Florence, Arizona

5 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 largest cities at that time, and that’s why the Arizona Territorial Prison was put here. People like to joke that Prescott got the capital, Tucson got the land-grant university, Florence got the prison, and Phoenix got the insane asylum.” The father of Arizona, Charles Posten, also happens to be buried in Florence. “We have a prominent butte that sits right in the middle of town,” Billingsly says. “It’s called Poston Butte, and Charles Posten is actually buried in a pyramid on top of that butte. We’ve acquired that land from the federal government and are putting together a regional attraction around it called Poston Butte Reserve. That’s just one of our ongoing efforts to boost the local tourism industry.” Several dedicated downtown revitalization projects have also been ticking along. Last year, the town released its Redevelopment Plan update, which focused on four main priorities including history, identity, economy, and community. “Our Town Council was very progressive in adopting a downtown commercial revitalization grant last August,” says Economic Development Director Elan Vallender. “It’s got about $250,000 in it that’s available to owners and tenants of commercial buildings. The grant is geared towards improving these buildings by bringing them into compliance with town building codes as well as mitigating safety concerns. Essentially, we look at some of the vacant buildings out there and work towards revitalizing them and getting tenants back into them.” So far, the program has been hugely successful, with the Town receiving seven grant applications and disbursing four-fifths of the grant monies last year. “In addition, we’ve got a Façade Improvement Grant that allows buildings in our downtown to revitalize their architectural character,” Vallender continues. “We were able to use up all of that program money last fiscal year, which was a great thing to see. It means that our