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May 23, 2007
With the sustained high price of copper, the copper mines are cranking back up again, and that's a good thing. One side effect, however, is a lack of housing for all the workers relocating here.
This was one of the points made at a Supevisor's update of the Southern Gila County Economic Summit last week, at which its eight task groups made their quarterly reports.
“As we all know, the mines are roaring back and while that is a fantastic happening for our economy, it is presenting some problems for Gila County,” said Chris Martin, director of the Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation (SGCEDC).
“Attainable housing is a big problem. According to the housing study conducted one year ago, Gila County was already in great deficit in the number of attainable dwelling units. That problem has been greatly exacerbated by the upswing in mine jobs and the EDC has made it a top priority to help solve that problem.
“As part of our due diligence, we are conducting a housing survey through the end of May. The survey can be completed by visiting www.sgilacountyed.com and clicking on the survey page.”
Hard copies of the survey are also availble at the town halls of Hayden, Winkelman and Miami, at Globe City Hall and in the lobbies of Southwest Gas and APS.
“We have met with several developers who build low to moderate-income housing and we will meet with more,” Martin continued. “We are hopeful that local land prices and suitable topography will make additional attainable housing units a reality in the very near future.”
Progress is being made in other areas, as well, Martin told Supervisor Shirley Dawson and other Economic Summit participants present at the meeting Monday, May 14. Supervisor Jose Sanchez arrived later during the meeting, while Supervisor Tommie Martin had to leave early because of the Promontory Fire raging in her northern Gila County district.
The eight task groups were formed to accomplish the goals set by the County Economic Summit at its last meeting. Formed in October, 2005, the Economic Summit met again last October and is scheduled for its third meeting Friday, Oct. 5.
“Before we hear reports on the individual task groups,” Martin said, “I want to tell you some of the actions the Economic Development Corporation is taking internally and operationally to further the economic development agenda.
“We embrace regionalism because we feel we are made stronger if we work regionally. We attend Copper Corridor Regional EDC meetings, Pinal Partnership meetings, AAED meetings, CAAG meetings and April 16, a group of us journeyed to Payson. We met with several Payson Regional EDC members and talked about issues for our county and ways we can work together for the betterment of all of Gila County. APS will be conducting a Focus Future session soon to examine in detail the SGCEDC's eight objectives and the PREDC's six objectives, looking at the possible synergies and working together to further our entire county.”
Martin also told the group that the EDC is working to attain suitable land for an industrial park. “Another top priority is bringing manufacturing jobs to Southern Gila County so that when copper prices decline -- and they definitely will decline again someday -- our community will not. But we can't do that until we can compete with the thousands of other communities throughout the United States who have industrial parks.”
The SGCEDC is applying for 501-c -3 status from the IRS, Martin added. ??-c-3 status will allow us to pursue grant possibilities that would otherwise not be available to us,” Martin said. “Equally as important, 501-c-3 status makes private contributions to the EDC tax-deductable.”
At the 2005 and 2006 Economic Summits, the eight task groups adopted objectives to be accomplished by the second year. After Martin's remarks, members of the eight task groups who were present gave reports on specific actions they've taken toward their objectives.
1 Oversight: To have in place a collaborative, comprehensive economic development program for southern Gila County with sufficient funding. They have accomplished that with the hiring of Martin and funding from the county. Other funding sources are being explored.
2 Land acquisition and industrial park: To have an aggresive land acquisition program in place whereby more land has already been acquired and made available for both residential and commercial development and to have developed at least one industrial park/business center. Progress is being made, it was reported.
3 Transportation and infrastructure: To have implemented a regional transportation program that takes into consideration roads/freeways, rail and air and to have inventoried and are nearing completion of our utilities and transportation infrastructure including gas, water, electricity, broadband fiber and waste water.
4 Education: To have enhanced the quality and range of educational opportunities for youth and adults.
5 Quality of life: To have enhanced the quality of life in this area to the extent that we are attracting substantial investment and reinvestment.
6 Recreation and tourism: To have begun implementing our extensive Recreational Plan that provides recreational opportunities for all ages and implementing our extensive tourism plan.
7 Community development: To have in place at the county and local level a process that smoothes the way for both new construction and renovations.
8 Public lands--commodity harvest/mining: To have helped restore “multiple use” to our public lands and helped bring about initiating the use of adaptive management principles and practices to promote health, functioning and productivity of the land and the local economy.
Members of each task force meet regularly to work on various aspects of their objectives, and several of them have sub-committees working on specifics within the objective. Meetings are open to the public and anyone interested may attend. For information on time and location of meetings, phone Chris Martin at 425-4495.
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