Coolidge ready, willing, able to do business

Coolidge is focused on developing a robust business-friendly attitude that has already started to redefine the small city in the heart of Pinal County. The historic cotton farming community has used the opening years of the 21st century to establish an emerging industrial center. About 20 percent of the Coolidge workforce is in industry. Numerous cotton fields have given way to industrial parks and a recent 1,500-home development. Available land in Coolidge has grown from 6.5 square miles in 2001 to 65 square miles today, and stands to double that to 125 square miles. "The last thing I want to see is Coolidge becoming just a bedroom community," Coolidge City Manager Bob Flatley said. A long-term goal in the Pinal County Comprehensive Plan calls for Coolidge to become a central employment site for the entire county, Flatley said. Coolidge has the main campus of Central Arizona College, Pinal County's only higher education center; Coolidge has the Cotton Express Public Transit, the county's only public transit system with four bus routes in town and a fifth route starting in July running to Florence and Casa Grande "regional system"; Coolidge is home to Pinal County's only public national monument with Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, which could double in size.

Click here to view this article from its source.