MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Town of Marana's Stormwater Maintenance Team is tackling projects across the community and getting ahead of monsoon storms by clearing culverts and removing vegetation.
The town created the team, led by Adrian Rojel, about a year and a half ago.
"Now we can actually do about 70 or 80% of the work ourselves and not be so reliant on contractors," Rojel said.
The team's projects include culvert cleaning, vegetation removal, homeless camp cleanups, and street sweeping. While they can't do every project themselves, they now have four sets of eyes on the town's roughly 1,200 culverts.
"A lot of the stuff has been building up because there was no stormwater team. So now that that's in place, it's so crucial that we get ahead of the game and mitigate some of these areas like we're looking at right now so that they don't build up to that 80% to 90% and cause flooding," Rojel said.
Beyond keeping a closer watch on infrastructure, the team has also been saving the town money.
"Having a crucial in-house stormwater team helps with us saving about anywhere between $200,000 to $300,000 per project, because we can do all the work in-house, other than some of these that are only four feet high," Rojel said.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
