Arizona Stagecoach adds weddings, proms to offset dip in airport shuttle runs

To fight a drop in airport service, Arizona Stagecoach has turned to shuttling wedding parties and guests.

Declining air travel in the economic downturn has prompted Arizona Stagecoach to add wedding transportation to its lineup.

Brides and grooms have yet to ride the vans with the “Galloping Horse” logo. But wedding guests are finding vans a better way to conserve cash than rental cars, Chief Executive Fred Gould said.

“They are finding a more cost-effective way to get around,” Gould said.

The locally owned company, which has shuttled some 2 million people to and from Tucson International Airport since 1978, got into the wedding business in March, and Gould is eager to build the nonairport side of the business.

Gould said, “4 to 5 percent of our revenue in March was point-to-point,” adding that it includes weddings and charter service. “In terms of dollars, that could mean having a loss month or a profitable month. My target is 10 percent. When the economy comes back, my business is in position for serious growth.”

A year ago, Arizona Stagecoach focused almost entirely on shuttling about 85,000 people a year to TIA, and anybody wanting to charter vans had to approach the company. Now, Arizona Stagecoach is marketing its wedding, prom and special event transportation division, Gould said.

So far, the company has worked three or four weddings, transporting wedding parties from hotels to churches or churches to reception sites. Gould said wedding parties typically ask for two or three vans that carry 10 people each.

Arizona Stagecoach operates 19 vans. Five are company-owned and 14 are owned by their operators through licenses with Arizona Stagecoach.

Gould said four of the five company vans run on compressed natural gas, and any company growth will involve adding more alternative fuel vehicles, likely using compressed natural gas.

City Manager Mike Letcher hopes to acquire warehouses like these on the northeast corner of East Toole and North Stone avenues for the Warehouse Arts Management Organization.

New City Manager Mike Letcher was out of the loop with Rio Nuevo during the Mike Hein era, even though Letcher’s office shared a wall with the city manager’s for nearly the full life of Rio Nuevo.

So Letcher did not offer any grand announcement about Rio Nuevo to start his tenure as the city’s top bureaucrat.

Hein had personally taken charge of Rio Nuevo and did not keep his deputy apprised of project details.

“I was not involved in Rio Nuevo,” Letcher said of his eight-year stint as deputy city manager. “I was involved in internal operations management. What I’m doing is making sure I know what’s going on.”

Letcher answered all Rio Nuevo questions with a prepared statement he submitted for a Tucson Citizen interview

“The mayor and council are taking great steps to get Rio Nuevo aligned with expectations of the state legislature,” Letcher wrote. “We are doing all the right things to ensure that Rio Nuevo will continue to improve our downtown.”

When asked specific questions in a brief interview, Letcher responded: “I’ll stand on the previous statement.”

“At this point in time, (Assistant City Manager) Richard Miranda and I are just getting up to speed on all the projects and progress,” he said.

As deputy city manager, Letcher was directly involved in negotiations with the Arizona Department of Transportation to acquire the state-owned warehouses along Toole Avenue. Several are occupied by artists with month-to-month leases, and Letcher’s intention is to acquire them for the Warehouse Arts Management Organization.

During 2008, the city was trying to arrange a land swap by giving the state three city-owned properties in exchange for about two dozen warehouses, but that swap fell through, Letcher said.

“We have another (property) that ADOT wants that’s gaining traction,” Letcher said. “There is a gap between what the value of the warehouses is and the property ADOT wants to secure from us.”

The first layer of asphalt went down Friday to give the first inkling of what the new Scott Avenue will look like between Broadway and the Temple of Music and Art.

Trees and shrubbery will be planted this week along both sides of the newly laid sidewalks.

The five blocks of Scott south of Broadway should be ready for pedestrians May 4 and “shortly after that” the street should be reopened for vehicle traffic, said Fran LaSala, assistant to the city manager. Drivers will find a drastically narrower street and limited parking.

The $4.8 million streetscape project was funded with Rio Nuevo tax increment financing money and also involved replacing water lines. A grand opening ceremony is set for May 20.

RENEE BRACAMONTE/Tucson Citizen

Michael Luria, co-owner of the recently closed Café Terra Cotta, has been named the new executive director of the Tucson Children’s Museum, 200 S. Sixth Ave.

He had served as interim executive director for the past five months and before then was the president of the museum’s board of directors.

Luria was the face of the museum in the past two years in efforts to get a new Tucson Children’s Museum included in the now-delayed Tucson Origins museum complex west of the Santa Cruz River and south of Congress Street.

