DAILY SUN, Flagstaff, Paul Sweitzer Daily Sun Columnist Flagstaff celebrates WWII's end That afternoon, 54 years ago, Frank Todd showed up at our house carrying a truckload of produce from his famous homestead and lodge in Oak Creek Canyon. He brought a crate of blackberries for my mother and the rest was to be delivered to Babbitt Bros. Trading at its big general store in the heart of downtown Flagstaff. My dad was on his way to Kingman on business. My mother was doing her customary household chores.
I was enduring an enforced quiet period as I recovered from major surgery. The radio was on, and Frank listened intently. "I'd better get this stuff down to Babbitts before they close and don't want it," he said. He just made it to the store's loading bay when word came over the radio that World War II was over; the Japanese had agreed to surrender and the shooting was about to stop. Later in the evening, the whole nation listened to the flat, nasal tones of President Harry S.
Truman, as he proclaimed the end of a war that, in total, had engulfed the world for almost six years and had been the major concern of the United States for almost four years, since that infamous day, Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked our fleet moored in Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu. The first announcement, 14, 1945, however, was brief, to the point and filled with the triumph and joy of the moment. In Flagstaff, it triggered a mammoth celebration downtown. I wish I could recount all of the details.
With passing years, my memory has grown sketchy and pretty selective of how things were as the word spread around town; a town that had been faithful and dedicated in the home front war effort. We'd conducted air raid drills, as we were supposed to do. We regularly had held war bond drives to raise money for the armed forces. Like the rest of the country, we had griped and groused our way through the rigors of wartime rationing of food, gasoline, tires and items of clothing. My dad had been chairman of the local Office of Price Administration, the OPA, which ran the rationing effort.
He had been directly in charge of gasoline and tires and, therefore, our telephone rang at all hours of the day and night for several years. I remember thinking on that afternoon we wouldn't have to put up with that sort of thing much longer and, hopefully, never again. It wasn't any fun to be awakened in the middle of the night by the telephone only to be told you couldn't get up and you had to go back to sleep. The mill whistle blew for what seemed like hours that afternoon and evening. Dad came home from his trip, having reached Ash Fork only to find a street dance blocking the way.
In both the afternoon and evening, we went downtown to watch the celebrating crowd. I saw a cowboy trying to get up on the sidewalk in the intersection of San Francisco and Aspen and missing the curb every time he stepped for it. Like every other kid, I got a ride on the fire truck from dour, kindly John Conrard. Because of the surgery, my mother didn't think it was a good idea, but talked her into it anyway. Late at night, a soldier home on leave stood in the middle of Route 66 offering to share a big, open bottle of whiskey with anyone who wanted a swig.
Next day, the whole town was quiet, suffering the agonies of a giant, townwide hangover. What we didn't realize, of course, was that we were not just celebrating the end of the war. We were heralding a new world; a world far more tumultuous and chaotic than even wartime had been. Arizona, Friday, August. 13, 1999 Grand Canyon Trust to lead fight against theme park By JEFF TUCKER Sun Staff Reporter One of the region's largest and most influential environmental organizations will lead the charge against a proposed Old West theme park at A-1 Mountain west of Flagstaff.
Brad Ack of the Grand Canyon Trust has expressed his organization's opposition to Arizona Territory and said the Trust is looking to enlist the help of the Flagstaff Activist Network, including the Sierra Club, Friends of Flagstaff's Future and Friends of Dry Lake, to fight the park. "It's not just a "Not in my backyard' issue," Ack said. "It's a 'Not in my community' issue." Early in July, Jim Fisher announced his plans to develop 90 acres off A-1 Mountain Road into the Arizona Territory, a venue that derives its inspiration from such parks as Colonial Williamsburg, but geared toward life in the Old West and built from the ground up. Fisher has maintained he wants to work with the neighbors in the area, but some who have formed the group called Friends of A-1 Mountain have expressed concerns about how water would be supplied to the park and about an on-site sewage facility they fear could contaminate groundwater in the area. Other concerns are that the development would violate recommendations from the Open Spaces and Greenways Committee and that it would interrupt a migratory corridor for elk.
