The Town of Chino Valley and the Prescott Sportsmen’s Club will co-host the grand opening of the Chino Valley Shooting Facility Saturday.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting, followed by remarks from several speakers including Secretary of State Ken Bennett, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Rep. Karen Fann, Yavapai County Supervisor Craig Brown, and Mayor Chris Marley.
Representatives form the National Rifle Association and the Arizona Game and Fish Department also will be on hand for the dedication.
The opening will include the dedication of a 911 monument and several shooting demonstrations, including black powder shooting, cowboy action demonstrations, and cowboy mounted shooting.
Free shooting will be available from noon to 4 p.m. A lunch will be provided as a fundraiser for the club’s Junior High Power Team.
Cindy Ksenzulak, president of the Prescott Sportsmen’s Club, said that while her group has been anxiously looking forward to the grand opening, the normal three to five year time line for opening a range of this size was shortened quite a bit for the CVSF.
In a staggering case of affirmative action gone wild, officials in a major U.S. city are actually recruiting minorities to be lifeguards at public pools even if they’re not good swimmers. It’s all in the name of diversity.
You can’t make this stuff up. It’s a real-life story out of Phoenix, the capitol of Arizona and the nation’s sixth-largest city. It has more than 1.4 million residents and, among its official mottos is “value and respect” of diversity. This means “more than gender and race,” according to the city’s official website. It also encompasses “uniqueness and individuality” and embracing differences. “We put this belief into action to provide effective services to our diverse community.”
Evidently officials are willing to compromise those “effective services” at 29 public swimming pools spread throughout the city. To diversify the lifeguard force, Phoenix will spend thousands of dollars to recruit minorities even if they’re not strong swimmers, according to an official quoted in a news report. Blacks, Latinos and Asians who may not necessarily qualify can still get hired, says the city official who adds that “we will work with you in your swimming abilities.”
There’s a good reason the city is hiring lifeguards that can’t swim. Public pools are largely used by Latino and African-American kids, but most of the lifeguards are white and this creates a huge problem. “The kids in the pool are all either Hispanic or black or whatever, and every lifeguard is white and we don’t like that,” says a Phoenix official quoted in the story. She added that “the kids don’t relate; there’s language issues.”
WILLIAMS—At the City Council meeting March 28th, Mike Brown of Western Destinations proposed the instillation of a ride called Zip Line perhaps in the area of Cureton Park. The proposed cost of rides would be approximately $39 with a re-ride costing half of that. Williams residents would get a discounted price.
The ride, Mr. Brown indicated, could provide as many as forty jobs in Williams. Local residents would be trained to conduct the ride safely and the ride would be insured for $5 million.
Councilman Don Dent considered what affect such a ride would have on the Route 66 image that Williams has built up. Joplin Missouri and Branson Missouri have theme parks along, or in the area of, Route 66 both trading off on the Route 66 name. Knight’s Action Park operates in Springfield, Illinois along the Mother Road.
Blog BatesLine by Michael Bates of Tulsa Okalahoma asked: Wouldn’t it be cool to restore Crystal City on Historic Route 66 as an amusement park, right next to a restored Red Fork Main Street?
Dwayne the canoe guy commented:
This is great news. There is a small amusement ‘park’ on Route 66 in Joplin but it would be great to have a good sized park like Bell’s rockin & rollin on the Mother Road. Especially with a minigolf with 66 icons (wigwam motel, round barn, gemini giant, cadillac ranch)
Right here in Williams, Napolitano approved a special taxing district for a theme park in Williams that never developed. That action even caused the County Board of Supervisors to raise property taxes for a short time. So you now know what a “special taxing district” is.
Flagstaff operates a smaller version of the Zip Line ride at their Extreme Adventure Course near the fairgrounds as seen in the following video.
There are currently Zip Line rides in Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Hawaii. For the longest and fastest Zip Line in the world, you will need a ticket to South Africa.
Mr. Brown indicated that the ride would be “low impact” meaning that it could be easily removed leaving no marks if it did not do well. However, the engineering in the videos presented does not appear to bear that out. It appears that Williams would have to build a large tower to make the ride. It is also unclear how the project would impact softball and little league games at the park.
While the project does not seem appropriate in the indicated area, it could be an interesting compliment to the Bearizona drive through wildlife park. Another area of possible interest might be the Williams snow play area.
Fifteen months before the Fast & Furious gun scandal was unmasked in public, Homeland Security agents along the Arizona border recognized that their colleagues at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were allowing illegal guns to flow across the border to Mexican drug gangs in violation of federal policy.
