Celebration: Casa Grande
by Robert “Bob” Jackson, Mayor, Casa Grande
One hundred years ago Casa Grande officially became a city. The Pinal County Board of Supervisors appointed five men to serve as the first City Council and Mr. L. J. Weaver to serve as Mayor. That spring the first election was held with Weaver, and W. D. Randle (who had also been appointed by the Board of Supervisors) elected along with George Burgess, Gus Kratzka and J. A. Armenta to serve as the first elected Council. Burgess was selected from the Council to serve as the Mayor. At that time the Mayor was appointed by the Council rather than by direct election as we do today.
Imagine what the town must have looked like in 1915. The railroad was here and the town was pretty much clustered along the tracks. It is also thought to be the year that Sarah McMurray introduced eucalyptus trees to the community.
Over the next 100 years the City developed into the commerce center of Pinal County. In the mid 1970’s the City leaders decided to create a Charter that has been the basis of our rules since. In the 40 plus years since the Charter was approved by the voters, there has only been a couple of times it has been changed, illustrating how forward thinking our leaders were at the time.
Many of the decisions made by earlier Councils are still in place today. The Council in the early 1950’s decided to put a landfill south of town and make it large enough so it still serves the community today. They also located a wastewater treatment plant on the north side of town that continues to serve the City today in a more modern plant.
When the discussions of a new freeway started, Casa Grande’s leaders worked hard to have I-10 and I-8 routed through our City, making us a desirable location for new industry. In the mid 1980’s, the mining industry was weakening and a group of community leaders and the Council diversified our local economy to attract Abbott Nutrition and Frito Lay to town.
Our community has been fortunate to have forward looking leaders throughout our history. One of the things I think helped us move forward is our stability. The Mayor is the only Council position with term limits but over the past 40 years only a handful of people have held the office. Combine this with a very stable Council and senior staff and the City has been able to move forward.
I have lived in Casa Grande since 1991 when the City’s population was a little over 18,000 and our shopping and entertainment options were limited. Today we are a City of over 50,000 and are the commerce center for western Pinal County.
Casa Grande is well positioned to be a leader in the planned Sun Corridor mega-region and I believe will have a positive future as a leader in Arizona. I am sure I will not be around in 100 years but hope the citizens of 2115 look back positively at the foundation we have set for our children and grand-children to have a prosperous life.
