The Maricopa City Council accepted a $450,000 grant from the Ak-Chin Indian Community for the construction of the police substation at the Copper Sky Regional Park during its regular meeting Tuesday night.
The grant is meant to provide the Maricopa Police Department with extra funding to complete the substation. The initial budget for the substation did not allow the department to equip the substation with all of the equipment in the initial plan. The extra funding won’t negate that deficit, but it will help the department add some much needed equipment.
“It’s a generous donation,” MPD Chief Steve Stahl said. “As you’re all aware, the budget for the police substation was woefully short. As a result, we had to make some cutbacks. Now, some of the very important parts of a functional communications center are being taken care of that weren’t going to be taken care.”
Those items include a noise wall and three 911 lines (plus backups) into the substation.
The council also took time to honor the 14 new graduates of the city’s fall Maricopa Citizen Leadership Academy.
“The Maricopa Citizen Leadership Academy is specially designed to help transform residents into the role of actively engaged citizen, ultimately building a stronger Maricopa,” Assistant City Manager Jennifer Brown said. “This was our 12th session in the city’s history. Over the last 11 years, we’ve had 191 graduates.”
The graduates were required to attend five of the six academy classes, as well as a City Council or Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board meeting, and a city board commission or committee meeting.
The council also approved a two-year contract with Lincoln Financial for short-term disability insurance, a resolution declaring the “2015 Amendments to the Tax Code of the City of Maricopa” to be a public record and a submission ratification of a grant applications to the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Program through Maricopa Association of Governments. The grant applications could potentially bring in $2,710,921 for approximately 5 miles of roadway paving projects. The grants would still carry a local match cost totaling $644,263 for the projects.
The Maricopa City Council will reconvene on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m.
