Northwest Fire District’s governing board approved a contract for Michael J. Brandt to become its fire chief, dropping the “interim” from his current title when the two-year contract kicks in on May 28.

A New York developer has bought the Gladden Farms master-planned community in Marana for an undisclosed purchase price.

The Town of Marana has hosted a pair of open houses — the most recent last week at Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Library on N. Schisler Drive, to help educate the public about the town’s pursuit of a wastewater system.

Mountain Vista Fire District has been successful in annexing the Camino de Mañana area in Northwest Pima County and received certification of the annexation from the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

New business startups in Oro Valley have continued to populate the town during the past year, opening a number of specialized services businesses despite a slow economy that’s blanketed the country.

Northwest Medical Center (NMC) last week broke ground for a $46 million expansion that will deliver a new surgical wing and add four minimally invasive operating room (OR) suites to the existing dozen ORs in the hospital.

The Marana Town Council has authorized the town staff to negotiate with Pima County on one of two options the county recently offered to settle their dispute over the purchase of the Rillito Vista Wastewater Reclamation Facility.

Business seems to be improving and sprouting in new forms in Marana, from restaurants to health care facilities, and food markets to personal services providers, according to the Marana Chamber of Commerce.

Union Pacific Railroad's double track effort through Arizona from Los Angeles to El Paso has made an appearance in Northwest Tucson, with two major road crossings closed for several days each while UP crews rebuilt them to accommodate the second set of railroad tracks.

A proposed dog rescue facility on rural property in Pima County’s Northwest side that’s adjacent to a high-density Marana neighborhood has some of the Marana homeowners concerned, even before the dog organization files for a conditional use permit.

Four award-winning artists working in several disciplines will be part of the Fall Open Studios Tour, sponsored by the Tucson Pima Arts Council, on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10 and  Nov. 11.

Two chambers of commerce in the Northwest — Marana Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce — are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year, not by reveling in past, but by looking toward what they might accomplish in the future.

A report by an economic consultant commissioned by the Arizona State Land Department says that state trust land adjacent to acreage being considered for sale to Union Pacific Railroad (UP) for a switching yard would be affected by the sale and that infrastructure improvements to adjacent land should be paid for by the purchaser of the rail yard property.

Picture Rocks Fire District firefighter Scott Lackey hunkers low in the doorway with his fire attack team as Golder Ranch Fire District Battalion Chief Bill Foss twists a doorknob and opens a steel door. Blackish-brown smoke billows out of the entrance as the Picture Rocks firefighters start a ventilation fan to help clear the smoke, then crawl into the room, pulling a charged 1-3/4-inch hose line to extinguish the fire.

An Oro Valley councilman predicts that a management study of the town’s police department is not a dead issue and might resurface in some form in the next 60 to 90 days.

The stretch of West Ina Road between Silverbell Road and Star Commerce Way that includes a bridge across the Santa Cruz River will look quite different in a few years after the town of Marana and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) turn the two-lane road into a four-lane improved roadway.

The Arizona State Land Department is reviewing two reports of consultants charged with preparing an engineering assessment and an economic assessment of the possible sale of 900 acres of state trust land near Picacho Peak to Union Pacific Railroad for a proposed switching yard.

A near-standing room only crowd of approximately 125 individuals filled a room at Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center last week to voice their opinions at an Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) public hearing on the Interstate 10/Ina Road Traffic Interchange to Ruthrauff Road Traffic Interchange Study.

Northwest Medical Center's (NMC) Total Joint and Spine Surgery programs have each earned a Disease Specific Care Certification and a Gold Seal of Approval by the Joint Commission, a national accreditation and certification organization.

Three Northwest school districts are keeping an eye on Arizona statehouse legislation that, if signed by Governor Jan Brewer, would assess criminal penalties for anyone using an electronic or digital device to harass, intimidate or threaten another person.

Work on Union Pacific Railroad’s double track effort through Arizona from El Paso to Los Angeles is continuing, with most of the track being laid in Pinal County. However, the railroad’s plans for a larger switch yard near Picacho Peak are now on hold.

Annexations by Northwest area fire districts are blooming this spring as quickly as desert flowers. The Northwest Fire District has four annexations in progress, Mountain Vista Fire District has one, and Golder Ranch Fire District has the largest annexation of them all.

Northwest Medical Center continues to fulfill its promise to see emergency room patients in 30 minutes or less since last October, and plans to continue the program through 2012 and the foreseeable future.

The Oro Valley Town Council has taken action on three amendments to its General Plan that could mean an increase in the number of high-density residential units available in the town.

