CAVE CREEK – During Monday night’s council meeting Mayor Vincent Francia announced the town-sponsored Taste of Cave Creek event was coming up on Oct. 19 and 20.
During Call to the Public, Cave Creek Museum Executive Director Evelyn Johnson passed out the museum’s calendar of events for the year and said the museum will be opening Oct. 1 for its 47th season.
Mary Elrod said she reviewed the agenda and asked council to be unbiased and fair toward all events in Cave Creek.
Kevin Price, manager of the Hideaway and Roadhouse, said he too reviewed the agenda and claimed there was a lot of unfair enforcement toward events and stated, “It seems like we’re always singled out.”
Town Manager Peter Jankowski advised council the PRV (pressure reduction valve) at 24th Street was adjusted a week ago Thursday and is currently stabilized at 70 PSI. He said the town will make small incremental increases in pressure every couple days to get the pressure up to 100 PSI.
Francia moved agenda items 8 and 9 to the top of the agenda.
The first of the two was for a number 6 bar liquor license for the Mountain View Pub.
Town Clerk Carrie Dyrek said the notice was posted on the property as required and no comments were received.
With Councilman John Ford absent, council voted unanimously to recommend approval with Councilman Ernie Bunch stating, “No way you can have an Irish Pub and not sell Guinness.”
Councilman Thomas McGuire joked, “My name is McGuire and I’m not going to recue myself.”
The second item was for a permanent extension of premises for the Buffalo Chip.
Dyrek said the new Buffalo Chip had a change of address and the outdoor extension of premises has changed. She said because it is an existing liquor license there was no posting requirement.
During public comment Katya Kincel asked if there was a permit “filed for this in the first place.”
Seeking clarification, Dyrek asked if she was talking about building permits.
Kincel said yes.
Dyrek said the permits were all on file with the building department.
Kincel asked, “Why are they asking for approval?”
Jankowski explained the extension of premises has to do with the area outdoors where liquor is served.
Council voted unanimously to recommend approval with Councilman Dick Esser asking owner Larry Wendt when he would be having his grand opening.
Wendt said he believes he will be able to open Oct. 15, adding everything may not be perfect yet.
Kimberly McQueen, special events coordinator for Frontier Town, said she was there on behalf of Marc Peagler, treasurer of the Cave Creek Merchants and Events Association (CCMEA), in requesting $10,000 from the town for Wild West Days.
She said they have $11,000 earmarked for advertising and Tractor Supply as a very large sponsor.
McQueen mentioned a number of events and said it looked like this year’s parade will be the largest with fireworks on Saturday night at Frontier Town.
During public comment, Reg Monachino said Cave Creek Armory has donated a number of guns to be raffled off and tickets were $20 each.
Council voted unanimously to disburse $10,000 to CCMEA for Wild West Days.
The next agenda item was seeking an extension of Steve Betts’ contract with the town at a fee of $5000 per month through December for consulting services related to economic development and strategic development concerning the transfer of state land to the town.
During public comment Kerry Smith stated he found it unusual there hasn’t been a report on Betts’ activities and what he plans to do.
Kincel asked why council would agree to an expenditure of $5,000 without a report and said there was nothing to support further expenditure.
C.W. Jensen said since the general plan was voted down in the Aug. 30 election, perhaps it was time to get rid of Betts’ services as well until the town had a better idea what type of development it will be planning.
Francia moved to approve the expenditure and explained Betts was unable to be there but his credentials were proper for the tasks.
He said Betts has been in discussions with businesses that may want to locate in Cave creek.
Vice Mayor Steve LaMar, who seconded the motion, said there is a detailed IGA (intergovernmental agreement) that will be coming to council and this process has moved very well and more quickly than they thought.
LaMar said Betts is key to a successful result.
Esser said he understands the concerns over a lack of report but stated with a two-month extension there will be a report.
Stating he whole-heartedly supports the extension, Bunch said, “When the agreement comes forward I think you’ll be thrilled.”
Council voted unanimously to approve the extension of Betts’ contract.
Council voted unanimously to approve the second reading of an ordinance that requires water meters to have an associated account and monthly billing or removal of the meter.
