Payson Town Council Regular Meeting - July 10, 2024
Payson Town Council Regular Meeting - July 10, 2024
The Payson Town Council held a regular meeting on July 10, 2024, starting at 4:00 PM and adjourning at 4:28 PM. The meeting included a public hearing on the property tax levy, approval of the consent agenda, a proclamation for Parks and Recreation Month, and public comments focused on the proposed aquatic center. Council Member Scott Nossek was absent.
Consent Calendar
- B.1: Approved payment for the Town’s Microsoft licensing True-Up for year two of the three-year agreement.
- B.2: Authorized the Town Manager and Town Attorney to opt into settlements in the Multi-District Litigation (MDL) related to PFAS/PFOS in the water system.
- Vote: Motion carried 6-0 (all present in favor).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lori Thompson (Director of New Beginnings Pregnancy and Parenting Center) expressed disappointment with the proposed pool designs, noting they were smaller than Taylor Pool and only one could host competitive swim meets. She advocated for a larger aquatic center with two pools to accommodate swim lessons, competitive swimming, and senior aqua therapy, emphasizing cost recovery rates of 60-70% for a properly designed pool. She also requested a copy of the library presentation that was not yet available.
- Tom Dunning (20-year resident) commended forward-looking town developments and advocated for: supporting and retaining police officers and firefighters with safe facilities; street repair using a prioritized approach; creation of workforce and affordable housing; covering the Events Center; and building an aquatic center for all ages.
- Michael Quinn praised the Town’s cleanup of Green Valley Park on July 5 after the Fourth of July celebration. He urged cost savings by building the pool adjacent to the school to share locker rooms, as done in his hometown, and stressed that a pool is a necessity for teaching children to swim.
Discussion Items
- Town Manager Report (Item C): Town Manager Troy Smith highlighted the adoption of the General Plan, upcoming voter ratification, library events, summer camp photos, a donation from Club 100 for police raincoats, promotions, and a streets department story.
- Proclamation (Item D.1): Mayor Higgins read a proclamation declaring July 2024 as Parks and Recreation Month. Parks and Recreation staff accepted the proclamation. The Mayor and Town Manager commended the teamwork of multiple departments (Public Safety, Streets, Water, Parks and Rec) for a successful Fourth of July celebration, noting the park was cleaned by the next morning.
- Ordinance No. 966 – Property Tax Levy (Item F.1): Finance Director Dana Ohanesian presented the second public hearing. The property tax rate decreases from 0.3094 to 0.2992 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. The levy amount is $717,831, based on assessed values. There is no secondary property tax levied by the Town. In response to questions, Ohanesian clarified that Gila County’s rates are staying the same but their levy amounts are increasing due to increased assessed value and new construction. No public comments were made on the ordinance.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda: Approved unanimously (6-0).
- Ordinance No. 966: Approved unanimously (6-0) after the public hearing was closed. The property tax levy for FY2024-2025 is set at $717,831 with a reduced rate of 0.2992 per $100 of assessed valuation.
- Next Steps: The Town Manager’s report noted that the General Plan will be submitted for voter ratification in the general election. No other action items were discussed.
Meeting Transcript
She's on Zoom. All right. There we go. Can you hear us out there? Yes. All right. Thumbs up. Like to see that. Uh call to the public. Um, Lori Thompson. Oh, sorry. Is that okay? That is absolutely possible. Um, thank you, members of the council and city staff. I just appreciate um, I want to talk just a little bit about the new pool that we're looking to build in Payson. Um, you know, we're very excited. We know that a pool is a quality of life issue in the town. Drowning is the leading cause for children under four. Um, they stand more of a chance of drowning than dying in a car accident. Ninety-one percent of children under fourteen with autism die of drowning. So that needs to be stopped. And swim lessons can stop that by eighty-eight percent. Um, I went to the meeting the other day. Um, not very many of us were there. Um, but we were, and I have to look at the four drawings that the town is uh proposing for that. And honestly, I was a little bit disappointed. Um, there's always been a feeling that there would be a partnership between the school district and the town on this pool. And um, the pool, only one of the pools could be used for competitive swim meetings. It was taught that this pool may draw people up here. Well, a pool the size of or smaller than Taylor Pool is not going to draw people from the valley up here. The only thing that really would would be an aquatic center, where this isn't not, it's a pool. And the only thing other thing would be if they had a swim meet up here. We're bringing about 20 kids from Hayson to Winslow this weekend, and they're gonna be eating up there and getting gas, and then the next week we're going to Cottonwood, which has meat scheduled all the way into October in Cottonwood. The designs on the pool. We need competitive swimming. Our seniors need aqua therapy. But in order to do aqua therapy, you need two separate pools. The first three pools would have a good cost recovery rate of thirty to forty percent if run properly. The third pool that can do swim meets, it can do more swim lessons, it can do more um water robots, and can do aqua therapy if run right would have a recovery rate of about sixty to seventy percent. And I'm a national speaker on cost recovery rate for pools. Um, we just seeing those and not seeing that the high school still won't be able to host a meet. Special Olympics won't be able to host a meet. Masters, middle school. I've got a bunch of middle school kids that want to swim this year. I've got a bunch of middle school kids that want to swim this year, and they can't host a meet in all but one of those pools. So I just ask that the town be open, transparent, and look at that. We can always build a gym. Once you build that pool, it's done. You cannot go back and rebuild the pool. You can add a gym.
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