“Michael has a contagious enthusiasm and dedication to the museum that we have seen in action throughout the years,” board President Louise Sternberg said.

Business owners on Scott Avenue want Congress Street businesses to know getting your street torn up for several months of infrastructure work may be noisy and dusty but it’s not debilitating.

Scott Avenue south of Broadway is nearing the end of five months’ work that took away all the existing street and sidewalk and rebuilt a narrower street with wider sidewalks and foliage and better street lighting.

Tenants on the street had such close communication with the city and the work crew that they got to know Archer Western Contractors employees by their first names.

“I have (the Archer Western project manager’s) number programmed in and he has mine,” said David Cap, production manager at Arizona Theatre Co., where new street pavement was being poured Wednesday morning.

Cap said attendance at ATC has not diminished during the construction, which took away all the Scott Avenue street parking used by early arriving theater patrons.

“We’ve been very proactive telling patrons what’s happening,” Cap said.

The Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast Inn, 204 S. Scott Ave., attributes any drop in attendance to the economy and none to the construction that tore out the sidewalk and street just beyond the front door.

“To be honest, our guests come from around the world,” co-owner Jeff DiGregorio said. “They say, ‘This is nothing. We have construction where we live, too.’ ”

DiGregorio, Cap, and Tucson Children’s Museum interim executive director Michael Luria lauded the close and constant communication with Fran LaSala, the city’s project manager, and Archer Western.

“They come around and tell you what’s going to happen,” Luria said. “We’ve known all along, in advance, when Scott’s going to be closed.”

Michael Flanagan, manager of Flanagan’s Celtic Corner, 222 E. Congress St., was encouraged by what he heard from his Scott brethren that street construction may not be as bad on his business as it could be.

“The potential sounds like that,” Flanagan said. “It sounds like they found ways to get around issues that will impact traffic flows.”

LaSala and the Downtown Tucson Partnership worked closely with Scott Avenue merchants to design the new Scott Avenue streetscape and carry out the project. Partnership Executive Director Glenn Lyons described Scott as a trial run to get a communication process in place for the Congress Street infrastructure project.

Work on Congress was supposed to start immediately after Scott, and both originally were part of the same construction contract overseen by LaSala, an assistant to the city manager. But management of the Congress project has been assigned to the city Transportation Department and has been delayed indefinitely.

“It is our understanding that with the recent transition in the (city) manager’s office, the project is on hold until reviewed by the new city manager,” Transportation Department spokesman Michael R. Graham said.

The Congress work would upgrade utilities under the street, move them out of the way of the streetcar tracks and install streetcar tracks.

A new online arts directory started Monday at showup.com gives Tucson its first comprehensive Internet listings controlled by the arts community.

For people looking for a show, showup.com lists what’s going on in theaters, music venues, museums and art galleries around town, and people can buy tickets at the site.

One click can take shoppers to a specific organization’s ticket site for regular tickers or to showup.com‘s Ticket Marketplace.

“We make the decision of what tickets go up there (at the marketplace),” said Kevin Moore, managing director at Arizona Theatre Co.

The marketplace mostly carries last-day tickets that were not sold or tickets that were returned. They typically are discounted, said Matt Lehrman, executive director of Alliance for Audience, which started showup.com in Phoenix in 2004 and added a dedicated section for Tucson.

Ticket Marketplace has attracted theater newcomers as well as theater veterans expanding their entertainment options, Lehrman said.

People from dozens of arts organizations showed up for the site launch event at the Tucson Museum of Art, playing right into Lehrman’s selling point that showup.com in Phoenix led to arts organizations getting to know each other and collaborating more to build audiences – the key objective for the arts community, Lehrman said.

Arts and cultural organizations can e-mail listings and promotional art to events@showup.com to have them posted at the site.

The Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau provided $50,000 to begin and operate the Web site for its first year. The bureau collaborated with the Tucson Pima Arts Council, which listed an online directory as the first priority for the Pima Cultural Plan.

Chamber’s president being very proactive

Maricela Solis de Kester runs the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with passion and purpose. She wants to strengthen Hispanic businesses and bridge the gap between the Hispanic and non-Hispanic business worlds.

As the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the organization is shifting its reputation from social networking to helping improve Hispanic businesses.

Maricela Solis de Kester, chamber president, said one way is to welcome Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike. The No. 1 question the group gets is “Do you have to be Hispanic to join the chamber?” she said.

The answer is no.

