The Lake Havasu City Council held a regular meeting on July 28, 2026, at 5:30 PM, chaired by Mayor Cal Sheehy. The meeting began with a moment of silence, the Pledge of Allegiance led by Brandon Bowers of the Lake Havasu Museum of History, and presentations from the Museum (requesting city assistance to protect the McCulloch J2 gyrocopter) and Girl Scout Troop 1892 (seeking donations for community book nooks). The council unanimously approved the consent agenda, conducted three public hearings on liquor licenses and a fire engine purchase, heard public comments on fireworks enforcement, budget oversight, and the recycling center, and received reports from city staff and committees.
Good evening and welcome. I call to order the Lake Havasu City Council regular meeting on Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 5 30 p.m. If you please join me in a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Brandon Bowers with the Lake Havasu Museum of History. And then after the Pledge of Allegiance, we're gonna have Sophia Marie and Cadence from the Girl Scout Troop 1892. Uh say a few words. Uh we took a moment of privilege to allow that because they need to get to the high school uh for open um uh night. So please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. I fled allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now it's my turn, huh? Yes. Okay. Um, mayor, members of the council and city staff, uh, good evening. My name is Brandon Bowers. I know most of you from my role as the editor of today's News Herald. Uh, but tonight I'm coming to you as the board president for the Lake Havasu Museum of History. Um with me is Michael Arya. He is a longtime volunteer, uh, does a lot of our collections at the museum, uh, deals with all of the photo archives and all that history. If you want to look something up, you would go to Michael first. Um, but just here because uh we've we wanted to remind people that we're here and what we do in the community. Uh as many of you know, our museum has navigated some very difficult financial waters um in the last few years. I'm here to tell you there's an exciting and secure future ahead. Uh we have built over the past few months. Uh, we've been doing the hard, quiet work of rebuilding our foundation. Uh right now we operate on a lean model, relying on a minimal paid staff and dedicated volunteer docents. To ensure our long-term growth, we remain committed to keeping our doors accessible to everyone with free community admission while expanding our historical reading room, maintaining a database of over 2,000 archival photos, and building a sustainable year-round fundraising model. In the coming months, you are going to see a lot more of us in the community. Uh, we have exciting new exhibits planned. We've got uh a fun bailout history fundraiser plan, and my hope is that we will get to lock up several of you in this process uh in an in an effort to preserve history, of course. Uh we're also applying to host Smithsonian traveling museums. We've done that before. We had a uh we had one on waterways of several years ago that was successful with uh people coming in to visit the museum. Uh we've got a couple of more planned, and we hope to get um approved for those and exciting news on that when it is announced. Um we also are exploring local partnerships and book publishing. We'll see if that works out, but uh that's some exciting future there for us too, a fundraising opportunity, uh, as well as uh a preservation of history in a way we haven't been able to do before. Uh however, we do need one immediate, we have one immediate urgent emergency where we do need the city's assistance. Uh our recent McCulloch in the air exhibit, Michael was very involved in getting that together for us, centers around the McCulloch J2 gyrocopter. It's an incredible piece of aviation history built right here in Lake Havasu City. Uh for years it's been sheltered in the hangar at the municipal airport. But because of the space issues at the airport, you guys all know that there are space issues out there. Uh the J2 was recently moved out of the hangar and onto the open concrete. It looks good. You go to the airport, you can see it right there. It's a nice little bit of history right when you get there against the fence line. But as we know, the Lake Havasu summer heat and the UV rays are unforgiving and left exposed this irreplaceable piece of history, local heritage will suffer severe permanent damage, and we're trying to avoid that. So we urgently need the city's partnership, assistance, help us find a permanent covered or climate controlled home for the J2, a spot that protects it from the elements, but still gives us the access to tow it out for major civic celebrations like London Bridge Days, the Balloon Festival, other events that we've uh we have a presence at. We're doing everything in our power to make the Museum of History a point of pride for Lake Havasu City. We ask for your partnership in rescuing the J2 before the summer heat takes its toll. Um thank you for your time, your leadership, your continued support of our community story.