Meet Neil Tinsley

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hey everybody, Ryan Garland. Thank you for joining us today. We are uh honored to have a a a good and new guest. So Neil Tinsley is here. He's running for city council, and we're gonna go right into this today because I think it's really important that our audience and everybody that's here locally that I do know continue to watch and support us and follow our podcast that you get to know this gentleman. Because he again he's reading running for city council, and I think it's important who uh everybody knows who's back there kind of driving the bus.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, so if you don't mind, share a little bit about you and you know, again, welcome to the to the podcast. I'm glad you're here and yeah, so tell us a little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Absolutely, thank you for having me. Um, I mean, I'm Neil Tinsley. I was uh born and raised right here in Lake Avasu City. Um grew up a pretty amazing life here. It was uh it was a lot of fun, you know. Uh this town really wasn't as big as it is now, but we made a lot of fun out of it. We had a lot of amenities, you know. There was the lake, we had an awesome desert. Um, you know, there was tons of stuff to do without having to spend a bunch of money when you were a kid. Um our skate park wasn't the greatest, but we ended up um getting a a a really awesome skate park, the Tonel Park. Um that was one of my he was like a mentor in the BMX group when I was growing up. Um so I was really pumped when we got that. Um let's see.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah, I love this town. I mean, that's the reason why I'm here trying to build it up and you know, just it's it's it's cool to get to meet people like you that have like grown up here and still love the town just as much as I do. You know, of course you got the roots, but I grew up coming out here just you know, skiing with my family, and my family's in law enforcement. So this was kind of our getaway every summer. It's all we did. I mean, we've only done a couple other type of vacations, but for the most part, all of my memories were coming out here as a kid.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, it's uh it's an awesome town, you know. Um definitely water sports is it's very fun here. Um I grew up wakeboarding and stuff like that. Um there's a ton of law enforcement actually here too. It's funny you say your your family's law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

I the retired law enforcement is incredible here.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yes, this town is definitely a very safe town.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

So the one thing I really loved about this community um growing up here is everybody like looks out for everybody. Um back in the day before it got so big, we we never locked our car doors, we never locked our houses up, you know what I mean? Like not that none of that. It was everybody was kind of just looking out for each other. It was a whole different vibe. It's a have-asu vibe. And you know, after I, you know, after I got out high school, I um, you know, I tried to move around the country a little bit and and see if there was anything better than here because I kind of took it for granted, right? Like I didn't know. I was like, oh, there's gotta be something better than this, right? And I moved, I went to Vegas, I went to uh Denver, uh man, I lived out in Missouri, like all around the country. That's good that you get a chance to experience it. Yeah, and then I ended up going in the army. Um I was only in there for two years. Yeah, I compressed my my vertebrae, whatever, and kind of got put out there. So um then I went back to Vegas. I spent about 10 years in Vegas and uh I went to work for Finley Auto Group. I've always been a car guy. Um I'm definitely a major gear head. I like to customize cars. I can't leave anything stock, right? You you gotta personalize it. So it's gotta make it yours, you know. It's part of your brand. Yeah. And uh so about 10 years Vegas. Um, I ended up starting my own shop, uh, sold out to Finley Auto Group, came back home and reopened down here and just been at it. Um really love being home. Um I get to hang out with my mom all the time. It's amazing. Um, a lot of my family's here, so it's uh it's great to be back. And you know, I I see a little bit of different stuff, you know, in the city, and and I feel like we could do better. And so I'm not the guy that's just gonna sit on the couch and and complain. I'm gonna I'm gonna get up and go do something. I'm be

Growing Up With The Havasu Vibe

SPEAKER_01 4:25

proactive. So that's why I'm running for city council.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I love it. Good for you, man. Well, like I, you know, I I always like to try to host these podcasts and bring people on that are really care and try to do something about it. You know, they're just saying it, they're actually running for city council, you know, actually trying to get more involved. I think what that means is that you just you see deficiencies and you're worried about your family. And how many kids do you have?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

