10 most popular Tucson stories on social media in 2018
- By Shaq Davis Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A deputy U.S. marshal was shot and killed Thursday evening outside a Tucson house on the north side, according to Gov. Doug Ducey.
He was the first deputy U.S. marshal to be killed in the line of duty in Tucson in 66 years. Tucson police said a man was taken into custody after a standoff with officers.
The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m., in the 2600 block of North 15th Avenue, near West Jacinto Street. The house where the shooter fired from is just across the street from Jacinto Park, and northwest of North Oracle Road and West Grant Road.
Moments after the shooting, police and federal officers surrounded the single-story house. Several residences around the house and the park were evacuated by officers.
After about an hour standoff, Tucson police reported they had a man from inside the house in custody.
Ducey tweeted shortly after 8 p.m. that he had been informed the deputy U.S. marshal was killed in the line of duty.
âIâve just learned that tonight we lost a US Deputy Marshal from the District of Arizona. He was killed in the line of duty in Tucson. My deepest condolences and prayers go out to his family and all of Arizona law enforcement,â the governor tweeted.
No additional details were released as of press time.
The last deputy U.S. marshal to die in the line of duty in Tucson was Edmund L. Schweppe, who was fatally shot while escorting two prisoners to a dentist office in the downtown area on Sept. 15, 1952, according to the Marshals Service website.
Those two prisoners were apprehended by police after they escaped. They were both convicted of Schweppeâs murder and sentenced to life in prison, according to the Marshals Service.
Rich Rodriguez fired in what UA athletic director, president say is a difficult but 'right' decision
- Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rich Rodriguez was fired on Tuesday after a $7.5 million notice of claim was filed with the state Attorney Generalâs Office alleging that Arizonaâs head football coach ran a hostile workplace and sexually harassed a former employee.
The UA announced Rodriguezâs firing in a news release around 8:30 p.m. University President Robert C. Robbins and athletic director Dave Heeke said they will âhonor the separation termsâ of the coachâs contract, after an internal investigation did not find enough evidence to fire him for cause. His buyout is about $6 million.
âWhile this is a difficult decision, it is the right decision,â they wrote. âAnd it is a decision that lives up to the core values of the University of Arizona.â
Rodriguez, 54, just finished his sixth season as the Wildcatsâ coach following stops at Michigan and West Virginia. This yearâs team went 7-6, losing four of its final five games after a surprising start. Purdue beat the UA in the Dec. 27 Foster Farms Bowl.
Rodriguez tweeted a statement late Tuesday in which he said he will âvigorously fight these fabricated and groundless claimsâ made by his former administrative assistant. The coach said he was fired by email.
âI am not a perfect man, but the claims by my former assistant are simply not true and her demands for a financial settlement are outrageous,â he wrote.
A âhideaway bookâ â
and an alleged cover-up
The notice of claim was filed Thursday by the former employee and her attorney. A notice of claim is an advance notice of intent to file a lawsuit against a public body. Most notices of claim are first sent to the Arizona Board of Regents or the University of Arizona itself. Her $7.5 million claim went directly to the Attorney Generalâs Office.
Portions of the claim obtained by the Star on Tuesday paint a culture in which secrecy was valued above all else.
The notice of claim alleges, among other things, that Rodriguez and his closest aides followed a âhideaway bookâ that detailed such sayings as âTitle IX doesnât exist in our office,â referring to the federal gender-equity law.
Those who had the most interaction with Rodriguez â the former employee and two assistant coaches â referred to themselves as the âTriangle of Secrecy,â according to the claim. The three were tasked with lying to Rodriguezâs wife to cover up an extramarital affair, according to the claim, and were ordered to protect the coachâs reputation above all else.
The former employee said in the claim that she âhad to walk on eggshells at work, because of (Rodriguezâs) volatility and sheer power over the department.â Rodriguez would call her at all hours of the night, she said in the claim, to change travel plans or to deal with Rodriguezâs personal emergencies. In the claim, the former employee said she became increasingly troubled by Rodriguezâs actions over the past year. She suffered migraines as a result, the claim states.
The UAâs Office of Institutional Equity began investigating Rodriguez in October, three months after the former employee left for an off-campus job.
The investigation concluded last week, Robbins and Heeke wrote. And while counsel did not find enough to terminate Rodriguez, the university became concerned with the âclimate and the directionâ of the football program, they wrote.
Rodriguez said Tuesday night that the complaint included âa single truthâ â that he engaged in a âconsensual extramarital affairâ with a woman who is not affiliated with the university.
âI am still working incredibly hard to repair the bonds Iâve broken and regain the trust of my wife and children, whom I love dearly,â he wrote.
Another troubling issue
for the UA over athletics
The notice of claim is the latest legal issue facing the UA. Former assistant track and field coach Craig Carter is facing multiple felony charges, accused of threatening a former athlete with whom he was involved in a sexual relationship. The case has been featured on both ESPNâs âOutside the Linesâ and ABCâs â20/20.â
The UA is being sued in federal court by one of three victims of former running back Orlando Bradford. The victim says the university knew Bradford was a danger to women and failed to protect her. Bradford was recently sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to two felony counts of aggravated assault.
And in August, Rodriguez was sued in civil court by Creative Artist Agencies (CAA). The agency represented the coach until the fall of 2015, and claims Rodriguez owes $230,050 in past-due fees.
Rodriguezâs contract was set to run through May 31, 2020. His buyout as of Dec. 1 was $6.45 million, according to USA Todayâs annual survey of NCAA football coachesâ salaries. Because he was let go before March 15, Rodriguez will miss out on approximately $3.2 million from a master-limited-partnership provision in his contract. That pay came via publicly traded units on the so-called âLongevity Fund.â Rodriguez was set to receive 25 percent of the value on March 15. If he had been fired any time after that, he would have been entitled to the full value of the fund.
A fast start, ugly finish
Rodriguezâs hiring on Nov. 23, 2011, was seen as a coup for the UA and newly hired athletic director Greg Byrne.
Arizona won a bowl game in Rodriguezâs first year and took the Pac-12 South Division title and finished 10-4 in 2014, then started trending downward.
The Wildcats finished 7-6 the following season, most of which was played without star linebacker Scooby Wright. Sensing that recruiting was lagging and the defense wasnât performing up to expectations, Rodriguez turned over Arizonaâs defensive staff. He hired Boise Stateâs Marcel Yates as defensive coordinator and promoted Jahmile Addae and Vince Amey from analysts to full-time assistant coaches.
The injury issues worsened in 2016, when Arizona lost its top two quarterbacks and running backs at various points. After starting 2-1, Arizona lost eight in a row. Only a season-ending victory over rival Arizona State put a bandage on an otherwise painful season.
The Wildcats entered 2017 with the lowest of expectations outside the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, picked to finish last by the media in the Pac-12 South. An uneven 2-2 start only served to validate that prediction.
But in Game 5, sophomore quarterback Khalil Tate came off the bench and set a Football Bowl Subdivision record for quarterbacks with 327 rushing yards in a 45-42 win at Colorado. Tate would lead Arizona to four straight victories, winning an unprecedented four consecutive Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards.
The Wildcats secured bowl eligibility with a 58-37 win over Washington State on Oct. 28. They couldnât follow up their perfect October, however, losing three of four games in November. Arizona finished the season with a 38-35 loss to Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl.
The emergence of Tate and several freshmen on defense, including Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year Colin Schooler, gave hope for bigger and better things to come in 2018. It also offered proof that the changes Rodriguez had made to the defensive staff were working, even if the immediate on-field results didnât show it.
Whatâs next?
Heeke said Arizonaâs next head coach will âbuild a solid foundation for our program and create an identity of Arizona football that the University, Tucson and Southern Arizona communities can be proud of. Weâre excited about the future of our football program, and we look forward to introducing our new head coach at the completion of the search process.â
Several current and recently employed coaches would be logical candidates to succeed Rodriguez. Boise Stateâs Bryan Harsin, Memphisâ Mike Norvell, Utah Stateâs Matt Wells and Syracuseâs Dino Babers, who was an assistant at Arizona from 1995-2000, will certainly be mentioned as potential replacements.
Possible candidates who were recently let go but are still highly respected within the industry include Kevin Sumlin, Mark Helfrich, Butch Jones and Todd Graham. Jones was the coach at Central Michigan under Heeke from 2007-09.
Yates, who joined the staff in January 2016, will serve as the interim head coach.
It is unclear what will happen with the signing class of 16 players that Arizona announced last month.
Behind the scenes at one of the busiest stockyards in Arizona, $3 million worth of cattle was stolen from a prominent Marana family by a man they once considered a friend, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Last August, longtime cattleman and well-known rodeo cowboy Clay Parsons discovered $1.3 million missing from the accounts of the Marana Stockyards and Livestock Market, which his family has run since the early 1990s. The stockyardâs line of credit also was drawn down inexplicably by nearly $2 million, according to records from U.S. District Court in Tucson.
A trail of fraudulent documents led to Seth Nichols, the stockyardâs 29-year-old office manager and son of Donald Hugh Nichols, a cattle broker who had been friends with Parsons for decades, court records show.
Seth Nichols pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud in February and faces up to five years in prison. His father was indicted Aug. 22 as a co-conspirator in $1.6 million of fraudulent cattle sales at the stockyardâs auctions.
The fraud has pushed both families to the brink of financial ruin.
A federal prosecutor said the stockyard is operating âweek to weekâ as it recovers from the fraud and Parsons has already spent $100,000 on audits and rebuilding the stockyardâs accounting system.
Donald Hugh Nichols, who goes by Hugh, and his wife, Jane Nichols, filed for bankruptcy in federal court Aug. 10.
The scheme Parsons discovered last fall began after he hired Seth Nichols in June 2013 to run the stockyardâs day-to-day business. Nichols admitted to using his position to exploit the stockyardâs transaction system at weekly cattle auctions, according to his plea agreement.
At the auctions, cows are brought to the stockyards each week to be sold to the highest bidder. Last Wednesday, 884 head of cattle entered a fenced area inside the stockyardâs main building one at a time or in pairs. Some recent auctions have seen more than 2,000 head of cattle sold, according to the stockyardâs market reports.