Ack, who served on the regional task force for the Flagstaff Regional Land Use and Transportation Plan, said several task force members were upset that the project, which was a year in planning, was not revealed to the task force at any time during the process of putting together the regional plan. NO LEMONADE Greg Daily Sun Young entrepeneurs From left to right, Hannah Wayment-Steele, 6, Analisa Cook, 7, and Christina Cook, 6, make a sale from their lemonade stand to neighborhood customers in University Heights Thursday afternoon. The Cook sisters have been at it since Monday, while Wayment-Steele joined them for a day to sell cookies. Council votes to borrow $1.5 million from utility BY TODD GLASENAPP Sun Correspondent PAGE Page City Council placated an anxious citizenry Thursday night by voting to borrow $1.5 million from Page Electric Utility. The loan was passed over the objections of Mayor Jim Sippel, who wanted outright transfer of more than $425,000 from the city-owned but independently operated utility.
Citizens spoke out against the outright transfer of money at recent meetings. The PEU issue was the last hurdle for approval of the $54.7 million 1999-2000 budget. Sippel had wanted to begin solving Page's general fund deficit by tapping into 14- year-old PEU. But the council's decision means Page has entered a "side door" to solve its immediate financial needs when a front door approach was needed, said Sippel, a cerified public accountant who took office in June. The prior council voted last December to borrow $3 million from Marshall Duncan Marshall William Duncan, a 65- year resident of Williams, died at Silver Way Care Home in Prescott Valley, Tuesday, Aug.
10, 1999. He was 88. Mr. Duncan was born April 25, 1911, in Ranger, Texas, and grew up in Weatherford, Texas, until 1928. He attended Weatherford Junior College and graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1932.
He went to work as a commissioned salesman for Standard Oil Company. In 1934, he moved to Williams and worked as an oil distributor in Arizona until 1943. He then sold his businesses and became a staff sergeant in the South Pacific. In 1945, Mr. Duncan was given an honorable discharge from the U.S.
Army. He returned to Williams and acquired a oil distributorship. He operated the business until he retired in 1976. In 1954. Mr.
Duncan and his wife Ruth Ann built the Highlander Motel in Williams. He owned the business until it sold in 1996. Mr. Duncan was a 32nd degree Mason and active in Eastern Star, and he was a long-time member of the United Methodist Church in Williams. In 1996 he was honored by being a 50-year member of the Williams Rotary Club.
He was preceded in death by his wife Ruth Ann in 1992. He is sur- First word of the project was in July; just days before Fisher made his formal announcement at the Greater Flagstaff Economic Council annual meeting. Ack said the fact that the project was never revealed to the task force during the 18 months it worked to develop the Regional Plan, along with the fact the development essentially flies in the face of the recommendations of the Open Spaces and Greenways Plan and the regional plan, amounts to a slap in the face of the task force members who devoted so much time to the process. "This is a really major development," Ack said. "It has a complete lack of regard for the value of the task force and its work." Fisher has said that he kept the project secret SO that Arizona Territory would not be misinterpreted as something akin to Disneyland.
The park is supposed to represent, as accurately as possible, what life was like in the Old West, he said. "We didn't try to conceal anything or mislead anybody," Fisher said in an earlier interview. "I very much plan to speak to them and we will not be refusing to dialogue with anybody." The Friends of A-1 Mountain will hold their first public gathering Saturday to rally support against the development of property near the mountain into an Old West theme park. The rally will be held at the A-1 Mountain property, just north of Interstate 40 and directly off the A-1 Mountain exit. The meeting begins at 11 a.m.
and the public is invited. Cordy Coupland, a resident and member of the Friends of A-1 Mountain, said the meeting would serve mostly as a rally to foster support from the community against the development. Jeff Tucker can be reached at or 556-2250. North Rim logging appeal focuses on old-growth trees By MARY TOLAN Sun Staff Reporter A coalition of conservation groups, including Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, on Thursday appealed the proposed Dry Park Timber sale on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, less than two miles from Grand Canyon National Park. "The North Kaibab Ranger District is an ecological treasure as well as the gateway to the Grand Canyon National Park.
