Editor: fred miller December 12, 2021 Wire #20/December 2021
Hello,
Finally got this issue out. I started two weeks ago piecing it together and then kept adding things and soon it was today and because I took so long, I missed some dated happenings like the ballgame in Warren and BA5, but it is what it was.
Please check out the event Monday at Contessa's noted below. It is a good overview and way to participate in the lege without going to Phoenix.
On the home front...Anita had lower back surgery 12 days ago to decompress nerves and stabilize her spine to relieve numbness in her leg. Technically, for surgery buffs, a laminectomy and spinal fusion. All went well but it is a very painful operation and slow recuperation; a surgery where you don't come back in leaps and bounds but incremental. She has been walking since we got home and each day goes a little further. Today she walked around the block twice for the first time. Many thanks for the good wishes, offers to help, and those who were feeding us. (For those that don't know, Anita and I cook to live, not live to cook. So it is always a pleasure to have others feed us.)
And lastly....I have given my notice to Cafe Roka owners, Rod Kass and Sally Holcomb, that after 27 years I am folding my corkscrew effective 10 pm on Saturday January 1, 2022. I will await the award for the golden fork. It's been a wonderful job for me, I've met and served scads of peeps, helped many have a great dining experience and offended a few. I've made a friend or many, and have scores of acquaintances. Over the years I've worked with many excellent humans and a very few that were somewhat short of excellence. As one of our long time servers said. "They come, they go." I've seen several kids come to Roka and work when 14 or 15 and now see them with kids that age. I have been lucky in that R&S have allowed me latitude to experiment with drinks, make improvements, suggest hires, shape banquet policies, do marketing, go to wine tastings and, in general, stretch the creative aspects of bartender/bev manager. It has been all that any worker wants-a chance to meaningfully participate in a business. I've been fortunate to rep Roka in our community and been an integral part of making Cafe Roka truly a community based restaurant that rarely turns down a request for a gift certificate to be used for fund raising or donations of food where needed.
During the past 15 years Anita has been a weekend widow; my fervent supporter and defender backing me in everything I do. It is time for me to do some payback. It has been grand run. Time for a new chapter.
fred
BISBEE
HOW TO TALK TO THE LEGE!
While bitching to the world at large certainly helps your mental stability and sometimes feels righteous, it really doesn't do crap for changing things. Even if the legislators are-lights on nobody home-we gotta try to enlighten them by talking through them about issues to get our voices on the record. Citizen Engagement Beyond Voting is one of the ways to do it. Please sign up and check out this into:
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT BEYOND VOTING WILL BE COMING TO BISBEE/SIERRA VISTA MONDAY DECEMBER 13. CONTESSA'S CANTINA 202 TOMBSTONE CANYON 5-6:30
A DISCUSSION OF LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES 2022.
Sign up here: https://secure.everyaction.com/j_wlzPEQ6UauHSJ1T9d3-Q2?emci=518e8d62-dc4f-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&emdi=2cf1f1b6-5550-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&ceid=2157123
Our legislators need to hear from everyday Arizonans who care deeply how proposed laws affect them in their communities. Legislators usually hear from lobbyists, so people who take the trouble to come to the Capitol for a committee meeting can get their attention. Request to Speak is one of the best ways to get your views on record without attending the lege meetings in Phoenix.
Melinda Iyer developed introductory trainings to go over the basics, from how committees work to the best ways to make your point in the 2-3 minutes allowed. Come to listen and consider how you can speak up on any subject that matters deeply to you! She also has a weekly newsletter about legislative matters happening that week.
ONLINE TESTIMONY TRAINING
Jan 5, 6:30 pm, pre-register HERE
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COPPER QUEEN HOSPITAL TEMPORARILY SHUTS OPERATING ROOM
Many hospitals' ICU units are at capacity
Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee was forced to go to crisis standards of care last week. The operating room was shut down so those working nurses could be redirected to the medical-surgery unit. Before COVID the hospital did not care care of critically ill patients. The hospital has 13 regular beds and 24 emergency room beds but no ICU. The lack of intensive care beds makes it difficult to care for patients in need of critical care.And the lack of intensive care beds in other rural and urban hospitals make it difficult to transfer patients for care.
