UPCOMING EVENTS

March 8, 2019
APWA Events and Community Outreach Committee Meeting
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March 12, 2019
APWA Northern Branch Prescott Valley Luncheon
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March 14, 2019
APWA AZ Programs Committee Meeting
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March 20, 2019
APWA AZ BOD Meeting
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March 20, 2019
APWA Luncheon
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April 7, 2019
APWA AZ Family Picnic
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August 7-9, 2019
2019 APWA AZ Statewide Conference
More Info >

NEWSLETTER SPONSORS

Planning - Budgeting - Elections

We have a busy couple of months coming up this spring - our annual planning session, budgets, and elections.

In April we will have our annual planning session. It will be held on the 5th at the City of Tempe's Transportation Center. It's an "all day" (or at least a good part of a day) session were the board members and committee chairs / co-chairs get together to plan out strategies for next year (July 1st 2019 thru June 30th, 2020). Last year's session focused on developing a 3 to 5 year Strategic Plan. This year's session will plan on how to continue execution of that plan next year. Rob Kidder (President-Elect) will chair the session and Tammy Bennett, APWA Director of Membership & Engagement, will be there to help facilitate things. Like ALL board meetings, this session in open to any member who would like to participate. It's a good way to get introduced to the chapter and how it works.

As anyone who works for a public agency knows, while spring may bring flowers it also brings budgeting. With the change to a fiscal year (July to June) financial planning period, we are starting now to work up budgets for our various committee events and programs. One aspect of the annual planning session noted above is that it gives a framework on which to do solid financial planning from. The budget must be approved at the June meeting so there's a bit of work coming up. If you have ideas for events, programs, workshops, please reach out to the appropriate committee or to a board member so your ideas can be considered during our planning and budgeting processes. Remember, this is your association and your ideas count.

Finally, our annual elections of officers and board members will be going out in April. Candidates for President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer, plus 3 board members will be up for election. Our nominating committee will put forth their recommendations for board approval. Nominations from the floor will also be accepted for any of these positions. Per our bylaws, the current President-Elect automatically moves up as President and the current President automatically becomes the Immediate Past President. If you have someone you feel would be an asset to the Chapter as a board member or officer please let one of the officers or board members know or nominate them from the floor. Often new board members are, or have been, active on one or more of the committees so please consider serving there as well.

On behalf of the Board we value and appreciate the input of all our members and look forward to getting your feedback.

Sincerely,
Greg B. Smith, PE/PS, ENV_SP
ARIZONA CHAPTER PRESIDENT

APWA Northern Branch Prescott Valley Luncheon
March 12, 2019
Topic: Northern Arizona Snow Management - The Big Storm
Speakers: Coconino County, Yavapai County, City of Prescott, Town of Prescott Valley
http://arizona.apwa.net/EventDetails/17756

APWA Luncheon
March 20, 2019
Speaker: David L. Lawry, PE - Director of Engineering and Public Works for the Village of Schaumburg, Ill.
http://arizona.apwa.net/EventDetails/17139

APWA Family Picnic
April 7, 2019
http://arizona.apwa.net/EventDetails/17183



APWA Southern AZ Branch Scholarship Golf Outing
April 17, 2019
http://arizona.apwa.net/EventDetails/17172

Statewide Conference
August 7-9, 2019

Special thanks to those firms that have already registered as sponsors and exhibitors:

• Opening Reception Sponsor

• Key Card Sponsor 
  
  
• Lanyard Sponsor 
  
• Fun Night Sponsor
  
• Platinum Sponsors

• Gold Sponsors

• Coffee Sleeve Sponsor
  
  

• Awards Lunch Sponsor
  Neenah Foundry

• Public Agency Sponsors
  
  Achen-Gardner Construction
  Acuity Brands
  Civiltec Engineering

• Prize Drawing Sponsors
  Achen-Gardner Construction
  Civiltec Engineering

Exhibitors

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to:

• Conference Committee Co-Chair – Christy Sipos, csipos@civiltec.com, 602-570-4150
• Conference Committee Co-Chair – Scott Kirchhofer, skirchhofer@achen.com, 480-403-9416

New Members

Who's Who in Public Works

Name: Nancy Cole

Agency: Pima County

Title: Director, Pima County Project Management Office

What are you responsible for in your new role? The Project Management Office is a part of Pima County’s Public Works Administration department, and provides expertise in areas relating to capital delivery and planning. This includes CIP project and program review and oversight, long term planning including project development for future bond programs, CIP project delivery, and the ongoing development of program management best practices and metrics including the project management manual and gate process. 

How long have you been in this position?  I have been with Pima County for 15 years, in my current position for six years.

Where did you work previously? Prior to my current position, I worked as an Architect/ Project Manager for both Public Works and the Parks and Recreation Department. Before joining the public agency, I worked as an Architect for Durrant Architects, focusing mainly on institutional projects (schools). 

