Buckeye approves water rate increases, cites infrastructure and cost pressures

AG TO URBAN. Building continues on Beloat Road, where irrigation brings life to some of Buckeye's most historic farmland, illustrating how important water is to both development and the area's rich agricultural industry. | Photographed by David Kennard.

Find even more reporting on local water issues in this month's edition of InBuckeye Magazine.

By David Kennard

Buckeye residents and businesses will soon see higher utility bills following Tuesday’s Buckeye City Council approval of new water and wastewater rate structures; the move comes after months of analysis and public outreach.

City officials say the increases are designed to keep pace with rising costs while avoiding sharp spikes, opting instead for a gradual, four-year rate adjustment plan

"We're looking at some approach of a gradualism approach where we will incrementally raise rates to keep up with the cost of either inflation or just the cost of performing our service," said Terry Lowe, Buckeye’s Water Resources Director. 

Modest increases for most residents For the average household, the impact is expected to be relatively moderate, according to discussion at Tuesday’s meeting. 

City estimates show a typical residential customer — using about 6,000 gallons of water and generating 4,000 gallons of wastewater per month — will see an overall increase of roughly 5% on their combined bill. 

Water rates are expected to rise about 4% in the first year, with slightly higher increases in later years, while wastewater rates will increase at a faster pace overall.

Why rates are going up

City staff pointed to several key factors driving the need for higher rates:

Rising electricity costs, a major expense in water delivery

• Increased costs for treatment chemicals and materials
• Ongoing staffing and operational expenses
• The need for preventive maintenance and system upgrades

Officials also emphasized the importance of long-term investment, with a goal of reinvesting 2% to 5% of the system’s total asset value annually to maintain pipes, plants and other infrastructure.

Key Expense Drivers:

Operational Expenses: Costs include personnel, electricity, chemicals, and both preventive and corrective maintenance.

Asset Management: The city manages over a billion dollars in assets. While the industry standard is to reinvest 2-5% of asset value annually, the proposed rates will gradually work toward this level to fund less frequent, large-scale maintenance and replacement projects.

Water Portfolio Development: A portion of the rates will fund the ongoing growth and diversification of the city's water portfolio to support long-term demands and maintain flexibility.

Major acquisitions, like Harquahala, will be funded separately through bonding.

Push for fairness and conservation

A major component of the new rate structure is a shift toward what city leaders describe as a more equitable system.

Wastewater rates, in particular, will increase by about 7% overall, partly to better align what commercial users pay with how much they use the system. Historically, officials said, some business customers paid less than their proportional share.

The city is also expanding tiered pricing, meaning customers who use more water will pay higher rates per gallon at upper usage levels.

The steepest increases will apply to the highest tiers, a move intended to encourage conservation in a fast-growing desert community.

West-MEC expands business partnerships as campus growth accelerates

Megan Mills from West-MEC, presents a partnership plan to local businesses interested in recruiting high school graduates. David Kennard | InBuckeye.com

As it prepares to open its largest campus and expand career training across the West Valley, West-MEC is strengthening ties with local businesses through a new strategic partnership program designed to create a direct pipeline between employers and students.

West-MEC officials outlined the initiative during a business partnership meeting Thursday, where representatives from banks, chambers of commerce, manufacturers, healthcare providers and other industries learned about procurement opportunities and new ways to engage with students.

The effort comes as West-MEC continues rapid growth fueled by a $240 million bond approved by voters in November. The funding is supporting construction of new facilities and expansion of career and technical education programs across the region.

Megan Mills, assistant superintendent of strategic partnerships and government relations, said demand for West-MEC's more than 30 career training programs continues to outpace available space, with waiting lists already forming for several programs.

“As we know, K-12 or public education is an integral part of the workforce development space,” Mills said. “It's great when we bring … both industry and educators together. Because together, we develop the workforce system.”

A major milestone is the opening next month of the district's new Southeast Campus near the Westgate area and Loop 101. The facility will become West-MEC's largest campus, although district leaders said future expansion will focus less on large centralized campuses and more on academy-style programs located on or near traditional high school campuses.

The academy model is intended to reduce transportation barriers while allowing more students to access career training programs in fields including advanced manufacturing, healthcare, construction, transportation and public safety.

Mills also encouraged businesses to become approved vendors for the district.

“Today is an example of how we like to partner with our business community to make sure that West-MEC is producing the workforce that you need to make your businesses thrive.”

To better accomplish that partnership, West-MEC is launching a formal strategic partnership program that asks businesses to become more actively involved in preparing students for the workforce.

Participating companies will serve on advisory councils, host workplace tours, conduct mock interviews, judge student competitions, provide internships and offer instructor externships that help teachers remain current with industry practices.

The program also includes financial support through the West-MEC Alliance, a nonprofit organization that helps offset costs for industry certifications and student program fees.

In return, strategic partners will receive priority access to student talent, early opportunities to recruit graduates, invitations to exclusive district events and increased marketing exposure through West-MEC initiatives.

