Month: December 2009

Hohokam ruins restoration in Mesa to begin at last

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[Source: Jim Walsh, Mesa Republic, 11-18-2009] — Visitors will get their first opportunity to use a new interpretive trail through the Mesa Grande Ruins in March during the annual open house.  Construction on the trail begins on Dec. 1 and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, the first stage of development of ruins as a tourist attraction and educational facility since the city bought it in 1987.

The open house is scheduled for March 27.  It includes tours and a free pancake breakfast sponsored by the Mesa Grande Community Alliance, a west Mesa neighborhood organization.  “It’s kind of the grand opening of the trail,” said Tom Wilson, director of the Arizona Museum of Natural History.  “It’s very gratifying to finally get some of the funding together to begin Phase One.”

Bids on the trail project came in so low that the museum may also include a small visitors parking lot for 15 vehicles on 10th Street and a small visitors entry area featuring a ticket booth, restrooms and a display area, said Jerry Howard, the museum’s curator of anthropology.  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

State parks need funding solution or they will die

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[Source: Arizona Republic Editorial, 11-18-2009] – Our state park system is withering and dying. That isn’t a hysterical overstatement. It’s a simple statement of fact. Gov. Jan Brewer’s Task Force on Sustainable State Parks examined this diverse collection of special places in Arizona, ranging from the splendors of Kartchner Caverns to the beaches of Lake Havasu. The conclusion: The system is “in imminent danger of complete collapse as a result of financial starvation during most of this decade.”

The state is not putting any money from the General Fund into Arizona State Parks. And it’s diverting other money that should go into the 30 parks, including revenue they generate. Capital needs have been shamefully neglected for years. Historic buildings, such as the Douglas Mansion in Jerome, are crumbling. Water systems are disintegrating. Docks are falling apart. There isn’t enough operating money. Some parks are shuttered, and others have reduced their hours. Arizona is in danger of becoming the only state in the union without a state parks system [to read the full editorial click here].

New lot to give Phoenix’s South Mountain hikers more parking

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[Source: Cathryn Creno, Arizona Republic 11-10-2009] – The number of parking spaces at the Telegraph Pass entrance to South Mountain Park  will more than double – to 83 spaces – by the end of this month. Both hikers and residents who live near Telegraph Pass, just off of Desert Foothills Parkway and 6th Street in the Ahwatukee Foothills, have long complained that the lot’s current 39 spaces don’t come close to handing the flood of daily visitors to the park.

Hikers have complained about having to circle the lot until spaces come open. Residents gripe that their streets sometimes fill up with cars belonging to hikers who get tired of waiting for parking spaces [to read the full article click here].