Bracety will represent Yavapai County District 5 for the remaining four years of the term of outgoing Board member Mitch Padilla  from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2026

Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter has announced the appointment of Mr. Stephen L. Bracety to the Yavapai College Governing Board to represent Yavapai County District 5. Mr. Bracety will complete the remaining four years of Mr. Mitch Padilla’s term on the Governing Board.  Mr. Padilla resigned after he was elected to serve as Justice of the Peace, Prescott Precinct, beginning in January 2023.

Mr. Bracety will be sworn in at a public event at Yavapai College at 9:00 am on Monday, December 5, 2022.

Bracety was selected from three candidates forwarded to Superintendent Carter by a Candidate Review Committee who found all of the applicants qualified for the position. The other two candidates were Mr. Joseph Butner and Mr. Michael Ellegood.  The candidate review committee consisted of the following:

Mrs. Mary Mallory, an elected official, who represents this same geographic district as the Chair of the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Chris Tenney, representing the faculty and staff, who is a Yavapai College Professor of Instrumental Music. Mr. Richard Hernandez, representing economic development and business interest, as the Director of the Regional Economic Development Center. Mr. Jacob Todd, representing students, who is studying medical science at Yavapai College. Mr. Matt Zurcher, representing taxpayers, as a realtor, a construction coordinator for Sparklight, and a member of the Central Yavapai Fire Board.

In announcing the selection, Superintendent Carter outlined Mr. Bracety’s background and many accomplishments. He wrote:

Mr. Bracety is well known in the community and has resided here for eighteen (18) years. He has held many positions within the hospitality industry, including service as the General Manager of the Prescott Resort and Conference Center. He is currently the Vice President of Operations and Talent Management with the Grace Hospitality Group.

Mr. Bracety holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Buffalo State College and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Mr. Bracety is married, and the couple have a daughter that is a junior at Northern Arizona University.

He has served as the President of the Prescott Frontier Rotary, was named the 2014 Man of the Year by Prescott Area Leadership, has served as the Board Chair of the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce. He was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Yavapai County Big Brothers and Big Sisters, is the Past President of the Prescott Fine Arts Association, and Past Board Chair of the Arizona Community Foundation. Mr. Bracety was the Founder of the City of Prescott Tourism Advisory Committee.

He has been working with various non-profits for many years on joint educational projects. An example was a recent early childhood literacy initiative, which had tremendous success, under the leadership of the Arizona Community Foundation of Yavapai County, which partnered with community stakeholders for financial support and was operated by the Yavapai County Education Service Agency (YCESA).

District 5 includes the following areas:

Aerie Townhouses        Camp Pinerock  Glassford Hill

Antelope Meadows         Camp Wamatochick        Golden Condos

Big Bug Creek Area          Castle Canyon    Granite Dells

Big Sky  Coyote Springs  Granville

Bradshaw Pines Camp    Creekside of Prescott      Groom Creek

Breezy Pine         Dana Condominiums      Hidden Valley

Camp Maripai    Diamond Valley Highlands Center

Jasper   Prescott Reamended      Preston Condominiums

Kamp Kipa          Prescott Valley  Pronghorn Ranch

Leigh Condos     Prescott Valley Santa Fe Quad Villas

Loba Estates       Prescott Valley Superstition Addition      Ranch at Prescott

Loma Estates      Prescott Valley Unit 1     Roundup Condos

Lynx Creek          Prescott Valley Unit 10   SkyYCamp

Lynx Lake             Prescott Valley Unit 11   Small Tracts

Lynx Mountain View       Prescott Valley Unit 12   Spruce Mountain Club

Millsite Village   Prescott Valley Unit 13   Stevens Condominiums

Mingus View      Prescott Valley Unit 14   Stoneridge

Mountain Glen  Prescott Valley Unit 15   Storm Ranch

Mountain Pine   Prescott Valley Unit 16   Tapestry at Granville Apartments

Mountain Shadows         Prescott Valley Unit 17   The Ranch

Navajo Commons             Prescott Valley Unit 18   The Viewpoint

Noah Berry          Prescott Valley Unit 19   Upper Groom

Nugget Patch     Prescott Valley Unit 2     Upper Little Copper Creek

Oak Knoll             Prescott Valley Unit 20   Victorian Estates

Parbac Condominium     Prescott Valley Unit 24   Viewpoint

Patterdell Pines Prescott Valley Unit 3     Walker

Pine Creek Area Prescott Valley Unit 4     Walker Final

Pine Hills              Prescott Valley Unit 5     Webfoot Subdivision

Pinehurst Estates             Prescott Valley Unit 6     Western Mesa

Poquito Valley   Prescott Valley Unit 7     Whispering Pines Camp

Potato Patch      Prescott Valley Unit 8     Yavapai Hills

Prescott Commerce         Prescott Valley Unit 9     Zone 12

Prescott East      Prescott Pines Camp

Since purchase in 2020 the Board has neither asked for nor received detailed information regarding the progress, problems, added costs or anything else about this experimental project.  Turns out project has been taxing staff, huge printer  rebuilt at unknown cost in labor and parts, two building experiments have failed, and future use depends on extremely well trained technicians – not students | Is it time to end the experiment rather than spend more taxpayer money on it but no one dares ask that question?

OPINION. The Yavapai Community College Governing Board has one employee who reports to it and for whom it is responsible:  the President.  Yet, the Board  has made no demands that the President properly inform it on a regular basis in detail about certain projects and programs costing thousands in taxpayer dollars.