So who are taking up the beds? Mostly the unvaccinated of course. Those unvaxxed people, through ignorance or choice of their untethered-to-responsibility 'freedom', suck up medical care while causing untold hardship, illness, and death for others needing critical care. The Arizona Department of Health Services released new data comparing the numbers of people who caught COVID-19 and those who died from it based on vaccination status. The Arizona numbers, from October data, fall similarly to national data: Those who are unvaccinated were almost four times more likely to test positive for the virus and more than 15 times more likely to die from it than vaccinated people.
(As an aside, I received an email from someone I've known for a long time in Bisbee, that I was demonizing people who were not vaccinated and if I could open my mind, I might read a book from RFK Jr"s Children Health Defense organizations. I hope to respond in a future issue about that misinformation organization and how anti-science and nonsense attitudes have become popular.)
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LE CORNUCOPIA SAMMY GETS A BIG NOD FROM FORBES MAG
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekelly/2021/11/26/stumbling-onto-the-best-sandwich-in-bisbee-arizona/?sh=c978e032c80e
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MULE PASS GET THE TREATMENT THIS SUMMER
ADOT announced that the Mule Pass tunnel would be getting work this summer to include new diode lights, walls cleaned, cracks sealed, and new lane single lanes created by eliminating one west bound lane, and creating 6' shoulders in both directions. The pavement will be milled and striped.
Hwy 80 will continue working breaking and clearing rock along the road in an effort to mitigate hazardous conditions from rocks falling on the highway.
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THE BISBEE SUBURB OF DOUGLAS IS RISING.
Six buildings bought by a developer and there is lotsa activity
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2021/11/30/arizona-developer-plans-restore-douglas-architectural-gems/8751629002/?utm_source=azcentral-AZ%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=baseline_greeting&utm_term=newsletter_greeting&utm_content=1531AR-E-NLETTER02
...and included in the Build Back Better Bill (BBBB) is $184 million for the modernization of the current Douglas Port of Entry, and $216 million for the new commercial Port of Entry in Douglas. This two-port solution will bring much-needed economic development to Douglas and the metropolis of Bisbee.
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TAX REDUCTION TIME!
Lotsa opportunities to lower your tax bill. If you don't itemize, the most common is Arizona charitable Tax Credit $800 per couple, $400 per individual. (Warning! you actually have to give the dough to a non-profit in order to take the tax credit.)
Another, especially if you are needing a larger deduction and have a bigger chunk of money, is to give to the Bisbee Foundation. Three of the several advantages of giving to the BF are donor advised funds , trusts, and endowments. Requiring a minimum $10,000, your gift will grow in value and continue to provide grants into the future to organizations and individuals that support and advance your charitable, financial, and social aims.
Donor funds have been used in many ways in Bisbee including, restoration of Central School, partially funding events like the Make youth art festival, the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, an historical kiosk in Warren, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships for resident students. Because the Bisbee Foundation acts as an umbrella organization for distributing grants and scholarships, the entire Bisbee community is aided. For more information go to: www. bisbeefoundation.com, or contact bisbeefoundation1@gmail.com.
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CAFE ROKA
Holiday hours are:
Open Friday 17, Saturday 18... Thur 23, Friday 24.... Tuesday 28, Wednesday 29, Thursday 30, Friday 31, Saturday January 1 5-9 pm
Closed……. December 25, 26, 27
If you like sipping the grape...The third iteration, and best, of the Roka Red wines, has just been released. It is muy deliciouso! 40% Zin 40% Sangiovese, 20% Aglianico. Excellent gifts in boxes of 1, 2, or 3 bottles are available at the restaurant.
Wine talk for aficionados..hints of berries on the nose, luscious fruit forward on the initial palate, yielding to a soft astringency on the medium to long finish. Very drinkable by itself and goes well with a variety of vegetarian, meat, and even fish dishes. 100% Wilcox bench grapes.
