Camp Verde has a storied year

January

• The Town of Camp Verde agrees to a contract to build a new library for around $4 million.
• The Town Council votes to increase the local sales tax from 3 percent to 3.65 percent.
• Local resident Tom Pitts says he will try to reinvigorate the Camp Verde Chamber of Commerce, an agency that floundered during the economic downturn.

February

• Fort Verde State Historic Park is open seven days a week, for the first time since 2008 after the Arizona legislature swept funding from the park system. Volunteers and town funding helped keep the park open in the interim.
• Local deputies with the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office talk about working at Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, an experience they describe as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
• Amber Lee announces her resignation as superintendent of the Camp Verde Unified School District, opting to move to the Yuma area to be closer to her family.

March

• The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office announces new plans, including turning the former teen center into an evidence storage room.
• The Verde Valley Medical Center breaks ground on a new facility on land purchased several years ago at the corner of Finnie Flat Road and State Route 260.
• Sedona Recycles reports that recycling in Camp Verde has increased. The organization has shut down some sites in Cottonwood but still runs two drop off sites in Camp Verde.
• Steve King announces his resignation as principal and chief administrator South Verde High School. King went on to take an administrative job at a school district in Cottonwood.

April

• Camp Verde residents take part in the Bea Richmond Memorial Walk. Richmond was a resident who gave a lot of her time and efforts to Camp Verde. She died in 2011.
• A local landowner makes a deal with Mexico-based CEMEX to mine near Out of Africa Wildlife Park. The plan is to dig up aggregate, an important component of cement.
• The Camp Verde Sesquicentennial Committee announces its plans to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of Camp Verde’s founding. Those plans include an expansion of the gazebo area downtown for Fort Verde Days in October.
• Fort Verde State Historic Park hires its first full-time employee besides the manager since 2008.
• The work on the new Camp Verde Municipal Library is delayed due to extra design costs.

May

• The Arizona Department of Transportation unveils its plan for the future of State Route 260 between Camp Verde and Cottonwood. The new alignment will have seven roundabouts and is expected to begin construction in 2016.
• The Camp Verde Town Council adopts a new tax outline. The standard 3.65 percent local sales tax will drop to 1 percent after $5,000 is spent on an item.
• Rio Verde Plaza, a Main Street shopping center that has stood largely empty for years, is sold for $180,000 to a developer.
• Wheel of Fortune, the game show, comes to town to look for possible contestants.

June

• Dennis Goodwin is named superintendent of the Camp Verde Unified School District. Goodwin grew up in Arizona but was more recently head of a school district in Minnesota.
• The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute plans to return to Camp Verde. The program offers a variety of courses for a small fee for people who just want to broaden their horizons.
• A recall effort surfaces targeting Camp Verde Town Council members Robin Whatley, Bruce George and Jessie Jones-Murdock, three of the four who voted to increase the sales tax from 3 percent to 3.65 percent. Mayor Charlie German was also initially targeted but then ignored after recall organizers realized it would take more signatures to recall a mayor.
• The Verde Valley Archaeology Center announces plans to eventually build a new complex off of Homestead Parkway and State Route 260, thanks to an agreement in part from a developer.

July

• Camp Verde’s elected leaders discuss why the town is paying to keep a lawyer on retainer for primarily police matters. A lawyer who has experience with criminal law can be more effective than one who primarily deals with civil law.
• Cornfest returns again to Camp Verde.
• The recall effort against three council members hits a roadblock when the Town Clerk’s office finds that only enough valid signatures have been collected to recall Vice Mayor Bruce George.
• Jones Ford opens where Steve Coury’s automotive dealership was out on the northwestern corner of Camp Verde. Coury’s dealership shut down after, among other things, there was a lapse in a contract between Coury and the town.
• August
• The Yavapai-Apache Nation opens a new convenience store on the corner of State Route 260 and Cherry Road.
• The Salt River Project and the Verde Ditch Company come to an agreement in Yavapai County Superior Court to manage water rights, a decision that rests on more than a century of case law.
• The Town of Camp Verde Council cancels the recall election for Bruce George, originally set for November, a move that leads to litigation from the group that initiated the recall.
• Camp Verde seeks public input for its efforts to develop a master recreation plan for the Verde River, an effort funded by grant money that looks to protect and preserve property rights while making some sections of the river available to the public.

September

• Guinea fowl, a bird species that lives all around the world but particularly in the Jordan Meadows neighborhood, comes to the Town Council’s attention after a dispute erupts into a possible move to get rid of the birds. In the end, the council decides to let the birds be.
• Historians around town begin collecting items to put into a time capsule, not to be opened until 2065, the town’s bicentennial.
• Camp Verde Community Library is selected as one of six libraries across the country to host a NASA exhibit. The exhibit will eventually be displayed in the new library, currently under construction.
• Laramie Mahan is named the 2015 Colonel’s Daughter.

October

• Fort Verde Days, the community’s longest running annual celebration brings crowds to downtown.
• Another recall effort is initiated, this time against Councilwoman Robin Whatley and Councilman Bradford Gordon, accusing them of unprofessionalism.
• The town looks at ways to possibly improve troublesome intersections, including Main Street and Montezuma Castle Highway and State Route 260 and Industrial Drive.

November

• Yavapai Superior Court Judge David Mackey declares that the original recall that now only targets Vice Mayor Bruce George must go on.
• George resigns, hoping to avoid the expense of the recall being placed on the March ballot. When he learns the election will take place with or without him, George rescinds his resignation from the council.
• A New Zealand resident donates around eight acres of land along Beaver Creek in the Lake Montezuma area to Yavapai County. The county hopes to use it to provide trails and public access.

December

• The Verde Valley Medical Center gives a tour of its still-under construction Camp Verde campus at the corner of Finnie Flat Road and State Route 260. The new facility will provide medical care for residents instead of having them transported to Cottonwood.