Possible changes for
Tubac post office
The U.S. Postal Service is keeping an eye on development in the Tubac area, a spokesman said, in order to be ready for significant residential growth.
Presently, Tubac has a contract post office on the East Frontage Road and residents get their mail there from post office boxes. There’s no home delivery.
Jay Robertson, a facility requirements specialist in the Phoenix office of the Postal Service, said he’s been contacted by one land developer about building a new post office. The developer said there might be the possibility of a land donation.
Robertson said, “We don’t have anything specific yet. There are still a few hundred empty post office boxes” at the contract station. He said Tumacácori Postmaster Joanne Stupy is “keeping track of the situation.”
Robertson said part of his job is “to evaluate areas and create a watch list.” He said after a community receives approval for a new post office building, it takes about two and a half years until it opens.
Gayle Peterson, who has been the contract holder at the Tubac Post Office since 1981, said she had to reduce the window hours a few months ago because the Postal Service hasn’t agreed to provide extra contract funds she’s requested for sufficient employee time during the busy winter months when there are additional residents in Tubac.
How Arizona got its name
A dedication of a young Emory Oak tree took place on March 8 at the Tumacácori National Historical Park. This year, the park is celebrating its centennial as a national park, and the tree dedication was one of numerous events.
Four speakers talked about the traditional uses of acorn, or bellotas, in Native American cultures. Don Garate of the park staff said the word Arizona was originally a Basque word which means “the good oak tree.”
Events held March 8 included guided tours of the Mission church and grounds, children’s games, and living history presentations. Other guest speakers at the tree dedication included Marshall Trimble, Arizona State Historian, Steve Gastellum, facility manager at the park, and Jesús Garcia, education specialist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
For information on the park’s centennial events during 2008, visit the web site at www.nps.gov/tuma.
Museum closed at
Tumacácori Mission
The three-room museum at the Tumacácori National Historical Park visitor’s center was closed March 3 for a $350,000 renovation and it will re-open in late August.
There are still many options for visitors such as walking through the 1820s mission church and surrounding areas, the bookstore, and the courtyard mission garden.
Arsenic in water to be abated
Nina Miller and Todd Walker of the Arizona American Water Co. spoke on March 17 to members of the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens Council.
Miller said the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality denied the company’s request for a three-year delay in decreasing arsenic content in the water provided by company wells in Tubac. The company operates four wells and there are about 570 customer accounts.
The project is expected to be extremely costly and the company had wanted to explore various ways it could be completed, Miller said.
In response to a question, Walker said the company will pay the initial costs and after about one year of operation, will probably formally request to the Arizona Corporation Commission that customers’ water rates be increased to assist with costs.
The current limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency for allowable arsenic is 10 parts per billion (ppb). Miller said in Tubac, the wells have amounts ranging from 25 to 35 ppb. Arsenic occurs naturally in rocks and soil, water, air, and plants and animals. It can be further released into the environment through natural activities such as volcanic action, erosion of rocks and forest fires, or through human actions. Human exposure to arsenic can cause both short and long term health effects, according to an EPA information web site. Short or acute effects can occur within hours or days of exposure. Long or chronic effects occur over many years. Long term exposure to arsenic has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidneys, nasal passages, liver and prostate.
The company is waiting for bids on designs and the design process is scheduled to start in May. The new treatment could be in place in July 2010, Miller said. He can be contacted at (622) 815-3112.
Referendum date set
Santa Cruz County Election Director Melinda Meek announced that two ballot questions for a referendum questions, Propositions 400 and 401, will be included in the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Voters throughout Santa Cruz County will decide if they agree with, or oppose, a Dec. 12, 2007, decision about allowing construction of 9,470 new residences in Tubac and Amado.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1, with Supervisor John Maynard voting no, to amend the county’s Comprehensive Plan at the request of two separate developers, even though dozens of people speaking at a public hearing and many who wrote letters vehemently opposed the change.
The developments are Las Mesas, east of Interstate 19 and north of the Tubac Golf Resort and Chavez Siding Road; and Sopori Ranch, west of Interstate 19 in Amado, north of Tubac.
For information, call Lynn Carey of the Coalition for Responsible Growth, at (520) 237-9794.
Middle school
construction update
A new school is being built for residents of the Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District No. 35, which includes Tubac, Amado, Tumacácori and Rio Rico.
Coatimundi Middle School is under construction in east Rio Rico just north of the golf course and is scheduled to open next fall. It will be the district’s second middle school and is being built because enrollment at Calabasas Middle School is nearly 900. The district also has three elementary schools and a high school.
Second Tubac golf course
still planned
The Board of Supervisors will listen to a request for approval for the final Planned Area Development documents for Tubac de la Montaña, possibly in April. No date was set as of press deadline.
The development of 1,400 residential lots is on approximately 1,027 acres and a golf course is also planned.
The property is east of the Tubac Golf Resort. A costly bridge across the Santa Cruz River will have to be constructed by the developers to provide access to the project.
Fire in dense grove contained
A brush fire that also ran into the tops of 30-foot-tall cottonwood trees was contained with no property damage. The fire started around 5 p.m. on March 21 on the northeast side of the village of Tubac, several blocks away from stores.
Battalion Chief Genaro Rivera of the Tubac Fire District said assistance came from seven nearby fire departments. About 20 acres of vacant land that was dense with low brush and trees such as cottonwoods and mesquites suffered damage.
The fire started near the northwest corner of the Tubac Bridge and burned north. It was contained by the Santa Cruz River on the east and Bridge Road on the west. Rivera said the successful strategy was to start a backburn south of the Santa Cruz County North Facility (Tubac Community Center) so the fire would die for lack of fuel.
