California political boss Jesse Unruh said, “You can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, (date) their women, take their money and vote against them anyway. If so, you don’t belong to a professional politician.”
Now, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, Vote Tuesday to accept $11 million from Australian mining company South32 To offer some educational programs. Let’s see what happens next. A mining company can be a good corporate citizen and have complete control over a community, but in the end it just leaves the community alone.
This funding will go through the county superintendent’s office and will be broken down as follows: The company will donate $51,500 to the Primary Robot School program and another $22,000 to the Robot School program. techno techa lift $22,000 for programs that advance girls into science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and continuing education;
It’s what the mines provided and it’s great for the county. right? what happened? This time it’s only $110,000.
The Board of Supervisors cannot approve South32’s Hermosa mine. It’s a federal issue. Board support for the project will be expressed as approval of the associated project as the mine begins operations and off-site materials are required. Australians will want a positive relationship with their locally elected MPs.
However, some parts of the community have loudly opposed the project.
As such, the relationship between Santa Cruz County regulators and mining companies is critical and fraught.
As a man who once lived and covered a mining community, I can tell you that the relationship will be difficult. Landmines don’t exist there as something that people only pay attention to occasionally. Landmines invade civil society. The local economy is heavily mining. The business begins to maintain the mine. Homebuilders abandon homes for miners to live in. Merchants cash checks used by miners at their establishments.
After that, the prices of mined commodities fall, and layoffs and declining production scare the entire town.
The company vows never to withdraw. It will remain part of the community. And then one day they get up and leave. “Long time no see. Thank you for the manganese. Sorry for the pile of slag.”
Workers will likely receive a retirement check and be directed to the unemployment insurance program on the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s website.
Meanwhile, the mine will produce metal for batteries. The Biden administration is pushing this at a rapid pace as a key element in developing an alternative energy agency.
The oversight board is caught in the middle here. They will obviously take the money. When the time comes, will they face the mines?
stay tuned.
Who?
The City of Marana negotiated a 10 percent waiver of tuition fees for its employees at Arizona State University and Grand Canyon University.
They both realize they’re in a monster known as “The Valley,” right? Not called that in Tucson. For us it’s just “Phoenix”.
The ASU base tuition costs $11,308 and the GCU costs $8,250, so moving the decimal point up one place completes the math.
The agreement aims to add incentives for people to come to work in town and to give existing staff the opportunity to educate them in good faith. All local governments are striving to improve remuneration to compete with the private sector and are also being forced to offer better wages and benefits during the grand resignations.
It must be strange for “take this job and love it” employers around Tucson. After all, leaving the snow shoveling behind might not be worth $30,000 a year in spiritual income.
The town council is expected to approve the deal at its meeting on Tuesday.
There is further evidence that the housing boom continues in Pima County.
The council plans to vote on giving “full approval” to three agreements with three different developers to start construction on the 260th. new house of Dove Mountain and Tortorita Mountain Estate. All of these projects have received plans for sale, but those plan contracts have conditions that the developers have met.
And we have watermill contracts with several facilities in the Twin Peaks area.
I wrote about this mill agreement about a year and a half ago, and I still have PTSD. So… oh no, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.
It took me hours to identify this, and I remember having to talk to several experts on the subject who claimed to have no depth of knowledge. Please let me use the expression I was particular about in December 2021.
The Central Arizona Project has a policy prohibiting CAP water distribution systems from being used to distribute non-CAP water. This policy aims to protect groundwater.
The City of Tucson and the Town of Marana entered into an agreement under which Tucson Water supplies the town with CAP water. As part of that agreement, developments within the town of Marana should be linked with Marana Water. Waivers must be approved by both Tucson Water and Marana Water.
Some developers were negotiating for such exemptions while inter-municipal agreements were being signed. Marana Town officials agreed to the deal, assuming the project could get support from Tucson Water.
The parties have finalized an agreement with the Tucson Water Authority and are now ready to seek approval from the Marana City Council.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Southern Tucson City Council will announce the following policies: Final vote on the $7.5 million 2023-24 budget.
Police will receive an additional $293,000, and the city expects to have a budget balance of $1.4 million at the end of the year. That’s about $1.4 million more than last year.
