Yavapai County District 3 Supervisor Nikki Check [D], Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., and Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office representatives were guests at the nonprofit Big Park Regional Coordinating Council monthly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 13.
◼️ Check stated that she will be attending BPRCC’s community meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Nazarene to discuss Arizona Public Service’s McGuireville to Oak Creek 69kV power line project that will run through the Village of Oak Creek. The meeting took place after press time.
The Coconino National Forest announced on Jan. 16 that it had published a final environmental assessment and draft decision for the 13.7-mile line and opened a 45-day objection period. Project 1Adocuments and instructions on how to file an objection are available at fs.usda.gov/project/coconino/?project=56977.
◼️Check confirmed that District 2 Supervisor James Gregory’s [R] last meeting will be Feb. 19, and that she was hopeful the Board of Supervisors will be able to fill the seat through appointment by April. Gregory’s district includes Camp Verde, Mayer, Dewey-Humboldt and southeast Yavapai County.
◼️ Check also subsequently expressed excitement that Aletheia Church, in Sedona, is expected to have a $40,850.30 property tax refund approved by the board.
“Aletheia Church is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that acquired parcel number 408-25-039F from another religious organization in 2020 and began to use it for religious purposes,” the board’s agenda stated. “Alethia was not aware that in order to be excused from paying property taxes, the church had to file an affidavit and supporting paperwork with the county assessor.”
The church became aware of this requirement in 2022 and established its tax-exempt status with the county assessor during the year.
“Aletheia subsequently learned that taxes had accrued on the subject property for the 2020 and 2021 tax years,” the agenda stated. “When Aletheia was advised of the amount due, the taxes were paid. Alethia Church now seeks reimbursement of the taxes paid as a tax-exempt religious organization.”
◼️ Regarding the SOCSD ongoing process to sell the former Big Park Community School, Swaninger said, “As this process moves along and potential bids begin to come in, we will likely be holding at least one information session on those bids likely at the Big Park property, so people in the community can hear what those, what the kind of the specifics for those properties, and ask questions.”
Swaninger said that SOCSD has issued a request for proposals that will expire on Friday, Feb. 21, for an appraiser to estimate the value of the property, which would likely be followed by a request for proposals for a broker that would be discussed at a future district board meeting.
n “There’s not a whole lot of change in statistical data up there since Jan. 1, you guys are still very well behaved; 202 calls for service,” YCSO Lt. Dan Pritchard said. “That includes 54 traffic stops, which was 27% of the total calls that we’ve had up there.”
