The Sedona City Council unanimously approved a $3,032,684 contract with Pronghorn Services of Prescott Valley to construct the proposed shared use path along Andante Drive on April 22, following a last-minute cost increase.

“Approximately $1.5 million goes to the shared use path and the rest of it covers all the other improvements we’ve got planned,” Assistant Director of Public Works Sandra Phillips told the council.

While the city received six bids for the path, the lowest bid of $2,931,804.75 from Summit Construction was incomplete, leading staff to select Pronghorn Services’ bid of $3,018,684 instead. Phillips said that roughly $500,000 of the funding for the project will be expended in fiscal year 2025 and the remainder in FY26.

Originally budgeted at $1,540,000, the proposed 2,480-foot concrete path from State Route 89A to Thunder Mountain Road will include storm drainage infrastructure and one-and a-half-inch conduit. “With the council approving moving ahead or looking to move ahead with wi-fi, this will minimize the impact to this neighborhood,” Phillips said.

The path will be built along the west side of Andante from State Route 89A to just south of Lyric Drive, then cross to the right side of the street before connecting with Thunder Mountain Road. The path will cross Andante at a raised cross walk in order to keep the path within the city’s existing right-of-way for the street. Phillips said such an approach was intended “to minimize the impact to the residents on Andante through not having to request permanent easements” and that the width of the street would not be reduced from its current 24 feet. Approximately eight trees in the city’s right of-way will be removed during construction.

Phillips and Assistant City Manager Andy Dickey explained that the new design for the path and street included both a raised crosswalk and two additional speed bumps to restrict traffic flow, but the contract only included construction of one of the speed humps to keep costs down, although council could choose to add the second by increasing the contract value by $14,000.

“For one hump?” Mayor Scott Jablow asked.

“They’re very complicated to build,” Dickey said.

With regard to the location of the raised crosswalk between inter sections, “because of those vertical differences, you cannot have that transition occur in the middle of an intersection,” Dickey said.

Phillips added that building the path on one side of the road only as originally proposed “increases the price of the project significantly” due to drainage issues.

“It would be more difficult to build the road on the west side of Andante on that northern section,” Dickey said.

“You explained all this to the public and they’re having issues with that?” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog asked.

“We haven’t been questioned about the crossing until recently,” Phillips said, noting that the city’s public outreach had included 353 letters sent to residents in December 2022, another 50-plus mailings in the latter half of 2024 and meetings with between 18 and 20 property owners. “The concern of the crossing never came up in any meet ings that I can recall.”

“There’s one particular resident that had issue with the side of the road that we have the improvements on,” Dickey said.

“Are there still any significant community concerns that require addressing?” Councilman Brian Fultz asked.

“I’m not seeing any open issues,” Phillips said.

Public Comment

“The current and final design has not been made transparent to the residents that reside on Andante,” Duane Gregory said. “The final design was made avail able for residents’ review only a few weeks ago, an inadequate period for meaningful public input … Significant changes are now disclosed that result in many residents now taking issue with the design.” He proposed relocating the crosswalk to the intersection of Lyric and Melody drives for improved visibility for drivers and pedestrians and reducing the width of the path by half to reduce the risk of flooding from a non draining concrete surface.

“A year ago, we discussed many of our concerns with Public Works, only to be ignored and dismissed,” Terry Gregory said. “We had requested that the [Sedona Fire District] fire marshal be brought in on the initial design of this project year ago April. The fire marshal’s office only recently found out about the SUP project existing only three weeks ago. He told me that on the phone. They didn’t even know about this project.” She also argued that the path’s drainage as designed would be insufficient and that “the city has downgraded the floodplain classification during the ongoing drought, allowing quicker, less expensive project approvals.”

Both Gregorys asked the city to pause the project and have it redesigned by an outside firm.

Phillips later said that “there was no significant change from the 60% plans to the 100% plans,” that the increase in drainage from the path would be “very small” and that the SFD fire marshal had known about the project for two or three years.

“The idea of a sidewalk is a good idea, I just don’t think you’re starting it in the right place,” Maureen Fawcett said. “I think it needs to be redesigned. There’s something wrong with that design. Andante is a very strange street.” She added that people “already walk along that street from Circle K. They throw all of the trash right to their left, which would be right in my yard. I don’t want to have all of that trash coming into my yard — unless maybe you want to build me an eight-foot fence or something.”

“My main concern is the crosswalk. I feel like that’s just going to be dangerous,” Cara LeGros said. “I think forcing people to cross the street is a bad idea in general … Also, it’s a better idea to keep the sidewalk on the west side all the way up … If we could have the side walk on the west side when the bus goes down, the kids are on a sidewalk, not in a ditch.”

“I’m thrilled that this is moving forward,” Tracey Delaney said. “It’s been 19 years I’ve been waiting.”

“It’s easy to get stuck on a few of the squeaky wheels and some of the unfortunate circumstances that we might hear of tonight,” Evan Puglia said. “Always keep the larger community in mind with these projects.”

“My concern is the drainage improvements,” Amy Pierce said. “I was wondering if [the crosswalk] was going to have flashing lights, because that’s the most important thing.”

Council Comments

“I just want to make it clear to everyone we’re doing the best we can,” Councilwoman Melissa Dunn said.

“We’re talking about taking 2,840 feet of street with no sidewalk, no nothing, just ditches, and condensing that problem down to a 10 foot crossing. To me this is kind of an easy calculus to make,” Councilman Derek Pfaff said.

“This project really ranks high for me,” Furman said. “Maybe it’s later than it should have been, but we’re getting there.” He added that exposing the community to changes in their mobility patterns is “absolutely the right decision.”

“I don’t see any deficits in this design at all,” Jablow said.

The council then voted unanimously to approve the contract with the additional hump at a cost of $3,032,684. City staff expect construction work to begin this month and be completed by the end of the year.