I have six.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah. So usually there's a bigger purpose behind it.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, their uh their future depends upon it, right? Um, there's just a I'd like to see the city focus a little bit more on the residents and the you know, the working class, the gears that turn this town. Um there's always gonna be people with plenty of money that comes here. This is a retirement town. To me, it's a luxury resort town, right? Because unlike a lot of other places, there's a lot of really nice upscale stuff coming to this town. I mean, you've got that River Brevier that looks amazing, you know, like this. The dream is yes, everything that's coming in this town is is very upscale and uh I think it deserves it. This town's an amazing town. Yeah. Um but running for city council, I one of the best parts about it so far has been just connecting with the people, you know, hearing, hearing what you know the residents want and uh what they feel like we're lacking. Um, you know, we need some more amenities, um, stuff that to to kind of cater to the people that that work here. Um it's uh I'd like to see a lot more retail stores come in, uh, box stores. Um it's kind of a bummer to me, right? Because like I'm I'm a huge fan of Robert McCulloch, you know, he's our founder here. And um, you know, he he knew that that the town needed tourism and industry to to thrive, right? And so, you know, he brought the London Bridge here, there's your tourism, and then he had his McCulloch plant here, but there's no more McCulloch plant. So I'd like to see some industry come back to this town. Um, I know we're a decent ways from the railway, but I mean we could we could work through something. Um there's a lot of good land out by the airport um that I'd like to see, you know, developed into some industrial stuff, um, manufacturing. Plenty of on the south side, yeah. Yes. I just I want to see, you know, a lot of people are like, well, fix housing prices. You're never going to fix housing prices.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

It's its own market and uh It's its own problem, child, really, man. The cost to build, the acquisition of land, even if you buy land pretty cheap, the cost to build is high. Right. So it's and it just it you it kind of ebbs and flows, you know. It's like the margins are X and you have to make that work for the capital to work, and it's just it's you kind of have to just ride the wave.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

And I I was uh excuse me, I was I was talking to a couple people and and they're like, well, you know, I I I used, for example, that Deal Ranch project, and they're like, $330,000 for a house is crazy. I'm like, well, let's say they knocked it down to $250,000, right? They they cut that much margin out of it. How well do you think that house is going to be built? You know, like it's not gonna hold up 30 years, and and it's so you gotta take a lot of people gotta take that into consideration. Inflation is, you know, is a thing. And it's uh our money is not going as far as it used to. Um so we kind of gotta adapt and overcome, right? Yep. Um, and my solution to affordable housing is better jobs, right? Better paying jobs.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Um it's that's one point of the coin. That's one side of the coin for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah. Um, and that's you know, that's give it to the people that you know are willing to work for it. Like it's not easy. Um you know, I grew up here and I didn't come from a family of money. I mean, actually, I grew up in a duplex on Lake Havasu Avenue, and um a lot of people probably remember it. There was a million cars out front. Uh they probably hated it. But we had, I mean, my grandmother lived there, my grandfather, two of my uncles, my aunt, my dad, me, one other cousins, all under one duplex.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yes. So growing up, I'm like, man, six kids and it just kind of feels like home. It does actually, you know, with the six kids, it kind of reminds me of, you know, living in a a household like that. It was always a little bit of madness, you know. Um, but I knew that I I didn't want to live there forever and I didn't want to live like that. So that's what kind of gave me the motivation to, you know, get out there and thrive. And uh I feel like a lot of people just don't apply themselves.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Um, and you're a business owner, and I well you're gonna see that for sure as a business owner. Yes, you know. And you ended up, let's talk a little bit about your your uh your time in Vegas and building your

Army Vegas And Coming Home

SPEAKER_00 8:50

business there. Because you really, you from Vegas, you came back here.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about just the time in Vegas, kind of building your brand.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

You know, I went up, I worked for Finlay Auto Group for quite a few years. Um when I was before I left to there, uh to Vegas, I I always had built cars here, right? And it was mainly classics and hot rods. So I wanted to work on high-ends because I was kind of bored of restoring classic cars, right? Yeah. So that's kind of what I did. Um Finley Auto Group, they have a place called Finlay Customs, um, amazing shop. Uh I still feel like when I worked there, we had the best team there ever was there, but you know, yeah, I do know that they still have a good team. Um, but we worked on, you know, Bugattis, we worked on Lamborghini Veninos, like stuff that like nobody had. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun. Um, and then I eventually, you know, I went on my own and uh I I just kept thriving and thriving. And then I got, you know, an offer on the business and I came home. I said, you know what, I'm ready to come home. The big city life was fun. Um I did get a you know experience a lot of stuff. Vegas is definitely a different place than Happy Sue. But um, yeah, well, it definitely like I I operate my my businesses here like it's still a big city, and people aren't used to that. Like, you know, when they call me up for window tint, generally I could get most people in the same day, if not next morning. You know, um I I kind of knock stuff out. Um as far as it when I lived there, I lived in Henderson. Um, and it was it's funny because we call it Hender Tucky, right? Because it was a little bit more like Haves'. I I liked it a little more. I lived off of uh Wagon Wheel on the horse properties, and then my shop was in Henderson Auto Show Mall. Um, so it was a lot of fun. There's a lot more car stuff there. That's oh yeah, I'd say, you know, like everybody's like, Oh, I miss the food. I miss the car scene in Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah, the car scene's legit. It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Like so, like they had cars and coffee every uh uh Saturday. It was uh in Henderson at the uh Twin Peaks. Okay, and it was amazing. Uh celebrity cars, they generally put it on the show. Um, a lot of people turn up, you know. Um another thing too is like they had what's called Midnight Mayhem. You go out to Vegas Speedway, pay 35 bucks, and run your car at the track all night long.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Oh, that's cool.

