A Sweet Story in Old Town Cottonwood: Candy Corral

Bill and Colleen Hattan and the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors celebrated the opening of the Candy Corral with a ribbon-cutting in Old Town Cottonwood. This store is unbelievable. You will have to see it for yourself!

Proprietors Colleen and Bill Hattan welcome Cottonwood Chamber President and CEO Lana Tolleson to the ribbon cutting for Candy Corral.

Cottonwood Mayor Diane Joens with Colleen and Bill. Follow Historic 89A into Old Town Cottonwood.

The Candy Corral is a kid's dream! There were lots of children and babies at the store.

There are many flavor selections of ice cream and homemade waffle cones. Ummm, those cones make the store smell so yummy! They make more than 30 different varieties of gourmet popcorn.

Feel like going back into your childhood? There are many goodies here that adults enjoyed as children. These are "retro" or "nostalgic" candies. You just have to check it out!

There are even stuffed toys. This store is eye candy too! Rick James of Camp Soaring Eagle examines the Beanie Babies.

These were special samples just for the ribbon cutting. The Candy Corral makes more than 30 different varieties of gourmet popcorn, homemade fudge, and cup cakes. They feature hard-to-find nostalgic candy, ice cream cones, sundaes, and old fashioned malts.

Confused about what to get your sweetheart or children for Valentine's Day? The answer is right here! (Or Christmas or St. Patrick's Day or Halloween...any holiday will do!)

So much to choose from, so hard to choose! A mom helps her son, while Margie Beach visits in the background.

The choices are unbelievable!

There are all kinds of flavors of taffy.

Homemade fudge!

A place for the wee-ones.

Photo by Susie Beach, Beaches on Location

Colleen and Bill cut the ribbon with community members showing their support. Many thanks to the Chamber Ambassadors for welcoming new businesses to town!

The Candy Corral is located at 1028 North Main Street in Old Town Cottonwood, Ariz. Their phone number is (928) 202-3435. Follow Historic 89A into Old Town Cottonwood.  The store is located under the bright orange canopy! Look for Mr. Jelly Belly outside.  Store hours (as of the writing of this blog) are 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They’re open Sunday 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

It's the sweetest spot in Cottonwood.

Cottonwood Adopts Sharrows as Part of Being a Bike Friendly Community

Photo by Randy Victory

When I became mayor of Cottonwood back in 2007, Verde Valley Cyclists Coaltion member Randy Victory and I started pushing for a Cottonwood Bicycle Plan. After we sadly lost City Manager Brian Mickelsen, acting city manager Marianne Jimenez and I worked to get an item on a council agenda, and the council wholeheartedly endorsed creating a plan. From there, city manager Doug Bartosh took over, and it's taken awhile--as these things do--but we've made substantial progress. We have our plan http://www.cottonwoodaz.gov/planning/bicycleplan.pdf  and last year we were named honorable mention as a bicycle friendly community. Thanks to Cottonwood's new planner, Nikki Arbeiter, we're working on bronze or silver now. Community Development Director George Gehlert and Community Development Manager Dan Lueder have also pushed for the plan, as well as members of the Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition. Recently we added "sharrows" on 12th Street to try them out. Randy Victory wrote in an email on December 16, 2011: "Bike shop owner Aaron Ruda was the first cyclist to use the sharrows painted on 12th Street in Cottonwood on Friday. The Public Works crew that had just painted the new roadway markings and can be seen driving away.  Shared-use lane markings, or “sharrows”, are used on roadways which are too narrow for bike lanes. They help remind motorists to share the road with bicycles, and indicate to cyclists the lawful direction of travel. Sharrows were adopted into the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) December 16th, 2009 – two years ago. The new shared-use lane markings in Cottonwood are the first to be installed in the Verde Valley."

COME TO COTTONWOOD! You can ride your bike, hike, canoe, kayak, run, walk, fish, 4-wheel, moutain climb, hang glide, ride horses, and top it all off with a glass of relaxing wine in Old Town Cottonwood. Enjoy the Verde River. We're one of the few towns in Arizona that has a "River Runs through It." Access the river at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. You can ride your bike on some awesome trails there, too.

http://www.oldtown.org/    Old Town Cottonwood
http://www.cottonwoodchamberaz.org/    Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce
http://www.vvwinetrail.com/   Verde Valley Wine Trail
http://azstateparks.com/Parks/DEHO/index.html   Dead Horse Ranch State Park