What Challenges do you experience in your role? Working with Capital Projects requires constant learning, adapting to changes and overcoming different perspectives. We are always looking for a better, faster, way to get projects built, while still balancing long-term life cycle costs and benefits to the public. Currently we are working on how to create a balanced infrastructure plan so that we can prioritize limited capital funds in the most efficient capital program.

How long have you been an APWA member? I have been a member since 2007.

Have you served on the Board or any committees? I am currently a Board Director for the APWA Arizona Chapter. This role is important as I coordinate with the Southern Arizona Branch, where I am a past chair. I serve on the Conference and Education Committees at this time.

What benefits do you get out of being a member? I enjoy the educational opportunities, particularly participating and attending the conference, or assisting with the Public Works Institute. This is a great way to find out what other organizations are doing right now, and find out how to bring it home and apply it in my agency.

What would you like to share with APWA Members? Get involved! Offer to present a paper at the next conference, or make sure to submit that last awesome project to the awards committee. Participating in APWA can increase your network, snag you a prestigious award, or help add extra lines to your resume. These are just the personal impacts – you can share new ideas or other success stories in your organization and implement new strategies with the support of other public works professionals. 

Tell us about your family and hobbies: I am married to another architect here in Tucson, and have two sons (one NMSU Alumni and one studying Mechanical Engineering at ASU). We love to travel to the coast – whether back home to New Jersey or Maine; or to the family favorite Oregon Coast. I am a watercolor artist; and enjoy occasionally painting public works related pictures. 

Newsletter Contest Winner
The communications committee held a quick newsletter contest at February’s luncheon. Kristin Peck with Hilgart Wilson correctly answered our question of “Which Public Works Professional was spotlighted in the Who’s Who in Public Works section of February’s Newsletter….the answer was Wendy Springborn of Tempe. Kristin received a starbucks gift card donated by Wood/Patel.

Top Trending Technologies
APWA  has established the Top Trending Technologies in Public Works for 2019 as chosen by the membership. They include:

Small Cell Toolbox Item
APWA’s Utility & Public Rights-of-Way Committee (UPROW) has been busy producing this document on the Small Cell Permitting Process shown below. For more information, contact Al Field, Chair of the UPROW Committee at al.field@alfield-assoc.com

Public Works Job Opportunities
This section allows agencies to advertise their open positions. Please provide your advertisement and/or link to sniebel@woodpatel.com or tbaker@logansimpson.com. 

City of Surprise
Civil Engineer
View position >

City of Mesa
Landscape Architect
View position >

City of Casa Grande
Sanitation Superintendent
View position >

2019 Sponsorships
We are looking for our 2019 sponsors! Check out the flyer below for some great opportunities to be recognized as an Arizona APWA sponsor. Please contact Sandy Niebel with any questions. 602.335.8530.

For more information and to Register: http://arizona.apwa.net/EventDetails/16436

Serve on an APWA Standing or Technical Committee
Nomination deadline is March 22

If you have ever been interested in public service at the national level, the opportunity for you to make that interest known is now! APWA President-Elect Bill Spearman is looking for committed individuals with subject matter expertise in the specific area of committee responsibility, a desire to contribute to national education programs, or members who want to help carry the APWA message to other associations or organizations.

The national committee nominations process is now open, offering three avenues for member involvement:

• Standing and Program Committees assist in the governance and internal affairs of the association.
• Technical Committees are the subject matter experts in 10 individual disciplines within public works
• Select Task Forces & External Work Groups welcome representation by members of APWA who hold membership in or attend meetings of other stakeholder groups and represent the voice of public works.

To learn more about the time commitment, expectations, specific goals and nomination timelines for these three paths for collaboratively working with your peers at the national level, go to the national committee nominations portal.

To be considered for the 2019 appointments, nominations must be submitted by midnight, March 22, 2019. Nomination information received after the deadline will be retained for consideration for future projects, subcommittee/knowledge team contributions or to fill vacancies, should they occur.

Quote from President-Elect Bill Spearman:

“Service to APWA and the public works profession takes place on many levels - locally through Chapters and Branches and nationally through our committees. If you have the desire to be part of a group of dedicated professionals who focus on topics of national importance, please consider nominating yourself or others for our committees. The experience will be amazing, and your expertise will help us serve our members.”

Future Cities
Members of APWA-AZ participated in this years’ annual Future City Competition, which took place on January 19th. The Future City Competition is a national competition where junior high students compete to create their best version of a city in the future, complete with a virtual SimCity design, 1,500 word essay, a scale model of their city, and a presentation. Each year, the competition has a theme where students can address real life challenges cities face on a daily basis. This year’s theme was “Powering Our Future”. The teams’ main focus was to design a resilient power grid that could quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.

Each year, APWA members serve as Society judges. APWA’s Society Award is “Best Functioning City”. The responsibility of the judges is to review each entry and score them based on predetermined criteria in categories such as multimodal transportation, civil infrastructure, sustainability, solid waste, utility infrastructure, and facilities and emergency services solutions.

This year’s winner for “Best Functioning City” was Esmond Station’s city, Shin Shibukawa. The Shin Shibukawa team addressed many public works challenges that our APWA members tackle on a daily basis, including innovative trash and recycling solutions. Currently, the Diversity Committee team is in talks with the school to schedule a presentation for APWA members to hear all about this best functioning city.