Buyers in auditorium seats overlooking the fenced area bid on the cows as the auctioneer rattled off prices Wednesday morning. After a successful bid, the cow was ushered through a gate and the next cow entered.
The stockyard uses a line of credit to allow sellers to be paid quickly while the buyersâ payments are processed, according to court records. Seth Nichols admitted to manipulating the line of credit to buy cattle at the auctions on behalf of the Nichols Cattle Co., which then sold the cattle elsewhere without reimbursing the stockyard. He also admitted to sending the stockyardâs money directly to the cattle company.
He covered up the fraud by faking wire payments from the cattle company to the stockyard and by doctoring financial records to make Parsons and his bankers believe the stockyard had plenty of cash and a full line of credit, according to his plea agreement.
Seth Nichols agreed to pay restitution to the Parsons, which was capped at $3 million in his plea agreement. But those funds wonât be available until after he is sentenced Sept. 24. A dispute over the exact amount could lead to a restitution hearing at a later date.
Among the items Seth Nichols agreed to forfeit are the proceeds of selling a house in Marana, a pickup truck, his ownership shares in a helicopter, and various limited-liability companies, including several he formed during the years of fraud. His parents signed over to the Parsons the deeds to their home in Coolidge and another property in Coolidge, which combined are worth more than $1 million.
Clay Parsons declined to comment. The attorneys involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment.
While criminal proceedings unfold in federal court, the fraud has led each family to sue the other in Pima County Superior Court.
A week after Seth Nicholsâ Feb. 5 plea in federal court, Clay Parsons and his wife, Karen, sued Hugh and Jane Nichols for $3 million and punitive damages, saying their role in the fraud showed âan evil hand guided by an evil mind.â
On June 8, Hugh and Jane Nichols sued the Parsons in Superior Court, claiming the Parsons misled them during a meeting shortly after the fraud was discovered. The Nichols claim the Parsons pressured them into signing over the deeds to their two properties to repay the Parsons for the losses caused by the fraud.
Along with the lawsuit, the Nichols filed a legal claim on the two properties they had signed over to the Parsons, effectively blocking the sale of the properties. They also said the Parsons evicted them from their home in October 2017 despite promising to let them stay until it was sold.
Hugh Nichols said Parsons âactively underminedâ his cattle business by helping Nicholsâ customers find new purchasing agents. As a result, âHugh has lost all income from his livestock sales business,â Nicholsâ lawyer, German Yusufov, wrote in the lawsuit.
Back in federal court, Seth Nichols asked a judge on Aug. 9 to allow him to back out of his plea agreement. He would not have pleaded guilty if he had known it would be used in a civil lawsuit against his parents, defense attorney Michael Harwin wrote in a court filing.
Harwin also cited a dispute over the restitution amount and questioned how much Parsons knew about problems with the line of credit before last August.
In his response to Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea, federal prosecutor Michael Jette said the legal claim on the two properties and Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea appeared to be an attempt to push the Parsons to drop their lawsuit.
A hearing about Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea is scheduled for Tuesday, court records show. His fatherâs arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 14.
A Japanese entertainment venue is moving into part of the soon-to-be closed Sears store at Park Place.
Round 1 Bowling & Amusement has signed a lease for about 44,000 square feet on the ground floor and basement of the store, 5950 E. Broadway.
Last month, Sears announced it would close that location in a money-saving effort.
Taka Mizuno, with Round 1âs marketing department, said Tucsonâs demographics appealed to the company. This will be its first venture in Arizona.
According to Round 1âs real estate requirements, its locations feature 12 to 14 bowling lanes, billiards, ping pong, darts, karaoke rooms and more than 250 arcade machines with the latest games from Japan. There is also a food and bar area with seating for up to 90 people.
It is the latest so called âeatertainmentâ venue to enter the Tucson market.
In the past two years, companies such as Dave & Busters, 1390 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd.; Autobahn Indoor Speedway, 300 S. Toole Ave.; and Topgolf, 4050 W. Costco Drive, have opened. Base Hits Tucson, an indoor batting cage, is under development at 4439 N. Oracle Road, and Bourn Cos. is adding entertainment venues at both its City Park project downtown and at Foothills Mall on Ina Road.
Tucsonâs appeal
The appeal of Tucson is recent job announcements that will bring millennials to town.
âThe millennial generation has been a less-than-eager generation of traditional shoppers,â said Nancy McClure, first vice president with CBRE Tucson. âThat group has proven that it wants to connect with others and has a preference to spend money dining out, versus buying more stuff.â
Millennials arenât the only ones interested in the eatertainment segment, according to QSR Magazine, which covers the quick-serve and fast-casual dining industry.
Nearly 60 percent of all consumers said they were interested in visiting an eatertainment concept, while 30 percent said they had already visited one, QSR says of a survey conducted by food industry market research firm Datassential.
Having a dining venue that also provides photo opportunities to be shared on social media is also drawing people to âeatertainmentâ sites â something that mall owners want.
âEntertainment venues are being sought out by mall owners and other center owners to not only fill space but also be a draw of customers to the rest of the centersâ retailers,â McClure said. âMall traffic has slowed, in most cases, and it is of critical importance to center owners and tenants to bring people back to the malls and make the shopping trip more than just buying merchandise â it is to create an experience to compel people to step away from their computer and do something fun, interact with people and be part of the community.â
Round 1 is expected to open its Park Place location in 2019. It was founded in Sakai City, Osaka, in 1980 and entered the U.S. market in 2010. Its 21st U.S. location opened in March.
- By Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson Water recently shut down a treatment plant after discovering it was sending water contaminated with chemical compounds to thousands of residents of downtown and the cityâs west and north sides.
Shortly after making that discovery, utility officials also learned that they had mistakenly thought for some time that uncontaminated water was coming out of the plant, which has long treated south-side water pollution.
The utility had been sampling the water at a point its officials thought was connected to the south-side treatment plant, but which actually was getting water from other sources, administrators said last week.
It turned out that water coming out of the treatment plant was now tainted with whatâs known as perfluorinated chemicals, also known as PFAS compounds. The treatment plant had been built and later upgraded to treat two other pollutants â the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) and 1,4-dioxane â but not to treat PFAS.
PFAS is a family of compounds historically used in firefighting foam, in everyday household products such as nonstick frying pans, polishes, carpets, waxes and paints, and in industrial processes. They donât easily break down in the environment and remain in the body for a long time after being consumed. They have been linked to a long list of illnesses, including possibly cancer in humans.
The levels of the chemicals found in the water coming from the treatment plant were lower than the recommended maximum in official EPA health advisories. But they were higher than a recently released federal study says they should be.
The plantâs water is served to a large V-shaped area, population about 60,000, stretching north from East 29th Street through downtown and flanking Interstate 10. The area spans as far west as the Tucson Mountains and as far east as North Campbell Avenue and beyond. (See map.)
Because the utility hadnât sampled points in the treatment plantâs water-delivery area until this year, Tucson Water officials say they donât know how long the contaminated water had been served to customers there.
The utility decided to sample that area this year because it was continuing to find these compounds in other locations, forcing it to shut wells, Tucson Water Director Tim Thomure said.
The south-side treatment plant was put back online Sept. 17, after being closed for more than three weeks while the utility took several short-term measures to reduce contamination levels .
Tucson Water has since taken new samples in the area where the treatment plantâs water is delivered and expects theyâll contain significantly lower levels of the contaminants.
But the utilityâs reliance on the wrong sampling point drew sharp criticism from City Council members Steve Kozachik and Regina Romero.
The mistake was âcavalier,â given the cityâs longstanding history with water pollution and the communityâs sensitivity to it, said Kozachik. Last summer, he was the first city official to tell the public about contamination of other city wells by the same compounds.
âIs it embarrassing? Yeah,â acknowledged Jeff Biggs, Tucson Waterâs administrator for strategic initiatives. But, he said, the city had questioned the discrepancy in the pollution levels it was finding and reacted immediately once it learned of the mistake.
âWe investigated and we made operational changes to lower the level (of contamination) that we served to the public,â Biggs said.
Kozachik noted that city officials âstand in front of the community all the time, saying that weâre taking seriously our well monitoring, that weâre doing this testing, that weâve spent tens of millions of dollarsâ on the treatment plant.
âThen to say that we were monitoring the wrong water main, and we didnât know where water is coming from is cavalier,â said Kozachik, whose Ward 6 includes much of the downtown area that got PFAS-contaminated water.
Romero, whose Ward 1 also is part of the treatment plantâs service area, said sheâs âvery, very disappointedâ and finds it âvery upsettingâ that Tucson Water was using the wrong sampling point and that she and other council members hadnât been told of the PFAS contamination in the area until now.
She noted that the mayor and council and the utility had for years worked to restore Tucson Waterâs tarnished reputation, dating to the 1980s, when trichloroethylene was discovered in south-side drinking water.
âWeâve been saying that Tucson Water is transparent, compared to the time of TCE and that we were serving clean water,â Romero said. âEvery detail of this bothers me.â
Thomure, Tucson Waterâs director, said the error in the original sampling point location âis not something we take lightly, nor is it acceptable.â
Now, the utility will investigate the sampling pointâs incorrect placement âand will modify policies and procedures as needed,â Tucson Water spokesman Fernando Molina said.
Highest levels found at three sampling sites
The contaminated water had gone through a water-treatment plant, the Tucson Airport Remediation Project, commonly known as the TARP plant.
The plant was first built in 1994 to remove the once-common industrial solvent trichloroethylene from polluted south-side groundwater â a solvent that various aircraft-related industries had dumped into the ground from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s.
In 2014, the plant was upgraded to also remove 1,4-dioxane, an industrial stabilizing agent, from the same groundwater. The dioxane was discovered in the groundwater in 2002.
The plantâs construction was a result of a consent agreement that the city signed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other parties to start cleaning up the water, long after the TCE was first discovered there in 1981. The plant uses a technology known as advanced oxidation to remove both chemicals.
That water is pumped from the areaâs longstanding contamination plume running northwest from Tucson International Airport to near the Irvington Road-Interstate 19 interchange.
