Reneé L. Kleinjan
The Robson Ranch Arizona Ladies Social Club met on March 12, 2018 for their monthly luncheon. During our meeting, Betty Peterson, president and founder of CORR (Community Outreach of Robson Ranch) presented co-chairs Kay McMurray and Ann White with a check for $1,000 to be used for the Club’s college book scholarship fund for high school seniors going on to college. The students submit applications and essays that are judged by residents of Robson, who are qualified, and are chosen based on criteria established by the book scholarship committee. May’s club luncheon will honor the seniors that are chosen for these scholarships.
The March guest speaker was Larry Rains, the City Manager of Casa Grande. Mr. Rains shared many interesting facts about Casa Grande such as those below.
He talked about the Sam’s Club closing—a corporate decision which affected other cities and states besides Casa Grande. E-commerce is playing a part on affecting business in Arizona. The building which housed Sam’s Club is being considered for one of 12 shipping warehouses for Sam’s online business. The hierarchy of Sam’s is also open to the city marketing the building to other businesses such as Costco.
Restaurants, such as Macayo’s, are being affected by the minimum wage law and restaurants are closing.
Business in Casa Grande was expected to have a bigger population growth than there actually is. The city is looking at things they can control for growth. He said it has been 20 years since there has been property and sales tax increases. Carr McNatt Park is undergoing renovation. The library is going to be expanded. The Sign Park is being refurbished and will be coming back. A campaign for “Shop Arizona” will be started in the future.
Four big projects for Casa Grande currently are PhoenixMart; Lucid Motors; Dreamport and Tesla. PhoenixMart, originally a foreign investment, is now looking within the United States for investors. Lucid Motors raised money to build their electric cars and now needs to raise funds for a building. There has also been an offer from one of the car manufacturers to buy Lucid’s technology but no decision has been made on this yet. Dreamport had its zoning approved by the city. They currently are doing their capital campaign now. Tesla’s property is currently outside the city limits and they would like to be part of the city. They are going through that process of trying to be part of the city limits now. Their project is about three to four years out from now he said.
May’s luncheon will be May 14 at 11:15 a.m. in the Ranch House dining room. We hope you will join us to honor our scholarship winners and learn a little about each of them. Our menu will be a choice of either a Ranch Burger with cheddar cheese and French fries or a Pilgrim Burger with French fries. All women from Robson Ranch are invited to join our luncheon meeting. To make your reservation and your choice of lunch, email Geri Nagy at [email protected], but if emailing her is not possible please phone her at 836-6249. Hope to see you at our May’s luncheon.