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Groundbreaking Makes Hilton Garden Inn a Reality

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As soon as the Shumway family from Snowflake tossed dirt in the air as a part of a groundbreaking ceremony, it seemed that heavy equipment started moving in to start building the multi-million-dollar Hilton Garden Inn Hotel.

More than 50 people from the City of Prescott, Prescott Chamber of Commerce, business community and general public gathered at the intersection of Montezuma and Sheldon for the event on June 11. They heard Steve Shumway and his family praise the “cooperative attitude and spirit of the greater Prescott community for its support and cooperation in bringing the modern hotel to Prescott.”

The 100-room, multi-story hotel will be connected to the historic Sam Hill Warehouse via a century-old railway trestle. The old warehouse, which belonged to Prescott College before being sold to the Shumways, is being converted into a conference center. Shumway quipped, “Now everyone in the country will know what is meant by the question ‘Where in the Sam Hill is it?’ The answer: ‘In Prescott, next to the Hilton Garden Inn.’”

Shumway introduced Dennis Porter, president of Porter Brothers Construction out of Gilbert. Porter told Quad Cities Business News that he and his team were making every effort to purchase supplies and materials locally to support the Prescott economy. “We’ve also already hired two local firms and sub-contractors,” he said.

Prescott Mayor Greg Mengarelli welcomed Shumway and his wife, Heidi, and his parents, Doug and Dixie Shumway, to the community. “We think you should move over here from Show Low. We’ve got a lot more to offer,” he said with a grin.

Mengarelli told the crowd that, for a time, he was unsure whether the hotel would be built because so many moving parts were involved, especially public and private partnerships. “But it happened, and all of this region will benefit economically and hospitality-wise.”

Prescott City Manager Michael Lamar repeated Mengarelli’s praise for the cooperative efforts within the community. He noted that Arizona Public Service and Prescott College were particularly supportive.

A recent study commissioned by the City of Prescott had a consulting firm, Applied Consultants, project potential economic benefits as a result of the construction and operation of the hotel and adjacent facilities. The report estimated the annual economic impact would be in the range of almost $18 million a year, with the 10-year impact approaching $180 million. QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

City of Prescott 4th of July Fireworks Event Details

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For the first time in recent memory, the City of Prescott will host their Independence Day Fireworks on Watson Lake on Thursday, July 4. The family-friendly event will begin at 1 p.m., with fireworks expected to take place around 9:00p.m. Here are important event details.

  • There will be a variety of family-friendly activities, including live music, water slides, inflatables, games and activities, plus a beer garden (21 and over). There will also be food vendors with a variety of options available. The 108th US Army Band will be performing during the Fireworks celebration.
  • $5 general admission fee (Children under 5 are free).
  • $20 unlimited inflatables pass (general admission included).
  • Gates will open at 12:30 p.m.
  • Parking:
    • Parking at Watson Lake is limited, and first come, first served, for a $10 fee. Ample handicap accessible spaces are available at the Watson Lake area, also for $10 fee.
    • Free parking is available at Pioneer Park, with free shuttles running to the event, between 2 p.m. until 11:45 p.m.
  • State Route 89 will be closed between the Willow Lake Road roundabout, and Prescott Lakes Parkway, starting at 2 p.m., until following the fireworks show. The road will re-open as soon as the area is safe for traffic.
  • Watson Lake is closed for the entire day, due to preparations for the event.
  • We ask that visitors kindly observe the following restrictions: No coolers, no canopies, no backpacks, no outside liquids, no outside food or drink, no BBQs, no animals, no firearms, no outside fireworks. Blankets encouraged. All bags are subject to search.
  • Please bring a flashlight to navigate after the fireworks show.

For more information about the Fireworks, and other events in Prescott, go to visit-prescott.com, or prescottevents.net, or call Recreation Services at 928-777-1122.

 

 

 

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Volunteering to Keep Hikers Safe in the Canyon

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Education, self-assessment and planning are guidelines voiced repeatedly by the Grand Canyon National Park Service to ensure that hikers “Hike Smart” and understand the meaning of the adage, “Down is optional; up is mandatory.” Helping to ensure safety are Prevention Search and Rescue (PSAR) volunteers stationed on the trails.

