Work sessions to update the new board members

Supervisors to discuss parks, bicycle routes

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors will hold several work sessions after their regular meeting Monday, as county staff continues to update the three new board members on different aspects of the government while also bringing up policy issues.

There will be a briefing on parks, an area the county has had little involvement in per policy adopted by the board in past years but became a campaign issue during last year’s election for District 3 County Supervisor, which includes the Foothills. Darren Simmons, who won that race, has been in discussions with civic groups that “may be interested” in maintaining a park on county owned land next to the Foothills Library, according to a staff report.

In the past Yuma County has used Community Development Block Grant funding to build Kiwanis Park in Tacna and Esperanza Park in the Somerton area, as well as renovate Gadsden Park in Gadsden.

The county owns Optimist Park, located in a retention basin in Mesa del Sol, and was dedicated the land at Adair Park by the Bureau of Land Management, where a shooting range open to the public is maintained by a private, nonprofit corporation.

Another briefing will be on county efforts to create more bicycle friendly routes for residents, which members of the Yuma Region Bicycle Coalition said at the May 1 meeting have been inadequate for promoting bicycling as an alternate form of transportation and a way to attract more winter visitors.

The county has never officially adopted a bicycle master plan, according to a staff report, though the Yuma Metropolitan Planning Organization developed one in 1987. The coalition has been pushing for more action from the county for the last two years, submitting its own plan in October 2015. Two county applications for state funding to help develop a plan have been rejected, and funding was not included in the 2016-17 budget.

The county is planning to introduce a comprehensive plan amendment to its Planning Commission June 26 to designate a bicycle loop in the North Frontage Road and Foothills area, and YMPO has funding for a countywide bicycle planning study, according to the report.

There will also be work session presentations on the county’s Financial Services Department and Office of Management and Budget.

The sessions will follow the county’s regular meeting, which begins 9 a.m. Monday in the Board of Supervisors auditorium, 198 S. Main St. The agenda includes:

• A request by Shepard Water Company to amend the Martinez Lake Resort 1 Planned Development by adding a wireless communications facility use and changing development standards for a parcel at the northwest corner of Martinez Lake and Marina roads.

• Approve construction plans and advertising for bids on an asphalt overlay project on Avenue 3E between County 14th and County 16th streets.

• Declaration of the Yuma Sun as the county’s official newspaper for purposes of advertising, publications and printing required to be done by the county government under state law, for the year beginning July 1.

The meeting will be broadcast on the county’s cable channel, Yuma77, and webcast and available for later viewing at www. yumacountyaz.gov.