Florence residents want town to budget to fight area mine
by Mark Cowling | Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune
As the town looks for cuts and ways to save in the new fiscal year budget, a few residents urged the council not to skimp on legal fees in the town’s ongoing battles against Florence Copper.
The town recently calculated it has spent an average of almost $300,000 per year over the last four years in legal fees and expenses related to opposing the future in-situ mine on Hunt Highway.
Housing developer George Johnson of Scottsdale told the council Monday he understands it’s a lot of money each year, but cleaning up a failed mine would cost many millions more. “Those expenses are passed down to the ratepayers,” he said. If it’s an industrial park the town needs, Johnson said he’ll donate the land, and help Florence “to have a super-neat industrial park.”
