A Message from Steve K...02/06/2023

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From: Ward 6
Contact: 791-4601 or ward6@tucsonaz.gov 

Date: 02/06/2023

Topics in This Issue:

• Women’s Self Defense / Emerge 

• Plastic Program

• Los Reales Sustainability Campus Tour

• Urban Wildlife

• Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona (CHRPA)

• Rodeo and Electric Prods

• Road Diet

• Heat Resiliency

• Neighborhood Association Database

• Green Stormwater Infrastructure Maintenance Program

• Aphasia Center of Tucson Burglary

• Peace Fair & Music Festival

• Refugee Donations

• Tucson Veterans Serving Veterans

• COVID

I’m opening with this simply as a way of clearing the lunacy out of my mind. In Congress the MAGA Republican group has replaced their American Flag lapel pins with pins in the shape of AR15’s.

And you recognize this shining light – the guy who has openly lied about everything from his heritage to his education, athletic involvement, and even fund raising for medical expenses related to a dog that he never actually took care of. Now he’s advertising the weapon responsible for the murder of thousands of civilians on the streets of this country.

One wonders what message is attempted to be delivered. The one that is being delivered isn’t something I can print in the newsletter.

Women’s Self Defense/ Emerge

Thank you to all of you who reached out and registered for the upcoming women’s self-defense class we’re hosting at the ward 6 office. The slots are all full – it took about 3 hours after last week’s newsletter went out. We’re going to have a real variety of participants; a mom/daughter couple, women ranging in age from under 20 to over 60, one who has had significant back surgery, one who is in a motorized wheelchair – all are welcome, and the combination will make for a very interesting session.

The proceeds are all going to Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse. We’ll have Danielle Blackwell from Emerge here on the morning of the event to greet and thank the participants for their support.

The guy giving the instruction is Grimm from Diamondback Shooting Sports. This is the first 2-hour block of an 8 hour block he offers in 4 different sections. He’s being generous enough to donate his time as a way of both supporting the work being done at Emerge, and in giving each of the participants some valuable lessons on how to take care of yourself.

The event will run from noon until around 2pm on Saturday, February 25^th here at the ward office. If you’re one of the women registered, please show up a little early so we can get started on time.

Plastic Program

A bit over a month ago Jaimie Galayda began compiling the application material we needed to join a statewide competition for Environmental Excellence Awards. Jaimie is a lead planner in our water department who has been a strong supporter of both the glass and plastic programs we’ve initiated from the ward 6 office. She got the entry material submitted and last week was informed that we’ve been nominated as a finalist.

The competition is in its 41st year. It’s put on by Arizona Forward. They’ve got chapters scattered throughout the state – the awards ceremony will take place at the Scottsdale Camelback Inn in late April. Arizona Forward is a group of both business and public sector leaders who work together to advance the state both economically and from an environmental standpoint. With ByFusion now coming to Tucson, and the glass program already established reusing crushed glass in a secondary market, our program is well-suited for consideration.

The entire ward 6 staff is grateful to Jaimie for doing the heavy lifting of submitting the nomination. By April we’ll have identified a home site for ByFusion, the blocker will be in fabrication and the expansion of the program will be well established.

One of our new partners is Roadhouse Cinema. When ByFusion gets established on the ground here there will be conversations with Roadhouse’s entire shopping center management about gathering their plastic and using it in the program. Roadhouse was the first to reach out – and they’re all-in on the program. The next time you visit the theater go a bit early and you’ll see this Public Service Announcement highlighting their involvement in and support of the program. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcjg8sp2264hp3i/RoadHouse-City%20of%20Tucson-ByFusion%20PSA.mp4?dl=0

Last week was the highest tonnage donation week we’ve had since the program began last August. You brought over 2 and a quarter ton of plastic, filling the roll off so we had to schedule a 4^th pick up just to keep up with you. It’s a good problem to have and demonstrates why ByFusion is committed to a Tucson operation. I’ve been in several hours of conversation/email with city management and ByFusion management working on the deal points. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll be in a position to announce the location of new drop off sites, and the location of the ByFusion operation will be nailed down.  It’ll of course take a few months to fabricate the blocker and get it up and running, but the site prep will start as soon as we agree on the deal terms.

The community has now provided 46.29 tons of plastic to this effort. That’s closing in on 100,000 pounds of plastic that you’ve diverted from the landfill, and that is now going to be used productively. We have participants from all over the county – and yes, I’ve had conversations with county leadership about standing up some drop sites outside of Tucson city limits. It’s all starting to come together.