The TARP plant was not designed to remove perfluorinated compounds, which utility officials had known for some time also have tainted the south-side wells that supply the contaminated water to TARP.
But for a long time, Tucson Water thought it was removing the PFAS anyway. In part, thatâs because the treatment plant contains granulated carbon materials that are thought to be good at removing these compounds from water.
Thatâs also because the utility had repeatedly found none of the compounds when it sampled for them at a water main lying less than 2 miles north of the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir where the TARP water is stored for delivery. The reservoir, near the Interstate 19/I-10 interchange, lies about four miles north of the TARP treatment plant along Irvington Road near I-19.
But in late August, Tucson Water found levels of the perfluorinated compounds of up to 30 parts per trillion in the area where water from the treatment plant is delivered.
Levels at or near 30 parts per trillion were found at three points from Grant Road south. It was the first time the city had tested for PFAS there. The 30 figure represents a total of two PFAS compounds known as PFOA and PFOS.
PFAS levels at the northern edge of this service area were, by contrast, âreally, really low,â topping at 8.6 parts per trillion, Tucson Water spokesman Molina said.
Thirty is less than half the 70 parts per trillion that the EPA has had since 2016 as a formal health advisory level for the PFAS compounds. But itâs nearly twice as high as a recent federal study concluded is advisable for drinking.
The study from the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry was released in June. That came about a month after the news website Politico reported that the federal government had decided to suppress its results out of concern for their political ramifications.
The EPA is considering whether to impose formal drinking-water limits on the perfluorinated compounds, PFOA and PFOS. Itâs also preparing to propose legally designating them as hazardous substances.
In addition, last November, New Jersey became the first state to adopt formal drinking water limits for PFOA and another PFAS compound â 14 and 13 parts per trillion, respectively.
Tucson Waterâs current target for PFAS levels in its water supplies is a maximum of 18 parts per trillion when both PFOA and PFOS are combined.
âSomethingâs
wrong hereâ
Since 2009, the utility had been sampling its well system and other points in its water-delivery network for the PFAS compounds. It has already shut down three supply wells just north of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and a half-dozen wells serving customers on the northwest side, including the Continental Ranch area of Marana.
Of the nine south-side wells supplying the TARP system, the three most-contaminated ones ranged from 91 to 190 parts per trillion of the PFAS compounds. At the treatment plant itself, the water averaged about 30 parts per trillion before treatment.
The sampling point north of the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir was connected to a water main that officials had thought came from the TARP plant, Biggs said. But after PFAS were found throughout the TARP distribution system, âWe said wait a minute, somethingâs wrong here,â he said last week.
Tucson Water immediately started an investigation of the sampling point it had used, Biggs said. The sampling was done through a small spigot, connected to the water main via a steel pipe leading underground in which the spigot was encased. It was most likely installed around February 2000, utility spokesman Molina said.
Looking at old maps of its water system and visiting the area, utility officials discovered that the sampling spigot was actually connected to another main across the street from the water main where most of the TARP water was going, Biggs said. The second main carried water from other sources besides TARP.
Once they realized that, officials for the first time took a sample from the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir itself. It came out with 30 parts per trillion PFAS. After the samples taken in the TARP delivery area also showed some with levels close to 30, the treatment plant was shut down.
Then, the utility flushed out the water system downstream of the plant by running through it what it said was uncontaminated water from its Central Arizona Project supplies for four or five days. That was to make sure that no contamination was passing through the plant.
Then, it took samples both at the treatment plant and in the distribution system, and found no PFAS compounds. Finally, it shut down the three-most-contaminated south-side wells supplying the TARP plant and started blending the plant water with CAP water coming in at the rate of 2,000 gallons per minute, Biggs said.
These actions were done in consultation with the EPA and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Tucson Water officials said.
âWeâve gotta remember, through the consent decree, we have the responsibility to operateâ TARP, Biggs said. âBut also, as a drinking-water utility, our main purpose is to provide drinking water that is safe to drink.â
âA relatively
harmless mistakeâ
City Councilman Paul Durham, whose Ward 3 also includes much of the TARP delivery area, said last week heâs concerned about the contaminated water being served to that area and about the utilityâs sampling mistake.
But heâs not alarmed, since the pollution level was less than half that recommended by the EPA health advisory, he said.
Durham said he personally believes that the 70 parts per trillion health advisory level should be lowered, but that for now, it âis all we have to go on.â
âItâs always unfortunate when any kind of mistake occurs, but I believe that it is a relatively harmless mistake. Tucson Water corrected it as soon as they discovered it,â Durham said. âThereâs no question that mistakes can be bad, but it could have been far worse.â
But along with Romero and Kozachik, Councilman Richard Fimbres took the utility to task for not disclosing the TARP plant shutdown to the City Council, even though it had told the council about shutting down the three south-side wells with high PFAS levels in an email on Sept. 19.
Kozachik said that with outside attorneys now handling upcoming city-financed litigation against 3M, the Minnesota company that manufactured PFAS compounds for many years, itâs important for the council to get the most up-to-date information on the contamination.
Fimbres, whose district includes the southern end of the TARP delivery area, said he has told the utility to inform him of similar action it takes in the future.
Thomure, Tucson Waterâs director, said he accepts this criticism and would ensure that council members are notified of such actions in the future.
Fimbres, however, also noted positive action the city has taken recently to tackle contamination.
For one, the city plans to spend $3.5 million to drill a 10th well to pump groundwater from a section of the contaminated south-side aquifer where the contamination is at its thickest to eradicate the pollution more quickly.
The City Council has also approved spending more money for testing to see if toxic vapors from the groundwater contamination have spread upward into three south-side elementary schools, Fimbres said. They are the C.E. Rose, Elvira and Challenger schools.
âTucson Water has never knowingly served any water that was above a health or EPA advisory,â Fimbres said in an email to the Star.
âMy office, as well as the rest of the mayor and council, work to make sure one of our most precious resources, water, is safe and in abundant supply.â
City plans to remove PFAS from water
Last week, Tucson Water officials said they were awaiting the results of the latest round of sampling from the TARP plantâs water to see if it showed a need for additional quick fixes.
Once thatâs taken care of, theyâll work on short- and long-term adjustments to the plant itself so it can remove the PFAS compounds .
Immediate attention will be paid to one of the cleanup methods that the plant employs âwhatâs known as granular activated carbon. It removes leftover hydrogen peroxide after itâs used at the plant to oxidize and remove TCE from the water, said utility administrator Biggs.
While some forms of the carbon material â which come in the form of tiny black pellets â are designed to also remove PFAS, the kind at the TARP plant arenât, said Biggs.
Over the next five to six months, the utility will test various varieties of the activated carbon to see which can best remove peroxide and the PFAS chemicals.
The utility will also be looking at what kind of treatment plant to build at the TARP site to replace the existing one â with a new plant to be designed from the start to treat all three pollutants.
Biggs recalled that the utility went through similar rounds of testing and planning a few years ago, before building the advanced oxidation plant to remove dioxane as well as the TCE.
âItâs dÊjà vu all over again,â Biggs said. âWe are reacting to a moving target of health advisories. We are moving as quickly as we can to meet these targets.â
In a galaxy far, far away, there lies a luxury movie theater.
Except itâs not far away. Actually, itâs pretty close.
After years of waiting, Galaxy Theatres Luxury+ will open for business at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1.
âIâve spent time in Tucson and I like the area,â says CEO Frank Rimkus. âTucson seems to be a real opportunity to grow. The city has a good attitude.â
And hereâs some more good news for you east-siders: Galaxy Theatres will sit in the former Bashasâ grocery store at 100 S. Houghton Road near Broadway, which makes it the farthest east theater in the Old Pueblo.
Previously, that spot was held by Century Gateway 12 on North Kolb Road, and Park Place Mall for newer movies â both quite the trek for some east-siders.
Rimkus says he chose the location because of the convenience to east-side residents and because the area is âunder-served.â
âThere seems to be a lot of good things going on in the eastern part of the city,â Rimkus says. âWe want to help build a community as it continues to grow.â
Galaxy Theatres is a 20-year-old west-coast chain that shows the latest Hollywood films and offers wall-to-wall premium movie screens, leather recliners, and other âluxuryâ features, Rimkus says.
âWeâre a premium experience at the regular price,â he says.
The concession stands include a long list of foods: pizza, chicken wings, and other items you might not find at your average theater. Beer and wine are also available.
Rimkus says Galaxy Theatres is known for their popcorn â so you might want to think about picking up a bucket.
And like most theaters, movie-goers can digitally purchase tickets and reserve seats ahead of time.
The theater will also offer meeting space and the company plans to host educational and charity events to get involved with the Tucson community.
Beyond the theaterâs capabilities, Rimkus says the company prides itself in its hospitality.
âWe donât call it customer service; we donât have customers. We have guests,â Rimkus says. âAt the end of the day, our sole business is to focus on how to make people happy.â
Galaxy Theatres expects to bring more than 70 new jobs to Tucson. This is the chainâs first location in Arizona.
- Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Sawmill Fire is shown erupting from an exploding target â with blue smoke curling off the fire's fringes â in a video just obtained by the Arizona Daily Star.
The 49-second video clearly shows the fire starting in yellow grassland near a stand of mesquite trees from the exploding target on state land in the Santa Rita Mountain foothills on April 23, 2017. Towards the end of the video, a male voice is heard saying "Start packing up!" twice.
The Star obtained the video from the U.S. Forest Service through the Freedom of Information Act. The service, which led the investigation into the fire's origin, blacked out persons shown in the video. In a letter to Star reporter Tony Davis, Forest Service official Tracy Perry cited two exemptions to FOIA allowing the withholding of information to protect peoples' privacy. Perry is the service's director of Law Enforcement and Investigations.
Border Patrol Agent Dennis Dickey, who has admitted starting the fire with an explosive target, ignited the blaze during a gender reveal party that was held to show the gender of his wife's expected baby, his attorney Sean Chapman told the Star in September. Since gender reveal parties typically use blue smoke to announce a male baby and pink smoke to announce a girl, Dickey's wife presumably was expecting a boy.
Dickey agreed to pay $220,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty Sept. 27 in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without a permit.
