Casa Grande Dispatch (Newspaper) - February 14, 1984, Casa Grande, Arizona BEST COPY Final Countys Doily Newspaper CASA GRANDE ARIZONA 85222 oil X I iVC 1 b tint A A i o C O i 4 i 1 i tjf A 70th Year TUESDAY FEBRUARY 14 1984 NO 37 25C per copy Improvement District Has Definite Dearth of Signers Elderly Residents Not Convinced Price Is Right JIM HAWLEY of Casa Grande marks his ballot at 8 Tuesday morn Ing choosing from among eight city bond requests Turnout was lower than in previous elections election Photo by Brian Cannon Voter Turnout Voter turnout was disappointing in the early hours of todays city bond election election officials said Its not very said Mary Beth Smith Casa Grande election inspector Im sure there would be twice this many in other elections But this is a bond election not a mayors race and thats different I As of 8 91 votes had been cast on six ballot proposals requesting bond issues for street sewer park library and fire de improvements the inspector said City Clerk Nelda Hooker predicted a moderate turnout of perhaps voters in the Tuesday election The citys highest voter turnout more than was re corded in November 1974 election on the city charter she said By now school has already started and we usually have a lot of school teach ers here before school Mrs Smith said This is not a very good turnout and thats bad because this is an important Other election officials agreed voter traffic at city hall was slower than usual The largest of the bond requests is a street repair proposal followed by library expansion sewer im park expansion and two fire department propos als at truck at and a training center at All except the street and sewer propos als would be paid back by property tax in creases totalling 44 per of assessed value The sewer proposal would be paid for by user fee increases of about per year and the street proposal would be paid back in highway user funds already returned to the city by the state Eligible voters can place Xs on a ballot at city hall until 7 By PETER BRONSON City Editor Efforts to convince some city residents to improve their streets gutters and side walks have hit a dead end city council members were told Monday night Theyve had trouble getting signa said Gary Beck acting public works director In fact they dont have the Phoenix firm which is trying to get the improvement district see map started will be given 20 more days beyond its original deadline to gather enough signatures At least one more than 50 percent of the property owners must sign to start such a district But council members said they doubt the extension will be of any help Beck said the failure was mainly be cause of costs Although estimated prices for the project have been cut from to per linear foot for each side of the street a recent gathering of more than half of the property owners in the district failed to raise even one signature he said From the people called me and Ive talked to that isnt going to do it council member Kate Kenyon said Youre getting to the point where youre the homes on some of those lots in the improvement Riftin Curtis asked if sidewalks were really necessary in the district If not he said the costs might be cut enough to in terest property owners But Mrs Kenyon replied Let them get by without sidewalks and then some developer will come in and say I dont need sidewalks for my people She said people in the district just cant afford the improvements There are a lot of elderly people in that district who just live on very small fixed Council members approved the second phase of work on another improvement district during the meeting giving a go iu be District The second phase calls for engineering studies and cost estimates now that 57 percent of the property owners have indicated ap proval The project inside a square outlined by Gila Bend Highway Final and Thornton will be funded by a grant in city cash and about from property owners If the project does not get sufficient support for final approval the city will have to pay in engineering costs Other improvement districts currently in progress are the downtown dis which has been given final approval and the million Southside district which has been referred to city staff for study after running into opposition before the first phase could begin Following their special meeting coun cil members held a study session to dis cuss business licenses among other things Local contractors have complained that subcontractors often do not pay the city business license fee Council member Jim Hatfield said he did not see the point in going after a group described by City Manager Rodger Ben nett as about one percent of all tors But Steve Pass Dewey Powell and Mrs Kenyon said they did Its getting out of Pass said Not only contractors but salesmen and vendors are conducting business without the benefit of city licens es he said Its not fair to make local people pay if you dont get it from Powell said Mrs Kenyon agreed Contractors have been complaining for years and 1 dont blame them If one pays they should all she said City Attorney Mike Beers recommend ed issuing citations to violators The fine which applies would encourage prompt licensing he said Bennett said he also will review the code with the city police department for better enforcement FLORENCE BOULEVARD STATE HIGHWAY 287 THES MAP indicates the Central Improvement Dis presented to City Council during a study ses sion Monday night The district has not been popu lar with property owners and none hove yet signed c petition in support of the project South Tucson Saga Cant Happen Here What made South Tucson the star of 60 Minutes cant happen here accord ing to City Manager Rodger Bennett A huge liability settlement against South Tucson was the subject of a 60 Min utes segment Sunday night South Tucson may be one of the first cities in the nation attempting to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying the lawsuit settlement it was reported If bankruptcy is not allowed the city must raise property taxes to pay the which is growing by per day in interest No Absolutely Bennett replied when asked if Casa Grande would also go broke if sued for millions of dollars as South tucson was We have pretty com prehensive Bennett said South problem was a decision to buy cars for city employ ees instead of insurance As a result the city was uninsured when a Tucson Police man sued South Tucson after being shot in the back and paralyzed when called to assist at a crime scene The South Tucson policeman who shot the Tucson officer was found not liable but South Tucson was found negligent in its police training methods The problem was examined by Mike Wallace during Sundays news magazine TV program Wallace called South effort to de clare bankruptcy to avoid paying the multimillion dollar settlement the first of its kind and said other cities wili be watching the ruling closely So far the rulings have not been in South favor and it looks the city may be ordered to hike property taxes to pay the court ordered settlement To prevent a similar disaster from crip pling Casa Grandes finances the city car ries two liability policies Bennett said a policy for small liability and a million policy for larger suits All insur ance premiums for the city add up to about he said 1 havent seen a settlement against a city or town as high as the million South Tucson Bennett said Most of the higher ones are in the area of to The citys insurer is among the top rated companies in the nation he said Asked if Casa Grande is adequately insur ed Bennett replied Im very Lot of Clouds No Youll Find Rodeo Road Underwater A WATER line at Trekell and Rodeo roads was broken at 1 Monday when a loader used by crews working on repaying of Rodeo Road hit a concrete cover on the pipeline The break shut off water for residents of the Rancho Grande subdivision until about Workers soid the break also caused a days delay in road work Staff by Kim By The Associated Press More clouds will move across Arizona on Tuesday and again later in the week raising some chance of showers but gen it will be mostly sunny and contin ued mild the National Weather Service says Forecasters said the advancing clouds raise the possibility of showers for north ern Arizona but that the extended forecast through Saturday calls for variable mainly high cloudiness with little change in day to day temperatures Highs generally will be in the 40s in the mountains to the 70s in the deserts with lows in the teens in the mountains to the mid 30s to mid 40s in the deserts the ser vice said The rapidly moving front is not ex to drop any rain in Casa Grande
