The 2023 State of the Town event hosted by the Marana Chamber of Commerce was held on Thursday, April 6, 2023 at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain. This year’s theme of this sold-out event was “Marana & The Media.”

Featured Guest Speakers:

Mayor Ed Honea - Town of Marana
Dan Marries- Evening Anchor - KOLD 13 News
Denelle Confair- 4 pm Anchor - KGUN9 On Your Side
Vic Hathaway- Communications Manager - Town of Marana

Additional Speakers:

Jeff Saunders - Board Chair - Marana Chamber of Commerce
Amanda Wiggins - President & CEO - Marana Chamber of Commerce

Marana Community Award Recipients:

CLICK THE VIDEO TO VIEW THE FULL PRESENTATION:

FEATURED speakers

Mayor Honea is the third generation of a five-generation Marana family and has served on the council on three different occasions. He worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Marana as a contractor for 29 years before retiring in 2007.

Mayor Honea is a member of the Pima Association of Governments, including chair in 2014, and as the current chair of the Regional Transportation Authority. He serves on the executive board of the Arizona League of Cities and Towns and is a member of Arizona Town Hall, Central Arizona Association of Governments, the Arizona Association of Economic Development, the Marana Optimist Club, and Marana Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Honea is a graduate of Marana High School, the U.S. Naval School of Construction, and Pima Community College. He served in the U.S. Navy Seabees during the Vietnam War and is a lifetime member of VFW Post 5990 in Marana.

Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. That is exactly how Dan Marries feels about working as the evening news anchor at KOLD 13 News, where he’s been keeping Tucsonans informed since 1999. Dan got his start in television news in 1995 while he was still a junior at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO. Further news jobs took him to Mankato, MN, Yuma and finally Tucson. It was also during college he spent four summers as a wildland firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management.

Dan is the father of three boys.

Denelle Confair is proud to call Southern Arizona home. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Communications. It's been her dream to tell your stories for the past decade. She is extremely curious and wants to continue to use her storytelling for the greater good. She's married to a firefighter and they have a daughter and a brand new baby boy. She loves traveling, being outdoors and getting coffee. She works for KGUN 9 On Your Side, and anchors weekdays at 4 pm.

Town of Marana Communications Manager Vic Hathaway

Vic Hathaway has worked for the Town of Marana for just over a decade, most recently as the Communications Manager. She leads a dynamic creative team for government public relations and brand management, including PR, digital and print media, website management, content creation, and more. She is married to her husband, Eric, and together they have two daughters as well as a dog, and a hamster.