August 2011 - citizens for picture rocks
Transcription
August 2011 - citizens for picture rocks
PICTURE ROCKS DIGEST Vol. 9, No. 8 ***For more information, visit our website at www.CitizensForPictureRocks.org*** August 2011 Welcome to the Picture Rocks Digest, a free newsletter about issues and events in the community. The print version of this all-volunteer publication is distributed at area businesses and community sites. The electronic version is available online at www.CitizensForPictureRocks.org and via email. If you have events or news items, or if you would like to be added to our email list, please contact us at [email protected]. The Picture Rocks Digest is a publication of Citizens for Picture Rocks, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(4) civic organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in the community. C4PR meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Picture Rocks Community Center, 5615 N. Sanders Road. Meetings are always free and open to the public. Membership is not required, but strongly encouraged. Annual membership dues are $25/family or $20/individual. CITIZENS FOR PICTURE ROCKS MEETING Tuesday, August 16, 2011 7:00 p.m. Social time with refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Picture Rocks Community Center 5615 N. Sanders Road On the agenda are community announcements and guest speakers from the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, Pima County Zoning Department, and Abbett Library Manager Ruth Grant. Free, all neighbors welcome. PICTURE ROCKS FIRE INDUCTS TEN The Picture Rocks Fire District’s Governing Board had a special agenda item at its July 14 meeting, the induction of ten newly hired firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The nine men and one woman were given their official badges after completion of training, pinned on either by invited loved ones or by Chief Brett Lane. Lane welcomed the new first responders, urging them to serve well the community of which they are now a part. SHERIFF’S DEPT. SHRED-A-THON The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is holding a ShredA-Thon on Saturday, August 13, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, in the Desert Winds Elementary School Parking Lot. Personal papers only. No business documents, CDs, etc. COMPUTER LAB COMING TO COMMUNITY CENTER A Community Development Block Grant has been awarded to the Picture Rocks Community Center to wire it for high-speed Internet and to replace some old wiring. Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation is locating computers, and a computer lab should be up and running before winter. PRCC Coordinator Wanda Crawford holding a mosaic plaque from Safe Routes to School artist Robin Riley, thanking Desert Winds Elementary School and Picture Rocks for the opportunity to enrich our community. WOUNDED WARRIORS BENEFIT Saturday, August 20, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. , Picture Rocks Fire Station, 7341 N. Sandario Road. Food, raffle, face painting, fun! Tens of thousands of troops have been wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, suffering traumatic brain injuries, amputations, and severe burns. The mission of the non-profit Wounded Warrior Project is to honor and empower these brave men and women through a variety of recovery, education, transition and other support services. For more information, visit www. wounded warriorproject.org. However one feels about these wars, community support is needed to help those sent to fight in our name to recover and return to our communities. Bring your checkbook. Fire Chief Brett Lane (on right) and Assistant Chief Jayme Kahle (at left) flank incoming Fire Department recruits. (Photo courtesy Billie Moon/ Picture Rocks Fire District.) Chief Lane’s end-of-fiscal-year report noted that the department had 1,179 total calls, including 32 fires, 777 emergency medical services, and numerous rattlesnake removals. Response times were 25 percent better than the last year’s. Over $100,000 in grant money helped Picture Rocks Fire end the fiscal year with a record surplus. Chief Lane also reported that an anonymous survey found employee morale “high.” The Governing Board, with George “Jesse” James in the Chair, voted to increase salaries of all personnel except the Chief and Assistant Chief by $1 per hour effective July 1. The Board also approved making the Sandario Road fire station a CPR Training Center for Northwest Medical Center. In addition to James, Board members are Peggy McCool, David Putnam, Charles Hay and David Seese. Regular meetings are on the second Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m. at the Administration Building, 12121 W. Picture Rocks Road. In related news, Citizens for Picture Rocks Vice President Chris Banks was appointed to the civilian seat on the PRFD Retirement Board. BLM CHALLENGED OVER SUNZIA POWER LINES On July 12 the Winkelman and Redington Natural Resource Conservation Districts formally petitioned the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to provide an “objective statement of purpose for the SunZia Southwest Transmission Line Project.” The proposed project is to construct a 