Each week I add an informational piece about what this program is addressing. The blocks are construction grade. They do not require concrete or mortar in the building process. To the extent the blocks replace wood in building structures, this program is having a positive effect on reducing deforestation.

And look at this picture – it shows what used to be Twin Peaks out by Marana.

Council Member Kevin Dahl touched on this point during our M&C discussion of the plastic program. Arizona Portland Cement is out in the Twin Peaks area. The peaks are largely made up of limestone. Limestone is one of the products Portland Cement mines to make their product. The result? One of the peaks has been fully mined out and is gone. The quarry is now located where the ‘twin’ used to be.

To the extent the plastic program reduces the use of cement, it saves elements of the environment such as the remaining limestone peak out by Marana.

More to come – thank you for your support of the program.

Los Reales Sustainability Campus Tour

At our last M&C meeting I made some comments about Republic Services and how they’re using their position in the market to gobble up smaller waste haulers, and how the rates they pay us are far below what they charge some of their customers for waste collection services. On Sunday the Star ran an editorial piece I wrote that expanded a bit on those comments. I'm grateful to the opinion page editor Curt Prendergast for running the piece. Here’s what the Star printed:

In the Spring of 2020, the Tucson City Council unanimously adopted the mayor’s declaration of a climate emergency. Since that time the City has moved forward with specific, measurable actions aimed at decarbonization, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and securing our water future. Literally thousands of Tucson residents are directly participating in many of these efforts.

In that same time frame, Republic Services, despite their marketing claims to the contrary, has rejected partnering with the community and the City. Their actions are those of a corporate predator and an environmental pariah. The welcome mat for partnering is still in front of them.

In response to the climate emergency declaration, the City has moved forward with a project that takes glass out of landfills and puts it to productive new uses. I spent the better part of a year crushing bottles in the Ward 6 garage and donating the “sand” to construction work all over the community. The City is now in a third-party relationship in which thousands of pounds of glass are crushed and used in both construction and manufacturing.

Republic Services has a contract to operate the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Tucson. They say the City is in default of our contract because we’re putting the glass to productive new uses. When they applied for the contract to run the MRF, Republic committed to aggressively looking for secondary uses for glass to avoid landfilling the material. They didn’t. We did. So who is in default?

Thousands of residents are now participating in the City/ByFusion plastic reuse program. When this was first introduced, I included Republic in meetings in an effort to get them involved in a supportive role. Instead, with a focus solely on their own bottom line, Republic’s concern was the program inadvertently diverting recyclable plastic from the MRF. They threatened to send us a bill if we moved forward with the program. The community has provided over 44 tons of plastic to the program. Republic has been conspicuously absent from any involvement. That welcome mat is also still in front of them.

The Republic marketing slogan is “Environmental Services for a more sustainable world.” While the City has moved ahead diverting waste from the landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and involving the public in our work, Republic has demanded six amendments to their MRF contract, the combined result being enhancing their financial standing. Republic is a Fortune 300 mega-company. In the state of Arizona, Republic is one of the top companies in terms of stock market capitalization or worth. The community is looking for partners in climate action, not a player whose motive is maximizing profits at the environment’s expense.

The City has voluntarily left thousands of acre feet of water in the Colorado River in an effort to address the drought-caused water security challenges we face. The City has adopted forward-looking electric vehicle requirements for new construction. The mayor was successful in negotiating a commitment from Tucson Electric Power to work with the City and reach 100% clean energy as quickly as possible for all City operations. Throughout all of this, Republic has threatened litigation and demanded adjustments in their MRF contract to further enrich themselves.

Republic charges many of their customers double what the City charges them to use the landfill. Factoring in the revenues Republic receives, they earn up to eight times what the City nets per ton in operating the landfill. There’s nothing wrong with a responsible concern over a secure bottom line, but Republic has long been in the position of having Tucson residents subsidizing their operations through the rates customers pay to the City for trash and recycle collection.

The City is studying the costs involved in building and operating our own Material Recovery Facility. While that will cost millions of dollars, without a responsible true partner in our recycle/reuse efforts we owe it to city residents and businesses to explore cutting ties with Republic.

The welcome mat is still in front of them. I say to Republic, join us in standing up a region-wide plastic reuse operation with ByFusion. Join us in finding a rate structure that avoids more increases in our residential and commercial rates. Stop with the threats of litigating over what Republic itself has failed to pursue: productive third-party arrangements for the reuse of glass.