Foundation and walls printed for experimental Tempe Habitat for Humanity home.

POOR REPORTING TO BOARD. One vivid illustration of the Board’s lack of concern with the poor reporting record occurred during the October 2022 meeting when  housing on the Verde Campus was a topic.  The information about the Community College’s expensive 3D cement printer project begun in February 2020 arose only inadvertently during the discussion.  

3D PRINTERS COST OVER $400,000.00  OF TAXPAYER MONEY. You may recall that in February 2020 the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board was asked by College administrators to amend its budget and authorize spending at least $400,000.00 dollars to  purchase  two  futuristic 3D cement construction printers (a big one and a little one).  It was an expensive investment in an experiment. (You may view the report made to the Governing Board in February 2020 about this project on the following video clip. https://www.screencast.com/t/Pbakk3g1

CHINO REPLACEMENT STILL NOT BUILT. When the announcement about the purchase was made in 2020,  the College said  the big machine could be  used “that summer” to build a small home on the Chino Valley Campus to replace a manufactured one owned by the College that is need of repair. That idea seems to have been abandoned.  Rather, three home sites have been created at the Chino  Valley Campus. None as of October 2022 have apparently yet been successfully constructed.

Moreover, because the newly purchased machine had to rebuilt, the goal of using it in the summer of 2020 vanished.  It has still not been used successfully.

Also, at the time of the original announcement, there was some thought the smaller machine would end up at the Verde Campus.  However, the small machine ended up at CTEC where it is used experimentally to test various grades of cement.

Career and Technical Education Center Dean John Morgan, who has been in charge of the cement 3D printer project, provided the Board with some information about the 3D machine at the October meeting.  (Click here to see video clip of Dean Morgan commenting to the Governing Board on the project at the October Governing Board meeting.)

MAJOR STAFF HEADACHE. It turns out that the project has been, at best, a major headache for Morgan and members of his staff. He described working with the 3D printer project as having “been a difficult journey.”  He said the College has  been “delayed on several fronts.”  Astonishingly, he also said the  large half million dollar machine purchased by the College “had to be completely rebuilt.”  No one on the Board asked about the reason for rebuilding the machine or the cost to the Community College in terms of labor and parts.   

BUILDING EFFORTS NOT SUCCESSFUL. Dean Morgan said that there had been at least two unsuccessful attempts at using the machine.  However, he was hopeful that a third effort at utilizing it would be successful.  No one on the Board asked for a clearer explanation regarding the reasons for the two failures.

Dean Morgan  emphasized that operating the big 3D cement printing machine is very technical with a steep learning curve.  The complexity  appears to make it doubtful that it will find much use by students in building anything.

SHORTAGE OF CONCRETE. He also informed the Board that the project faces an immediate problem of a concrete shortage.  “Local builders,” he said, are “allotted how much they can get in a week.”  Because of the limited availability of concrete and its cost, the College is now trying to shift to using ash rather than concrete in its building experiment. According to Morgan, if ash can be used, it is 30% less than concrete.

NO COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT. The College apparently never set up a Committee to work with the development of this expensive venture, which seemed to one Board member as unusual. 

UNIFORMED. The College has still not informed the Board in public of the major issues associated with building 3D constructed structures in Arizona such as  the impact major daily temperatures have on construction, that at present engineering estimates are that  it costs as much to build  a 3D printed house as a stick-built house, or that there has been a tendency for cracks in concrete walls to show up in early experiments.

SHOULD IT CONTINUE? There is a major question at this point regarding the efficacy of going forward with the project.  Are the future costs worth the potential benefits?   It is a question no one on the Board is prepared to ask. Probably because the project remains pretty much in the dark as far as actual knowledge is concerned.

If you want to see one of the first efforts at building a concrete home in Arizona, with an engineer’s  explanation of some of the problems, there is an excellent video in the  ENR Engineering News-Record.  Here is the link to the page that has the video on it (be careful, you only have one chance to open this page and see the video. After that, they want you to purchase a monthly subscription.)  https://www.enr.com/articles/51972-house-made-of-3d-printed-concrete-goes-up-in-arizona .

You can view a video clip of Dean Morgan’s comments to the Governing Board about the two machines made at the October meeting by clicking here.

SOURCES FOR THIS STORY INCLUDE:  October, 2022 Governing Board Business Meeting and various Blog articles listed below that you can view.

(Blog Article)  https://eyesonyavapaicollege.com/career-and-technical-education/thanks-to-questioning-by-paul-chevalier-at-board-meeting-we-now-know-much-more-about-400000-experimental-3d-concrete-printing-program/

(Blog Article) https://eyesonyavapaicollege.com/ctec/college-purchased-two-3d-cement-construction-printers-with-half-million-dollar-decision/

(Blog Article) https://eyesonyavapaicollege.com/ctec/architect-explains-how-new-3d-cement-construction-printer-can-be-used/

Listed below for your information are some videos describing the problems associated with 3D printing of homes and some information about the first cement house built in Tempe, Arizona.

https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/3d-printed-buildings-future-or-gimmick/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1LM9kwRLY  (outlines general overall problems)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N9UudQZVCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMlUaCYYLPs

https://www.padtinc.com/2022/04/12/technology-behind-the-tempe-az-3d-printed-house-a-habitat-for-humanity-first/