About a dozen people attended a meeting Thursday in Prescott to hear about the Forest Service’s proposal to thin out overcrowded trees and brush on 55,000 acres surrounding the southern boundary of Prescott over the next decade or more.

Federal officials plan to use a combination of fire, timber sales, brush crushing, goats and chain saws to accomplish their goal.

Over the past decade, Prescott Forest officials have thinned out trees and brush on about 21,600 acres.

Several speakers praised the Forest Service for its efforts to protect Prescott and surrounding areas from catastrophic wildfires.

“I’d rather smell smoke from a controlled burn than from my house,” said local resident Billy Fields.

“The wildlife I’m seeing is just unreal since the burning has been going on the last four or five years,” Fields said.

Bradshaw District Ranger Laura Jo West said the effort to keep the forest healthy through proper tree and brush removal is a never-ending project.

“We’re going to be in there a lot if we’re going to maintain these systems,” she said. “Fire and thinning are going to be part of life here.”

Prescott Wildland/Urban Interface Commission citizen member Everett Warnock said the public is starting to understand the goals of good forest management.

“There is so much evidence that the public is starting to understand we can manage our forest,” Warnock said.

Warnock noted the region now has eight “Firewise Communities” that have earned that designation from the national Firewise program.

Recently, the forest received $1.6 million in federal stimulus money for mechanical brush-crushing operations on 6,000 acres of chaparral-choked forest around Prescott and Cherry starting this summer.

It got the money because projects were ready to go, and private companies will do the work.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Tim Holladay floats away from his flooded home on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 with only the clothes he can carry in his boat after the Agua Fria river flooded the Rivers Edge RV Park Thursday night during a winter storm in Black Canyon City, Ariz. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher).

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick got a first hand look at the muddy mess that covers a Black Canyon City recreational vehicle park north of Phoenix.

The first-term Democrat spent two hours surveying flood damage Friday with much of her time occupied at the River’s Edge RV Park.

A thick layer of mud now covers the RV park as well as the mobile homes that couldn’t get hauled out in time before the floodwaters hit on Jan. 21-22.

“It must have been like a washing machine,” RV park owner Steve Phillips said of the flood as he looked at his truck buried in mud.

His home and tool shed were also covered in a layer of mud.

No one is able to move back into the RV park until the mud is cleared and utilities are restored.

“This time, we lost a whole bunch of property,” Phillips said, including land that literally washed away into the nearby confluence of the Agua Fria River and Black Canyon Creek.

Bud Dunn and his wife were among just three RV park residents who decided to ride the flood out. They stayed with their dog in their neighbor’s trailer as two feet of water flooded into it.

“We didn’t expect it to get as high as it was,” Dunn told Kirkpatrick. Unlike some of his neighbors, his RV was inoperable so he couldn’t get it out when the warning of the impending flood came in.

Now he’s trying to clear out caked on mud and keep away any mold with plenty of Lysol.

Kirkpatrick asked one resident if he could use a temporary FEMA trailer, and the reply was yes.

Kirkpatrick said she hopes some will become available for Black Canyon City residents, where emergency officials estimated that 150-200 homes were destroyed.

Residents flooded on the other side of Interstate 17 said they were especially surprised, saying they’d never heard of Black Canyon Creek flooding in their neighborhood.

More than a dozen people had to be rescued by boat.

Meanwhile, local and state officials are adding up property damage costs, hoping Yavapai County will qualify for individual financial assistance for its residents.

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Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

The town is rushing to drill a new well at one of nine other well sites that have been identified. That project could cost water users in the town of about 9,000 residents about $200,000.

Public Works director Ron Grittman says the well now in service began producing sand and its pump began using twice the electricity and pumping less than half its normal output beginning in November.

Grittman says the situation qualifies as an emergency.

Bruce Burger (Coutesy: YCSO)

PRESCOTT (NAZ Today)– On October 31, 2009, at approximately 11 A.M., Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a reported family fight in the 2800 block of Dana Street, Humboldt. Prior to reaching the location, deputies were contacted by the girlfriend of the disturbing party who warned deputies that her boyfriend, 46-year-old Bruce Burger, was extremely distraught and armed with a rifle inside the home. Burger claimed he had been “wronged” by several people and threatened to “take them out.”