Why A Drag Strip Matters

SPEAKER_01 11:08

So bringing that up, I am definitely gonna be advocating to get a drag strip in like Havasu.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Um I love that.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

It's like I said, Robert McCulloch, his middle name was Paxton, Paxton Superchargers, that's based off of his RD. He was an absolute gearhead. You know, the town was founded off of him testing out his race in his outboard race engines in site six, you know, and he's like, Oh, I like this place. Let's put a bridge here and build a town, you know. But um, brilliant man, brilliant man. Um super respect that guy. Like he's he's that he was legendary, you know. And I think in life, it's like you you gotta leave your footprint, right? That's that's all at the in the end, that's what it is. Like you gotta leave your footprint, you know. And uh that that man did. And that's really cool. And so I'm definitely gonna be pushing for a drag strip. It it's it would solve a lot of things for this town. Um, you know, it's the only trouble I ever got into in this town was automotive related, right? Like, so I was a gearhead, did some burnouts, you know, stuff like that. Um, and I see some of the younger crowd here, they're getting in trouble for the same thing. Yeah, this would give them a place to go. Um and there's a lot of talent in Havasu. Like we got um my buddy Mark Queen's kid, he was just doing the world finals jet ski racing. He took he took first place in two divisions. Like, there's a lot of talent that comes out of this talent. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Um it would take NASCAR guys here. I mean, you got all kinds of things.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Tony Stewart's here, Leah Pruitt's here. Um, you know, I I think it it also solves in in the wintertime, you kind of see it slow down a little bit in Havasu, right? And the rest of the round slow down, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Um you know what's crazy though, and I don't mean to interrupt, but one of the crazy things is like the amount of people that are coming here that are I'm not uh it's like more people are starting to know about Havasu. People are coming in from Canada. Oh yeah. I mean, uh it's just it's wild some of the conversations I've been having. I'm like, where are you from? I'm like, where how did you get here? You know? There's a lot more people coming here from other places that are not normal.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Like you would think, oh, you're from Southern California or you're from Idaho or Montana, right? You're starting to be like, oh, wait, you're from Minnesota?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Wait, you're it's like you're from South Dakota, North Dakota? You're like, what everywhere it's cold. Yeah, that's the expression right now. Yeah, yeah. But they all come here.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, you know, it's I mean, we have the most beautiful winters, like hands down. It's winter time is actually my favorite time. I agree here. Yeah, I totally agree. Um, you know, it's winter is just I mean, we have like 70 degree, 65 degree days, you know, all through winter. And I look at you know, my family that's out on the east coast and they're just freezing. And I'm just like, yeah. You know, I I can't help myself. But um it's true. Back to the drag strip thing, real quick. Um, it'll totally take care of the slow season here. Um, there's a lot of benefits to it that I think a lot of people don't like. They overlook, they just, you know, some people are like, eh, drag strip. Maybe they're not a car guy, right? Yeah. Like, we don't want to hear that. It's gonna be no louder than these 2,500 horsepower boats ripping down the lake, you know. Yep, yeah. So um I just hope to be able to get on there and and really uh push to to get some better stuff in town, like I could say with the retail stores, big

Jobs First Then Affordable Housing

SPEAKER_01 14:30

box stores. Yes, stuff that's gonna attract professional health care. I don't know if you go to the doctors here, but we're very limited. And um, you know, the ones that are really good, well, they're booked out. You know, so it's it's hard to just get in.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Well, you hear a lot of doctors and uh specialists trying to get into the town. They have like a lot of people from Vegas, you know. I I know some physicians from Vegas, and they're like, I if I had like a little smaller spot where I can open up, you know, I'd love to come out there a couple days a week because a lot of their patients are coming out to see them from Havasu. Yeah. So you it it's very common, you know. But I think healthcare is a big deal. Yeah, you know, and uh and I know there's an expansion, there's a lot of people talking about an expansion of the airport. I know FedEx at one point kind of agreed to have more and more flights bringing in, you know, goods, if you will, yeah, you know, into the town if they had uh like a hangar. So I've you know, stuff like that's kind of been I don't know how like factual that is, but I know there's some realness to that.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

