Ducey's COVID rollback To Tucson Garden Mishap; AZ Weekend Recap

It was a busy news week, with everything from the announcement on Thursday by Gov. Doug Ducey to relax statewide COVID-19 restrictions to the destruction of a community garden in Tucson.

The week that was had its fair share of newsworthy items, though we'll focus on the top-five storylines from the past seven days in this rundown.

Here are the top stories from the past week on Arizona Patch:

Arizona State Vaccine Sites Open To All 16+ On Wednesday

The first virus-related news of the week happened on Monday, when Gov. Ducey announced the state would open up vaccines at state-run sites to those age 16 and older in three counties.

Ducey said in a tweet on Monday morning that vaccine appointments will be made available in the three counties at 8 a.m., with a goal of vaccinating as many Arizonans as possible.

NEW: Arizona's state-operated #COVID19 vaccination sites in Maricopa, Pima and Yuma Counties will be open to all Arizonans 16 and older beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 24. @AZDHS 1/— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/dougducey/... 22, 2021###/blockquotedashboard.

Arizona Beats Stony Brook, Earns 1st March Madness Win Since 2005

The Arizona Wildcats' path to the school's first women's March Madness win in 16 years was as easy as they come on Monday.

That's because the third-seeded Wildcats shellacked 14th-seed Stony Brook in the tournament's opening round 79-44, advancing to the round of 32 on Wednesday, where they beat Brigham Young, 52-46.

"I saw a different sense of urgency, I saw a different sense of hunger that I didn't see in the Pac-12 tournament," head coach Adia Barnes said. "We came out with the fire and intensity that I knew that we could show each and every day. I'm proud of the way that we responded with everything else going on."

Tucson Residents Angered By Vegetation Destruction At Ward Office

The scene outside Tucson city council's ward 3 office in late February motivated longtime resident Brian Ellis to post images to Facebook.

The images showed a series of before and after scenes of the garden of native vegetation that volunteers and staff planted.

They also showed the aftermath of a recent garden cleanup gone wrong, with the beds of wildflowers, vines, milkweed and others replaced by barren dirt and pared back trees.

"I've been volunteering to take care of that Ward 3 site, which is a rain garden demonstration site here in Tucson," Ellis told Patch. "They're all native plants, all supported on rain water. Our care for them was kind of minimal — more picking up trash and stuff like that — minor trimming if needed, but really just letting the plants be plants and grow and thrive.

"And they were doing great and then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, the city decided to go in and 'clean things up' and ripped out just about all of those plants. And the trees that are there, they trimmed them up horribly."

The Ward 3 office responded to complaints by those like Ellis and the Watershed Management Group members at-large in a statement to Patch, saying they are working to address their concerns.

"The Ward 3 office has already coordinated with City departments and has a meeting with Watershed Management Group next week to begin planning the revegetation of the Ward 3 basins," the statement reads.

In an email to Ellis on Feb. 23, Tucson Parks & Recreation Director Lara Hamwey addressed Watershed Management Group's concerns and more.

In her email, Hamwey also said her goal is to address the issue in the department's long-term planning so that such actions don't happen again in the future.

"Part of my objective is to help facilitate a culture change and training for staffing to allow us to ensure we are in step with changes citywide from climate action planning, Million Trees, conservation, embracing native etc," Hamwey said in her email to Ellis.

"I appreciate the time you took to reach out and make sure I was looped into the situation and the loss experiences. I regret this occurred, unfortunately I can't rewind and prevent what occurred, but we are going to move forward in a manner to prevent it from reoccurring."

Arizona Lifts Limits On Businesses, Bars

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday morning announced a sweeping set of rollbacks to COVID-19 restrictions to end capacity restrictions for businesses, reopen of all bars and lift other limits.

The slate of changes includes the following:

• End the requirement for local approval of events with more than 50 people.
• Change requirements on businesses to recommendations.
• Phase out all locally issued mask mandates. The state of Arizona never issued a statewide mandate.
• Let bars resume normal operating levels. They were forced to close during the pandemic unless they had a kitchen.

The announcements come as Arizona reported its lowest COVID-19 case totals in more than six months, according to the Associated Press. Some 138 cases were reported on Thursday.

Bar owners and business owners may still require masks and social distancing inside their locations, Ducey said. But establishments that don't offer food may reopen after being shuttered since March of last year.

"In Arizona, we never did a shutdown, so it's impossible to have a grand reopening," Ducey said in the release. "Instead, we are continuing to take reasonable, safe and sensible steps.

The measures put in place last summer allowed Arizona to fight back COVID-19. I want to thank the local leaders who supported these efforts with their own measures, and the businesses who implemented them.

"Today, we are in a different spot, and we are also a lot smarter," he added. "I'm confident Arizona's businesses and citizens will continue to practice the fundamentals and act responsibly as we gradually get back to normal."

Arizona Bar, Restaurant Owners Mixed On Ducey Reopening Decision

A day later, bar and restaurant owners across the state expressed a mixed slate of emotions over Gov. Doug Ducey's sweeping set of reopening orders.

For bar owners like Rodney Hu, Ducey's announcement that bars could reopen and would not need to enforce capacity constraints was welcome news.

Hu, whose family has run Yucca Tap Room in Tempe since it opened near Southern and Mill more than 40 years ago, also admitted that he has mixed emotions about what the added capacity could mean in what appears to be the final stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think I'm ecstatic about the bar and business end of stuff," Hu told Patch. "I'm torn, just because of the health politics that are playing around with all of the health stuff."

Jeremiah Gratza, who owns Thunderbird, said his business is ready to return to some semblance of normalcy after a year of uncertainty.

"We're excited. We're looking forward to getting back to business as usual, but still doing it in a safe manner," Gratza said. "All of our staff is already all scheduled for the vaccine, and now we can focus on running our business instead of policing people and making sure that they have a mask on when they walk to the bathroom."

About 115 miles southeast of Thunderbird lies Tucson's fabled Hotel Congress, which opened to the public in 1919.

The venue has enforced strict social distancing policies since the pandemic's start and said in a statement Thursday that its policies will not change anytime soon.

"We've all worked so hard to fight this pandemic, and we can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel," the venue's statement reads. "That's why we're staying the course we've set with requiring masks, social distancing, and limiting capacity at Hotel Congress to protect our guests and staff.

"We are patient, and we look forward to reaching that light, but the only way we'll get there is by continuing to follow the science and advice of our public health experts.

"We're proud to be a place where you can visit and feel safe. Your support has meant the world to us this last year. Thank you for masking up and being a part of Hotel Congress' 102-year story."