Sierra Vista officials outline projects, partnerships at annual Spotlight Breakfast

City Manager Chuck Potucek during the annual Spotlight Breakfast Tuesday

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (SVL) — City leaders, community members and business owners met Tuesday morning at Cochise College’s Student Union for the annual Spotlight Breakfast. This year’s focus, Partners in Progress, highlighted collaborative projects, economic development, and future initiatives aimed at strengthening the Sierra Vista community.

City Manager Chuck Potucek discussed the balancing act between infrastructure needs and park development in the face of budget constraints.“We’re in a situation where our revenues are fairly flat, and state shared revenues have been going down as a result of legislative actions. When you combine that with inflationary pressures it does make it difficult to prioritize projects. We do that through the council’s strategic planning process,” Potucek said.

He noted the tradeoffs between street maintenance and park projects, citing Henry Jones Legacy Park as an example. “For example the new Henry Jones Legacy Park, we’ll probably be using grant funding to support the construction of that. But when you’re talking about other parks in town you’re talking about using sales tax dollars, capital improvement funds to do that. We also have to use capital improvement funds for street improvements. That’s where the friction comes in the budget process. The council has to prioritize how much of the budget they want to go to parks and how much towards street projects. A lot of juggling.”

The city’s 2026-2027 Strategic Leadership Plan outlines 22 priorities, including reducing the number of streets rated in “Very Poor” or “Poor” condition and expanding efforts to identify additional grant and funding opportunities.

Sierra Vista Police Chief Chris Hiser speaks with attendees during the annual Spotlight Breakfast.

Sierra Vista Police Chief Chris Hiser discussed plans to reinstate a full-time traffic unit, beginning with Officer Fausto Cuevas.“We are bringing back a full time traffic unit. The police officer is Fausto Cuevas who will be outfitted with the current motorcycle we have on hand,” Hiser said, explaining that Cuevas will start traffic enforcement in a patrol car this fall before attending a Department of Public Safety motorcycle school in Phoenix.

“This is triggered by staffing levels and getting current new officer trainees out of training. He will be hitting those intersections, and areas where we’ve been getting a lot of citizen complaints,” Hiser said. “I want a full court press on this. We won’t see Cuevas on the motorcycle probably until winter because we got to get him through the motorcycle school. We want to be more proactive. We’re also using governor’s office of highway safety grant funding to do aggressive driving details. We are pushing that out to our officers to do extra on overtime. We started that with school classes starting up with high visibility traffic enforcement on overtime.”

Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Umphrey, left, stands with Assistant City Manager Victoria Yarbrough prior to opening comments.

Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Umphrey highlighted the ongoing Buffalo Soldier Trail improvement project, a four-mile stretch divided into six parts. While a small portion has been completed, much of the work remains unfunded. “Congressman Juan Ciscomani got us another four million to do another section of BST. Unfortunately it doesn’t go far anymore,” Umphrey said. “We still have most of BST to fund. We’re looking to fund through more appropriations through his office and through the state legislature, who have given us one time funding as well.”

Economic Development Director Tony Boone (pictured) along with City Manger Chuck Potucek and Community Development Director Matt McLachlan led this year's Partners in Progress panel discussion.

Economic Development Director Tony Boone emphasized the city’s momentum in attracting technology jobs, noting a new agreement with aerospace company BlackStar Orbital. “We are very happy that we completed a lease with BlackStar Orbital. They will be moving into their field office at the airport,” Boone said. “We’re still pursuing a space port license and the acquisition of 203 acres.” He added, “this is a long term plan to give us additional access to space whether it’s for aerospace, space related or other tech businesses for the city. All of this plays together over the next couple of years from a positioning perspective.” Boone estimated the process would take more than two years to reach a strong position for moving forward.

The Sierra Vista Spotlight Breakfast shares progress on key projects from the past year and plans for the future.

––For more information on the City of Sierra Vista's 2040 General Plan, visit the Vista 2040 website.

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