The wildfire began when Dickey shot a target that contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court. The explosion was caught on film by a witness.
Tannerite is a legal compound that has been linked to wildfires in several other Western states.
Before the fire was over, it had burned 47,000 acres and cost $8.2 million to extinguish, with nearly 800 firefighters battling the blaze.
With plans to make Tucson cooler, the Florida owners of Funtasticks Family Fun Park are adding new water features.
Pro Parks Management, based in Orlando, is building a play area with a splash pad and several bucket drops over slides and climbing bars at the park, 221 E. Wetmore Road, said Tim Smith, president of Grail Construction, which is doing the work.
It is being built where the old batting cages were located, that were largely unused.
He said next year Pro Parks plans interior renovations and more features at the park.
Called Cactus Springs, the new water station is expected to open by July 4 and feature cabanas, lounge chairs and food and beverage service, said Ted Watson, a partner with Pro Park.
The recent announcement that Breakers, Tucsonâs only water park, has closed was an unexpected boon for the new concept.
âWe like the Tucson market,â Watson said. âNow that the water park is being shut down, we figured we could add some water, excitement and splash.â
Funtasticks, a five-acre park that also features bumper boats, miniature golf, Go-Karts, arcades and laser tag, opened in 1994. It is just east of Tucson Mall.
âWe like the geography,â Watson said, âand felt there was a lack of family entertainment options âĻ this is just the start of ongoing improvement plans.
âWeâre not going to end there.â
The 1880s-era adobe building in Barrio Viejo was in bad shape when writer Kathe Lison set out to restore it four years ago. Her friends thought she was out of her mind, but Lison saw potential in the solidly built structure, despite its crumbling brown walls, lack of electricity and minimal plumbing.
âMost people looking at it did the numbers and went, âNo way,â â said Lison, 46. âWe looked at the numbers and said, âWe love it, and weâre going to do it anyway.â â
She laughed. âHow are you going to know in advance that Diane Keaton is going to show up and want to buy your house?â
Turns out thatâs what happened: Lison and husband Chris Cokinos first heard Keaton, 72 â a prolific house-flipper in addition to being an Oscar-winning actress â was looking to buy in downtown Tucson about 18 months before they reached out to her last summer. Keaton came to tour the home in the spring, she said.
The sale closed in early April for $1.5 million, an eye-popping number for the historic neighborhood, according to records filed with the Pima County Recorderâs Office. Keaton paid cash, records show.
On Wednesdayâs episode of âJimmy Kimmel Live!â Keaton mentioned her purchase of the four-bedroom home, telling the showâs host, âTucson is underappreciated.â
On the propertyâs affidavit of property value, Keaton described the use for the property as a ânon-primary or secondary residence.â She told Kimmel she doesnât plan to live there and hopes to find a buyer.
Lison and Cokinos, who both moved to Tucson from Utah in 2011, bought the 4,572-square-foot building for $330,000 in 2014. The previous owners, the Mesch Clark and Rothschild law firm, had purchased it soon before the housing market crash, Lison said. It had been vacant for nearly a decade when Lison and Cokinos took over.
The couple almost opted not to sell the place, rejecting Keatonâs first offer. Lison said she was torn between her deep love for the structure in which sheâd invested so much, and her complete exhaustion following two years of single-mindedly working to restore it.
âThe whole process was very fraught for us. One day weâd hope it would sell, the next day weâd hope it would fall through,â Lison said. Ultimately, âwe just said (to Keatonâs representative), âThis is what weâre willing to sell it for and if you donât want to buy it for that, great, see you later.â â
That offer ended up being the sale price of $1.5 million, or about $328 per square foot.
That blows away the average per-square-foot sale price for a Barrio Viejo home more than 2,000 square feet, which is about $244, said Tika Kelley, a realtor with Realty Executives Tucson Elite.
âThereâs something very special happening in terms of downtown real estate. Thereâs a great demand for older houses, and there are so few adobes available,â she said. âObviously Ms. Keaton was able to see the charm and to recognize the historic value. She found a diamond in the rough.â
Downtown Tucson is undergoing a revitalization, which is also bringing increased attention to the issue of gentrification, especially in the historically Mexican-American Barrio Viejo neighborhood. Nearly 80 acres there were leveled 50 years ago to make way for the Tucson Convention Center complex.
Lison said the home was on the verge of being condemned before she restored it. But sheâs aware of the problematic notion of celebrating âAnglos who come in and âsaveâ places in the barrio,â Lison said.
Still, she said, without her investment, the building would likely today be âdisintegrating back to the earth from which it came. âĻ I am so happy to have been able to do what we did with that property.â
Lison referenced the work of Tucson scholar and author Lydia Otero, whose 2010 book âLa Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest Cityâ discusses an urban renewal project in the 1960s which decimated the low-income Tucson neighborhood, with little input from the residents who lived there.
Historically, âthis was the most densely populated area in the city of Tucson,â Otero said in a 2016 C-SPAN interview. âIt was also the area that housed the largest population of people of color,â including African-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Mexican-Americans, she said. âThere (was) a racialized agenda going on in this project. âĻ Itâs almost like the city intentionally deprived this area of services in order to justify its demolition.â
Adobe structures were stigmatized in the 1960s but today, âadobe is cool,â Otero said. âPer square footage, these homes are the most expensive real estate in Tucson, more expensive than places in the Foothills.â
Keaton was âgraciousâ and striking, wearing her glasses and 4-inch heels, when she came to visit the property, Lison said.
âSheâs renowned for her style and her sense of architecture,â Lison said. âThe house is my child. I couldnât have parted with it to just anyone. âĻ It sort of feels like handing off the baton a bit. Sheâs going to be able to take that house and do even more amazing things with it.â
Amazon has chosen Tucson for a new fulfillment center with plans to hire more than 1,500 full-time employees.
The warehouse will handle customer returns, light assembly, 3-D printing and direct product pickup by customers from automated kiosks on the cityâs southeast side.
âThroughout most of the year, the project is projected to have a maximum of approximately 1,500 employees working on-site at one time. During the peak shopping season (i.e., November through December) the project will have a maximum of 1,900 employees working on-site at one time,â project filings with the city of Tucson show.
Luring the company here began eight months ago and land at the Port of Tucson, 6701 S. Kolb Road, was identified as ideal, said Joe Snell, CEO of Sun Corridor Inc.
The 855,000-square-foot facility will sit on several Port of Tucson parcels, a family-owned facility in the cityâs Ward 4 and on county property.
Upon receipt of a certificate of occupancy, more than 94 acres will be annexed into the city of Tucson.
âAmazonâs first act was to ask to be annexed into the city,â said Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. âI am glad to see Amazon wanted to become the cityâs newest major business.â
The industrial building will be the second-largest in the Tucson area. The largest, Targetâs fulfillment center also on the cityâs southeast side, is 975,000 square feet.
âWeâre excited to open a new state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Tucson and to continue innovating in a state committed to providing great opportunities for jobs and customer experience,â said Mark Stewart, vice president of Amazonâs North America operations.
Amazon has four existing fulfillment centers in Arizona with more than 7,000 employees.
âThis announcement of 1,500 new jobs with Amazon, one of the worldâs largest brand names, is huge for Southern Arizona,â said David G. Hutchens, chairman of Sun Corridor Inc., and president and CEO of UNS Energy Corp., Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Services. âThe ripple effect of a project of this magnitude will benefit the region for many years down the road.â
In filings with the city, Amazonâs warehouse will receive, store and ship products, including automotive, appliances, electronics and software, grocery and alcohol, office supplies, toys and video games.
About 80 acres will be developed with the remaining 15 acres of land reserved for future expansion.
The warehouse will be a one-story structure, about 60 feet high, with 64 loading docks, 398 tractor-trailer parking spaces and about 2,500 vehicle parking spaces.
Pima County spokesman Mark Evans said the county was able to do a design and plan review in one week for Amazon.
âWeâre thrilled to see them choose the Port of Tucson, which is connected to the Sonoran Corridor that weâve diligently been working to develop for the past five years,â Evans said.
The project is being developed by Seefried Industrial Properties.
âAmazonâs selection of Tucson for this impressive new facility demonstrates that Southern Arizona has a lot to offer businesses in terms of talent, location, pro-business environment and quality of life,â said Gov. Doug Ducey. âThis project will create thousands of new jobs and generate significant capital investment in the region. We thank Amazon for its continued growth and investment in our state.â
CREATING LOGISTICS HUB
The Amazon announcement solidifies Tucson as a major logistics hub, officials said, noting that the company has not asked for incentives and penned the deal based on the demographics and geography.
âThe strength of this deal is that weâre a perfect logistics center,â Rothschild said. âAnd, itâs a signal to every other distributor that this is the place to be.â
Joining Home Goods and the Target fulfillment center, Amazonâs presence will be noted by other logistics companies.
âWeâre already seeing that in the pipeline of companies looking at Tucson,â Snell said. âWe have the ability to fill the jobs with the skill set they need and weâre a cost-effective town.â
Barbi Reuter, president of Picor Commercial Real Estate and vice chair of the Tucson Metro Chamber, agreed, saying this announcement will be noted by other companies that brokers work to bring to the Tucson area.
âItâs very significant and validates the assets that we have in our community,â she said. âThe whole last-mile delivery is an explosive growth industry and this is the kind of announcement that will get the attention of other logistics companies.â
The top priority when Amazon looks to open a fulfillment center is workforce, said Lauren Lynch, a company spokeswoman.
âWe found abundant talent in Tucson,â she said.
Jobs will include technical positions, engineers, industrial truck drivers and order pickers and packers.
Salaries will be determined after a market study to ensure Amazon is competitive, Lynch said, adding that the company usually pays 30 percent more than traditional retail jobs in an area.
Benefits start the first day on the job and include medical, dental, vision, 401(k) and 20 weeks of paid parental leave.
Lynch said a few months before the building opens in 2019, salaries will be announced and hiring will begin.
The Tucson warehouse will fulfill customer orders around Southern Arizona and into neighboring states, she said.
âWe look at how much we are fulfilling in the area and build capacity,â Lynch said. âWeâre so glad to be coming to Tucson.
