Elected community leaders, city and county staff, tribal leaders, economic organizational leaders and more gathered Tuesday at the AWC Schoening Conference Center for Mayor Douglas Nicholls’ State of the City address.
Nicholls made some important announcements regarding last year’s successful city projects, s well as some exciting initiatives moving forward.
The most notable of these was the announcement of an Amazon delivery station currently under construction at Avenue 4E and 32nd Street, with an investment from Amazon of $23 million, which will create more than 250 jobs.
Though Amazon’s long-awaited arrival to the Yuma region serves as an encouraging economic development, the Yuma City Council remains committed to fostering local businesses, shared Councilmember Arturo Morales after the mayor’s address.
“Amazon is a great opportunity for our community, but we as a council still support buying local,” Morales said.
During his address, Nicholls acknowledged the efforts and dedication of the pioneers that established and developed the Yuma community, culminating in the city’s 110th birthday celebration last year.
He announced that the city just succeeded in paying off City Hall, and he took a moment to celebrate Yuma’s recognition by the Association of Defense Communities as a 2025 Great American Defense Community for its support for the military, veterans and their families.
The mayor stressed the word “busy” as a common theme to describe the widespread community-oriented work that has led to “success and prosperity” this year to build on in the future.
“This past year was a very busy and successful year with a lot of change,” he said, highlighting the city’s $22+ million generated in grant funding for community projects such as East Mesa Park, Kennedy Skate Park and irrigation system renewals at Desert Hills Golf Course.
“These are all funds that truly address needs that our community has and impacts our local taxpayers in a positive way and builds their quality of life,” Nicholls said.
The city began implementing its Parks, Arts, Recreation and Trails Master Plan this past year, upgrading nine of 11 identified playgrounds in need of renovation, with the last two upgrades planned for the next couple months.
One difficulty Nicholls addressed was the condition of Smucker Park, assuring concerned residents that the City Council shares their concerns.
“What’s happening is the contractor for the Yuma County Flood Control District is building a storm drainage detention facility, and that requires breaking a few eggs, causing some disruption in the park,” he said. “We’ve been working very closely with Yuma County to make sure that we reestablish water to our trees, to our grass…I’m confident when this construction gets complete, we will have the park back that we all know and love,” Nicholls said.
The mayor acknowledged many changes in city leadership after an election year, including the appointment of Carol Smith to deputy mayor. Councilmember Chris Morris was reelected by Yuma residents, while council bid farewell to Ema Lea Shoop and Michael Shelton, replaced by Karen Watts and Mark Martinez.
“When Councilmember Gary Knight passed away last year, the council were very thoughtful on how to proceed,” Nicholls said. “We wanted to promote someone to that position that knew Gary, was dedicated, that worked with him and could truly honor his service, so the council agreed to bring back Leslie McClendon to serve in his role. Leslie stepped right in without missing a beat, and we needed it as a community.”
Additionally, with Yuma being the only Arizona city to elect its municipal court judges, retired YPD detective Greg Counts also earned a shoutout with his recent election.
The mayor then identified some successful trends for Yuma’s police and fire departments.
“We’ve been working for the last several years to ensure that we have a strong, professional (police) department for the people of Yuma, and the biggest challenge we’ve faced is staffing. I’m pleased to announce that this year, we had the lowest staffing shortage we’ve had in the last 10 years at 7%, a really low level for our sworn police officers,” Nicholls said.
The Yuma Fire Department opened Fire Station 7 last year and received U.S. Navy Seal equipment to facilitate rescues on the top of the border wall without the need for a ladder from a fire apparatus.
Public Works recently completed the city’s twice-a-year neighborhood cleanup, and the mayor commended the department for its leadership in the East Main Canal beautification project, along with the Clean and Beautiful Commission and over 70 volunteers.
Utilities also stayed busy this year, succeeding in the installation of a new groundwater well at the Agua Viva Water Treatment Facility, which will ensure that Yuma has water regardless of the level of the Colorado River.
Additionally, the city broke ground on a $100 million expansion to the Desert Dunes Wastewater Treatment Facility, which will double its capacity in anticipation of growth on Yuma’s east side.
The Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area saw a 12% increase in visitors at Yuma’s two state parks (Yuma Territorial Prison and Colorado River State Historic Park), completed the new Sunset View Park at East Wetlands and earned an Arizona Forward Environmental Excellence Award for Natural Environmental Preservation.
“The Heritage area has been very busy reconnecting visitors and residents to nature and our cultural history,” Nicholls said. “If you have not been part of the 75,000 people that visited our state parks this year, please ensure that next year you can say you were at our state parks or at least you’ve taken a stroll down the East or West Wetlands trails to see the impact the Heritage Area has for our community.”
Nicholls also singled out Yuma’ Engineering Department for its pavement replacements, road widening designs and general assistance to every other department.
“Their single effort that will have the biggest impact for our community is the Transportation Management Center. This is where our signals throughout the community will talk to each other, they will be able to react to real-time traffic data. That is how you expand the capacity of a roadway system…We will have the first phase of implementation here this year,” he said.
With regard to housing, Yuma has added 561 new homes this year, up 38% from last year, with a total dollar investment in the community of nearly $200 million for homes, apartments and hotels, up 14% from last year.
In addition to Amazon’s impending arrival, Yuma continues to partner with community organizations such as Elevate Southwest and the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. to spearhead large economic projects such as the Downtown Innovation Hub and the spaceport project.
The innovation hub “is a 60,000-square-foot facility where individuals can explore ideas and create businesses, where companies can locate to begin or to grow and expand. It’s a way to grow the economy in our Yuma area.”
Yuma’s coalition is one of 72 finalists for a 10-year, $160 million National Science Foundation grant for the spaceport, standing out as the only applicant that is based on the space industry.
Nicholls is hopeful that the Trump administration’s affinity for space projects improves Yuma’s odds, with plans to facilitate a sister spaceport in Mexico as well.
An important topic of discussion for the upcoming year is water rights, since the 2007 interim guidelines for the operations of the Colorado River are set to expire at the end of 2026.
“On April 22, the city is hosting all Yuma area municipalities, including our tribal nations and local cities, to sit down at our first ever local water conference to have a discussion on how we can work together to support each other and make sure no one gets left behind,” Nicholls said.
This conference is in preparation for the upcoming negotiations between the seven Colorado River states for post-2026 operations to ensure that Yuma presents a unified front in the fight to protect its water rights for its citizens and extensive agriculture industry.
Aside from leading all kinds of city projects, Nicholls expressed a commitment to one of his most important duties: advocating at the state and federal level to make sure Yuma’s voice is heard. He did this during his two years as president of the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, which came to a close in August.
“Local control means you get to come to a City Council meeting and express your opinion on what’s happening. It isn’t just decided in Phoenix where only four to six of those people represent your community. It’s about keeping the decisions where the people who have to live with the decisions are,” he said.
