SanTanValley.com

Pinal County Public Works says work is continuing on schedule with Phase I improvements to Hunt Highway.

Phase I is a 1.79 mile section of the road from Empire Boulevard to Thompson Road.

The improvements include a five-lane roadway, drainage culverts, completion of an intersection and installation of a traffic signal at Thompson Road.

Campfires, bonfires and fire pits are a central part of fellowship at campsites.  Unfortunately due to the extreme fire risk from repeated years of drought, they are currently banned in unincorporated areas of Pinal County.

“In the past, several Arizona counties have experienced significant forest fires that have stretched not only Arizona’s local emergency responders to the limit but also required significant state and federal resources to respond to the emergency,” said Pinal County Emergency Manager Lou Miranda.

On Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 at 6 a.m. the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Florence Unified School District regarding a “hit list” which was discovered on the internet and reported to them by a parent of one of the students on the list.

The list was created by two female students; an 8th grade student at Walker Butte K-8 and a 10th grade student at Poston Butte High School, and placed on the social media site Instagram. Also on the media site was an icon of a pistol next to the word “hit list.”

The Community Alliance Against Family Abuse (CAAFA), the non-profit domestic violence service provider serving Northern Pinal and far Eastern Maricopa Counties, will be holding their 5th Annual 5K Run/5th Annual CAAFA Run Walk for Safety, Sunday, March 10. The trail race will begin at Prospector Park, located at 3105 N. Idaho Road, in Apache Junction. 

Usually, coyotes and freeways are a bad combination but in this case it’s cause for celebration. The US-60 overpass slopes at Idaho Road have been getting a makeover with a colorful rock art coyote design.

The design was originally conceived from a photo of coyotes drinking from the fountain at City Hall. Drawings were made from the photo by the city’s Multi-Media Producer Matthew McNulty, and included in the grant proposal. The approved designs now add some whimsy and visual interest in place of the large dirt slope that faced the on- and off-ramps before.

During taxpaying season and county budget preparation time, taxpayers are understandably concerned about possible misuse of public resources.  Especially when those resources are misused in pursuit of obvious political objectives.

This county taxpayer, as I suspect others more discreet about sharing their views, is not surprised that our County Sheriff, no longer content with politicizing law enforcement, now ventures into politicizing basic county governance.   

The proposed Union Pacific Railroad Classification Yard picked up another show of support from the Pinal County Board of Supervisors in Wednesday’s meeting.

The board unanimously approved a resolution asking Governor Jan Brewer to direct the State Land Department to auction the land needed for the project within the next six months.  Union Pacific has had an application for six years with no decision being rendered by the State Land Department.  The land is located just north of Red Rock east of Interstate 10.

If you own real estate in Pinal County, watch for your 2014 Notice of Value in the mail this week.  The notice is not a tax bill but it does contain important information that will influence how much you pay in property taxes next year.  The Full Cash Value (FCV) should reflect the market value of your property as of the beginning of this year.

Almost half of all animals taken in by Pinal County Animal Care & Control in 2012 were released for rescue or public adoption.  That’s a stark contrast to 2010 when Pinal County took in 8,176 animals and less than a quarter were released.

“Our relationship with animal rescue groups coupled with increased public outreach efforts has resulted in dramatically higher live animal releases – an 81 percent increase from 2010 to 2012,” Kaye Dickson, Animal Care & Control Director said. 

Level 2 Sex Offender

Erwin Hickman

Convicted in 1997 of Sex with a minor in California.

Convicted in 2007 of lewd and lasvi acts with a child in California.  His victims were young girls known to him.