Patrice Horstman — May 2022 District One Newsletter

Hello District 1 Residents.

Hopefully you, your family and friends spent your Labor Day weekend at the annual Coconino County Fair at Ft Tuthill. Our public schools are back in session and both NAU and CCC students have returned to our mountain town. Labor Day and the Fair signifies the end of the summer, and what a summer it has been for many of our residents. April brought two severe wildfires that forced evacuations, destroyed homes, and blanked our communities with smoke. Our monsoon rains brought much needed relief to our mega drought. However, the post-wildfire flooding caused by the destruction of nine watersheds in the Peaks meant that the eastside communities off Highway 89 and the westside communities off Highway 180, experienced severe and repeated flooding events, including neighborhoods that have never experienced past flooding. Our communities have suffered through over 40 flood events, the severity of which required three separate emergency declarations for flooding and ask for emergency monetary assistance.

The repeated flooding has made us frustrated and weary but the resiliency of our communities and the compassion of neighbors helping neighbors shows through making sandbags, helping to set sandbags around homes, placing barriers, removing rocks and debris, relocating animals, and being there for each other.

I ask that you hang in there with us and know that we have been ceaselessly working for mitigation solutions. My heartfelt and sincere thanks to everyone who has been impacted by the fires and flooding, and who have worked together to help each other through these difficult times. Together, we build the kind of community where we want to live and where we want to raise our children. I am very proud to be part of our Coconino County Community.

Onward together,

Patrice

Our communities have been devastated by the more than 40 flood events this monsoon. Areas that have never seen severe flooding are now experiencing unprecedented flooding due to the nine compromised watersheds caused by the Pipeline and Tunnel fires. The flooding has been most severe in the communities off Highway 180 and Highway 89. Severe flooding has impacted neighborhoods on the east and west sides of the greater Flagstaff area.

The County Flood Control District has produced about 900,000 sandbags, for all County residents, at a cost of over $3 million. The District has also placed about four miles of concrete barrier. Together with the City of Flagstaff, the District has continuously removed debris and sediment from roads, streets and channels. The cost of response and short-term mitigation is approaching $7 million, and has far exceeded the Flood Control District’s budget for these efforts, requiring the Board of Supervisors to loan the district $5 million from the County General Funds to assist with continued response and short-term mitigation for this monsoon. The District has supplied the vast majority of the sandbags for the City’s short-term mitigation efforts, as well as most of the concrete barriers. In addition, the District has funded the short-term mitigation engineering efforts that are being managed by the City. District and City engineers are working together to develop short- and long-term mitigation strategies that will substantially reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of future flooding.

The City recently obtained $2 million in EWPP Emergency Federal Funding, and immediately commenced construction of a sediment retention basin in the Schultz Pass Road “Y” area, which should substantially lessen the flows off Schultz Creek on the westside, thus reducing the impacts to Coconino Estates and downstream. The District identified about $4 million worth of on-forest watershed restoration work that is necessary to ensure the detention basin being constructed by the City can effectively perform. The City is working with ADOT to potentially pursue a grant to upsize the culvert under Highway 180 and some channel and drainage work by the City.

The long-term mitigation plan for the eastside requires a much larger investment, given both the number of watersheds impacted and greater post- wildfire flows being experienced. It is estimated that the Flood Control District will need between $120 to $150 million to accomplish its long-term mitigation plan. Needless to say, this far exceeds the revenues available to both Flagstaff or Coconino County. Therefore, Supervisors Horstman and Vasquez, together with other District staff and the City of Flagstaff, have hosted tours and meetings with Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, Representative Tom O’Halleran, and officials from the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, Federal Highways, and other federal and state agencies.

The District and City have undertaken a full court press to obtain funding through various state and federal funding sources, including requesting that our legislators support the introduction of a federal emergency supplemental bill. Our Congressional delegation have been exceedingly supportive, and have been strong advocates on behalf of our communities to obtain the funding for long-term mitigation.