................................ BISBEE ECONOMY
( City data from Joe Ward/building inspector,
Housing from Bob Klein, census data rfom the Bisbee Observer)
COPPER QUEEN HOTEL Am unsure what happened with the hotel, it was scheduled for auction on Nov. 30, but I was told it was pulled on Nov 29. I hope to have more info on this economically important historical property. If you know the details send it on please. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
CITY BUDGET REPORT Treasurer Keri Bagley gives a monthly departmental summary for spending as a percent of budget. This month marks 42% of the fiscal year passed. There is a net revenue gain of more than $500k over expenses in the general fund. Many departments reporting revenue gains over projections. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were deposited into the general fund and as expended, about $260k so far, are moved into a special accounting category Fund 79. ARPA recipients are a variety of mostly non-profits that applied to the council with some money going toward the demo of city hall, some to BFD for defibs, and the city pool. City and State sales tax is back on track with 43% and 44% respectively ahead of projections. Service charges lag behind budget projections for fire inspections ($10k) because not many have been done likely because the fire department is understaffed. Ambulance fees are about $67k less than projections five months into the fiscal year. Bed tax revenue (noted under the visitor center budget) is exceeding expenses by about 26% because there are no visitor center employees except the marketing contracting. Ms. Bagley included a reminder, a detailed listing of all transactions can be found on the AZ Open Books site as required by state statute at the following link: City of Bisbee / Transactions (opengov.com). This site also has all the transactions in multiple graph formats with many drill down options available &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& HOME SALES Fourteen houses were sold totaling $2,566,100 continuing a long string of monthly double digit home sales for Bisbee. The sales total was lower than July when 14 houses sold for $3,049,400. Four sales in OB, five sales in Warren, 3 in San Jose, and two in smaller districts. Address list/sold 306 O HARA AVE $395 55 Wood CYN $349 121 Black Knob $259 122 Whelan $249/$255 148 Quality Hill $235/$220 604 Oliver Ciorcle $229/$215 222 Hazzard $168 2366 Coleman $159.9/$161.5 1001 -5 Tombstone $98/$100 607 Lupine $125/$90 1090 W. Della $85.9/$83 211 Douglas $92.5/$75 108 B St. $74.9/$70 103 D St. $45/$30 ...................... BUILDING PERMITS The months of Sept/Oct residential building permits has revealed an interesting anomaly. October's 13 permits totaled $78,625 for work completed. That is the lowest monthly total and the least number of permits in the five years I've been keeping stats . September, at $143,430 for 24 permits was the lowest since July of 2018. However November stats indicate a bounce back $486 876 however that is a bit skewed since one residential property had $200k worth of work. There was some activity on the commercial side, about $98k, but nothing substantial that would indicate renovation activity. However with six historic buildings up for sale or auction, that likely will change in the new year. Generally building permits are for remodeling/maintenance and follow housing sales fairly closelyalbiet a couple months after sales. Since house sales have been good (double digits for the past three years) why are these so low? The short answer is; I dunno. Without doing any actual research, I do have some guesses... The sheer amount of work permitted in the past two years has led to a demand for work that exceeds the supply of workers/contractors. It is not uncommon for a six month or more wait for anyone wishing to get work done on a house. Since housing prices have risen, that could mean the houses sold are in better shape and need less work. As I said guesses. .................. SALES TAX (this report is from spending in September) Hotel and bed tax were up about $3,000 over August, but restaurant/bar was down about $12,000, retail down about $30,000, groceries up about $7,000, and internet sales stable. One would think that with more rooms rented that rest/bar sales would be up not down. Head scratches and wtf? ........... SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook likes continue to increase by about 50 users per month; now at 9848 likes. page view were down in November while engagement was up. Average age of users remains the same, 35-44 Instagram followers continue to grow by about 2000 a month, currently 6323. Reach has jumped up 3,000 the last two months as has impressions. Average age of users remains the same, 35-44 although for October it was the 25-34 range more active. web clicks come in about 20 higher to 59. Discoverbisbee.com users fluctuate but remain about 7900, although again, October had about 2000 more people using it, the # of sessions increased by about the same amount, and time on the site was about 25 seconds longer. 55-64 remains the dominant age group. The newsletter continues to increase steadily about 200 more recipients per months, engagement-the open rate- has increases and is now about 39%. &&&&&&&&&& ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION 129 High St. LLC 236 Brewery Jim Mullen Zacatecas Engineering PLLC 101A OK St. Richard Cayer Yellow Canary 67 Rhett Bailey Sarah Scepurek Cochise Housing Connection 644 B Tombstone Canyon Ed Matchett JupieShop inc. 30 Main St. Alecander Medina Silvia Medina Jonquil Motel LLC 317nTombstone Canyon Eva Rupert Sterling Noren Notice of Formation On Victory's Wing Ranch LLC 1697 W. Blvd Kathleen Bercume
New business
Historical Haunted Tours of Bisbee
Zandra Baldwin
Joey Bravo
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SOME STATS FROM THE US CENSUS ABOUT BISBEE
(Census data drives decisions in many areas including redistricting now underway-see below for update, and state shared revenue. For instance according to the city manager because a loss of population, shared revenues to the city decreased by 5.86%, that is $121,876 no longer available for the budget. I'll be delving into this more in coming issues.)