Implemented in 1997, PSAR was created as a result of increased heat-related illnesses on Grand Canyon trails.

“District Rangers from south, north and inner canyon were having to leave their posts for distress calls along the trails,” said Meghan Smith, acting PSAR supervisor. “The PSAR program was created so we can be stationed at precise areas. We’ve grown into a group of five to seven seasonal rangers with one year-round permanent supervisor. When the program started, we had 30 volunteers and now have 75, with a waiting list.”

PSAR volunteers must attend an annual two-day training and have a current CPR and Wilderness First Aid Card. “They carry basic medical supplies, water, electrolyte powder, salty snacks and a radio,” said Smith. “They are not medically qualified by NPS, but the seasonal staff do carry diagnostic kits to check blood pressure, sugar and oxygen level.”

Volunteer PSARs also shadow rangers as part of their training and are required to do seven hiking patrols per season.

PSARs talk to hikers on the trail, answer questions, offer advice and make recommendations as to how far to hike. Smith says the PSARs also offer information on weather and heat conditions and provide hiker assist.

“Hiker assist is when we take action and do something for someone. For example, a hiker might have separated from the group and is feeling a little anxious,” said Smith. “One of our volunteers will stay with that person and give emotional support.”

Ann Scott is in her fourth year as a PSAR volunteer. “When I visited the Grand Canyon in 1988, I fell in love with it. All I wanted to do was come back. It was like a magnet. I love talking to the visitors on the trail and offering advice on how to have a safe and enjoyable hike below the rim. It is like an extension of my first summer job as a lifeguard. The main difference is that lifeguards rescue people after they get in trouble, but PSAR rangers try to give them information and advice so they don’t need to be rescued.”

Retired NAU Physiology Professor Stan Lindstedt says his background was ideal for the PSAR program. “I had a very active research program working on muscle physiology. This was a good head start for the PSAR program. I always said my job as a professor was the best in the world. Now that I’m a PSAR volunteer, I feel I have the best second career.”

Lindstedt is often exhausted leaving the trail at day’s end but calls it “a wonderful kind of exhaustion.” He says the NPS staff in charge of the program is outstanding. “They are probably the best administrators I have had the privilege of working with. It is apparent that everyone involved in this program is visitor-centered. Our collective goal is maximizing the enjoyment of all visitors.”

The volunteer PSAR season runs from April through October. Volunteers patrol the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails and, when possible, patrol North Kaibab, Hermit and Grandview trails. “We cover them all when we can, but when we can’t, we focus on the more populated trails,” said Smith.

One of the main supporters of the PSAR program is the Grand Canyon Conservancy (GCC), which outfits rangers and volunteers with top-of-the-line gear. “We provide radios, backpacks, sleep kits and other equipment,” said Mindy Riesenberg, director of marketing and communications for GCC.

With summer almost here, Smith is adamant that hikers understand the dangers of heat illness, know the warning signs of dehydration and their limits when hiking. “Headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cramping and decreased urine output are signs of heat illness.” QCBN

Family Owned Title Company Celebrating 15 Years in Sedona

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Pioneer Sedona branch manager Janet Gazda is a Northern Arizona native, albeit from Prescott, who initially dreamed of becoming a nurse.

“Except, nursing involved blood. And the thought of blood makes me nauseous,” said Gazda who eventually set her sights on the (almost) bloodless real estate industry.

She got her start in construction, overseeing a group that worked on stores and malls. That job led her to a position with the Association of REALTORS.

“I had a feeling something was not right and later discovered that a member of the team was embezzling,” said Gazda, who took the discovery as a sign. “After that, I was determined to only ever work for someone I could look straight in the eye and believe.”

The “someone” turned out to be NAU alum Keith Newlon, founder of Pioneer Title Agency.

“I took a position a couple years after we opened in Sedona,” said Gazda, who jumped in not only when it came to title and escrow, but in helping local realtors with continuing education, something she still champions on behalf of the office today.

And while Gazda would leave Sedona in 2010 for Scottsdale (for love!) before coming back in 2018, she always stayed with Pioneer. In fact, the mother of three – with four grandchildren and counting – has recruited one of her daughters into the business.

“My youngest is actually living in Cottonwood and working for our sister company, Yavapai Title Agency,” said Gazda, who has delighted in showing her daughter the ropes in recent years.