Deputies brought Burger’s girlfriend to a safe area and set surveillance on the Dana Street home. While gathering further information, a deputy saw Burger exit the home, place an object in a truck and drive away. The deputy followed Burger who drove north and entered east Highway 169 from Foothill Drive. Deputies lost sight of Burger as he exited from the 169 onto Old Cherry Road in an apparent attempt to return to his previous neighborhood. A short time later, deputies located Burger driving his truck and attempted to stop him by activating their overhead lights. Burger refused and sped away into an area of heavy brush. Deputies were forced to check the area on foot and did not immediately locate Burger. Deputies determined that Burger had returned to Old Cherry Road and had driven away. Assisting deputies briefly pursued Burger again, but due to the rough terrain, were unable to close the distance.

Neighbors in the area contacted deputies after discovering that Burger had intentionally rammed his truck into a water tank and attached control panel. Neighbors told deputies of prior threats by Burger when he lived in the area. Another witness told deputies he had just seen Burger point his rifle towards deputies searching the area. The YCSO Swat team was alerted at this time.

Because of the expansive search area, a DPS Ranger helicopter was called to assist along with ground units from DPS and US Forest Service Law Enforcement. The Ranger helicopter crew eventually located Burger’s truck as he drove, and occasionally stopped, along Old Cherry Road. With these ongoing directions from above, deputies eventually located Burger on Cherry Creek Road around 2 PM where he surrendered. A rifle was recovered from Burger’s truck and he was also found with several rounds of ammo on his person, and extra ammo in the truck.

Burger was charged with Disorderly Conduct per Domestic Violence, Aggravated Assault on Law Enforcement Officers, Flee Pursing Law Enforcement, Threatening and Criminal Damage.

He remains in custody with a next court date of November 10, 2009.

By a 6-1 vote Tuesday, the council chose not to take a stand on whether the neighborhood north of Prescott should become a city.

Most of the council expressed reservations about putting Prescott in the center of what they termed a neighborhood issue for the 5,000 or so residents who would be a part of the new town.

The council was considering a resolution of support for incorporation of Williamson Valley.

State law required the matter go before the Prescott council because the incorporation area is within six miles of its city limits.

Incorporation supporter Ken Mino suggested the council was “being urged to deny a group of citizens the right to vote.”

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Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

About 5,000 of Prescott’s total 24,996 ballots had been on hold since last Friday because of Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Michael Bluff’s ruling prohibiting the city from continuing with its Nov. 3 general election.

The appeals court’s decision Monday prompted Prescott to notify the county Recorder’s Office immediately that the remaining ballots should be mailed to voters.

But questions remain about the status of write-in City Council candidate Paul Katan, who was the seventh-place finisher in the Sept. 1 primary. Only the top six vote-getters go on to the general election and Prescott decided not to put Katan’s name on the ballot.

Katan says he should have moved up and onto the ballot after fifth-place finisher Bob Bell withdrew from the race in mid-September.

The Court of Appeals will consider Katan’s case and other general-election ballot issues on Oct. 26.

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Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Yavapai County Community Health Services reported late Monday that a middle-aged man with the virus died Sunday.

County Health Officer Robert Resendes would not give any further information on the man because of privacy issues.

A news release said the victim had several underlying health conditions.

Resendes said the county had 15 swine flu cases with two new cases this past week.

Excluding this death, Resendes said all of the other cases are people 24 or younger and are dealing with things such as respiratory illnesses or asthma.

On The Net:

www.azdhs.gov

www.yavapaihealth.com.

A spokesman for the Prescott Fire Department confirmed the fatalities.

The identities of the two victims aren’t immediately known.

Authorities
say the plane was registered to a Los Angeles resident, but it isn’t
immediately clear if that person was aboard the aircraft.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the single-engine plane had departed the airport for an unknown destination when it experienced “some kind of problem” and the pilot radioed the airport that he needed to return.

Gregor says the plane crashed short of a runaway about 2:50 p.m. MST.

Television footage showed the charred remains of the plane in a field next to one of the airport’s runways.