Coconino National Forest spokeswoman Brienne Magee told NAZ Today that the smoke is from the Mountainaire Burn, which is a 500-acre prescribed burn south of Flagstaff near Mountainaire.  Only 150 acres were burned because of “ventilation concerns,” and crews decided to stop the burn. 

Fire conditions were determined to be good this morning, says Magee, but as conditions changed throughout the day, managers decided to shut down the burn.

Magee says that smoke will continue to drift north and east from the fire and cold weather overnight will allow for the smoke to continue to affect Flagstaff into the overnight hours.

The Index provides rankings of the 75 top towns and cities for college students to live in. Rankings are generated through a quantitative process that considers demographics, employment opportunities, student population, and a host of other factors when assessing the livability of college towns.

Flagstaff made the list based on its strong partnership with NAU, as well as the host of local attractions and outdoor opportunities the town offers its student population. Flagstaff & NAU appear at number 14 out of 75 for schools of a comparative size.

Flagstaff has also been ranked as a top-five college town for adults by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine in 2007, and listed as a top adventure town by National Geographic Magazine in 2007.

No winner emerged from the City Council’s decision this week to stick with its original contract to provide treated wastewater to the Arizona Snowbowl for snowmaking. Officials also were considering sending potable water to the resort just outside Flagstaff.

American Indian tribes intent on protecting the San Francisco Peaks, which they consider sacred, were unsuccessful in pushing to derail snowmaking completely. Meanwhile, the owners of the ski resort likely can’t make snow anyway pending resolution of a federal court lawsuit over the health risks of using treated wastewater.

“It’s a nightmare decision for the City Council,” said Councilman Al White. “You intrinsically have to hurt somebody, and you don’t want to. There’s no right answer to this.”

Representatives of American Indian tribes came away from a Thursday meeting unsure of what to do next but had a sense of cohesiveness in knowing they stood up for what they believed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to forge a compromise among the tribes, the city and the resort owners after the tribes lost a legal battle over religious rights. But the tribes didn’t budge in their position that they would not support snowmaking, regardless of what type of water was used.

The USDA acknowledged a compromise wasn’t possible and issued a permit in July for snowmaking.

A committee of the Navajo Nation Council said “desecration appears imminent,” and tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. said “it is irrefutable that these decisions hurt indigenous people in ways unseen and unfelt by our neighbors.”

The issue has been debated extensively for more than eight years and positions haven’t changed much.

“I don’t know how to bridge the differences that we might have in the belief that snowmaking should or shouldn’t happen,” White said. “But I’m hoping they (the tribes) won’t let it get in the way of us being able to talk about greater, regional issues in the future.”

Tribal leaders are hopeful their voices will continue to be heard.

“I wouldn’t say the relationship between city and tribal governments is strained,” said Navajo lawmaker Thomas Walker. “We’re just opposing snowmaking. We’re not talking economics, we’re not talking politics of the matter. We’re not talking legal strategies.”

City councilors Art Babbott said he appreciates the tribes’ spiritual beliefs but said it wasn’t his job to make decisions based on how people outside the city viewed the city’s policies. Using treated wastewater for recreational use is among the city’s policies.

City boundaries matter little to Navajos, for example, who consider everything within four sacred mountains their ancestral homeland. Navajo belief holds that the four sacred mountains, including the San Francisco Peaks, were placed on Earth by Holy People as repositories of herbs, plants, stones and soil that help heal Navajos and restore harmony, Shirley said.

Walker and Hopi Chairman Le Roy Shingoitewa point out that Navajos and Hopis spent millions of dollars a year in Flagstaff, even if tribal members don’t live there. To many of them, Flagstaff is the “big city.”

“There may be a misnomer by some of the people that we don’t contribute much to the economy in Flagstaff,” Shingoitewa said. “They will be surprised that once the tribes show how our impact is to that city, that we are a viable entity to Flagstaff.”

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

The video below is a preview. The full report will be coming soon.