There's so I've spent some time out at the airport, um, gone over stuff. Um I'm a firm believer that we definitely need to expand our airport. Um airport is uh a main hub of a town. Um, you know, in order to get some of these people that we want to come in here, you know, these retail stores or stuff, they're gonna want to fly in. They don't want to drive two hours from Vegas. They don't. They want to fly in. Um, commercial air service would definitely benefit. And and a lot of people are like, well, we don't want to spend tax dollars. That's perfectly fine. There is enough private equity that is out at that airport willing to spend money. Yeah, it's the art of the deal. Yeah, we can make deals that are gonna benefit the city, you know. It yeah, we don't we don't get a bank out on them right away, but in 30 years, 20, 30 years, when the lease, you know, when the lease contracts up or whatever, then we get to reap the benefits from you know, um uh uh a deal we cut, you know, and and it's just setting up our our you know our our children's future for for better. We're not gonna if we're not putting the money in right now, then what hurt what does it hurt to use private equity? Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So it's it's one of those things. Um, I feel like a lot of people are scared of private equity, and I I just don't think we should be. As long as it pencils out and it's gonna be a great deal in the long term for the city and the residents, that's what matters.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Well, you know, I think I think what you're I think a lot of people believe private equity is this kind of liberal leaning, you know, left capital come in, dominate, take advantage of the small guys. I think that's what people think.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

But what I think most people should know that the majority of the smaller private equity firms, they have advisory boards and a lot of like a lot of the you know, uh check writers that'll be behind it. Yeah, they're they want to see at the table. They want to be able to kind of direct where that capital is going.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Absolutely. They want to protect their investments.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah, and so you're gonna have a group of people come together, you know, and not you know, you don't have just some random people that are gonna be like, okay, let's go dump some money and and and they have a suit for what? Like this isn't a big enough town to move the needle. Right. They're gonna come out here because they see the opportunity, and it's usually gonna be a long-term play with some sort of tax advantage. Yeah. But there's it's because they love the town, they see the opportunity, they see the growth, and they're but they it's safe, it's consistent.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

And so, you know, I think the private equity space has really changed and morphed. You know, I'll use this as an example. So, you know how the foreclosure, you know, uh, let's say the foreclosure data has really been picking up lately. It's been scaring a lot of people in the industry. Like it's just you know, oh shit, there's more foreclosures, high interest rate environments can't refinance, can't pay off your credit cards.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Well, there's truth to this because since let's just call it 2015-16 is really, really it's started. But there's a lot of private funds and private equity out there that don't report to the credit bureaus. So when you're looking at the data for foreclosures, you're typically pulling the data from credit bureaus. Right. Right? That's how you get the data most of the time. It's just late on transunion experience, equifacts. And when you have private funds out there not reporting that, then really what's the data truly with foreclosures? It's a lot higher than it is now. So you're starting to see that you know, private equity starting to take a bigger swing at you know, the mortgage-backed securities Apple, if you will. Right. But you're starting to see that people don't trust institutions anymore. They want to go to like a smaller operator, they want to go to something that they believe in, they want to have an impact. You know, impact investing's big. When you have a huge wealth transfer like this, it's gonna be focused on taxes. Yeah, you're gonna have people want to reposition themselves, they're gonna focus on healthcare. You know, and so you in my opinion, you kind of nailed, you know, all of the important components to what people are looking for.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

And, you know, even there's some data out there that shows even the younger generations, like the Gen X's and and um, you know, Gen Z's and millennials, they're getting smarter with their money. They're trying to focus on healthcare too.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

You know, and so, you know, I think if the farm to table thing is increasing, alcohol sales are down 37% nationwide. Like the health and wellness side is going bigger, and I don't want to go too far on a tangent here, but people are starting to be more conscious of their their health.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

So so medical is the fastest growing industry.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

I'm I'm one of them. I've I started paying attention to my health more, you know. Um it's uh I mean I didn't think I had to for a while because you know I was I was always kind of skinny, and then uh I I hit you know 200 pounds. I'm like, oh wait.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Hold on, let me leave that back.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

I'm like uh never weighed this much before. I better uh better tone it back a little bit. Let's let's eat some healthy stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

So let's go back to the the uh the airport though, because I think that's a big revenue generator.

Airport Expansion And Private Equity

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And you know, a lot of the even brokers and agents in the town that I talked to, they'll say, you know, we have buyers that come into town, but they wish they had, you know, a uh a hangar or they wish they had something like a larger FBO, you know, McCulloch commercial.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

McCulloch literally used to fly people in for free to look at land.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Wasn't there like some commercial flights from people coming flying from here to Phoenix or here to Vegas on like more of a commercial flight? Yeah, they did something like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

There was a couple times that they did it, um, and it it wasn't super successful, but the town's not the size it is now.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

