Page 9 - the NOISE October 2014

COunCil CandidatE ChaRliE OdEgaaRd:
On infRastRuCtuRE, COst Of liVing & a BusinEss ‘fRiEndliER’ City kylE BOggs
Charlie Odegaard, a third generation owner of Odegaard Sewing Center, is running for flagstaff City Council. Mr. Odegaard served for years on the council of Sheppard of the Hills Lutheran Church, eventually filling the posi- tion of church president for two years. He currently sits on the City’s Water Commission, and among other concerns related to more support for local businesses and the cost of living in Flagstaff, he would like to see our water infrastruc- ture improved, and reclaimed wastewater more widely used throughout the city.
It is for these reasons Mr. Odegaard finds himself qualified for the job. While Mr. Odegaard maintains some concerns about high taxes and what he regards as potential infringes on property rights, Mr. Odegaard doesn’t want to see too much change. “We all love Flagstaff,” he said, “I don’t want to change a whole lot, but some changes I would like to see, but for the most part, all of us would like to keep Flagstaff, Flagstaff. “
Odegaard Sewing Center was started by his grandparents in the 1960s, making the business 44 years old. “I came to Flagstaff in the 80s from Minnesota; that’s where I grew up,” he said. “I graduated from Flagstaff High School, and attend- ed Northern Arizona University 21⁄2 years, then I got busy here at the store,” he said. “So the store took over my life.”
Twenty-seven years later, it is the personable nature of run- ning a small business that Mr. Odegaard believes would trans- late well to being a City Council member. “In my dealings with customers here at Odegaard Sewing Center, I hope I’ve treat- ed people fairly and honestly, and I hope that would make me a good city council person,” he said. I already know how to treat people with respect, fairly, and listen to their concerns, their suggestions, what they would like to see,” he said. “And I would just go from there.”
While there was no definitive moment when Mr. Odegaard decided to, in his words, “throw his hat in the ring,” he did speak of an “accumulation of things” culminating in 2012, when he faced a lot of red tape from the City trying to move his business from its downtown location to where it currently resides on Fourth Street. “We bought half of the building, and we had to hire an architect and an engineer to do some things we were told we needed to get done to make the move pos- sible,” he said. “Eventually, we had to hire an attorney to move the process along for whatever reason.”
Because of this experience and similar stories shared by other business owners, Mr. Odegaard believes there is much the City can do to be “friendlier” to small businesses. “I’d like the city to do what they can to help small business expand, so what happened to us doesn’t happen to somebody else,” he said. “I don’t believe in giving them money to do anything; but to make it easier, in terms of paperwork, or inspections.”
Mr. Odegaard pointed to the recent closing of the Wal- greens Distribution Center, noting that over 300 people suddenly found themselves out of work. “I don’t really know the history of that, or if it could have been prevented,” he said. “Hopefully in the future we can prevent something like
that from happening.” For Mr. Odegaard, this means the City should do all it can to support the growth of business. “If a business says ‘hey, we’d like this; we’d like a little help from the City to help us expand our business.’‘Is there a compromise we can work out between the two of us to make that happen?’ Hopefully in the future, we’ll say, ‘Yes, we can make that hap- pen!’ so we don’t lose the kind of jobs we lost with the closing of Walgreens.”
Beyond supporting the growth of business in Flagstaff, Mr. Odegaard is concerned with the City’s water infrastructure. “We have 80 to 100-year-old waterlines here in Flagstaff, which
is unbelievable,” he said. “I can’t believe it’s been neglected for so long.”The costs associated with such an undertaking would be, “astronomical,” says Mr. Odegaard. But went on to explain how the recently proposed 1/3¢ sales tax the current City Council is allocating toward the repair of roads. “When they do the roads, it’s a good opportunity to look at the infrastruc- ture under those roads, specifically the water and sewer lines,” he said.
Regarding the use of reclaimed wastewater, Mr. Odegaard is in favor of the City promoting the use of reclaimed waste- water more widely than it is used today. “More use of the reclaimed water will be the future of the Southwest,” he said.
“And Flagstaff is kind of on the lead of that, but I’d like to see reclaimed water be used much more widely, and have an op- tion for individuals to use it for gardens, lawns, stuff like that.”
