Board Opposes Closure of Tucson Postal Service Facility
01.31.12
The Board of Supervisors, acting on the initiative of Richard and Supervisor Sharon Bronson, approved a resolution on January 10 opposing the closure of the Cherrybell Postal Service Processing and Distribution Facility, which sorts and distributes all of Southern Arizona’s mail.
The U.S. Postal Service, siting financial difficulties primarily due to a 2006 Congressional act that President George W. Bush signed into law requiring the Service to fund its pension program decades in advance, has proposed tentatively to close more than half of all Postal facilities in the nation.
Under the plan, the Tucson facility would be closed and all mail from Tucson, Pima County and Southern Arizona would be trucked to Phoenix for processing and trucked back south for distribution. This would result in the loss of 310 Tucson Postal Service jobs and an estimated 130 private-sector positions dependent on the Tucson facility’s operation. This blow to the local economy is estimated at $30 million a year in lost economic activity and $4.8 million a year in lost federal, state and local tax revenue.
In addition, overnight local mail delivery service would be lost and it would require a minimum of two to three days for a letter to be delivered after it is mailed. In rural areas and smaller towns, the mailed-to-delivery time would be even longer.
Among the other negative local impacts of this plan:
- The mail delivery of prescription medicines for many homebound and seriously ill people would be delayed, jeopardizing lives and well-being.
- Vote-by-mail laws assuming a faster mailing-to-delivery turn-around times would be violated.
- Native American voters, particularly on the sprawling Tohono O’Odham Nation, would be hindered severely in their efforts to vote by mail, making them unequal in voting rights.
- The delivery of time-sensitive court-hearing and other judicial notices, such as restraining orders to prevent domestic violence, would be delayed. This could violate laws and court rules governing the speedy delivery of critical notices, and in some cases jeopardizing crime victims.
- A local bulk-mailing discount that is vital to many small local businesses would be lost.
The resolution was distributed to the U.S. Postal Service and the members of the Arizona Congressional delegation. The Postal Service said it will consider comments on its plans until at least May. Congress, meanwhile, will consider several measures that would address Postal Service issues without massive cutbacks in mail-delivery services
Arizona Daily Star Publishes Richard on Rosemont Mine Proposal
12.27.2011
Richard explained his opposition to a Canadian company's proposal to open a copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southest of Tucson recently in a column The Arizona Daily Star published.
Richard said the proposed mine would have an indelible negative impact on our environment if it were developed as it would deplete and contaminate a critical part of the regional water supply, dirty our air, and grossly disfigure an important tourist and recreation area. Its economic damage would far outweigh economic benefits, he said.
Such a mine in the Santa Ritas would use a tremendous amount of water, in mining processes and as a result of the huge open pit digging into the groundwater aquifer. Wells pumped to supply the processes would create cones of depression in the groundwater table that would rearrange underground wate movement. Also the pit, the pilings of rock and soil taken from it, and the tailings left over from ore processing would fill in valleys and ravines, altering forever the flow and infiltration of rainwater.
In the Tucson valley below, we already are using groundwater faster than nature replenishes it -- and are importing Colorado River water from 335 miles away, a very expensive project.
The mine would pollute the air, spewing out 1.8 million pounds a year of unhealthy fine particles that also would threaten the viability of the region's lucrative and important astronomy industry.
Mining operations would dig up or bury Native American artfacts and sites that are sacred to modern Native peoples, especially those of the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Such a mine would destroy important habitat for unique and rare, in some cases endangered, wildlife species. It would disrupt movement patterns for several species that need to range from one area to another in order to survive.
The impact of large and often heavily laden mine trucks on State Route 83, Interstate 10 and other local roads and streets would put a heavy burden on state and local taxpayers whose funds maintain them.
It is quite likely that the number of jobs lost in the astronomy, tourism and home-building industries would exceed the number of jobs created to operate the mine -- for a maximum of only 20 years, assuming copper prices, traditionally subject to booms and busts, remain high for that long.
The mine proponent, Augusta Resource Corp. of Canada, has no plans to backfill the mine pit -- let alone restore the mine-destroyed hillsides and valleys or replant the lost oaks and junipers.
