August 2019

SUPPORT TO PIMA COUNTY SERVICES

CONTRACT CT-PW-1616*180

GREEN VALLEY COUNCIL 555 N. LA CAÑADA DRIVE, STE. 117

GREEN VALLEY, ARIZONA 85614

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AUGUST 2019

This month highlights the GVC Foundation, Inc., which is the charitable arm of the Green Valley Council. The Council is doing more to alert the Green Valley community about the Foundation’s Management Groups and Programs. The mission of the Foundation is to fund special projects, initiated by the Foundation or the Green Valley Council, which enhance and support the interests and unmet needs of the Greater Green Valley Community. FRIENDS OF THE CANOA PARKS A GVC FOUNDATION MANAGEMENT GROUP

Pima County information about the Foundation’s role in organizing the Friends of the Canoa Parks was released in August (see Figs. 1 and 2). The Friends group will represent all three Pima County parks within or adjacent to greater Green Valley. The parks are the newly opened Canoa Hills Trails Park, the Historic Canoa Ranch Park and the Canoa Preserve Park. Each offers something different for visitors: (1) the Trails provide an opportunity for walkers to enjoy the serenity of an open space park, to see birds, and later to see native blooms as they are planted; (2) the Ranch offers visitors a glimpse of a working ranch with a new water feature that also draws insects, birds, and other animal life; and (3) the Preserve is the place where BAJA softball players can be seen at practice and at tournament games.

Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation has established a park supervisor at Canoa Ranch to administer the Pima County managed parks. Friends and volunteers will engage in fundraising, event planning, and volunteer efforts in coordination with Pima County. A membership drive is underway, and new members who pay their individual or household fee will be paid up until January 2021 when renewal fees will start on an annual basis. Volunteers who are already working at the Historic Canoa Ranch are invited to become members and will not need to become paying members until 2021, depending on their interest. Volunteers for the parks do not have to be members of the Friends group as the NRPR has a volunteer program for County parks that trains and places volunteers according to their interests and training. The Friends’ website will direct interested volunteers to the NRPR link.

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Green Valley Golf Course Gets a New Name Posted: 7:12 AM, Aug 07, 2019; By: EJ Jimenez

TUCSON, Ariz. -- The 130-acre Canoa Hills Golf Course will now be renamed Canoa Hills Trails - An Open Space Park, after the Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved it during Tuesday's meeting.

In July, the County's Parks and Recreation Commission approved the naming after a request by the Green Valley Park Advisory Committee.

The Commission says it acquired the property in 2018 by a donation and has been working to make several improvements to the land. There has been debris removed, weeds and trashed picked up, pathways and grading are being improved, erosion damage work is underway and development for water-harvesting is happening.

Canoa Hills Trails now joins two other parks in Green Valley, the Canoa Preserve Park and the Historic Canoa Ranch.

Now that there are three parks, a management group of the Green Valley Council Foundation is forming a "friends" group to raise money, promote and enhance the parks through education and partnerships with local businesses.

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to organize a Friends group to support Pima County Parks and Flood Control in the development of Canoa Hills Trails - An Open Space Park,” said Debbie Kenyon, who has more than 20 years’ experience in operations management. The Friends Group also plans further development of Historic Canoa Ranch and Canoa Preserve Park, she said.

Figure 1. KGUN 9 Website, August 7, 2019 (reformatted).

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Figure 2. Front-page Article in Green Valley News, August 21, 2019

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It is estimated that an Agreement between Pima County and the Foundation will be developed during the Spring for the 2019-2020. Currently Debbie Kenyon, Vice-President of the Foundation and organizer of the Friends Group is coordinating with county staff on first steps toward building a trustworthy and strong foundation.

Thao Tiedt, Chair of the GVC Park Advisory Committee is also working with Debbie and the County staff to clarify the Council’s role with the County vis-à-vis the Foundation. The Council’s role is as the quasi-governmental liaison to Pima County. In particular the Council is responsible for service requests regarding the parks and communitywide feedback that goes beyond the Friends group; it takes into account all of the voices of greater Green Valley, unincorporated area residents. GREEN VALLEY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT A MANAGEMENT GROUP OF THE GVC FOUNDATION

Rural Policy Forum. Kathleen Wishnick, Chair, Az19 Regional Tourism Alliance, and Chair, Green Valley Economic Development, submitted a co-hosting application to the organizers of the Rural Policy Conference. The Local First Arizona Foundation, which is the overall organizer of the event, approved the request to hold the meeting at Quail Creek from August 5-7, 2020. About 300 people participate in the conference, and they will be treated to a taste of Southern Arizona and all of its amenities, plus its economic drivers (Fig. 3).

Green Valley Economic Profile. Last year GVED sent out a proposal to develop an economic profile of Green Valley to inform investors and developers about the socioeconomic capacity of Green Valley and its neighbors to the north and south, along the I-19 corridor. The Rounds Consulting Group has proposed a three-phase project with appropriate reviews and refinements.

While members of the GVED have met regularly to discuss strategies to promote the economy of Green Valley, the only initiative sponsored by Freeport-McMoRan to work on a regional perspective failed. There was some representation by Green Valley during the planning and siting stages of the new Sahuarita Town Square (Fig. 4), but public comment by Green Valley residents was not targeted. The recent BRE business survey, funded by Freeport-McMoRan and conducted by the Green Valley Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce, included businesses located in both Sahuarita and Green Valley. The Chamber has recently focused on a “business centric” model for its planning purposes, but economic development includes

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FIGURE 3. PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR RURAL POLICY FORUM, GREEN VALLEY NEWS, AUGUST 28, 2019.

