Green Valley Park bald eagle swoops in for the kill
Photographer DJ Craig captured this remarkable sequence of photos as the bald eagle that hangs out at the Green Valley Park lakes swooped down to snatch a trout from the water. To see how this magnificent feat of aerial fishing started, open up the paper so you can see the three-photo panel on the back of the A-section in the instant before this sequence. Then let editor Pete Aleshire know whether you like this sort of thing on the front page or not. You can contact him at editor@payson.com. By the way, did you know that bald eagles mate for life and come back to the same nesting territory every year? This is a migratory eagle, who hangs out in Green Valley Park for much of the year, but likely flits on up to Canada or somewhere similar for the mating season.
ARIZONA NEWSPAPERS AND NATIONAL LOCAL MEDIA ASSOCIATIONS’ NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
payson.com
PAYSON ROUNDUP TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 2, 2016 | PAYSON, ARIZONA
75 CENTS
Father finds son dead of heroin overdose by
Alexis Bechman
roundup staff reporter
The heroin epidemic in northern Gila County claimed a life for the second time in January. On Thursday, a father called the Gila County Sheriff’s Office after he found his 34-year-old son unresponsive. The father suspected his son had overdosed on heroin. Tonto Basin Fire paramedics rushed
to the home on the east side of Tonto Creek, but the man had already stopped breathing. Paramedics tried to save him, but to no avail, said Lt. Tim Scott with the GCSO. The man was pronounced dead at 2:40 a.m. The medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The GCSO is waiting on the results of
Smoke alarm lack nearly proves fatal by
that autopsy before releasing the man’s identity. Earlier in the month, Richard Maly, 32, of Tucson overdosed in a Payson hotel room. Maly was working in the area with Rickie Stansberry, 45, and the men reportedly used heroin in a Days Inn hotel room. Maly was already dead when paramedics arrived and Stansberry, unconscious and incoherent.
Stansberry later recovered and could face charges of possession and use of drugs, said Police Chief Don Engler. “It continues to be a challenge every day,” Engler said of heroin use in the area. Nationally, the number of deaths from heroin has increased steadily since 1970 with overdoses tripling from 2010 to 2013. Experts say a surge in addiction to
It’s baaaack...
by
THE WEATHER
volume 28, no. 8
See our ad and upcoming events on page 6B
Michele Nelson
roundup staff reporter
Ever heard of thundersnow? The National Weather Service reported thundersnow in Flagstaff on Sunday. A strong cold front and extremely tall clouds created the rare weather condition. In Payson, claps of thunder were followed by hail and vicious winds. After the snowfall, the winds whirled up snow into whiteout conditions. Payson schools started two hours late due to the weather, but police reported few problems on the road — with drivers getting used to this winter’s El Niño conditions. The fast-moving winter storm raged through the area, dumping snow on the higher elevations but only dusting
Alexis Bechman
Outlook: Sunny with temps climbing heading into the weekend; highs near 50 lows in the 20s. Details, 9A
• See Another death, page 2A
Storm delivers rare dose of ‘thundersnow’
roundup staff reporter
Despite having a box of free smoke detectors available, the Payson Fire Department continues to respond to fires in homes with no working detectors. A fatal fire killed a Payson man in a home without a smoke detector on Jan. 1. It nearly happened again on Sunday, when a man in a home without a smoke detector barely escaped with his life. Just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 31, a man smelled smoke in his trailer, in a park at 1107 S. McLane Road, and found his living room full of smoke, said a Payson Fire battalion chief. The man closed his bedroom door, broke a window in his bedroom and climbed out to safety. Wrapped in a blanket and bleeding from cuts from climbing through the window, the man walked half a mile to the Gila County Sheriff’s Office on Main Street to report the fire, the battalion chief said. Firefighters and police found a significant fire in the trailer, but crews quickly had it out. The trailer lacked a working smoke detector. “This could have played out a lot worse,” the battalion chief said. “Fortunately, the guy got out. It boggles my mind in this day and age and there are no working smoke detectors in these homes.” Due to heavy heat and smoke damage, the trailer is a total loss. The PPD is investigating the cause of the fire. Payson Fire has smoke detectors available at the Main Street station. Call 928-472-5120 to request one and firefighters will install it free of charge.
prescription painkillers has spawned a heroin epidemic in rural communities like Payson. The drug is commonly mixed with water or saline solution and injected. Heroin, once injected, turns into morphine and delivers an immediate rush of relaxation. Because the drug can make the user
• See Snowstorm, page 10A
Greg McKelvey, president of the Rim Country Camera Club, sent this winter scene in from Pine.
Arizona’s school funding still dead last
State spending on education 31 percent below national average by
Peter Aleshire
roundup editor
Arizona ranks dead last in state support for K-12 schools, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. The dismal report on school funding in Arizona comes in the midst of the Legislature’s debate on a budget that would restore about 70 percent of the illegally withheld inflation adjustment for K-12 schools, most of that restoration coming from an increase in distributions from the State Land Trust — already reserved mostly for K-12 schools. The report uses 2013 budget numbers nationally, to rank school funding by state. Lawmakers have cut school funding each year since 2013, by and large withholding part of all of an inflation adjustment mandated by voters in 2001. Arizona spends about $7,208 per student, about two-thirds of the national average of more than $10,000. The figures would look even worse except Arizona gets more than most states from property taxes and more than most states from the federal government. Only the state’s contributions lag
far behind the national average, according to the Census Bureau study. Arizona ranks 48th when it comes to total funding per student, including state and local sources. Arizona ranks 50th when it comes to state spending — which totals some $3,116 per student. Arizona hovers just above average when it comes to local contributions to school budgets, mostly from local property taxes. However, Arizona cleans up when it comes to bringing in federal money for education — ranking No. 18 nationally. Gov. Doug Ducey has proposed a roughly $350 million annual increase for the next decade. About 60 percent of the inflation adjustment would come from increasing the annual distributions from the State Land Trust from 2.5 percent to almost 7 percent, providing the voters approve Proposition 123 in May. As it happens, the $5 billion state land trust paid K-12 schools a record $105 million this year, a 12 percent increase from last year. The land trust comes from the sale and management of stateowned lands. The Constitution requires the state
to dish out 2.5 percent of the revenue from the fund to schools each year. Proposition 123 would boost that distribution to 6.9 percent for the next 10 years. A coalition of Arizona school districts that successfully sued to state to force lawmakers to restore inflation funding accepted a negotiated settlement that gives them a portion of the withheld money. Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit opposed the proposed settlement, saying it will cost schools money in the long run by reducing the long-term value of the state land fund. Projections suggest that if voters approve Proposition 123 the value of the land trust will grow from the current $5 billion to about $6 billion in 10 years. Without the increased distributions from the land trust, the value would grow to about $9 billion., according to projections. However, the coalition of schools that sued the state to force lawmakers to make the inflation adjustment accepted the proposed settlement and support Proposition 123 as the best way to get money to the schools quickly, after years of cutbacks.
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