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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2019
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Check out the #MeetCute winners
City of Sierra Vista’s general fund in good shape mid-year
Courtney Borquez teaches lessons in the classroom, on the court
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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 14 2019
DANA COLE HERALD/REVIEW
Tombstone High School 11th-graders Jasmine Ortega and Brandon McDonald decorate Valentine's Day cookies as their culinary arts teacher, Daniel Barrett watches their technique. The junior class will be selling the cookies to students and staff on Valentine's Day as a fundraiser.
Story on page 9n page
Celebrating Valentine’s Day
Bisbee City Council approves city manager resignationTerms for new city tourism manager
position also discussed in special session
BY EMILY ELLIS
Bisbee — In a special session on Tuesday, the Bisbee City Council moved forward with their search for the visitors center and tourism man-ager, and approved the resignation of City Manager Robert Smith.
During the meeting, several Bis-bee residents and business owners stepped forward to speak about the
importance of tourism to the city’s economy and what skills they thought the new manager should have. Jen Luria left the position in December.
While Personnel Director David Duchon had put out a job description for the position, the council decided in a previous regular meeting that more citizen input was needed before con-tinuing the search.
Kathy Sowden, of economic develop-ment and tourism committee iBisbee, spoke of how essential the tourism in-dustry is both to the city’s income and the residents employed by tourism-centered businesses.
“Currently, tourism is our only in-dustry,” she said. “If we don’t move on this, we’re going to really regret it.”
Mayor David Smith put forth the recommendation that the iBisbee Committee meet with Duchon in order to come up with an updated job description and salary range, to be presented at the regular council meet-ing Tuesday.
Councilwoman Joni Giacomino said she wanted to address “rumors” that the new council was anti-tourism.
“I recognize that tourism is an im-portant, important pillar of our econ-omy in Bisbee,” she said. “But what
I think sometimes gets overlooked is without the residents who live in this town, the service workers, the people who own the shops . . . we wouldn’t have a tourism industry. My perspec-tive has always been: taking care of our residents is taking care of our tourism as well.”
All council members agreed about the importance of both tourism and the community to Bisbee, with Coun-cilman Bill Higgins adding that he’d “like to see us get this nailed down as soon as possible.”
Another long day for
Carothers in SPRNCA
water rights trialBY SHAR PORIER
PHOENIX — It was another long day on the witness stand for Steven Carothers, SWAC aquatic and terrestrial biolo-gist who studied the San Pedro Riparian National Conserva-tion Area (SPRNCA) for the defense in the federal govern-ment’s water rights claim adju-dication proceedings.
For the second day, Caroth-ers, with a 12-inch stack of his printed depositions, defended his statements on the health of the SPRNCA as a whole, the problem with non-native fish, the trouble with beaver dams and his take on water-stressed trees documented by another researcher during cross-exam-ination by Salt River Project at-torney Michael Foy.
Foy made a point of Caroth-ers’ limited visit to the SPRN-CA over a two-day period back in October 2015 and suggested the biologist did not have a good understanding of the riparian health as a whole. The biolo-gist confirmed he went to cer-tain wells along the SPRNCA at Tombstone, Charleston, State Highway 90 and Fairbanks.
See TRIAL, Page 3
See BISBEE, Page 3
Herald Review Feb 14, 2019
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When there was discus-sion over whether other parties besides the iBis-bee Committee should be included in the meet-ing with Duchon, Mayor Smith pointed out that while other merchants and residents could pro-vide input, the procedure for appointing an ad hoc committee would “take too long.”
The council decided to go forward with the iBisbee special meeting and post information on the city’s website so oth-ers could attend if they wished.
The second item on the agenda was discussion over the resignation and severance terms of City Manager Robert Smith.
Smith submitted a res-ignation letter to the cou nci l t he previous Friday, which cited a proposal of termination from Councilwoman Les-lie Johns as a reason for stepping down. Smith had held the permanent posi-tion for less than a year and a half.
There was some debate among the council as to whether the acceptance of the resignation and the severance terms should be separate agenda items.
“His situation is that he has offered to resign under these severance package terms. So it’s one motion,” said Mayor Smith.
The Herald/Review pre-viously reported that the severance terms included three months of sever-ance pay and right to ac-crued vacation time and sick days.
After returning from executive session, the mo-tion to accept Smith’s res-ignation per the city char-ter passed 5-2, with Mayor Smith and Councilwoman Joan Hansen opposed.
Mayor Smith then re-quested a three-person search committee consist-ing of Councilman Gabe Lindstrom, Giacomino, and Johns, to recommend a temporary city manag-er, a motion which passed unanimously.
Bisbee’s next regular council meeting will be held on Tuesday.
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BISBEEFROM PAGE 1
He was able to get Carothers to con-firm that vegetation can change month to month and that water stress may be visible on trees in the form of dead limbs, yellowed leaves and the size of leaves on cottonwood trees.
Though Carothers did agree declin-ing depth to groundwater could affect cottonwoods and willows, saying, “If the water level drops below 10 to 15 feet, the trees could die. But, I would need to study this.”
However, Carothers noted full tree de-mise would depend on whether the water returned to levels which tree roots could reach. They may be able to live for a time without water, but he did not know since he has not studied tree extinction.
In an effort to reestablish the impor-tance of cottonwood and willow stands, Foy asked if he thought the trees added to the diversity of wildlife, particularly avian species for which the SPRNCA is well known as a spectacular birding site.
As for the non-native invasive tama-risk trees, which will replace dead cot-tonwoods and willows in the drier reach-es of the river, Carothers again repeated he did not see them as a threat since a
salt cedar beetle which devours the trees’ leaves will make their way south, eventually eliminating the problem.
“The beetle is coming and tamarisk will be short-lived,” Carothers told him. “In 20 years, the mesquite will replace the tamarisk.”
Foy also asked him about beaver dams, which create ponds and slow water flow, which Carothers said were a detriment to native fish. The ponds can provide non-native species with habitat and aid reproduction, thus increasing competi-tion for food. The native longfin dace and desert sucker can also become meals for non-native species.
Still, 150 years ago, beaver, the longfin dace, the desert sucker and 11 other na-tive species of fish used to live in harmo-ny when the San Pedro was more like a ciénega than a river, Foy noted. Caroth-ers agreed.
In addition, the desert sucker has gone through a few declines even before beaver were present in the SPRNCA ac-cording to studies, said Foy. Carothers agreed.
While non-native species may play a part in the decline of the desert suck-ers, so might low river flow said Foy and Carothers agreed, though he added more water could exacerbate the problem.
Cochise County planned on calling a witness, but the federal attorneys said they did not have time to prepare ques-tions for her. So, court was dismissed until Feb. 25.
The Herald/Review will have anoth-er story Sunday which will include a more in-depth look at some of the more technical issues discussed at trial on the SPRNCA.
TRIALFROM PAGE 1
U.S. attorneys Dave Gehlert and Lee Leininger talk during a break in court Wednesday in the adjudication hearing for the federal government's water rights claim for the SPRNCA.
PHOTOS BY SHAR PORIER HERALD/REVIEW
Freeport Minerals lead attorney Sean Hood, Liberty Utilities attorney Robert Anderson and Arizona State Land Department attorney Carrie Brennan listen in on the day's testimony in the federal water rights claim adjudication hearing Wednesday in court.
