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By Sam Hosler
Mayor, Town of Kearny
I really enjoyed the Mayors’ Group which met last week at the Town Hall in Winkelman, hosted by Mayor Louie Bracamonte. Louie is the “old man” in the group. The other mayors are either new or have two years or so of mayoral experience. The Town of Mammoth was welcomed to the group as a new member.
Alan Urban from Central Arizona Governments (CAG) encouraged the towns to work together to acquire a Planning Assistance for Rural Areas (PARA) grant from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). ADOT encourages applications from regional groups because the projects are often best handled regionally rather than town by town. ADOT would fully fund the planning, which provides potential projects with the documentation necessary to apply for completion grants.
The mayors also enjoyed hearing from Richard Rosales of Arizona Public Service(APS) about that utility’s desire to work closely with the towns. When Richard learned of the Mayors’ Group’s plan to develop an area brochure, he volunteered the use of APS’s graphics arts department to collaborate on the brochure and to pay for its printing. The Mayor of Kearny and Vice-Mayor of Hayden (Maria Muñoz) were asked to work with APS on the project.
Well, things haven’t been slow in Kearny. A special meeting of Town Council with our candidate for Chief of Police, Edward Alameda, resulted in his gracious decline of our offer. So we are off to the races again! The Council authorized our Town Manager, Anna Flores, to appoint a new interim chief, and Sergeant Richard Corso has accepted the interim position. He will do a good job.
Meanwhile, we said “goodbye” to Sheriff Vargas, who has been our interim chief for several weeks. He did a great job, and put us a long way toward the completion of the new policy manual for the Police Department. He will now serve as interim Chief of Police for the City of Casa Grande.
Christmas will soon be here. Do you want to be an angel? Here are two ways to be an angel. Either take one of the angels from the tree in Gordon’s Market and procure gifts for the family listed, or give a call to Lynda Smith, who is working with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to provide family gifts. A big “thank you” goes to the Kearny Volunteer Fire Department for all their work, too. And don’t forget the Salvation Army kettle in front of Gordon’s Market; the funds raised are used here throughout the year.
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