Vice Mayor Paul Cunningham

The Arizona Symphonic Winds under music director and conductor László  Veres, along with Tucson Parks and Recreation, brings you a series of free Fall concerts on Saturday evenings. All concerts begin at 7 pm at  the László  Veres Amphitheater at Udall Park, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Rd, just east of Sabino Canyon Road. Bring a comfortable folding chair & your picnic dinner. Best seats available before 6:30 pm.

This year's schedule:

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about city’s Finance Department. It wasn’t a department that many of you were familiar with and I was glad to be able to get information to my constituents about it.

This week, I want to tell you a bit about the Parks and Recreation Department. It’s definitely higher profile than finance, and the work they do gets a great deal of support from all of you. The fact that we passed Proposition 407 last year is a great demonstration of that.

I am a strong believer in citizen participation. I wanted to let you know that there are some opportunities coming up to learn and participate.

Pima Association of Governments (PAG), in partnership with the City of Tucson, invites you to attend one of two open houses to review a draft Long-Range Regional Transit Plan. In the fall of 2018, the City and PAG held public meetings and conducted online and in-person surveys about transit. After technical review of all public comments, this draft plan was developed.

Last week, I gave a rundown on city departments and I said that I would profile different departments over the next few weeks.

I made a bit of an error when I gave the list. I mentioned the Finance Department. It’s not called that anymore. It is now known as the Business Services Department.

The name change isn’t cosmetic. The department is a newly organized entity that took over the functions of the old Finance and Procurement departments. Human Resources has to remain separate by provisions of the charter, but they are considered under the Business Services “umbrella.”

Growing up, I knew Todd Harris as a standout athlete for Sahuaro High School. He was a big guy, but he had a teddy bear charisma. He was probably the friendliest guy you will ever meet. I got to cross paths with him because of our mutual involvement in youth sports, particularly football and soccer.

Like me, he joined the Army after High School, but unlike me, he became career Army. He was a part of the storied 10^th Mountain Division. His service brought him to Afghanistan. On November 3^rd, 2010, he was killed in an insurgent attack on his unit.

It’s not the Mississippi, or even the Colorado, but it’s been amazing to see water flowing in the Santa Cruz again. This is especially true if you are a native Tucsonan like me that grew up hearing stories about when our river flowed.

Many of you know about our household hazardous waste drop off we have at the east side complex on the first Saturday. That normally means we’d be due for one next Saturday (July 6^th). Unfortunately, because of the July 4^th holiday, the Environmental Services Department was not able to get the volunteers that normally staff the drop off.