“We have over 30 different programs that we offer,” Mills said. “These are different workforce programs, where our students can get industry certifications to be able to enter the workforce, and so you'll see everything from construction trades to healthcare, transportation, law and public safety. So if you have an interest in any particular program, we'd be happy to get you connected with those students in those classrooms.”

Those who attended Thursday’s event represented a broad cross-section of the West Valley business community, including financial institutions, chambers of commerce, healthcare organizations, manufacturers, educational suppliers and workforce partners.

District leaders said the expanded partnerships are intended to strengthen the connection between education and industry while ensuring employers have access to a skilled workforce as the West Valley continues its rapid economic growth.

Flour and fortitude: Granddaughter of Buckeye Bakery’s Tommy Lara sets record straight on hard childhood, legacy

Kim Ozment, looks up information about her grandfather, Tommy Lara, while visiting his grave recently at the Buckeye Cemetery. [David Kennard]

By David Kennard

Kim Ozment doesn’t remember anything about her grandfather, but she’s heard stories about the beloved Buckeye legend who was abandoned as a child, sleeping on flour sacks in the back of a Phoenix bakery before opening the Buckeye Bakery.

Still, Ozment said she wants to set the record straight.

“I’m here to honor my grandfather,” she said.

Ozment was in town with other family members on Jan. 24 to celebrate Buckeye Days, to watch the annual cattle drive through the center of town, but mostly to find a connection to her grandfather, Tommy Lara.

Lara died in 1970, not long after Buckeye Mayor Robert T. Bonnes declared Dec. 19, 1969, Thomas Lara Day.

“Tommy Lara came up the hard way... the real hard way,” reads a story in the Dec. 18, 1969, Buckeye Valley News. “He was born June 13, 1910, in Ft. Worth, Texas. He was left an orphan as a tiny tot. He attended grammar school in Phoenix and fended for himself much of the time while he was in school.”

Tommy Lara works at his Buckeye Bakery on Monroe in downtown Buckeye. Lara died in 1970 leaving behind a storied past. [Contributed photo]

No orphanage

Ozment said there is no truth to a popular story that her grandfather ran away from a Phoenix orphanage.

“There was no orphanage,” Ozment said. “I’ve done the research. It doesn’t exist.”

She says her grandfather left Texas when his father came to Phoenix with him and his brother, Henry.

Ozment said the two boys were later abandoned by their father, forcing them to care for themselves any way they could.

Seven-year-old Tommy sold newspapers on Phoenix street corners and worked as a handyman until age 11, taking shelter at night near the warm bread ovens of Log Cabin Bakery, then located at Taylor Street and Grand Avenue, according to a 1962 feature story in The Arizona Republic.

Ozment said despite his dire circumstances, her grandfather attended school as a child, finally finding a home when a school friend, Wilfred Ethridge, invited him in.

While never officially adopted, Tommy found a home in the Ethridge family.

“At the age of 11 being homeless, he became an apprentice, at a bakery, sleeping by the ovens at night,” his obituary reads.

“In the daytime he attended the Adams school,” the obituary continues. “One day a boy named Wilfred invited him home to lunch. From then on, Tommy had a loving family: Wilfred and his brother, Emest, and their parents, Aaron and Ethel Ethridge, accepted Tommy as brother and son.

“Much of his personality and wonderful traits of sharing, being considerate, understanding and love for fellowmen were influenced in Tommy’s life by the living example they set for him.

“On graduating from the eighth grade, baking became his profession.”

Ozment’s written history

In a written family history she compiled, Kim Ozment explains that her grandfather Tommy Lara rarely discussed his childhood with her parents. He told them he had been placed in an orphanage after being abandoned by his father, Carlos.

But Ozment says her own research, along with research her parents conducted years earlier, found no record of any orphanage in Phoenix at the time.

She located a 1920 census report showing Tommy living with his father Carlos and Carlos’ second wife, Frances. After that, she believes he was left to fend for himself on the streets of Phoenix.

According to Ozment’s account, Tommy found work and shelter with a man who owned a bakery. The baker allowed him to sleep on flour sacks and sent him to school. When he returned from classes, Tommy learned the trade.

“He told my parents this,” Ozment said.

She said while attending school, her grandfather befriended a boy who noticed he wore the same clothes each day. That boy asked his mother if Tommy could live with them.

“The name of the family was the Ethridges,” Ozment said. “Their son Ernest was the one that became friends with my grandfather.”

Ozment says the family treated him as one of their own.

“We are very grateful to her for her kindness to Grandpa,” Ozment said. “I have the 1930 census where Tommy was living with the Ethridges.”

Ozment said her grandfather and his brother Enrique, or Henry, did not remain together after they were abandoned.

“I wish they had,” she said.

There was a long-standing family story that Henry later hanged himself in a New Mexico jail cell. Ozment said she contacted court officials there, who conducted a records search. A newspaper article confirmed the account.

