Tombstone’s 130-year water odyssey
In the desert, water is life. So, it can be troubling for a town like Tombstone to rely mainly on a 130-year-old pipeline desperately in need of repairs.
“It is an engineering wonder because it’s lasted about 130 years plus,”
Tombstone Mayor Stephen Schmidt said. Tombstone moved closer to beginning repairs on the system early last month. On November 5, Tombstone residents voted in favor of issuing and selling bonds to provide the town with up to $1 million to be used to improve the city’s water system. It was approved with 213 of 408 voters approving.
According to the ballot, “These bonds will be issued as General Obligation Bonds and the issuance of these bonds will result in a property tax increase sufficient to pay the annual debt service on bonds, unless the governing body provides for payment from other sources.”
While Schmidt isn’t sure when the city will see the money from the bonds, the passing of the ballot measure will potentially be the start of needed repairs of damage to the water system that were exacerbated in 2011 by the Monument Fire in the Coronado National Forest.
Regardless, the $1 million from the bonds won’t nearly be enough to pay to fix everything, as the current water system is in worse shape than it was before an earlier fire in 1977, Schmidt said. Parts of the water system are slowly becoming unusable.
A Mexican wolf emerges from a crate for relocation in the Gila National Forest in 2010 Photo courtesy of the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team[/caption]Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? As it turns out: a lot of people in Tombstone are. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering an expansion of the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project in Cochise County, and some are raising concerns.