460-mile-long 500-kilovolt electrical corridor up to a mile wide, with proposed routes under consideration through the San Pedro, Aravaipa and Avra Valleys. The petition asks for corrections under Federal Information Quality Guidelines requiring agencies to present the public with accurate, clear, unbiased and complete information. The petitioners assert that the BLM chose rather to present the SunZia proposal in a favorable light and misstated or left out a number of key informational points. They urge that the proposal be restated honestly, with the public comment period reopened for 45 days before the BLM issues its overdue draft Environmental Impact Statement. SunZia, which claims that this is a “green energy” project — while the evidence shows continued reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels — attempted to speed approval and short-circuit Arizona regulatory authority in the last State Legislature, but was thwarted by opposition from an unlikely alliance of cattle ranchers, farmers, environmentalists and community protestors. The C4PR Board of Directors, on July 19, unanimously voted to add this community’s support to the petition, asking for BLM “fairness and transparency” and calling for scoping sessions in the affected communities so that neighbors would have a chance to be heard. MEET THE TEACHERS AND THE NEW DESERT WINDS PRINCIPAL On August 4 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., children and parents will have the chance to meet their teachers before the August 8 start of school, and to meet the new principal, Tawnya Caldwell. Caldwell has been the Associate Principal for five years and taught at DWE for eight years, working with Denise Linsalata who has moved over to Picture Rocks Intermediate School. For the past year Tawnya and Denise have headed up both schools, working to coor-dinate and do more together. Tawnya says, “I don’t see the need to change a well-oiled machine, but we will try new things as they come along.” She intends to carry on the DWE traditions, focusing on reading and math, and says emphatically that, “Desert Winds Elementary School doesn’t need fixing!” In a letter to staff, DWE Principal Tawnya Caldwell said she was “humbled and honored and excited to lead the school I ‘grew up’ in.” Tawnya arrived in Tempe, Arizona, from Wisconsin at age nine, and went to Mesa Community College for two years, marrying her high school sweetheart, Dan. She finished her Elementary Education degree at the University of Arizona in 1997, and earned a Master’s there in 2009. Both of her parents were Lutheran School teachers, and Tawya’s son and daughter both attended Redeemer Lutheran School, carrying on a family tradition. Her son starts Marana Middle School this month. FREE PR FIRE DEPT. SERVICES CPR/First Aid classes the first Saturday of the month, free smoke alarms, free child car seat inspections and installation, free home safety checks are available. For more information, call Billie Moon at 682-7878. NOT TOO LATE FOR A SUMMER READ PICTURE ROCKS COMMUNITY CENTER LIBRARY: Open Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Works on the honor system, free, no library card needed. Fiction is shelved by author, other books are on marked category shelves. Visitors are welcome to come in and cool off and work on a puzzle-in-progress. Book donations are welcome, many have come from the Abbett Library. PRCC volunteer librarian June Taylor (left) at a puzzle table with Margaret Hurlbut and Chuck Grove. WHEELER TAFT ABBETT, SR. LIBRARY: This Pima County library is “over the hill” near Cortaro and Silverbell, and is a full-service library; a library card is required at no cost. Open daily. Services include ordering books online, interlibrary loans, free use of computers, many classes and story-telling sessions, research assistance, and much more. Call for hours, 594-5203. “Wondrous” is a metal sculpture made of words in front of the Abbett Library. BOOKMOBILE: Setting out from the Abbett Library packed full of books, the County library-on-wheels visits the Picture Rocks Community Center the third Friday of the month, 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. Abbett Library staff (and Picture Rocks neighbor) Sherryl Volpone with Bookmobile’s Wade Zelenak. The Bookmobile shows up regularly at community events. LIVING IN NATURE COMMUNITY GARDEN PLANNED BLESSED RAIN: The coming of the summer storms makes the Sonoran Desert burst into life again. With almost an inch of rain at your reporter’s home the week of July 4th, plants perked up, blossoms popped out, ocotillos sprouted green leaves and cereus cacti set out magnificent white night blooms. Prickly pear cactus fruit starts turning from pale green to red, treats to come soon for desert tortoises, round-tailed ground squirrels, and other critters. Desert iguanas are doing mating dances and Couch’s spadefoot toads are croaking their songs of love into the night. Two adolescent cactus wrens frolic noisily in the mesquite trees, knocking the last of the dry seed pods to the ground. Children put on ladybug rubber boots and splash in the puddles. Mushrooms pop out of the desert sand, and where the heck did they come from? For a