The true bottom line is, join us in a focus on responsible environmental actions that go beyond a corporate slogan. Join us in actions that may not maximize your immediate financial bottom line, but actions that recognize we are indeed in a climate emergency.

The city is right now in discussion with Republic about extending the terms of their contract. There is a possibility the ByFusion operation could end up right by their facility at Los Reales. There’s a sweet partnership waiting to be had if the corporate suits at Republic wanted to sit and have a constructive conversation. When I tried that before the pilot program began, they simply looked at plastic as a way to make money – either through recycling or through charging the city (you) for contamination. The success of the pilot should send a signal to them that their image in the community could benefit – or not – depending on how they approach this.

With all of that in mind, our Environmental Services team is offering the public tours of the Los Reales campus, including the Republic Material Recovery Facility. The tour will be held on Valentine’s Day – what a great gift for your sweetie. A tour of the landfill. Yup, my bride recognizes what a sensitive guy I am around these holidays!

The tour will run from 8:30am until about noon. It begins at the Price Service Center located at 4004 S. Park. Meet in the upper parking lot at Price at 8:30. You’ll board a bus and be taken out to the MRF to see how the sorting, baling and recycle operation runs. Then they’ll drive you through the Sustainability Campus to see how our ES folks manage household hazardous waste, how the landfill cells are protecting our groundwater, the landfill operation and how methane gas if generated.

To participate you will need to register. Please do that by February 10^th using this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0d48abac2aa5f49-valentines1

They’ll need a minimum of 15 people in order to conduct the tour – and seats will be filled on a first come, first served basis. You’ve been reading a lot about waste, recycling, reuse, plastic, and the rest. Here’s an opportunity for you to see how all of that is managed.

Urban Wildlife

You might have experienced going out in the morning and finding ‘somebody’ had tipped over your trash bin and scattered things around your yard. I was out running one morning not long ago and saw a group of these guys treating themselves to someone’s trash before ES arrived to pick it up. This is just a reminder – you can avoid that by waiting until morning before rolling your bin to the curb.

And notice the location of this group. This is right off from the UA campus in Rincon Heights. Around Halloween each year I remind people in the newsletter that the pumpkin you leave on your front porch is going to attract javelina. Well, this group of 5 critters is enjoying the flower salad offered to them by the Campus Crossing student housing group.

If you don’t want these guys wandering through your yard, consider the food sources that are laying in your yard. The droppings from date palm trees are great munchies for them. And as you can see, they love flowers. They’re in all of our neighborhoods, and they’ll go where they find food, water and shelter.

Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona (CHRPA)

It’s a time of year when you might be needing repairs on home insulation to keep the heat in, or you’re looking on your roof and seeing the need to repair your cooler before temperatures start to soar. We at ward 6 have helped CHRPA with funding earmarked to assist ward 6 residents – this is an example of how they’re investing those dollars in the community.

Between May and the end of ‘22, CHRPA did work in Alvernon Heights, Avondale, Blenman-Elm, Garden District, Palo Verde Neighborhood, Peter Howell, Rincon Heights, Roberts, Rosemont West, Toumey Park and in 3 other areas of ward 6 that aren’t a part of a registered neighborhood. Of those 60% had residents over the age of 62, 45% had a disability and 85% of the residents had an income below 51% of the average median income for the region. Here’s a graph showing the kinds of work they did in those homes:

It’s not surprising that such a high percentage of the people served are low income. That’s what CHRPA is focused on. In the ward 6 work the average invoice was $641. The largest was over $3,500.

The CHRPA team still has some ward 6 funding available. If you know somebody who can benefit, please reach out to CHRPA and let them know. You can find them at http://www.chrpaz.org/ They do quality work and I’m very happy to support their mission.

Rodeo and Electric Prods

I was a guest on the Bill Buckmaster show (1030am) last week. The first part of the show we spent talking about the plastics program and where it’s headed. Starting at about 16 minutes into the show he raised the issue of the rodeo and their use of electric prods. Here’s a link to the full show. I appreciate Bill giving me the opportunity to speak publicly about the use of prods, how they constitute animal abuse, and the possible next steps in our budget conversation if they don’t voluntarily elect to ban the use of prods.

