The city of Page hired a new city manager last week. Michael Celaya, a native Arizonan, will be taking his position on Monday, July 23. Celaya brings with him 21 years of municipal strategy and development experience working in city governments and social services. He will be transitioning his move to Page with his wife June Celaya, who is a school administrator in a Maricopa county school district.    

With 21 years of lobbying and grant writing experience, Celaya’s successes have resulted in capital grants from regional and federal appropriations for the cities he formerly worked with. He left the town manager’s position in Gila Bend after two years of revitalizing Gila Bend’s mayoral and city council objectives of tourism and business strategies. Prior to working in Gila Bend, Celaya worked in the city of Surprise, Arizona, for two years. One of his points of pride was helping development the Community Vitality Department, which became the framework for future community engagement.

Celaya will embrace the vision and values of the City of Page, which prioritizes the quality of life for Page residents, he said Monday.

“I can’t wait to work with staff to bring those priorities to fruition,” he said. “The [city government] is a high performing organization with financial stability. I really appreciate their vision and values because under that area you’ll see accountability and being transparent to the residents, also, being financially responsible are key areas that really is the cornerstone of what I value. Improving the infrastructure and improving housing are the big issue there. I will work with the community to develop that.
Celaya experienced first-hand the lack of residential housing and the lack of a Home Owner’s Association. He had been trying to find residential housing in Page and had difficulty finding housing without the help of a local realtor.

“I am just experiencing trying to find a place in Page and [Page] is limited in finding affordable housing. I will get a place in a couple of weeks so [housing] is obviously a great need. Page has high VRBO usage and I plan to address how [Page] is going to mitigate the VRBO challenges. Affordable housing is a big thing that I will be working on to come up with options.”

Celaya will also bring in a plan to turn Page into a destination place of social gathering for the 3.5 million tourists that stay overnight when they visit the nearby parks.
“You have destinations all around you,” he said. “You’ve got everything around you and you got people walking your main street looking for something to do. I was one of those people and I experienced [not finding a social place of gathering] myself. So, that is a going to be a great place to start working with the business community and the community in large.”

He also adds that revamping of Lake Powell Boulevard will include some colorful ideas to bring tourist into the city businesses.

“I am trying to develop and maximize the foot traffic on main street by making it a place of social gathering at the park or on block 17 where the plaza is right now.,” he said. “I would like to propose some art down main street so it’s viable, so it’s walkable. You have a great heart beat in your community. At the end of the day the city is already doing things it needs to do and I am just going to come in and do that while working with the mayoral council.”

Celaya said his personal reasons for wanting to relocate to Page had much to do with the lake and the national parks surrounding the area, and he’s looking forward to exploring the area more.

“I just love those ocean cities with those types of beachy shores and Page has a lot of those. I can’t wait to meet [everybody].”

Celaya added, “I think [Page] is amazing. People take care of their businesses, it’s relativity clean and you have a great heartbeat in your community. That heartbeat is what made it so attractive to me. So that’s where I am headed. [Page] has a lot of potential. I am really excited… and so pumped up. I am very honored to be selected and I am ready to go now.”