The only thing that gets her motor running more than that: an actual motor. When not busy at Pioneer or mentoring, Gazda and her husband are avid motorcyclists.

Like Gazda, Deb Staats has been a member of Pioneer Sedona since nearly day one. But her road to the industry – and Sedona – was perhaps even more winding.

“Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, but thought I might settle for a pilot,” said Staats, a Michigan native, who went so far as to enter flight school.

Like Gazda, her potential career similarly made her nauseous.

“But not because of blood,” said Staats with a laugh. “For me, it was all those dizzying equations! I was far more artistically inclined, so I changed my field of study to art.”

She would graduate with a degree in the arts and move to Colorado, where she ran an art supply business for 14 years.

“In the 1980s, a boyfriend introduced me to Sedona. I fell in love…with Sedona, that is. Not the boyfriend,” said Staats, who moved to Sedona full time in 1986.

But, she was still nearly two decades from Pioneer.

“I actually opened my own gift shop – eScentuals, named and stylized that way for our popular scented potpourri wax some seasoned residents might remember – and ran it successfully for several years. I even met my husband thanks to the business,” said Staats, who sold it in 1993.

After the sale, Staats got into timeshare work.

“Of all things – I had a knack for handling timeshare closings,” said Staats.

By 2001, she moved over into title work full time, eventually joining Pioneer Sedona in 2004.

“It was right when we were getting the ‘Sedona Top 20’ off the ground,” said Staats, explaining that the Sedona Top 20 is an annual event wherein they work with local brokers to determine the top 20 realtors in the area each year and honor them – plaques and all – during a fabulous night of food and drink at a “wow” residential property in town.

But don’t let the fancy soirée fool you: Staats is tougher than many of us have had to be.

“In 2005, just as I took on the branch manager role for Pioneer, my husband was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor most will know as the type that took Senator John McCain’s life,” said Staats, noting the survival rate beyond a few years is nearly zero.

Staats would have to pull back from managing the branch, but somehow, the determined couple beat the odds together.

“And my husband is still with me,” said Staats, who championed Pioneer’s multi-year sponsorship and participation in Relay for Life in his honor. “Today, he’s a 14-year survivor, a medical miracle and inspiration to me daily.” QCBN

By Alison Bailin Batz, QCBN

Study Shows Promising Water Future for Prescott

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Some eyes were opened and some people were startled when they heard that, despite an increasing population and economic expansion, less water is being used in the City of Prescott now than 14 years ago.

In fact, water usage has decreased about 2 percent annually on average since 2014. That is what Prescott Mayor Greg Mengarelli told those attending a City Council work-study session Feb. 26. Mengarelli led the study session, saying, “I earlier did not have a great handle on our water portfolio, so we decided to get scientific data.”

The city contacted water expert Gary Woodard. Under terms of a $25,000 contract, Woodard began a long-term analytical study of past, current and future water conditions in early 2018. In his preliminary report in February, he presented initial findings. He will file a comprehensive final report later this spring.

During his report, Woodard revealed that in 2004, Prescott used 8,000 acre-feet of water. He contrasted that with 2018, when Prescott used just 6,700 acre-feet of water – 1,300 fewer acre-feet, even though 4,000 new water users had been added in those 13 years.

Woodard emphasized that his study involved data collected from water meter and utility data from the city, county and state.

Possible Reasons for Decreased Water Use

During his 45-minute presentation illustrated with PowerPoint graphs and charts, Woodard cited four factors that seemed to be driving the decline of water usage in Prescott. Among them:

Changing population demographics – smaller households, more seasonal residents and fewer children and teenagers;

Aggressive conservation efforts – rebate-related water efficient programs, enhanced conservation, including drought-tolerant water-sensitive landscaping, water reclamation and rainwater harvesting;

Passive conservation in existing homes – conversion of appliances to more water efficient devices, e.g., showerheads, dishwashers, washing machines, and toilets;

Construction of new water and energy efficient houses and businesses.

He noted some other factors unique to Prescott that affect water use. He said despite its population, only about 140 swimming pools were in the entire community. He also said only a few homes had evaporative coolers but instead used air conditioners.

