MOHAVE COUNTY – Mohave County supervisors have pumped the brakes on the proposed transition of the Golden Valley Improvement District (GVID) to citizen control. The Board of Supervisors (BOS) serves as the GVID governing board and will likely continue doing so at least until next fall.
Discontent among the GVID customer base over a well failure last year, followed by unrest over a BOS imposed surcharge (subsequently reversed), had many residents calling for conversion to a domestic governing board. The BOS solicited applications and 6 citizens asked to be appointed if the board was inclined to convert the district to citizen governance.
“I just want to thank the board for moving forward with this and giving us a chance,” GVID domestic board applicant Jennifer Esposito told supervisors during their Monday board meeting. “We all talk as republicans and conservatives about how private entities can usually do better at things than government. Well, we want to prove that to you.”
Butch Meriwhether also applied for appointment to the proposed domestic GVID board, expressing hope for a healthy transition and continued good working relationship with the county.
“I’m not for it and I’m not against it,” resident Philip Robinson said of a domestic-administered district.
Angle Homes’ Travin Pennington said the major home builder would try to withdraw from the GVID and establish its own water company if conversion was approved.
Supervisors recessed to executive session without discussing the matter during the public portion of the meeting. Emerging from the private huddle, the board quickly approved supervisor Buster Johnson’s motion to continue the item until Sept., 2024 without discussion or explanation.
Clarification came after the meeting.
“I just got a lot of push back from people that were not vocal during the process leading up to requesting letters of interest,” said supervisor Jean Bishop. “They were frightened that control of this water district was going to be given to just anybody without any experience or knowledge how to run it.”
“I believe if I added up all the emails and phone calls I received, there’s more people in support of the county keeping it than there were of the county giving it to them,” said supervisor Buster Johnson.
Both Johnson and Bishop said pushing the matter to next Sept. will provide time to address various matters to prepare the district for a smooth transition or allow the BOS a sufficient period to determine if the GVID is best kept under county control.
BOS: GVID changes tabled until next year; large scale renewable energy moratorium set
MOHAVE COUNTY – Mohave County Supervisors approved a temporary moratorium on utility scale renewable energy projects during their board meeting Monday. Chairman Travis Lingenfelter said doubling the moratorium period to 240 days would buy staff more time to adjust local regulations before an influx of renewable projects might flow back through the process for future consideration.
Supervisors refrained from converting the Golden Valley Improvement District to domestic governance and appointing board members to administer the entity initially. The Board continued the consideration all the way to next Sept.
Supervisor Jean Bishop drew no board support for a county employee request to designate the Friday after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday for the workforce as opposed to Columbus Day, now celebrated by some as Indigenous People’s Day.
Supervisors, without discussion, continued consideration of contract renewal for County Manager Sam Elters.
