Arizona News Round-Up

Wow, where did the week go? It seems like only yesterday that we were hearing the voices of ghosts in Jerome tell their tales of mining history. So lets hope a quick flight to the Navajo Nation to see what's going on in the Four Corners area. Ironically, internet woes.

The Navajo Nation has overpaid more than $650,000 in "questionable and improper payments" to OnSat, the Utah-based communications company that provides Internet services to the Navajo Nation, according to an audit released this week.

In addition, according to the audit, the tribe did not effectively manage its contract with OnSat as it was continuously revised upward, committing the tribe to pay ever-higher fees to bring the reservation into the Internet age.

Navajo Times

Hopefully things get resolved soon. We could use more voices in bloglandia from the Nation. Moving south now to Holbrook, the local politicos are making arrangements for some economic development

The agreements are both with Pacific-Holt Corporation, the company that is planning a large housing development in Perkins Valley and is hoping to purchase large amounts of property in the city.

One of those property purchases, the land known as the old Finley property on East Hermosa Drive, was approved by the council through a development agreement with Pacific-Holt. The sale of the city-owned property will bring in approximately $500,000, enough to make up for the $487,000 deficit in the 2006-07 budget, according to Economic Development Director A’kos Kovach. The sale is expected to close on June 29, just before the end of the fiscal year.

AzJournal.com

Just down the road in Silver Creek, a pitch was made by Taylor's Town Manager to ask the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to come in and assist with flooding prevention.

Poczobut made a PowerPoint presentation that showed how over the past half century there have been a number of dams, hold ponds, irrigation diversions and levies built to capture and use runoff, and to control flooding. He noted that these, along with climate changes, have resulted in low flows within the Silver Creek and its tributaries, causing a deterioration of the ecosystem within the creek channel, which, in turn, compounds the potential for catastrophic flooding. Because the flushing flow has been eliminated due to Schoens Dam and the land use change, sedimentation has built up along the Silver Creek.

AzJournal.com

Do you feel the cool weather? That's because we are trekking our way into the heart of the White Mountains (where I got that nasty sunburn earlier last weekend - it was so worth it though - at least I didn't hit an elk) Wait. Huh?

According to DPS, Mike Wall, 49, of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, was driving his motorcycle east on U.S. 60 near milepost 327 around 9:15 a.m. when an elk wandered onto the road.

WMICentral

He's gonna be alright. The elk? Not so much. Meanwhile an Eagle Scout in Springerville is using his artistic talents to brighten up a children's interview room at the local police station (children's interview room?)

Houston took a couple of weeks to find some Winnie the Pooh pictures he felt would be appropriate for the four walls. Houston drew a grid on the pictures that later helped him as he transferred the images to the walls of the room when he began his work on June 5. To make things as exact as possible, Houston gave copies of the pictures to a local paint store employee who was able to mix the paint colors exactly as in the pictures, right down to Pooh's yellow body and bright red jacket.

WMICentral

There's a cool pic of the mural at the link. Check it out. [waits for you to come back] Since we're moving around this huge state at a rapid pace, make sure you take the necessary precautions against the blood-sucking vampires that invade the land (and I don't mean snowbirds)

With the summer monsoon season just around the corner, area residents should take precautions against mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus.

People, birds and equine animals, such as horses, donkeys and mules, are susceptible to West Nile. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, West Nile is transmitted to humans and animals through mosquito bites. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds. The disease is not transmitted from person to person. No infected mosquitoes have been detected in Graham County so far this year, said Neil Karnes, director of the Graham County Health Department.

Eastern Arizona Courier

Alrighty then, that concludes this edition of our roundabout tour of the Grand Canyon State. What's going on in your part of the world?