Arizona Lottery

Grants could help Verde River at Clarkdale Arizona project

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[Source: Philip Wright, Verde Independent] – When the Town Council meets at 3 p.m. Tuesday, it will consider a request by staff to go after two grants from the Heritage Fund of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The process would begin with two pre-applications for two lottery funded grants for Urban Wildlife and for Public Access.

A report prepared by Jodie Filardo, director of development and project manager for Sustainable Clarkdale, explains that the state has $112,500 available for Urban Wildlife and $50,000 for Public Access grants. “Our Verde River @ Clarkdale project aligns well with two specific granting focus areas: Urban Wildlife and Public Access,” Filardo stated. Filardo further explains that Melody Reifsnyder of Sage Consulting will put together the grant applications for the town.

“She is being funded on a fee-for-service basis from Walton Family Foundation grant funds established to hire professional services to write two separate pre-applications,” Filardo stated. If the grant applications are approved, Reifsnyder also will complete the full applications process for the town.

In a related matter, Mayor Doug Von Gausig has sponsored an agenda item calling for the council to consider approving Resolution 1376. That resolution would support The Verde Compact, a statement confirming dedication to the well-being of the Verde River and Valley. In a staff report on the item, Kathy Bainbridge, Town Clerk and Finance Director, stated that the Verde Compact “…has been endorsed by The Nature Conservancy and more endorsements have been pledged from other environmental organizations.” John Neville, president of Sustainable Arizona, will make a presentation regarding the Value the Verde Ecotourism Initiative.

 

Push to protect Arizona’s parks from budget cuts gains steam

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[Source: Shaun McKinnon, AZ Republic, Page 1] –  Arizonans overwhelmingly support state parks and open spaces and believe such areas contribute to a region’s economic health, but few people understand how the state pays for its parks, a new survey says. That lack of knowledge could imperil a parks system already weakened by budget cuts if lawmakers don’t hear from enough voters who want open spaces protected, according to Arizona Forward, a newly organized group that commissioned the survey.

“Nothing is stronger than grass roots, with people calling their elected officials saying, ‘This is important to me, I want my parks to be open,’ ” said Diane Brossart, acting director of the group. “But I think we take these things for granted, and until there’s a crisis, people are not engaged with the issues.” [to read the full article click here].

Lottery ticket sales increase across country

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[Source: Keith Matheny, USA TODAY] – Despite a struggling economy — or perhaps because of it — lottery ticket sales have surged across the USA. Financial records for 41 state lotteries that end their fiscal year in June show 28 had higher sales than the year before. Seventeen of those states set all-time sales records.Kate Sweeny, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside, said an uptick in lottery sales largely occurs when people feel a lack of control over events larger than themselves, such as the economy.

Jeff Anderson, head of the executive committee of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, which represents 52 lotteries in the USA and Canada, said sales growth most often reflects changes in lottery games.”In general, the play is inexpensive entertainment,” said Anderson, who is also director of the Idaho State Lottery. “I have not seen any empirical evidence that indicates in a down economy, people play more.” Yet that’s just what a 2004 Cornell University study found. “We see that lottery sales go up as the economy gets bad — but we don’t see people spending more on relatively inexpensive other forms of entertainment,” said Garrick Blalock, associate professor of economics at Cornell and a co-author of the study[to read the full article click here].

Community shows support for proposed Fredonia High School Swim Team

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[Source: Southern Utah News, Kelly Hilding] – The Fredonia Town Council held a work meeting last week to discuss Fredonia High School’s request to use the town pool for a swim team. Community members from Kanab and Fredonia filled the council chambers to show their support of the proposal.

Fredonia Moccasin School District Superintendent Nicholas Bartlett presented the proposal to the council. He explained he had discussed with Killer Whales coach John Horlacher what would need to be done for the high school to have a swim team. It was determined it would not be feasible for a team to travel to Hurricane for practices. Ideally, the Fredonia pool should be utilized. In order for it to be used, however, a covering of some kind would need to be placed over the facility to keep it warm through November.

The school district offered to purchase and install some sort of dome over the Fredonia pool if the council agreed to keep the facility open for the team to practice. The type of dome is currently being researched. Mayor Scott Heaton expressed his support for the idea, but also his concern for where the funding to keep the pool open would come from [to read the full article click here].