GOVERNING BOARD CONTINUES TO KEEP CHINO VALLEY IN THE DARK ON RACEWAY AS FIRST HALF OF 2017 NEARS AN END

College opposed raceway project in 2002; Current Governing Board refuses to cooperate with Chino Valley Council on 2017 proposal by denying town opportunity to make a presentation or decide whether it opposes or favors the project

Any cooperation with the Chino Valley Town Council on the question of developing a raceway about a half mile from the Yavapai Community College Chino Valley Center was rejected by the Governing Board at its March 7, 2017 meeting.  The decision came as Chino Valley was asking to make a presentation to the Governing Board in April about the proposed project and ask the Board  to determine whether it would veto  the project.  An intergovernmental agreement between the College and the Town of Chino Valley, which was executed in 2002, provides the Governing Board with a veto over construction of a raceway near the College’s Chino Valley Center.  The Governing Board has not changed its view of non-cooperation since the March decision.

This is not the first time the College has been embroiled in the question of whether a raceway should be located at the Old Home Manor property. In 2002 a developer sought to build a raceway  near where the Center is located.  John Morgan, associate dean for the Chino Valley Center back in 2002, told the local newspapers that the college may reconsider its plans to expand the Center  using $3.5 million of a $69.5 million bond passed by voters in November 2000 if the Chino Valley Town Council approves the racetrack.  In a telephone interview, he told a reporter from the Daily Courier that “The way the racetrack has been proposed is questionable in its compatibility. It is in conflict to what Yavapai College has planned for future growth out here.”

In a letter to the Town Council in 2002, then Community College President Doreen Daley said: “Given the proximity of Yavapai College’s Agribusiness and Science Technology Center to the projected site, building and operating this racetrack would expose the college to a number of negative factors. Equine science is a core of the agribusiness technology program, and with our plans to switch a great deal of our equine training/riding classes to the weekends beginning this summer, the track poses a threat to both animals and humans. Additional noise from operations and intrusions due to sound amplification systems would be impediments to student learning. There is no doubt the sound will carry great distances across a wide-open Chino Valley, which does not have natural buffers.”  (Sources: Daily Courier, Feb 5, 2002; Feb 12, 2002.)

The new raceway effort began in July 2016. Since then the District Governing Board and College have received over 300 requests for information via email from concerned citizens. None of those requests were answered by the College or the Board. Instead, they were sent to the town of Chino Valley.

President Wills made a presentation to the Chino Valley Town Council on February 14, 2017 without informing the Governing Board she was doing so. To confuse matters even more, she spoke on behalf of the College and not the District Governing Board. This made little sense to the listeners. Furthermore, she suggested there were obstacles to the raceway that had to be met while also saying the final determination is with the Town. (Her speech can be viewed by scrolling down to the  Feb 28 Blog post.) She did not elaborate.

It is clear that the Governing Board will not act and will not inform itself of the issues surrounding the raceway and the potential impact on the College until after the Chino Valley Council votes on the issue. It places Chino Valley in a very difficult position because it doesn’t know what kind of study, if any, would meet Governing Board requirements or whether any requirements will be demanded. The Town looks at the possibility of investing thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to support various studies about the impact of the track fearing that the College will veto the project at the completion of all the work.  So much for cooperation between the Community College Board and the town of Chino Valley.