Mayor Christian Price declared February CTE Advocacy Month. Photo by Adam Wolfe

The Maricopa City Council approved a measure to bring the Arizona Rattlers arena football team to Maricopa for their spring workouts.

“This is really about growth and about opportunity,” Rattlers President Chris Presson said. “We’re repurposing certain areas including Copper Sky (Multigenerational Complex), which we find to be a marvelous facility, and we want to bring value to your community.”

The council unanimously approved the Rattlers use of Copper Sky Regional Park for practice. The team will spend nearly three weeks in Maricopa to train for the start of the season in April.

“I just want to make the point that this is going to be about the city and about the Ak-Chin Indian Community,” Rattlers head coach Kevin Guy said. “This isn’t going to be about the Rattlers. We’re going to put ourselves into the community for two and a half weeks, and I know our players are excited about it.”

The Rattlers won three straight Arena Bowls from 2012 to 2014, and have five championships overall.

“We have a champion in town!” council member Henry Wade said.

The council also honored Career and Technical Education programs at Maricopa High School when Mayor Christian Price proclaimed February to be “Career and Technical Education Advocacy Month” for the city of Maricopa.

“The City of Maricopa has many past and present Career and Technical Education students working in the various city departments including the Library, City Hall and the Maricopa Center for Entrepreneurship,” Price said. “Therefore, I, Christian Price, Mayor of the City of Maricopa, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2016 as Career and Technical Education Advocacy Month in the City of Maricopa, and we urge all residents of Maricopa to recognize, support and commend the students, educators and business people involved with these important tasks.”

Earlier in the council work session, the Maricopa Development Services Department provided updates and future plans for the City of Maricopa Express Transit system throughout the city.

According to Transportation Planner David Maestas, Development Services hopes to continue local and regional “demand responses,” acquire right of way for bus stops and install bus stop signs, work through the budget to develop bus shelters and aggressively market the bus stop locations.

“We’re on course to increase our ridership 30.2 percent for the year,” Maestas said.

Development Services hopes to improve the efficiency of the fixed route system by eliminating seldom used stops at City Hall and the Park-n-Ride, and making the route circular to help with pick-up consistency.

“One change we are proposing to the route is to change the route to a circular route,” Maestas said. “What that does is closes the loop in conjunction without lengthening the hours. It makes it feasible for somebody to have the assurance to go shopping and reasonably be able to get back home.”

After a short discussion, the council also approved $25,000 from the city’s contingency fund for the purchase of a van to transport victims of crime during a crisis event. The Maricopa Police Department will utilize the van to transport victims of domestic or sexual assault to secure areas for examinations and protection.

The Maricopa City Council will reconvene on March 1 at 7 p.m.