As part of the road construction project on San Francisco Street and Beaver Street, utility crews have closed Beaver Street between Phoenix Avenue and Benton Avenue until Thursday.  The project contractor and the City of Flagstaff  will replace and perform repairs on the water that runs under Beaver Street.  City Utilities Director Randy Pellatz says that many of the water lines in the area are at least 70 years old.

The water main will be shut off overnight on Wednesday, from 9 pm to 6 am Thursday morning.

A detour is in place.  Traffic traveling south will be routed west on Phoenix Avenue, south on Mike’s Pike, and east on Benton Avenue back to Beaver Street. The parking lot for the restaurants and businesses at the corner of Beaver Street and Cottage Avenue can be accessed by traveling east from the intersection of Cottage and Mike’s Pike.

FILE PHOTO- Arizona Snowbowl during the fall, taken October 2009 (File Photo/Courtesy: Dave Smith)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Hundreds of people filled a school auditorium Monday for a hearing on what has become one of the most contentious issues in this mountain city — producing artificial snow.

But as the hourslong debate drew closer to midnight, councilors agreed to take up a vote at a different date. By that time, about 100 people remained.

The city entered into a contract with the Arizona Snowbowl eight years ago to supply 552 acre feet per year of treated wastewater to the ski resort for snowmaking. A proposal before the council would have swapped that water for drinking-quality water, used a combination of the two water sources or left the contract as is.

The meeting made for a polarizing debate among American Indians who consider the San Francisco Peaks sacred and warned the council that its relationship with tribes in the area would suffer if snowmaking moved forward.

Hopis direct prayers toward the San Francisco Peaks and consider the mountain range home to the spiritual Kachinas that bring the world water, snow and life. To the Navajo, the peaks are central to their creation story. Navajo members consider the mountains family and greet the peaks daily with prayer songs.

“Asking us if we are willing to negotiate our relationship with Doko’oo’sliid is like asking us to turn our back on a family member or an unborn child,” said Navajo Vice President Ben Shelly.

American Indian tribes fought the snowmaking plan for years in court, public meetings, and one tried unsuccessfully to buy the resort as a way to protect the mountain they consider sacred. Tribal leaders remained adamant they would oppose snowmaking regardless of the water source — though city manager Kevin Burke said that topic was not up for debate.

“The decision to sell water was made in 2002, so there’s not a new decision to be made on whether to sell it or not,” he said.

Others in the audience expressed support for snowmaking by wearing stickers that read, “Vote Snow.” Snowbowl owners have touted snowmaking as necessary to ensure the ski resort’s survival and provide a boost to the local economy.

The Rev. Bill Guise, a downhill skier, said he also relates to the mountain on a spiritual level, but he said the religious debate ended when the tribes lost a yearslong court battle.

“No matter what you offer, what you decide, what you think, they (tribes) are not happy,” he said. “My sympathies end somewhere around 2006.”

If the council chooses the more expensive drinking-quality water, Snowbowl owners say snowmaking equipment could be in place for the 2011-12 ski season. If it sticks with the treated wastewater, snowmaking opponents, Snowbowl owners and the U.S. Forest Service could see more of each other in court.

A lawsuit pending in federal court in Arizona contends the Forest Service failed to consider the human health risks of ingesting artificial snow made with reclaimed wastewater.

The city is considering using drinking-quality water at the urging of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under the belief that it would be less offensive to tribes. That proved not to be the case.

Flagstaff-area residents also raised concerns about the future of the city’s water supply if drinking water were surrendered, saying it undermines the city’s water conservation efforts at a time of drought.

The missing voice was the USDA, which withheld the permit for construction of snowmaking equipment for a year while trying to forge a compromise among the parties. When talks of the Navajo Nation buying the ski resort for $49 million fell through, the USDA suggested the use of drinking-quality water.

The amount of water wouldn’t change with the alternate water source, but it would cost about $11 million more if the Snowbowl used every drop of its allocation over the life of the contract. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered to offset the cost of the more expensive water, though no formal commitment has been made.

