The Yuma City Council made up for lost time with an information-filled meeting last week.
July’s second meeting was moved back one week due to conflicts. All six council members were present at the rescheduled gathering — Mayor Tim McClung, Mayor Pro-tem Jerome Benish, and Zach Diaz, Terri Frame, Dan Baucke and Marc Shay.
The meeting covered a lot of ground, including the proposed recreation complex, street replacement, hearing from the three candidates vying for the open council seat, the 2023 audit report and much more.
Board members of the proposed Yuma Recreation Complex made a pitch for some land from the city.
Kristy Rutledge provided some background, explaining the effort began in 2022, with a board being formed in January 2023. It has secured non-profit 501(c)3 status. The board has held public forums, gleaning what people would most like to see in a recreation center. A feasibility study was completed earlier this year, and in May the board approved the design for the facility.
The board has raised $85,000 in the community for the preliminary steps.
Rutledge said the projected construction cost is $30 million, with the Daniels Fund putting in approximately $12 million.
“We’re looking at raising the other $18 million,” she said.
Justin Coughlin explained to the council that in order to move forward with potential grants, the recreation complex needs to have a physical address. He asked the city for a long-term lease for 50 acres on city-owned property. Two potential locations are the open land east of the Jeff Armstrong Ballpark Complex, and the property between Detroit Ave. and Indian Hills Golf Course.
Coughlin said a recreation center would provide healthy and active lifestyles, create jobs, and attract people to Yuma.
Baucke responded that he thinks the board will be able to get the money it needs to build the complex. However, he said the annual operating costs is the challenge, asking how they plan to maintain it after it is built.
Chad Rayl said the board is anticipating hiring consultants to help with feasibility and maintenance costs. There will be more information as plans are developed. He explained the facility will be formed based on the feasibility of the annual costs, and it likely will be done in phases.
Street replacement
The council voted to move forward with replacing Third and Fourth avenues from Albany to Ash streets (one block both sides of S. Main St.), following a long discussion about street replacement.
City Manager Scott Moore began the discussion by reporting that taking out four inches of a street and replacing would cost about $74,000 per block, along with the cost of paying a company to do the work. He added it would be best to take core samples from the streets to determine the conditions of the below infrastructure.
The city is having a study done to prioritize street upgrades, but it is not completed yet. Frame asked if it is best to wait for the study to be completed, or start before that. Moore said the engineer’s recommendation is to wait for the study and then attack the streets.
McClung said some areas are obvious, and asked if there is a way to repair some of them to show the community some progress and something is being done now. He adds that he hears about it frequently.
The discussion briefly moved to pothole repair, as Baucke said he thinks the city should use a cold mix like other towns do.
“What we’re using is not working,” he said.
Frame said she would like to have a plan in place but noted that time is of the essence to get something done this season.
The vote was unanimous to move forward with Third and Fourth avenues.
Council hopefuls
There is an open seat on the council following the resignation of Marylu Smith-Dischner in May. The city received four letters of interest by the deadline, but one dropped out.
The three remaining hopefuls were present at last week’s meeting.
Vanessa Dischner, Jeff Denney and Daniel Ebersole each briefly addressed the council.
The council will appoint one of them at the next council meeting on August 6. The appointment will be until the November 2025 municipal election.
Great audit reported
Matt Miller with McMahan & Associates remotely presented the 2023 audit report to the council. The full audit is more than 100 pages.
Miller said it was a clean audit. He explained the Enterprise Funds did well with $1.5 million net income. He explained that city governments tend to run lean, but Yuma still had a General Fund balance of $3.6 million at the end of 2023.
“That’s pretty good for a municipality,” he said.
Miller said all information from the city for budgeting was accurate, adding the auditors had no recommendations.
“For a government of this size it’s really pretty impressive to not have any kind of recommendatins or any findings, so give the staff kudos for that,” Miller said.
The council unanimously approved the audit report.
Ballot question?
The council voted unanimously to move forward with a community survey to determine whether or not to move forward with a ballot question in the November election.
It was explained the survey, to be done by an outside firm, would start on August 12, with the survey findings presented to the council on August 26. A decision on whether or not to move forward with the ballot question needs to be made at the September 3 meeting, then submitted to the Yuma County Clerk & Recorder’s Office by September 9.
The discussion centered around the risk of paying for the survey, and then finding out the city should not go forward with the ballot question. Council members said they need to know one way or the other, so the decision was made to move forward.
Fairgrounds transformer denied
Moore reported to the council that Yuma County Commissioner Scott Weaver had emailed him just that afternoon about the city helping on the cost of a new three-phase transformer at the Yuma County Fairgrounds.
The total project is $32,521, and Weaver asked if the city could donate the transformer cost of $14,300.
Baucke said if it was a business making the request, it would be a no-go, but the city is trying to help working with the county.
However, a motion to donate the transformer died on a 3-3 vote. Baucke, Diaz and Benish voted in favor, while Shay, Frame and McClung cast dissenting votes.
More meeting
• Moore informed the council that a notice has been sent to the owners of the Lett/Tumbleweed Hotel on W. Second Ave., giving them 60 days to fix the situation. Otherwise, the city can do demolition and abatement at the owners’ cost. Moore said he was not sure the timetable when it would be done if it comes to that.
• The council approved moving forward with applying for a firefighters grant.
• The Consent Agenda included approving the street closure for the Yuma County Fair Parade on August, a grant application for trees, a construction contract with Soderburg Roofing & Contracting for window repair from the hail storm, and the sale of the 2003 Type 1 Ambulance with the Stryker Power Cot included.
The meeting lasted two hours.