Tucson’s effort to form an inland port and take advantage of foreign trade making it’s way through Southern Arizona appears to be at an end on Friday with the Puerto Nuevo project being turned over to Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. It was thought that the inland port could generate over 4,000 additional jobs in Pima County by 2020 adding close to $165 million in annual wages to the regional economy and over 5,000 jobs by 2030 adding over $200 million annually. The decision still needs to be made about if the Puerto Nuevo project will be renamed under TREO, but the man, Augie Garcia, who for the last 10 years headed this venture is giving up his post. The office has also had two other employees with $270,000 for an annual budget.

The founder of the Tucson Biosphere 2 is funding more justifiable scientific research in this exceptional yet often criticized terrarium. There will be two new scientific activities taking place on this just over a 3 acre parcel of Tucson property, which will include an expanded public-education and outreach operation. The UA in Tucson will have research programs that will be B2 Earthscience, which will perform climate experiments such as global warming, and the B2 Institute, which is a think tank focused on the challenges we face.

John Strobeck of Bright Future Business Consultants showed that both Tucson New Home and Resale Home closings were down 22 percent last month from the same month one year ago in a report published by a local housing consultant. Also noted in the report was that median prices in Tucson fell 6.7 percent for new homes and by less than 1 percent for resale homes in May compared to May 2006. It was also mentioned that permits for single-family homes dropped to the lowest level for May since 2001. Strobeck considers it to be a reasonable level and thinks that the sales as well as the prices will soon begin to increase again, perhaps sometime near the end of this year into the summer of 2008.

Tucson Water confirmed the aquifer directly below the city rose for the first time ever reported. It supplies Tucson Water with half of its supply and has been declining for decades (250 feet since 1940.) While this increase is good news, it doesn’t make up for the losses. At the highest point it rose 25 feet and is not rising everywhere in

The declining water table can lead to ground collapse and to native plants dying in the riparian areas. The worst declines are the Northwest, where the level has dropped 4 feet and the

The New System and short staff are to blame for the long hold times 911 callers to Tucson Police Department experience. There seems to be some sort of problem with the new $1.1 million phone system as well as not enough staff to handle the calls at TPD. Many have had to wait as long as seven minutes for an operator and it was said that final payment for this system won’t be made until officials verify that it is working correctly. 

Police are dealing with Qwest on a daily basis, the provider of the telephone service, in order to solve the problems. No one at this point has been able to give a time as to when they would be fixed.  

Sometimes you’re lucky with a prompt answer but there have been many times when the wait has been quite lengthy. This should not happen. A lot of harm can come to people and their property in a very short period of time, so you want a quick response when you call. There have been thousands of calls that just hung up or were somehow disconnected before they were answered.

Some businesses have doubts about how the money is spent but Arizona business leaders in Tucson are rejoicing since the Legislature’s vote approved the state job-training program. The thoughts are that this is critical for recruiting new business offering dollars for companies to train new and also retrain workers from other companies which not only helps businesses grow no only in skills but also wages. The hopes are that this will continue to provide incentives for people to move their businesses to Arizona.

There has been some worry that companies could acquire grants and then leave town with their highly skilled newly trained workers. This prompted concern that the program might be discontinued yet it has been extended for another four years.

Grants totaling over $24,000,000 in the past five years were approved for Tucson-area companies though some people think the businesses should come up with these funds on their own.

*TUSD’s plan to collect more than $700,000 from the employees for an accounting error in their health-care insurance coverage is great cause for concern. There are between 4,500 and 4,800 employees who are to be charged, some owing less than $99 and around 500 owing more than $450. The president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, sent Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer and TUSD’s Governing Board members a notice demanding a clear explanation of the mistake. He also demanded a list of how much money each employee owed and what insurance provider needed payment since he is not happy about any attempt to deduct or garnish wages. It appears that when the employees in Tucson signed up for insurance coverage, they signed for a specified cost and that was a contract.

*Tucson Unified School District

The FBI is looking for a 7-acre site in Tucson to build a new complex. They’ve been having difficulty finding a site in the South Tucson area and City Officials say there is really nothing available to meet their needs. The FBI is hoping to build a complex similar to the one that is now underway in Denver which consists of two three-story buildings including a building for the public and adequate parking. It appears that the FBI might be broadening its search from just the Southside areas to a much larger area of Tucson since the City doesn’t have enough land for the project. City officials opened this to land from the private sector in April but haven’t heard of any available property, as of yet.

This weekend, Tucson I-10 will be closed eastbound entirely at 10PM Saturday night for prep-work where barricades will be put in place and hopefully re-open at noon on Sunday. This busy Interstate in Tucson will then be down to two lanes in both directions for the duration of this 3-year construction project. It now means that all ramps between Prince Road and 29th Street will remain closed and those who travel these areas will have to use the frontage roads.

A health-care provider in Tucson is concerned about a proposal before the Legislature that could deteriorate a particular plan that now insures close to 10,000 Southern Arizonans. The new plan would require that University Physicians Healthcare cap enrollment in a program catering to small businesses and the self-employed in order to capture their share of state money. UPH in Tucson and Mercy Care in Phoenix are the two main providers that take part in AHCCCS’s Healthcare Group which provides affordable health care to small businesses and they would now need to turn away new clients most of whom have pre-existing medical conditions and other limited options. If they don’t adopt this plan the fear is that you will see the deficit grow much larger.