The clock is ticking and state officials are beginning to plan for Arizona’s centennial, a celebration that is expected to include events and activities across the state.

Ninety-three years after President William Howard Taft’s signature on a bill made Arizona the 48th state on Feb. 14, 1912, Governor Napolitano signed a bill Feb. 14 that assigns the job of planning the centennial celebration to the state Historical Advisory Commission.

“How symbolic that we’re doing it on Statehood Day,” Ms. Napolitano said as she signed the bill (SB1065) during a ceremony in the House chambers in the old Capitol.

Approximately 80 fourth-graders were on hand, and Ms. Napolitano told them she’s asking fourth-graders statewide to prepare mock newspapers celebrating the centennial.

“It’s not very far away,” Ms. Napolitano said.

Centennial hoopla won’t be focused just at the Capitol in Phoenix, said GladysAnn Wells, a commission member by virtue of her position as director of the state library, archives and public records.

“It’s got to be statewide,” Ms. Wells said. “Arizona belongs to everybody no matter where you live.”

Ms. Wells said she expects communities and groups of people will want to highlight a variety of events and historic sites and that the celebrations won’t be confined to just 2012.

“It’s not just the 100 years, it’s the whole background of Arizona and all of the people of Arizona — the Indian nations as well as the newest immigrants,” she said.

Public And Private Funds Will Be Used

Ms. Wells said the commission probably will try to tap both public and private sources of money to pay for the celebration.

“We will have to fund raise,” Ms. Wells said. “We’ll be planning that more quickly than any other part of it because it’s going to take some money to do this.”

The Historical Advisory Commission was formed in 1976 and last met in 2003, when it made numerous recommendations for designations of historical sites.

The commission’s members by law include Ms. Wells, the state historical preservation officer and directors of the Arizona Historical Society, the Parks Department and the State Museum.

Other members are appointed for staggered three-year terms. Not yet appointed, they will include experts in history, arts and culture, architecture and archaeology. —