âArizona is a very important state for us.â
A deputy U.S. marshal was shot and killed Thursday evening outside a Tucson house on the north side, according to Gov. Doug Ducey.
He was the first deputy U.S. marshal to be killed in the line of duty in Tucson in 66 years. Tucson police said a man was taken into custody after a standoff with officers.
The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m., in the 2600 block of North 15th Avenue, near West Jacinto Street. The house where the shooter fired from is just across the street from Jacinto Park, and northwest of North Oracle Road and West Grant Road.
Moments after the shooting, police and federal officers surrounded the single-story house. Several residences around the house and the park were evacuated by officers.
After about an hour standoff, Tucson police reported they had a man from inside the house in custody.
Ducey tweeted shortly after 8 p.m. that he had been informed the deputy U.S. marshal was killed in the line of duty.
âIâve just learned that tonight we lost a US Deputy Marshal from the District of Arizona. He was killed in the line of duty in Tucson. My deepest condolences and prayers go out to his family and all of Arizona law enforcement,â the governor tweeted.
No additional details were released as of press time.
The last deputy U.S. marshal to die in the line of duty in Tucson was Edmund L. Schweppe, who was fatally shot while escorting two prisoners to a dentist office in the downtown area on Sept. 15, 1952, according to the Marshals Service website.
Those two prisoners were apprehended by police after they escaped. They were both convicted of Schweppeâs murder and sentenced to life in prison, according to the Marshals Service.
Rich Rodriguez fired in what UA athletic director, president say is a difficult but 'right' decision
- Arizona Daily Star
Rich Rodriguez was fired on Tuesday after a $7.5 million notice of claim was filed with the state Attorney Generalâs Office alleging that Arizonaâs head football coach ran a hostile workplace and sexually harassed a former employee.
The UA announced Rodriguezâs firing in a news release around 8:30 p.m. University President Robert C. Robbins and athletic director Dave Heeke said they will âhonor the separation termsâ of the coachâs contract, after an internal investigation did not find enough evidence to fire him for cause. His buyout is about $6 million.
âWhile this is a difficult decision, it is the right decision,â they wrote. âAnd it is a decision that lives up to the core values of the University of Arizona.â
Rodriguez, 54, just finished his sixth season as the Wildcatsâ coach following stops at Michigan and West Virginia. This yearâs team went 7-6, losing four of its final five games after a surprising start. Purdue beat the UA in the Dec. 27 Foster Farms Bowl.
Rodriguez tweeted a statement late Tuesday in which he said he will âvigorously fight these fabricated and groundless claimsâ made by his former administrative assistant. The coach said he was fired by email.
âI am not a perfect man, but the claims by my former assistant are simply not true and her demands for a financial settlement are outrageous,â he wrote.
A âhideaway bookâ â
and an alleged cover-up
The notice of claim was filed Thursday by the former employee and her attorney. A notice of claim is an advance notice of intent to file a lawsuit against a public body. Most notices of claim are first sent to the Arizona Board of Regents or the University of Arizona itself. Her $7.5 million claim went directly to the Attorney Generalâs Office.
Portions of the claim obtained by the Star on Tuesday paint a culture in which secrecy was valued above all else.
The notice of claim alleges, among other things, that Rodriguez and his closest aides followed a âhideaway bookâ that detailed such sayings as âTitle IX doesnât exist in our office,â referring to the federal gender-equity law.
Those who had the most interaction with Rodriguez â the former employee and two assistant coaches â referred to themselves as the âTriangle of Secrecy,â according to the claim. The three were tasked with lying to Rodriguezâs wife to cover up an extramarital affair, according to the claim, and were ordered to protect the coachâs reputation above all else.
The former employee said in the claim that she âhad to walk on eggshells at work, because of (Rodriguezâs) volatility and sheer power over the department.â Rodriguez would call her at all hours of the night, she said in the claim, to change travel plans or to deal with Rodriguezâs personal emergencies. In the claim, the former employee said she became increasingly troubled by Rodriguezâs actions over the past year. She suffered migraines as a result, the claim states.
The UAâs Office of Institutional Equity began investigating Rodriguez in October, three months after the former employee left for an off-campus job.
The investigation concluded last week, Robbins and Heeke wrote. And while counsel did not find enough to terminate Rodriguez, the university became concerned with the âclimate and the directionâ of the football program, they wrote.
Rodriguez said Tuesday night that the complaint included âa single truthâ â that he engaged in a âconsensual extramarital affairâ with a woman who is not affiliated with the university.
âI am still working incredibly hard to repair the bonds Iâve broken and regain the trust of my wife and children, whom I love dearly,â he wrote.
Another troubling issue
for the UA over athletics
The notice of claim is the latest legal issue facing the UA. Former assistant track and field coach Craig Carter is facing multiple felony charges, accused of threatening a former athlete with whom he was involved in a sexual relationship. The case has been featured on both ESPNâs âOutside the Linesâ and ABCâs â20/20.â
The UA is being sued in federal court by one of three victims of former running back Orlando Bradford. The victim says the university knew Bradford was a danger to women and failed to protect her. Bradford was recently sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to two felony counts of aggravated assault.
And in August, Rodriguez was sued in civil court by Creative Artist Agencies (CAA). The agency represented the coach until the fall of 2015, and claims Rodriguez owes $230,050 in past-due fees.
Rodriguezâs contract was set to run through May 31, 2020. His buyout as of Dec. 1 was $6.45 million, according to USA Todayâs annual survey of NCAA football coachesâ salaries. Because he was let go before March 15, Rodriguez will miss out on approximately $3.2 million from a master-limited-partnership provision in his contract. That pay came via publicly traded units on the so-called âLongevity Fund.â Rodriguez was set to receive 25 percent of the value on March 15. If he had been fired any time after that, he would have been entitled to the full value of the fund.
A fast start, ugly finish
Rodriguezâs hiring on Nov. 23, 2011, was seen as a coup for the UA and newly hired athletic director Greg Byrne.
Arizona won a bowl game in Rodriguezâs first year and took the Pac-12 South Division title and finished 10-4 in 2014, then started trending downward.
The Wildcats finished 7-6 the following season, most of which was played without star linebacker Scooby Wright. Sensing that recruiting was lagging and the defense wasnât performing up to expectations, Rodriguez turned over Arizonaâs defensive staff. He hired Boise Stateâs Marcel Yates as defensive coordinator and promoted Jahmile Addae and Vince Amey from analysts to full-time assistant coaches.
The injury issues worsened in 2016, when Arizona lost its top two quarterbacks and running backs at various points. After starting 2-1, Arizona lost eight in a row. Only a season-ending victory over rival Arizona State put a bandage on an otherwise painful season.
The Wildcats entered 2017 with the lowest of expectations outside the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, picked to finish last by the media in the Pac-12 South. An uneven 2-2 start only served to validate that prediction.
But in Game 5, sophomore quarterback Khalil Tate came off the bench and set a Football Bowl Subdivision record for quarterbacks with 327 rushing yards in a 45-42 win at Colorado. Tate would lead Arizona to four straight victories, winning an unprecedented four consecutive Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards.
The Wildcats secured bowl eligibility with a 58-37 win over Washington State on Oct. 28. They couldnât follow up their perfect October, however, losing three of four games in November. Arizona finished the season with a 38-35 loss to Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl.
The emergence of Tate and several freshmen on defense, including Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year Colin Schooler, gave hope for bigger and better things to come in 2018. It also offered proof that the changes Rodriguez had made to the defensive staff were working, even if the immediate on-field results didnât show it.
Whatâs next?
Heeke said Arizonaâs next head coach will âbuild a solid foundation for our program and create an identity of Arizona football that the University, Tucson and Southern Arizona communities can be proud of. Weâre excited about the future of our football program, and we look forward to introducing our new head coach at the completion of the search process.â
Several current and recently employed coaches would be logical candidates to succeed Rodriguez. Boise Stateâs Bryan Harsin, Memphisâ Mike Norvell, Utah Stateâs Matt Wells and Syracuseâs Dino Babers, who was an assistant at Arizona from 1995-2000, will certainly be mentioned as potential replacements.
Possible candidates who were recently let go but are still highly respected within the industry include Kevin Sumlin, Mark Helfrich, Butch Jones and Todd Graham. Jones was the coach at Central Michigan under Heeke from 2007-09.
Yates, who joined the staff in January 2016, will serve as the interim head coach.
It is unclear what will happen with the signing class of 16 players that Arizona announced last month.
Behind the scenes at one of the busiest stockyards in Arizona, $3 million worth of cattle was stolen from a prominent Marana family by a man they once considered a friend, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Last August, longtime cattleman and well-known rodeo cowboy Clay Parsons discovered $1.3 million missing from the accounts of the Marana Stockyards and Livestock Market, which his family has run since the early 1990s. The stockyardâs line of credit also was drawn down inexplicably by nearly $2 million, according to records from U.S. District Court in Tucson.
A trail of fraudulent documents led to Seth Nichols, the stockyardâs 29-year-old office manager and son of Donald Hugh Nichols, a cattle broker who had been friends with Parsons for decades, court records show.
Seth Nichols pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud in February and faces up to five years in prison. His father was indicted Aug. 22 as a co-conspirator in $1.6 million of fraudulent cattle sales at the stockyardâs auctions.
The fraud has pushed both families to the brink of financial ruin.
A federal prosecutor said the stockyard is operating âweek to weekâ as it recovers from the fraud and Parsons has already spent $100,000 on audits and rebuilding the stockyardâs accounting system.
Donald Hugh Nichols, who goes by Hugh, and his wife, Jane Nichols, filed for bankruptcy in federal court Aug. 10.
The scheme Parsons discovered last fall began after he hired Seth Nichols in June 2013 to run the stockyardâs day-to-day business. Nichols admitted to using his position to exploit the stockyardâs transaction system at weekly cattle auctions, according to his plea agreement.
At the auctions, cows are brought to the stockyards each week to be sold to the highest bidder. Last Wednesday, 884 head of cattle entered a fenced area inside the stockyardâs main building one at a time or in pairs. Some recent auctions have seen more than 2,000 head of cattle sold, according to the stockyardâs market reports.
