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Florence council authorizes notices for utility and property-tax hearings and approves Well 5 change order
Summary
The Florence Town Council on March 3 authorized posting notices to begin the state-required process for potential utility and property tax rate increases and approved a $11,652.72 change order for the Well 5 rebuild, increasing the contract cap as stated in the motion.
The Florence Town Council voted March 3 to post notices required under Arizona law to begin public review of possible increases to water and wastewater rates and to the town's property tax levy, and it approved a small change order for the Well 5 rebuild contract.
Council authorized staff to post a notice of intent and schedule a public hearing May 5 for the annual water and wastewater rate adjustment under the 2022 10-year rate plan, Carl said. "In 2022, we adopted a 10-year rate plan for water and wastewater," he said, explaining that tonight's action was to permit the required public notice and hearing scheduling.
The council also authorized posting a notice of intent to increase property tax rates on the town website; staff said final adoption would be considered at a June 2 meeting and that no levy figure was proposed tonight.
On a separate motion the council approved Change Order No. 4 for the Well 5 rebuild, authorizing $11,652.72 in additional services to correct a pump-to-waste valve omission discovered during startup. Jonathan said the omission "flooded the entire site" and described a pipe reconfiguration and relocation of the injection point to eliminate discharge onto neighboring property. He said the contractor will oversee a 10-day trial run and the town will take ownership after successful startup.
All motions carried on voice votes with council members in attendance voting in favor. The meeting record shows a quorum was present; Council Member Maldonado was noted as absent and in Washington, D.C. at the start of the meeting.
Why it matters: the rate-posting actions begin an annual administrative process that leads to public hearings where residents can comment before the council votes on any final increases. The Well 5 change order is a small, targeted correction intended to allow the new well to enter service.
The council also handled a consent-agenda vote and approved amended minutes from its Feb. 17 meeting. Staff said the water-wastewater hearing is set for May 5 and the property-tax adoption is planned for June 2, with public notices to be posted in advance as authorized tonight.
Next steps: staff will post the notices online and publish hearing details; the Well 5 contractor will complete the reconfiguration work and perform the trial run before town acceptance.
