Arizona News Round-Up

Picking up where we left off last week, the grassroots leadership in Willcox is working to make sure there’s plenty to do during the summer.

Willcox Against Substance Abuse (WASA), Willcox Parks and Recreation and Southwest Transmission Linemen (AEPCO) sponsor the summer activities.

Total cost for the programs this summer will run about $9,000, said Sally White, director of WASA. “With the Southwest Transmission Linemen’s donation of $4,500 from their charity golf tournament, their support means the difference between an “OK” summer program and a truly great summer program,” White said. “We deeply appreciate the wonderful support we receive from this great group.”

Arizona Range News

Heading south down to the Bisbee, Tombstone, Sierra Vista area, we can find plenty of heat – as in hot rods.

“When he rolled in, the car show just stopped. Everybody stopped and looked,” he said.

Ward’s enthusiasm for the cars hasn’t quieted since. He and his wife, Shari, are organizers of the 9th Annual National T-Bucket Alliance Nationals on June 21-23, with events in Bisbee, Tombstone and Sierra Vista.

Sierra Vista Herald

Taking the scenic route from SV, through Patagonia to the Nogales area, the history of Santa Cruz County is being presevered by the efforts of local initiative

David Yubeta has a passion for dirt-and that’s not bad. He describes himself as “voracious” in his fervent goal to stabilize every aging, crumbling, adobe building and wall that is in peril.

Yubeta, a preservation specialist with the National Park Service at the Tumac‡cori National Historic Park, is recognized as one of the premier authorities in his field.

In 1998, he was presented with the National Park Service’s top award in Washington, D.C., for cultural preservation.

Doubtless, Yubeta is at the right place to hone his adobe-preservation skills. The Tumac‡cori park protects Spanish colonial missions on three sites. The largest, with a mission church constructed of adobe, was established in January 1691 by Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. The park includes the ruins of the circa-1691 Los Santos çngeles de Guevavi south of Rio Rico and circa-1756 San Cayetano de Calabazas in Rio Rico.

Nogales International

Meanwhile, on the Tohono O’odham Nation to the northwest, the Sonoran Desert is continuing to claim lives of economic refugees

Fewer illegal immigrants may be crossing the Arizona desert than last year, but more are dying.

Authorities found the bodies of at least six migrants along the border during the first six days in June, adding to a death toll that has outpaced last year’s, despite falling arrest figures.

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 96 illegal immigrants had died as of Wednesday, a 12 percent increase over the same period last year, when the Border Patrol counted 86 dead.

Tucson Citizen

Over in Ajo, watch out for wildcats (decidedly NOT of UA origin)

Rabies has been confirmed in a fox and a bobcat killed in Ajo during the past week. At least two people have started rabies shots after being attacked by the bobcat. Residents are urged to report any animal behaving oddly and to get pets vaccinated and keep them indoors.

Ajo Copper News

And since we’re having chilly temperatures this week (it’s 92 in the Old Pueblo at the moment), lets take our chances in Gila Bend before the real heat begins. The town’s website alerts us to a Mark-Your-Calendar moment for November

5th Annual Desert Shrimp Festival

November 3, 2007
10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Community Center Park (Euclid Ave.)

More info at the Town of Gila Bend website

Hmmmm, I guess I’ll have to put the “I’ll try anything once” motto to the test.

What’s going on in your part of the world?

 

Arizona News Round-Up

Here are some headlines around the Grand Canyon State.

Starting in Kingman, at the northwest corner of Arizona, the politics of water resources and development are on the mind of local politicos.

The provisions of the bill, as put forth in the Senate fact sheet, allow “county Board of Supervisors, by unanimous vote, to adopt an ordinance requiring a proposed subdivision located outside of an AMA (active management area) to demonstrate an adequate water supply before the final plat can be approved.”

Trekking down the Colorado River to the Yuma-San Luis area, funding has been secured for the infrastructure to build a new Port of Entry at the U.S./Mexico Border

The bonds will finance infrastructure projects such as cable conduits, lift stations and electrical, telephone and sewer lines for the port, known as San Luis II.

The new $42 million facility will be built by the federal government five miles east of San Luis, Ariz. While the project itself was funded in the last federal budget, Chessum said the GYPA needed to prepare the infrastructure before it could go forward.

“We agreed to give 80 acres to the federal government for the port of entry. It was agreed that it would be a construction-ready site,” Chessum said. “That means there have to be utilities there they can hook into.”

Moving to the middle of the state where it’s hotter than the face of the sun right now, Casa Grande residents are combating the problem of illegal garbage dumps in the desert.

Illegal dumping, desert dumping, wildcat dumping – they all mean the same thing: “a huge problem for rural Arizona,” said Rick Gibson, director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Pinal County. Gibson was speaking at an Illegal Dumping Seminar last week at Central Arizona College.

Dumpers think no one will notice the old tires, cars, TVs, appliances, computers, furniture, yard waste, household waste, dirty diapers and toxic chemicals left in the desert, he said.

But a rancher notices when his $6,000 bull swallows a plastic bag and dies, said rancher Gerardo “Gerry” Gonzalez.

Speaking of environmental disasters, the Globe Silver Belt is highlighting efforts to clean up the copper tailings from various area mines – using cattle.

Patterned after a holistic land management system developed by Rhodesian ecologist, Allan Savory, the process takes the land through a life cycle. The whole eco-system is considered, and grazing cattle on the land is an important part of the cycle.

Heading north, over the Roosevelt Dam, to Payson we’re met with preparations for una fiesta grande that will happen this fall.

As Payson’s 125th anniversary celebration draws near, organizers are adding more features to make the occasion a memorable one.

New developments include a time capsule to be opened on the 200th anniversary, a golf tournament, a historic quilt display and performances by a miniature horse drill team.

The celebration begins on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and spans six days of activities designed to honor the town’s wild Western heritage.

And last, but certainly not least on the dust-devil trek through AZ, the Arizona Range News reminds valley residents around Willcox that Tuesday is National Hunger Awareness Day.

Food in Arizona is abundant and affordable for most of us, thanks to the work of productive farmers and ranchers. The Arizona Farm Bureau encourages individuals and communities across the state to donate to their local food bank in honor of National Hunger Awareness Day on June 5th.

[Editorial Blurb] I’m thinking about making this a weekly post – drawing from different town papers across the state. Whatdoyathinkaboutthat?