4923 Population
$34,452 Median Income
28.7% bachelor degree or higher
40% employment rate
3138 housing units ; 2464 (78%) occupied, 674 vacant
$704 Median rent
13.1% or 645 peeps with no health insurance
1634 peeps defined themselves as Hispanic or Latino
31% 65 or older, 19% younger than 5
37.7 % employed in various governments work
39% employed by private companies
8.4 % self-employed
4.9 % work for private non-profits
20.5 disabled
Go here for county info: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/cochisecountyarizona,AZ,US/POP010220
................ POLITICS
THE BILLIONAIRES ARE ANGRY According to hedge fund billionaire Steve Schwarzman... closing the carried interest-that lovely accounting loophole that saves the billy boys millions of bucks- is like the nazis invading Poland! (At that threat...Karl Marx grave opens and he emerges raising his fist while singing the internationale) https://popular.info/p/the-billionaires-are-angry?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0NzkwODIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjQzMTQzOTU2LCJfIjoiY0xqSUIiLCJpYXQiOjE2MzUzNDQwNDUsImV4cCI6MTYzNTM0NzY0NSwiaXNzIjoicHViLTE2NjQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.junlWWUsGmmKhyS0yiRUR8-lG-Sq0QQ0SiZyHDQHCUw,,, .....AND SOME MILLIONAIRES ARE FIGHTING FOR MORE TAXES ON MILLIONAIRES Including a full page as a letter to Senator Sinema saying essentially saying get with the program and tax millionaires to fund day care and other programs. (A bewildered karl marx would be muttering to himself.) https://patrioticmillionaires.org/ ................. THE LATEST ON REDISTRICTING https://www.azmirror.com/2021/12/10/redistricting-panel-takes-steps-to-bolster-gop-chances-in-latest-changes/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=f20e0bd2-6eb0-40ae-a8d4-7a5bdb74344f ....................... REPUGNICAN LEGISLATORS STUFFED BY THE AZ SUPREMES On Nov 2, a mere hour after arguments concluded, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that extraneous provisions such as bans on mask mandates, removing the Secretary of State's authority to defend state election law, and teaching "controversial subjects" do not belong in budget bills. This effectively puts an end to the practice of "logrolling," or stuffing unpopular provisions into a larger bill to ensure their passage. The court affirmed today that this violates the Arizona constitution, which stipulates that bills stick to a single subject. Since the unrelated provisions do not concern the budgetary purpose of the appropriations bill, they are unconstitutional and so are no longer in force. ................. HOW DUCEY REWARDS HIS RICH BACKERS
The Arizona Republic has published a 5-part investigative article in how Doug Ducey gave $100 million of taxpayer dough to one of his richest backers. In the series, it illustrates how Ducey's administration runs and how pernicious influences spread to departments and the private sector.
................. IS THERE RACISM IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY? Does the Pope poop in the woods? This is the painful recounting of the hundreds of thousand of American Indians that were forcibly taken from their families and tribe and taught to be 'white'. Are you sure Critical Race Theory shouldn't be taught? https://www.azmirror.com/2021/07/08/federal-investigation-aims-to-uncover-painful-history-of-native-american-boarding-schools/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=33eedcb5-a43e-477a-81e0-12cf6b617508
SOME THOUGHTS ON SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEMS
TRUCKING
................................. EVERYTHING ELSE
WHY LOCAL MUSIC IS IMPORTANT
.............. WHY PEOPLE GET CAVITIES https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-people-who-brush-still-get-cavities/ ..............
.............. BOTOX, FILLERS, HORMONES: CHEATING AT THE CAMEL BEAUTY CONTEST! Saudi Arabian authorities have cracked down on cheaters in the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival’s camel beauty contest, with some 40 camels ejected from the pageant amid allegations that the ungulates received injections of Botox and other artificial performance enhancers. The breeders of camels come to the festival — which has $66 million in prize money — and jurors pick a winner based on the posture, dress, humps, necks and heads of the camels, sort of like a dog show but with less animal in-breeding and an equal amount of ridiculous rich people. This year’s crackdown revealed a host of unsavory techniques designed to get the camels looking their best, from Botox to rubber bands to fillers to hormones.