Back to profile

Cindy Barks

Stories by Cindy

Tease photo

An apartment complex near Willow Creek and Willow Lake roads, a Deep Well Ranch subdivision, and a Prescott Gateway Mall-area hotel all got approval in separate actions by the Prescott City Council this week.

By Cindy Barks November 29, 2023
Tease photo
Prescott launches plan to improve water quality in Watson Lake
Aerators could be in place on lake’s surface by summer 2024

About 40 years after Watson Lake first made an appearance on a list highlighting the reservoir’s polluted waters, an action was approved this week that aims to improve the water quality in the City of Prescott-owned lake.

By Cindy Barks November 28, 2023
Tease photo
Group files for recall seeking to oust Prescott Mayor Phil Goode
Recall election would pit Goode against challenger Goligoski

Just one day before Prescott Mayor Phil Goode is set to be sworn into office for his second two-year term as mayor, four residents with deep Prescott roots filed paperwork at City Hall to begin the process for an election seeking to recall Goode.

By Cindy Barks November 27, 2023
Tease photo
New Prescott City Council to be sworn in Tuesday
Watson Lake aerators, Deep Well Ranch subdivision, apartment complex in Lakeview Plaza all up for vote by current council

Two new Prescott City Council members and three incumbents will be sworn into office for new terms Tuesday, following a packed day of meetings for the current council.

By Cindy Barks November 25, 2023
Tease photo

If a walk through golden-tipped trees and rustling leaves sounds like the perfect pre- or post-Thanksgiving Day feast activity, then there are a number of spots in the Prescott area where that classic fall scene is still available.

By Cindy Barks November 22, 2023
Tease photo

With the lift of a bidding paddle, and to the cheers of the crowd, much of the region’s massive dormant volcano at Glassford Hill became the property of local governments this week — to be preserved as a regional park and open space far into the future.

By Cindy Barks November 21, 2023
Tease photo

With 95% of vehicles exceeding the posted 25-mile-per-hour speed limit on Hassayampa Village Lane, officials say that southwest-Prescott street is among several that likely are “under-posted,” and due for a bump in the speed limit.

By Cindy Barks November 18, 2023
Tease photo

Commercial passengers using the Prescott Regional Airport can continue to book flights to and from Denver and Los Angeles with confidence through at least the end of August 2024, based on a federal announcement this week.

By Cindy Barks November 18, 2023
Tease photo

A land purchase that city officials say will help to advance a long-planned airport runway extension project, as well as the overall protection of the Prescott Regional Airport, got unanimous Prescott City Council support this week.

By Cindy Barks November 16, 2023
Tease photo

With approval of an $8.1 million contract this week, Yavapai County took another step in its goal of improving high-speed internet in unserved and underserved rural areas of the county.

By Cindy Barks November 16, 2023
Tease photo

Despite the urging by members of the top-ranked redevelopment team that the city should start a new request-for-proposals (RFP) process for sale of the old Prescott City Hall property, the City Council opted this week to sell the downtown property to the next-in-line finalist.

By Cindy Barks November 15, 2023
Tease photo

With the neighborhood squarely against it, and several City Council members voicing concerns about the need for it, a proposed new traffic signal at the corner of Gail Gardner Way and Fair Street is now slated for three more months of study and review.

By Cindy Barks November 14, 2023
Tease photo

High-speed internet in the Spring Valley/Cordes Junction area, along with Paulden, White Horse Ranch, and Rimrock/Beaver Creek, could all benefit from an $8.1 million contract that the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors will consider this week.

By Cindy Barks November 13, 2023
Tease photo

The focus of a pending City of Prescott investigation, as well as the transparency of the process, raised questions this past week, in the wake of a tense City Council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

By Cindy Barks November 11, 2023
Tease photo

A recent concern about the transparency of Prescott City Council business goes beyond the pending independent investigation that Mayor Phil Goode has called for, says Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Montoya.

