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By Sam Hosler
Mayor, Town of Kearny
Norm’s Hometown IGA is a big plus for Kearny and the whole Copper Basin. It follows upon the revitalized NAPA store and the increased presence of the Family Dollar.
These businesses are good for us because they create wealth for the community. They take the talents and abilities of Kearny people and compensate them with money which benefits the community.
It is wonderful to see the good things which are happening at the IGA. There is new employee recognition; there is a greater variety of produce; there is a real desire to provide the kinds of products the community desires. The delicatessen has had a surge in popularity since Norm has encouraged the people who run it to provide from their own skills what the customers want.
On another subject, the parts have begun arriving for the rebuilding of the filtration plant (remember our brown water?). The work on the plant begins this week. After the work is finished, there may be more brown water as the lines clear and the filtration starts to kick in, removing the manganese and iron solids. Remember, our water will still be highly mineralized, so keep on making use of reverse osmosis filters or bottled water.
This has been a tough year for the town budget, mostly owing to our water infrastructure. Our water lines have reached the end of their productive life, we put in a new well, we made improvements on the chlorination facility and on the sewage treatment plant. This made a big hole in our budget, and the bills are still coming in.
Now we are working with different engineering firms than in the past. We are seeking grants for large infrastructure projects which we expect will be better engineered than some of those in the past. In some ways we are better off than other mining towns, for our infrastructure is only fifty years old and not over a hundred years like many of the other towns.
Finally, there is enough water behind the San Carlos Dam to allow us to meet the town’s needs this summer, thanks to El Niño which gave us a long, wet spring and the promise of earlier monsoon rains. It still makes sense to conserve, of course, which has the added benefit of saving money on our water bills. We won’t have El Niño every year!
The next regular meeting of Town Council is Monday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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