And then so if you like watching the growth of this town, you know, being I mean, I was born here in this hospital in '87. So like I've seen a lot here, right? I and and yeah, I was in Vegas for you know 10 years, but I was always in and out of town. Like my my mom lives here, my family lives here. So, but watching it it grow, um, I noticed that it's a substantial amount of growth because it's a retirement resort town, right? But it's it's more geared towards um, you know, there's there's a lot of higher-end stuff in this town. So I think, you know, if we want these retail stores, the people are definitely here that'll support it, right? Um, I think we the commercial service, you know, airline service is definitely going to help bring that here. Um it people don't understand how much it would actually benefit like Havasu to have something like that. Um I think, you know, when they tried it before, I don't think maybe we didn't have the you know the right metrics to to really you know push that. But I think nowadays, yeah. I mean, I'll be honest with you, if if I knew I could hop on a plane here and go to Vegas, I'm not driving to Vegas. No, then I because then I gotta park my vehicle in the in the parking there and and well uh you know I don't want to leave my car there. Yeah, sure. Um and if I could hop on a a flight and it'd be what 20, 30 minutes to Vegas, yeah, I'm that's what I'm gonna do because it's more convenient. Yeah. Um even if it's not, you know, what is it gonna cost? Like two, three hundred bucks, you know? Yeah. And that's not even that bad. Yeah. Like it'd probably be more now though. See if it fuels kind of fuels gone up a decent thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It's gonna change. Well, you you'd be surprised depending on like there was a um there was a uh an offer to go to Vegas that was dirt cheap because people aren't spending the money anymore. So they have to lower the prices to entice people to come now.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

I've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah. So flights are starting to get a little bit cheaper, especially if you get them like on Sundays, or you get them on like the Monday flights or what have you, you're starting to see them drop a little bit. Um, so you can get a good deal, but it's not always like that. You know, fairness, you know. Sometimes it's hit and miss.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah, it's kind of just uh I feel like it's it's kind of how the economy rules. Uh I've watched the Vegas. market, you know, and uh I I knew when they started uh the remember they started charging for parking fees in the re in the the casino resorts and stuff and I'm like well that's only gonna last so long and they they started taking it away now because they notice people aren't showing up anymore you know when we gotta like especially locals you know when when I lived up there like you gotta pay 45 bucks for parking no thank you you know what I mean we go somewhere else but uh yeah it's uh it's it's crazy how times change you know and and really you gotta stay with the times um otherwise you're gonna get left in the dust right couldn't blame I feel like Kingman and Bullhead right now are kicking our butts in smart growth you know like like I mean bullhead got an olive garden right yeah you know I like Olive Garden I think it'd be pretty great to have an olive garden um there's supposed to be one coming into the mall for years hasn't it so there's talk of a Costco going in somewhere here in Mojave County and if I could grasp a hold of that thing I would I know I know River Dave was against a Costco.

Retail Growth Costco And Sales Tax

SPEAKER_01 23:19

He thinks it would kind of hurt small businesses. I think it would help small businesses majorly because the cost of stuff is is going to be significantly you know cheaper when you buy in bulk. Me, I got six kids. I would love a Costco here, you know um and uh I I think you know it it brings in more sales tax revenue. That's that's a big thing. Like a lot of what I see is them, you know people in leadership positions wanting to just do the easy thing and just oh let's raise rates. I don't want to do that. I don't want to raise rates. I want to be more fiscally responsible. I want to you know I want to figure out ways to generate more sales tax revenue for the town. There's it's it's it's a big business is what it is. You know the town really is and the way to create create that revenue is through growth. Yes absolutely and smart growth you know stuff that people need.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Yeah you know stuff that's well if you can look at it from like if you're starting to focus on commodity level growth you know that that's where it it'll thrive. Yes you know that's important.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Healthcare is example healthcare is definitely a huge priority in this town um you know me personally I I drive to Kingman and the reason being is because I I have family that work inside this hospital but I I drive to Kingman because when I go to Kingman and I go into the hospital I'm in a room within like the most it's taken was like eight minutes to get me in a room. And generally I could drive to Kingman get in a room get treated and be back home before I could ever be out of that hospital here. That's cool. So I'm like I I really want to see a push for better healthcare here. I'd like to see you know and I don't know if it's a recruitment problem or like we can't retain healthcare professionals here that the hospital operates in that manner, but I would love to see an improvement in it. Not trying to down them or nothing. I I get it the struggle right um and and the juggle of of a bunch of doctors um but it's it's gotta it's gotta get better and whatever we have to do as a city to help them let's do it you know um it's it's I love that man if we gotta go out and shake a leg, you know, I don't care I'm gonna you know I'm not gonna stop. I'm a guy that once I go on a mission I'm I'm not I'm not gonna stop until I I take I get it done. Yeah. And I do know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease it's true. It's 100% so um you know if I could hop at you know or hop on calls with Costco I don't care if I got to show up to their main branch in Vegas or wherever it's at and knock down their door and be like hey let's let's you know let's do something. Yeah you know um I've seen a couple things you know they're they'll do like um uh they they take away like the sales tax on the the they'll give them free sales tax for X amount of years uh with a cap of you know $250,000 to help them to where when they open that store they can recoup their money faster to where you know it gives them a little incentive to bring stuff here. And I thought that was what PED does but I have really I don't think I've seen them bring any big box retail stores here.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

