County keeps on funding migrant-water effort

[mapwife]

Published: 09.20.2006

County keeps on funding migrant-water effort
By Erica Meltzer
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Pima County will continue to pay for water stations in the desert to aid illegal border crossers.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to give $25,000 from the contingency fund to Humane Borders, which maintains 80 water stations in Southern Arizona and northern Mexico. This is the sixth year Pima County has funded the stations.
Most of the money goes to maintain and operate a fleet of water trucks, driven by volunteers who test, sterilize and replenish water supplies every day.
Supervisor Ann Day voted no.
Several members of Humane Borders, wearing their trademark blue-and-white T-shirts featuring the Big Dipper constellation full of water, were in the audience, but they did not speak. The group submitted a paper done in conjunction with the University of Arizona that outlined its use of mapping software to track migrant deaths and come up with ways to prevent more deaths.
The paper concluded that water stations may prevent deaths but more research was needed.
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry also submitted a Government Accountability Office report showing a dramatic increase in deaths among illegal entrants since enforcement efforts in urban areas increased in 1994.
In a memo to the supervisors, Huckelberry said funding the water stations was sound fiscal policy, as it reduced the costs associated with deaths, as well as being a humane response.
Several anti-illegal-immigration activists objected to the spending.
"The only humane borders are borders that work," said Roy Warden, a protester who has publicly burned the Mexican flag. "By providing water stations, you are only enticing people to their deaths."
Cost concern stalls land buy
In other business, the supervisors postponed the purchase of the first of six flood-damaged properties until Oct. 3 because Huckelberry raised concerns about the price.
An appraiser hired by the county put the value of the property at $450,000, even though the owners, John and Tonya Stofko, paid $350,000 for the 4-acre property on Old Spanish Trail just a few months earlier.
The Stofkos told the appraiser they put $25,000 worth of improvements into the house. It was on the market when floodwaters from Rincon Creek ripped through the house. Based on the appraisal, the county offered the Stofkos $450,000 plus $9,000 in closing costs, and they accepted.
Huckelberry said the county may stand by the appraisal, but he needs more information before allowing the sale to go forward.
"Being fair is one thing, and being taken advantage of is another," Huckelberry said. "There may be a reason for it, but it's not apparent from the material."
The property is being bought under the county's flood-prone-land-acquisition program, in which the county buys flood-damaged property from willing sellers.
The supervisors also voted to buy 506 acres of Buckelew Farms, near Three Points, for $5.2 million as part of the 2004 open-space bond program and approved an emergency contract to clear Hayhook Ranch Road, an alternate route to Coleman Road, which the Tohono O'odham Nation plans to close at the end of the month.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/147491

[mapwife]

This is a very important story. The Pima County government has been funding these water stations for several years now. Its called ENABLING! My tax dollars fund this abomination.

This story is worthy of being on the home page.