School bus totaled in crash Track team, staff escape injury by
Michele Nelson and Keith Morris
roundup staff writers
Sitting forlornly in the transportation parking lot, a mangled activities bus awaits a fate far from Payson Unified School District. A car smashed into the front of the bus carrying the Longhorn track team on Wednesday, March 25 in Bylas, 41 miles outside of Globe. The crash totaled the bus and sent one student to the hospital to receive stitches on their knee.
payson.com
No one else reported injuries. On Tuesday, the board will vote to allocate money to purchase a new bus. “Denver obliterated that thing pretty good — it was demolished,” said Jonathan Ball, track coach. Assistant track coach Denver White and a dozen athletes were riding in the bus when a driver attempting to execute a U-turn from the right hand lane, hit the bus’ front passenger side. The crash took out its headlights and crushed the hood
into the engine. Carl’s Towing brought the bus from the accident site to Payson, said Brent Bailey, director of transportation and maintenance for the district. “(But) it didn’t get here until morning,” said Bailey. Ball reported that the accident happened as the team was returning from the Safford Tri-County Invitational late on Wednesday. “Denver said a vehicle in front of him … pulled over, (where the) road opens up and the speed limit drops going into a
• See Payson bus crashes, page 10A
Michele Nelson/Roundup
PAYSON ROUNDUP
A crash totaled a Payson bus, but everyone escaped serious injury.
TUESDAY | MARCH 31, 2015 | PAYSON, ARIZONA
75 CENTS
Wild chase
Man tries to ram deputy Alexis Bechman
paraphernalia, assault on a law enforcement officer, unlawful flight, A man is facing disorderly conduct, trescharges after reportedly passing and DUI to the trying to ram a sherslightest degree. iff’s deputy’s vehicle as A judge released he fled from a home in Wagenhals on his own Ox Bow Estates early recognizance. Sunday morning. Around 1 a.m. Sun Brian Wagenhals Deputies encounday, an Ox Bow Estates tered the man when they respond- homeowner on Nottingham Lane ed to a call reporting a trespasser called the Gila County Sheriff’s in the subdivision south of Payson Office after spotting a prowler in off the Beeline Highway. the yard, said Lt. Tim Scott with After a search through the the GCSO. forest south of town, officers When deputies arrived, Wagenarrested Brian Jay Wagenhals See Wild chase, page 2A on charges of possession of drug by
roundup staff reporter
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Alexis Bechman/Roundup
Walmart employees wait while a bomb-sniffing police dog searches for a bomb in the building on Monday morning after the manager received a bomb threat.
Call prompts evacuation of Walmart by
Alexis Bechman
roundup staff reporter
Customers and employees were evacuated from Payson’s Walmart Monday morning after someone called in a bomb threat. An unidentified man called the store manager shortly after 9 a.m. reporting an explosive device was planted in the store, according to Police Chief Don Engler.
Management quickly got everyone out of the store and police blocked the entrances to the parking lot before allowing customers to leave. Employees milled around the east end of the parking lot furthest from the store awaiting instruction, most standing quiet while others listened to music or called their families. Gila County Sheriff’s Office
Sgt. Dennis Newman brought in a bomb-sniffing dog that checked throughout the store, outside the building and in the parking lot. Police found no bomb and reported no injuries. Police cleared the 24-hour store to re-open at 11 a.m. The caller reportedly spoke with the manager briefly, making the threat and hanging up, Engler said.
While police are following up on information, they do not have a suspect. On Sunday, a man walked into a Buckeye Walmart and said he had a bomb in his backpack. Police found no bomb in the man’s backpack, but arrested Zaya Badal, 26, of California on felony charges. There is no indication that the incidents are related.
Pete Aleshire
The company charged with the largest forest restoration project in history has encountered fresh difficulties, including a slow start in undertaking its vast thinning project and difficulties getting even its first, small-scale mill up and running. Good Earth Power AZ several months ago announced with some fanfare a plan to open a mill in Williams to process thousands of tons of biomass and a related plan to produce compost at the same site. The Oman-based company has a contract to thin a vast swatch of central Arizona under the terms of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI). But Williams canceled the company’s grading permit for the mill site after the company started a smoldering, underground fire it had trouble putting out in a pile of wood chips left by a previous WEATHER
volume 26, no. 26
Outlook: Sunny & warm, highs around 70, lows around 40. Details, 9A
by
Pete Aleshire
roundup editor
mill operator. The company has also not made any concrete moves forward in a plan to combine woody debris with food waste to produce compost for use in flower beds and home landscaping. Buffeted by media accounts of the canceled building permit, the lack of necessary zoning and the stubborn underground fire, the company issued a statement trying to explain the setbacks and underscoring the difficulty of creating almost from scratch the network of mills and power plants necessary to absorb millions of tons of lumber and biomass from the eventual clearing of some 2.4 million acres. Thinning 30 acres a day
‘Hatred of guns’
The company said it is now thinning about 30 acres a day, which works out to about 625 acres a month. That’s a significant increase in the pace of operations since January, but still far behind the schedule established for the project nearly four years ago. Ultimately, the company’s 10-year contract with the Forest Service requires it to clear 40,000 acres annually. In the nearly two years the company has had the
Barton said the bill will allow law-abiding concealed permit owners to defend themselves if shooting breaks out in a public building and that opponents were motivated by a “hatred of guns.” Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Thorpe got his gun bill, HB 2431, past a key House Committee. That bill would prevent voters or future Legislatures from adopting any rules on the transfer of firearms that are more restrictive than federal laws. The bill appears aimed
Startup woes persist for largest thinning project in U.S. history roundup editor
Lawmakers want to end many firearm restrictions Rim Country’s representatives in the Legislature continue to take the lead in ensuring Arizona has among the most gun-friendly laws in the nation. And sometimes, they get tangled up in headline-producing arguments, as when Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-Snowflake) ended up making what she later termed a “flippant comment” suggesting it would be better to require everyone to go to church on Sundays than to regulate guns. In the meantime, a key Senate Committee has approved Rep. Brenda Barton’s (R-Payson) bill (HB 2320) that would allow anyone with a concealed weapons permit to take their gun into public buildings unless the town or county or state agency goes to the expense of putting up metal detectors with guards and a gun locker. Then-Gov. Jan Brewer repeatedly vetoed a version of the same bill, but Gov. Doug Ducey has not said what he will do if it passes the Senate.
Forest restoration contractor struggling by
Gun battles
This Forest Service map shows the vast area affected by the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, with Payson at the center. contract, it has cleared about “This is a massive expres3,700 acres — including about sion of good faith that GEPAZ 90 acres near Christopher Creek. gets little credit or recognition That puts the company about for. Even more remarkably, there 70,000 acres behind the original are those who appear to be very actively working to sabotage the schedule. The company’s statement said 4FRI project to promote their own it has already invested millions in economic interests by working to the project. See 4FRI, page 10A
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“Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth.” Sen. Sylvia Allen
(R-Snowflake)
at Tucson, which has an ordinance requiring people who sell guns at gun shows held on city property, like the convention center, to run a background check on the purchaser. Federal law does not require sellers at gun shows to check the federal data base for things like criminal records nor to report sales to that data base. Requires guard, detectors
Rep. Barton’s HB 2320 allowing people with concealed carry permits to ignore efforts by government agencies to keep guns out of public buildings has provoked some of the most lively exchanges. It has passed the House and last week passed a Senate committee on a split vote, where Sen. Allen championed it. Advocates for the bill said cities can always use guards and metal detectors at each entrance to a
• See Lawmakers, page 2A The Fast & Furious of The Rim County