Solis de Kester this month launched workshops for non-Hispanic merchants, “How to Reach the Hispanic Market: Breaking Barriers.” The next ones will be May 14 and June 18.

“Why should your business be Hispanic ready? If your business is not Hispanic ready, you are missing business,” she said. “On the flip side, the Hispanic-owned businesses are also trying to enter the mainstream market, especially those who come from Mexico. We’re trying to bridge those two gaps.”

Bridging the gap is only one set of words on Solis de Kester’s list. One word one will never see is waiting – it’s not in her vocabulary.

Two months ago, she witnessed how business owners were confused when city procurement officials explained how to get contract work.

The following week, Solis de Kester advertised workshops to prepare Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce members to land city contracts, and the next week workshops started.

Now, two months later, 20 merchants finished the first set of five procurement workshops. Seven workshops are left of the second set.

“Patience, I struggle with it,” said Solis de Kester, who has been the chamber’s president since January 2008.

“If we have an identified need in our community, then it becomes like a puzzle for me. I search for the pieces, put them together and move forward.”

Sandra DiCosola saw this first hand as Solis de Kester and the Microbusiness Advancement Center recruited her to teach the procurement workshops.

“What’s impressive to me is they hit the ground running,” said DiCosola, owner of Summit Contract Management. “If they say they are going to do something, they do it. Hold on to your hat when you work with them.”

As Solis de Kester took the job 16 months ago, she quickly realized the deficiencies of the chamber building at 823 E. Speedway Blvd. were a lost cause. By August, the Hispanic Chamber had moved downtown into the Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities offices, 120 N. Stone Ave., with free rent offered by TREO Chief Executive Joe Snell.

“We needed to find somewhere to go,” Solis de Kester said. “Joe said, ‘If you need a space, give me a call.’ Six months later, I was calling.”

Snell wasn’t dropping a line with “if you need a space.” TREO uses at most 9,000 square feet of its allotted 12,000 square feet in the Compass Bank building. TREO staffing has dropped from 26 to 16 in Snell’s 3-1/2-year tenure.

“I never did see when we would be able to fill this much space. We have always been looking,” Snell said. “We don’t charge them.”

More collaborations

The Hispanic chamber collaborated with the Microbusiness Advancement Center and DiCosola to guide 20 Hispanic merchants through the government contract procurement process in a series of five workshops in the past two months.

Merchants got one-on-one guidance on how to register on government Web sites and how to get certified to bid on Tucson and federal contracts.

“Navigating through government bureaucracy is a challenge to all,” DiCosola said. “It’s across the board for small businesses. They’re typically good at their industry. Scientists and engineers are no different to work with than blue collar.”

Margherita Arvanites is president of Desert Glen Commercial Landscape Group, which has active projects at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Marana, at the Rio Nuevo Mission Gardens and in Green Valley. Yet she had not figured out the government procurement process until she took three of the five Hispanic chamber workshops and got certified March 18 with the city procurement office.

“It’s worth the hour or hour-and-a-half to go to this class and figure out how to do this,” Arvanites said. “I’m sure we would have struggled and stomped over ourselves otherwise. If we do this right, we hope to pick up $2 million or $3 million in business.”

The Hispanic chamber has led the way in pushing and encouraging the city Procurement Department to implement a February mandate from the City Council to give priority to the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise program to increase the percentage of contracts awarded to minority-owned business.

“Now we are stepping up our outreach,” said Mark Neihart, the city procurement director. “She definitely contributed to that. I would say the Hispanic chamber has been at the forefront.”

Solis de Kester has firm goals for these workshops.

“What I would like to see in a year from now is at least $5 million in contracts awarded,” she said. “I’m thinking for $5 million, I’d like to have at least 25 of my members get contracts.”

Edmund Marquez Jr., who chairs the Hispanic chamber’s board, has seen a marked change since Solis de Kester came on board.

“She is doing a great job making sure our members are educated to survive in this economy,” Marquez said. “She has gotten us more involved in public policy and what’s going on in local government.”

Solis de Kester, 36, wants to bring a generational shift to community leadership.

“I want Gen Exers to come out and join me to shape the community,” she said. “I’m ready to pick up the torch.”

Part of her push is to embrace downtown, where the chamber has staged three events.

• The March 21 world premiere of the “Beisbol: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” documentary at the Fox Theatre.

• The annual gala at the Leo Rich Theatre.

• Business mixers at Club Congress.

“I love downtown,” Solis de Kester said. “I think downtown is misunderstood.

