June 29, 2016 Issue

• Johnson Controls Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of Yuma, Arizona Battery Facility

• Photo: Measure Twice, Repave Once • Skanska Wraps Up Work On Skyline Regional Park • General Motors Partners With Navy On Fuel Cell Program • Crane School District & Goodwill Of Central Arizona -Recruitment Fair

July 13th, 2016 • Airport Consultant Discusses Possibilities Of New Airline, More

Flights

Greater Yuma EDC Investors Making News

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PR Newswire Jun 14, 2016, 09:00 ET from Johnson Controls

YUMA, Ariz., June 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls celebrated the 10 year anniversary of its battery distribution center in Yuma, Ariz. The facility currently employs 184 people and has shipped more than 75 million batteries since production started in June 2006. To celebrate this milestone, a ceremony for employees was held at the plant on June 8. "Celebrating our 10th anniversary gives us an opportunity to recognize the hard work and dedication of our employees," said Joseph Moser, plant manager, Yuma Service and Distribution Center, Johnson Controls Power Solutions. "We are proud to provide our customers with high-quality products and service, while contributing to the growth and vitality of the Yuma area." The Johnson Controls Yuma facility is responsible for the final production and labeling of batteries that are shipped to automotive aftermarket customers and automakers located in nine surrounding states. In 2011 the facility was expanded to 265,000 square feet with the addition of 65,000 square feet of warehouse space. The distribution center is on track to supply 11 million batteries this year. About Johnson Controls: Johnson Controls is a global diversified technology and industrial leader serving customers in more than 150 countries. Our 150,000 employees create quality products, services and solutions to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings; lead-acid automotive batteries and advanced batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles; and interior systems for automobiles. Our commitment to sustainability dates back to our roots in 1885, with the invention of the first electric room thermostat. Through our growth strategies and by increasing market share we are committed to delivering value to shareholders and making our customers successful. In 2016, Corporate Responsibility Magazine recognized Johnson Controls as the #17 company in its annual "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list. For additional information, please visit http://www.johnsoncontrols.com or follow @johnsoncontrols on Twitter.

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About Johnson Controls Power Solutions Johnson Controls Power Solutions is the world's largest manufacturer of automotive batteries, supplying approximately 146 million every year to automakers and aftermarket retailers. Our full range of lead-acid and lithium-ion battery technology powers nearly every type of vehicle for our customers- including traditional, start-stop, micro-hybrid, hybrid and electric. Johnson Controls' recycling system has helped make automotive batteries the most recycled consumer product in the world. Globally, 15,000 employees develop, manufacture, distribute and recycle batteries at more than 50 locations. For more information, please visit http://www.JohnsonControls.com/PowerSolutions or follow @JCI_BatteryBeat on Twitter. Editor's Note: For images, please contact Jessica Muzik at jmuzik@bianchipr.com or 248.269.1122. CONTACT: Kim Theune kim.l.theune@jci.com 414-524-8223 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151023/280189LOGO

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Workers with Cemex use two tape measures to make a reading at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 16th Street late Monday morning. The intersection is in the process of being rebuilt and at the time this photo was taken, traffic on 16th Street had been reduced to one lane in each direction. Construction is expected to last until March 2017.

Photo by Randy Hoeft/Yuma Sun

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Constructionequipmentguide.com WED JUNE 22, 2016 -

WEST EDITION #13

Skanska, a construction and development firm, has completed work at Skyline Regional Park in

Buckeye, Ariz., that will enable residents and visitors to enjoy a new park.

The $3.95-million project for the city of Buckeye included roadway construction, park features

including entry gate house, entry gate monument and gates, ramadas, rest rooms and a

pedestrian/equestrian bridge across the Skyline Wash. Skanska's work ranged from subgrade

preparation and pipe and reinforced concrete box culverts to asphalt paving and landscaping. The

city of Buckeye held a grand opening for Skyline Regional Park in early January.

“Skanska and their team provided seamless work, from beginning to end for Skyline Regional

Park” said Christopher Williams, manager, construction and contracting division, for the city of

Buckeye. “I look forward to working with them in the future.”

“There were a lot of moving parts to this project and we are gratified to see the end result, which

will be enjoyed now and for generations to come,” said Chris Halpin, Skanska's Phoenix vice

president. “The city of Buckeye and our partners were such important parts of the incredible

teamwork necessary to create Skyline Regional Park and we thank them.”

The park, which features views from the top of its mountain ridges overlooking the valley floor

toward downtown Phoenix and south toward the Gila River, also offers opportunities for hiking,

mountain biking, horseback riding and other passive recreation activities such as wildlife viewing

and camping. New programs will be offered for families to enjoy, including stargazing, fitness

hikes and informative programs on the many natural and cultural resources found in the park.

Robert Wisener, city of Buckeye conservation and projects manager, said the park features 6 mi.

(9.66 km) of multi-use trails of varying difficulty and durations for use by hikers, mountain bikers

and equestrians:

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• Turnbuckle Trail is a 3-mi. (4.83 km) loop offering impressive views of the mountain landscape

and south towards the Watson Road corridor.

