Key Messages-Week of October 31, 2022 Sign up for the Weekly Wrap Up Here COVID Updates Arizona and Local Statistics As of October 27, the CDC Community Level for Coconino County continues to be Low. In Arizona, 13 counties are in Low…
FLAGSTAFF — On October 25, the Coconino County Flood Control District (District) Directors approved investing up to $11.5 million in a set of smaller scale flood mitigation projects in the Schultz/Pipeline Flood area. These projects will restore the capacity of some of the existing flood mitigation measures in the area and reduce flood impacts to the Doney Park area through construction of a series of berms near Landfill Road.
The District Directors received an in-depth presentation regarding the District’s short-term on-forest and neighborhood mitigation projects and staff requested a budget adjustment in the amount of $10.5 million to cover the costs. The funding will come through a loan from the County’s General Fund. After the presentation and clarifying questions from Board members, the budget adjustment was approved unanimously by those present.
Click here for Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra/Museum of Northern Arizona/Flagstaff Nuestras Raíses’ “Celebraciones” concert on Oct. 28, 2022.
FLAGSTAFF — The Museum of Northern Arizona and Flagstaff Nuestras Raíces will present the 19th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente / Día de los Muertos celebration from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30 at 3101 N .Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff.
The 19th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente Festival is an unparalleled opportunity to experience the history and culture of Mexican, Mexican American, and LatinX communities in Northern Arizona. Also known as the Day of the Dead, this event is a celebration of life, music, dance, food and heartfelt remembrances.
Tamale Sale-GRCA School
Fundraising efforts for 8th grade class underway
The fundraising for the 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. has officially begun!
The vision of the Washington, D.C. field trip is to engage students as citizens in American Democracy. The mission is to provide 8th grade students at Grand Canyon School an opportunity to capstone their 8th grade civics curriculum by engaging with locations that exhibit how people of the past and present change the world through the processes in American Democracy.
For more information, please see the attached flyer here.
Earlier this month, ECoNA’s Advisory Council heard a presentation from Joe Russell, Legislative Assistant to Senator Mark Kelly, about the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law this past August.
For more than a year, Sen. Kelly had championed the underlying pieces of legislation that formed the act, and served as the Arizona representative on the conference committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions of the bill.
The Act includes a $52 billion plan to boost domestic microchip manufacturing; a four-year, 25% investment tax credit to provide long-term incentives for semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers to construct or expand facilities in the United States; and $13.2 billion for research and development and workforce development.
Coconino County’s annual Winter Parking Ordinance goes into effect on November 1, 2022. The ordinance, which will remain in place until April 1, 2023, prohibits vehicles from parking along county-maintained right of way at all times both to facilitate safer snow removal operations and to help mitigate dangerous snow related traffic congestion and parking issues.
Coconino County Elections Vote Centers and polling locations provide accessible voting devices for voters that need visual, hearing, or language assistance.
The accessible voting devices have a touchscreen that voters can use to mark their paper ballot. These devices must meet federal requirements and pass a State of Arizona test before each election. Election workers at polling locations have been trained to help voters with the devices.
These devices also provide language accessibility of the ballot in Spanish, Navajo, and Hopi. Coconino County has a population of just over 145,000, with approximately 27.5% Native American and 15% Hispanic (U.S. Census Bureau).
Homelessness – whether temporary or long-lasting – has become a more dire crisis in the past year.
According to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the number of unhoused Arizonans was nearly 11,000 in early 2020. As of December 2021, that number is estimated to have increased by nearly 30 percent.
A tragic trifecta has driven up the numbers of those without housing – rapidly rising housing costs, persistent inflation for basic necessities, and the end of pandemic-era protections to keep people from being evicted.
Opportunity + Choice = Justice
Arantxa Amaya always knew she wanted a career that allowed her to help underserved communities become healthier. This goal led her to NAU’s occupational therapy program at the Phoenix Bioscience Core, where she is working on her doctorate. For World Occupational Therapy Day, learn more about one of the NAU students preparing for a career in this critical field of health care: “In the future, I would like to continue my OT journey in the field of pediatrics. I know I want to serve my community, working with underrepresented populations and advocating for diversity within the profession.”