few brief moments, the air cooled and it was Spring again, until the relentless summer sun reasserted its harsh power over the land. Semi-retired realtor and C4PR member Greg Mattison is moving to establish a Community Garden on leased land at the corner of Picture Rocks and Sandario Roads. Mattison plans to have both container and in-ground gardens, measuring water and weighing the results to determine which process works best. With rain and heat also come mosquitoes, potential carriers of the West Nile Disease virus. Reduce mosquitoes by getting rid of standing water in old tires, buckets, planters, etc. Wear repellant and/or cover exposed areas when working outside, especially nights and early mornings. A word of warning from Sheriff’s Department Directed Patrol Sergeant Terry Parish: Walking across flowing washes can be dangerous, and it is easy for vehicles to get trapped. Water flows north, and it doesn’t have to be raining where you are in a wash to get into trouble. HOUSE GUESTS (from Wes Stewart): I have a water bucket in my back yard that attracts some wildlife. A few days ago I was on the patio, which overlooks the yard, turning on the hose that feeds the bucket. I looked up and there was this juvenile coyote. I had to go into the house to get the camera and when I came out he (or she) was heading for the oleander hedge at the back of the property. He laid down and I approached to within about 25 feet, before he got up slowly and walked into the neighbor's yard. I kind of talked to him and he came back and laid down again. I took some photos and then started crawling toward him. When I got to about 15 feet he stood up and slowly walked through the hedge to the neighbor's yard. This bobcat was at the water bucket when I saw her. Same deal; into the house for the camera. She had her back to me but every time the shutter went off she would look at me. Then she approached me and I made a series of shots. The bobcat (s) are pretty common here (near Rudasill and Tula). Javelina used to be quite common, too, practically coming in the house for dinner, but the herds have died off and we seldom see them anymore. Parti-cipants will be able to swap veggies and tools, and sell extra produce. August 1 is the start-up date, and volunteers are needed. Call Greg at 682-8862. YELLOWBOOK RESPECTING OUR COMMUNITY Digest readers and C4PR meeting attendees are well aware of the struggle over the years to prevent phone books from being dumped on the ground at mailboxes. Illegal dumping complaints were filed, and in several cases where community concerns were being ignored, piles of books were returned to the doorways of the offending companies and dumped there. As a result, Dex now mails their books, and Yellowbooks is mailing them during this and last month to Picture Rocks routes in the 85743 zip code. Yellowbook Distribution Manager John Marsden wrote from Phoenix that, despite the “huge cost” to his company of mailing some 4,000 telephone books, he hopes “it will further improve our relations with your community.” Yellowbook will also “sweep” any delivery areas where books were not left at the front door within one week of delivery. If there are any problems, Marsden can be reached at (602) 377-8710. Neighbors can opt out of receiving phone books on the Internet by going to www.yellowpagesoptout.com. However, routes to which books are mailed may still receive them; they can be recycled. Thornydale Post Office Supervisor Raymundo assures us that carriers have been instructed not to leave mailed books on the ground. If they do not fit in the mailbox, the carriers have been instructed to not deliver them and to leave a note. Neighbors can then pick them up at the post office if they want the phone book. The post office phone number is (520) 744-6720. Verizon and TucsonPages have yet to respond to our concerns about phone book deliveries and have yet to adopt, as Yellowbook’s John Marsden put it, “the ultimate goal of leaving your beautiful community exactly as it was prior to our…delivery project.” FREE OR REDUCED PRICE SCHOOL MEALS Your child may be eligible. Apply online today at www.maranausd.org/food. Secure, easy, private, fast. CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE'S NEW LOOK Linda Morgan of Saguaro Designs answered the call for a new website manager. She volunteered to take over the task of maintaining the C4PR website following the resignation of long-time webmaster Malcolm Schmerl. The site now has a fresh new look and updated information. Check it out at www. CitizensForPictureRocks.org. The Picture Rocks Digest is written by Albert Vetere Lannon (email: [email protected]; phone: 622-3561). Design/layout by Karen J. Zopf. For ads, contact Jamie Kisthardt at 682-0287. SUN VALLEY GROWERS Thornless Mesquites Shrubs - Soil Low Water Trees In Picture Rocks at 11205 W. Ina Road Tues.-Sun. 8am - 5pm SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? Call the Pima County Sheriff’s Picture Rocks TIP Line: 351-3868. Picture Rocks Directed Patrol members will follow up and tell you what’s happening, but they need YOU to tell them what is going on. For information on advertising in the Picture Rocks Digest, call 682-0287.