct. 15.

■ Esther “Babe” Daley turned 100 years old.

■ The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office asked for lead on four male subjects involved in a shooting incident that occurred at the White Hills Mobile Home Park on Oct. 18.

■ The Camp Verde Artists Group exhibited at the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum with an opening reception on Nov. 1.

■ James Olson, of Camp Verde, was arrested twice, on Oct. 14 and then on Oct. 30, for meth.

November

■ The Camp Verde Town Council hosted Danny Johnson, fire chief for both the Verde Valley Fire District and Copper Canyon Fire & Medical District, during its work session on Nov. 5.

■ Fort Verde Historical Park on hosted Living History Day on Nov. 6.

■ The fifth annual Camp Verde Veterans Tribute Car Show returned on Nov. 8.

■ A Camp Verde resident drove his girlfriend’s white Kia Rio off State Route 179 near Doodlebug Road into a retaining wall in Sedona.

■ Former Yavapai-Apache Nation Tribal Councilwoman Thomasene Cardona spoke at the Sedona Public Library on Nov. 13.

■ The Verde Valley Pottery Festival returned to Cornville from Nov. 14 through 16.

■ The Camp Verde School District received a preliminary C grade from the state.

■ The Verde Valley GameCon returned for its sixth annual event on Nov. 29.

December

■ The Yavapai College Governing Board voted 4-1 on Nov. 19 to accept a proposal to raise tuition 3%.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council discussed the recent reorganization transitioning the town’s Animal Control services out of the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office to Community Development.

■ The Grand Kyiv Ballet danced at Camp Verde’s Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 3.

■ The Camp Verde Town Council canceled the lease with the Camp Verde Arena Association, giving the nonprofit until March to vacate the Camp Verde Equestrian Center.

■ Camp Verde Parks and Recreation Department hosted Christmas Magic on Main, where dozens of lighted floats parade down Main Street.