“The value has been, for one, the City Council is across the street. The other benefit is the business community downtown is close knit.

“Our members are seeing it’s OK to be downtown. You can park. You can walk.”

Gary Cullivan (left) and Jose Macias are laying pavers at a Barrio Viejo project. They work for Desert Glen Commercial Landscape Group, which enrolled in Hispanic Chamber workshops to win more city contracts.

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Editor’s note

Downtown reporter Teya Vitu will answer your questions from 11 a.m. to noon on Monday. Go to the comment section of this story for the interactive chat.

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GOALS

Maricela Solis de Kester’s goals for the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:

• 1. Get people to understand you don’t need to be Hispanic to be a member.

• 2. Get more members through the government contract procurement workshops.

• 3. “I want to be a voice for the the business sector in policy matters. That is a new direction of ’09. Be very present, have a voice, shape and form policy (at City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors).”

Contract Procurement workshops

• When: Tuesday, Thursday, April 30, May 5, May 7, June 2, June 4 ; most are 3 to 5 p.m.

• Where: most are at Pima Community College Community Campus, 401 N. Bonita Way, Room A130

• Cost: $40 per class

• Contact: Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at 620-0005.

Reaching the Hispanic Market workshops

• When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 14, June 18

• Where: Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St.

• Cost: $35 for each

• Contact: Ricardo Esquivel at 990-3806.

The seventh annual Fiesta Grande Street Fair takes place on the West Side roadway all day Saturday and Sunday.

The fair runs from 9:30 a.m to dusk on Saturday and from noon to dusk on Sunday.

The fundraiser for the Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association fills Grande between Speedway and St. Mary’s Road, four blocks west of Interstate 10.

The fair mixes a Ferris wheel, jumping castles and other games with a car show, arts and crafts and music from local bands. Local restaurants will serve up Mexican food. Entrance is free.

Fair sponsors include Golden Eagle Distributors, Pepsi, Qwest Communications, Food City and Pima County Public Works

Shop’s focus on local products delights clientele

More than 180 people took part in the start of the first Meet Me at Maynards weekly Southern Arizona Roadrunners social run. The Monday run started at Maynards Market at the Historic Depot, 400 N. Toole Ave.

Defying a depressed economy and a closed Fourth Avenue underpass just a few feet away, Maynards Market appears to be growing.

The 2-month-old market in the Historic Depot, 400 E. Toole Ave., is a local business with local products for people who live and work downtown – and also for people from all over who add a market stop while dining next door at Maynards Kitchen.

“People are really yearning for something to happen downtown,” said Shana Oseran, who with her husband, Richard, owns Maynards Market and Kitchen, along with Hotel Congress across the street.

“What’s happening is we’re willing to take a chance and offer what people want.”

Maynards has already developed a loyal customer base that makes suggestions on what the market should carry, such as bottled Coca-Cola from Mexico; Orangina, a carbonated citrus drink; and Sanpellegrino mineral water.

“I sell the heck out of this,” market manager Mark Black said about Orangina. “A lot of these drinks have cult followings.”

But about half of its merchandise is made in and around Tucson and elsewhere in Arizona.

“I think over time we’re going to move closer to 100 percent local,” Black said.

Black recruited 30 local vendors to supply goods from candles, artisan breads and organic spices to scone mix, recycled vinyl accessories and fresh farmer’s cheese and butter. The store carries nearly 900 items.

Monroe Racz, who lives a block away at One North Fifth Apartments, manages to do all her food shopping at Maynards.

“It’s filled my dream of not having to use my car,” Racz said. “The store makes my shopping more convenient.”

“The market is really focusing on local products and having amenities that need to be available for people who live downtown,” Shana Oseran said. “To tell you the truth, we throw everything up in the air and see what’s selling. Believe me, it’s the local products.”

So far, the restaurant is subsidizing the market, but sales figures grow every week. Richard Oseran is pleased with the results, considering that a prime customer base is on the other side of the Fourth Avenue underpass, which is closed for construction.

Many market patrons are restaurant diners, largely because they must order their lunch at the market counter. Dinner has table service.

“Some people had to get used to the idea of not having table service at lunch,” Richard Oseran said. “The reason (for it) was to have people moving through the whole area.”

This week, runners and walkers discovered Maynards en masse.

The Southern Arizona Roadrunners staged its first “Meet Me at Maynards” Monday, drawing about 200 people to run or walk through downtown along the blue painted line known as the Presidio Trail. Before and after, participants wandered through the market, dined at the neighboring Maynards Kitchen and socialized on the track-side patio.

