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City offers ample opportunities for public comment and participation in future planning

As Globe’s City Council heads into the next phase of the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) update in February, the City’s new website gives residents additional tools to access information and make sure their voices are heard.

In addition to attending council meetings or watching online, or contacting Councilmembers directly, Globe now has a notification application that brings updates of City news directly to citizens’ phones.

As part of the SAP process, Council is asking residents of Globe to take a short online survey to weigh in on Globe’s long-range plans that will have lasting impacts in the coming decades.

“We’re preparing for the SAP and have a new website that allows people to sign up for text alerts directly to your phone,” says Globe’s Assistant City Manager Linda Oddonetto. “We want to encourage citizens to participate in our Community Survey so their voices can be heard and so they can further understand the planning process.”

Created through a collaborative process with Council members and the public, the SAP helps Council identify priorities that are included in the existing blueprint for the City’s future.

The SAP update will also help Council create a roadmap for the 2025-2026 budget. Additionally, the document acts as a guide for City Council’s future meeting agendas.

Recent SAPs have focused on four main areas of action for Council, including economic and community development; infrastructure; public safety, and quality of life for residents.

Thanks to efforts that began in 2018 with the establishment of the Economic and Community Development Department, Globe is well on its way to completing the groundwork for future economic development, despite external forces that could have derailed progress along the way.

“When you’re doing these improvements to infrastructure, you have to do long range planning,” says Globe Mayor Al Gameros. “Things aren’t going to be magically fixed overnight. I hear the frustration some of our residents feel, but I think they understand and I think they’ve been patient. It takes time to get some of the projects to come to fruition and go vertical on them. It’s been six years and we predicted 10 years to get to where we want to be, so we’re getting to the end game.”

While several infrastructure projects have been completed—upgrades to local parks, repaving many streets and a large swath of blight reduction—many are still underway or have been delayed due to COVID, fires, floods and other issues out of the City’s control.

Council recently celebrated completion of the Cottonwood Bridge, and the Community Center Pool and Splash Pad is approaching its third year of operation this spring. But other projects such as the Michaelson Building Coworkspace and Business Incubator, the Silver King building demolition, and rehabilitation of the 100-year-old Connie’s Bridge have hit snags that have slowed completion and led to wild speculation on local social media sites.

“I’ve heard the frustration of our residents and the community in general, Council shares their concerns,” Gameros says of delays that have beset the project. “There were a lot of obstacles, and some remediation work that had to be done, but now we have a contractor that has been approved to do the final remediation.”

Gameros adds that the delays had nothing to do with City planning and were it not for the professional experience of City Engineer Luis Chavez, the final product might not have been up to the City’s standards. Gameros is hesitant to put a date on final completion of the bridge and is more concerned with a quality project than a timeline at this point in the process.

But all of the current projects are individual pieces of the overall plan to build for Globe’s future and in many cases each project acts as a stepping-stone to the next. For instance, once Connie’s Bridge is complete, the City will embark on a sidewalk project along Jesse Hayes Road from the crossing to the Gila College campus with access points to the Community Center, Besh ba Gowah and a future walkway that is in the planning stages.

All the while, Council and City staff will continue to plan for the future and work to acquire external funding to facilitate future growth.

Thanks to the model the City has created, much of the money required to bring Globe’s aging infrastructure into the 21st century has come from outside sources.

Since 2018, the City brought in more than $127 million in outside funding for many aspects of the existing SAP, from building bridges and sidewalks to rehabilitating parks and beautifying the downtown historic district.

Highlights include:

  • The $22 million Gorman Hill Street School project, creating 64 units of affordable senior housing;
  • A $100,000 feasibility study to rehabilitate the McCormack Tunnel with funding from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers;
  • $3.5 million for the Jesse Hayes sidewalk project;
  • $158,000 Safe streets and roads project to improve the safety of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in historic downtown on Broad Street; as well as,
  • $254,000 project to upgrade the skate park at the Community center and a $100,000 project funded by BHP to install additional outdoor exercise equipment at the community center

External funding has also been responsible for:

  • 173% budget increase from $24.2 million in 2016 to $66.3 million for fiscal year 2024-2025;
  • 68% increase in the operational budget over the same period from $11,465,632 to $19,260,943;
  • 134% increase in sales tax revenue from $3,614,792 to $8,456,299; and,
  • 183% increase in Bed Tax revenue from $90,567 to $256,592.
  • $14.4 million for water and sewer improvements;
  • $9.4 million for roads maintenance and bridge construction;
  • $19 million set aside for possible grants and donations.

“I think the key point is, when you’re dealing with funding that’s coming from state and federal governments, it’s a process and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Gameros says. “We’re awarded the money, but it’s often an arduous process to put that funding to work, so there’s a little bit of a lag there. You have to have personnel to be able to follow through, too.”

Residents interested in the happenings of their local government can go to Globe’s updated website at www.globeaz.gov, where they can find a link to the Community Survey. There is also a link to sign up to the notification app on the homepage.

The City of Globe has updated its website and added an app that can provide notifications and information about what’s happening with municipal government.

City Council meetings take place on the second and fourth Tuesdays each month at 6pm in Council chambers in the Municipal Building at 150 North Pine Street. Information, including meeting agendas and minutes can be found at the City of Globe website.

Gameros is also hosting an inaugural “Coffee With the Mayor” to discuss current events and issues face-to-face with the public on Wednesday, January 16 at 1pm at Copper Cities Coffee at 1100 N. Broad Street, Suite F. If there is sufficient interest, Gameros plans to host future meetings on the third Wednesday of each month at revolving locations around Globe.

“We’ve had some challenges that could have derailed our agenda, but we have stayed focused on the end goal,” Gameros says. “We don’t just attend Council meetings every two weeks, we’re involved not only locally, but statewide and nationally. We have to be involved at every level and Globe is seeing the impacts because of that.”

Be a part of the Planning. Scan the QR code to take the City of Globe’s Community Survey.

About David Abbott

Journalist, writer and editor who has worked for community newspapers for more than 15 years. After four years at Davis-Monthan AFB and a few years living in Tucson, moved to California to find his fortune. He is happy to be back in Arizona, in the mountains he loves.

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