• The summit trail — Valley Vista Trail — is a third of a mi. trail off Turnbuckle that climbs 270 ft.

(82.3 m) for a total of 800 ft. (243.8 m) elevation gain from the trailhead. From this vantage,

visitors can see west towards the Sun Valley Parkway and the power plant in Tonopah and the

skyscrapers in downtown Phoenix to the east.

• Mountain Wash Trail is aptly named as it hugs Mountain Wash, a 1-mi. (1.6 km) trail from the

trailhead climbing 400 ft. (122 m), connecting with Lost Creek Trail that leads to Verrado's

temporary trail system.

• Wisener added that over the next eight months, an additional 11 mi. (17.7 km) of trails will be

added to the system.

In July 2013, Skanska, which is active in both the building and civil construction markets, announced

it had moved its building operations to 4742 North 24th St. in Phoenix, just south of Camelback

Road. Skanska's civil construction unit, formerly located in Peoria, Ariz., has co-located with the

building group at the 24th Street location.

Skanska USA is a large construction and development company in the United States, serving a broad

range of clients including those in transportation, power, industrial, water/wastewater, healthcare,

education, sports, data centers, government, aviation and commercial. Headquartered in New York

with offices in 33 metro areas, it has more than 9,600 employees committed to being leaders in

safety, project execution, sustainability, ethics and people development, according to the company.

The park, which features views from the top of its

mountain ridges overlooking the valley floor toward

downtown Phoenix and south toward the Gila River,

also offers opportunities for hiking, mountain biking,

horseback riding and other passive recreation

activities such as wildlife viewing and camping.

Skanska has completed work at Skyline

Regional Park in Buckeye, Ariz., that will

enable residents and visitors to enjoy a new

park.

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Nationaldefensemagazine.org By Kristen Torres | June 27, 2016

Posted at 1:59 PM by Stew Magnuson

General Motors and the Navy announced a partnership June 23, which may lead to better fuel

efficiency for unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs).

GM will share its fuel cell research with the Navy, which is looking to boost the endurance of its

submersibles up to six weeks without recharging.

“Developing this technology increases endurance for UUVs, which is important for the Navy’s long-

range strategy,” Karen Swider-Lyons, head of the alternative energy section for the Navy’s research

lab, said in a phone call with reporters.

Past work with fuel cells provided about a day or two of endurance undersea, she added, but new

technology developed in conjunction with GM will allow the Navy to combine both battery and fuel cell

technology.

“There has been a greater interest in developing undersea power over all,” said Charlie Freese,

executive director of GM global fuel cell activities. “Fuel cells have a much greater capacity than

batteries but they aren’t a nuclear system that can go on for months. We need to determine how long

you can operate UUVs without intervention and how to possibly refuel the machines autonomously.”

Fuel cell technology is a potentially revolutionary energy source for zero-emission vehicles. It uses

hydrogen and oxygen gas as fuel to create electricity, emitting water as waste. Batteries have

generally beat out the new technology when it comes to building zero-emission cars because

hydrogen refueling centers are uncommon, and require specific conditions to be contained, Freese

said.

In the early days of UUV technology, the Navy used torpedo-sized vehicles, limiting the amount of

energy they were able to carry. The larger vehicles allow more volume and weight, making fuel cells

the more optimal choice, said Rich Carlin, head of the Navy's sea warfare and weapons department.

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As UUVs grow larger, the Navy is beginning to look at primarily using fuel cell technology over

batteries. Fuel cells are more reliable and refuel at a faster rate than batteries, which can take

hours to recharge. A press release from GM said its fuel cells are “compact and lightweight, and

have high reliability and performance.”

“We are essentially trying to maximize efficiency by using fuel cells along with a motor,” Swider-

Lyons said. “It’s tricky in undersea vehicles because it’s not just weight or volume, but buoyancy

as well” that the Navy has to take into consideration.

“The hope is to end up with a vehicle that becomes fast charging with long-range capabilities,”

Freese said, “That’s exactly what the Navy needs out of this [fuel cell] application.”

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Photo: Navy

Continuing its efforts to attract another airline or added service routes, Yuma International Airport held two public stakeholder meetings Monday to educate people and get their feedback about the possibilities.

The final Air Service Development meeting will be held in the airport’s second floor conference room Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon.

At the first meeting, Jeffrey Hartz, a senior air service consultant with Mead & Hunt who has worked with Yuma Airport for nearly three years, discussed the pros and cons of considering certain airlines and also cited four markets as having the most potential to be able to serve Yuma.

Hartz listed Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle as the best opportunities for Yuma to gain service.

“Denver, in my personal opinion — looking at the numbers — is probably the best hub opportunity for Yuma,” Hartz said. “It’s a hub they want to grow to the west.”

He also cited Denver, a 744-mile flight from Yuma, as a growing hub for United Airlines.

“Denver’s grown quite a bit for United,” Hartz said. “They’ve grown a lot to the east. They continue to talk about needing to grow to the west. Conveniently, Yuma’s west of Denver, so it works well for us.”

