Where have all the flags gone? Into storage, every one

In front of Flagstaff City Hall is one of the city’s stranger monuments, a tablet raised on a platform of red sandstone that announces a civic display that no longer exists. The “Walkway of Flags” – essentially a diagonal row of state flags and those from a few American Indian tribes – was dedicated in 1994.

The iconography figured prominently into the town’s own origin story. In 1876, a group of settlers from an Eastern company, known as the “Boston Party,” came through the area at the base of the San Francisco Peaks looking for a big stretch of land.

On July 4, to celebrate the national centennial, they supposedly stripped the branches from a ponderosa pine and nailed an American flag to the top. They failed to remove the flag and a later surveyor made casual note of the place on one of the first maps of the area. (This denuded flag-tree was on the ranch of Thomas McMillan, near the front steps of what is today the Flagstaff Middle School; however, the McMillan story lacks firsthand documentation and is disputed by some historians ).

The name “Flagstaff” was deemed catchy enough to be registered as the official P.O. name with the Postmaster General, and hence the city’s lasting affiliation with government banners. Yet the Walkway of Flags is no more.

The flags fell in 2001 because of budget cuts, according to city spokeswoman Kimberly Ott. They had proved to be surprisingly expensive – the sooty breezes that blew in from the railroad and the highway kept the flags looking dirty, requring regular cleaning and replacement. Plus, a few of them kept getting stolen, although Ott was unable to cite which state or tribal flags were the targets of theives (We suspect New Mexico).

Now even the poles are gone. The 2001 flag-lowering was supposed to be temporary, but the money never reappeared. ”When it became apparent that wasn’t something that was going to be in the bugdet again, they [the Public Works Department] went ahead and pulled the poles,” Ott says.

The monument remains. Apparently too expesnive to remove, it stands as a reminder of flusher times.

Northern Arizona’s new voice

“You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.” This was the judgment of John Wesley Powell, who commanded the famous expedition down the Colorado in 1869.

He might as well have been talking about the whole of northern Arizona, an amazingly multivarigated place. There is no one geology, economy, ethnicity or political ethic that holds together this colorful slice of the west. Here is one tangle is Arizona’s highest peak, its iconic canyon, the world’s largest stand of ponderosa pines, the oldest continuously occupied settlement in North America (Oraibi, from 1100 A.D.), five sovereign Indian reservations, the spiritual smorgasbord of Sedona, one of the world’s busiest transcontinental freight lines, the ghost of Route 66, the biggest polygamous church in America, and a massive checker-boarding of ranches, wilderness and desert in all the in-between places.

No blog could hope to provide comprehensive coverage of such a complicated place. Instead you’ll find here the odds and ends, the scraps and tidbits of news and scenery that form a rough bricolage of what happens north of the Valley.

News tips welcome at contact@tomzoellner.com. Anonymity observed unless you indicate otherwise.

Hikers find plane belonging to missing attorney

NEAR FLAGSTAFF — Hikers in a remote are of the Coconino National Forest found a downed airplane Sunday, according to a release from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department.

The report indicates that the badly damaged airplane has been in the area for some time, maybe two years or so. The man and woman were hiking in the Secret Canyon Wilderness area when they found the plane. The area is so remote that it’s impossible to reach the site by vehicle.

Although the sheriff’s office received the call on Sunday, they were not able to investigate the site until Monday around noon.

According to a second release today, the sheriff’s department believes the Cessna aircraft, tail number N2700Q, belongs to missing attorney William Westover, 54. He and his passenger, Marcy Randolph, 43, left from Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix on Sept. 24, 2006, for some sightseeing.

A sheriff’s spokesperson indicated that skeletal remains found at the sight are believed to be the two victims. Although the unidentified remains have been handed over to the Coconino County Medical Examiner, who maintains oversight of the forensic investigation, it is believed they are the missing victims.

Here’s a revealing snippet from a story by kpho.com (which you can read here):

According to a Glendale Community College statement, Randolph is the daughter of Glendale Community College President Emeritus Dr. Phil Randolph, who served the Maricopa Community College District for more than 30 years prior to his retirement as president in 2005. Phil Randolph has continued working for the Maricopa County Community College District in retirement.

Another story ran in The Arizona Republic in October 2006 indicating the search for the the two had been called off. Check out this snippet (for the full story, click here):

Officials have suspended the aerial search for a missing plane and the two people on board.

The plane, piloted by Phoenix attorney William Westover, 54, departed Deer Valley airport at 10:43 a.m. Sept. 24 and was believed to be en route to Sedona. Radar last detected the plane south of Oak Creek Canyon, and it hasn’t been seen since. Also on board was Marcy Randolph, 43.

The aerial search spanned more than 6,000 square miles and 481 flight hours, said Judy Kioski, a spokeswoman with the Arizona Department of Emergency Management.

Officials have said Westover did not register a flight plan, but his family expected he would take a pleasure flight to Sedona, as he had done in the past. There is no record of a landing in Sedona.

An aircraft door was found at the site which is near Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona. Investigators took a metal plate containing a serial number and ran it through a national aircraft data base, the number matched Westover’s.

Jacko’s giraffes go to court

PAGE – Like their former owner, giraffes from Michael Jackson’s now-defunct Neverland Ranch Zoo find themselves in legal battles.