“The first social run was a blast,” said Randy Accetta, a former Roadrunners president and co-developer of the Maynards event. “The market is a great idea. The Maynards location was splendid: plenty of room on the patio, great drinks, discounted food – couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The Roadrunners plan to meet at the market at 6 p.m. every Monday, at least through the end of May, Accetta said.

Maynards Market and Kitchen is among a string of relatively new downtown businesses that bring an enthusiastic spirit to downtown, said Chris Early, owner of Chris’ Cafe and chair of the Downtown Tucson Partnership’s Merchants Council.

“It’s another one of those new businesses coming downtown with fresh ideas and a willingness to be open when events are going on in the evenings,” Early said.

The market fills about half of the former waiting room space at the train depot. The Oserans decided to craft shelves from pallet wood to give the space a rustic feel.

The merchandise includes an eclectic mix of breakfast items, snack stuff, detergents, decorative items, and enough components to assemble a dinner.

Lisette Sacks, creative director at a downtown advertising firm, assembles her lunch three days a week with Maynards Market merchandise.

The bar manager at the Hotel Congress selects the beer and wines, which include handcrafted beers, ales and stouts from New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, north San Diego County, Ukiah in northern California and overseas.

Some of the beer and wine is served at the Maynards restaurant bar, and an asterisk on the dinner menu denotes ingredients available in the market.

Monica Cota provides candles hand-poured at her Rustic Candle Co. shop, 324 N. Fourth Ave. She said sales have increased 20 percent since her product has been available at Maynards.

“I’m just thrilled with the response we have had in there,” Cota said. “(Maynards) have kept reordering.”

Tucsonan Bobbie Lee (left) and her daughter, Rebecca Lee of San Francisco, shop at Maynards Market, 400 E. Toole Ave., on Wednesday. The market and restaurant are in the former Central Bistro restaurant inside the train depot.

Maynards Market and Kitchen manager Mark Black checks a list of products.

The community table at Maynards Market and Kitchen, which seats 18, was made with ponderosa pine salvaged from the 2003 Aspen fire on Mount Lemmon.

Maynards sells products from about 30 local vendors, including candles from the Rustic Candle Co. on Fourth Avenue.

Locally made salsa is for sale at Maynards Market.

This is the first Meet Me at Maynard's weekly SAR social run. The run started at Maynard's Market at the Historic Train Depot 400 N. Toole. Ave. About 180 people participated.

Runners and walkers who took part in the Monday evening event were served iced tea, lemonade or a margarita on Maynards' track-side patio.

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Online chat

Have any further questions about Maynards or just want to chat about other downtown issues?

Go to the comment section of this story from 2 to 3 p.m. Friday. Downtown reporter Teya Vitu who will be on hand to answer your questions.

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If you go

What: Maynards’ weekly Southern Arizona Roadrunners social run

Where: Historic Train Depot, 400 N. Toole Ave.

When: 6 p.m., Mondays. Come early to check in for the free informal, non-competitive walk

Information: 991-0733 or www.azroadrunners.org.

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If you go

What: New Belgium Urban Assault Ride

When: noon Sunday

Where: 400 N. Toole Ave.

Details: The New Belgium Urban Assault Ride, the largest bicycle scavenger hunt series in the world, kicks off its 10-city 2009 tour in Tucson. This event calls for street savvy and bike smarts, and promotes cycling, health and sustainability.

Info: Call 303-408-0747

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Local vendors at Maynards Market

• Desert Oasis Soap Co. (bar soap and lip salves)

• Rainbow Valley Nursery (fresh farmer’s cheese and butter)

• Tucson Tamale Co. (tamales and fresh salsa)

• Caffe Lucé (fresh roasted coffee)

• Red Rock Ranch and Farms (lavender products)

• Poblano Hot Sauce Inc. (hot sauces)

• Adobe Rose Inn (scone mix)

• Vy & Elle (recycled vinyl accessories)

• Grandma Koyotes BBQ Sauce (Kansas City-style barbecue sauce with bacon bits)

• Bakehouse Bread (artisan breads)

• Mano Y Metate (mole blends)

• Rustic Candle Co. (handcrafted candles)

• Katey Coleville (hand-printed baby clothes)

• Bookmans (books and magazines)

• Five Star Jerky (homemade jerky)

• Livity (raw organic fudge)

• Jack & the Bean Soup (bean soup mixes)

• Medicine of the People (lip balm and salve)

• Retro Trek (luggage tags and stickers)