Prescott’s water supply comes from a diverse portfolio. It includes groundwater, surface water and reclaimed water. That puts it in a better position than communities that rely upon a single water source. Additionally, in 1998, Prescott invested in two municipal reservoirs, which now serve as critical sources for the recharge program.

Several years ago, too, the City of Prescott began thinking of what is called “the Big Chino Water Pipeline,” a plan to import water from an aquifer northwest of Paulden. Mayor pro-tem Billie Orr said that Woodard’s presentation caused her to think of the Big Chino as a “…good insurance policy, but not something needed immediately.”

Woodard responded, “Your investment in the Big Chino aquifer was a smart one. I compare it to life insurance. You want it, in hopes that you don’t need it.”

Retired from his former position as a professor and administrator at the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center and the NSF-SAHRA Water Center, Woodard has degrees in chemistry, public policy studies-resource economics, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. He was involved internationally with UNESCO on water issues for arid lands. He was the co-author of the National Water Act for the Kingdom of Saudi Aribia. In more than 37 years of research about municipal water issues, he has directed and conducted studies around the United States, including water use models he developed for eight major municipal water departments and two water companies in Arizona.

“Gary’s credentials are unassailable,” said Mengarelli. “He has worked all over the world in the field and published dozens of papers. We were excited to hear what he had to say about Prescott’s water supply.”

Mengarelli told Quad Cities Business News, “I think now we can make better decisions with fact-based information rather than fear-based narratives.”

City Manager Michael Lamar echoed Mengarelli. “Information being given to the City Council will change the dialogue about water in Prescott. This information also will have major policy implications for the council going forward.”

Woodard will present the final results of the longitudinal study later this spring in a public meeting.

To view the Prescott City Council meeting, visit facebook.com/prescott-mediacenter/videos/359840414607118/?t=3857. QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

City-Planned Events Delivering Economic Impact

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The economic impact of local events planned by the City of Prescott continues to grow, bringing new people and more dollars to the community.

The direct impact from spending on sporting events alone last year was over $2.5 million. The indirect economic impact totaled almost $6 million. Compared to five years ago, that’s an increase of more than $1 million in direct spending and $3.5 million in economic impact.

What is more, an expanded event calendar for coming months promises to be “…bigger than ever,” said John Heiney, community outreach manager for the City of Prescott.

Heiney told a crowd of local business and hospitality leaders that increased cooperation and participation from throughout the community is creating an excellent atmosphere for economic growth. The group met at the Hassayampa Inn on March 5 for an update called “Tourism Team Up.”

The combination of city-coordinated special events and sporting events from April through December 2019 adds up to more than 90.

Prescott Parks and Recreation Director Joe Baynes told the group, “The events we’re talking about today do not include those planned down around the Courthouse Square by the county and by Prescott Downtown Partnership. Those bring in hundreds more visitors.”

Baynes asked meeting attendees to spread the word that the annual city-sponsored 4th of July Fireworks Show is being moved to Watson Lake for safety reasons. For the past several years, it had been at the Mile High Mid-School Athletic Field, but drought conditions and fire danger had caused it to be postponed.

Rick Hormann, city recreation supervisor, distributed a list of upcoming sporting events that began March 9 with vintage baseball games, and concludes Oct. 26 with The Prescott Sixer Bike Race. Sporting events range from baseball and softball leagues and tournaments to soccer, pickleball, marathons, bike races, rollerhockey and disc golf.

Hormann noted that tournaments and state championships “…fill our local hotels and restaurants with teams and their families for multi-day experiences.” He said because of the increasing number of events, it is likely the city will be adding more ballparks and four more pickleball courts.

Of pickleball, he said, “Our program here has become so popular that we are thinking of sponsoring a national tournament.”

Michelle Stacey-Schroeder, city recreation coordinator, shared information about more than 60 events in downtown Prescott. Beginning April 6 and running through Dec. 31, activities include arts and crafts fairs, antique shows, music festivals, car shows, wine festivals and several major parades.

“The amount of money that circulates because of all these events throughout the summer and fall is inestimable,” she said. “We know this. Other cities are contacting us, asking for advice about how we deliver so many events. They want to imitate what we do because we have been so successful.”