No. So um you know I think you know you have you know you know I talked to the owner of the mall rather often and uh you know he even says the same thing. You know if there's you can get some bigger box stores stuff here that'd be huge for the you know the um the community the community for sure. Yeah. It would and I think you know in the and the I I think what you'll see too is you'll see small businesses grow. You know the one of the thing I and I shared this I think in one of my last podcasts was when you start paying attention to how many smaller no name regional banks are popping up that's a clear indication that people are moving here and when they move to retire they move their money. Yeah. But those banks you know are typically providing you know better returns to be on a brokerage account. They're giving incentives for people to go on deposit.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

One of the just like any bank they're gonna have a portfolio on how they manage their their whether it's mortgage mortgage backed securities like mortgages to auto loans to credit cards to lines of credit right all of those things they're gonna have a metric to it. But when you start having a lot of a lot on deposit one of the most fruitful things for banks is SPA loans small business loans to help businesses grow. Yeah you know and they're putting more and more money through the bank as they have more and more transactions and so that's where the bank starts generating real income. And then a lot of times through the small business loans you're encumbering assets so you're mitigating risk. So there's like all these little things that you're I'm starting to see that these banks are doing here. And I think that's a testament to growth. And you know four or five years ago people go, well what about you know if we go to war, what if we do this what if that and like well we are at war. Yeah you know people are making moves with what they have and I think that's what you're seeing too is people are being a little more bullish. They're not putting their heads in the sand they're like this is what we have okay it's a we've been through this before but let's let's position ourselves to give all of our wealth and hold it but give our wealth away to our kids and our grandkids. Like it's just you know but we want to help the community that we love and believe in.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

And I feel like right now like this is the best time to have your money into assets. You know the dollar bill is vulnerable and uh I've seen you know look at inflation if you had your money in assets and inflation happened you you're doing all right but if you just had it sit and not working in the bank you know just sitting there it's not it's not you didn't make out yet that money's going the money you left in that bank is not going as far as what your asset's value is.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah it just depends on what you have where you park it but you know it's funny because I'm not gonna even try to go on that Tan that is like a whole nother conversation I want to I'd love to go into but I want to make this about you. Okay. But um you know so what what you know what do you want your audience to see you as like what's the like what's the purpose to be on this podcast right what what do you want people to know?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Well I'm just your local hometown boy trying to you know make a difference. I want to really get out there and uh put in the work. I'm I'm highly motivated to go out and do what I have to do to make this town uh get the amenities that we

Bring Tourism And PED In-House

SPEAKER_01 29:18

need.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

And you know I've uh I've been pretty vocal about you know bringing uh Golekavasu and the planned economic development in-house um you know if they're not performing then we need to bring it in house to where we can control it. Um and and with that you know it's not like I'm just gonna put everybody out of jobs but you know if they're good hey let's hire them let's give them a city job right then they get benefits all that fun stuff um but Bullhead and Kingman both have their their tourism bureau and their planned economic development in-house so they're able to do a lot more I feel to to control their growth um and really push with that's a good way to think about it yeah yeah well I mean we're taking in just from tourism um with that the bed tax and and beverage tax we're we're bringing in about 4.2 million a year um we give Golekavisu 1.6 and we give PED 500 000 I do feel PED is a little underfunded with 500 000 but I don't I I gotta look in to see how many employees are in there. As far as I know it's just um James Gray. But so but they're able like that's why Bullhead and Kingmen are getting stuff they're more proactive than us. And and I feel like we could really do you know have a a bigger push. I heard some stuff about Desert Storm you know they're they're charging a ton of money you know when when our tourism bureau like that that event brings a ton of people to yeah it does like we shouldn't be charging them. We should you know take the tourism money and help host events like that. Yeah like because hey can agree more I love it right I I think it's amazing. It's some of the most awesome boats you ever see right all over the country. Yeah from all over the country and and uh you know we could do a lot more like that that's what that tourism money is supposed to be used for you know to to generate more um more what do they call it it's like more people staying in hotels and stuff um to to bring people in town yeah so if we could you know help out more events and bring more events to town that's definitely gonna help. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

So yeah I love that man that's and that's a that's you know it's very humbling and and I could I agree with you you know that's if you can get more even if it's tourism you know because that's one great source of revenue. Absolutely but even you know figuring out a way you know the affordability side's gonna be really difficult. I do really like I know it sounds a little funky but I do really like the like Havasu Heights development that they're doing out there. It's a little more affordable. It is you know even though it's a little bit of a drive that's really not a big deal at all. I feel especially when there's so much growth on the north side. You know there's gonna be more and you have Walmart there.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

