New Lemoore City Manager finally on board, tackles big agenda at Tuesday meeting

At their last meeting, councilmembers voted 5-0 to bring Welsh on board as the new city manager. She was an assistant to the town manager in Gilbert, Arizona. She will be the city’s first-ever female city manager and this will be her first job heading up a city.

The council will take a few moments during Tuesday’s meeting to introduce its new city manager.

Councilmembers had been searching for a new city manager since March when former manager Jeff Laws abruptly resigned. Welsh will replace interim City Manager Ron Hoggard, who worked until June 30 at which point Lemoore Chief of Police Darrell Smith assumed temporarily the city manager’s job until Welsh presided over her first meeting Tuesday.

July 7 Agenda

Welsh comes to the city with a wealth of experience. Prior to her work as Gilbert’s assistant city manager she worked at the City of El Mirage, Arizona where she was an assistant city manager. She worked from 2008 to 2011 as the Director of Community Services and Arts & Culture for the City of Sedona. She was Sedona’s assistant city manager from 2004-2008.

She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Villanova University and a BA in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

In its 5:30 p.m. study session, councilmembers will be handed a recommendation to reject a bid to construct water lines to the new BMX Track and Lemoore Framework Racing. According to a report from Parks and Recreation Director Joe Simonson, the two bids the city received came in much too high, almost double what the original contractor’s proposal called for.

“The bids were well above the contractor’s initial estimate of $84,893.17,” stated Simonson in his memo to council. “Staff is in favor of rejecting the bids, refining the proposal and extending the time frame for bidders to submit a proposal.”

Frameworks racing was seeking the water line to protect the air quality and safety of the participants and the site. The BMX organizers requested a four-inch line, but Interim Public Works Director Frank Rivera recommended a 12-inch line, ultimately which could also serve future development, if the need arose.

The two bids were for $122,715 from West Valley Construction and $160,160.70 from Mattos Underground Construction.

Councilmembers will also receive a report from the city’s project manager, Judy Holwell, who has been working with CalTrans to develop a plan to improve the Bush Street undercrossing and Highway 41. The existing undercrossing has been a detriment to development on the West Side of Highway 41. Councilmembers will see a unique draft concept called a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) which could be an answer to Lemoore’s traffic issues on the west side.

Holwell will tell councilmembers that a traffic study, costing $10,000 to $20,000 is required and possible a future Project Study report, costing $150,000 or more.