I printed out the entire Cottonwood budget I have to say I even more impressed after looking it over.

Most importantly @Molly Bachman Cottonwood does NOT charge property tax! I looked at all the income,(impressive) and see NO property tax for the city. I called and got a confirmation. No property tax in cottonwood, az

What is extremely impressive is how they OWN the library, sewer, transit system, recreation center, Water, FIRE department and it appears to be the owner of airport. hummmmm yep the city owns it. Main income sales tax, water and sewer usage.

Also layout very clearly is how much money the bring in from different elements such as shared Income from state, both sales & income, motor vehicle. It really looks like they have a Total Quality Management program there.

Take a look for yourself. http://cottonwoodaz.gov/finance.php

It’s not up to the City to close 89A. Unless ADOT approves a partial closure, it can’t be done. I think that if 89A were to be closed for the marathon it would be much more exciting for everyone involved.

I would image that the City of Sedona revenues are significantly more than Cottonwood. Sedona I would imagine has much more buying power with all the Tourist business.

I did find this interesting fact while looking for the answer. Cottonwood is close to the same size as Sedona. They also have incorporated areas called cottonwood that use the same zip as in city Cottonwood but are not in the city district. Same as us. Cottonwood website shows a growth from 9,179 to 11,265 where Sedona show a decrease 10,192 to 10,031.

Isn’t the populations the driving factors? Do you know how many employees they have? I like to know side by side employees and revenue @tom bergen. great benchmark.

A quick question; how many employees does the City of Cottonwood have to staff such a nice event compared to Sedona?

So I went to website http://cottonwoodaz.gov/parksrec/bmm/

Saw this:
With Brian Mickelsen’s tragic death in 2007, the City of Cottonwood decided the best way to honor their beloved city manager was to extend the Verde/Mingus Blowout to include a half marathon and to put Brian’s name on the event. The inaugural event was a great success with over 400 runners and a tremendous tribute to Brian and all that he did for Cottonwood in his 23 years of service to the City.

I love this! The City runs it, makes money on it, uses it to promote everything Cottonwood has to offer. no third wheel making money off them. YES! City for City, City building City business. Also I found it cute the Cottonwood chamber is one of the many sponsors. LOVE IT! They have it right. Go Cottonwood! YAY!

As things are, Sedona tax money is footing the bill to promote regional resources by giving a million plus to Oak Creek Chamber of Commerce to promote non-taxing businesses. Basically your thinking is solid but this chamber is too greedy to even think about sharing profit. Oh, forgot. They are “non-profit.” Yep, and may the city of sedona convince Jennifer Weaselhoof to sell refrigerators to eskimos.

One plus here. A sign at the old grocery store at the “Y” says Baskin/Robbins opening soon. Any guesses how long it will last once opened?

I seem to remember a couple of years ago, no one giving any support to the folks who started this marathon. They were left to flounder, then you snatched it up.

All the years shunning other communities and being just too cool and now the surrounding areas are developing their own industries using the Sedona tourist pool. They are rocking it! Jerome, Cornville,Cottonwood, Camp Verde. That is what people want to see. Funky Western. You are sharing your tourist pool with 5-6 other places. Get used to it. They are going to continue to grow and you are busy alienating your residents.

Your uptown area is nothing more that a perfectly manicured non stop timeshare marketing grind and tourists know it. Do something about that, Chamber, City.

No amount of spending is going to increase revenue to the City the way you want to see it. You must now learn to play nice, learn to share and make joint efforts with other places. You must also learn not to alienate your own residents. You are not what Sedona is supposed to be about.

Hold the marathon on 89A and involve Cornville, wine country, do a 10K. Hold an after party in Uptown or Old Town Cottonwood or the County Airport or a field. Use your heads. Split the costs and profits. Call it the Red Rock Country Marathon. Grow and respect your residents.

No I do not speak for the residents of Kachina but by some of the comments I read here and comments made to me by residents and non-residents of Kachina subdivision, many of you would not have even known about this decision if I had not written my original “Letter to the Editor” for the Red Rock News. This has taken it’s own life since then. I really am not the “bad guy” here. Just for the record my original headline “Kachina Does Not Want Marathon” was changed by Red Rock News to “Keep Marathon Off Dry Creek Road”. My opinions dealt with Kachina subdivision ONLY and had nothing to do with the use of Dry Creek Road each year.

I feel that the City needs to demand that any public event of this magnitude, whether they are directly involved or not, needs to have made proper notice to everyone involved well in advance, so that proper discourse can be had. Citizens are looking for a good quality of life out of the City and one of the primary methods to achieve this is by “positive action” that demonstrates this desire; not verbal rhetoric that many times seems to fall short.