Buyers in auditorium seats overlooking the fenced area bid on the cows as the auctioneer rattled off prices Wednesday morning. After a successful bid, the cow was ushered through a gate and the next cow entered.
The stockyard uses a line of credit to allow sellers to be paid quickly while the buyersâ payments are processed, according to court records. Seth Nichols admitted to manipulating the line of credit to buy cattle at the auctions on behalf of the Nichols Cattle Co., which then sold the cattle elsewhere without reimbursing the stockyard. He also admitted to sending the stockyardâs money directly to the cattle company.
He covered up the fraud by faking wire payments from the cattle company to the stockyard and by doctoring financial records to make Parsons and his bankers believe the stockyard had plenty of cash and a full line of credit, according to his plea agreement.
Seth Nichols agreed to pay restitution to the Parsons, which was capped at $3 million in his plea agreement. But those funds wonât be available until after he is sentenced Sept. 24. A dispute over the exact amount could lead to a restitution hearing at a later date.
Among the items Seth Nichols agreed to forfeit are the proceeds of selling a house in Marana, a pickup truck, his ownership shares in a helicopter, and various limited-liability companies, including several he formed during the years of fraud. His parents signed over to the Parsons the deeds to their home in Coolidge and another property in Coolidge, which combined are worth more than $1 million.
Clay Parsons declined to comment. The attorneys involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment.
While criminal proceedings unfold in federal court, the fraud has led each family to sue the other in Pima County Superior Court.
A week after Seth Nicholsâ Feb. 5 plea in federal court, Clay Parsons and his wife, Karen, sued Hugh and Jane Nichols for $3 million and punitive damages, saying their role in the fraud showed âan evil hand guided by an evil mind.â
On June 8, Hugh and Jane Nichols sued the Parsons in Superior Court, claiming the Parsons misled them during a meeting shortly after the fraud was discovered. The Nichols claim the Parsons pressured them into signing over the deeds to their two properties to repay the Parsons for the losses caused by the fraud.
Along with the lawsuit, the Nichols filed a legal claim on the two properties they had signed over to the Parsons, effectively blocking the sale of the properties. They also said the Parsons evicted them from their home in October 2017 despite promising to let them stay until it was sold.
Hugh Nichols said Parsons âactively underminedâ his cattle business by helping Nicholsâ customers find new purchasing agents. As a result, âHugh has lost all income from his livestock sales business,â Nicholsâ lawyer, German Yusufov, wrote in the lawsuit.
Back in federal court, Seth Nichols asked a judge on Aug. 9 to allow him to back out of his plea agreement. He would not have pleaded guilty if he had known it would be used in a civil lawsuit against his parents, defense attorney Michael Harwin wrote in a court filing.
Harwin also cited a dispute over the restitution amount and questioned how much Parsons knew about problems with the line of credit before last August.
In his response to Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea, federal prosecutor Michael Jette said the legal claim on the two properties and Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea appeared to be an attempt to push the Parsons to drop their lawsuit.
A hearing about Seth Nicholsâ request to withdraw his plea is scheduled for Tuesday, court records show. His fatherâs arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 14.
A Japanese entertainment venue is moving into part of the soon-to-be closed Sears store at Park Place.
Round 1 Bowling & Amusement has signed a lease for about 44,000 square feet on the ground floor and basement of the store, 5950 E. Broadway.
Last month, Sears announced it would close that location in a money-saving effort.
Taka Mizuno, with Round 1âs marketing department, said Tucsonâs demographics appealed to the company. This will be its first venture in Arizona.
According to Round 1âs real estate requirements, its locations feature 12 to 14 bowling lanes, billiards, ping pong, darts, karaoke rooms and more than 250 arcade machines with the latest games from Japan. There is also a food and bar area with seating for up to 90 people.
It is the latest so called âeatertainmentâ venue to enter the Tucson market.
In the past two years, companies such as Dave & Busters, 1390 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd.; Autobahn Indoor Speedway, 300 S. Toole Ave.; and Topgolf, 4050 W. Costco Drive, have opened. Base Hits Tucson, an indoor batting cage, is under development at 4439 N. Oracle Road, and Bourn Cos. is adding entertainment venues at both its City Park project downtown and at Foothills Mall on Ina Road.
Tucsonâs appeal
The appeal of Tucson is recent job announcements that will bring millennials to town.
âThe millennial generation has been a less-than-eager generation of traditional shoppers,â said Nancy McClure, first vice president with CBRE Tucson. âThat group has proven that it wants to connect with others and has a preference to spend money dining out, versus buying more stuff.â
Millennials arenât the only ones interested in the eatertainment segment, according to QSR Magazine, which covers the quick-serve and fast-casual dining industry.
Nearly 60 percent of all consumers said they were interested in visiting an eatertainment concept, while 30 percent said they had already visited one, QSR says of a survey conducted by food industry market research firm Datassential.
Having a dining venue that also provides photo opportunities to be shared on social media is also drawing people to âeatertainmentâ sites â something that mall owners want.
âEntertainment venues are being sought out by mall owners and other center owners to not only fill space but also be a draw of customers to the rest of the centersâ retailers,â McClure said. âMall traffic has slowed, in most cases, and it is of critical importance to center owners and tenants to bring people back to the malls and make the shopping trip more than just buying merchandise â it is to create an experience to compel people to step away from their computer and do something fun, interact with people and be part of the community.â
Round 1 is expected to open its Park Place location in 2019. It was founded in Sakai City, Osaka, in 1980 and entered the U.S. market in 2010. Its 21st U.S. location opened in March.
Tucson Water recently shut down a treatment plant after discovering it was sending water contaminated with chemical compounds to thousands of residents of downtown and the cityâs west and north sides.
Shortly after making that discovery, utility officials also learned that they had mistakenly thought for some time that uncontaminated water was coming out of the plant, which has long treated south-side water pollution.
The utility had been sampling the water at a point its officials thought was connected to the south-side treatment plant, but which actually was getting water from other sources, administrators said last week.
It turned out that water coming out of the treatment plant was now tainted with whatâs known as perfluorinated chemicals, also known as PFAS compounds. The treatment plant had been built and later upgraded to treat two other pollutants â the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) and 1,4-dioxane â but not to treat PFAS.
PFAS is a family of compounds historically used in firefighting foam, in everyday household products such as nonstick frying pans, polishes, carpets, waxes and paints, and in industrial processes. They donât easily break down in the environment and remain in the body for a long time after being consumed. They have been linked to a long list of illnesses, including possibly cancer in humans.
The levels of the chemicals found in the water coming from the treatment plant were lower than the recommended maximum in official EPA health advisories. But they were higher than a recently released federal study says they should be.
The plantâs water is served to a large V-shaped area, population about 60,000, stretching north from East 29th Street through downtown and flanking Interstate 10. The area spans as far west as the Tucson Mountains and as far east as North Campbell Avenue and beyond. (See map.)
Because the utility hadnât sampled points in the treatment plantâs water-delivery area until this year, Tucson Water officials say they donât know how long the contaminated water had been served to customers there.
The utility decided to sample that area this year because it was continuing to find these compounds in other locations, forcing it to shut wells, Tucson Water Director Tim Thomure said.
The south-side treatment plant was put back online Sept. 17, after being closed for more than three weeks while the utility took several short-term measures to reduce contamination levels .
Tucson Water has since taken new samples in the area where the treatment plantâs water is delivered and expects theyâll contain significantly lower levels of the contaminants.
But the utilityâs reliance on the wrong sampling point drew sharp criticism from City Council members Steve Kozachik and Regina Romero.
The mistake was âcavalier,â given the cityâs longstanding history with water pollution and the communityâs sensitivity to it, said Kozachik. Last summer, he was the first city official to tell the public about contamination of other city wells by the same compounds.
âIs it embarrassing? Yeah,â acknowledged Jeff Biggs, Tucson Waterâs administrator for strategic initiatives. But, he said, the city had questioned the discrepancy in the pollution levels it was finding and reacted immediately once it learned of the mistake.
âWe investigated and we made operational changes to lower the level (of contamination) that we served to the public,â Biggs said.
Kozachik noted that city officials âstand in front of the community all the time, saying that weâre taking seriously our well monitoring, that weâre doing this testing, that weâve spent tens of millions of dollarsâ on the treatment plant.
âThen to say that we were monitoring the wrong water main, and we didnât know where water is coming from is cavalier,â said Kozachik, whose Ward 6 includes much of the downtown area that got PFAS-contaminated water.
Romero, whose Ward 1 also is part of the treatment plantâs service area, said sheâs âvery, very disappointedâ and finds it âvery upsettingâ that Tucson Water was using the wrong sampling point and that she and other council members hadnât been told of the PFAS contamination in the area until now.
She noted that the mayor and council and the utility had for years worked to restore Tucson Waterâs tarnished reputation, dating to the 1980s, when trichloroethylene was discovered in south-side drinking water.
âWeâve been saying that Tucson Water is transparent, compared to the time of TCE and that we were serving clean water,â Romero said. âEvery detail of this bothers me.â
Thomure, Tucson Waterâs director, said the error in the original sampling point location âis not something we take lightly, nor is it acceptable.â
Now, the utility will investigate the sampling pointâs incorrect placement âand will modify policies and procedures as needed,â Tucson Water spokesman Fernando Molina said.
Highest levels found at three sampling sites
The contaminated water had gone through a water-treatment plant, the Tucson Airport Remediation Project, commonly known as the TARP plant.
The plant was first built in 1994 to remove the once-common industrial solvent trichloroethylene from polluted south-side groundwater â a solvent that various aircraft-related industries had dumped into the ground from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s.
In 2014, the plant was upgraded to also remove 1,4-dioxane, an industrial stabilizing agent, from the same groundwater. The dioxane was discovered in the groundwater in 2002.
The plantâs construction was a result of a consent agreement that the city signed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other parties to start cleaning up the water, long after the TCE was first discovered there in 1981. The plant uses a technology known as advanced oxidation to remove both chemicals.
That water is pumped from the areaâs longstanding contamination plume running northwest from Tucson International Airport to near the Irvington Road-Interstate 19 interchange.
The TARP plant was not designed to remove perfluorinated compounds, which utility officials had known for some time also have tainted the south-side wells that supply the contaminated water to TARP.
