Camp Verde Marshal’s Office has filled a key position left open for four months.
On Monday, June 26, Brian Armstrong, a lieutenant with Arizona Department of Transportation, will step into the role of CVMO commander.
The position was vacated by Jacquelyn MacConnell in January.
After attending the second annual Verde Valley Wine Festival, it would be difficult to deny the truth: The Verde Valley’s wine industry is growing, pulling an ever greater number of oenophiles into the region.
Following several discussions among Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Governing Board members about consolidating COCSD, Mingus Union High School District and Clarkdale-Jerome School District, Clarkdale-Jerome tabled the idea, which has been a perennial topic of discussion for years.
An armed robbery at the Chevron Station at 1204 State Route 260 in Cottonwood has resulted in the arrest of three individuals, two of whom were later charged for the robbery.
"At about 10:30 pm on Wednesday, May 24, [the Chevron] was robbed at gunpoint by a male suspect," Cottonwood Police Department stated via press release, later identifying the man as Paul Wilson, 27, of Flagstaff. Approximately $500 was stolen from the store. There were no injuries to anyone inside the business.
Accessing Yavapai College’s online coursework and educational resources just got easier for Camp Verde residents. On May 9, the Yavapai Collge District Governing Board unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement between the college and the Town of Camp Verde to provide laptops to Yavapai College students at the Camp Verde Community Library.
According to a press release from the college, the agreement from an “initiative to enhance college access for areas of the district where Yavapai College does not have existing facilities.”
Ever wanted to know what firefighters do besides help civilians and putting out fires? I decided to spend the day with the men of Verde Valley Fire District Station 31 to know what really goes on when they aren’t out risking their lives for citizens.
If adopted, the Town of Camp Verde’s 2018 budget will reduce funding for the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office by 10 percent and increase Animal Control’s budget by 2 percent.
For 2018, CVMO requested $2,377,500, a 5 percent reduction from 2017’s adjusted budget of $2,512,520.
City Manager Russ Martin came back with a recommended budget of $2,273,305, a 10 percent reduction from 2017.
Each year, the cities and towns of the Verde Valley approve budgets that are, generally speaking, optimistic.
The reason for this is that Arizona has enacted transparency laws requiring cities and municipalities to account for all potential revenues and expenditures.
If you’re walking around Cottonwood or Camp Verde and you come across a K-9 officer and his four-legged partner, feel free to ask if you can pet him or her.
The dog, that is.
The roundabout at Industrial Drive and State Route 260 is finished, almost a month earlier than originally projected by Arizona Department of Transportation.
According to ADOT Public Information Officer Ryan Harding, paving took place from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. from May 30 through June 1, working with traffic as the pavement arrived and was applied to the roadway.
A fire early May 29 left three vehicles burnt out at the Park Place lot.
Located at the southeast corner of State Route 89 A and S. 10th Street in Cottonwood, Park Place offers its lot to owners wishing to display their vehicles for sale. A fee is charged daily, weekly or monthly for each space.
By October, visitors will be getting their first look at Arizona’s newest state park, Rockin’ River Ranch.
During an open house hosted by Arizona State Parks and Trails June 1 at Camp Verde Middle School, officials gave community members an opportunity to visualize what might exist on the property, which sits along more than a mile of the Verde River in Camp Verde’s Salt Mine region.
A wildland fire started within two hours of the announcement of fire restrictions on national forest land by Yavapai County, the Prescott and Coconino national forests, the city of Cottonwood and Verde Valley Fire District.
VVFD was dispatched at 9:17 a.m. Thursday, June 1, to State Route 89A milepost 359, between Cottonwood and Page Springs Road, south of Oak Creek Road. Crews stopped the spread of the fire within 15 minutes of arriving and was completely extinguished with assistance from Sedona Fire District, Prescott forest rangers and Arizona Department of Transportation.
The city of Cottonwood is an outlier when it comes to budgeting for its police department, according to Cottonwood Police Department Chief Steve Gesell.
For the 2018 fiscal year, the Cottonwood City Council requested a 3 percent budget cut across departments in anticipation of a budget approval on Tuesday, June 20.
Cottonwood City Council renewed City Magistrate A. Douglas Lasota’s contract for another two years.
The June 6 decision, approved in a 4-3 vote, followed an extended discussion during which council members expressed unease about not renewing Lasota’s contract without information on improving court efficiency.
Subdivision development in the Camp Verde area is a relatively recent phenomenon, hampered by a lack of infrastructure: Except for the Yavapai-Apache Nation’s Tunlii community, a series of Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects that began in 2008 and continue to this day, it has been a decade and a half since a major housing development has come to fruition in the area.
“Camp Verde has historically been an agricultural community,” Community Development Director Carmen Howard said. “It’s developed organically as a result.”
As I drove up to the Cottonwood Police Department, my cell phone rang with an unknown number.
I was greeted with the voice of officer Kiedi Dever, “How soon will you be here? I just got a call about a bust and I need to be there to transport the suspects.”
According to three of the Verde Valley’s city and town managers, allocation of fees from the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund are having a direct negative effect on transportation infrastructure construction and maintenance.
HURF fees are generated through motor fuel taxes and “fees and charges relating to the registration and operation of motor vehicles on the public highways of the state,” according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. “These collections include gasoline and use-fuel taxes, motor-carrier taxes, vehicle-license taxes, motor vehicle registration fees and other miscellaneous fees.”
Vineyards at Cottonwood’s 550-home housing development may be the area’s newest subdivision project, but it is by no means the only one going.
Construction of new homes continues at Mesquite Hills in Cottonwood and Mountain Gate and Crossroads at Mingus in Clarkdale.
Camp Verde will have to wait a while more for word on Dennis Goodwin’s performance as superintendent of Camp Verde Unified School District.
After presenting data in support of his own self-evaluation June 6, Goodwin entered executive session for over two hours with the CVUSD Governing Board.
