Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department (RWRD)
Supervisor Sharon Bronson (District 3), County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, Deputy County Administrator John Bernal at groundbreaking ceremony.
RWRD Receives Federal Stimulus Funding
by Lorraine Simon
The Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department (PCRWRD) is among one of the first government agencies in the State of Arizona to obtain stimulus funding from the federal government for improvements to its wastewater system, to construct the Plant Interconnect Project.
PCRWRD will receive $10 million from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) which includes $8 million in low-interest rate loans, and an additional $2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), principal forgiveness funds, that do not have to be repaid. The ARRA and other WIFA funding will save Pima County residents nearly $3.4 million in construction costs. In addition to the $10 million in WIFA funds and federal stimulus dollars, other funding sources for this $41.1 million project include bond authorizations of $29.3 million and cash outlays of $1.8 million.
The purpose of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is to preserve and maintain jobs, stimulate economic recovery, and provide public infrastructure investments. The funds are being administered by the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA).
WIFA is an independent agency of the State of Arizona that is authorized to offer below market interest rates on loans to finance the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of drinking water, wastewater, wastewater reclamation, and other water quality projects.
Supervisor Sharon Bronson (District 3), County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, Deputy County Administrator John Bernal, and PCRWRD staff with shovels ready in groundbreaking ceremony.
The Plant Interconnect Project will result in the construction of a large sewer interceptor that will convey flows from the Roger Road Wastewater Reclamation Facility (WRF) service area in a five-mile long gravity sewer line to the Ina Road WRF. It is the first project in the state-mandated Regional Optimization Master Plan (ROMP). The ROMP is a program adopted by PCRWRD to meet new environmental regulatory requirements for reducing nitrogen and ammonia levels in effluent discharges to the Santa Cruz River from the Roger Road and Ina Road Wastewater Reclamation Facilities.
To qualify for federal funding, construction must begin on this shovel-ready project within 120 days from the date that President Obama signed the ARRA into law, February 17, 2009. Construction on this project began on June 1. The anticipated completion date of the Plant Interconnect is December 2010.
It is estimated that approximately 255 - 300 local (private sector) jobs will be created resulting from the Plant Interconnect project.
A news conference was held on Tuesday, May 26, on the grounds of the Ina Road WRF. Following the news conference, Supervisor Sharon Bronson (District 3), County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, Deputy County Administrator John Bernal, and PCRWRD staff participated in a groundbreaking ceremony.
Pima County Health Department
Nancy Wright Says Good-Bye… for Now
By Debra Urken
As she swirled back and forth in her office chair in her familiar way that Vital Records staff hold dear, Nancy Wright said her favorite part of her job as Deputy Registrar at the Pima County Vital Records Office is interacting with the children, who sometimes call her "nana," and the babies who come in with their parents for birth certificates. "We've been much busier since the population in Pima County has grown so rapidly - which makes our job challenging," Nancy said. She has been eagerly counting down the days to her retirement on May 30th, 2009, even though she will miss being here. After almost 17 years with the county, Nancy's retirement plans include reading, watching movies, walking in a Silver Sneakers fitness program, visiting her two children in Maryland and Colorado, returning to Washington where she grew up and where she hasn't been since she was 16 years old and coming back to Vital Records from time to time to say "hello."
Nancy, who earned an associate's degree in dietetics from Pike's Peak Community College in Colorado, started working for Pima County in August 1992 as a community nutrition worker in WIC where she enjoyed working with children and "educating mothers about the right foods to eat." She naturally gravitated to an interim job in the Health Department Director's Office where she busied herself reorganizing the County telephone directory and then to the Vital Records Office, making use of her "detail-oriented" nature. In Vital Records, before 1997 when the hospitals began to enter birth certificate data online, Nancy thrived on editing birth certificate hard copies the office received. Since then, constant office changes have kept Nancy busy and on her toes.
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