“That story was true,” she said.

“But we’re glad my grandfather survived growing up.”

Squaw bread

Nobody knows what Tommy Lara’s secret recipe was for his famous squaw bread, or if they do, nobody’s talking.

The closest anyone has come was published in a 1962 profile of Lara by The Arizona Republic.

It called for a “blend of wheat and rye flours, sugar, lecithin and calcium propionate.”

Add to the squaw bread mix of 12 pounds, 8 ounces, add water (3¾ quarts), yeast (12 ounces), salt (4½ ounces). Mix with a dough hook for 15 minutes.

“Scale off 1-pound, 2-ounce pieces. Make up into round loaves.” After letting the loaves rise, they should be baked on “sheet pans on corn meal.”

There’s a lot of detail missing there, and even for the newspaper story Tommy didn’t divulge more.

“Squaw bread is a Lara specialty, and a window to his way,” the story states. “It is a heavy, moist, wheat-colored bread that would keep a lumberjack fat. Usually all of Lara's squaw bread is sold by 11 a.m. Sometimes there are long lines of squaw bread customers.

“‘Tom,’ a friend once complained, ‘You've got something here that people crave. It sells out early every day. You ought to increase your production and get rich.’

“Lara studied on that, and said, ‘No, it just wouldn't work. When I begin at night, I’ve got a system. So much of this. So many of these. They've all got to start at a certain time, and they've all got to go through the oven on schedule. If I specialized on one thing, something else would suffer,’” the story states.

Regardless, the recipe was famous and in high demand by Buckeye residents who flocked to his bakery by the hundreds, according to Bonnes’ 1969 proclamation.

WHEREAS Tommy Lara has been forced to close his bakery business due to ill health, and

WHEREAS, during the many years he was in business here, he served the community well in many ways, and

WHEREAS, through his unique product, Squaw Bread, Buckeye became known as the Squaw Bread Capital of Arizona, gaining recognition from all parts of the state, and

WHEREAS the closing of the bakery has saddened residents in Buckeye and the entire Buckeye Valley,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert T. Bonnes, mayor of Buckeye, do hereby proclaim Friday, Dec. 19, 1969, Tommy Lara Day, and ask all of his friends in the Buckeye area to express their best wishes to him on behalf of the community.”

Lara is buried in the Buckeye Cemetery on West Broadway Road.

It took some time for Ozment to find her grandfather’s headstone when she visited the cemetery in January; it had been 40 years since she was last there.

But when she did, emotion overwhelmed her. She collapsed on the green, well-groomed grass, throwing her arms around the sunken stone, then gently brushing debris from the marker.

“It’s right where I remember it,” she said. “A lot has changed, though.”

City presents conceptual plan for two significant road projects

Buckeye City staff met with residents Wednesday night to look over plans for proposed changes to Jackrabbit Trail and Indian School Road. [David Kennard]

By David Kennard

The City of Buckeye unveiled a preliminary look Wednesday at two significant road projects expected to begin in coming weeks.

The projects include an overhaul of about a 1-mile stretch of Indian School Road from Jackrabbit Trail to Perryville Road and a similar treatment of Jackrabbit Trail from Thomas Road to Indian School Road.

Both are north of Interstate 10 and provide access to new housing developments in the area.

The projects, included in Buckeye’s Capital Improvement Program will widen the roads so they can handle expected increase in traffic and “improve safety for access to homes and businesses,” said Allyson Camillucci, city project manager.

Camillucci also said the two new projects will be coordinated with three other road projects already underway in the area.

The Indian School Road project stretches from Jackrabbit Trail to Perryville Road and will widen the road to three lanes in each direction with a median in the center. Pedestrian walkways on either side are also part of the current design plan.

Jackrabbit Trail Improvement Project Area

This project includes similar improvements from Thomas Road to Indian School Road.

Both projects have been through a design phase and will proceed to the construction phase later this year, depending on required right-of-way acquisitions and relocation of public utilities, according to Camillucci.

Residents were encouraged Wednesday to join mailing lists as well as call or email key project leaders.

“We are trying to build a community that you are able to contact,” Camillucci said.

Camillucci also said residents will see updates on the city’s website that provide detail on the various projects as they progress.

Questions from residents in attendance at Wednesday’s community meeting included concerns about sound from increased traffic and security from increased pedestrian traffic along adjacent properties.

John Willett, city traffic engineer, said sound barriers would be erected or extended higher to keep traffic sound within acceptable standards.

“We want to hear from you so we can try to address it,” Willett said.

He encouraged residents to mark their concerns on the provided maps of the project areas.

“If our construction affects anything on your property, there is conversation and compensation regarding that,” Camillucci said.

Outside of the city’s project, Arizona Department of Transportation is working on the Interstate 10 interchange at Jackrabbit Trail (Exit 121); that project will be coordinated with the city’s projects as well as with the planned widening of the Interstate, which is still in a planning stage contingent on funding from the state legislature.