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BY ILANA LOWERY
Peoria Times Contributing Writer
Health care is a thriving sector in the West Valley, and by all accounts, the region’s industry boom has only just begun. Consider that roughly 36% of the health care workers in Maricopa County live in the West Valley, according to Sintra Hoffman, president and CEO of WESTMARC. That’s about 41,000 skilled health care workers. Therefore, hiring professionals for medical facilities and hospitals — particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on — can turn their attention to the West Valley as they seek to hire the talent that they need to staff positions from administrative and general practice to specialists and surgeons.
Sintra Hoffman, president and CEO of WESTMARC. (Submitted photo)
Trevor Stokes, CEO at the Partnership for Workforce Innovation, said health care is the largest private-sector employer across Maricopa County. And while
health care is a broad industry, one example of its impact on the Valley is that 1 in every 5 sector jobs is in a hospital. “There has been a remarkable growth trajectory in the health care sector since 2016,” Stokes said of Maricopa County. “More than 2,000 establishments have opened in the county in that five-year period.” He said health care subsectors, such as services for the elderly and outpatient mental health services, are growing at a rapid pace in the West Valley. Data collected for six West Valley cities (Avondale, Glendale, Goodyear, Peoria, Sun City West and Surprise) found that most of the health care workers in these communities provide office and administrative support, but a significant SEE MEDICAL PAGE 4
Future Loop 303 interchange at Jomax takes shape
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
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One of the Valley’s next new freeway traffic interchanges is taking shape along Loop 303 in north Peoria. Crews have installed bridge girders at the future Jomax Parkway interchange as part of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s project to widen Loop 303 north of Happy Valley Parkway. Twenty-eight steel-reinforced concrete girders, each weighing approximately 180,000 pounds, were recently lifted into place to provide support for a bridge deck
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that will carry Loop 303 over Jomax Parkway when the entire $20.3 million project is completed in early 2022. The new interchange will include on- and off-ramps connecting Loop 303 with Jomax Parkway. The city of Peoria is managing a separate project to construct an all-new stretch of Jomax Parkway between Vistancia Boulevard and the Loop 303 interchange. ADOT’s Loop 303 widening project, which started in December, will improve capacity for current and future traffic needs by adding a third lane in each direction
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along the freeway between Happy Valley and Lake Pleasant parkways. Crews also are adding a new freeway bridge over the Beardsley Canal, north of the existing Happy Valley Parkway interchange. Drivers should use caution near existing work zones, some of which include temporary barrier walls along shoulders. The Loop 303 project is funded as part of the Maricopa Association of Governments’ Regional Transportation Plan. Projects in the plan are funded in part by Prop 400, a dedicated sales tax approved by Maricopa County voters in 2004.