Marana Municipal Complex renamed to honor Ed Honea
Published on December 04, 2024
MARANA- The Marana Municipal Complex is now officially the “Ed Honea Marana Municipal Complex” in recognition of Mayor Honea’s lifetime of dedicated service to the Town.
Town Council adopted the resolution for the name change during the December 3, 2024 meeting.
Interim Mayor Jon Post shared a few words ahead of his motion and became emotional talking about his decades-long relationship with Mayor Honea:
“The Tuesday night that I took him home…this particular Tuesday night, he wanted to talk, and for whatever reason I wanted to listen and talk, and we had a great conversation, and he actually was telling me that he was going to finish this four-year term and he was going to run for another four, and there wasn’t one part of me that didn’t absolutely believe that he was going to do that....When I got the call on Friday, just days later, that he had passed away, I was in utter shock. The conversation we had, the mood he was in, the things we talked about... and just to know that I won’t be giving him a ride home tonight, hits pretty hard. Ed had a particular personality that made him perfect for this job. I mean, he was so perfect to be the mayor. He lived and breathed Marana. He loved Marana, and he literally gave his life to the town...You couldn’t have picked someone better than Ed Honea to be the Mayor of Marana and to get us to this point."
Councilmember Roxanne Ziegler shared the following:
“Mayor, you left us too soon. We weren’t ready, but not before you provided our town with a very strong foundation in which to grow and prosper. After we say goodbye to you and assist and support your loved ones as best we can, our promise to you is to get back to work, hold you in our hearts and memories, and continue to build on the foundation you created for the Town of Marana. Rest in Peace, my friend.”
Councilmember Herb Kai shared the following:
“You know, I think I have known Mayor Honea longer than anyone else here. Mayor Honea and I were grade school students together and used to play in the playground at Marana Elementary School together and graduated at the same time. Ed was a leader and he never gave up, and our town would not be where it is today were it not for Ed…. I want to thank him for his service... and I am sure going to miss him.”
Councilmember Patti Comerford shared the following:
"We are going to miss Ed beyond now. We are going to miss him. There will never be another Ed Honea, and I am not saying that everybody isn’t wonderful, I am saying that he had a way of making everybody wonderful. He just loved Marana with every ounce of his body…he loved everybody and everybody loved him…I am going to miss him terribly.”
Councilmember John Officer shared the following:
“Ed was my neighbor before he was the mayor to me.... He was Ed. He was [the] relationships that he built with people in the town, in the county, in the state, with everybody. The relationships that he built with people, and it has already been said that he was for Marana and he was always for Marana. Ed created a strong community and he is going to be greatly missed.”
Councilmember Patrick Cavanaugh shared the following:
“I guess I am the youngest friend of Ed Honea. I’ve known him for about five years, and you can tell a lot about somebody about two minutes of conversing with him, and my experience in talking to the Mayor, I knew the day I met him and came to a council meeting wanting to shake his hand, he was genuine. I know he was authentic; he meant what he said.... I really respected him as our Mayor. I knew Mayor Honea loved the citizens of Marana.”
On behalf of Town staff, Town Manager Terry Rozema then thanked Interim Mayor Post and Town Council for their tributes to the late Mayor Honea during the council meeting:
“Over the course of this past week-and-a-half now, the thing I keep hearing from people is that it feels so surreal, it is just absolutely surreal that the mayor is not with us. I think we all kind of expected that he would outlive all of us. What I told staff, more than anything, the thing he was most proud of, is the service that we provide to this community, and that meant a lot to him… and I know I speak on behalf of all of the staff in this organization, we’re all going to miss Mayor Ed Honea.”
The Town of Marana would like to thank the community for the outpouring of support in the days following Mayor Honea's passing.
Mayor Honea passed away on November 22, 2024, at the age of 77. He was a third-generation member of a prominent five-generation Marana family and served the Town of Marana for 37 years.