But for a long time, Tucson Water thought it was removing the PFAS anyway. In part, thatâs because the treatment plant contains granulated carbon materials that are thought to be good at removing these compounds from water.
Thatâs also because the utility had repeatedly found none of the compounds when it sampled for them at a water main lying less than 2 miles north of the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir where the TARP water is stored for delivery. The reservoir, near the Interstate 19/I-10 interchange, lies about four miles north of the TARP treatment plant along Irvington Road near I-19.
But in late August, Tucson Water found levels of the perfluorinated compounds of up to 30 parts per trillion in the area where water from the treatment plant is delivered.
Levels at or near 30 parts per trillion were found at three points from Grant Road south. It was the first time the city had tested for PFAS there. The 30 figure represents a total of two PFAS compounds known as PFOA and PFOS.
PFAS levels at the northern edge of this service area were, by contrast, âreally, really low,â topping at 8.6 parts per trillion, Tucson Water spokesman Molina said.
Thirty is less than half the 70 parts per trillion that the EPA has had since 2016 as a formal health advisory level for the PFAS compounds. But itâs nearly twice as high as a recent federal study concluded is advisable for drinking.
The study from the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry was released in June. That came about a month after the news website Politico reported that the federal government had decided to suppress its results out of concern for their political ramifications.
The EPA is considering whether to impose formal drinking-water limits on the perfluorinated compounds, PFOA and PFOS. Itâs also preparing to propose legally designating them as hazardous substances.
In addition, last November, New Jersey became the first state to adopt formal drinking water limits for PFOA and another PFAS compound â 14 and 13 parts per trillion, respectively.
Tucson Waterâs current target for PFAS levels in its water supplies is a maximum of 18 parts per trillion when both PFOA and PFOS are combined.
âSomethingâs
wrong hereâ
Since 2009, the utility had been sampling its well system and other points in its water-delivery network for the PFAS compounds. It has already shut down three supply wells just north of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and a half-dozen wells serving customers on the northwest side, including the Continental Ranch area of Marana.
Of the nine south-side wells supplying the TARP system, the three most-contaminated ones ranged from 91 to 190 parts per trillion of the PFAS compounds. At the treatment plant itself, the water averaged about 30 parts per trillion before treatment.
The sampling point north of the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir was connected to a water main that officials had thought came from the TARP plant, Biggs said. But after PFAS were found throughout the TARP distribution system, âWe said wait a minute, somethingâs wrong here,â he said last week.
Tucson Water immediately started an investigation of the sampling point it had used, Biggs said. The sampling was done through a small spigot, connected to the water main via a steel pipe leading underground in which the spigot was encased. It was most likely installed around February 2000, utility spokesman Molina said.
Looking at old maps of its water system and visiting the area, utility officials discovered that the sampling spigot was actually connected to another main across the street from the water main where most of the TARP water was going, Biggs said. The second main carried water from other sources besides TARP.
Once they realized that, officials for the first time took a sample from the Santa Cruz Lane Reservoir itself. It came out with 30 parts per trillion PFAS. After the samples taken in the TARP delivery area also showed some with levels close to 30, the treatment plant was shut down.
Then, the utility flushed out the water system downstream of the plant by running through it what it said was uncontaminated water from its Central Arizona Project supplies for four or five days. That was to make sure that no contamination was passing through the plant.
Then, it took samples both at the treatment plant and in the distribution system, and found no PFAS compounds. Finally, it shut down the three-most-contaminated south-side wells supplying the TARP plant and started blending the plant water with CAP water coming in at the rate of 2,000 gallons per minute, Biggs said.
These actions were done in consultation with the EPA and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Tucson Water officials said.
âWeâve gotta remember, through the consent decree, we have the responsibility to operateâ TARP, Biggs said. âBut also, as a drinking-water utility, our main purpose is to provide drinking water that is safe to drink.â
âA relatively
harmless mistakeâ
City Councilman Paul Durham, whose Ward 3 also includes much of the TARP delivery area, said last week heâs concerned about the contaminated water being served to that area and about the utilityâs sampling mistake.
But heâs not alarmed, since the pollution level was less than half that recommended by the EPA health advisory, he said.
Durham said he personally believes that the 70 parts per trillion health advisory level should be lowered, but that for now, it âis all we have to go on.â
âItâs always unfortunate when any kind of mistake occurs, but I believe that it is a relatively harmless mistake. Tucson Water corrected it as soon as they discovered it,â Durham said. âThereâs no question that mistakes can be bad, but it could have been far worse.â
But along with Romero and Kozachik, Councilman Richard Fimbres took the utility to task for not disclosing the TARP plant shutdown to the City Council, even though it had told the council about shutting down the three south-side wells with high PFAS levels in an email on Sept. 19.
Kozachik said that with outside attorneys now handling upcoming city-financed litigation against 3M, the Minnesota company that manufactured PFAS compounds for many years, itâs important for the council to get the most up-to-date information on the contamination.
Fimbres, whose district includes the southern end of the TARP delivery area, said he has told the utility to inform him of similar action it takes in the future.
Thomure, Tucson Waterâs director, said he accepts this criticism and would ensure that council members are notified of such actions in the future.
Fimbres, however, also noted positive action the city has taken recently to tackle contamination.
For one, the city plans to spend $3.5 million to drill a 10th well to pump groundwater from a section of the contaminated south-side aquifer where the contamination is at its thickest to eradicate the pollution more quickly.
The City Council has also approved spending more money for testing to see if toxic vapors from the groundwater contamination have spread upward into three south-side elementary schools, Fimbres said. They are the C.E. Rose, Elvira and Challenger schools.
âTucson Water has never knowingly served any water that was above a health or EPA advisory,â Fimbres said in an email to the Star.
âMy office, as well as the rest of the mayor and council, work to make sure one of our most precious resources, water, is safe and in abundant supply.â
City plans to remove PFAS from water
Last week, Tucson Water officials said they were awaiting the results of the latest round of sampling from the TARP plantâs water to see if it showed a need for additional quick fixes.
Once thatâs taken care of, theyâll work on short- and long-term adjustments to the plant itself so it can remove the PFAS compounds .
Immediate attention will be paid to one of the cleanup methods that the plant employs âwhatâs known as granular activated carbon. It removes leftover hydrogen peroxide after itâs used at the plant to oxidize and remove TCE from the water, said utility administrator Biggs.
While some forms of the carbon material â which come in the form of tiny black pellets â are designed to also remove PFAS, the kind at the TARP plant arenât, said Biggs.
Over the next five to six months, the utility will test various varieties of the activated carbon to see which can best remove peroxide and the PFAS chemicals.
The utility will also be looking at what kind of treatment plant to build at the TARP site to replace the existing one â with a new plant to be designed from the start to treat all three pollutants.
Biggs recalled that the utility went through similar rounds of testing and planning a few years ago, before building the advanced oxidation plant to remove dioxane as well as the TCE.
âItâs dÊjà vu all over again,â Biggs said. âWe are reacting to a moving target of health advisories. We are moving as quickly as we can to meet these targets.â
In a galaxy far, far away, there lies a luxury movie theater.
Except itâs not far away. Actually, itâs pretty close.
After years of waiting, Galaxy Theatres Luxury+ will open for business at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1.
âIâve spent time in Tucson and I like the area,â says CEO Frank Rimkus. âTucson seems to be a real opportunity to grow. The city has a good attitude.â
And hereâs some more good news for you east-siders: Galaxy Theatres will sit in the former Bashasâ grocery store at 100 S. Houghton Road near Broadway, which makes it the farthest east theater in the Old Pueblo.
Previously, that spot was held by Century Gateway 12 on North Kolb Road, and Park Place Mall for newer movies â both quite the trek for some east-siders.
Rimkus says he chose the location because of the convenience to east-side residents and because the area is âunder-served.â
âThere seems to be a lot of good things going on in the eastern part of the city,â Rimkus says. âWe want to help build a community as it continues to grow.â
Galaxy Theatres is a 20-year-old west-coast chain that shows the latest Hollywood films and offers wall-to-wall premium movie screens, leather recliners, and other âluxuryâ features, Rimkus says.
âWeâre a premium experience at the regular price,â he says.
The concession stands include a long list of foods: pizza, chicken wings, and other items you might not find at your average theater. Beer and wine are also available.
Rimkus says Galaxy Theatres is known for their popcorn â so you might want to think about picking up a bucket.
And like most theaters, movie-goers can digitally purchase tickets and reserve seats ahead of time.
The theater will also offer meeting space and the company plans to host educational and charity events to get involved with the Tucson community.
Beyond the theaterâs capabilities, Rimkus says the company prides itself in its hospitality.
âWe donât call it customer service; we donât have customers. We have guests,â Rimkus says. âAt the end of the day, our sole business is to focus on how to make people happy.â
Galaxy Theatres expects to bring more than 70 new jobs to Tucson. This is the chainâs first location in Arizona.
- Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star
The Sawmill Fire is shown erupting from an exploding target â with blue smoke curling off the fire's fringes â in a video just obtained by the Arizona Daily Star.
The 49-second video clearly shows the fire starting in yellow grassland near a stand of mesquite trees from the exploding target on state land in the Santa Rita Mountain foothills on April 23, 2017. Towards the end of the video, a male voice is heard saying "Start packing up!" twice.
The Star obtained the video from the U.S. Forest Service through the Freedom of Information Act. The service, which led the investigation into the fire's origin, blacked out persons shown in the video. In a letter to Star reporter Tony Davis, Forest Service official Tracy Perry cited two exemptions to FOIA allowing the withholding of information to protect peoples' privacy. Perry is the service's director of Law Enforcement and Investigations.
Border Patrol Agent Dennis Dickey, who has admitted starting the fire with an explosive target, ignited the blaze during a gender reveal party that was held to show the gender of his wife's expected baby, his attorney Sean Chapman told the Star in September. Since gender reveal parties typically use blue smoke to announce a male baby and pink smoke to announce a girl, Dickey's wife presumably was expecting a boy.
Dickey agreed to pay $220,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty Sept. 27 in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without a permit.