It is also the third most popular destination flying out of Yuma currently, through connections at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

According to Q1 2015 statistics, between Yuma and Denver there were 11.1 passengers daily flying each way (PDEW) at an average fare of $144. Yuma and Phoenix had an average of 15.6 PDEW at an average fare of $140 and Yuma and Seattle had an average of 13.1 PDEW at an average fare of $204.

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By Matt Harding, Yuma Sun staff writer |June 27, 2016 |

Updated 15 hrs ago

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While Hartz said Phoenix will likely always be Yuma’s primary destination, it’s evident that

passengers' final destinations are oftentimes in Seattle, Denver, Portland or elsewhere.

So to get a direct flight to Denver, Hartz said, offers great connection opportunities in addition to

Denver as a top destination from Yuma itself.

Hartz said that Seattle would be another good option because it doesn’t impact American

Airlines -- currently Yuma’s sole service provider -- as much as Denver would.

The 1,098-mile flight would service the Pacific Northwest and offer “strong connections” to

Canada, whose residents make up a large contingency of Yuma’s winter visitors.

Denver and Seattle are among the most likely cities

to be serviced by direct flights to and from Yuma,

said Jeffrey Hartz, a senior air service consultant

with Mead & Hunt who has worked with Yuma

Airport for nearly three years. Both would quite

possibly be served by airlines other than American,

which is currently the airport’s sole provider.

There are also many local business ties, Hartz said. Other Canadian markets where Yumans fly

between frequently include Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. All three are served directly by

Seattle.

The biggest issue with Dallas/Ft. Worth, Hartz said, would be its location directly to the east, thus

bypassing American’s hub in Phoenix. For them, it wouldn’t make much sense, Hartz said.

“In their mind, 150 miles of expense (from Yuma to Phoenix) is a lot cheaper than 1,022 miles of

expense to fly all the way to Dallas.”

San Francisco, the shortest flight on the list at 557 miles, has a limited local market and limited

connections. And since much of Yuma’s connection traffic goes east, it doesn’t make as much

sense logistically, especially with the other concerns.

However, Alaska Airlines, with its recent acquisition of Virgin America, is growing, and could offer

future possibilities in that region.

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Speaking about specific airlines, Hartz said that Delta, which served Yuma briefly in 2008, has

almost quadrupled its service in the last five years in Seattle. They’re now up to 150 departures a

day there, and are expected to be at 200 in the next couple of years, he said.

“We have a huge Seattle market (in Yuma),” Hartz said. “We have a huge market going to the

Pacific Northwest and western Canada. So as Delta continues to grow up there, we potentially

have an opportunity there.”

That said, smaller airports still face an uphill battle, and Hartz said Yuma needs to entice airlines to

fly out of the city with incentives like Small Community Air Service Development Program

(SCASDP) grants and other cost guarantees or savings.

An airline planner, he said, would almost always choose adding a 13th flight between New York

and Atlanta before they add Seattle to Yuma because they know it’s going to make money. In

Yuma, they’re putting in some risk, Hartz said.

Regarding direct service between Yuma and Denver, Hartz said, “It may be a home run, but they

don’t know that. We don’t necessarily know that. We think it would be a great market. We think

Seattle would be a great market for Yuma, but it’s not a guarantee.”

He added, “That’s what (an airline’s) concern is — taking a market that today makes money (and

canceling service) to add service to another market.”

One issue Yuma faces is increased plane sizes across the industry, which has the potential to

reduce scheduled flights at smaller airports. They don’t cost too much more to build or purchase,

Hartz said, and give airlines a bigger profit.

The average number of seats on airplanes in the U.S. jumped from 92 in 2005 to 108 in 2016. The

use of regional jets with between 30 and 50 seats has decreased by 38 percent since July 2011,

while the 51 to 70 seat jets have increased by 8 percent and the 71 to 100 seat jets have increased

by 83 percent during the timeframe.

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Hartz also cited the “oligopoly” between the four major airlines — American, Delta, Southwest and

United — which doesn’t allow Yuma to negotiate with more airlines, as it could in the past.

Those four control 82 to 84 percent of the U.S. marketplace, Hartz said, adding that 10 years ago,

there were simply more airlines to negotiate with to potentially bring service to Yuma.

“Now that you’ve got four (airlines) that essentially control 85 percent of the market, they don’t

have as much competition and they don’t need as much drive to grow.”

Another issue Yuma faces is possibly the most obvious — people driving to Phoenix and flying

from there, sometimes due to convenience and others for cost concerns.

Hartz argued that the people who drive to Phoenix or another airport — 53 percent of them in the

most recent figures — would be enticed to fly from Yuma if the service was there. That’s the

reason, he said, that Yuma has a chance for added airlines or service.

“We can’t support new service with what flies out of here today, to be perfectly honest,” Hartz said.

“If we only had the size market with what’s flying out of Yuma today — six flights a day — we’d

never be able to add more service. But we have people who are driving elsewhere. That’s where

the market is, and that’s where we can grow.”