Desert Messenger

April 04, 2018

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WHAT'S INSIDE 3 Paul Winer Documentary 4 Herb Mama 6 Editorial 7 Letters to the Editor 8 Music in the Desert 9 Restaurants 10 Salome High Updates 11 The Salvation Army Happenings 13 Donations 14 March for Our Lives Photos 15 Nancy's Kitchen 16 Travelogue 17 Police Arrest Report 18 Churches 20 Puzzles 22 Classifeds 22 Paul Winer's Cartoon www.DesertMessenger.com • "Quartzsite's FREE Community Paper" • 928-916-4235 WEDNESDAY, April 4, 2018 VOL. 14 # 276 Now in our 14 t h YEAR! Alwa y s FREE! Paul Winer's Cartoon ����� | S������ �� D����� M�������� SEE LDS PAGE 2 Learn about Prop 401 LDS practice emergency communications Voters are invited to attend a free informative meeting to learn more about Proposition 401 Tuesday, April 17th at 6pm at Quartzsite Community Center. La Paz County Supervisor Duce Minor will ex- plain more about the proposition seeking to increase the county's spending limits. La Paz County will hold a special election will be held Tuesday, May 15, 2018 to seek approval of Proposition 401, submitted by La Paz County Supervisors. The Proposition proposes expenditures of $3,000,000 in excess of the county's constitutional expenditure limi- tations for the fi scal year ending June 30, 2019. If approved, the excess expenditures will be expended by the county for any budgetary purposes of general government, including public safety services, health services, road services and landfi ll purposes and the source of revenues used to fi nance such excess expenditures will be ad valorem property and County and State-shared excise tax revenues and County enterprise revenues. County Administrator Ron Drake explained during a February meeting of the supervisors that the county has been working with the Auditor General and has made huge cuts in its payroll budget. Drake said that when the county was formed in 1983, the commis- sion had given the county a specifi c budget to operate within. The county has never asked for an in- crease since then. All costs have gone up, employee salaries have gone up, but the expenditure limit has not gone up in 35 years. The May vote will address only the county budget through 2019. In November, the county will come back to the voters to approve a permanent base limit increase, which was approved the Auditor General's offi ce to improve the county's fi nancial situation. Drake said, "This is not a tax increase. No matter what comes into the county, because we are over our expenditure limitation, we can't use those funds. We're just asking for a larger budget to operate within." On Saturday, March 17th, the Quartzsite Branch of The Church of Je- sus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (LDS) conducted an emergency com- munications test. The local unit, called a Branch, is divided into about 20 blocks in order to account for 216 members of record. Volunteer Block Leaders and Amateur Radio operators, both LDS and non-LDS, have several families to check on and report in an emergency. This year's test was an extension of the one conducted last year when cell phones were working and we used phone calls and texting to check on how much drinking water was available and we scored 87% contacted and 45 gallons of water per family. This year the scenario was that no electricity and cell phones, includ- ing texting, were not working. Land line phones however were work- ing. Members were also requested to report the availability of a 72 hour kit. Radio operators from the Emergency Response Communi- cations team, assigned to each block leader, then reported by radio to the LDS Emergency Operations Center (EOC), located in the church at 455 South Riggles Avenue. ����� | S������ �� D����� M��������

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