A city water commission followed the footsteps of the USDA in supporting the use of either treated wastewater or allowing that same water to percolate into the ground and be pumped through city wells before reaching the Snowbowl.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
Felicia Fonseca, AP Writer

Kristin Bail will start the job on Oct. 12.

She currently works for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., as the program lead for the agency’s national monuments and national conservation areas.

Bail grew up in Arizona and graduated from a Phoenix high school.

She says she’s looking forward to planning for the future of the northern Arizona forest.

Bail succeeds Joe Stringer, who works as the director of ecosystem planning for the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region in California.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Flood waters rush down Campbell near US 89, taken from Chevron parking lot. (Patrick Walker/NAZ Today)

FLAGSTAFF (NAZ Today)– Rainfall rates of 1-2 inches per hour caused yet another round of flooding and road closures in the Schultz Burn area a few miles northeast of Flagstaff.

Washes quickly filled with runoff, and soon overflowed into neighborhood streets including Campbell Way and Kevin’s Way.  Coconino County Sheriff’s deputies and Department of Public Safety officers quickly closed those roads and closed the outside southbound lanes of US 89 in several spots so that ADOT and  Coconino County crews could clear debris from the intersections.

Part of Kevin’s Way at US 89 is washed out, erroded away from water in the street flowing into a drainage culvert.

Flood waters flow onto the Chevron gas station property at Campbell/US 89. (Patrick Walker/NAZ Today)

At the Chevron gas station on US 89 and Campbell, flood waters rushed down drainage ditches and overflowed into the gas pump area.  Water was backing up as there was too much to pass through culverts under the highway.

Speeds are reduced to 35 miles per hour for a few miles on US 89 while crews continue to clean up debris washed onto area roads.

More rainfall is possible this afternoon.

Elsewhere, at the Grand Canyon, a Flash Flood Warning has been issued until 6 pm.  The National Weather Service says that radar indicates 2-3 inches of rain has fallen over the area, with additional thunderstorms moving though the area for the rest of the day.  Supai and nearby areas are included in the warning

An ADOT grader clears debris from the outside southbound lane on US 89 south of Kevin's Way. (Patrick Walker/NAZ Today)

DPS and CCSO block off Kevin's Way, which was partially washed-out by flood waters. (Patrick Walker/NAZ Today)

A CCSO deputy surveys the damage from flood waters coming off of Kevin's Way. (Patrick Walker/NAZ Today)

The Coconino County Elections Office is in the process of mailing out sample ballots for each recognized political party in the state.  The parties recognized by the State of Arizona are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Green. If all the registered voters living in a household are registered with a single party, one ballot will be mailed for members of the household to share.  If the household is made up of people registered with multiple political parties, one ballot for each party will be mailed.

Election day is Tuesday, August 24th, and the sample ballots will tell voters where their poling place is located. Voters may only vote on the ballot of the party for which they are registered in a primary election.

Today is the last day for voters to request an early official ballot to be mailed to them from the Coconino County Elections Office.  Voters who are signed up as Permanent Early Voters will not receive a sample ballot, only the official ballot, which has been mailed out to the voters on the PEV list.

Early ballots may be cast next week (August 16-20) in person at the Elections Office in Flagstaff at 110 East Cherry, or at other designated locations throughout Coconino County.  To find out where to cast an early ballot outside of Flagstaff, or for more information, contact the Coconino County Elections Office at (928) 679-7860 or toll-free at 800-783-6181.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Three people remain in the running for the city attorney’s position in Flagstaff.

The City Council narrowed the number of applicants from 18 to three, and the finalists will be interviewed on Monday.

They are Kay Bigelow, Deborah Robberson and Rosemary Rosales.

Bigelow is a former city attorney in Casa Grande.

Robberson was the city attorney in Scottsdale until last year.

Rosales is the current town attorney in Pinetop-Lakeside.

Current Flagstaff city attorney Pat Boomsma is retiring to pursue personal interests.