Linda Nichols, who for several years has been active with the Parks and Recreation Board, applauded city staff members and told the crowd, “I think it is fantastic what the city does with the limited resources they have. They are enriching the lives of all our residents and those who visit Prescott.” QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

For more information, call 928-777-1552 or visit
prescott-az.gov/recreation-events/recreation-services.

Education Center Expansion Underway at Sharlot Hall Museum

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Ever-increasing visitation and recognition as a key destination in Central Arizona prompted leadership at Sharlot Hall Museum to accelerate plans for expansion of the education center.

Groundbreaking for the 10,000-square-foot addition to the existing John and Helen Lawless Exhibit Center had more than 75 museum supporters gather Feb. 28 for a spirited ceremony celebrating the success of the popular attraction.

Master of Ceremonies D.J. Fone described the soon-to-be constructed $2.75 million two-story (and a one-story basement) as being a “…further source of historical, literary, civic and educational interest in preserving the heritage of the central highlands of Arizona.”

Fone introduced several local dignitaries who participated in the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony.

Museum Director Fred Veil expressed thanks to those who contributed to the fundraising efforts. He explained that the additional facilities will support the current focus of developing museum exhibits. He noted that more school and group tours, hands-on activities and exhibits would be possible with the new space. Currently, the museum has thousands of objects, but capabilities to show only about 10 percent of them at any one time, said Ken Leja, the museum’s media and marketing manager.

More than 50,000 people visit the museum each year.

Veil then invited city and county dignitaries to join him to ceremoniously break ground.

When completed in about eight months, the Education Center will have an auditorium with theater-style seating for about 135 people. It also can serve as a multipurpose room to accommodate community activities. The second floor will have classrooms and other space equipped with contemporary technology. Prescott-based Kenson Construction is heading the construction.

It has been 90 years since Sharlot Hall Museum opened its doors. Founded in 1928 by Sharlot M. Hall, a writer, pioneer ranch owner, activist and historian, the museum has grown from a small parcel with a log cabin on bare land to a four-acre campus housing 11 exhibit buildings that contain more than 40,000 artifacts.

Upcoming events at the museum include the monthly Second Saturday Living History Adventures, the Folk Arts Fair in the first week of June, the Indian Art Market the second weekend of July, and Sharlot’s Winefest in August.

The museum is located at 415 W. Gurley Street in downtown Prescott. For more information, call 928-445-3122 or visit sharlot.org. QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

Grounding in Sedona

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Mariel Hemingway walked barefoot through the forest, Mackenzie Philips comforted those recovering from addiction and Ed Asner reflected on a life of standing up for what he believes. The actors joined filmmakers, production crew members, film buffs, locals and visitors for the 25th annual Sedona International Film Festival.

Organizers rolled out the red carpet for the silver anniversary as more than 900 hotel rooms, 2,000 meals and seven after parties were made available and local businesses welcomed the influx of movie patrons. More than 177 films were highlighted, from Oscar-nominated documentaries to narrative features, narrative short films, documentary short films and animated shorts from Feb. 23 to March 3.

Hemingway joined directors, producers and writers to promote their documentary “Down to Earth: The Remarkable Science of Grounding.” Grounding or “earthing” means connecting one’s body to the earth to restore electromagnetic balance. Scientists, doctors and researchers in the film say this act restores and maintains optimal health.

Grounding pioneer and author Clint Ober, a retired cable TV executive who grounded electrical charges for a living, has researched the healing power of the earth’s negative-charged ions for more than a decade. “The human body is primarily electrical,” he says in a YouTube video on earthing. “Our brain, our muscles, our heartbeat, our thought. Everything in our body is electrical first, chemical second. And so, when we’re standing on the earth, we feel better because our body is electrically stable.”

On Saturday, March 1, in Sedona, he stated in a news conference, “When you stand barefoot on the earth, your whole body becomes slightly negatively charged. You can’t have inflammation in a negatively-charged object.”

Ober says he started wondering about the power of the earth’s electrical charges 22 years ago when lived in Sedona and was working with art galleries on lighting. He had chronic pain from his life as a cowboy, skier and tennis player, so he decided to experiment on himself. Using a strip of electrical tape in his bed and a wire – one end attached to his big toe, the other buried in the soil – he made a powerful discovery. He slept for the first time in years without the use of Advil.