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FIGURE 4. MAP OF NEW SAHUARITA SQUARE DEVELOPMENT SITE, GREEN VALLEY NEWS, AUGUST 18, 2019.

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more social, health, recreation, and lifestyle drivers than retail demands alone. In order to participate as an equal partner in regional development, Green Valley needs to have economic planning documents that are as comprehensive as the ones that Sahaurita has developed and published. GOOD DEEDS DONE TOGETHER A MANAGEMENT GROUP OF THE GVC FOUNDATION

The GVC Foundation was approached last year by the organizers of 'Mitzvah Day,' also known as 'Good Deeds Day,' to help expand community participation in doing good deeds beyond their faith-based group.1 Although Good Deeds Day was, and is, not limited solely to participation of faith-based volunteers or faith-based nonprofit organizations, the organizers believed the best way to expand community-wide was to establish a nonprofit organization. Soon persuaded that establishing a new 501(c)(3) to achieve their goals would be problematical, they turned their efforts to identifying an existing nonprofit organization in Green Valley with a compatible mission statement. Fortunately, the Green Valley Council Foundation mission statement fit, inasmuch as it "funds special projects, initiated by the Foundation or the Green Valley Council, which enhance and support the interests and unmet needs of the Greater Green Valley Community."

After several meetings, GVC Foundation Board of Directors voted to establish a Management Group for "Good Deeds Done Together,'' and asked the organizers to help expand the concept to incorporate other good deed days or events that coincided with nationally recognized service days or volunteer days/weeks throughout the year. Such days could be identified and named for the occasion, but the Foundation would also use "Good Deeds Done Together" to help tie the events together and to help alert the community to the Foundation's role in seeking sponsorships, donations, and grants.

________________________ 1 The Foundation wishes to thank Marcia Wiener (Beth Shalom Temple), Rhonda Caruso (Lutheran Church of the Risen Savior), and Pastor Bruce Van Sickle (Evangelical Free Church of Green Valley) for seeking to expand community participation in doing good deeds beyond their faith-based groups. Building on the successful work of the event planners for Mitzvah Day/"Good Deed" Day, the GVC- Foundation will lead and coordinate the new management group presenting all community interests.

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Mitzvah Day has been identified as the founding events and will be recognized annually in November. This year Mitzvah Day will be observed on November 1, 2019 (Figs. 5 and 6). The Steering Committee will use the information and feedback from this year's event, to inform the planning cycle for events in 2020.

GVC FOUNDATION BRIEFS 1. The GVC Foundation will be sponsoring the former MedianGreen fundraiser Fashion Show

and Luncheon in February 2020. Under the auspices of the Foundation, all management groups, including MedianGreen, and other programs will benefit. Planning has already commenced as the tickets usually sell out in the Fall, without much advance advertising.

2. New webpages are being developed for the Foundation, and information about the Management Groups and all the programs are being brought online beginning in the Fall and continuing to the end of the year.

GREEN VALLEY COUNCIL BRIEFS 1. Russ Symes, who served as President of the Green Valley Council for a brief time, passed away

in August. Don Weaver delivered a eulogy at his memorial, and Don will also commemorate his service to the Green Valley Council at the GVC Board of Representative meeting in September.

2. The GVC President has appointed a new chair for the Environmental Committee. Her name is Colleen Burgmanis, and she is a field manager for the Bureau of Land Management working out of Tucson.

Submitted by Veletta Canouts, Executive Director EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Thao Tiedt, President Jim Pinkerton, Vice-President Dick Roberts, Vice-President Georganne Rodgers-Garn, Vice-President Barbara Blake, Secretary Susan Stob, Treasurer Dick Roberts, Member-at-Large Gary Heinz, Member-at-Large John Garen, Member-at-Large Debbie Kenyon, Member-at-Large Vacant, Member-at-Large Royal Martin, Parliamentarian (ex officio) Don Weaver, Immediate GVC Past President/ President & Liaison GVC-Foundation (ex officio) Don Overturf, GVC CPA Consultant (ex officio Kent Blumenthal, GVR Corporate Member (ex officio)

Randy Graf, GVSCC Corporate Member (ex officio) Kim DeMarco, GVSCC Board Chair (ex officio) Janie McDonald, Association Executive, Green Valley/Sahuarita Association of Realtors (ex officio) Kathleen Wishnick, Chair, AZ19 Regional Tourism Alliance/Chair, GV Economic Development (ex officio) COMMITTEE CHAIRS AND LIAISONS Citizen Corps, Don Weaver, Liaison Community Services, Georganne Rodgers- Garn, Liaison Environment, Vacant Chair Health & Human Services, Diane Murrieta (on leave) Paul Williams, Acting Chair HOA Relations, Joyce Bulau Planning & Architecture, Dick Roberts Traffic & Arroyos, Don Weaver, Liaison

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FIGURE 5. GOOD DEEDS DONE TOGETHER BROCHURE.

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FIGURE 6. SEPTEMBER FLYER FOR VOLUNTEERS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO SIGN-UP.