Pima County Housing Center in District Five is Open
12.27.2011
A comprehensive “one-stop” Pima County Housing Center is in District Five on Congress just west of downtown, at 801 W. Congress. The 4,000-square-foot facility serves all the housing needs of low- and moderate-income households and individuals.
Services offered at the new location include: housing and home-ownership education; mortgage and lending information; foreclosure prevention and assistance; fair-housing information; emergency rent and utility assistance; home repair and weatherization assistance; information on fee waivers; help with locating affordable housing.
The Housing Center's Community Room, available for public meetings in evenings, was named for Jon Miles and the late George "Jorge" Pettit, longtime members of the Pima County Community Housing Bond Oversight and Advisory Committee and even longer advocates of affordable housing for people of modest income. Jon, a landscaper, continues to serve county residents on this committee as one of Richard's appointees. Jorge, whose life recently was claimed by cancer, went on to serve admirably on the staff of Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich after many years working with the homless and near homeless at Casa Maria. These two men deserve recognition for their very significant contributions to our efforts to establish and enhance affordable housing in our area.
Counselors located at the Housing Center site, which is on a Sun Tran bus line and near the coming modern streetcar line, are available on an appointment or a walk-in basis. They provide referrals, as needed, to clients who need the services of non-profit agencies or other government offices – city, county, state or federal. Literature and assistance with locating internet-based information are provided there. The Pima County Housing Trust Fund will be located in the facility, which also has ample parking.
People of low- and moderate-income households who can afford to pay for needed home repairs can use the facility to obtain lists of licensed and reputable contractors who are willing to work with people of limited means.
Behind the main facility is the Linda Avenue House, which serves as a demonstration of how green-building improvements can be applied to older housing stock. Verbal and printed information on low-energy-use and water-saving improvements are available here. The house and its grounds provide space for meetings and small Menlo Park Neighborhood events. The Linda Avenue House also serves as a museum for information about the historic Menlo Park Neighborhood that surrounds it.
The Pima County Housing Center, moved from multi-use office space on East Ajo Way, is a welcome addition to District Five and even more valuable now as a centrally located asset for low- and moderate-income people who have housing issues. Combined with the Linda Avenue House, the complex is a unique center for serving a wide variety of the public’s housing needs. The housing center can be reached at (520) 624-2947. The Pima County Housing Program Manager is Betty Villegas.
Northwest Neighborhood Celebrates New Chicanes, Walkway
10.18.2011
Richard and residents of the Northwest Neighborhood celebrated the completion of a $458,000 project to improve the appearance and safety of this early-Tucson area, much of it once known as “Sugar Hill.”
The Northwest Neighborhood Association chose to have chicanes, or curb extensions that narrow roadways, installed on Elm Street between First and Sixth Avenues; and to have a vegetation-lined brick pedestrian walkway installed from the neighborhood’s center along a meandering easement to Mansfield Park. Rainwater is harvested to feed the chicanes’ native vegetation, and the native plantings along the walkway to the park.
Northwest is bounded by Lee Street, Sixth Avenue, Saguaro Street to Fourth Avenue, Seneca Street to First Avenue and First Avenue back to Lee. The neighborhood, one of Tucson’s older midtown areas, has more than 400 dwelling units housing some 11,000 residents.
Using money from the voter-approved 2004 Pima County Bonds, the county Neighborhood Reinvestment Program provided the funding and oversaw the work. The University of Arizona’s Drachman Institute created the original design for the project and the City of Tucson Department of Transportation contracted for the installation work, in cooperation with its Parks Department.
The improvements make the area safer and more inviting for pedestrians and bicyclists, and link to other features, such as the City of Tucson’s Fourth Avenue Bicycle Boulevard, associated with the surrounding neighborhoods of El Cortez Heights, Feldman’s and Jefferson Park.
County Opens Behavioral Health Facilities in Kino Complex
10.17.2011
Pima County celebrated the full opening of its new state-of-the-are Behavioral Health Pavilion and Crisis Response Center for people suffering mental difficulties. The facilities began offering services to patients in August and various aspects of the complex were put into service over the weeks leading to the October 13 ceremony.
