Longshot Longhorns savor sweet revenge: 1B
Easter egg health bonanza: 7A
PAYSON ROUNDUP 75 CENTS
TUESDAY | APRIL 7, 2015 | PAYSON, ARIZONA
payson.com
Mad scramble of a joyful Easter tradition
An addict’s tale Alexis Bechman
ceivable decisions — like burning down a duplex and stealing sacrificial wine from a church all to get high. Like most photo albums, Tony Much of it, he now can’t remember. Harczynski’s is filled with awkward family Harczynski is not alone. Addiction robs portraits from childhood — hair slicked years from an addict’s life. back, brother’s goofy Harczynski not only grin, the rueful smiles lost touch with his of Mom and Dad. Next daughter, he fell in and come the pictures of out of relationships, jobs, Harczynski’s daughfriendships, towns and ter, which he points to prison cells. proudly. He not only destroyed But then something his life with drugs, he strange happens in the exhausted the patience photo album of Tony HITS of his family, the commuHarczynski’s life. Right nity and the system. in the middle come Tragically, his story pages and pages of is not unique. In the empty space. first in a series upcoming months, the That haunting blank Roundup will examine space represents the addiction in Rim Country, years Harczynski, now 38, lost to addiction. focusing specifically on heroin, the newest He took his first drink at age 12, which and perhaps most dangerous scourge. started a crash course of destruction. He Between 2010 and 2013, the number of dropped out of school. The years blurred heroin-related deaths almost tripled in the into decades filled with noxious friends, See Abuse, page 2A crime and time in jail. He made now inconby
roundup staff reporter
HEROIN HOME
Photos courtesy of DJ Craig
The Kiwanis Club of Zane Grey Country put out about 6,000 plastic Easter eggs containing candy for kids at Rumsey Park for its 16th Annual Easter Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt on Saturday. “It’s very popular,” said Kiwanis Club of Zane Grey Country president Elise Pitterle. “They started arriving at 8:30 a.m. and it didn’t start until 9:30.” It takes about seven or eight minutes to spread them out and only a minute or two for kids to pick them up. “The older the kids get the quicker they get vacuumed up,” said Ken Perkins, a former president of the Kiwanis Club who guarded the gate that held back the enthusiastic kids. “It’s like a stampede,” he said. The event is for kids ages 12 and younger, as well as for kids of any age with special needs. Parents who had their child’s photo taken with the Easter Bunny can pick up those pictures at the Payson Roundup office after Wednesday.
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Missing woman found Cops, dogs, A B searchers seven hours, but a volunteer team locatvolunteers, ed Ita took 70-year-old woman with dementia who wandered away from home Saturday night. To their enormous relief, they helicopters found her very cold but otherwise unhurt at the high school. No one knows how the Payson woman got through two of gates at the agricultural building at the high school produce a sets or why she went there, but she has a history of walking away home, located in a subdivision behind the Powell Place. happy end fromAround 4:30 p.m., the woman and her husband were getting ready to leave home when the husband got held up. The to a scary woman walked away, wearing thin pants and a light button up shirt. situation • See Rescuers find, page 10A by
lexis
echman
roundup staff reporter
Prosecutors won’t file charges in child’s gun death Neighbor left out loaded guns, didn’t know children would visit by
Alexis Bechman
roundup staff reporter
Almost a year ago, a 3-year-old boy shot and killed his 20-month-old brother with a loaded handgun he picked up at a neighbor’s house. It happened while the children’s mother worked with the neighbor, Allen Duncan Haley, to box up some food she needed to feed her family. The children wandered through Haley’s Pinecrest Apartment, 303 S. Ash St., and found one of many loaded firearms. The toddler fired one shot, killing his infant brother instantly. On Monday, the Gila County Attorney’s
Office announced it would not charge Haley, 78, saying no one is to blame for the tragic accident. “The victim’s 3-year-old brother is not responsible in any way for the tragic death of his brother. The victim’s mother, who did not know that unsecured, loaded firearms were in Mr. Haley’s house, is also not responsible for the tragic death of her child,” wrote Shawn Fuller, GCAO chief deputy county attorney. Moreover, Haley has no criminal liability because he did not know the woman and her children were coming and does not care for children, Fuller concluded. However, someone who kept loaded, unsecured firearms within easy reach of children he knows
might find them could face prosecution, Fuller said. “In such cases, it would be necessary to show that the owner of the firearms had care, custody or control of children or frequently had children visit his or her residence. Such is not the case here.” Haley admits he has memory issues and he may suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s, according to the victim’s mother and grandmother. When the woman and her children showed up at noon on May 27, they surprised Haley, Fuller wrote. The woman asked for a box of food and
• See No charges, page 10A
Last May when a 3-year-old toddler accidentally killed his brother with a gun found in a neighbor’s apartment, Payson Police Chief Don Engler held a press conference.
Pine begs for county’s help to reduce critical fire danger by
Max Foster
special to the roundup
Gila County Supervisor Tommie Martin’s impromptu appearance at Saturday’s Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction Committee meeting caught everyone, including PSFR chairman Melvin Palmer, by surprise. The meeting centered on the latest plan to pick up tons of brush cleared from fire-prone neighborhoods, providing Gila County would again agree to waive hefty disposal fees for the tons of brush at the county landfill. THE WEATHER
volume 26, no. 28
Outlook: Sunny with highs inching toward 70 by Friday; low 33 Wednesday night, but then nearing 40 by the weekend. 9A
So Martin got everyone’s attention when she told the Pine Strawberry homeowners that she’s already on their side when it comes to waiving fees at the Buckhead Mesa Landfill, so they should concentrate their calls, letters and emails on the other two supervisors. She said she’s not sure how supervisors Michael Pastor (928) 402-8573 and John Marcanti (928) 402-8736 will vote on the issue. After listening to Martin’s plea, Palmer told audience members, “Tommie is already on our side, we need to get the other two (supervisors) to agree.” Martin said the supervisors have not been ignoring the committee’s fee waiver request, as some had suggested, but “it can take two to three months to get on the agenda.” The board agenda for the regular meeting today, April 7, includes the committee’s request for the fee waiver with a staff
recommendation that “normal and applicable fees at the Buckhead Mesa Landfill as it relates to the Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction program be waived until March 31, 2016.” If the supervisors go along with that recommendation, the PSFR committee would save about $30,000 in dump fees when the pickup program resumes in May. Before Martin left the meeting, she warned, “I don’t know if we can do it (waive fees) again next year.” The tight county budget forces the landfill to support itself through dump fees. Waiving the fees puts a dent in county coffers, she said. She suggested the committee explore opening other dump pits, possibly with help from the Forest Service. Palmer told the audience that it is possible to someday turn the program over to a private contractor, thus ending the
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endless fundraising efforts the committee must hold to earn the thousands of dollars needed annually for the pickup program. Following Martin’s appearance at the meeting, committee member Darwin Huber led a PowerPoint presentation focusing on the history and accomplishments of the PSFR committee since its founding in 2004. When the committee was formed, the Pine Strawberry area ranked in the top10 in the country for having catastrophic wildfires, he said. Since the committee began its efforts, the area no longer is among the top-10 most dangerous. Darwin’s wife, Barbara, took to the Photo courtesy Max Foster podium telling the audience that the comSupervisor Tommie Martin put in a mittee is planning a benefit fundraising surprise appearance at a meeting of dinner like one held last summer. The the Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction benefit is set for 1 to 7 p.m. May 16 at the Committee focused on convincing the See Fundraiser, page 2A county to waive dump fees for brush.
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