People visit the area to see one of the natural wonders of the world, not a bunch of stumps," Brian Segee, forest defense coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. The proposal, approved by Kaibab National Forest Supervisor Conny Frisch in June, calls for log-. ging up to 8 million board feet of trees (between 1,600 and 1,800 truckloads) on 6,000 acres within the North Kaibab Ranger District. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the Forest Service plans to cut more than 6,200 large and old-growth trees on Dry Park. Bruce Higgins, of the Kaibab National Forest, said that the Kaibab Forest is honoring old growth on the North Kaibab and wants to meet with environmental groups and others to come to a clearer consensus of just what old-growth trees are.
"We are leaving all the oldgrowth stands that meet either all the new or old definitions of old growth," said Higgins, forest planner for the Kaibab. "We're not going to do any harvest in those areas." Higgins said that the forest had made old-growth allocations on Dry Park in the past and are keeping those, even though the regional amendment plan of 1996 came up with a new definition of old growth. He did concede that the logging would take down some big trees, unlike most logging on the south side of the Kaibab National Forest. "The North Kaibab has considerably more old trees on nearly every acre of forest up there than anywhere else in the he said. "Any place you do cut, they're there.
In fact, we have quite a bit of information that indicates that we may have more large trees than we had in 1910 when logging commenced up there." Added Higgins: "We're losing a lot of those old trees right now due to density related competition and bark beetle issues on the north side." the revenue streams to support a loan. Page relies heavily on land sales for revenues, and the council had budgeted $3 million in land sales revenues through June 30, 2000. But Councilmember Ken Earlywine said he hoped the city could realize $4.5 million in land sales earnings before the fiscal year ends. Gateway-area land sales for a 30- acre shopping center and a luxury are pending. Bowling seemed to seal the plan by promising would get its $1.5 million back "before we spend it on other things." City Manager Bill Robinson pointed out that less than half of last year's $51 million budget had actually been spent, according to unaudited figures.
The plan didn't sit well with Sippel. He told Bowling that it doesn't solve the city's financial problems. The loan idea is only "palatable politically," he said. The plan and budget required three votes due to several amendments. The measures were approved by 4-2 votes, with Sippel and Henningsen dissenting.
Flagstaff, Cathy Camacho of Flagstaff, Cindy Brown of Winslow, Vangie Pachecho of Mesa, and Rene Torrez of Chandler; 21 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her father Diego Chavez. Visitation will be at 7 tonight at Sunnyside Baptist Church, 2300 N. West Street, Flagstaff, and funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Sunnyside Baptist Church with a burial to follow at Citizens Cemetery.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Norvel Owens Mortuary in Winslow. Zella Keams Begay Zella Keams Begay, 74, died on Aug. 10, 1999, in Phoenix. Mrs. Begay was born on Feb.
4, 1925, in Dilcon, Ariz. into the Tohtsonii clan born for Nakai Dineh. She graduated from Wingate High School in 1944. Mrs. Begay worked at North American Aviation in Inglewood, where she met and married her husband, Samuel H.
Begay, one of the original Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. She worked at the Fort Defiance Agency and became known for her hard work and sense of dedication to Dilcon students and on several occasions was awarded "Cook Foreman of the Year" at the agency. She was also known for donating her time and money to help the Universities get $1 million from Fort McDowell Indian Community News from Page PEU to meet immediate operating needs. The money was repaid, with interest. Sippel's plan, a 6 percent "operating transfer between funds," was the product of summer-long budget meetings.