• Villa Feliz (flowers and plants)

• TM Design (custom metal fabrication)

• Desert Spice & Chili (organic herbs and spices)

• The Vail Connection (gourds and antique fabrics)

• Terra Verde Farms (spicy condiments)

• Lil’ Sassy’s Salsa (salsas)

• RPMS (preserves, condiments)

• Mama Llamas (empañadas)

• Miracle Munchies (gluten-free baking mixes and cookies)

• Azmira Holistic Animal Care (dog and cat food)

• Naknek Family Fisheries (frozen Alaskan salmon and halibut)

Dedication May 31 for community facility honoring Monsignor Carrillo

Joe Hernandez, of Adobe Anvil Iron Works, talks about how he made the metal flowers for the stage and bandshell for the new Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo Placita.

A 22-foot-tall, steel lattice band shell with decorative floral details now graces the St. Augustine Cathedral grounds, the signature piece for the Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo Placita and Hall.

The placita’s dedication is set for 1 p.m. May 31, said John Shaheen, property director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.

Work on the placita, at 192 S. Stone Ave., will continue until mid-May.

“The idea behind it was, this would be a community space, not just for the parish,” Shaheen said. “The whole placita area is designed to handle craft fairs, farmers markets and such.”

The placita can seat 600 for concerts and 300 for sit-down dinners, he said.

The band shell covers a 1,600-square-foot stage.

The shell is decorated with more than 300 steel flowers;1,000 steel leaves and branches; 18 steel butterflies; and a half-dozen steel birds, all crafted by blacksmith Joe Hernandez and two people he hired for the four-month forging job. Hernandez also supervised the installation of his floral work during the past four weeks.

“I just came up with a design (for the flowers),” said Hernandez, who owns Adobe Anvil Iron Works. “Each flower is about seven pieces.”

The flowers range from 24 inches to 12 inches wide. They were airbrushed with color by Fernando Holguin and Chris Andrews.

The placita is a 4-year quest of Tony S. Carrillo to honor his brother, Monsignor Arsenio S. Carrillo, who was the cathedral’s rector for 40 years. Tony Carrillo chaired the 31-person placita committee that has raised about $1 million. It still needs about $150,000 to pay for the sound and lighting systems.

“It’s very exciting to be able to have a facility that is going to be open to the public that can be used for weddings and quinceañeras,” Tony Carrillo said. “The fact that it will spur interest in further development downtown is also important to me and the bishop.”

The placita has been taking shape since last April, as crews transformed the cathedral’s long-neglected space at Stone Avenue and Ochoa Street into a dedicated gathering place.

About 1,200 paver bricks will make up the placita surface, and new restrooms were attached to the exterior of the former cathedral hall. A small grotto in honor of the monsignor is being built at Stone and Ochoa.

Groups wishing to use the placita can call Shaheen at 792-3410.

Joe Hernandez of Adobe Anvil Iron Works explains how he made the metal flowers for the stage and band shell.

Francisco Merancio (left) and Manny De Loreto of Escalante Concrete prepare forms for the steps to the stage and band shell.

Arizona Federal Credit Union expects to close its two Tucson branches on unspecified dates, the credit union announced Tuesday.

Arizona Federal has branches at 2900 E. Broadway and 1069 E. Silverlake Road.

“When final actions and dates are determined, we will communicate directly with our members,” community relations manager Christopher Paterson said in a prepared statement.

Paterson provided no additional information and was not available for questions.

Arizona Federal, launched in 1936, is a Maricopa County-centric credit union with 23 of its 25 branches in the greater Phoenix area. The first Tucson branch was opened in 1996, according to Citizen archives.

It has $1.9 billion in assets and 235,000 member accounts, according to the credit union’s Web site.

Luis Soto of Sergio Salazar Painting works on the trim of the Tucson Children's Museum.

New paint and decorative banners are giving the finishing touches to a yearlong effort to spruce up the 1901 classical revival Carnegie Library building at 200 S. Sixth Ave.

The Tucson Children’s Museum and city Parks & Recreation Department are collaborating to improve the looks of the historic building that had been largely obscured by a block wall since 1960.

“The goal is to bring new life to the Carnegie,” said Michael Luria, interim executive director at the children’s museum, which occupies the former library building. “Once the wall came down you could see all the peeling paint.”

Parks & Recreation, which owns the building, tore down the wall in front of the Carnegie from April to June 2008 and replaced it with a wrought-iron fence to reveal the colonnaded structure to people at Armory Park and those walking down Sixth Avenue.