We are so excited to announce our newest offering.
Motivated by a long wait list for behavioral health services, and aware of challenging adult and child emotions causing behavior difficulties, Bethany Camp put this two part training together for CCC&Y to help meeting a wide-spread community need.
First we learn to understand our emotions and then we can understand and respond to the big emotional responses of children.
Watch Webinar – Managing Adult Emotional Responses, Part One
Watch Webinar – Helping Children Manage Their Emotions, Part Two
These videos are meant to help support our community. Having the tools to take care of ourselves and respond to children, is a great resource.
Trainer
Bethany Camp, LCSW, Private Practice
Please share far and wide in our community- especially for those who parent, care give or work with children.
The last day of 2022 operations for the Willard Springs Green Waste Site will be Saturday, October 29, 2022. Willard Springs will be closed throughout the upcoming winter season, which runs each year between November 1 and March 31, so that Coconino County can reopen the station for green waste-only disposal on Saturday, April 1, 2023.
How can big data help eliminate health disparities?
Amit Kumar grew up in one of the poorest areas of the world. He’s seen firsthand how systemic inequalities, often attributed to race and poverty, affect people’s health. The assistant professor’s research has looked at these disparities in various communities, particularly focused on stroke care, and his work is going to a new level with a $3.8 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The project won’t just identify disparities in treatment and health outcomes among stroke patients; Kumar’s goal with this work is to help health care providers, policymakers and patients make more informed decisions and provide better care.
The Coconino County Recorder’s Office reminds registered voters that the last day to request an early ballot to be mailed to you for the November 8 General Election is Friday, October 28 at 5:00 pm. Voters on the Active Early Voting List (AEVL) should have already received their early ballot by mail. If not, you should call the Recorder’s Office.
The ballot for the General Election is quite long because it contains several candidate races and ballot questions. “Voters may want to request an early ballot be mailed to them so they can take their time voting,” suggested County Recorder Patty Hansen.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Creekside Paint Out at L’Auberge, 10:00am –12:00pm
The Festival’s Creekside Paint Out is hosted by L’Auberge de Sedona, and the public is invited to the edge of the water to watch artists as they depict the spectacular scenery and flowing Oak Creek. The location includes still and moving water, reflections, sycamores, ducks and stunning rock waterfalls. At noon, awards will be presented to the artists and the works created at the event will be available for sale immediately following on the lawn. Attendees can park in the Arts Center lower parking lot and take the free shuttle to and from L’Auberge from 8:30am to 1:30pm. Paintings will then be on sale at the Sedona Arts Center Special Exhibition Galleries throughout the remainder of the Plein Air Festival.
The City of Flagstaff invites the public to drop off dried leaves and pine needles at three drop-off locations in Flagstaff on Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, October 30.
Bags of dried leaves and pine needles can be delivered to the following locations between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.:
Jay Lively Activity Center (1650 N Turquoise Dr)
Continental Park (5650 E Old Walnut Canyon Rd)
University Highlands Park (3888 S Jewel Dr)
The Coconino Community College District Governing Board announced during its Oct. 19 meeting that Dr. Eric Heiser will be the next president of the college.
“After a national search with more than 50 applicants, the District Governing Board is excited to announce the selection of Dr. Heiser as Coconino Community College’s next president,” said Dr. Nat White, Chair of the Board. “The college is positioned through the past leadership of Dr. Colleen Smith and community support through the passage of the tax reset, to leap forward in serving the residents of Coconino County – from workforce training and associate degrees to pathways to baccalaureates.”
White added that Dr. Heiser brings successful urban and rural college and national experience that matches well with CCC’s vision and mission and the needs of Coconino County’s residents and businesses.
The Coconino County Elections Office continues to recruit for Election Board Workers (poll workers) for the upcoming General Election on November 8. Workers must be at least eighteen years old and registered to vote in Coconino County.
