SAFFORD — Two new parks under development by the City of Safford now have names.
By a 6-1 vote Monday, the park planned for 8th Avenue and Discovery Park Boulevard is Jason Kouts Park, and the park planned for 14th Avenue and El Paso Boulevard is Owens Family Park.
Jaime Embick the Planning and Community Development director for the city, explained the names were selected after a months-long process of soliciting input from residents, including online surveys, paper balloting at the library and city annex, public meetings and public outreach at events such as SalsaFest, Harvest Fest and Oktoberfest.
The city’s effort to obtain public input was also reported on radio, in the newspaper and shared across the medias’ websites and social media platforms.
The end result was 97 votes to name a park after the late Mayor Jason Kouts, and eight votes to name a park after the Owens family.
– Gila Valley Central Photo
Council member Dusti Brantner said she was told by constituents that they were unaware of the city’s effort to gather input and, combined with the low number of votes compared to the city’s population — 1 percent voting for Kouts — she wanted a delay on the naming decision and the public comment period re-opened.
“If we have 10,000 people (and) only 97 people voting, that doesn’t seem like a majority,” she said.
Vice Mayor Arnold Lopez also suggested delaying the naming decision, because work has not yet started on either park. However, Public Works Director Lane Henrie explained that construction plans were delayed until the council made a decision on the name, and will move forward once that decision has been finalized.
That prompted the council vote on the names, with Brantner voting in opposition.
The master plan for Kouts Park includes a playground, splash pad, pickleball courts, an area for food trucks, walking trails and an amphitheater with lawn seating.