Podcast: Play in new window

You can find all of Bill’s shows at https://www.buckmastershow.com/

The Hot Shot Power Mite is the device you see in use at the Tucson Rodeo. Here’s what the Hot Shot’s own Marketing Director has to say about its use on horses:

I’ve provided the rodeo committee video from 3 different Tucson events showing the use of the prod. The manufacture’s own disclaimer says this:

"We do not recommend our products be used in rodeos."

"We only recommend our products be used on hogs and cattle. Do not use on horses, they are much more sensitive."

"Any use for entertainment purposes is not something we support or condone."

"Our prods should only be used on the rear of animals, never near the head or eyes."

In the videos it’s clear the prods are being administered on the neck and up by the eyes. The prod delivers a shock of over 4,000 volts. Here’s their own product data sheet:  Click here.

I’m still waiting for the parade committee to own its own Rule #10 and tell the rodeo to quit with the abuse.

Even better than waiting on the parade committee to walk the talk of their own rules, it’d be great if the rodeo committee voluntarily joined what dozens of other rodeos around the country have already done and ban the use of prods.

And by the way, for the rather self-righteous guy who showed up at the last M&C meeting bragging on the parade committee – this photo by Mason Kumet showing how they audition horses for the parade is not a stellar example of what I’d call compassionate treatment of animals. If you disagree, try it on your spouse some morning as a wakeup call.

Road Diet

For the past year+ the city has been doing outreach gathering community input on a proposed ‘road diet’ for 5^th and 6^th street for the segment running from Campbell out to Wilmot. In a recent newsletter I shared what were some early staff recommendations based on data they had collected primarily at intersections along that route. They also drew some conclusions about the impact a diet would have on people trying to enter 5^th / 6^th from side streets. They were recommending against the change, based on that early analysis.

The road diet idea is to take the two drive lanes on each side of the center stripe and reduce them to single travel lanes. There would also be a center turn lane to take traffic out of the flow when drivers want to make a turn. That’s the idea. And it’s that idea staff initially felt would cause delays – largely at intersections.

I participated in multiple neighborhood presentations related to the diet. The presentations pointed out the increased safety of taking turns out of the drive lanes. And while the overall travel time would be slightly longer, it’d be safer and would not be slowed by having to wait in line for people making turns – and worrying about being rear-ended while doing so.

Despite the recommendation against the diet, I have continued to argue in favor of at least giving it a try. Much of the data analysis staff relied on to make their recommendation has taken place while Broadway has been under construction. Peoples’ driving habits have changed as a result of that construction. Now that Broadway is back open, we will see more traffic refocus on that arterial and off from the 5^th / 6^th collector. And if the concern is over issues at intersections, then let’s look at upgrades at those locations. The road diet is fully consistent with our Complete Streets planning approach.

The conversation with city staff has been fluid and we’re now in agreement to at least give the road diet a chance. At least for a large portion of the corridor. This map shows the full segment and what’s being done.  

We will be moving forward with the road diet east of Country Club. The mile west of Country Club is not going to be included in this trial since it’s so close to the UA and at times of year would result in gridlock as a result. But when the road reconstruction on 6^th street takes place later this year, east of Country Club the lines will be repainted after the work to reflect the single travel lane on both the north and south side of the street with the middle turn lane. If you want an example look at Tucson Blvd or Columbus north of Speedway. We’ve got these in place throughout the city and they have a good track record where the conditions outside the curb line and the traffic counts are appropriate.

This is going to be a trial run. We’ll see how things work out and if we see the impacts are gridlock and/or increased safety concerns, the lines can always be repainted to reflect what’s there now. I don’t expect that to be the case, or I wouldn’t have been advocating for us to give it a whirl. I’m grateful to our transportation staff for continuing the dialogue and agreeing to engage in this pilot project.

Heat Resiliency

A group of neighbors who are loosely connected through Sustainable Tucson are working together in advance of the summer heat to help people get prepared for the high temps, and importantly for keeping an eye out for others who may be impacted by the heat. The neighborhoods are largely representing wards 3 and 6, but all are welcome to get involved.

Building A Resilient Neighborhood (BARN) is an informal group of residents who are mutually concerned with the effects of extreme heat. Remember last summer when we had weeks on end of temperatures north of 100 degrees? That’s coming again. BARN is formed to help people be prepared.

Thankfully we have not experienced what some cities have – rolling brownouts due to heat and its impact on the power grid. But we are not immune. BARN has two strategies they’re pursuing to make everyone safer if that were to occur; preparing supplies in your household and getting to know your neighbors.