According to real estate professionals, the last couple months have been good ones for the housing market in the Northwest Tucson region, with home sales showing an uptick in buyer activity.

A second annexation petition of Northwest Tucson properties proposed by the Northwest Fire District has failed to secure the required number of signatures to be successful.

An improved highway along a stretch of Interstate 10 through Northwest Tucson may be in your future once the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) investigates all the options after taking comments and suggestions from the public.

The deadline for submission of an annexation petition for the Teal Blue Trail area in unincorporated Pima County to be brought into the Northwest Fire/Rescue District has passed without enough property owners agreeing to be annexed.

A year and a half after moving into a new 13,000-square-foot facility in Catalina, the Golden Goose Thrift Shop continues to grow and thrive, offering the public a variety of goods that fills the space to near overflowing.

Mortgage interest rates continue to remain at near-historic lows throughout the country, and many homeowners in Northwest Tucson are taking advantage of those rates, seeking to refinance their homes.

Voters in the Marana Unified School District will get an opportunity on Nov. 8 to determine if they want to reauthorize a $6.4 million override approved in 2007 for maintenance and operations in the district.

With the monsoon season in full swing in southern Arizona, there’s always the possibility that someone will try to cross a flooded wash in a vehicle and be swept away or fall into a flooded wash from the bank side.

Mountain Vista Fire District’s board of directors last week voted to discontinue service to the Teal Blue Trail, Thornydale/Moore Road and Camino de Manana III areas effective Oct. 1. All three are areas the neighboring Northwest Fire District is offering to annex.

Who’s watching over you in the hospital overnight?

Twenty-five residents and business owners along the Tangerine Road Corridor stretching from I-10 in Marana to La Cañada Drive in Oro Valley took a first-hand look at proposed access points to the roadway during a public meeting last Thursday in Oro Valley Town Council Chambers.

Kennedy Funding Inc., and its partner, Anglo-American Financial LLC, the investor groups that won control of Saguaro Ranch in the Tortolita Mountains earlier this month after a trustee sale, plan on selling the entire property to a developer.

Marana Unified School District has begun tapping $43 million in bond funds for capital projects authorized by voters last November to improve school and athletic facilities, recondition parking lots and purchase a fleet of new buses.

Property owners in unincorporated Pima County in Northwest Tucson who aren’t currently part of an organized fire district have a few options open to them, according to the state fire marshal. But unless those property owners choose annexation, they face the prospect of losing fire protection for their homes and property within weeks.

Residents in unincorporated Pima County in Northwest Tucson got a reprieve from Rural/Metro Corp. last week when the company extended its fire protection subscription services for 60 days.

Last week, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) warned that the threat for wildland fires in Southern Arizona is very high this year. Their prediction proved true and quite timely as two wildland fires are now blazing south of Tucson.

She’s an eighth-grader in Connecticut, a dark-haired, pale girl with sad eyes and an ache in her heart. She hurt so bad that she turned to the Internet to dramatically demonstrate to people the scope of her troubles.

You can’t say the folks at Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department don’t have a sense of humor.

Scottsdale-based Rural/Metro Corp., a national provider of private fire protection and ambulance services, has agreed to be acquired by Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, in an all-cash transaction estimated at $438 million.

The explosion in popularity of communication technology and its ease of use has spawned an unintended consequence — cyberbullying — a form of bullying so insidious that President Obama this month hosted a conference on teenage bullying, with cyberbullying taking a prominent part.

More than 150 citizens and business owners filled the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center meeting room March 10 to hear Arizona Department of Transportation staff members and consultants give a preview of potential reconstruction planned for Interstate 10 from Ina to Ruthrauff roads.

When it comes to dealing with real estate in Northwest Tucson, it’s either the best of times or the worst of times, depending on whether you’re a buyer or a seller.

Medical professionals have noticed a growing trend in the health care-using population — a move toward using urgent care and convenience care clinics instead of primary care physicians or emergency rooms for first-line care of illnesses and minor injuries.

U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury has granted the town of Marana’s motion for summary judgment in a federal civil rights case brought against the town and some of its employees and police officers by Steven J. Blomquist and Sharyl V. Cummings.

If all goes according to plan, by the summer of 2012, Pima County’s Tangerine Landfill will be generating 1,400 kilowatts of electricity an hour from methane gas trapped under its 80 acres.

Crossroads at Silverbell Park in the southwestern part of Marana is the town's newest park and one that reflects the community's cultural and archeological history.