Life is about to get easier for Maricopa residents with the grand opening of the new Pinal County Administration Building.
Maricopans now can access a variety of county services right here in town that had required driving more than 40 miles to Florence or 20 miles to Casa Grande.
The new county office building, which will be open and operational Tuesday, June 1, will provide comprises two buildings totaling 42,000 square feet at 19955 N. Wilson Ave.
Building 100 will house offices for the assessor, treasurer, recorder, development services and office space for District 4 Supervisor Jeff McClure, who represents Maricopa.
Building 200 will house Pinal County Justice Court, services from the Clerk of the Superior Court, and Adult and Juvenile Probation in the northern part of the facility, while the south part will include holding cells and a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office substation.
According to McClure, the $11 million facility shows that Maricopa is on the rise in both Pinal County and Arizona.
“This brings to light the rising stature of Maricopa in the county,” McClure said. “It shows the importance of the community, and it gives us credibility. It’s bringing more services to the people and that’s our commitment, to bring the services out to people. You can see the supervisors, you can see the recorder, the assessor. It’s all right here in our back yard.”
Mayor Christian Price agreed, saying the new facility cements the city’s rising status in the county.
“I think this complex proves that Maricopa is not fly-by-night – we’re here to stay,” Price said. “We are soon to be one of, or even the most populous city in Pinal County. This gives us an expanded court, access to county supervisors, all the services that can now be done here rather than going all the way to Florence. It’s a huge benefit for our citizens and establishes Maricopa as a mainstay in the county.”
A common theme among elected officials at Thursday morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was the access that residents now have to conduct county business.
“It shows the county is upping its game and making itself more user-friendly to the citizens,” said Jeff Serdy, Pinal County supervisor in District 5. “It’s such a big county and we’re just now coming up to speed and modernizing and making ourselves more available.”
Serdy added that what residents are seeing now could be just a preview of what is to come regionally.
“Pinal County is just on the verge of being a major player in the whole southwest, which you’re going to start seeing in the next few years,” he said. “In fact, we already are with the electric vehicle (manufacturers) Nikola and Lucid, and you’re going to start seeing a lot more great things coming to Pinal County.”
Stephen Miller, Pinal County supervisor in District 3 and chairman of the board, agreed the new facility not only addresses the western side of the county’s needs today but positions it for the future.
“It’s a very good day in that we’re able to provide another facility to get government closer to the people and make it more accessible,” Miller said. “Certainly, the facilities that were here and the method with which we had to run government in Maricopa for the last decade has been a little bit of a struggle, but we’ve caught up with the times and this facility should serve the area well for the next several decades.”
I sure do support our city council. They put in hard work and really care for our city. You might think they fixed a ticket for me with this high praise, but no. I just pay attention and appreciate their work. That’s all I have to say about that.