With those approaches in mind, they’re inviting anybody who’s interested to join in a virtual outreach where they’ll discuss forming block liaisons who’ll take this issue back to their neighborhoods and further the outreach. The 1 hour zoom orientation will take place from 3pm until 4pm on Monday, February 13^th. Here’s the registration link.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rf-GpqjItH9MRp2AqVE7yr4RN6hkyqIaW  

If you have questions about the group or the presentation you can email Stuart Moody at stuartfieldmoody@hotmail.com.  

Neighborhood Association Database

Here’s another neighborhood-related item. The city used to have a robust Neighborhood Resources department neighbors could turn to with questions and concerns. That was disbanded quite a while ago. At the ward 6 office we consider ourselves your first point of contact when your neighborhood has issues you need to have addressed. We’ll help point you in the right direction.

If you are a registered neighborhood, you do need to keep the city updated on leadership changes and contact information. When there are zoning hearings our planning people need to send out notices. And the city sends out informative nuggets from time to time. Updating your contacts is important. And in fact, it’s required.

To be sure you’ve got the right information registered please do the following:

• Please go to the Neighborhood Resources website by clicking this link and click on the "Neighborhood Associations and Maps"
• Type your Neighborhood Association's name into the box provided, click on “Search,” and then open the webpage for your Neighborhood Association.
• Review the information on the webpage for your Neighborhood Association for accuracy. Please look at the officers listed and confirm the bylaws on file are up to date.
• Please email neighborhood@tucsonaz.gov to confirm the information is accurate or to report inaccuracies. If you found inaccuracies on the page regarding the posted bylaws and/or the officers names and contact information, please provide the correct information.
• If your email indicates your Neighborhood Association's information on bylaws is inaccurate, the neighborhood resources staffers will look to see if they’ve received more recent bylaws that didn’t get posted. And if you indicate the information for your Neighborhood Association’s officers is inaccurate, they’ll check to see if they’ve received Officer Information Release Forms with more current officer information. If any of that information is missing, they’ll request the updated forms. Officer Information Release Forms are required for any newly elected – or re-elected officers. You can find the forms here: link.

In the past few weeks, we’ve also gotten some questions from people about forming a new neighborhood association. There’s a process – and there are some things registered associations are required to do. The responsibilities are highlighted in this document. If your group wants to move ahead with forming a registered neighborhood association, you’ll need to send a copy of your bylaws, election meeting minutes and the officer release forms to neighborhood@tucsonaz.gov. You can use us at the ward office, or that same email address if you’ve got questions about the process and/or the value of being a functioning registered neighborhood association.

For the updates, please have those to Neighborhood Resources by Friday, February 24^th.

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Maintenance Program

One last neighborhood item is highlighting our green stormwater infrastructure Storm to Shade program. Many of the neighborhoods in ward 6 have already benefitted from the funds being set aside to increase our tree canopy and landscape. It’s an investment that began back in 2020 when M&C approved the fee.

The focus of the program is to increase our green infrastructure and thereby reduce the impacts of the warming climate. It’s now a permanent part of our climate investment strategy. The goal is to collect stormwater runoff from hardscape and use it to support native vegetation and more trees. You’ve seen examples in the new chicanes and traffic circles on Treat Blvd for example. There are hundreds of others throughout the city.

Maintenance of the GSI projects is also a part of the dedicated funding. When staff began to inventory the projects that’d need a maintenance response the expectation was we’d end up with about 250 of them. That number is in excess of 600. The good news is that shows the popularity of the program. The tough part of that number is they all need to be maintained.

Our S2S team has contracted with some quality organizations who’ll assist with the maintenance. I know many of you have shared horror stories throughout the years about butchered landscaping. We’ve now got groups such as the Tucson Audubon Society, Tucson Clean & Beautiful, Dryland Design and others on board to help with the maintenance. It’s going to take a bit of time to catch up, but with the team we’ve got in place it’ll happen, and it’ll happen in a professional way that addresses the health and aesthetics of our green environment.

The S2S program website has information on funding and the services they offer. You can find that at https://climateaction.tucsonaz.gov/pages/gsi

Aphasia Center of Tucson Burglary

All our non-profits around the city struggle to keep their heads above water. The community is blessed with an array of significant donors who step up and embrace the mission of the individual organizations. We also see that heart with our requests for donations for refugees and asylum seekers. Tucson is a very giving community.

