Category: kyma-local-news

Miriam Ordonez

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – Construction is underway at several intersections across the City of El Centro. It is part of ongoing improvement projects across the city.

Work is happening now at Ocotillo and Allen Drive, as well as Octoillo Drive and Waterman Avenue.

Crews are also active along Imperial Avenue, including Pepper Drive, Holt Avenue and Barbara Worth Drive, where demolition starts this week.

Drivers are urged to use caution and follow posted signs. Work is expected to last for the next few weeks.

To learn more about this, read the press release, written in English and Spanish, below.

RoadConstructionPSAEngDownload

RoadConstructionPSASpaDownload

Miriam Ordonez

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – Food, music and family fun return to El Centro this Friday for the Second Annual Fiesta del Valle Flavor Friday.

Courtesy: City of El Centro

Courtesy: City of El Centro

The free event runs from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sports Pavilion parking lot, located at 770 Park Avenue.

Local food vendors, live entertainment and a beer garden will all be part of the celebration and everyone’s invited.

Courtesy: City of El Centro

To learn more about the event, read the press release, written in both English and Spanish, below.

FiestaDelValleAprilEngDownload

FiestaDelValleAprilSpaDownload

Eduardo Morales

TUCSON, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Locals from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension traveled to Tucson to take part in “U of A’s Drone Day.”

Drone day allows participants to share knowledge and innovations of unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones.

The extension shared how this technology is being used in modern agricultural practices.

The drones can be used in farming in a variety of areas.

“Target spraying and that’s really good in the orchards and things like that. When you go right over the plant, you’re not wasting a bunch of spray around them, you’re just spraying that plant,” said local Yuma County Cooperative Extension videographer Donald Dinwiddie.

According to the local extension, experts say drone use in agriculture has increased from 500 to around 35,000 in the past five years.

The agriculture drone market helped bring in over $2 billion in 2022 and is projected to earn over $20 billion by 2030.

Eduardo Morales

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – One of the original owners of local popular Mexican food restaurant, La Fonda, is back in charge.

“La Fonda” had a soft opening in February and is currently open from Thursday through Sunday. However, they plan to open seven days a week beginning next Monday.

The owner, Franchesca Ramos, shares how thankful they are for the community’s support.

“This was a part of my life for so long and so having to say goodbye, it kind of broke me, but reopening, it’s healing those broken pieces,” said Ramos.

“La Fonda” will have a hard-launch opening in the fall with new merchandise including the new restaurant logo, so you’ll want to be on the lookout for that!

Andrea Turisk

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Here in Yuma, we rely on the Colorado River, but instead of looking upstream for solutions, experts say we should also look at the water we’ve already used.

UCLA Environmental Science Practicum Director Noah Garrison says the Colorado River is facing a two-to-four million acre feet shortage projected for future years.

A new report from UCLA and The Natural Resource Defense Council says wastewater recycling could help solve the west’s water crisis.

“If were facing a shortfall on the Colorado River, creating additional water supply based on municipal wastewater can really offset that loss were facing,” Director Garrison shared.

According to the report, Arizona recycles about 78% of wastewater. In Yuma, the city says wastewater plays a growing role in the conservation strategy.

Jeremy McCall, the City of Yuma Utilities Director says, “About 40% of the water we treat ends up at the waste water plants. Those go through different processes and both wastewater plants discharge to the environment. One discharges into the Colorado River. One discharges into the aquifer.”

Arizona leads the region in wastewater recycling. If other basin states followed suit, the west could save up to 1.3 million acre- feet of water each year.

McCall says wastewater is the source for a lot of environmental accounting: “In our community and I’d say even outside the City of Yuma. Our friends in Somerton and San Luis, they also discharge into waterways of the U.S. and that water is recycled into their communities.”

Experts say water reuse is one of the most powerful tools we have to protect the Colorado River, cities like Yuma are showing whats possible when you make every drop count.

Danyelle Burke North

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls announced Tuesday that an Amazon facility is being built in Yuma County.

During his State of the City address, Mayor Nicholls said the project will bring over 250 jobs within the delivery service station including delivery drivers.

The facility construction started in January and the project is expected to launch by the end of October on Avenue 4E and 36th Street.

“This is a delivery center as opposed to fulfillment center. Fulfillment center is what you have in really really big cities. This is the last mile as they call it where the big semis will come in, the product will get redistributed to the delivery vehicle. So, it’s already ready to go. It just needs to be put in the vehicles that go to our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Doug Nicholls.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It comes with an investment of $23 million.

Jalen Fong

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – The Yuma Police Department (YPD) is on the lookout for a suspect related to a hit & run crash.

The crash happened Monday night at around 8:00 p.m. in the area of Eighth Street and Pima Lane. Two vehicles were involved and one of them left the scene.

YPD says there’s no information on the suspect and no injuries were reported.

If you have any information regarding the crash, call YPD or 78-CRIME to remain anonymous.

Jalen Fong

EHRENBERG, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – A Tren de Aragua gang member is in Border Patrol custody, according to a post on Facebook.

The post said the 19-year-old gang member was arrested after a vehicle stop early Saturday morning near Ehrenberg, Arizona, which is by Blythe, California, about an hour and a half from Yuma.

The post also said Border Patrol agents arrested three other Venezuelan migrants and all are facing criminal charges for illegal entry.

To learn more about the arrest, click here.

Scott Gross

YUMA COUNTY, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Nearly two dozen agencies took part in the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics.

The 43rd annual event started in San Luis, where the Flame of Hope was lit, and then it was carried throughout Yuma County.

22 local agencies, including law enforcement, participated in guiding the torch over 26 miles.

In all, the event raised over $2,500 for the Special Olympics and the athletes. The Summer Games take place at the end of the month in Glendale.

To learn which agenices participated in the Torch Run, click here.