By Cindy Barks November 11, 2023
Tease photo

A new traffic light at the corner of Gail Gardner Way and Fair Street, the sale and redevelopment of the old City Hall property, and the purchase of 61 acres near the Prescott Regional Airport will be among the issues the Prescott City Council will consider this week.

By Cindy Barks November 11, 2023
Tease photo

After about 9 months serving as the interim head of the Prescott Community Development Department and five years as a city employee, Chelsea Walton was appointed this week to the permanent Community Development Director position.

By Cindy Barks November 9, 2023
Tease photo

A “new generation” of veterans will take center stage during the annual Veterans Day Parade that will take place in downtown Prescott on Saturday, Nov. 11.

By Cindy Barks November 8, 2023
Tease photo

With four of seven Prescott City Council members maintaining that Mayor Phil Goode overstepped his legal role by interfering in personnel matters, and Goode responding that he has been a victim of “baseless, inflammatory, false and deceptive” claims, tension was high throughout this week’s special Prescott City Council meeting.

By Cindy Barks November 7, 2023
Tease photo

A two-year term for Prescott mayor appears to be the preference for City of Prescott voters, whose early general-election results are leaning toward retaining the term as it has been for decades rather than lengthening it to four years.

By Cindy Barks November 7, 2023
Tease photo

In the latest development stemming from the October dismissal of Airport Director Robin Sobotta from the job she held for more than five years, three Prescott City Council members have asked for a special City Council meeting to discuss Mayor Phil Goode’s response to the dismissal.

By Cindy Barks November 4, 2023
Tease photo

With several days remaining to cast a ballot in the City of Prescott’s general election, less than one-third of registered voters had voted.

By Cindy Barks November 4, 2023
Tease photo

With the bulk of Yavapai County’s $46 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money now either spent or committed to projects, officials say about $3.3 million remains as “unassigned.”

By Cindy Barks November 2, 2023
Tease photo

A million and a half dollars of Yavapai County’s American Rescue Plan Act money could go toward a new Arizona State Park in the Chino Valley area, depending on a decision by the Board of Supervisors on how to allocate excess funds.

By Cindy Barks November 1, 2023
Tease photo

From the very start of the Territory of Arizona in 1863, and continuing through the development of early railroads and the Grand Canyon, the Del Rio Springs area holds a significant place in Arizona’s history, say advocates for a new Arizona State Park.

By Cindy Barks November 1, 2023
Tease photo

A proposal to pay the County Supervisors and County Manager $800 per month for use of personal vehicles, an update on the Del Rio Springs Ranch State Park, and an initial 2024-25 budget planning will be up for discussion at two Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meetings this week.

By Cindy Barks October 30, 2023
Tease photo

Columns of granite boulders and the pointy silhouette of Eagle Peak serve as a scenic backdrop for a new trail in Prescott’s Granite Dells, but there’s no denying that it is Prescott’s past that is front-and-center along the 1.89-mile route.

By Cindy Barks October 30, 2023
Tease photo

An attempt by the City of Prescott to revise its 25-year-old ordinance governing sexually oriented businesses met with considerable resistance this week — both from the public and from several City Council members.

By Cindy Barks October 28, 2023
Tease photo

After nearly three decades of planning and negotiations, preservation of land on the massive hill between Prescott and Prescott Valley is on the brink of becoming reality.

By Cindy Barks October 28, 2023
Tease photo

Even as the Granite Creek Mural is finishing up, another mural along the Granite Creek Trail of the downtown-Prescott Greenways system was underway throughout the summer and was recently completed.

By Cindy Barks October 26, 2023
Tease photo

The announcement by Prescott City Manager Katie Gregory this week that Airport Director Robin Sobotta was no longer a city employee later led to the scheduling of a special City Council executive session on Thursday — a meeting that ultimately ended in an abrupt adjournment.

By Cindy Barks October 26, 2023
Tease photo

After months of painting and fundraising, the colorful block-long mural along downtown Prescott’s stretch of Granite Creek will celebrate its near- completion this weekend.