The wildfire began when Dickey shot a target that contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court. The explosion was caught on film by a witness.
Tannerite is a legal compound that has been linked to wildfires in several other Western states.
Before the fire was over, it had burned 47,000 acres and cost $8.2 million to extinguish, with nearly 800 firefighters battling the blaze.
With plans to make Tucson cooler, the Florida owners of Funtasticks Family Fun Park are adding new water features.
Pro Parks Management, based in Orlando, is building a play area with a splash pad and several bucket drops over slides and climbing bars at the park, 221 E. Wetmore Road, said Tim Smith, president of Grail Construction, which is doing the work.
It is being built where the old batting cages were located, that were largely unused.
He said next year Pro Parks plans interior renovations and more features at the park.
Called Cactus Springs, the new water station is expected to open by July 4 and feature cabanas, lounge chairs and food and beverage service, said Ted Watson, a partner with Pro Park.
The recent announcement that Breakers, Tucsonâs only water park, has closed was an unexpected boon for the new concept.
âWe like the Tucson market,â Watson said. âNow that the water park is being shut down, we figured we could add some water, excitement and splash.â
Funtasticks, a five-acre park that also features bumper boats, miniature golf, Go-Karts, arcades and laser tag, opened in 1994. It is just east of Tucson Mall.
âWe like the geography,â Watson said, âand felt there was a lack of family entertainment options âĻ this is just the start of ongoing improvement plans.
âWeâre not going to end there.â
The 1880s-era adobe building in Barrio Viejo was in bad shape when writer Kathe Lison set out to restore it four years ago. Her friends thought she was out of her mind, but Lison saw potential in the solidly built structure, despite its crumbling brown walls, lack of electricity and minimal plumbing.
âMost people looking at it did the numbers and went, âNo way,â â said Lison, 46. âWe looked at the numbers and said, âWe love it, and weâre going to do it anyway.â â
She laughed. âHow are you going to know in advance that Diane Keaton is going to show up and want to buy your house?â
Turns out thatâs what happened: Lison and husband Chris Cokinos first heard Keaton, 72 â a prolific house-flipper in addition to being an Oscar-winning actress â was looking to buy in downtown Tucson about 18 months before they reached out to her last summer. Keaton came to tour the home in the spring, she said.
The sale closed in early April for $1.5 million, an eye-popping number for the historic neighborhood, according to records filed with the Pima County Recorderâs Office. Keaton paid cash, records show.
On Wednesdayâs episode of âJimmy Kimmel Live!â Keaton mentioned her purchase of the four-bedroom home, telling the showâs host, âTucson is underappreciated.â
On the propertyâs affidavit of property value, Keaton described the use for the property as a ânon-primary or secondary residence.â She told Kimmel she doesnât plan to live there and hopes to find a buyer.
Lison and Cokinos, who both moved to Tucson from Utah in 2011, bought the 4,572-square-foot building for $330,000 in 2014. The previous owners, the Mesch Clark and Rothschild law firm, had purchased it soon before the housing market crash, Lison said. It had been vacant for nearly a decade when Lison and Cokinos took over.
The couple almost opted not to sell the place, rejecting Keatonâs first offer. Lison said she was torn between her deep love for the structure in which sheâd invested so much, and her complete exhaustion following two years of single-mindedly working to restore it.
âThe whole process was very fraught for us. One day weâd hope it would sell, the next day weâd hope it would fall through,â Lison said. Ultimately, âwe just said (to Keatonâs representative), âThis is what weâre willing to sell it for and if you donât want to buy it for that, great, see you later.â â
That offer ended up being the sale price of $1.5 million, or about $328 per square foot.
That blows away the average per-square-foot sale price for a Barrio Viejo home more than 2,000 square feet, which is about $244, said Tika Kelley, a realtor with Realty Executives Tucson Elite.
âThereâs something very special happening in terms of downtown real estate. Thereâs a great demand for older houses, and there are so few adobes available,â she said. âObviously Ms. Keaton was able to see the charm and to recognize the historic value. She found a diamond in the rough.â
Downtown Tucson is undergoing a revitalization, which is also bringing increased attention to the issue of gentrification, especially in the historically Mexican-American Barrio Viejo neighborhood. Nearly 80 acres there were leveled 50 years ago to make way for the Tucson Convention Center complex.
Lison said the home was on the verge of being condemned before she restored it. But sheâs aware of the problematic notion of celebrating âAnglos who come in and âsaveâ places in the barrio,â Lison said.
Still, she said, without her investment, the building would likely today be âdisintegrating back to the earth from which it came. âĻ I am so happy to have been able to do what we did with that property.â
Lison referenced the work of Tucson scholar and author Lydia Otero, whose 2010 book âLa Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest Cityâ discusses an urban renewal project in the 1960s which decimated the low-income Tucson neighborhood, with little input from the residents who lived there.
Historically, âthis was the most densely populated area in the city of Tucson,â Otero said in a 2016 C-SPAN interview. âIt was also the area that housed the largest population of people of color,â including African-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Mexican-Americans, she said. âThere (was) a racialized agenda going on in this project. âĻ Itâs almost like the city intentionally deprived this area of services in order to justify its demolition.â
Adobe structures were stigmatized in the 1960s but today, âadobe is cool,â Otero said. âPer square footage, these homes are the most expensive real estate in Tucson, more expensive than places in the Foothills.â
Keaton was âgraciousâ and striking, wearing her glasses and 4-inch heels, when she came to visit the property, Lison said.
âSheâs renowned for her style and her sense of architecture,â Lison said. âThe house is my child. I couldnât have parted with it to just anyone. âĻ It sort of feels like handing off the baton a bit. Sheâs going to be able to take that house and do even more amazing things with it.â
Amazon has chosen Tucson for a new fulfillment center with plans to hire more than 1,500 full-time employees.
The warehouse will handle customer returns, light assembly, 3-D printing and direct product pickup by customers from automated kiosks on the cityâs southeast side.
âThroughout most of the year, the project is projected to have a maximum of approximately 1,500 employees working on-site at one time. During the peak shopping season (i.e., November through December) the project will have a maximum of 1,900 employees working on-site at one time,â project filings with the city of Tucson show.
Luring the company here began eight months ago and land at the Port of Tucson, 6701 S. Kolb Road, was identified as ideal, said Joe Snell, CEO of Sun Corridor Inc.
The 855,000-square-foot facility will sit on several Port of Tucson parcels, a family-owned facility in the cityâs Ward 4 and on county property.
Upon receipt of a certificate of occupancy, more than 94 acres will be annexed into the city of Tucson.
âAmazonâs first act was to ask to be annexed into the city,â said Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. âI am glad to see Amazon wanted to become the cityâs newest major business.â
The industrial building will be the second-largest in the Tucson area. The largest, Targetâs fulfillment center also on the cityâs southeast side, is 975,000 square feet.
âWeâre excited to open a new state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Tucson and to continue innovating in a state committed to providing great opportunities for jobs and customer experience,â said Mark Stewart, vice president of Amazonâs North America operations.
Amazon has four existing fulfillment centers in Arizona with more than 7,000 employees.
âThis announcement of 1,500 new jobs with Amazon, one of the worldâs largest brand names, is huge for Southern Arizona,â said David G. Hutchens, chairman of Sun Corridor Inc., and president and CEO of UNS Energy Corp., Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Services. âThe ripple effect of a project of this magnitude will benefit the region for many years down the road.â
In filings with the city, Amazonâs warehouse will receive, store and ship products, including automotive, appliances, electronics and software, grocery and alcohol, office supplies, toys and video games.
About 80 acres will be developed with the remaining 15 acres of land reserved for future expansion.
The warehouse will be a one-story structure, about 60 feet high, with 64 loading docks, 398 tractor-trailer parking spaces and about 2,500 vehicle parking spaces.
Pima County spokesman Mark Evans said the county was able to do a design and plan review in one week for Amazon.
âWeâre thrilled to see them choose the Port of Tucson, which is connected to the Sonoran Corridor that weâve diligently been working to develop for the past five years,â Evans said.
The project is being developed by Seefried Industrial Properties.
âAmazonâs selection of Tucson for this impressive new facility demonstrates that Southern Arizona has a lot to offer businesses in terms of talent, location, pro-business environment and quality of life,â said Gov. Doug Ducey. âThis project will create thousands of new jobs and generate significant capital investment in the region. We thank Amazon for its continued growth and investment in our state.â
CREATING LOGISTICS HUB
The Amazon announcement solidifies Tucson as a major logistics hub, officials said, noting that the company has not asked for incentives and penned the deal based on the demographics and geography.
âThe strength of this deal is that weâre a perfect logistics center,â Rothschild said. âAnd, itâs a signal to every other distributor that this is the place to be.â
Joining Home Goods and the Target fulfillment center, Amazonâs presence will be noted by other logistics companies.
âWeâre already seeing that in the pipeline of companies looking at Tucson,â Snell said. âWe have the ability to fill the jobs with the skill set they need and weâre a cost-effective town.â
Barbi Reuter, president of Picor Commercial Real Estate and vice chair of the Tucson Metro Chamber, agreed, saying this announcement will be noted by other companies that brokers work to bring to the Tucson area.
âItâs very significant and validates the assets that we have in our community,â she said. âThe whole last-mile delivery is an explosive growth industry and this is the kind of announcement that will get the attention of other logistics companies.â
The top priority when Amazon looks to open a fulfillment center is workforce, said Lauren Lynch, a company spokeswoman.
âWe found abundant talent in Tucson,â she said.
Jobs will include technical positions, engineers, industrial truck drivers and order pickers and packers.
Salaries will be determined after a market study to ensure Amazon is competitive, Lynch said, adding that the company usually pays 30 percent more than traditional retail jobs in an area.
Benefits start the first day on the job and include medical, dental, vision, 401(k) and 20 weeks of paid parental leave.
Lynch said a few months before the building opens in 2019, salaries will be announced and hiring will begin.
The Tucson warehouse will fulfill customer orders around Southern Arizona and into neighboring states, she said.
âWe look at how much we are fulfilling in the area and build capacity,â Lynch said. âWeâre so glad to be coming to Tucson.
âArizona is a very important state for us.â
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