MedianGreen wants to fix ‘blighted’ strips

It’s difficult to argue with the first principals of the new group MedianGreen.

A quick drive around central Green Valley will surely do to convince anyone that the area’s medians are indeed “blighted,” as group member Jack Sharrock puts it.

“Through age, weather, and neglect, our medians have suffered,” he says, “and it seems to me that residents and businesses would want this changed.”

The medians along La Canada, Green Valley’s central corridor, are barren, ignored, and trash-strewn. Some of them have but one single desert plant, usually drought-hurt and suffering in isolation.

Susanne Blodgett, the founder of the group that eventually became MedianGreen, sees the sad state of the community’s roadside public spaces as a matter of pride—or lack thereof.

“We might be used to the way the medians look,” she says. “But I often think about part-time residents and visitors, and how they see them.”

Last December, Blodgett decided to do something about the medians, forming the Green Valley Beautification Committee under the auspices of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council. Her efforts drew a good bit of attention, and now, less than a year a later, the group has a new name, a dozen or so members, and has applied for incorporation in Arizona. As soon as incorporation is granted, Blodgett says, MedianGreen will apply to become a 501(c)3 corporation so it can accept tax-deductible donations.

But isn’t Pima County responsible for landscaping and median upkeep in this unincorporated community? Yes, says Blodgett, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the Department of Transportation’s crews to arrive.

The county’s resources are stretched thin; and the PCDOT’s budget hasn’t increased in five years, a department spokesperson said. What’s more, the budget for the Groundskeeper, the private company contracted by the county to fulfill much of its landscaping duties, was recently cut by 40 percent.

“They have told us that they do not have the budget to assist us,” Blodgett says.

That’s not to say that the county won’t be helping with the effort at all. MedianGreen has met several times with county officials, including Supervisor Ray Carroll. Tentatively, Pima County may be able to help with providing water to cisterns that may be installed on each median to water the desert-adapted plants until they take hold. And the county has offered to give the group plants from a county nursery when available.

But the rest of the work and resources will likely be up to the group—and they have some ambitious plans to start with.

With 14 miles of public medians in Green Valley—about 110 individual medians—it’s necessary to do the work in phases. Phase one will reform the most high-profile, central spaces—those along La Canada Drive from Esperanza Boulevard to Calle Lecho; Esperanza from Abrego Drive to Desert Bell; Continental Road from just west of La Canada to the Continental Shopping Plaza; and the first median on Camino del Sol north of Calle Tres.

The initial project is expected to cost about $70,000—a price arrived at by Sage Landscaping, a Pima County subcontractor that helped MedianGreen. Margaret Cooper, the owner of the local Hot Desert Landscaping, volunteered to assist members with landscape designs and plant selection, Blodgett says.

“We anticipate a need for a similar amount of money over the next two years as more medians are addressed and improved,” she says.

That seems like a tall order, but the group has some strategies worked out for raising money, including community fundraisers, grant writing, and an Adopt-the-Median campaign.

The Sierrita Mine has offered to help the group to restore medians disturbed during recent monitor-well construction, and may be able to participate further as well. Future plans could also include public art and benches for the medians, the group said.

Though its just getting started, MedianGreen members hope that their efforts will not only clean up a community eyesore, but will bring residents together for a common cause, says MedianGreen member Bob Venuti.

“If we can bring the community into this, it will stimulate pride in this community,” he says.

Tim Hull is a freelance reporter.