Valley 101

Within the city of Mesa is a five and a half square mile section that gets its energy from the city's Energy Resource Department. It covers most of the downtown Mesa area from Brown Road to Broadway Road and Extension Road to Stapley Drive. It's not a perfect square, but the area covers about 17,000 people. While the Salt River Project and Arizona Public Services electric serve the rest of the state, Mesa has owned and operated its own electrical utility since 1917. At that time, the city purchased it from Dr. A.J. Chandler, the city of Chandler's namesake.  In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we share why Mesa manages their utilities and the history of how they came to own it.