Part of this means Mr. Odegaard would favor new develop- ments to be accompanied by two water pipes, “one for drinking water, one line for toilets,” he said. “Whether it’s household use or commercial use, I’d like everyone to have the option to use it.”
Mr. Odegaard offered flagstaff ranch Golf Club as an ex- ample of a user who should be using reclaimed wastewater instead of the well water they’re currently using. “Flag Ranch is not on our water system, they’re on their own system, they’re using their own well water to water the grass,” he said.
“To me, that seems a little crazy to do something like that; they should have an option to use reclaimed water instead of well water,” he said.
Regarding water usage, Mr. Odegaard said he would be in favor of raising rates on high water users. “That makes sense, but I would not want to burden homeowners who are doing the best they can,” he said. Rather Mr. Odegaard’s definition of a high water user specifically refers to larger scale commer- cial and industrial users of water. “But hopefully they’re going toward reclaimed water already, so the costs won’t be so bad because they’re using reclaimed water instead of the drink- ing water,” he said.
Contrary to Arizona Department of environmental Qual- ity, which prohibits people from drinking reclaimed wastewa- ter, it is Mr. Odegaard’s firm belief the reclaimed wastewater in Flagstaff is potable. “The reclaimed water that’s coming from the Wildcat Treatment Plant is having some problems,” he said.
“But the water coming out of the rio de flag Treatment Plant is totally drinkable. Now, whether we do that or not, you know, who’s going to be the first person to do that is up for debate,
stORy & PhOtO By
The final component to Mr. Odegaard’s candidacy for City Council includes his vision addressing Flagstaff’s high cost of living, and palpable lack of affordable housing options. Em- ploying the basic economic concept of supply and demand, a solution that is obvious to Mr. Odegaard is the construction of more houses. “When you have more houses you bring down the cost of living, even rent,” he said.
The problem, according to Mr. Odegaard, is that there is not a lot of land available for development. “Really the last time we’ve had an affordable housing development was the days of Cheshire, and that was back in the 1980s, and when that was built, there were smaller lots, and smaller homes,” he said. “So at the time they were more affordable. It’s probably not like that there today, but the question is: ‘Can we ever get back to something like that where homes are more afford- able?” he said. “I think we can.”
To acquire land for Mr. Odegaard’s vision for affordable housing, he pointed to state land just outside the City limits.
“We have some state land just on the edge of town. Maybe we can enter into some type of partnership,” he said. “We can ease the process, and take a big chunk of state land and make them small lots and small houses, and with that, those houses should be more affordable,” he said.
Noting there are elements of Flagstaff who are adamant- ly opposed to new development, Mr. Odegaard said that whether some like it or not, growth is happening.
“We do grow about 1% a year, which isn’t very much. So we’re not like Phoenix,” he said. “We’ll never be like Phoenix, but we don’t want to be like Vail, Colorado either, where peo- ple are being pushed out, you know.” He said. “I’d hate to see that happen. I have kids and grandkids and if they want to live here, I’d hate to see them pushed out because of the cost of living,” he said.
One of the biggest problems Mr. Odegaard sees with the current configuration of council is a lack of communication. “Unfortunately with current council members, there isn’t a whole lot of communication happening,” he said. “Regard-
less of political affiliation, we should all be able to talk to each other. If you don’t talk to each other, you can polarize each other and that creates a lot of animosity,” he said.
According to Mr. Odegaard, this lack of communication re- sults in not enough time spent negotiating the City’s budget. “I don’t believe the City Council today — and I think they’d all
agree with this — don’t spend enough time with the budget,” he said. “I’d like to see them spend more time with the budget.” Mr. Odegaard related this need to his experience at Odegaard Sewing Center. “Being in a small business, you really have to look at every dollar that comes in; I understand how hard it is to get that dollar and then how we really need to set our priori- ties on how that dollar should be spent,” he said.
| Kyle Boggs is imagining that first sip of reclamation. kyle@undertheconcrete.org
but it’s totally drinkable,” he said.
PROfiLe
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • OCTOBER 2014 • 9