Graham County manager reports progress on Main Street remodel, CDBG sidewalks, clean-and-lien ordinance and road projects

SAFFORD, Ariz. — Graham County Manager Welker on Oct. 20 briefed the Board of Supervisors on a series of ongoing capital projects, community cleanups and planning efforts, saying the county has taken steps to move multiple projects into the procurement or design phase.

Welker told the board the Main Street building remodel bids were opened at the prior meeting and the county awarded the construction contract to Lunk Construction and a sprinkler contract to Allen Fire Protection Systems, with a separate contract for a Verkada security system. He said a kickoff meeting with the contractor was expected soon.

On federal grant work, Welker said the county’s Community Development Block Grant application for ADA sidewalks around the fairgrounds will be submitted before the Nov. 1 deadline and will connect new parking to park spaces near the upper and lower duck ponds.

Welker also reported on a draft clean-and-lien ordinance developed with contract attorney Kent Volkmar and County Attorney Scott Bennett; staff comments on the draft were due to county reviewers by the Thursday following the board meeting.

Engineering updates included work on the Gila River Linear Park and Trail (environmental review in progress), completion of the structural design for the Tallywash bridge project with plans being finalized in-house and planned solicitation of construction bids in the coming weeks. Welker said engineering is advancing plans for three road chip-seal projects — Clough Avenue, Sanchez Road and Emery Road — with Sanchez plans already transmitted to the highway yard and survey work completed on Emery.

Welker detailed the county’s community cleanup effort: the three-agency event (Safford, Thatcher, Pima and Graham County) targeted Thunderbird Mobile Home Park and used 10 40-yard dumpsters and multiple 14-foot trailers for appliances and trash. He said Vista Recycling provided dumpsters at no charge while the county paid scale fees.

On fair operations, Welker reported attendance for Thursday–Saturday at “over 20,000” people and said the rain on Saturday reduced the total from the prior year’s reported 22,000.

Welker thanked multiple departments and staff members for project work and noted continued coordination with the sheriff’s office, city partners and volunteer groups. No final board actions were taken on these updates during the Oct. 20 session; the remarks were provided as informational reports and project status updates.

Quotes from the meeting - On the quitclaim deed presentation: Eric Engel, Engineering Department, said, “This is approval to accept a quitclaim deed for right of way on Central Road from Brent Payne.” - On the SB 1847 amendment: Colin Fanning, standing in for the Health Department director, said, “This is a $12,000 increase in the funding for fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27.” - On community cleanup results: County Manager Welker reported, “We took out of over this weekend Thunderbird Mobile Home 10 40 yard dumpsters plus 3 14 foot trailers loaded with appliances and then another 2 14 foot trailer loads of more trash.”

Next steps - County staff will move forward with contract execution and project kickoffs for the Main Street remodel, sprinkler and security upgrades. - The engineering department will finalize construction-ready documents for the Tallywash bridge and prepare bid packages for road projects. - Staff will finalize comments on the draft clean-and-lien ordinance and return them to contract counsel for revision before presenting to the board for future consideration.