A federal program serving communities in Pima County is helping several Arivaca organizations, including two gathering spots, make upgrades to lower costs, improve conditions and keep the community strong.
The Arivaca Community Center received funds to upgrade its playground, adding a wood-chip surface and new shade structure. It will also get funding to improve its commercial kitchen, which serves children and is available to the public to rent.
The historic Arivaca Schoolhouse also received funding to replace the kitchen’s nearly 120-year-old floor, which is sagging in spots due to termite damage. The schoolhouse was built in 1879.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grants began serving Pima County in 1978, targeting low-income neighborhoods and rural communities. The county, acting as the fiscal agent for the federal funds, receives applications and a committee determines how much money projects receive. The county’s Community & Workforce Development web page reported the program returned more than $55 million in taxpayer dollars to the county through the CDBG program since 1978.
Division Manager Joel Gastelum told the Green Valley News the annual awards are a yearlong process for project applicants, beginning with the county’s action plan.
Groups apply for grants in the fall and can get help if needed. Applications are due in January. A committee reviews them and makes a recommendation to the Pima County Board of Supervisors in May.
Desiree Arnold is the Arivaca Schoolhouse kitchen manager and also uses the space for her home business.
Green Valley, Sahuarita, Amado and Arivaca are among the county’s targeted rural areas receiving CDBG funds. From Fiscal Year 2021 through 2025, the four communities received $1.9 million in grants through the program, including CARES Act infusions during the pandemic.
For FY25, the county is awaiting $55,000 for programming and a project in Amado; $106,000 for facility improvements in Arivaca; $55,000 in Green Valley for programming and facility improvements at Valley Assistance Services; and $65,000 for warehouse logistics improvements at the Sahuarita Food Bank.
Gastelum said the county’s Home Repair Program also combines CDBG funding with other sources for home rehabilitation services. He said the program assisted one project in Arivaca, three in Amado, seven in Sahuarita and 15 in Green Valley.
Gastelum said the county received $6.6 million in requests for the current year, with Community & Workforce Development recently receiving notice from HUD that it will get $2.6 million in grant funding.
The county’s committee also makes similar considerations for public service programs using CDBG funds. The county reported that up to 15% of the county’s CDBG allotment can go to service programs like hot meals, after-school programs, preschool tuition, crime prevention and others.
Gastelum said the CDBG is supplemental funding to funds from the county’s General Fund, donations and other sources going toward a program.
“So they may ask us for $50,000 but realistically, looking at all of our requests, we can afford $25,000,” he said. “So, say they’re going to help 10 people with $50,000, then their metric is going to drop to about five people. It’s kind of that balancing act. A lot of that is also based on performance throughout the year — how they’re spending, how they’re performing and that sort of thing.”
On the ground
In Arivaca, Community Center board president Les Rivett said the funds covering the new playground surface with wood chips, replacing bare dirt ground, helped the organization reduce its insurance liability.
“There had been a curb around the whole playground area, and you could barely tell the curb was there because, over the years, so much dirt and sand had come into the area,” she said. “So, we had it all dug out, and then they brought in at least four semis of wood chips to put in there — it’s really nice now.”
The Community Center is also going to upgrade its commercial kitchen that will improve sanitary conditions and keep pests out.
“It was built way back in the ’80s, so the kitchen needs to be brought up. We’re going to replace the cupboards with stainless steel tables and racking and storage cabinets,” Rivett said, adding a new commercial stove is in the works as well. “It will help us to be able to keep our kitchen certification, keep the kitchen cleaner.”
The Community Center receives other grants from the county’s Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Department for programming serving youths. Rivett said the CDBG covers facility improvements, like the playground and kitchen, which both serve the youth attendees who will eat meals there.
On Thursday, Leah Ballou cooked ground hamburger for sloppy Joes the kids planned to have for their lunch. Across town, the Arnold family — Travis, Desiree and their son, Jai — worked in the Arivaca Schoolhouse kitchen.
Leah Ballou gets sloppy Joe sandwiches ready for kids at the Arivaca Community Center on Thursday.
Mary Kasulaitis, Friends of the Arivaca Schoolhouse and Historic Townsite board member, said the kitchen’s floor dates to about 1906, and termite damage has left it sagging and cracking underneath newer vinyl covering.
She said the historic adobe structure also makes the repair especially difficult since a future contractor will have to take extra care not to touch the walls with the new concrete supports. The schoolhouse was built in 1879, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Kasulaitis said it’s the oldest standing schoolhouse in Arizona.
“The concrete will soak up water and percolate it up into the adobe,” she said about needing special work for the old building.
The kitchen space is part of the old adobe schoolhouse construction, but the kitchen itself didn’t come until 1995, through a CDBG award. Kasulaitis said several other CDBG awards were also used to rehabilitate the historic building. She said the site is now used as a community building, hosting multiple yoga classes, meetings, funerals and other events.
People can also rent the kitchen to produce food for their businesses. Desiree, the kitchen manager, and her family used the kitchen on Thursday for her home business.
“We have another person, the lady Matilda, who has the Sonoran hotdog food truck, uses it as her commissary, too,” Kasulaitis said.
Community impact
Kasulaitis was born and raised in Arivaca and remembers far fewer facilities, resources and options for residents while growing up. She credits CDBG funding with keeping Arivaca going, saying they made the Community Center, fire department, remodeled clinic, schoolhouse, Arivaca Human Resources and now Arivaca Helping Hearts buildings possible.
“And then for Human Resources, there are grants to provide the things they need to provide food for the community,” Kasulaitis said. “So, it’s the best thing that ever happened. We would not be a town like this at all without Community Development Block Grants.”
Gastelum said the CDBG funds play a critical role for the county’s rural communities where resources found in urban areas might not reach them.
“In some cases, take the City of Tucson, they may have some tax revenue to pay for some kind of improvements, whereas in some of the rural areas — Arivaca, Ajo, Amado — this is the only game in town, so to speak, to kind of provide services and funding for programs and projects,” he said.
Rivett said the Community Center would have had to rely on fundraising without CDBG funds, leaving the nonprofit’s board focusing on one project with longer wait times to complete them.
“We are a small community and there are at least three nonprofits who benefit the community a lot and do fundraisers,” she said. “So, yes, it would have been much more difficult and taken a lot longer.”
Alice Bennett stands under a new shade structure at the Arivaca Community Center that was part of a federal Community Development Block Grant award through Pima County.
Rivett, an Alabama native, moved to Arivaca about 12 years ago with her husband and joined the Community Center’s board 10 years ago, serving as the president the past four.
“We’ve lived in several small towns and I’ve been involved with things, and I really find it amazing how much Arivaca is able to use the CDBG grants, not only get them but use them in a very positive way for the whole town to be able to benefit from them,” she said.
Kasulaitis said the grants also provide residents with something she didn’t see while growing up — options.
“And that’s one of the reasons why Arivaca is such a community-oriented town; it does have these places where people can meet together and use the space,” she said. “And now we have a choice. You have a space of your choice — do you want this one or another one? I think that makes Arivaca a different kind of town. Everybody gets to know each other better, work together and they feel a need to help the community in some way by supporting these buildings.”
