A meeting of the Camp Verde Town Council on Wednesday, Oct. 2 led to no major changes or official decisions regarding two of the biggest ongoing controversies in town politics.
But significant discussions suggest that members of the council may have reservations about their current positions.
The council approved previously decided-on funding for the Camp Verde Arena Association, and discussed the town’s official opposition to the county’s Verde Connect road project, indicating potential clashes in the future.
Camp Verde Arena Association
At a work session on Aug. 30, the Camp Verde Town Council instructed Town Manager Russ Martin to allocate up to $250,000 from the town’s Capital Improvement Projects fund to the Camp Verde Arena Association in the hopes that the group can complete work on the planned arena in time to begin holding events there in January. At Wednesday’s meeting, the council agenda included an item formally clarifying this funding appropriation, and while the council did eventually unanimously vote in favor of allocating the money they had previously offered, it came with an increased degree of scrutiny on the local nonprofit.
Councilman Buck Buchanan grilled CVAA president Mary Phelps about the group’s fund- raising efforts, questioning whether the group’s fundraising was robust enough to make the nearly half a million dollars the town intends to allocate to them worth it.
“You were asking the town for that amount of money and you were going to come up with the rest of the money,” Buchanan said. “Are you going to come up with the rest of the money up to $1 million?”
Buchanan also expressed worry about the pace of construction on the lot at the edge of town by the wastewater plant.
“I wonder what it’s going to look like by January,” Buchanan said. “I’d like to can it all right now to be honest with you, and eat the money that we’ve already put because I’m not sure this thing is going to fly and I would like to make sure we don’t spend more than $250,000, because it would be a heck of a lot of money if we’re going to have to keep putting money in.”
Phelps expressed a positive view of the group’s fundraising, and insisted that the construction is continuing on schedule. She pointed to how much of the work on the site comes via discounted labor donated by local businesses, meaning that some of the group’s fundraising comes not from direct cash donations.
Despite his misgivings, Buchanan voted to approve the funding along with the rest of the council.
Verde Connect
As at any meeting where the Verde Connect road project is on the agenda, council chambers were packed on Wednesday with locals opposed to the project. This time most were sporting matching white T-shirts emblazoned with a picture and the words “Save The Middle Verde,” highlighting the continued organization of activists opposed to the potential roadway connecting Cornville Road with State Route 260 passing through the Middle Verde Road area.
Before the meeting even started, many of those in attendance had already filled out forms indicating their desire to speak during the public comment section of the meeting.
In June, the Camp Verde Town Council voted to oppose any effort by the county to construct a road through Middle Verde. At this meeting, the council discussed the possibility of being willing to cooperate with the county on the road if the county decided — as county supervisors have indicated they intend to — to move forward with the road despite Camp Verde’s opposition.
In September, Dan Cherry of the Yavapai County Public Works Department sent a letter to the Camp Verde Town Council indicating a desire to work with the council to make the road more amenable to local concerns.
“If the project team can assure that the above items are met, we believe it would be possible to consider leaving a short portion of the Middle Verde Connector road as an unpaved roadway, if this is the desire of the Town Council. Current thoughts are that if this were proposed, the unpaved portion would likely be a section of the existing FS Road 119A within the incorporated boundaries of the town,” Cherry wrote. “This option of course would need approval by the USDOT, as it is somewhat of a deviation to what has been proposed to date.
“Again, I stress that the above needs must be met. Some of these are better met with a fully paved Middle Verde Connector roadway as opposed to an alternative with a short section of unpaved roadway.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, Camp Verde Mayor Charlie German expressed an interest in working with the county on an option like this if the county moves forward with the road, despite the council’s previous expression of opposition to any cooperation with the project.
“Not knowing the position of the council on this particular thing …. I felt it was really important that if this roadway was going to go ahead and be built, that it would be best if the neighborhood decided on which of the two roadways would be the least impactful,” German said.
German also reiterated concerns he had made before about the need for emergency services to reach the area, which he felt the new road could be helpful with, despite concerns from the locals.
However, with the council’s previous resolution opposing any involvement by the town in effect, the town cannot get involved in negotiations with the county without amending or repealing that resolution. Since that proposal was not on the agenda, the council was not permitted to make any change in its policy regarding Verde Connect at Wednesday’s meeting without violating open meeting law. The council ended the discussion without taking any action or indicating any future intention to take action. The many opponents of the project who indicated their intention to speak were not given a chance, since the issue was deemed moot.
According to Martin, the council has made no indication of future plans to change the previously passed resolution, seeking to wait and see what the county does instead.
