Month: March 2009

Attend (or view) Arizona Game & Fish Commission meeting, March 6-7

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The next meeting of the Arizona Game & Fish Commission is Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7, at the Arizona Game and Fish Department headquarters facility at 5000 W. Carefree Highway in Phoenix.  The Friday portion of the meeting begins with an executive session at 8 a.m., followed by the public session.  The Saturday portion of the meeting begins at 8 a.m.

The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Phoenix headquarters or view the meeting via a videoconference feed at any of the department’s regional offices.  The department successfully initiated a pilot videoconference program last month and has improved and expanded the system so that the videoconference feed will go to all six regional office locations in Pinetop, Flagstaff, Kingman, Yuma, Tucson and Mesa.  For a list of office addresses, click here.

Those viewing the meeting at the regional offices will be able to submit “blue slips” to present oral comment on the “call for comment” portions of the agenda, just as if they were attending the meeting in person.  To view a copy of the meeting agenda, click here and click on the “commission agenda” link.

Dedication of Charley Thornton’s bench at Catalina State Park

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The dedication of Charley Thornton’s bench took place on Sunday, March 1 at 11 a.m. at Catalina State Park, located off Oracle Road north of Tucson in the Catalina Mountains.  Charley’s bench is located one mile in on the Sutherland Trail.  Background on Charley and the gift of the bench located here.

Pictured in the slide show’s last photograph: standing left to right are Beth Woodin, Arizona Heritage Alliance and friend of Charley Thornton; Vic Thornton, Charley’s nephew; and Bob Wallace, friend and Catalina State Park volunteer.  Seated left to right are Paul Montoya, friend, member of Charley’s ASDB wrestling team, and Grand Canyon hiker 1958-59; Lois Thornton, Vic’s wife; and Phyllis Wallace, Bob’s wife, friend, and Catalina State Park volunteer.

Arizona State Archives shuttered due to budget crisis

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[Source: Ray Stern, Phoenix New Times] — The new, $29 million Polly Rosenbaum State Archives and History Building Reading Room that opened late last year has closed until further notice — another victim of state budget cuts.  “I’m hoping something is going to happen so that we can re-open it,” says GladysAnn Wells, state librarian and director of the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records.

Stuck for years in a cramped space at the State Capitol, the new facility at 19th Avenue and Madison Street pleased state workers and visitors alike with “50 times more room” for reading and research, according to a November 30, 2008 Cronkite New Service article.  Wells says the facility had been seeing about 10 to 25 visitors a day, but now will be available only for research “emergencies.”  The state agency’s Law and Research Library Divison, the “primary legal resource” for state officials, will remain open on reduced hours — from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wells says. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]