City of Scottsdale Bond First Mail Only Vote Happens on November 5
By Scott Gaertner
One year ago, the City of Scottsdale had its first open meeting to discuss building a park on a property at Ashler Hills Drive and 74th Street called Sevano Park. About 200 very interested residents showed up at that meeting to make their voices heard, and we thought you would like an update on what’s happening now.
Since that time, the Scottsdale City Council unanimously agreed to seek voter approval to issue bonds for 58 community projects totaling $319 million. Sevano Park is one of those 58 projects, and it was allotted a budget of just over $6 million. The 58 projects will appear on the ballot grouped into three specific questions for voters to approve as initiatives: (1) parks, recreation, and senior services; (2) community spaces and infrastructure; and (3) public safety and technology.
The November 5 bond will be the City of Scottsdale’s first election conducted completely by mail. Every registered voter in Scottsdale will be sent a ballot with prepaid return postage to cast their ballot.
In a phone interview, Bill Murphy, Assistant City Manager, said that if the bond passes that the city will build the park in two phases. Currently, the plan is to build a number of pickleball courts, some grass areas with playgrounds, bathrooms, and parking. This was essentially the same plan they proposed at a meeting last February.
Murphy mentioned that the city did not believe that there was enough room to build both pickleball courts and a dog park, so the next “off-leash” dog park will be located further south, off Thompson Peak Road. There is a $4.6 million budget for the dog park. For those of you interested in the dog park, Murphy said that nothing is cast in stone right now and that there will be more public meetings to discuss the subject.
As things always seem to work with the government, packed around the pork-barrel projects like Sevano are also a lot of old maintenance items the city hasn’t had the wherewithal to handle with past budgets. Ultimately, if you want the city to participate in creating Scottsdale North’s first park, this bond has to pass. So, even if you don’t want to pay for the other $313 million dollars worth of items earmarked for funding from the bond, please be sure to check your mailbox this month, swallow hard, and then VOTE NOVEMBER 5!
