Street Maintenance is anticipating a severe winter weather event to begin impacting the area late Tuesday, and potentially lasting throughout the weekend.
The first in this series of storms will be the worst in terms of wind, visibility and travel conditions. Current forecasts are indicating 70+ Mph wind gusts along with accumulating snowfall. This will create white-out and blizzard-like conditions through the day Wednesday. Also, there may be trees and tree limbs falling and general debris blowing city wide.
Snowfall during this first system is forecast to be in the 2–4-inch range in the lower elevations around the city with potentially heavier amounts in the surrounding higher elevations. These conditions will make travel almost impossible, let alone extremely hazardous. If you don’t absolutely need to travel, please don’t, particularly during the late Tuesday through Wednesday nighttime frame. Additionally, these conditions may make it difficult for our plow operators to effectively plow streets due to the low visibility and blowing snow adding to the hazardous road conditions.
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The City of Prescott and the Town of Prescott Valley met in mid-February to begin crafting a unified approach to water management and conservation to protect future water supplies in the Prescott Active Management Area (PrAMA).
Both parties recognize that overdraft of the aquifer is occurring, and additional water supplies are needed. Accessing those supplies will facilitate balancing the aquifer with proven smart-managed growth policies.
Growth will continue in the region, the group agreed, and must be managed with a broader approach to an overall conservation plan, watershed management, and open space preservation. Both parties are committed to protecting the Upper Verde River watershed for the benefit and enjoyment of all.
Consensus of the group was that new growth should include balanced systems that return more water to the aquifer. Accessing the Big Chino Water Ranch, is a partnership between Prescott and Prescott Valley, and is governed by an agreement between the two municipalities. The Big Chino is a significant asset that must be managed going forward.
Both Prescott and Prescott Valley governments and staff will continue to meet regularly to discuss and refine policies and plans for management in the PrAMA.
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Last Tuesday, during the Council’s Study Session, the Prescott Fire Department presented their Strategic Plan.
Chief Holger Durre explained that the key point was this: Innovation and prioritization need to blend with traditional solutions to overcome a significant gap in capacity. Simply building more fire stations, the classic fire department approach, will not solve the challenges that the City of Prescott has.
In 1995, when Prescott had a population of 30,600, the last new fire station was built. Now, with a population of over 46,000, the number of incidents has more than doubled in just the last four years, and the response time has also increased.
Why is this important? In addition to the impacts to an individual incident’s need for a rapid appearance on scene, higher response times can translate into higher home insurance rates. Some Prescott residents have already seen their homeowner policy rates increased or can even be cancelled.
A significant investment in Public Safety infrastructure is needed to overcome a critical delay in the response system. But new infrastructure alone will not solve the challenges, it will require innovation and a focus on outcomes.
As Chief Durre said, we have the oldest Fire Department in Arizona. Now we must become the most innovative.
You can watch his presentation at the Study Session HERE.
We also had a presentation from PROTECT, which stands for Planning for Resilience of Our Towns, Environment, Climate and Tourism, in which they discussed the Climate Risk Assessment for Prescott and the Quad City area. This was conducted by the Climate Assessment for the Southwest and Dr. Alison Meadow with the University of Arizona.
Two topics were presented:
Quad Cities Climate Profile
Local Climate Action Options
The General Plan Committee will be hearing further from PROTECT during their meeting this week.
I appreciate the time and effort that went into this. We will look through this extensive report, and maybe we can find some actionable items to consider at a future meeting.
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The City of Prescott is hosting a Household Hazardous Waste Collection from March 6th through March 24th.
This is designed to allow residents to safely dispose of unwanted household hazardous waste.
Accepted materials include, but are not limited to: Insecticides, pesticides, gasoline, car batteries, drain and oven cleaners, bleaches, oil-based paints, stains, or thinners (5-gallon limit,) latex paints (20-gallon limit,) adhesives, non-alkaline batteries, and old, mercury thermometers. Items will need to be in a box labeled HHW and placed in front of your garage door or 6-10 ft. up from your curb so it can safely be seen and collected by our contractor.
In order to participate, online pre-registration is required. Are you unsure if your items are considered hazardous? The City website has an online recycle wizard for your convenience HERE.
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In Prescott, we hold elections for Council seats during odd-numbered years. Any interested citizens can schedule a meeting with the City Clerk to review the Candidate Handbook and submit a Candidate Statement of interest.
We have a very comprehensive page on the city website with information for potential Candidates.
The Nomination Filing period for the 2023 Primary Election begins on March 4th, 2023 and ends on April 3rd.
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I want to take this opportunity to thank the Public Works Department for their excellent round-the-clock service during these winter storms. The roads have been cleared quickly, and residents are kept well-informed about the progress. We have received many complimentary comments such as, “The roads were awesome at 5am this morning! Thank you!”
Efforts like this help to keep the public safe. Thank you again. There are likely more storms to come and it’s great to know that we can depend on such a great staff.
