Banner Health Center to see patients May 16

The Banner Health Center will begin seeing patients on May 16, Mayor Anthony Smith announced during his state of the city address Thursday night.

A grand opening ceremony will be May 12.

Groundbreaking was held in July for the 40,000-square-foot facility on Porter Road near Pacana Park.

Long-range plans are to build the health center in stages. As Maricopa’s population grows, the facility could more than double in size to nearly 87,000 square feet and include an outpatient surgical center, Banner officials have said.

The Maricopa site will start out with 31 to 36 employees, but could have as many as 110 after it expands. About 200 Maricopa residents already work for Banner in the Valley, and some might work at the local facility.

The mayor also announced an anticipated groundbreaking for a 30-megawatt biomass facility called Pinal Power LLC on the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.

Hal Mitchell, CEO for Scottsdale-based Arbutus Bio-Energy and a partner with the Pinal Power project, said earlier this month during a renewable energy summit in Casa Grande the plant will break ground in June and be operational in 2014.

Smith said about 200 people will be hired for the plant’s construction and about 20 people will work at the plant when it’s operational. Another 50 jobs will be created by the companies supplying biomass materials to the plant, he added.

The plant will burn organic waste like tree trimmings and nutshells that would otherwise go into landfills.

The latest news to reach the city Thursday, Smith said, is the opening of the Maricopa Organics Recycling Facility at Waste Management of Arizona’s Sierra Estrella Landfill, on State Route 238 a few miles past Southern Dunes Golf Club.

The site is being developed in collaboration with Garick LLC, a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of biomass fuel supply, organic lawn and garden products.

Waste Management will collect green waste such as yard and clean wood waste recovered from the company’s transfer stations. Garick will process the waste into biomass wood fuel, which will be sold primarily to Frito-Lay to run its facility in Casa Grande. In addition to biomass wood fuel, Garick will produce compost and mulch for local use.

“I believe this is going to be a breakout year for the city of Maricopa,” Smith told the crowd at the new Performing Arts Center at Maricopa High School. The theme of the state of the city address was “Going Vertical."

After Smith spoke, city spokeswoman LaTricia Woods announced April 21 as the date for groundbreaking of the new city hall and police station. The buildings are 45,000 square feet and 11,000 square feet, respectively.

The government complex will be on a 20-acre site on White and Parker Road. Ten acres of that land will be available for private use.

To watch the mayor's address online, click here.