Business View Civil and Municipal | May/June 2022

57 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 5 allows that road to become an auxiliary State highway. A second major project has been an effluent water project that would take water from our wastewater treatment plant to the fairgrounds just outside of the city and that would end up saving 50 million gallons of water a year.” “Then we have a couple of other water projects on the go, as well,” adds Cassella. “For example, we are hoping to put a large water line into Sanchez, as well as the Sanchez Road Line, which are both designed to get larger quantities of fresh water into the city. We are also going to be launching more educational campaigns around water conservation, and we’ve been working with our broadband company in the last year or so to increase the internet capability we have. We have made it a point to have internet connectivity in our parks from now on.” Safford is part of a consortium of 23 entities that purchase electricity and have signed up and created an RFP to increase their access to electricity through the construction of their own solar farm. Most of their power usage now comes from a gas-fired plant and some from Arizona State hydro. The city currently uses 19 megawatts, and the solar farm will provide an additional ten. Hoshal confirms, “With all of the funding we have received over the past year for infrastructure, the council decided to work harder at getting citizen input. So, for example, we had a Parks and Recreation advisory group that was to work on the future development of parks in Safford. They also touched on beautification, as well, and out of that came the designs for two parks. So, I think this type of citizen input process really allowed the council to see the value in a shared vision. I hope we see more of that as we go forward. We need to work on continuing to build our infrastructure, which will hopefully include the redevelopment of our airport, and we will be going in the right direction.” Looking ahead, Cassella shares, “I think developing our recreational areas is key. Families need things they can do when they are not at work. From an economic development standpoint, I’d like to see us do more work on our airport – getting more utilities and additional water out there We have the natural beauty of mountains, lakes, rivers, and so much else to offer going forward.” SAFFORD , AR I ZONA