Still need another $800K in funding
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – The Town of Pima received some good news regarding funding for its highway intersection with the new Pima High School, but construction is still more than a year away and $800,000 light.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted 341-88 to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026. The act will now need to pass the Senate before being signed into law by President Donald J. Trump.
In the act, Rep. Juan Ciscomani has eight projects totaling more than $22 million in funding. The Pima School Road Construction Project is one of the projects, with $1 million in funding approved. Locally, another approved funding project includes $1.9 million for the Town of Duncan to improve Main and High Streets.
The funding is the same Pima was previously approved for, but was later removed during the DOGE program in 2025 when the new administration took office.
Pima’s new high school is a $37 million, 67,000 square foot campus set on a sprawling 44-acre site. However, upon opening last fall, the school had no ingress from the highway; instead, students and visitors could access the school only from its back road, down E. Center Street from the West, and from S. 600 East Street from the east. Additionally, the school opened without its sewer system connected, and a project laying the new sewer line closed the western access from E. Center Street for weeks. The road was reopened on Monday.
Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty has been busy seeking other funding sources for the intersection and road, and previously received $337,000 from the Office of the Governor of Arizona through a program of the Southwest Border Regional Commission. Additionally, Batty is seeking funding through the Transportation Alternatives Program, which could support the sidewalks and gutters needed for the project.
Plans for the new intersection show a roadway to the school with wide openings for commercial access, Batty said.
However, the project is still short by about $800,000, and Batty envisions approaching our state representatives, Sen. David Gowan and Rep. Gail Griffin, for assistance in securing the remaining funding.
Moving forward, Batty foresees using about $30,000 of the SBRC funds to finalize the overall project plans with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), which are currently about 60 percent complete, according to Batty.
Once that is done, movement could proceed more quickly, as ADOT would channel the $1 million in federal funds from the Ciscomani-approved appropriation.
Complicating the timing is the new sewer line, which Batty wants the town to connect to from the south to eliminate a sewer lift station located behind the Speedway convenience store at U.S. Highway 70 and 200 South. With the new intersection and road going in at the same spot, Batty wants to time the sewer project to coincide with the roadway project, or to be completed before the roadway project, so as not to disturb the new pavement for utilities and instead get all utilities in the ground beforehand.
The cost of the additional sewer connection project is expected to be about $500,000 and will eliminate one of Pima’s aging lift stations. Funds for that project are expected to come from a loan from the Greater Arizona Development Authority (GADA), according to Batty.
With all said and done, if the House Appropriations Package is signed by the president and the rest of the funding is secured, Batty said he hopes to put the school roadway intersection out to bid in January 2027.
