Gila County Board approves budget; looks for grant money possibilities

Gila County — The Gila County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a $96,468,130 budget during their July 17 meeting. A public hearing lasted less than a minute because no one from the public attended to voice an opinion.

The board adjourned and reconvened seconds later as the Gila County Library District Board of Directors. Through unanimous vote, the board accepted a renewal grant agreement for the First Things First Community Based Literacy Grant in the amount of $85,000. The grant is used to provide a new free book every month to children in the county from infancy on up to five years old. Parents or grandparents can register the children at any of the Gila County libraries.

The board unanimously approved a proposal from Malissa Buzan to apply to the Arizona Department of Housing for a Community Development Block Grant.

Buzan said the grant would be used to acquire and rehabilitate a multi family apartment complex consisting of three units in order to provide transitional housing and shelter to Gila County homeless families and individuals.

Although Buzan did not name a specific site, she said the building would be in Globe in an area already zoned as multifamily housing. The transitional housing program would provide shelter for people for a period of 120 days to 18 months.

Buzan said the neighbors will be notified before the project begins. “It’s several months down the road,” she said, “before we even know if it will be granted.”

Supervisors also approved a request to submit a grant application to the state to be used for long range planning of transportation issues. Staff said there has been a shift in population in some areas of the county which could result in a change in how the roads are being used. The county works on transportation under a five year plan and that plan is due to be updated.

Supervisors also gave their unanimous approval to put out a request for proposals for janitorial services for county buildings in southern Gila County. Joseph Heatherly explained that there was a janitorial service caring for county buildings up until last year. In June of last year the contract was terminated and the county gave the job to its own employees.

Heatherly said he would like to gather proposals to see if it would be more economical to again hire an outside service. The county buildings in Payson are cleaned by a professional service.

A contract for liquid asphalt was awarded to Cactus transport at $910 per ton.