By Shelley Ridenour | Casa Grande Dispatch
Three Pinal County mayors and a county supervisor all said this week that 2013 was a pretty good year for their communities and the county, but they expect an even better 2014.
Casa Grande Mayor Bob Jackson and Pinal County Supervisor Steve Miller both pointed out extensive business growth, mostly in Casa Grande, as 2013 community highlights.
“It was a banner year in that regard for Casa Grande,” Jackson said, listing the start of construction at Sam’s Club, the opening of Ehrmann Arizona Dairy’s yogurt plant and the Franklin Foods cream cheese plant and the groundbreaking for PhoenixMart as big events of the past year.
Miller, who lives in Casa Grande, concurred that the dairy-related industries and PhoenixMart are all good news and mean new jobs for the region.
Coolidge Mayor Tom Shope said the presence of the wholesale sourcing center on the horizon is good news for not only Casa Grande, but Coolidge, Eloy and the county.
“We’re right on the border. It’s bound to help us,” he said. At a minimum, he expects PhoenixMart employees to be attracted to Coolidge housing.
Mayor Jackson acknowledged that there are some “bumps” still to be worked out related to the PhoenixMart project.
“But, if we can get that up and running, we will bring other opportunities,” such as hotels, restaurants and retail outlets to the community, he said.
In Florence, the hiring of a new town manager, Charles Montoya, was singled out by Mayor Tom Rankin as one of the best moves of 2013.
That has allowed the town to “change direction, to set new direction,” Rankin said. The new town manager brings some economic development expertise, which Rankin believes will help the town attract new businesses and new jobs.
Miller thinks Pinal County is “very, very primed for the future. I think we’re going to see Pinal County turn into a logistics hub.”
He predicts that in 30 or 40 years, “we’ll see a lot of product moving through here because of the presence of Interstates 8 and 10, Union Pacific Railroad and possible future highways.
Miller believes Pinal County has solid potential to become an inland port for goods from the south and from the Pacific Rim.
“The long-term future of Pinal County is there,” he said.
And, all of that means job creation, “and when we do that we do well,” Miller said.
The jobs are coming, he said, but “it will be baby steps for a couple of years.”
Rankin expects progress on a proposed north- south highway in the Florence Coolidge area in 2014, “another big issue for us.”
Shope is proud that for the first time in at least a decade, street improvements were made in Coolidge last year. Besides street work, a general cleanup effort was tackled in 2013 to improve “the overall appearance of the city.” That work will continue in 2014, he said.
Some of Coolidge’s industries are poised for expansion, Shope said, singling out Stinger Bridge & Iron, which he called “a big player.”
Florence town officials will continue to work on Main Street improvements, Rankin said.
A new public library is expected to be completed in Florence in 2014. And, the town of Florence continues its effort to buy Johnson Utilities, which Rankin termed “a big thing for the community.”
Besides purchasing the utility company, Florence officials want to work closely with Johnson leaders as that private company plans its development of a 6,000-unit com-
munity in the southern part of Florence. The proximity of Jackson the proposed development to older parts of Florence is exciting to Rankin.
“We hope it would help rejuvenate that part of town,” he Rankin said. That devel- opment, along with the possible annexation into Florence of property where 4,000
people live northwest of Anthem Shope “would all have an impact on the county, too,” Mayor Rankin said, not just the town of Florence.
“We’ve got a lot going for us,” Rankin said of Florence. “We’ve improved the quality of life and we’re trying to attract new businesses.”
On the horizon for 2014 in Casa Grande, Mayor Jackson said, is real movement on the long-discussed and planned community center.
The services that recreation center would provide on the north side of the city are needed, he said.
He expects activity on that project to rapidly increase in the next few months. The big holdup remains identifying a long-term funding source for operational costs.
Jackson also thinks the City Council will move toward implementing things identified in the strategic plan prepared for the Police Department.
“I don’t know where the council stands, but having a strategic plan to go from helps,” Jackson said.
Shope would like to see town officials complete acquisition of state-owned land that now separates the city limits from the city airport. Owning and annexing that land would allow city officials to continue with airport expansion plans, he said.
“We hope to wrap that up in 2014,” Shope said.
Jackson is optimistic that new houses will continue to be built in Casa Grande in 2014, at the city’s normal level of sustainability — around 200 a year. In 2013, he said, between 170 and 200 new houses were built in the city, a number that matches many years in the last decade or so.
Construction numbers got skewed for a couple of years during the housing boom, when 2,500 or so houses a year was the norm.
But, Jackson thinks a number of between 200 and 250 is “good for a town our size.”
It’s far from smooth sailing for governments, all of the officials said, but things definitely are looking up.
“We’re not seeing revenue increases like we would like to,” Jackson said, “so that means no new services. We’re mostly in a hold mode.”
Supervisor Miller is proud that county officials were able to “hold the line on property taxes. That’s a big deal for me.”
Miller credits that ability to “excellent management” by former County Manager Fritz Behring and a “good county budget department.”
Employees were able to get accurate numbers and crunch the data to allow the property tax rate to not increase, he said.
“I was fortunate to take office with a great staff,” Miller said.
He is hopeful that the assessed valuation of Pinal County “starts trending up,” having been flat for several years. If that changes, “it makes it possible to lower taxes.”
