Recent Stories
APS smart meters frighten protesters
Health effects, government eavesdropping spook crowd
A crush of people alarmed about the imminent installation of “smart meters” crowded the Payson Town Council meeting last week, hoping to convince the town to pass a resolution opposing the automated transmitters that intermittently send information on electricity use to Arizona Public Service.
Between the bull and the cowboy
The pounding stadium music swelled and the middling crowd at the Payson Spring Rodeo leaned forward for the single most dangerous moment in sports — the foolhardy attempt to sit on top of a furiously bucking, spinning, twisting, slobbering, kicking bull.
Town targets fire marshal
Payson has 54 employees whose salaries and retirement benefits tally more than $75,000 — but the only one it can spare is the fire marshal, according to a budget study committee that reported its findings to the council last week.
Pine water doubles taxes, boosts water rate 33%
A sorrowful Pine-Strawberry Water Improvement District board Saturday doubled the district’s property tax rate and raised water rates by 20 to 33 percent, depending on usage.
School board grapples with changes
With its budget still in limbo, the Payson School Board this week grappled with sweeping changes in focus as it issued contracts that included a surge in positions on the administrative schedule.
Budget features big boost for police, fire
Payson’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year reflects a struggle to address long-postponed needs and big increases in public safety spending — despite the town’s still-sickly economic recovery.
‘Starving education to death’
Retiring Payson Unified School District Director of Special Services Barbara Fitzgerald took her leave after seven years in Payson on Monday with a heartfelt address to the school board that drew a prolonged standing ovation from the audience.
Love hurts
Payson Wildlife Fair offers lessons in nature and the pitfalls of being in a relationship with an eagle
You’d think Jerry Dstwinkle would hate golden eagles. One tore out a bunch of his teeth. One punched a hole nearly clear through his arm. One left three long scars on his wrist. But people are funny — much harder to figure than eagles.
AHCCCS plan triggers Republican Civil War
Governor faces opposition from fellow party members on Affordable Care Act
Gov. Jan Brewer’s effort to accept federal money to cover about 380,000 low-income Arizona residents has touched off a Civil War within Republican ranks, with normally ignored Democratic lawmakers standing by in bemusement. The latest twist in the strange saga turns on efforts by some Republican lawmakers to add a provision to ensure the expanded, federally funded plans don’t provide money for abortion or any services offered by Planned Parenthood.