Since that time, Ober has financed a dozen studies on grounding, research that has been peer viewed and documented in science and medical journals. He says, when connected to human skin, the earth’s negative charge reduces inflammation, thins the blood, regulates sleep, balances hormones and decreases the recovery time for injuries. He notes that the prevalence of rubber-soled shoes and wall-to-wall carpet in homes contribute to a human disconnection from the ground’s electrical charge.

Ober’s science states that when humans are in direct contact with the earth, we absorb negative electrons that help neutralize free radicals in the body that damage cells. Earthing proponents, including doctors and scientists, say grounding increases circulation, which carries away more waste and results in more energy.

Hemingway says she and stuntman Bobby Williams removed their shoes and followed a deer trail into the red rocks of Sedona that morning. “I truly believe nature is our best teacher,” she said, noting that her childhood home life was tumultuous and riddled with mental illness, including seven suicides, addiction, depression, cancer and other diseases in her famous family. “Getting outside was my saving grace. It was how I stayed sane.”

For Hemingway, grounding was instinctive. Growing up in Sun Valley, Idaho, she recalls a constant connection with the earth. She ran barefoot through meadows, rode horses bareback, sat in silence on the ground. She described a time in her acting career when she was very busy with a television series and spent hours inside a Los Angeles studio. “I had swollen ankles for weeks. I was never outside.” When she returned to her outdoors lifestyle, the condition went away.

Stuntman Bobby Williams says he and Mariel walk every day. “We walk barefoot. We do about 90 minutes in the mountains every day.”

Williams described a fall from a 30-feet climbing wall onto concrete, which happened five months ago. “I made a mistake. I thought I was tied in. I was not tied in. This foot really got pounded,” he said pointing.

In the accident, Williams tore ligaments and suffered a hairline fracture on the calcaneus bone. Doctors recommended rest and estimated an 18-month recovery period. However, Williams is walking and has been. “I attribute quite a bit of it to barefoot walking.”

Director/producers Josh and Rebecca Tickell shared their personal story, which led to their interest in making the documentary. Rebecca became sick while working on a film about the BP oil spill. She said exposure to the oil made her physically ill. “I had strange symptoms. I had rashes, I had blood in my urine and some other things, but the most disturbing things was the doctors told me I shouldn’t or possibly couldn’t have children.”

Soon after, she had a miscarriage, was pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter with a birth defect. “She was getting unusually sick, a lot. For a couple of years, I would say every other month or so, she would get so sick she would end up in the hospital.”

During that time, the couple started looking at alternative options. A friend introduced them to Ober. She said it sounded too good to be true, that by putting their feet on the ground and connecting to the earth, they could heal their bodies and it would reverse inflammation. “Skeptically, we tried it and we started ‘grounding’ our daughter. She started sleeping through the night. It’s been over a year since we started this practice and we have taken her to the hospital exactly zero times. And that, for us, was totally miraculous.”

Rebecca says her daughter, now four-and-a-half, says, “Mama Earth healed me.” Rebecca believes grounding healed her too. She had suffered from depression and weight gain since she was a teenager. In the last year, she says she stopped getting sick and lost 100 pounds.

Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Clint Ober, Bobby Williams and Mariel Hemingway appeared at the news conference barefoot, to emphasize their message. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

For more information about the film, “Down to Earth: The Remarkable Science of Grounding,” visit EarthingMovie.com.

Solar After Sunset

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Arizona Public Service customers will soon be powering their evening dinners, prime-time television programs and bedtime reading lights with a cleaner energy mix. That news comes from Jeff Burke, the director of resource planning at APS, as the utility announces its initiative to add massive battery storage to its existing solar power plants, stand-alone energy storage and build new solar facilities with storage.
    “This is big and coming on quickly,” said Burke. This will be one of the largest solar battery storage installations to date in the industry – bigger than all the batteries installed across the U.S. combined last year.”

The effort is designed to provide solar power after the sun sets. “That is really important in going forward with our clean energy mix,” he said. “During Arizona’s hot summertime, we’ll be able to charge batteries early in the morning. As the sun goes down, use of electricity goes up and is at its most expensive. We’ll soon be able to use that excess solar energy on the grid so we can provide clean resources to our customers at an affordable cost.”

