San Luis

As Yuma County's fastest-growing city, San Luis provides its residents with more employment opportunities and a better quality of life, the city's leader says.

"We want to make sure that the region and the outside world knows that San Luis is a place for opportunity, a place to grow and a place to (raise) a family," said Juan Carlos Escamilla, the mayor of San Luis.

The city has seen a lot of activity lately, including new projects and expansions, with new businesses moving in and city infrastructure being built.

In April, the Advanced Call Center Technologies (ACCT) call center opened and recently created 600 jobs. ACCT will gradually open up more jobs with time, Escamilla said.

The call center has given students more opportunities to find jobs during the summer and after graduation from high school or college, he said.

"We couldn't offer that before to them," Escamilla said. "The only thing we had to offer them before was either go work in the fields" or work outside of the city.

Agriculture has traditionally been the largest employer in this city. But with the sprout in jobs from businesses like the 40 shops in the Riedel Plaza and the upcoming Wal-Mart Supercenter, residents will not only have more places to work but also to shop.

The city of San Luis is "ambitious to grow, grow smart, healthy," Escamilla said. "San Luis, for so long, has had so many homes and not enough retail, not enough selection in restaurants" so the city government is looking for more alternatives, he said.

The Wal-Mart Supercenter is planned to open by December.

Having businesses with jobs also helps college students work and go to school at the same time without having to move to bigger cities for this type of opportunity.

Retail has been a large part of the economy of San Luis, mainly concentrated along Main Street shops.

Escamilla says the city is working to make the downtown area on Main Street more tourist-friendly and hopes the planned commercial port of entry will help San Luis appeal to both older winter visitors and Mexican shoppers.

At present, all traffic flows through the increasingly congested port, and Escamilla hopes that by rerouting the commercial traffic through a separate port, the pedestrian and the private car lanes will be less burdened. The commercial port is planned to begin operating in 2010.

"It's going to be easier to come across," Escamilla said.

To better serve San Luis residents, new city offices are being built. The new city complex is expected to be ready by September and will house city government departments and public safety.

San Luis was established as a border crossing into San Luis Rio Colorado in 1930. It had less than 3,000 residents at the time of its incorporation in 1979.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, San Luis' population grew from 15,363 to 22,634 residents between 2000 and 2006, or 47 percent. City officials estimate the current population at approximately 25,000.