By Jon Johnson/Gila Herald
GRAHAM COUNTY — U.S. Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-CD6) toured Graham County on Monday to review four local Community Project Funding (CPF) requests totaling $7.65 million as part of his Fiscal Year 2027 legislative package.
The swing through the Gila Valley began early Monday morning in Fort Thomas to visit the school district, before moving into Safford for a county project involving the Graham County Courthouse, over to Thatcher for a site tour of the 1st Avenue corridor, and finishing back in Safford at Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center. Across Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, Ciscomani has put forward $42 million across 20 Community Project Funding requests for FY2027, bringing his total requested local investments to $102 million across 48 projects since taking office. Ciscomani is up for re-election this November.
Federal allocations are proposed for county judicial expansion, rural healthcare, and school housing, and on Monday, the Congressman joined municipal and county leaders to inspect one of Thatcher’s top infrastructure priorities: the 1st Avenue Corridor Safety Upgrades.
Focus on Thatcher: Fixing First Avenue
During the stop in Thatcher, town leaders presented plans for a $3 million reconstruction and widening project stretching 1.3 miles along First Avenue from Eagle Drive to Quail Ridge.
The roadway serves as one of only three major north-south arterial routes through the Thatcher area, yet long stretches remain a narrow strip of two-lane asphalt with steep shoulder drop-offs into irrigation canals, unpaved shoulders, and heavy school and residential traffic.
As designed by EPS Group, the complete redesign will transform First Avenue into a modern, multimodal corridor. The layout features:
- Travel Lanes: 12-foot travel lanes in both directions.
- Center Turn Lane: A continuous 12-foot center left-turn lane.
- Pedestrian Safety: 6-foot concrete sidewalks on both sides anchored by a 2-foot curb and gutter.
- Bicycle Infrastructure: 5-foot dedicated bike lanes on both sides.
The project also includes a widened crossing at the Arizona Eastern Railroad, a new canal crossing structure, and undergrounding overhead power lines along the corridor to improve reliability and aesthetics. City of Safford Water and Southwest Gas will also install new mains in coordination with the roadway construction.
Town officials demonstrated the urgency of the safety issue during a presentation map review and subsequent site visit.
“We have this stretch of road, and the high school outlets to it, and it has a lot of collectability,” said Thatcher Town Manager Heath Brown during the project briefing. He added that when the project is complete, it will resemble the renovation the town did to 8th Street. Brown said the town had three streets that needed upgrades: Church Street, 8th Street, and First Avenue. With Church Street and 8th Street completed, the town has now turned its attention to First Avenue.
“Quail Ridge is one of our bigger subdivisions coming onto the road, and it’s very narrow… kids are landlocked,” Thatcher Mayor Jenny Howard said. “They can’t get north safely. You’ll see them headed through, and it’s like they just grit their teeth and get on their bike and go as fast as they can to get to the corner of Eighth Street where they’re kind of in a safe zone.”
Local officials noted that children routinely wait for school buses on the road shoulder because of steep irrigation banks on the east side of the road.
“I drive that road every day… in that narrow spot, you’ll see how narrow it is,” said Graham County Supervisor John Howard. “Buses come, kids, trying to walk down that road to a friend’s house—you cannot see it. It’s very, very, very dangerous. I see it on almost a daily basis. A child is going to get whacked there someday.”
The route also sees heavy emergency detour traffic whenever 20th Avenue is blocked, and it serves as the bike route for the Eastern Arizona College triathlon.
In reviewing the submittal, Rep. Ciscomani commended the town and Graham County for submitting a joint, shovel-ready proposal.
“When we pick these projects and the funding for these… we look at not just the need of it, but also the ripple effect impact,” Rep. Ciscomani told the local leaders. “It’s who else benefits from it… You guys have already been doing a lot of this work, right? So you got a lot of skin in the game as well.”
Construction for the 1st Avenue widening is expected to take approximately eight months to a year once final right-of-way acquisitions and utility relocations wrap up.
Further north on 1st Avenue, the intersection at U.S. Highway 70 is set for major commercial and traffic upgrades. Separate from the federal CPF request, the town is moving forward with a new traffic signal at Highway 70, along with a new Super Circle K planned for the corner, with construction slated to begin in December.
$7.65 Million in Total Graham County CPF Requests
Beyond the Thatcher 1st Avenue project, Ciscomani’s FY2027 request package includes three other major Graham County initiatives:
- Fort Thomas Unified School District ($650,000): Funding to construct two new teacher housing units to address a critical shortage of local affordable housing and help the rural district recruit and retain full-time educators.
- Graham County Historic Courthouse Expansion ($2,000,000): Renovate the 110-year-old county courthouse and add 10,000 square feet of new court facilities, including a Superior Court courtroom and an expanded Justice of the Peace Court to manage rising caseloads.
- Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center ($2,000,000): Acquisition of modern 3D mammography equipment for early breast cancer detection at the critical-access hospital.
The federal funding requests are currently moving through the House Appropriations process in Washington, D.C.
