Supervisors appoint new health director

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve Diana Gomez as the new director of the Yuma County Health Services District at its regular meeting Wednesday.

“It's an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to lead the agency into the next era,” Gomez said. “I've had the privilege for almost 14 years to work alongside a team of dedicated, hardworking professionals ... and to lead that team is certainly humbling and definitely an honor. And I assure you that we will continue to work hard to promote wellness and to safeguard the health of the residents of Yuma County.”

Gomez was selected after a committee led by County Administrator Robert Pickels conducted an extensive recruitment process.

“It (was) a real pleasure for me today to recommend Diana Gomez as the next health director,” Pickels said. “As I've said before, it's always my preference to look within and acknowledge the hard work and dedication our employees put in to public service. And Diana is very representative of that.”

Gomez, who has been an employee of the health district since 1998, replaces Becky Brooks, who retired on Jan. 6. Her appointment will be retroactive to Jan. 9, when she was asked to assume the director's duties.

In other board news, the supervisors failed to reach a super-majority to grant a special use permit to construct a cell phone tower near County 11th Street and Avenue D in Yuma. Super-majorities, which in this case would be at least a 4-1 vote, are required for special use permits any time 20 percent of property owners by area or number within 300 feet of the proposed rezoning area file protests.

Prior to the vote, many landowners who owned property adjacent to the proposed site voiced their opposition to the tower's construction, mainly on the grounds that it would pose a hazard to crop dusters when spraying the fields.

After hearing from both sides, the supervisors voted 3-2 with Supervisors Tony Reyes and Lenore Stuart casting the dissenting votes.

“I understand the need for cell phone use in that area ... but my first concern is for the pilots,” Stuart said. “So I feel it's not an appropriate area for a cell phone tower at this time.”

Reyes said he voted no because he wants to minimize conflicts between rural and urban land uses.

“It (was) the right thing, in the wrong place. The conflict in uses and the fact that the majority of landowners around that property just can't see how the (two uses) can coexist (was) enough for me to vote no.”

The board also voted 5-0 to award the lease-purchase agreement for the new courthouse in Wellton to National Bank of Arizona Public Financial Services. The agreement was for approximately $2.4 million, excluding interest. In the same vote, the board authorized the Department of Development Services to begin advertising for bids on the project's construction.

After a year in the making, the supervisors received their first look at a draft of the library district's Strategic Plan.

Library district director Susan Evans presented the results of community surveys and steering committee recommendations and laid out some of the goals the library district would like to accomplish over the course of the five-year plan.

Evans said the library would like to increase family and adult attendance, attract more children and teens and establish the library as a leading center of community involvement and collaboration.

The draft will now undergo various revisions, and Evans anticipates the plan will be ready for adoption at the beginning of 2013.

Darren DaRonco can be reached at 539-6857 or ddaronco@yumasun.com. Follow him on Twitter @YSDarrend or on Facebook at www.faceboook.com/YSDarrenD.