I mean you have all your I think that it's gonna extend out that way. I don't think it can go too much further south. This Havasu is not done growing. I promise you that we just hit the map for a lot of people once I knew as soon as people started figuring out this place you know is such a nice place to live, they're gonna come yeah you know it's like that saying if you build it they will come. Totally um but I do think we need to catch up um because it's growing at such a rapid pace that we need these amenities to support the residents here. Yeah. Honda some other things, you know, like I'd I'd like to see you know town beautification. That's huge to me too. Very prideful of this town. Yeah I'd like to you know even if like like the whole private equity thing, you know, there's people that are willing to contribute um we need to we need to make sure that the youth in this town we got some focus on them too. We need ball fields for these kids. You know they're they're from my understanding you know they're they don't have enough places to play and they're you know they're having to schedule out till nine ten o'clock at night which is crazy you know um and really it's just there's just a lot of focus that needs to happen on on the residents itself um to support us. And I think we'll get there. Uh you know if if they get me on council I'm gonna be you know I'm gonna be in high gear for a while. I'm I'm one of those go getter guys I just I can't stop until I get it.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Um I got a question for you. Yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna change subjects just a quick second because we were laughing when we were talking

Family Stories And Small Town Culture

SPEAKER_00 33:27

offline. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

How'd you meet your wife? Uh she came in for a actually I met her I I did Bradley's window tint back in the day. I briefly met her uh I tinted her windows right yeah and and the look she gave me I just kind of like wow I was like she's like staring through me right and then so all these years later I come back into town and uh she comes in for a vehicle wrap and I was like okay you know I I I had a came up with an awesome idea um you know I'm I love branding businesses it's that's one of my favorite things to do.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Um and uh so much I really enjoy that too yeah it's it's a lot of fun I do and um it's so we just kind of hit it off and uh you know just kind of took it from there and ran with it and uh you know she uh she won my heart that's cool that's cool yeah and and so you guys have six kids in total yes and uh you said that uh before that she came did she come in for a wrap yeah but she didn't wrap it up so you have two kids with her yeah for her I love it dude she came in here and I think she was I don't know was she training with Ashley yes she was right she was just recently yeah yeah so I that's how I met her yeah and she was just so she's so kind and you know what was really cool is she was asking me just about kid stuff or what have you and she was just always so kind and she stood out for that you know and then I always enjoyed the conversation with her and then there was a a city hearing on one of my projects and she was there and yeah you know she supported it and she was just really kind when I walked out she said some nice things and I thought that was really cool. So I didn't know obviously I don't know you guys know you guys really at all.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah and then uh she's like oh yeah my husband's you're you and I'm like oh wait hold on he's running in she's like yeah I was like oh that's cool yeah we try to be nice you know yeah it's that it's the Havasu vibe you know like I I told when I first moved to Vegas right this is when I was like oh wow it's so much different I'm at a gas station right and generally like here in Havasu you're at a gas station you see a cool car compliment it you could strike up a good conversation right and uh yeah the guy pretty much told me to go screw myself and I was just like whoa dude it's like it could have been nice about it it's like I was giving you a compliment on your car and so I knew that like that's the Havasu vibe is a thing. Yeah it is and uh no bad days.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

No but that's that's the point right everybody like I think it's just so cool because everybody comes out here especially the folk that are you you know I kind of I feel like this town is so outdoorsy. I mean it's really the whole point right everybody loves the rec I mean it's the whole point is recreational it's like if during the summer you're on the water and during the winter you're in the razor. Yep you know and everyone's just enjoying that stuff but it's so cool. I just I just feel like people are just happier the sun the sun's always out you know it is it's just the vibe but it's just it's just a really cool environment. I think that's what people feel that's why people want to move here if you've ever been here and you come here once or twice you start looking at houses going like this is a cool spot.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

It is it's the vibe. And and even when it's 122 degrees outside people are still happy.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Yeah facts it's so true dude yeah it's so true it's so true. Yeah well listen I uh I'm really glad that you came and I'm glad I get a chance to spend some time with you. And you know I like I said your wife is always a a a a mirror of your guys's belief system and uh and just getting to know you guys and and your kids and so forth. I thought that's been really cool. Yeah thank you. You know and I'm really hoping that uh people kind of feel the conviction that you have because that's what I feel from you as well.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

And I'm just I'm putting so much energy and time into this town. I really hope that you know people will believe that I'm that way and whoever's on the podcast feels the same way.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

