Desert Messenger

September 20, 2023 www.DesertMessenger.com 3 Switch & Save Up to $250/Year On Your Talk, Text and Data Plan! © 2023 Consumer Cellular Inc. Terms and Conditions subject to change. New service activation on approved credit. Cellular service is not available in all areas and is subject to system limitations. All other products are trademarked by their respective manufacturers. Phones are limited to stock on hand. Savings calculation is based on a comparison of Consumer Cellular's average customer invoice to the average cost of single-line entry-level plans off ered by the major U.S. wireless carriers as of May 2022. CALL CONSUMER CELLULAR 877-401-1130 By Shanana Rain Golden-Bear UPDATE to the UPDATE! The Quartzsite Landfill Transfer Station will now offer a bin for residential yard trimmings. There will be a bin exclusively designated for residential yard trimmings. UDPATE! Town Manager Ferguson said, "The previous understanding going back many years is that this area was part of our land lease. This was not accurate. The Town was using this area without proper ap- proval. We have met with the Dis- trict Manager for BLM in the Yuma office and are looking for a solution. We are very concerned about this and are looking at all options." August 3, 2023- The Town of Quartzsite notified the public via Facebook that the Town "has received notice from the Bureau of Land Man- agement that the brush pile located behind the Wastewater Treatment Plant is closed effective immediately. All yard debris will need to be taken to the La Paz County Landfill." During the August 8th Council Meeting, Quartzsite Town Manager Jim Ferguson explained, "We sent out a message that we're going to have to close the burn pile. This was not something the town decided, it was something we needed to do. We were informed by BLM that they own the land. We have a lease. But we don't have a right to use it ways that are contrary to, in their opinion, to do what we were approved for. We received notice that we are in fact trespassing. They would consider it a friendly trespass if we closed it right away and return it to its normal stage. They literally want to have pic- tures of us cleaning it up, where we are taking it, and to put it back to a reasonable natural state. The Town's not giving up on the issue. We are just going to comply with the current de- mand that we vacate that area and no longer use it in that manner. There's a process that we can go through to use BLM properties for other public purposes. Does not necessarily mean that they will approve it, but it will not happen overnight. Meanwhile the Town will do everything that we can to deal with this. We don't want people out there just dumping this all over the place. The only sugges- tion we have right now is to take it to the landfill. We don't want them to dump it elsewhere around the town, so we're going to look at what we can and hopefully in the next week or so and have a solution that will be ac- ceptable for all parties at least for a while, until we find other properties. Ferguson concluded, "I know no one is happy with it, including us. We're not happy with it, but we are complying." Brush pile facility update DEADLINE : WED. OCT 1 1 TH for Oct 18 th edition Desert Messenger News Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com By Shanana Rain Golden-Bear The Herald Review's Terri Jo Neff reports "Bob Bartelsmeyer abrupt- ly resigned late Friday afternoon as director of the Cochise County Elections Department. He will be returning to La Paz County as Elec- tions Director, his former position. He will leave Sept. 29, one day short of four months on the job in Cochise County. According to Bartelsmeyer's Sept. 15th resignation letter: "I have decided to leave Cochise County, AZ to go back to my previous position in La Paz County, AZ as Elections Director," he noted in the letter. At my core, I believe free and fair elec- tions are the foundation of our free- doms in America and I remain com- Bob Bartelsmeyer returns as La Paz County Elections Director mitted to that mission in service to the people of Arizona." "The timing poses a number of logistical issues for the election. Ballots under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) must be mailed out for those two races no later than this Saturday, Sept. 23. Ballots will be sent to other eligible voters Oct. 11." Bartelsmeyer, before becom- ing Elections Director in La Paz County, posted multiple times on his Facebook page about the 2020 election, making false claims about Trump's loss, widespread fraud and Dominion voting machines, accord- ing to reporting by Jen Fifield of Votebeat.

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