Nogales residents are receiving a steady helping of lame duck as our mayor sets his sights on a race for a legislative seat and the city manager looks west for a new job.

Expect no relief from county government where we can all just sit down with a bucket of stale popcorn and flat soda to watch Budget Cuts – the sequel. (If you thought the original was scary, you ain’t seen nothing yet.)

At the city, Councilman Nubar Hanessian has compiled a list of about 25 items that have been in the wings since at least April 2008 when Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel and City Manager Jaime Fontes were appointed.

Deputy City Manager John E. Kissinger notes that, nevertheless, Nogales residents still get garbage pick-up, water and sewer service, and police protection. True enough, but Nogales also deserves to have a government that works to improve the quality of life for the community and not just provide the basics.

One of the most critical tasks in spin cycle is the hammering out of an agreement with Santa Cruz County to use its landfill as well as a new contract with Tucson Recycling and Waste Management, which operates the garbage transfer station.

Because we don’t have a contract with Santa Cruz and because Tucson Recycling can take the trash where ever it wants, taxpayers in Nogales are shelling out an additional $100,000 a year to have the firm truck the refuse to a landfill 184 miles away. The $675,000 in tipping fees that used to be collected by Santa Cruz is now bleeding to Maricopa County.

Now Santa Cruz has been forced to cut back landfill hours because of the shortage of these revenues, among other issues. We should also consider what the true cost to our community is considering the economic multipliers of the $675,000.

Among the other items on the city’s to-do list are the revitalization of Terrace Avenue that has been in the works for eight years; sidewalk construction on Mastick Way; paving and water-line-replacement on Morley Avenue; the never-ending Beck Street Park renewal project; building of city soccer fields; and finding a new municipal cemetery option.

The Double-A bond rating from Standard and Poors and about $5 million in Nogales’ contingency don’t mean much if we don’t have elected officials with a clear vision to provide municipal stewardship.

Maybe next election?

(Write us at 268 W. View Point Dr., Nogales, Ariz., 85621 or manuel.coppola@nogalesinternational.com.)