Last week the Aphasia Center of Tucson was hit with a burglary that’s going to be very difficult to recover from. Aphasia is the condition I’ve written about in past newsletters where the person afflicted has trouble speaking or understanding speech. It’s caused by strokes, blunt trauma, or environmental conditions (see my Safety on the Set item in last week’s newsletter.) The burglary they suffered resulted in the loss of multiple iPads, laptops, COVID air purifiers, space heaters – if you can plug it in, they lost it.

We at the ward 6 office are helping them recover – and I’m putting this note in the newsletter alerting you to the need. If you can support their effort to recover, they’ve got a GoFundMe page. Email to Fabiane Hirsch @ fabi@friendsofaphasia.com and she’ll let you know how to access that page.

Peace Fair & Music Festival

And with those good vibes for the Aphasia Center on your mind this is a good place to invite you to the 2023 Peace Fair. It’ll be held once again in Armory Park – Saturday, February 25^th from 11am until 4pm. The people who run the peace center are tied in with multiple non-profits that are scattered throughout the region, each of which is doing the work so important in touching needs of all kinds. Carve out some time to stroll through the fair, listen to some music and enjoy the people of a like-mind who you’ll meet.

Refugee Donations

The needs for the asylum-seeking guests at Casa Alitas change slightly from week to week. With the chilly weather they’re in need of warm coats and blankets. They’re also looking for bath towels – the regular size this time. In the past I’ve been asking for travel size, so this is a change in that request. And the things kids can occupy themselves with during travel are always important. That’s small stuffed animals, crayons, and coloring books – and some puzzle books for adults are a nice touch.

Other ‘news of the day’ stories take this off the front pages, but there are hundreds of people arriving literally every day out at Alitas. Every one of them has been through weeks of very difficult travel, capture and processing at the border and finally arrival at Alitas where for the first time in what must seem forever, they’re welcomed and treated with some dignity. Your donations continue that humanizing effort. All my team at ward 6 is grateful for your continued support. This began back with the bus station down by the TCC, moved to the Benedictine and for the past couple of years has been at the county owned Alitas Center. Throughout that the federal process for addressing the asylum claims has not budged an inch in terms of being made more efficient or humane.

Your donations continue to be welcomed by the hundreds of migrants who are arriving at Alitas daily. You can bring them to the ward office M-F from 9am until 1pm, or if you want to do the Amazon route the mailing address is 3202 E. 1^st, 85716. We join the recipients in thanking those of you who are offering these donations.

Tucson Veterans Serving Veterans

There’s another group of people who can use some help in the way of donations. The only reason we’re not specifically taking them at the ward office is, so we don’t get into the position of having to separate donations for various groups and making sure we’re honoring donors’ requests for recipients. But there are some ward 6 locations for Tucson Veterans Serving Veterans.

TVSV is a volunteer run non-profit. They’ve been in operation since 2003. They work alongside veteran service organizations taking care of the needs our veterans have. In addition to taking donations for personal needs, they assist with referral services related to employment, benefits, housing, health care – the array of needs our veteran community has. The goal is to help vets reach a point of self-sufficiency.

The American Legion Post 7 (330 W. Franklin) and Post 36 (5845 E. 22^nd ) are both taking donations. In addition, you can drop items at the Wards 1, 2, 3 and 5 offices. At ward 6 we’re grateful to all veterans who have served this country and are pleased to be able to share information on the TVSV program. If you’d like more information on their work, please visit https://tucsonveterans.org/

COVID

In the past week I was made aware of two colleagues who have some rather bad cases of COVID. Both suspect they became infected while travelling. One was masked up the whole time she was on a plane. The other wasn’t quite as self-protective. They’re both recovering now. The case counts dropped again, but having spoken by phone with both people I can attest that when it hits, it can be debilitating.

Another 107 Arizonan’s were killed by COVID last week. When it’s ‘debilitating’ that means it can also be fatal.

You can check the Pima County health site if you want to see where to test or to get a vaccination: https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?pageId=527452

Please do not come to the office if you have any symptoms – COVID or otherwise. Call and reschedule. And if your group is using the ward office, we strongly encourage you to require participants in your meeting to wear a mask. My casual observation is that some groups are requiring it, others are rolling the dice. Respiratory diseases are spread in part through airborne transmission. While not 100% effective, masks do help in reducing spread.

Here’s the statewide COVID count map by county. This week Maricopa County could reach 1.5 million cases.

Sincerely,

Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov

City of Tucson Resources

• COVID-19 Updates: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/covid-19/covid-19-updates
• I Want To... : https://www.tucsonaz.gov/i-want-to