Council votes 4-1 to pave city hall parking area; Estes says there are other priorities

Do we pave or do we not pave? That is a question members of city council were faced with at Tuesday evening’s meeting.

Council discussed a request by Public Works Director Bob Jackson to award a competitive bid contract to Achen-Gardner Inc. of Casa Grande in the amount of nearly $507,000 for the construction of Wilson Road south of Edison and paving the parking area at city hall.

In a 4-1 vote, (Councilman Joseph Estes opposed) council said the city should go forward and award the bid to Achen Gardner Inc. for construction of the road and paving of the city hall property. Achen-Gardner was the only bid received by the city.

Councilman Will Dunn was absent from the meeting, and Mayor Kelly Anderson had to recuse himself from the discussion since his family owns the property where city hall sits.

Estes said his concerns are that the city will bear the costs of paving the parking lot when the lease for city hall is up in less than two years. Estes added there are other priorities for the city right now than paving the parking area at city hall.

“It is a temporary sight and temporary use,” Estes said. “People assume we are going to renew that lease. The more money we pour into the property, the more likely we’ll renew the lease. We don’t know when we leave the property if we’ll be required to go in and tear it (parking lot repaving) out. How much will that cost? I don’t see the need to spend that kind of money on a temporary parking lot.”

Estes said he would rather see the city focus first on the library and city hall second. Estes asked if asphalt shades like those at the library could be placed at the city hall parking complex to help keep dust down. Estes also wanted to know if the work on the city hall area was not done, could the work projected for Wilson Road south of Edison still be completed. “I don’t believe so,” Jackson responded.

Councilman Edward Farrell questioned the idea of spending the money to pave the parking area at city hall. “We’d be spending money as a tenant and not a landowner,” Farrell said. “If we move city hall does the owner reimburse us for any enhancements we did to their land?”

Vice-Mayor Brent Murphree asked what it would take to relocate city hall in the next one and a half years. Interim City Manager Roger Kolman said it was possible but not very probable to make that move anytime soon. Kolman noted relocating city hall would likely be in excess of $200,000.

“I think that is just the beginning,” Murphree said. “One of the things the public has to understand is it (moving) is not a matter of us saying we’re going to move in 15 minutes. The decision process of that is going to take some calculation. It isn’t something that we look at lightly. I think we’re getting closer to a real discussion about city hall.”

Councilmen Stephen Baker and Kelly Haddad both agreed that council should approve the work so the city is in compliance with what they require of other businesses.

“We would require any other business in town to pave their parking lot, so why would it be expected that we could do something different,” Haddad offered. “I honestly don’t think we’ll get reimbursed for it. It is just the cost of doing business. At the end of the day, the city of Maricopa is a business.”

Editor’s note: According to Mike Mills of Achen-Gardner, the approximate cost to do the interim city hall paving is $370,000. The remainder of the figure ($507,000) mentioned above would go towards the Wilson Road portion of the project.