Friday, December 3, 2021

Bits and Pieces

Council approves video recording of board and commission meetings
This past Wednesday, The Oro Valley Town Council unanimously approved a motion by Council Member Bohen to video record all board and commission meetings. Currently, these meetings are audio recorded. They are difficult to follow when there are presentations being made. Thus, the need for video.  The motions increases governance transparency. It wa unanimously approved by all Council Members.

Town Manager Jacobs: Town's staff wellness program is robust"
"We have a extremely robust wellness program here and the Town of Oro Valley for employees and because we are self insured that’s particularly important so that we keep our employees out of the doctor keep them healthy and that ultimately saves taxpayer dollars so it all works out really well with regularly been recognized for outstanding wellness programs and we were notified that we received the official gold seal of good health keeping renewal awards so again we get it again and the employer resiliency recognition from the wellness council of Arizona and so will be receiving that award." (Source: Town Manager Mary Jacobs report to council at meeting of November 17, 2021)

Great holiday lights display for you to watch...
This year, as in past years, the home at the intersection of Landoran and Golf View Drive in Oro Valley has a simply lovely, fun display. It's hard to describe so we've included a video for you to enjoy. It's really something.

OV SafeSteps program wins PRSA IMPACT Award of Excellence
ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (Nov. 15, 2021) –– The Town of Oro Valley’s OV SafeSteps program has been recognized for exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness in public relations and communications by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) for Southern Arizona.
 
On November 2, the program was awarded a PRSA IMPACT Award recognizing the highest standards in programs that successfully incorporate the four key elements of: research, planning, implementation, and evaluation and demonstrating the value these practices bring to communities. (Source: Town of Oro Valley Press Release)

Proposed Senior Care Facility at Stone Canyon is no more
"The Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement with Spectra Properties for the 51-acre Stone Canyon parcel has been terminated," according to the Stone Canyon Community Association letter of November 24. The project was for a "skilled care facility" and not a resort. In September, the Town's Board of Adjustment unanimously rejected an appeal of a zoning interpretation by Town Engineer Bayer Vella regarding building height. At that meeting, residents were complementary of Vella's detailed study of the matter as well as former Mayor Loomis' comments at the meeting. 

Oro Valley Municipal Golf: How does it compare?
One of ways to understand how well Oro Valley's 36-holes of municipal golf is doing is to compare its "rounds" results to another, reasonably close municipal course.  One of the challenges in doing this is that Oro Valley operates 36 holes of golf while a comparable course operates only 18. Another challenge is that the Oro Valley courses are not strictly comparable because Oro Valley's course has memberships. Member rounds account to 40% of total round played.  Other municipal courses have no memberships.

Considering these differences, we compared Oro Valley Municipal Golf results to that other course, focusing on total non member "played" rounds. For the four months ended October, the other course had 479 non member paid rounds per hole. The Oro Valley course had 323. So, in that regard, the Oro Valley courses are underperforming. 

On the other hand, Oro Valley is outperforming this other municipal course (561 to 479) if total rounds are considered.
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