Traditionally, the additional energy needed to meet customers’ peak demand in the summer has been generated from natural gas. With this new direction, Burke says APS will use 150 megawatts of solar-fueled battery storage to meet part of the demand when energy usage peaks. 

APS currently provides customers with an energy mix that is 50 percent clean and getting cleaner, say officials. The latest initiative will add 850 megawatts of battery storage and at least 100 megawatts of new solar generation by 2025, for a total of 950 megawatts of new clean-energy technology. 

The addition of 850 megawatts of new clean resources to APS’s portfolio is estimated to provide enough power to meet the peak requirement of up to 275,000 residential customers on an average summer day.

“Another way to put it into perspective is that these new clean energy projects are the equivalent of adding the power of more than three million solar panels or more than 9,000 electric cars to Arizona’s energy mix,” explained Burke.

He adds that the battery storage plan is now possible because technology is maturing and costs associated with solar battery storage are declining. “We’re finding opportunities to pair the two together and make sure we can still maintain reliable, affordable service.”

“This represents a major down payment on Arizona’s continued progress toward an energy future that is clean, reliable and affordable,” said APS Chairman and CEO Don Brandt. “Arizona is already a national leader in solar energy. The challenge is, no one has figured out how to stop the sun from setting at night. As storage technology improves and declines in cost, we will increasingly be able to store the power of the sun cost-effectively to deliver when our customers need it.”  

The first stage of the plan includes retrofitting all existing APS solar facilities and upgrading them with 200 megawatts of battery storage systems. A team led by Invenergy is scheduled to install six of the new battery systems at solar plants in Maricopa County and Yuma to be in place by 2020. Two more upgrades are expected to be completed by 2021. 
Meanwhile, APS plans to build an additional 500 megawatts of solar storage and stand-alone battery storage by 2025. The first project is a 100-megawatt solar-storage plant. APS is already partnering with Tempe-based First Solar to build a first-of-its-kind solar-plus-storage project that will be one of the largest in the country when completed in 2021.

Officials say the utility company plans to use less natural gas as cleaner technologies become available. 

“Large-scale battery storage is a critical step on the path to reliable and affordable clean-energy solutions,” said The Nature Conservancy State Director Pat Graham in a news release. “Clean energy and clean air are important to the health of our communities and the lands and water upon which all life depends.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

2nd annual Yavapalooza promises bigger, better festival experience

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For the second straight year, Yavapai College Student Ambassadors are making it easy for the community to experience college outside of the classroom and away from the computer screen. The experience is called Yavapalooza and everyone is invited.

This year, Yavapalooza is taking place from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 19, on the YC Prescott campus. Student organizers are promising a bigger and better extravaganza of outdoor games, food trucks, bounce houses and live music featuring the local band, Jake and Friends.

“We want people to have fun at the college with their friends, neighbors and family,” said Alex Daniels, a YC ambassador and computer science student. As was the case in the first year of the festival, a Yavapalooza passport will reward attendees who participate in much of what the event has to offer. That reward is a free T-shirt along with the tools to tye-dye it onsite.

Daniels said this year’s event boasts more than 40 outdoor games and activities made possible by college clubs and department faculty and staff. Attending the event “doesn’t have to break the bank in any way,” he said, explaining that YC students and everyone under 18 is admitted free. Adults pay only a $2 admission, which helps offset the cost of the event.

Yavapalooza attendees are invited to invest some cash in one of the multiple food trucks that will be on hand, as well as in event T-shirts selling for $15 and silent auction items. Proceeds of the silent auction benefit the college’s food pantry and emergency fund. Both the student-run food pantry and emergency fund were launched to prevent students from giving up their college dreams because of financial struggles.

“Come together and have a fun evening and help a good cause,” Daniels said.

For additional information about Yavapalooza, visit: www.yc.edu/yavapalooza.

 

Event Snapshot

§  Event:  Yavapalooza

§  When:  Friday, April 19, 2019. Festival hours:  4 to 8 pm.

§  Where:  Yavapai College, 1100 E Sheldon St. Prescott, Parking Lot C.

§  Admission:  Free to YC students and those under 18.  Adults: $2, benefiting YC Food Pantry and Student Emergency Fund.