Legislative Session Overview, by: APWA Government Affairs Committee 
February 22nd, marked the 40th day of session. Committees in both chambers (House and Senate) wrapped up the first round of hearings before the deadline; however, the Appropriations Committees will have an additional week to hear legislation. Going forward, committees will hear bills that crossed over from the opposite chamber over the next month. Note – Introduced bills that were not heard in standing committees to which they were originally assigned will not be moving forward.  That being said the language from one of the  unassigned bills could appear as a striker onto any bill still alive as the legislative process continues.

The following bills are continuing to move through the legislature.

HB2536, the fuel tax bill, passed all of its committee assignments including the House Ways & Means Committee last week yet was amended to eliminate the motor fuel and diesel tax increases.  The bill will continue to move forward with fuel taxes and fees for alternative fuel vehicles setting comparable rates for those vehicles.

HB2109, the county transportation sales tax authority bill, also passed its committee assignments without any amendments and will advance doubling the transportation  sales tax authority that counties can take to their voters from one-half to a full cent with the exception of Maricopa County which will retain its current one-half-cent authority.   

SB1001, which would repeal last year's highway safety fee passed the Senate and has advanced over to the House despite a veto threat by the Governor.  Several bills, including HB2069, SB1141 & SB1165, related to distracted driving have also advanced signifying a greater priority on this issue.   

HB2147, International Trans Trade Corridor Authority Creates an authority responsible for constructing, financing, maintaining, improving, operating and promoting border transportation and trade facilities. Amended to sunset the Authority after four rather than ten years. Passed House State & International Affairs Committee  as amended and is now ready for House Appropriations Committee.

HB2465, Appropriation; Interstate 10; Widening; Study In FY19-20, appropriates $10 million from the State General Fund to ADOT to study I-10 widening. Passed House Transportation Committee and the House Appropriations Committee.

HB2492, State Hwy Work Zones; Accidents-  Classifies speeding in a state highway work zone causing serious injury or death as a moving violation class 3 misdemeanor. Passed House Public Safety and House Transportation  Committee.

HB2456, Appropriation; State Aviation Fund In FY19-20, appropriates $65 million from the State General Fund to the State Aviation Fund. Amended to $10 million from $65 million. Passed the House Technology Committee as Amended.

SB1302, Appropriation; Interstate 17; Expansion In FY19-20, appropriates $130 million from the State General Fund for the I-17 improvements from Anthem to Sunset Point Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB1332,  Alternative Fuel Vehicles; VLT Phases out VLT tax reductions for alternative fuel vehicles through 2023 Passed the Senate Transportation & Public Safety Committee  Amended; further amended by full Senate.

SB1285, Construction contracts' public works; payments, Establishes prompt payment requirements for public construction contracts. The bill outlines requirements for payment approval and rejection, payment timeframes, retention, termination or suspension of work and complaints relating to public construction contracts. 

SB1304, Mechanics' liens; notice, Intended to ensure suppliers are protected when a contract goes beyond the original bid amount submitted by the supplier.  Current statute allows the lien to cover up to 120% of the original amount.

The Government Affairs Committee will continue to update the APWA membership as bills move through the legislature.  If you are interested in additional information on these bills visit www.azleg.gov

2019 APWA AZ Scholarships
The Arizona Chapter of the American Public Works Association, in keeping with its objectives, will award one or more $1,500 scholarships for 2019. Scholarships are presented to deserving students striving to complete educational requirements for a career path in public works. Degrees or Majors in Public Administration, Civil or Environmental Engineering, Public Works, and Water Resources Technology Programs are examples of related fields of study. Career objectives may be in the public or private sector, but in either case must be associated directly or indirectly with public works matters or agencies.  The deadline for the application is April 1, 2019.

Please click here to see the application for more detailed information.  

Please direct questions to:

Rob Kidder, P.E.
President-Elect
Arizona Chapter
APWA Scholarship Committee
rob.kidder@mesaaz.gov
480-644-5467

Happy Anniversary!

Byline: Submitted by Achen-Gardner Construction

February 2019 marks a significant milestone in the history of Achen-Gardner Construction as we celebrate 30 years of providing high-quality pre-construction and construction services. Since our modest beginnings in 1989 we have completed thousands of projects and built countless relationships in the public and private sectors, and we are honored to be an integral part of the growth of Arizona.

Our company’s founders and early management teams established the principles that have led to our success over the years. We are guided by the values of honesty, trust, integrity, fairness, loyalty, and hard work. Achen-Gardner Construction is dedicated to construction excellence and proof of this is shown by our outstanding reputation and ability to thrive in a highly competitive market.

This is the perfect time to look back at our history and express our deepest gratitude to all of our employees, clients, partners, and friends for all that you have done in making our first 30 years successful. We also look forward to our exciting future as a part of the Emery Sapp and Sons employee-owned family of companies and the opportunities that will allow us to work with our clients and shape our community.