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Let’s get festive!
Rip’s NAPA Store and the Copper Basin Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring the annual Fall Festival and Car Show this Saturday, Nov. 18. It will begin at 9 a.m. on Alden Road in Kearny and last into the late afternoon. The car show itself will fill most of the morning hours until the awards ceremonies at noon. So come early, especially if you are a car lover, because some of the show cars will have come from a goodly distance and it takes a while to get home. There will be many other events and activities thorough the day, making it a good event for both adults and children. Be sure to check out the many vendors.
Rip and Katie Vache, ever since they took over the NAPA store, have been positive contributors to the Copper Basin, not merely with the car show which is largely their baby, but by building up NAPA’s role as a well-stocked and well-staffed place of business.
I heard from Monica Badillo that the benefit golf tournament for Jena Martinez Inzunza was a smashing success. There were 103 golfers in the tournament itself. Monica reports that the funds raised are being counted now, but she knows it was a financial success because of two things: the number of people who took part, and the fact that donations of goods and services left no expenses to be covered. Way to go! I’m glad the weather made a positive donation as well.
This week Arizona forestry officials will be meeting with the Winkelman Natural Resources Conservation District during the WNRCD’s quarterly meeting in Oracle. Bill Dunn reports that the environmental surveys for the tamarisk project are proceeding. I hope to have more details on the particulars of the project next week.
Our national Day of Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 23. I’ll be an old curmudgeon and admit that I hate its new name of “Turkey Day” and also its reliance on beer and football. Now that I have that out of the way, I have had a difficult time finding things for which to be thankful. Family, yes. Friends, yes. My faith in God, yes. But it hurts me that so many people in this area are hurting, in so many ways. The Giant stores in San Manuel and Dudleyville are now both closed. Good jobs are hard to find and even harder to get. The recession which began at the end of the Bush administration is still a fact to deal with in rural Arizona (and not just in copper towns).
Election Results from the Nov. 7 election. Pinal County RTA and Ray School District Bond.
I do give thanks that the people of Pinal County approved the plan of, and funding for, the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority. This will especially benefit the towns of Superior, Kearny, and Winkelman, even as the urban areas will receive much-needed highways. I give thanks that the people of the Ray School District passed the bond issue by a 2 to 1 margin, a margin much higher than in the other school districts of Pinal County. Now our towns and the Ray Schools will have access to some much needed funds. The people of this area responded to these real needs with their own tax money. When the need is clear, the response is strong.
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