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By Sam Hosler, Mayor Town of Kearny
More than a few people have asked me, “What happened to the survey letter you wrote about back in January? No one sent me one.”
This is a story of bureaucratic entanglement. When surveys are sent out as part of a preliminary grant process, the federal government requires that they be sent to a recognized legal address, in our case a street address. Well, as you know, everyone in Kearny has a post office box, for we have no street delivery. When Central Arizona Governments sent out the surveys in January, they complied with federal rules and used street addresses. As a result, only a very few of the letters were actually delivered; the rest were “returned to sender.”
I thank the few who received the letter and promptly replied – you get a gold star in my book. But now we are exploring the issue with the feds, who do not recognize letters sent to box numbers for the purpose of surveys. It is possible that we will receive a waiver of sorts. We’ll still have to use street addresses, but will probably have to hand deliver the surveys. I’ll let you know when we find out for sure.
The financial survey is part of our ten-year plan which, once it is completed, will serve as a basis for grant requests over the next several years.
Previous 10-year plans did not deal overly much with the economy of the town and the region. Our new plan will be different, containing factual information and economic development goals for Kearny and the whole Copper Basin. This is a crucial part of the plan, because historically the mining towns in Arizona have suffered economic batterings which the majority of cities and towns in Arizona have not experienced.
Thank you for your patience. Anyone in town who has ever ordered items through the mail knows that the manner of delivery (post office, UPS or FedEx) is a critical matter. Things were even more complicated a few years ago when our ZIP code of 85237 was changed to 85137. Many stores which delivered to Kearny took a long while to change to the new code, and our packages went everywhere but where they were supposed to be!
Well, take a break from worrying and get ready for our Pioneer Days coming up in less than two weeks. We know who we are and where we are, even if the larger world gets a bit confused, and we’re going to have a fine time.
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