Civil and Municipal - Mar 2023

86 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 list, but never received the necessary funding to go ahead until the final passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. “We knew that we needed a modernization of our Port of Entry,” he states. “We’ve been trying to emphasize the need to our elected representatives for an upgrade. We feel that the economic impact is suffering because of the condition of the existing port and its configuration. When they passed the major Infrastructure Bill, we were finally on that funding list to receive 400 million dollars. So, this will be the most modern, state-of-the- art, Land Port of Entry in the United States on either border, north or south. It means a lot in terms of efficiency in importing and exporting goods. It will benefit not only our city, but the county that we live in, all the surrounding area, Arizona, and the entire southwest.” “Water is very key to us in Arizona.We’re having to retrofit wells; we’re looking at new wells to add additional capacity.We don’t have an issue right now; the water is still plentiful; it’s good water.