Pinal County going green

What’s that muted thunder off in the distance? Is it another monsoon storm rolling across the desert? A cross-country run sponsored by our proud veterans as part of the Rolling Thunder organization? Nope – it’s the sound of school buses early in the morning and mid-afternoon!

Local area schoolteachers have been back in their classrooms preparing for new students since the end of July, and now it’s the kids’ turn to settle back into the routines of a new school year. And that means in turn that we all need to remember that there’s no passing while traveling through marked school zones and that the speed limit is 15 m.p.h. Please practice extra vigilance so every child going to and from our schools arrives safely at their destinations.

Speaking of learning experiences, last month I had the pleasure of talking with some 50 young people from various parts of Pinal and Gila Counties on energy and water conservation. As part of the Summer Youth Employment Program in the two counties, the Central Arizona Association of Governments brings these youthful participants together at the end of their summer jobs and provides them with briefings on a wide variety of issues.

The one-day conference also recognized all the young adults for their skills and willingness to interact with their respective communities. It was a great experience, and the exuberance of former NBA referee Tommy Nunez as the final keynote speaker brought everything together.

And now for some talk about some additional news and changes at Pinal County. Several months ago I talked about a new look for the County’s web page – one of those modifications involved a new URL for the web page from http://co.pinal.az.us to http://pinalcountyaz.gov.

Another change happened just recently. As part of our commitment to move toward more energy and natural resource conservation, we’ve added a Green Link to the web page. Web visitors will now see a link (labeled Going Green) on the left side of the home page. If you click on Going Green, you’ll be able to see the variety of programs and measures we’ve undertaken in this area. Clearly, there will be more to come in the near and long-term future.

Speaking of energy conservation, I recently traveled to Tucson in order to participate in the Southern Arizona Tucson Solar Energy Development Conference sponsored by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in partnership with AzRISE (the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy). We heard from very prestigious speakers about most of the renewable sources of energy (wind, algae, nuclear, etc.), but obviously most of the day’s information focused on photovoltaic, solar collector/concentrator and other solar systems. Green building codes, zoning and other permitting issues, as well as a review of solar applications vis a vis the Arizona Corporation Commission’s viewpoint as well as current Arizona law filled the day’s schedule. The bottom line? The future of solar energy in Arizona is bright.

Last month the County’s IT Department continued to move forward with its plan to make us more accessible to the public with changes to all County email addresses. Every County employee with an email address will now use that same email extension as the web page. For example, my new email address is [email protected] – my old address ([email protected]) will continue to work for a while but by the end of this calendar year it’ll be inactive. And the same will be true for all County employees with email addresses.

For those of you who can’t wait to stand up and be counted, you’ll be happy to know that the U.S. Census Bureau is gearing up for the 2010 decennial census as we speak. The Bureau has begun to hold state level, regional and county level meetings for the purpose of establishing Complete Count Committees at every level of government. These CCCs will be charged with the mission of assisting the Bureau with local expertise and resources as America counts on itself. Since there are any numbers of critical decisions made – based on the decennial census, the “official” census – from the federal government on down to the governments of tribes, cities, towns, and counties, it is in all our interests to participate in the process.

Finally, in light of my remarks about the census – I would be remiss if I didn’t urge all registered voters in Pinal County to participate in the Primary Elections to be held on Tuesday, September 2. Critical races at the school district, county, state legislative and federal level will depend on your participation in this fundamental act of our democratic society. See you all at the polls.

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