You know I feel like you are I I've seen you know this is the first time we've gotten to really hang out for you know and and talk and uh you know like I said you everything that you've brought to town so far has been really upscale and and and I appreciate that because it's that's the the look that I like uh for havasu like I said we're the gem of Mojave County um we need to kick our butts into high gear on smart growth yeah um and and like this gym I mean this is amazing this is this is this is state of the art equipment and and just the vibe in here it's motivational right and that's what you need when you come to a gym this like branding businesses and stuff like you know you you're doing good it's crazy the amount of you know I it was a funny my a buddy of mine he opens up gyms across the country and he was telling me he's like you're gonna fall in love with the business but if originally I didn't want to he's like I think you're gonna fall in love with the business because you start helping a lot of people and you never think that that's your position you're kind of just looking at dollars and cents you know in

The Gym Mental Health And Community

SPEAKER_01 37:54

your business.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

He goes then you start getting to know your your people because this is like the hospital for the a lot of broken too you know and this lady comes up to me and I've seen her here and this is just recently because I just got back I was gone for a month and uh she came up to me and I've never met her before and I've seen her and she goes you know I've never got a chance to introduce myself and I usually introduce myself to everybody too it's just it's just we just never figured out a way to do it right and uh she kind of chased me down and she goes I just want to introduce myself she's like but I want to tell you like thank you for everything that you've done here because she goes my husband and I, you know, we our marriage is better she goes look at this before and after and she lost it was like 175 pounds or some wild amount and then her husband did the same thing and they're they're feeling better their health problems went away and now now I see them all the time. You know they're just super diligent and that that was cool but that's that's just one conversation. I got a right when we opened a couple months later I ended up getting this big long message on a DM from a guy that was here him and his son were both like his son almost committed suicide and then he's been focused on helping his son and then he was thinking about committing suicide. It was just like this really wild story and he goes because this place is opened we are both in the best shape of our lives we've both lost a bunch of weight we're like our heads are good we're building our businesses I'm actually changing jobs like and I see him here now all the time and like there's just there's this like a connection holistic connection with these humans man and it's just like I I come when I when I come in I'm always saying hi to everybody and it's just something I don't ever want to lose you know it's just the coolest feeling to help all these people and you know so I I'm hoping we can keep that vibe going.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Yeah I mean mental health is definitely a you know a huge thing that you you gotta watch out for these days. You know I I've been down on my luck you know I've I've been in the in the trenches and and uh you know I think like the haveasu vibe thing right that's like when you walk into this gym it's the vibe so it's it's upbeat and and um you know someone that might be you know depressed and whatnot and they come in here and start getting their health back it's gonna motivate them. Yeah that's that's like the way you design this gym it's amazing. Thank you. It props like majorly it's it's a really I think I'm gonna have to get a membership.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Well Dave got one yeah exactly so that's good he needs it yeah he's actually looking pretty good he's lost some weight he just told me today he's down I I didn't catch the number but he's been down yeah I was like good for you man told me he's feeling a lot better too you know we get older we really got to start focusing on health you know I um I really didn't go to the doctors much when I was a kid I just you know I was powered through it yeah you know and and then I'm like you know what maybe I go get my blood work done see where I'm at I'm like okay yeah most important thing you can do man yeah good for you yeah that's cool good for you well listen I've really am I really enjoyed this conversation and I'm really you know supporting you and I'm hoping that you know whoever gets that position just has that much love for the city and is just going to push this thing forward man because you know there's just uh is there's there's something special here and if anyone listening to this and hasn't been here you guys probably jump in the car and drive out here wherever you are you know just come out here witness this place and I think you'll understand why people fall in love with this absolutely winter or summer really the winter this place swells I love it's incredible you got UTV riding in the winter you know you got uh the desert bars bunker bars I just feel like there's way more events all the time there's like every weekend during the week it's always events because it's just so nice out that people are just out it is it is nice in the winter yeah in the summers if you got a big boat this is the place to be yeah I I don't think I've you know I don't think I've been to a nicer lake you know as far as is you know wide open in the amenities to just have fun. Yeah um now and I've heard good things about Lake of the Ozarks because it's huge you know but um it's a big party town man yeah yeah so yeah well it's not like this one is it no it's the same yeah you know but it's yeah that Lake of the Ozarks is actually really nice different it's old money you know it's old money but it's big I was recently looking at Branson Missouri Branson yeah that's a big place that place is blowing up too yes I have an agent friend out there.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

It's supposed to be the clearest lake in the country so that's why I was like oh that sounds pretty nice yeah so I think we're gonna go out and uh check out Silver Dollar City. Okay. Um I have family out in Missouri so you know give me a reason to go out and say hi to them.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Yeah for sure you know good for you buddy yeah cool well I appreciate your time thanks for coming in tonight absolutely thank you for having me yeah we're hoping that our audience gets a lot from that and gets to know you more and we'll support you and yeah remember November 3rd vote Neil Tinsley for city council. There you go buddy so cool well thank you everybody for listening as once again I truly appreciate your uh support and uh on to the next