Catch-up with Rotary 3/24

 
Announcements:  
  • Dan: Poker Tournament fundraiser April 10th buy in is $40.00 and then $10.00 if you make it through the first round.   This is to benefit International Orphanage Aid; for an orphanage in Mexico.   Prizes: ½ of proceeds from the tournament got to Visa Gift Cards.  Randy registered two people already.
  • Alice: We will be hosting a Four Way Test Speech Contest, at this time we have one from Marana High and three from Mountain View.  She will be announcing the date soon.
  • Alice: Rotary Day at Reid Park Walk & Picnic March 28 registrations is at 9:00.
  • Alice: Rotary Day at Chase Field D-Backs vs the Dodgers April 12, how about we get a car pool going and have fun.
  • George: Ticket sales for the Jim Click Organization; Tickets need to be sold you will see the car showing up at different events.  Personal commitment five tickets sold and returned.  The drawing is in November let’s get these sold!
  • Randy: Basketball March Madness pool fourteen people signed up it cost $30 that will be about $225 for the foundations.
  • Randy: We have selected an incoming student for next year from Slovakia!  We will be excited to meet him.
We had three visitors
 
and potential members, thank you for joining us today; Vickie,Tony and & Veronica.
 
Gilbert Davis, Town Manager, Marana, was our speaker on Tuesday 3-24-15: he talked about things going on the community.  He covered a number of things so we have a better understanding of OUR Town.  First off the community has grown, in 2010 the census population was a little over 34,000, we are not approaching 42,000.  We cover 126 square miles, we extend into Pinal County.   From a fiscal standpoint  our town made some wise choices during the start and throughout the recession.  We want a safe, clean, business and tourism friendly community.  
 
The town operates off three revenue sources the largest Sales Tax so buy local you are helping the town.  State Shared Revenue and then the licensing and permit fees.
 
One thing the town is facing is retirement costs, AZ State Retirement is in relative good shape the Public Safety Retirement is the one that they are looking closely at.  The town faces a deficient in that fund but the town is dealing with it.
This town invests a lot on the infrastructure, he is proud to say that the town has one of the best road systems.  Please report any potholes or road issues you see.
 
Development side we still are seeing growth in 2013, 2014 and so far on tack in 2015.  The town led in growth if you combined Tucson, Oro Valley and Shauarita they issued more permits then the three of them.  People are selecting Marana to live and do business in for many reasons one is were growing and the other one of the best school districts. 
 
The town is broken up into five focus areas: commerce (businesses), community (connecting to make sure people have a since of place), heritage (Marana has a long history dating back over thousand years), innovations (for internal teams how does the staff think differently) and then recreation (if the town does this well it will help drive commerce and people moving to the town).
As it relates to economic developments the town is investing into the infrastructure by building miles of new sewers that will connect with new businesses that will be able to build.   There are several new businesses underway on Tangerine.  A new Tourism Division was just started, if we bring people to the area we can continue to grow.  Think about it, we have one of the number one resorts in the country right here in our back yard the Ritz Carlton.   The new outlet mall is similar to the one in Phoenix by the Wild Horse Pass.  Names of the stores have not been released yet.  Some road projects are coming; one of the largest will be on Tangerine Road. 
 
He provided us such great information today, but two things stood out on why this is a great town: The town is like any other business they are here to serve and great communities are made up of great people and the town has recruited some great people.  If you want to connect with town you can go to the internet, Facebook, Twitter and there are other sources.
 
Thank you Gilbert for all the information about our great town!