Jacko and his attorneys may have stopped the auction of his memorabilia from Neverland Ranch as told in the New York Times (and you can read about that issue here), but will his former giraffes be as lucky in stopping their eviction?

The giraffes are are in danger of being evicted from the Voices of Wildlife Foundation’s site in Page on May 17. Their foundation has been locked in a protracted public battle with the city officials over a bond and the property. You can read more about it in this past blogpost.

Freddie Hancock, spokesperson for VWF, says that attorneys were filling an injunction on behalf of the foundation in Flagstaff’s Superior Court. She wasn’t sure what would be included in the filing, but she did say she is going ahead with a perimeter fence.

Hancock told me that the final step for approval of the sanctuary from the United States Department of Agriculture is to enclose the animals’ enclosure. Hancock said that she is moving forward with the fence so that when the May 4 deadline for the inspection by the USDA comes the sanctuary will be ready.

The USDA May deadline is just 13 days before the scheduled eviction. Hancock says she has thought about what she’ll do with the animals if all of her legal wrangling doesn’t work, but she wouldn’t elaborate. She is settling in for the long haul and holding to her convictions that she and her animals belong on the property.

“Right now our main focus is on securing the appropriate enclosures and taking care of the animals’ needs,” Hancock says.

Commissioner sticks up for symbolic saguaros

Doomed saguaros found a powerful ally in Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Kris Mayes when she heard about the obliteration of the cacti under power lines.

According to a state document, a YouTube video captured Arizona Public Service Co. employees mowing down the cacti in the Black Canyon City area. The cacti were under the company’s 500 kV Extra High Voltage power line between its Navajo and Westwing substations.

Mayes demanded answers. The video riled the moderate Republican so much so that she ordered APS to look into changing their practices.

The document points out that part of the issue is saguaros are protected plants. Mayes says the Arizona Department of Agriculture has specific rules about destroying native plants, and landowners must be notified before removal of any protected plant. The landowner, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, was notified about the need to remove the saguaros.

Carrie Templin, a BLM spokeswoman, says that they do not have a specific, written policy on how to manage the saguaros. But they do feel that if the saguaro is salvageable, it should be moved. If not, the saguaro should be mulched so it can return its nutrients to the ground.

APS doesn’t consult the BLM on which saguaros should be moved or mulched, but the agency is advised by National Resources International, Templin says. At press time, I had not been able to connect with either APS or National Resources International.

According to an article in The Arizona Republic, APS defends its vegetation management practice of mulching the cacti because the giant saguaros were nearing the power lines, and safety standards require at least 22 feet of clearance between vegetation and power lines.

If one of the saguaros were to touch a line, the outage could have disastrous effects. With summer approaching and heavy fines possible if APS allowed such an outage to occur, the company decided to clear-cut saguaros under their transmission lines.

The video is a bit jarring at first, but you can watch it here.

The Republic storygoes on to report:

APS officials said in a written response to the Corporation Commission that they would top saguaros that grow too close to power lines, but have since said that topping or cutting off saguaros’ arms is unhealthy for the plants.

“From an arborists’ perspective, topping is the worst thing you can do to a tree or cactus,” APS forestry manager Mike Neal said. “Removing it is the best approach.”

Different companies, different views.

Salt River Project, the other local utility company in Phoenix, feels differently about saguaro management. Line-maintenance manager Karen Powell said that SRP, on advice from their certified arborists, top the cacti. SRP not only received accolades from the Arbor Day Foundation for their handling of the cacti, but Powell told me they haven’t killed a saguaro yet.

But it’s a costly, labor-intensive policy. Powell also says SRP will only remove any saguaros that look like they will become a problem. She says the company’s policy is to only move saguaros that are 5 feet tall or less. “They grow slowly, about an inch a year and we check our transmission lines once a year.” Powell also says that not only is it costly to move giant saguaros, but a smaller saguaro has a greater chance of surviving the move.

Powell was also quick to point out that there are different schools of thought on how to best manage the saguaros, and that SRP doesn’t have an agreement with the BLM.

APS sees it differently, according to the Republic article, apparently finding it better to just mow them all down:

By leaving saguaros that are not within the 22-foot clearance of the lines, APS will have to spend more money surveying the lines to check if any have grown too close.

“This will cost more money, and our customers will pay for it,” Neal said. “My goal is the safety of our system, the safety of our workforce, and it is also important we manage our costs.”

He said that it costs just $200 to clear-cut an acre of land under the power lines, as much as $3,000 an acre to hand-trim saguaros, and $5,000 an acre to relocate saguaros.

So ratepayers pay the price, but not the way Mayes sees it. Not only does she have the saguaros’ back, she’s got ratepayers’ backs as well.

“This will work itself out through rate cases. If there is an additional cost it’s a very, very small increase that ultimately results because of this,” Mayes says.

“There seems to be a debate over what to do with the saguaros. But by May, we need to resolve the policy with summer coming,” she says. “Personally I think we have to handle them with care, I don’t think people would be very happy about this.”

Mayes does think things are moving in the right direction though for saving hundreds – if not thousands – of saguaros.

“It’s the most iconic plant in our state, Arizonans identify with it,” she says, “It’s on the state symbol behind me.”

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