Sahuarita’s relationship with the private water provider Global Water Resources keeps getting cozier, with the company set to move into the town-owned SAMTEC building.
In 2021 and into 2022, the town of Sahuarita was trying to form its own water company by acquiring the Farmers Water Co., a subsidiary of Farmers Investment Co. The water system provided 3,300 connections in Sahuarita. Then Global Water Resources Inc., swooped in and secured a deal to buy the system out from under the town.
It was going to be like that, was it? That’s when the council started thinking about calling in the firm of Eminent, Domain and Associates.
The town council started investigating the idea of using their power to condemn the system for town use, bigfooting the deal.
That got the Phoenix water firm’s attention and Global Water started talking to the town about how they could “win-win” their way out of the courts. The town and the company reached an agreement that would allow Global Water to run that part of the town’s water in partnership with Sahuarita.
They signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to make a go of it.
Now the council is set to vote on a 10-year lease for Global Water at the Sahuarita Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center. Global Water will run its water system and stage maintenance from as part of daily operations. The rent would cost the company $7,040 per month. However, the town will kick in $220,000 for start up costs the tenant will repay as a portion of rent over the course of the lease.
The town-owned SAMTEC building provides 32,000 square feet of workspace to up to three operations at 16220 S. La Canada Drive. It’s supposed to offer desirable businesses a chance to bring jobs to the area. Global Water would move into the 8,000-square-foot unit, the second-largest on site.
By 2033, the company is expected to employ 25 workers at SAMTEC with an anticipated annual payroll of $2.4 million. That’s pretty good money. I got some issues with going into business with a publicly traded company promising to provide water to a community approaching 50,000 residents.
However, this lease is kind of standard for private companies renting from governments. Even the net-net-net provisions requiring the town to cover taxes and insurance on the property are being replicated in Tucson’s deal with waste-to-building-material company ByFusion.
The length of the lease says to me that the new partnership is swimming right along.
Just for broader context, Sahuarita has a population of going on 40,000 and Global Water serves just a small part of the community. So the town is still not in control of its water future. It wasn’t set up to be. Sahuarita incorporated in 1994 and encompassed a bunch of subdivisions operating their own water systems.
So there is no “Sahuarita Water.” The partnership with GWR is as close as it gets a municipal service. Whatever economic future Sahuarita has will be – like all of Arizona – tied to water security. If this deal helps with that, then stab the fatted calf (or soybean)!
The town does run a wastewater system and the council will get a presentation on the solar array at the water treatment facility.
The solar panels went in 18 months ago and the town claims a savings of $65,000 with projected savings of $865,000 over 20 years.
Interestingly, the Public Works and Police departments use the solar array tor shade equipment, which the town says will extend the life of that gear for further savings. Mwahahhahahah.
OK, I’m as a big of a solar fan as anyone but that’s a bit of a reach to suggest the solar panels are the only possible source of shade in that part of Arizona.
The council will also be asked to transfer $187,000 out of its fund balance and another $193,000 out of a budgeted item for “parks and recreation contractual services” to provide landscaping in-house. The town would hire two full-time workers and a part-time employee to do the work.
A move like this is highly doable for a town with a $32 million fund balance that is more than a quarter of the overall budget.
Technically possible?
The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board will hold a special meeting to get an update on the district’s partnership during a joint meeting with the Pima County Joint Technical Education District Governing Board.
That’s a lot of capital letters and boards, but the topic isn’t boring. Just filled with a lot of jargon.
Voters created the district in 2007. It’s funded by a property tax of a nickel per $100 of assessed valuation, and was set up to provide career technical education. That’s CTE in EdSpeak, which isn’t to be confused with the CTE that’s wrecking NFL players’ brains.
Now, 16 years later, the program’s managers report the Pima County district is going strong. In the 2022-23 school year, it had 7,436 students at 10 sites and in 60 programs.
The program’s students passed 546 certification exams, compared to 478 in 2021-22.
After the presentation, the TUSD and JTED governing boards will discuss how to collaborate further and what the future holds for vocational training.
Governing bodies usually meet during the first four Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays of the month. August being a five-Tuesday month, few councils, boards or school district governing boards are sitting this week.
