Florence strategic plan committee outlines priorities
by Mark Cowling | Casa Grande Dispatch
After listening to several committee members who’ve been working for months on a strategic plan for Florence, Town Manager Brent Billingsley asked how the prisons fit in.
“How do we make them part of what is alluring about Florence?” he asked Friday afternoon at Town Hall. “… perhaps that’s a lost opportunity. Perhaps that’s something we can do to set ourselves apart.”
Committee member Harold Christ, owner of the Windmill Winery, said his business has decided to embrace them, and is up-front with guests about the prisons and what they’ve made for the Windmill, such as signs and light fixtures. Even the burros and donkeys were adopted from Arizona State Prison, he said.
Committee member Jim Tchida told Billingsley, “I like the way you think. … Maybe we could figure out how to leverage the prisons in our favor.” He said an Associate of Arts degree program in corrections, and eventually a Bachelor of Arts program, could be offered in Florence. “That could be done within months.”
