Sups approve Aliso Springs water district, grant goes on

Santa Cruz County supervisors approved a new water district in Aliso Springs and said “yes” to a county application for a Community Development Block Grant at their March 18 meeting.

The developer of Casas de Guadalupe in Aliso Springs, a community west of Interstate 19 near Tubac, asked to form a water district. On Feb. 25, the supervisors approved the Planned Area Development (PAD) for the developer, Sustainable Ventures, for 28 units on 104 acres, said Mary Dahl, director of community development.

“They need the district as a legal entity” to connect a well outside of the property and install pipes to deliver the water, Dahl said.

Steve Wene, an attorney with Moyes Sellers and Sims of Phoenix, said a hydrologist had looked at the site. Sustainable Ventures will apply for a certificate of assured water supply from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, he said.

“There will be an opportunity for neighbors, who have had some water shortages, to tie into the district,” Wene said.

Rick Burns of Sustainable Ventures said the well would pump 76 gallons per minute and had passed a test for arsenic levels.

“We don’t need all that water,” Burns said. “We want to be neighbors.”

Supervisor John Maynard asked, “Who’s going to pay for all that infrastructure?”

“The developer,” Wene answered. Sustainable Ventures can recover its investment through the sale of the lots.

“It will build it (the water system), give it to the community and let them run it,” Wene said.

“What if it (the water district) goes belly up?” Maynard asked.

It would be up to the residents to step in and find alternatives if the well ran dry, said Thomas O’Sullivan, chief deputy in the county attorney’s office. While the county would bear some responsibility for allowing the district to be created, “I see no liability for the county,” he said. It gives supervisors and county responsibility that it’s being run correctly

The supervisors voted 3-0 to establish the Aliso Springs Domestic Water Improvement District.

Two weeks ago, the supervisors, split their vote on the county’s application for its 2009 Community Development Block Grant, with Supervisor Rudy Molera abstaining. This week, they voted to designate the Santa Cruz Community Foundation as a sub-recipient to distribute an expected $235,000 in CDBG funds to aid families in distress from the economic downturn.

The foundation and United Way of Santa Cruz County had both applied to become the sub-recipient. The organizations met and worked out their differences, Dahl told the supervisors. But not all activities (types of assistance) they listed would be approved for CDBG funding.

“These things are going to be worked out on the front end of the application,” Dahl said.

She was scheduled to meet on Thursday with representatives from the Arizona Department of Housing and the Southeastern Arizona Organization of Governments (SEAGO) to discuss how the funds could be spent, she said.

Maynard asked Robert Phillips, executive director of the foundation, “How are you going to know that when you give an activity a dollar, they’re going to spend it on what say they will?”

In the past, the county had to reimburse some misspent grant funds, Maynard said.

“We have a good financial system and it’s very transparent,” Phillips said. He promised to monitor the project quarterly and report to the board.

With a May 1 deadline looming, Dahl agreed to an alternative if the county and the foundation could not develop “an eligible and fundable CDBG application in time.”

The funds would go toward improvements at the 1904 Courthouse.

Also,, the supervisors reported on their trip to Washington, D.C., where they attended a legislative conference of the National Association of Counties from March 7 to 11.

Molera, whose district includes the Chula Vista Flood Control Project, met with Ada Benavides, deputy chief of the Army Corps of Engineers that oversees the project, he said.

“I briefed her about what is going on and the frustration for the residents,” he said in interview. Congressman Ed Pastor told Molera to pass a message to the Corps that he (Pastor) wanted the job completed.

When Supervisor Manuel Ruiz spoke with Arizona’s senators and the Department of Homeland Security, he asked for more funds to reimburse hospitals for the costs of taking care of injured undocumented immigrants, he said.

“There’s $328 million in that Section 1011 fund,” Ruiz said. “Local EMS (emergency medical services) and hospitals need that money.”

Advocates for the border counties are asking Congress to appropriate $250 million per year for the fund over the next four years, Ruiz said in an interview.

Maynard met with senators about forming a national heritage area in Santa Cruz County, he said. He spoke with staff of Congressman Raul Grijalva about the need for a bridge at the Palo Parado crossing in Rio Rico.

“It’s definitely on their radar screen,” Maynard said. “They’re looking for funding sources.”