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 PictureRocksDigest@comcast.net.
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: bluemoon@dakotacom.net; 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.