By Cindy Barks October 26, 2023
Tease photo

A revised ordinance that will prohibit camping in public during daytime hours, as well as within the Downtown Entertainment District, got Prescott City Council approval this week, but not without several people questioning the level of compassion of the new restrictions.

By Cindy Barks October 25, 2023
Tease photo

A revised ordinance on aggressive solicitation will prohibit panhandlers from soliciting moving vehicles along Prescott’s busy street corners – a change that city officials say will improve safety for drivers and panhandlers.

By Cindy Barks October 25, 2023
Tease photo

In the midst of the latest round of contentious debate over how to protect the Prescott Regional Airport from encroaching development, City Manager Katie Gregory told the Prescott City Council that Airport Director Robin Sobotta was “no longer an employee of the City of Prescott.”

By Cindy Barks October 24, 2023
Tease photo

For nearly two and a half decades, the Prescott mayor and City Council have been paid the same monthly stipend for service on the council — an amount that is at or lower than the pay for councils in surrounding communities.

By Cindy Barks October 23, 2023
Tease photo

The duration of the mayor’s term, the pay that City Council members earn and rules regarding the sale or lease of city property all could change soon, depending on the will of city voters in the Nov. 7 general election.

By Cindy Barks October 21, 2023
Tease photo

The first phase of an effort to preserve several thousand acres of land on and near Glassford Hill could become reality soon through a $6.55 million land purchase by the City of Prescott and its partners, the Town of Prescott Valley and Yavapai County.

By Cindy Barks October 21, 2023
Tease photo

Nearly $3 million of Yavapai County’s share of American Rescue Plan Act money has been slated to go toward a land purchase that will significantly increase the size of a park in the Verde Valley community of Cornville.

By Cindy Barks October 19, 2023
Tease photo

Owing in part to a slow start, Prescott’s monsoon season of 2023 was noticeably drier than normal, but it was several inches of rainfall away from being the driest ever.

By Cindy Barks October 18, 2023
Tease photo

Years of planning, months of construction, and $3 million in grant and local funding all culminated this week with the official unveiling of the newly improved Granite Creek Corridor and Trail.

By Cindy Barks October 17, 2023
Tease photo

Mass casualties, fire, and injured victims were just a few of the disaster details that multiple agencies practiced dealing with Monday during an emergency drill that involved the simulated crash of a commercial airplane near the Prescott Regional Airport.

By Cindy Barks October 16, 2023
Tease photo

A City of Prescott/U.S. Forest Service agreement that would set the stage for construction of a new trailhead along White Spar Road will be among the items that the Prescott City Council will consider this week.

By Cindy Barks October 9, 2023
Tease photo

Wearing stickers that proclaimed “No blasting,” dozens of people at a public open house meeting this week left no doubt on how they feel about the possibility of widening Highway 89 as it passes through the steep rock walls of the Granite Dells.

By Cindy Barks October 5, 2023
Tease photo

Criminal investigators, forest rescue crews and road workers are among the Yavapai County employees who will soon begin to receive some compensation for the hours they spend waiting for a phone call to report for duty.

By Cindy Barks October 4, 2023
Tease photo

Although still in the early planning stages, a 90-unit apartment complex in the Lakeview Plaza commercial area has received an initial OK from the Prescott Planning and Zoning Commission.

By Cindy Barks October 3, 2023
Tease photo

A new Wingate by Wyndham Hotel could soon occupy a portion of the parking lot of the former Sears store at the Prescott Gateway Mall, near the current Espire Sports facility.

By Cindy Barks October 3, 2023
Tease photo

A move to pay county employees for the time they are spent serving in an “on-call” status will be among three Human Resources matters that the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors will consider this week.

By Cindy Barks October 2, 2023
Tease photo

The City of Prescott is alerting citizens about unauthorized calls from phone numbers that are incorrectly identified as a City of Prescott number.

By Cindy Barks September 19, 2023
Tease photo

A $2.1 million funding award for a replacement helicopter for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office and a possible land exchange between the U.S. Forest Service and the Yavapai-Apache Nation will be among the issues up for consideration by the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors this week.

By Cindy Barks September 18, 2023