The agents working for Homeland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raised objections internally to their bosses and to their ATF colleagues in late 2009 without success, but did not escalate their concerns to superiors in Washington, according to a new Homeland Security inspector general report that uncovered yet another missed opportunity inside government to stop the bungled gun trafficking investigation.
“Most Homeland Security Investigations personnel in Arizona who received information about the investigation recognized that the task force was using a flawed methodology, which was contrary to ICE policy and practices for weapons smuggling investigations,” the inspector general concluded in a little-noticed report issued late last month.
And the special agent in charge in the case for Homeland failed to appreciate that the flawed tactics in the investigation – allowing weapons to “walk” across the border – violated ICE policies, the report added.
ARKANSAS—Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has asked Exxon to preserve all documents relating to the oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas last Friday the 31st. The rupture of the pipeline caused evacuation of families from the affected neighborhood. This accident comes on the heels of the accident at the Arkansas One nuclear power plant. That accident release no harmful material into the atmosphere.
The spill covered lawns and streets and may have an affect Lake Conway. The 6700-acre lake is the largest man-made fishing reservoir in the U.S.
One resident documented the event in the following video.
The spill occurred from a burst in the 65-year old, 848-mile Pegasus line which routes crude oil from Canada to Texas. This calls into question the safety of a proposed Keystone XL pipeline project which would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
The kids of Civitan made this poster for the Duck Race.
WILLIAMS—The Friends of the Williams Aquatic Center and the Williams Lions Club are conducting a Duck Egg Race on Fairway Drive at the Highland Meadows North subdivision this Saturday April 6. The first place cash prize is $100, second place $50 with third at $25. Eggs are $5 each or five eggs for $20.
The members of the Friends of the Williams Aquatic Center also seek to fill two openings for the nine-member board. The volunteers would be required to attend 8 to 20 meetings a year and help in the events that they plan. The Friends of the Williams Aquatic Center finds ways to raise money to help keep the WAC open and provides help with swimming lessons and programs for children.
The current board members are Mike Dulay, Clare Hydock, Tom Hooker, Kris Vasquez, Bobby Patriccia, Beth Michelson and Edie Phillips. You can contact one of them or email friends_at_williamsaquaticcenter.org (remove the underscores and add the @ sign).
They are looking for five people to assist in setting up, serving and clean up for the Fourth Annual Golf Tournament scheduled for Saturday, June 8 beginning at 7:30 am. There will be a deep-pit barbeque of beef, pork and side dishes after the golf tournament that is open to golfers and non-golfers. The volunteers would be required from about 12:30 to 3:30 pm. If you cannot donate time, they are looking for desert items such as pies, cakes, cookies and the like.
If you would be available June 8 to assist for 2-3 hours, please contact Edie by e-mail (ehpoh_at_aol.com), in person, or by phone (635-4784).
FLAGSTAFF—Last Thursday the long awaited draft version of the Flagstaff Regional Plan was released to the public. The plan now has a 60 day public comment period before it goes to the Flagstaff City Council and Coconino County Board of Supervisors for their approval. Once the City and County approve the plan, it will go to voters in a special election scheduled for May 20, 2014.
Before the plan was released, Flagstaff City Council member Jeff Oravits and many others raised concerns that the Regional Plan Citizens Advisory Committee was not balanced and was stacked with members of groups like F3 and other organizations with an extreme agenda.
Oravits fought to get more balance on the Committee during several council sessions but the majority of the Council said no and so the Committee remained one sided.
Now that the draft version of the plan has been released, I am receiving emails from concerned residents who say wording in the plan tramples individual liberty and private property rights. Of particular concern are the comments in the plan about social sustainability.
“Environmental, economic, cultural and social sustainability ensure that present actions are the basis for future health and prosperity.”
People are taking this to mean behavior control and the possibility of a Bloomberg style nanny state coming to the Flagstaff area.
NELSON, Ga. — The Nelson City Council voted 5-0 Monday night to require every household to have a gun and ammunition, unless the residents of the household opt out.
City council members in Nelson voted on the Family Protection Ordinance at their meeting Monday evening.
The city of about 1,300 located about 50 miles north of Atlanta has gotten a lot of attention in the media since the ordinance was proposed.
The Town of Chino Valley and the Prescott Sportsmen’s Club will co-host the grand opening of the Chino Valley Shooting Facility Saturday.
