Opponents ramp up fight against detention center

Opponents of a proposed federal detention center north of Sahuarita on the Tohono O’odham reservation are expanding their efforts to protest the plan, writing to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, setting up a web site and organizing a picket of the tribe’s casino on Saturday.

EDITORIAL: http://www.sahuaritasun.com/articles/2009/05/19/editors_blog/78nunez520.txt

Sahuarita Residents Standing United, a grassroots group led by Rancho Sahuarita residents Linda and Dewey Cooper and Julia Whetten, has organized a protest aimed at encouraging a widespread boycott of the Desert Diamond Casino at Pima Mine Road and Interstate 19.

Rancho Sahuarita community liaison Tom Murphy said 160 people had dropped off letters to the BIA at the Rancho clubhouse to be mailed courtesy of developer Bob Sharpe. They also will go to 13 other agencies, he said.

The group met Saturday at North Santa Cruz Park to plan their campaign and will gather there Saturday for rides to a spot on Pima Mine Road across from the casino for protests between 5 and 8 p.m. Protesters will stay on the south side of Pima Mine Road.

More than 1,500 people have signed petitions opposing the facility and/or its location. Many fear that it will create an unsafe environment, lower property values and bring noise, lights, traffic and unwanted visitors to the area.

The BIA has oversight on the project because it involves the lease of land by the District from tribal members. Opponents are writing letters to the BIA in hopes the project can be moved or quashed. San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez has told town officials and reporters that it will go forward in the planned location because the investors want it there and because other locations have been ruled out. The BIA deadline for comments has been extended to June 1 from May 15, according to Papago Agency Superintendent Nina Siquieros.

The San Xavier District is proposing a 750-bed, privately operated federal detention facility. It would be built to maximum security specifications on a 48-acre site about 4,000 feet north of Pima Mine Road and 450 feet east of the Santa Cruz River. Details are available in an environmental assessment posted at the District’s Web site, www.waknet.org. Other documents are posted on the town Web site, www.ci.sahuarita.az.us.

Public meeting set

The town council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on measures formally opposing the location of the facility and expressing the inadequacy of the environmental assessment in detailing impacts on town residents.

The council meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Council chambers in Town Hall. The San Xavier District and developers are holding a public meeting May 27 to address concerns (DETAILS BELOW). Two previous meetings have been cancelled.

Council member John Sullivan said in an e-mail to the mayor that he will not attend if the meeting is held at the Desert Diamond Casino and Hotel in Tucson.

“I am totally opposed to the Nogales (Highway) site location... The impact is to Sahuarita and we ask him to come and address our people and that should be on our turf. This move is being made to lessen the amount of people and to make it inconvenient. I say NO!” Sullivan wrote.

County opposes plan

Meanwhile, Pima County officials have criticized the proposal, saying it is in a flood plain, asserting that the environmental assessment (EA) is inadequate and saying that “Pima County will have no use for this facility at any time.”

Two Pima County Board members, Sharon Bronson and Ramon Valadez, and County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry wrote in a May 15 letter to Donna Peterson of the BIA’s Papago Agency that “the proposed site is within the flood plain of the Santa Cruz River. It is also likely that modeling would show the site to be within the floodway.”

“We assert that the current information in the EA is not complete. Furthermore, the impact to the environment, cultural resources, floodplain and other infrastructure is significant,” the letter continued. It called for the EA to be redrafted or that a more rigorous environmental impact statement be conducted instead.

The four-page letter was sent a few days after the Coopers spoke before the Board of Supervisors outlining their concerns. Peterson is out of the office and has not responded to an inquiry.

Pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738

PUBLIC MEETING

An official with the Tohono O’odham Nation will present plans for a detention facility north of Sahuarita at a public meeting at 6 p.m., May 27, at the Desert Diamond Casino Hotel conference center on Nogales Highway, a mile south of Valencia.

This is not the Desert Diamond Casino site at Interstate 19 and Pima Mine Road.

San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez confirmed the meeting with The Sahuarita Sun on Tuesday.