Compensation will be $215 plus gas mileage. Pay requirements:
Two-hour training session prior to the election
One-hour pre-election meeting – November 7 in the evening
Election Day full shift – November 8, 5:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
North Country HealthCare is hosting a program for individuals at risk of developing diabetes in order to assist you in improving your health as well as reducing the risk of developing diabetes. In the program you will learn methods of losing weight, be more physically active, and manage stress. These small changes in your lifestyle can significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
Sedona Arts Center invites you along to be inspired and experience master artists painting in the Shangri-La of the Southwest! Sedona is a sublime and stunningly beautiful environment steeped in art history. Sedona Arts Center dates back 63 years to the founding of Sedona’s identity as an ‘art colony.’ Our community’s iconic and wonderfully creative event—Sedona Plein Air Festival—is a week-long celebration of extraordinary landscapes, world-renowned artists, unique workshops, and wonderful free events from October 21 through 29!
It has been an incredible month for HECHO, celebrating public lands policy wins and elevating the voices and visibility of Hispanic leaders in public lands decision-making and advocacy. Our Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council (HCLC) members continue to grow and make a difference in their communities.
On September 28th through 30th, HECHO brought Hispanic leaders from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah to Washington D.C. to advocate on conservation issues, including protecting the Grand Canyon watershed from uranium mining, saving Oak Flat from a copper mine, the resilience of the Colorado River, and making communities whole after the devastating Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire. They met with members of Congress and federal agencies. Read a recap of HECHO’s first advocacy trip.
When Dolly Parton was given the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropylast week, she said that she doesn’t really have a strategy for her donations.
We know the Earth is warming, and society is struggling to slow emissions quickly enough to make a real difference. So scientists are looking at other options, including removing greenhouse gases from the air. Easy, right? According to mechanical engineer Jennifer Wade, it’s a difficult task, but not an insurmountable one. She is leading two federally funded projects that are addressing the critical question of how to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, thus slowing the devastating effects of global climate change. It’s part of a national effort called the Carbon Negative Earthshot: Being able to remove carbon at $100 a ton at a scale of a million tons per year. Learn how her lab is working toward that goal.
After a short delay, the Coconino Community College Automotive Technology program is back and ready for students beginning Monday, Oct. 24.
“CCC’s Automotive Technology has grown in the year since it started,” said Provost Dr. Nate Southerland. “When our instructor backed out right before the start of the semester and we had to suspend the program, we were heartbroken. We are thrilled to be able to get back up to speed and look forward to serving the students whose plans were disrupted at the beginning of the semester.”
The cost of living in Flagstaff made the process of hiring a full-time faculty member for the program a challenge, and the program was forced into a holding pattern until a full-time faculty member could be found.
Successful vaccine event in Grand Canyon; Flu and COVID vaccines available October 25 in Tusayan
The Coconino County Health and Human Services Mobile Vaccine Team came to the park on Tuesday for a flu and COVID vaccine event. Thank you to the Grand Canyon Rec Center for hosting this event and the Mobile Vaccine Team who successfully vaccinated more than 100 individuals. The team will next be at the Tusayan Fire Department on October 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Due to popular demand of these events, please arrive early to ensure you receive assistance.
COVID-19 and Flu Vaccines will be available at this event (to include the new COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccine) for those ages 6 months and older. See the attached flyer for the Tusayan event here.
This is the final week to get tickets to our 50th anniversary celebration. We have representation of more than 20 organizations so far, and of course, all the couples, friends and folks out for a date night.
Purchase tickets here!
Your ticket includes appetizers, drink ticket (cash bar), dinner and a full concert (w/ dance floor) from Flagstaff’s own Mother Road Trio.
Please help us celebrate the stars in our community who helped make this last 50 years such a success – and come help us get the next 50 years off to a great start!
The event is open to all – and we are thanking our members with special discounted rates
If you would like to become a member prior to your ticket purchase, please visit our website for more information
The Dancing Dead, Coconino High School Auditorium. Halloween Dance Concert presented by Canyon Movement Company. 7:30 p.m.
One General Election sample ballot has been mailed to each household in Coconino County that has a registered voter who has not already been issued an early ballot.
Coconino County strongly encourages all voters in the household to become familiar with the candidates and measures on the sample ballot in preparation for voting on November 8.
Voters may bring a sample ballot to their polling location to use as a guide, but it cannot be used as an official ballot.