Parks & Recreation last week and this week is repainting the facade using about $5,000 that was left over from the $233,200 1997 Pima County Capital Improvement Project bond used to remove the wall and build the fence, said Howard Dutt, landscape architect at Parks & Recreation

The children’s museum will drape two banners on each of the five street light poles on Sixth Avenue and the seven light poles on Scott Avenue. Each banner will display images of children who use the museum, Luria said.

He expects the Sixth Avenue banners to be installed in early May and the Scott banners to be up by the end of May. Private funding is paying for the banners, he said.

The Scott banners will go up just as the streetscape project finishes to bring wider sidewalks, more trees and shrubs and benches to Scott Avenue from Broadway to the Temple of Music and Art.

Bob Seaberg, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, works on a new children's playhouse that will have the same color scheme as the Tucson Children's Museum.

Rincon Rotary club member Ann Strug and Andrew Zlaket, 12, paint picnic tables.

Last week’s daily scramble to save Rio Nuevo is having little impact in the Legislature, where lawmakers are poised to take control of the downtown revitalization project from the city.

The firing of former City Manager Mike Hein, cutting Rio Nuevo director Greg Shelko’s position from the budget as of July 1, and the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board’s announcement Friday that it would seek new management and financial management for Rio Nuevo are hitting on deaf ears with the Legislature.

“It’s irrelevant,” state Rep. Frank Antenori, a Tucson Republican said. “We’re going full-speed ahead for a state oversight board.”

State Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, is crafting legislation to either add state-appointed members to the Rio Nuevo board or create a new board with state-appointed members.

“We’re still working on the language,” Paton said. “I’d say we’re not going to have a budget soon.”

Antenori said legislation would focus Rio Nuevo entirely on the Tucson Convention Center expansion and companion hotel.

“No trolley, no Fox Theatre, no Mercado District, no more anything else,” Antenori said. “We gotta get the convention center built.”

The City Council, in the meantime, will consider a resolution Tuesday stating the TCC and its hotel are the top priorities for downtown revitalization, a position the council had already taken March 17.

The Rio Nuevo Board on Friday made its first public hint at changing the intergovernmental agreement that has the city operating the Rio Nuevo district, but no marching orders were issued to Rio Nuevo legal counsel Bill Hicks.

“I have none to speak of,” Hicks said about assigned duties regarding refashioning Rio Nuevo. “It’s at this point an undefined course of action.”

Hicks said “presumably” there would be modifications to the IGA, “but none of that has been discussed.”

The decision to cut the Rio Nuevo director from the fiscal 2010 budget also presumes changes to the agreement, but interim City Manager Mike Letcher said he would get advice from the city attorney about the IGA.

Letcher dismissed notions the city was handing off Rio Nuevo, even though it won’t have a director for day-to-day operations.

“There’s still people in charge,” Letcher said. “I’m in charge.”

They let you see world that day, the news side by side; Internet shows you a sliver

The May 16, 1998 front page of the Los Angeles Times.

Newspapers are the first draft of history. The Internet is not.

A newspaper told you, and still tells you, that Frank Sinatra died the same day the final episode of “Seinfeld” aired. Ol’ Blue Eyes closed his eyes about an hour or so after Jerry and the gang signed off.

That May 16, 1998, issue of the Los Angeles Times gave nearly as much space to the seven-player trade sending Mike Piazza from the Dodgers to the Florida Marlins, later regarded as the worst deal in Dodger history.

Frank got prime placement on the Saturday front page, another four pages inside, plus six more pages in the Calendar section, and Mike got one column above the fold plus a seven-page Sports Extra.

Seinfeld most likely got bumped off the Calendar front to the second page to make way for the “Requiem for a Saloon Singer,” but he did get a tiny blurb at the bottom of Page One.

The Internet does not easily reveal these parallel happenings that unfold before you when you flip through a yellowing newspaper. Newspapers document a day in history in a way you don’t achieve on the Internet – or if you don’t have newspapers.

Googling “Sinatra death” does not turn up what else happened that day.

“I think the newspaper is the last mass medium that is as encompassing as it is,” said Linda Lumsden, a University of Arizona assistant professor teaching press history. “I think it’s going to be narrowing. People are going to be limiting themselves to a much more finite world.”

The Internet compartmentalizes news. Newspapers set the happenings of the world side by side.

You flip through a newspaper and stumble upon things. The Sinatra issue, in the smallest type, listed the college softball tournament games, where No. 1 seed Arizona (59-3) faced off against Niagara. More relevant to me: No. 3 Cal was playing Cal State Northridge.