These new facilities in the Kino Health Campus on East Ajo Way will improve dramatically the treatment of Southern Arizona’s mental patients. Clustered with the University Healthcare Hospital, mental patients with physical injuries or diseases can be treated for all their problems in a coordinated manner and in one complex.
Pima County is employing University Healthcare physicians, Community Partnership of Southern Arizona and the University of Arizona College of Medicine to operate these facilities.
The Behavioral Health Pavilion is a three-story, 136,262 square-foot facility that University Healthcare will operate with the help 20 psychiatric residents I training from the UA College of Medicine. It was built with $48 million in Pima County bond funds that voters approved in 2004 and 2006. It includes:
- A first floor with an outpatient behavioral health clinic, an emergency department with eight specially designed rooms for special-needs individuals, including the highest-acuity psychiatric patients in emergency situations, a 24-hour helipad and a Superior Court room for proceedings dealing the involuntary commitment issues.
- A second floor with two secure 24-patient psychiatric units, a 14-bed geriatric medical/psychiatry unit and a satellite pharmacy.
- A third floor available for two more 24-bed units in the future and with offices of administrative and clinical staff members.
Community Partnership of Southern Arizona will operate the two-story, 67,376 square-foot, Crisis Response Center, which is connected to the Pavilion with a secure breezeway. It was built with $18 million in bonds that voters approved in 2006. CPSA has overseen the public behavioral health system in Pima County for 16 years. The new Crisis Response Center includes:
- A first floor with behavioral-health-crisis services for adults and children will be triaged and space for experts to screen people who come in on their own with problems.
- A second floor with a 24-hour crisis call center staffed with behavioral health professionals, including licensed counselors and social workers, and a 15-patient sub-acute care unit for stays up to five days.
These facilities, unique in Arizona, began opening to use in phases on August 8 and will fully in use before the end of August.
Dealing With Foreclosure/Don't Borrow Trouble Pima County
03.02.2009
Pima County has sponsored several workshops on how to deal
with the threat of foreclosure on homes and how to deal with
foreclosures after they occur. Attendees received general
information and private, confidential consultation. The events
were associated with the onging Don't Borrow Trouble Pima
County campaign to deal with the crisis in home foreclosures.
If you want to buy a home, to refinance a home mortgage,
to take out a home-equity loan, to prevent an impending foreclosure,
or to consolidate debt, you can make use of Don’t Borrow
Trouble Pima County campaign resources.
The campaign includes brochures, radio and television announcements,
workshops, an informative website: http://www.dontborrowtroubleaz.com,
and a telephone “hotline,” (520) 792-3087, that reaches trained
professionals who can answer many questions for free and
can refer callers to appropriate experts who can answer other
questions.
Pima County and several local organizations have joined
Freddie Mac in this campaign to inform people about how to
avoid predatory mortgage loans, which have caused a widespread
national outbreak of loan foreclosures and of lending company
failures.
If lenders make claims that sound too good to be true, their
claims probably are not true. “Pre-approved” home loans offered
over the telephone or in the mail are an invitation to trouble.
Borrowers must demand to have any offers in writing and should
talk to several lenders before making a commitment, or signing
any papers. Borrowers should ask about “prepayment penalties”
and “additional fees.” They should not sign documents with
any incorrect dates or blank fields.
Scam lenders use an array of gambits to trick borrowers
into agreeing to a bad deal that can cost them dearly, and
too often even costs them their home.
Borrowing against a mortgage or on an increase in a home’s
value can result in a much longer-term loan at a higher interest
rate, so the borrower ends up paying much more over time.
Since the borrower’s home is collateral, borrowers can lose
their homes if they fail to make payments. The number of
people losing homes to foreclosure has gone up 200 percent
since 1980.
Freddie Mac is a government-backed but stockholder-owned
company that Congress created in 1970 to support homeownership
and affordable rental housing. In addition to Pima County
there are 23 other local supporters of Freddie Mac’s Don’t
Borrow Trouble Pima County campaign.
