PIMA COUNTY –The 20th annual KFMA Day, southern Arizona’s largest outdoor concert festival, returns March 23 to Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way.

Folks can still purchase advance tickets at any Tucson-area Pizza Hut for $45 cash or with debit or credit card for an additional $2 surcharge per ticket. Everyone 2 years of age and older needs a ticket. On the day of the concert, tickets will only be available at the Kino Box Office starting at 10 a.m., at a cost of $55. The ticket office will take cash only that day.

The parking lot opens at 9 a.m. and a $7 fee will apply to parked vehicles. To use the preferred self-parking area, the cost is $15. Visitors will only be able to access the main parking lot from Ajo Way at Forgeus. This applies to Uber and Lyft drop-offs, too.

Gates open at noon and the first show begins at 1:00 p.m. This year’s entertainment includes performances by Shinedown, Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria and The Fever 333. Opening band is Pyrotechnica.

To find more details about this event, including rules and guidelines for the concert, visit KFMA’s website.

PIMA COUNTY — When families pay as much as 70 percent of their income on housing, it’s not surprising when a missed rent payment and, eventually, eviction result. Indeed, last year in Pima County, more than 13,000 evictions were filed in court. Many more never even make it through the legal process. The rising cost of housing and the shrinking number of affordable housing units is making the problem worse.

The issue has prompted Pima County to team up with the Innovation for Justice Program at the UA James E. Rogers College of Law on a panel discussion at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., Thursday, March 21, 6-8 p.m. on “The Eviction Problem in Pima County: What Can We Do?” All are welcome to the free event.

One of the panelists is Stacy Butler, director of the Innovation for Justice Program, which exposes students to the justice gap in the civil legal system and engages them to think critically about the power of technology and innovation to close that gap. She’s also a founding member of Step Up to Justice, a free civil legal center for low-income individuals and families in Pima County.

Other panelists will address issues and share resources around housing, homelessness, emergency services, the perspective of property owners, and the impact on children and education. Additional organizations will be present with staff to address questions and share information on local resources.

Butler’s “Visualizing Justice” class will have a poster display at the event. Other panelists include Pamela Moseley, Pima County Sullivan Jackson Employment Center; Manira Cervantes, Pima County Community Action Agency; Kim Fitch, Nicolosi & Fitch; Marcos Ysmael, Pima County Housing Center; Ken Briggs, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona; and Saundra Munoz, who went through an eviction.

For the last month, reading groups have been gathering at libraries across the County, considering questions from Matthew Desmond’s Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, such as:

• Have you or anyone you know ever been evicted? How did that experience affect your/their life?
• Was any particular story in the book emotionally painful to witness? Why?
• Many people point to “bad decision making” as a reason others get evicted. Did you feel this way before reading Evicted? Did your opinions change after reading it?

The reading groups and the March 21 panel discussion are co-sponsored by Pima County’s Community Services, Employment and Training Department and its Ending Poverty Now Program, Pima County Public Library, the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, and Step Up to Justice.

For more information, visit library.pima.gov or call Infoline at (520) 791-4010.

TEMPE, ARIZ. – A familiar face is rejoining engineering consulting firm Terracon. Tom “Mando” Kapita has been named Manager of Regional Services – GeoDesign.

Kapita worked at Terracon previously from February 2001 to April 2013 and last served as Geotechnical Department Manager. In his new role Kapita will be responsible for strengthening and expanding GeoDesign services within the Rocky Mountain Division.

He will collaborate with other key team members to identify capabilities throughout the company and develop marketing strategy as needed.

“We are very excited to have Mando back at Terracon,” said Brent M. Borchers, P.E., Regional Manager for Terracon and Tempe office Senior Principal. “Mando brings back a
familiar face and will help us expand our GeoDesign Services to other regions in the Division.”

Kapita has performed geotechnical engineering services on a variety of projects including civil, mining, power plants, transportation, residential and commercial retail in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Turkey and Armenia. His expertise includes mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall, soil nail and other cantilevered and anchored wall designs. He has performed forensic evaluations and provided remedial solutions on numerous reinforced soil structures.

He joins Terracon after serving as Principal Engineer and Office Manager at SAECO from May 2017 to February 2019. He also served as Senior Engineer at Golder Associates for 4 years.

A native of Zambia, Africa, Kapita earned a Bachelor of Science in mining engineering from the University of Arizona. He is involved with industry groups ASCE, SME, and APWA.

Kapita and his wife, Natalie Vlahakis, have two sons ages 13 and 12. He is an avid cyclist and plans to ride in the 2019 El Tour de Tucson. He and his family give back to the community volunteering with Feed My Starving Children in Mesa.