The Preakness was that day. Real Quiet, the 5-2 favorite trained by former Tucsonan Bob Baffert, would go on to win.

Volkswagen announced a recall of all the new Beetles soon after reintroducing the Beetle after a 20-year hiatus.

The big “news” that day was the condemnation of nuclear tests in India, with a second story where Pakistan said it was in no rush to test atomic weapons.

“You have a permanent record with newspapers,” said David Gibbs, a UA assistant professor of history and political science. “Things disappear on the Internet all the time.”

Who thoroughly clicks their way through the maze of an online paper? If it’s not on the home page, reader clicks diminish precipitously.

“I will say, too, it is possible to search all these papers (online), but you have to want to,” Lumsden said in defense of the Internet.

I bought the May 16, 1998, L.A. Times for a single reason: Sinatra’s death.

I’ve had a 30-plus-year fascination with going through old papers and being surprised to find something familiar but entirely unrelated in the same issue.

Such as the day Grace Kelly died as covered by the L.A. Times on Sept. 15, 1982. That front page also reported the first day of USA Today publication and Ted Turner announcing his TNT network, but for Angelenos the dominant headline went to the bus driver strike that stranded 1.2 million riders.

TV anchor Jessica Savitch’s death hit a rare double newsworthy days. She shared the front page with 186 Marines getting killed in Beirut in the Oct. 24, 1983, issue, and the next day a second-day Savitch story shared an issue with the U.S. invading Grenada and the shooting of legendary L.A. news anchor Jerry Dunphy, who always opened his newscasts with “From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California . . .”

For those who think newspapers have no value in preserving history, bookstores are selling the New York Times from the day President Obama was elected for $14.95.

“That’s very telling,” Lumsden said. “When something big happens, people want to save the paper.”

For the record: Lumsden couldn’t find the Nov. 5, 2008, full print edition online.

Teya Vitu was a history major at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and for the time being covers downtown for the Tucson Citizen.

The Rio Nuevo Multipurpose District Facilities Board, nearly invisible for the past nine years, stepped forward Friday to announce its intention to take back control of the beleaguered downtown redevelopment project.

At a hastily called special meeting Friday afternoon, the board decided to explore getting an outside management firm for Rio Nuevo and outsource the district’s financial management.

The city has operated Rio Nuevo since its inception in 1999 through an intergovernmental agreement initiated by the Rio Nuevo board. That agreement will likely be revisited, said Anne-Marie Russell, the board’s chairwoman.

“We have the opportunity to move from a passive structure to a more active structure,” Russell said before the three board members and Rio Nuevo legal counsel Bill Hicks retreated to a 35-minute closed session.

City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, who chairs the council’s Rio Nuevo subcommittee, welcomed the idea to have City Hall pass Rio Nuevo back to its board. The Rio Nuevo district is an independent political subdivision of the state.

“I think this is a major step forward,” said Trasoff, the only council member at the board meeting. “I think this is a perfect time to take (Rio Nuevo) out of the political arena.”

The board’s sudden move in its first meeting this year stems from this week’s firing of former City Manager Mike Hein and continuing threats from the Legislature to stop the Rio Nuevo tax increment financing.

“We have to do what we can to strengthen our relationship with the state Legislature,” board member Jeff DiGregorio said. “We need to shift the district financing to a more independent mode, separate from the city. We need better transparency and better accountability.”

Board member Dan Eckstrom, attending his first board meeting since his appointment in July, suggested forming several collaborations beyond City Hall to carry Rio Nuevo forward.

“We can set policy that will bring this whole thing to fruition,” said Eckstrom, who declined to say why he has not attended previous board meetings. “It’s a process that will take some time, but I’m up to the task.”

The state statute that created the Rio Nuevo district gives the board control of Rio Nuevo, but the board in 1999 chose to rely on city management rather than duplicating staff, Hicks said.

The intergovernmental agreement made the city manager the executive director of the Rio Nuevo district and the city finance director the district’s treasurer, and the City Council set Rio Nuevo policies. The Rio Nuevo board met sporadically, mostly to give initial approval for major expenditures that got final approval from the city.

The Rio Nuevo board consists of two members appointed by the Tucson City Council – Russell and DiGregorio – and two appointed by the South Tucson City Council – Eckstrom and Roman Soltero, who was absent Friday. South Tucson is involved because the state law that allowed formation of Rio Nuevo requires two government entities to sponsor such a district.