Parker, Arizona

From the Managers Desk

Friday Update
January 18, 2008

 

Schedule of Upcoming Events

Monday, Jan. 21, 2008 – Town Offices closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Thurs, Jan. 24, 2008 – 100-Year Celebration Meeting @ Senior Center at 5:15 p.m.
Tues., Feb. 5, 2008 – 5:00/7:00 – Executive Session/Regular Council Meeting
 

Administration

We have received 6 applicants on the Public Works Director position.    We are anticipating doing interviews with the top 3 on Feb. 5, 2008 starting at 5:00 p.m.  Our engineer will be here to help.

We had our mandatory supervisory training on January 16, 2008.  It was well received and very well attended.

We did Police Officer testing all day today with the help of surrounding agencies.  Thank you to all involved.

I will be out of the office next week on vacation.

Library

The Parker Public Library is in full swing with the return of the winter visitors and programming planned to educate and entertain all patrons of the library. The library has seen an attendance of 4,701 in the library from January 2nd thru January 16th.

The Great Book Discussion Series continues this month with a discussion held on January 8th at 12 noon and another Great Book Discussion Series program is scheduled for 12 noon on January 12th.

Greg Scott from the Arizona Humanities Council was the presenter for the “Cowboy Poet” program that was sponsored by the library, but held at the Senior Center on January 16th at 1 PM. There were 80 people in attendance for this well received program.

There are three additional adult programs scheduled for the month of January. They are: “BYOB” Bring your own book discussion series on January 24th at 1PM, “Four Books That Changed My Life” presentation by Jane Finley on January 25th at 11 AM @ the library, and “Japanese School” presentation by Kathryn Jennings on January 30th at 6:30 PM.

Staff is working on policy and procedure updates to reflect current trends in library service.
                                                                                                       
E-Rate applications for Parker Public, Indian Hills Public and Bouse Public have been filed for FY 08/09.

February 1st @ 10 am the Parker Public Library will host Follett Software Company for a demonstration of a possible solution to the current automation system throughout La Paz County public and school libraries. Salome High, Salome Elementary, Parker High, Wallace JR High/Elementary, Blake Primary, Indian Hills Public, Bouse Public, La Paz County Bookmobile, Quartzsite Public and CRIT library management and tech staff have ALL confirmed attendance for this very important meeting. Our current automation software company has been bought out by Follett and is not going to be supported with updates and necessary patches for software problems.

Friends of the Parker Public Library Bi-Annual Book Sale will be held Saturday, February 9th from 8am to 3pm

The Teen Advisory Committee along with library staff will be participating in the 100 Year Celebration Parade. The Teen Advisory Committee will also be selling water and soda during the “downtown” festivities on February 16th. The Teen’s are earning money through fundraising to support the new design concept of a Movie Theater Theme for the Teen Room. 

Community/Economic Development

Project:  Heritage Fund Pool Grant

• Chris Schmaltz is still reviewing the RFP. We will begin procurement procedures after attorney review.

 

Project: Parker Annex Wastewater Master Plan

• Kennedy Jenks continues their work on the project. Another progress meeting will be set up in February to update Town staff on the project.

 

Project: Parker General Plan

• A number of late edits were done and additional changes have been made that will be incorporated into the general plan. Due to these changes, the general plan was not approved at the last Town Council meeting.
• Finished copy to be presented to council for approval at the Town Council Meeting on February 5, 2008.

 

Project: Tierra Buena Estates - Parker Annex

• Tierra Buena request to reinstate the old preliminary plat has been denied.
• No further progress on this project at this time.

Project: Buxton Company and the Small Community ID Analysis

• The next set of deliverables coming from Buxton next week will include additional maps and a listing of possible retailers that are suitable for location in our community. We will be contacting these retailers when we get the listing. We may need to make appointments to meet them at the upcoming ICSC convention in Las Vegas in May.
• We are in the beginning stages of preparation for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ 2008 RECON convention in Las Vegas, NV; where Town representative will meet and converse with representative of the retailers identified by Buxton Co.
• We will submit our application for membership in the ICSC early next week.

 

Project: Rezone from R-2 to Public Lands for Narcotics Task Force’s New Property

• A rezone of the new Narcotics Task Force property was approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The property located at 1400 Desert Ave. was rezoned from R-2 (medium density residential) to PL (public lands).

• Rezone second reading was approved by the Town Council on January 15, 2008. This means that the rezone will go into effect 30 days from that date.

 

 

 

Project: Cemetery Lease Renewal

• The lease for the Town Cemetery property expires 2/28/2008. I spoke with Michael Tsosie, the director of the CRIT Museum. We discussed what would be required to renew or extend the lease for the Town Cemetery
• We will be required to submit a proposal to the CRIT Tribe to renew the lease for the cemetery. It would be a new lease, not an extension The proposal will include the following:

1. Fees collected by the Town of Parker
2. How are the fees used?
3. Yearly budgets for maintenance and upkeep
4. Demonstrate what improvements have been made to the property
5. Show what improvements are being planned for the property
6. A legal Description of the property
7. Attachments to include:

Regulations and policies for the cemetery
Occupancy rate

• Submission is made to the Tribal chairman’s office. CC copies to Resource Development Committee (RDC), CRIT Cemetery Committee, CRIT Realty and Tribal Museum
• RDC, Cemetery Committee and Museum Director will review documentation and make recommendation to Tribal Council.
• The Tribal Council will approve or deny lease agreement.
• New lease for 25 years with an option to renew of 25 years was suggested by Mr. Tsosie after I informed him that most grant funding agencies required at least 25 years remaining on any leases for leased property.
• We are going to send a letter requesting a 90 day extension to the existing lease while we work out the details for the new lease.

 

NO REPORTS FROM OTHER DEPARTMENTS