As part of Coconino County’s quest for forest restoration funds, Supervisor Horstman, Deputy County Manager Andy Bertelsen, Emergency Manager Wes Dison and County Forester Jay Smith met with Governor Doug Ducey’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) task force to discuss the distribution of IIJA monies for large scale forest restoration projects in the County. Arizona is expected to receive IIJA funding of approximately $200 million a year over the next five fiscal years. Besides infrastructure projects, IGA funds may be used for forest restoration and thinning projects. Coconino County would like to utilize IIJA funding to commence restoration and thinning projects on the western slopes of the San Francisco Peaks. Supervisor Horstman, with county staff, toured the County flood areas with Arizona IIJA state Coordinator Sara Webber and the governor’s staff, and discussed how the governor’s office could assist our communities with monies for the west slope of The Peaks. Forest restoration is the best way to stop the cycle of wildfires in the spring and post-wildfire flooding during the monsoon.

Supervisor Horstman and County Forest Restoration Director Jay Smith joined in the celebration of the C.C. Cragin Watershed Protection Project. The Cragin Watershed Protection Project aims to restore the forest to healthier conditions and protect the C.C. Cragin Reservoir, (formerly Blue Ridge Reservoir), through tree thinning and prescribed burns. This decade-long project is an example of the success that can be achieved through public-private partnerships. C.C. Cragin involved a partnership of the U.S. Forest Service, the State Department of Forestry and Fire Management, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Town of Payson and the Gila and Coconino Counties. It includes the Baker Project, which is the first thinning agreement in Arizona implemented under the Good Neighbor Authority between Coconino National Forest and private industry. These types of collaborative projects are important for Coconino County to meet its Forest Restoration goals of landscape-scale forest restoration.

Flagstaff lost a community treasure on November 15, 2021. Flagstaff native son, local historian and author Jim Babbitt passed away after 73 rich years. The Coconino County Board of Supervisors recognized this remarkable man and acknowledged his contributions to Coconino County by designating August 13th as Jim Babbitt Day.

Jim Babbitt strived to always act in the best interest of our community and challenged us all to be the best we can be.

The Flagstaff Unified School District and community members celebrated a long-awaited addition with the grand opening of the W. F. Killip Elementary School building. Principal Joe Gutierrez gave Supervisor Horstman, County Manager Steve Peru and others a tour of the new open-concept school. The Killip students and families have long waited for this new state-of-the-art building, which fosters a great sense of community for Flagstaff and the Sunnyside neighborhood.

Flagstaff is home to one of the premier observatories in the country. Always reaching for the stars, Lowell Observatory broke ground on the new Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Astronomy Discovery Center. This 40,000- square-foot center intends to become a place for visitors to learn about astronomy and be awed by the cosmos. It will include a Universe Theater, Dark Sky Planetarium, Astronomy Gallery, public spaces, learning centers and an open deck leading to our beautiful dark skies. The out-of-this-world addition to the Flagstaff community is scheduled to open in 2024.

Pam Foti and her family have called Coconino County their home for more than two decades. Not content with simply being a NAU professor and Chair of the Department of Parks and Recreation, Pam’s passion and love for the wilderness and public lands led her to a lifetime of research, advocacy and stewardship. Besides being president of the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association and serving on the State Parks and Recreation commission, Pam served on the Coconino County Parks and Recreation Commission for over 16 years. Her service was recognized by the County Board of Supervisors and Parks and Recreation Department by re-naming the “Copeland Forest Service Trail” the “Pam Foti Forest Service Access Trail.” It is fitting that a trail is now named after this remarkable woman whose passion for the outdoors inspired many of us to journey down wilderness trails.

The 73rd Annual Coconino County Fair kicked off during Labor Day weekend for four days of fun at Fort Tuthill. Laughter carried into each evening as carnival rides lit up the night sky. Many County employees volunteered their time and set up booths to meet with residents and answer questions. The Fair is known for its live entertainment and Supervisor Horstman and Supervisor Matt Ryan were pleased to introduce the main act, country singer and songwriter David Lee Murphy, for some boot scootin’ performances.