It would have injected $425,520 into a general fund that's running a $1 million shortfall. But when Councilmember Brad Henningsen offered up the transfer for approval as part of the entire budget, the motion failed for lack of a second. Vice Mayor Bob Bowling stepped in and recommended turning the transfer into "a a repayable amount." But that didn't turn out to be such a simple resolution. City Attorney Charles Stoddard and City Finance Director Lenore Webber intervened, and a lengthy debate and string of amendments followed. Webber said the budget wasn't set up for such a move and lacked Obituaries vived by his three children: Dory Duncan of Denver, Bonnie Eddy of Wilsonville, and Allan Duncan of Williams; and two grandchildren.
Visitation will be on Friday, Aug. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Community United Methodist Church in Williams, with funeral services at the church on Saturday, Aug. 14, at 2 p.m. Immediately following the services will be a reception at the Community Hall.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Community United Methodist Church, 127 W. Sherman Williams, AZ 86046. Lorrie Gallegos Lorrie Gallegos, 66, died Aug. 12, 1999 at her daughter's home in Chandler. Mrs.
Gallegos was born Oct. 11, 1932, in Concho, Ariz. She lived in Winslow for a short time moving to Flagstaff in 1955. She raised her family in Flagstaff and moved to Mesa in 1987. Mrs.
Gallegos was a member of the Sunnyside Baptist Church in Flagstaff, and she enjoyed music. Mrs. Gallegos is survived by her sons Danny Bernal of Oklahoma City and Ray Bernal of Phoenix; daughters Susan Ontiveros of For the second time in' three years, Arizona's three state universities Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and University of Arizona will divide a $1 million gift from the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Indian Community. Members of the Fort McDowell Tribal Council attended today's Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff to present each of the three university presidents with a check for $100,000, the first installment of the gift. The money, generated by the tribe's sand and gravel, farming and gaming operations, is earmarked for programs that help both Native American and non-Native American students stay in school and complete their degrees.
Efforts will be directed primarily at Native American recruitment, retention and graduation, but 20 percent of school and community organize various fund-raising events. She retired in 1989. She was also an accomplished seamstress and cook and an avid fan of the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks and Arizona Cardinals. Mrs. Begay is survived by her sons Michael, Ronald and Begay all of Dilcon; daughters Kathryn Mathis of Dilcon, and Gail Sandoval of Window Rock; brothers Zearl, Willie and Chee Keams all of Dilcon; sisters Maxine Quahi of Flagstaff, Betty Yazzie of Leupp, and Moreta Bahe of Tolani Lake, and Effie Nezzie of Dilcon; 14 grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.
the funds can be used to assist nonNative Americans. "This gift will allow Arizona's public universities to increase their efforts to help Native Americans stay in school so they can complete their degrees," said Tribal President Bernadine Boyd. In addition to the Fort McDowell Wassaja Scholarship Fund created at each university, the funds will be used to provide student services through various programs. NAU plans to spend its portion on peer programs, tutorial materials for students enrolled in statewide distance learning courses, upgraded student computers, the Institute for Workforce Development Internships Program and the Institute for Native Americans' efforts to recruit Native American faculty. -Arizona Daily Sun She was preceded in death by her husband Samuel Begay; parents Hosteen Tso and Alice Keams Gishey.
Funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Winslow. An internment will be held at the Desert View Cemetery and a reception will be held at Dilcon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Arizona Kidney Foundation, 4019 N. 44th, Suite 201, Phoenix, 85018.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Greer's Scott Mortuary of Winslow. A ZONA Daily Sun A Pulitzer Community Newspaper Flagstaff Publishing 1999 Official Legal Newspaper for City Flagstaff and Coconino County Publication No. (USPS 030-560) Arizona Daily Sun (ISSN: 1054-9536) is pub- until 6:30 p.m. weekdays, until 10:30 a.m. on lished daily Monday through Friday evening, Saturday and noon on Sunday.
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