Councilwoman Susan Clancy brought forward the special event ordinance and said the town’s ordinance has been in place since 2009 and was reviewing other towns’ ordinances to see if ours needed to be brought up to date. She suggested more information be spelled out and perhaps be posted on the town’s website.
During public comment Wendt stated he was against anything that has to do with businesses and regulations and said, “Last count, there were 17 regulatory agencies I have to answer to.”
Hideaway and Roadhouse owner Mark Bradshaw said he totally agreed with everything Wendt said and stated staff does a great job.
Price said, “I believe it’s already all there. It’s a pretty good system the way it is.”
Monachino said he believed there was a hidden agenda in bringing the subject forward.
Rick Stahl, also from the Hideaway, said the town has wanted them to bring more events to town and they try to make things bigger and better and the events were becoming bigger.
Jensen said he didn’t think Clancy should be spending her time on the internet looking at other towns’ special events ordinances.
Francia clarified what was before them was nothing specific.
Clancy said, “What we have is not comprehensive,” and clarified that if there were more information spelling things out it could streamline the process and take less staff time.
Esser said the current ordinance was more specific than he remembered and noted it requires events that are longer than four days be brought to council.
While no events have been brought to council, Esser stated, “We have events that are longer than four days.”
Jankowski stated staff treats events that are longer than four days the same as other events.
Town Marshal Adam Stein stated events longer than four days require council approval and said the only event longer than four days is Bike Week, which he said is 10 days and by proclamation of the governor.
Stein said Bike Week is really broken up into two events and streamlined by putting them on the same application.
Associate Planner Bambi Muller stated Hidden in the Hills is also longer than four days and broken up into two events.
Jankowski said some event requirements are county requirements.
Clancy said her concern is liability if things aren’t spelled out.
Francia asked Stein if the current ordinance is working.
Stein responded, “I don’t think it’s broken. But, I understand what Councilwoman Clancy is saying. If she wants more clarification, I think we can do that.”
Bunch said the ordinance has worked well for seven years and he would tend to not want to change it.
LaMar said he thought the agenda item was going to be more specific and said he has concerns over lane closures, which he said a great majority of citizens oppose, but doesn’t feel they need more regulations.
He said he hoped there would be more consideration by businesses for citizens.
Francia said he believed what was underneath all of this was road closures and stated there is a cause and effect to that.
He said he’s tried for years to stop vendors from coming into town, calling it extremely unfair to the brick and mortar businesses.
However, Francia said, “You can’t fill your parking lots with vendors without addressing parking.”
He even pointed out the town’s Taste of Cave Creek event, which grows year after year, despite offering shuttle service from the center of town, ends up with cars parked all over the place, including neighboring subdivisions.
Francia said they have become victims of their own success.
LaMar said the town code has specific parking requirements for each type of business but when the parking lots are used for vendors that all goes away.
He said, “If we’re going to analyze issues that should be looked at.”
Francia said the direction to staff could be tiered. First, address Clancy’s concerns with the second tier dealing with vendors taking up parking.
Describing the town’s eclectic quality, LaMar said Cave Creek is a little bit of everything for everyone but there was a problem with vendors coming in and taking up parking.
Francia said he wanted this to come back to the current council.
Bunch said since they’ve “strayed afield” from the original discussion, “The success of bike week is beyond what our elastic waistbands can handle.”
Francia said, “Vendors and parking – that’s the elephant in the room. Because we’re so successful we need to come up with some ideas while this council is still seated.”
Jankowski said he understood what council is seeking.
Council voted unanimously to expand the Open Space Advisory Committee from seven people to 11.
Jankowski said there were so many people interested in serving he thought it was a good idea.
Bunch stated he was glad to see that kind of interest.
The mayor requested and council voted unanimously to continue item 5, a proposed concept that would authorize the town manager to create a municipal owned commercial park at the water ranch.
Francia said he wanted to continue the item until the town manager could meet with neighboring Whispering Hills and Las Ventanas residents to better explain what was being proposed.
Council voted unanimously to pass the second reading of an ordinance that would prevent persons from engaging vehicular traffic in the town right of way.
