Thread: AZ-Ranchers: Cell towers needed on border

Ranchers: Cell towers needed on border
by Jim Cross
(April 14th, 2010 @ 6:07am)
Comments:37

PHOENIX - Southern Arizona ranchers say families are being terrorized by smugglers on the border and more cell phone towers could be the difference between life and death.

Arizona's border with Mexico is incredibly desolate. Border Patrol trucks travel down dirt roads constantly. Rancher Don Kimble is out there every day, sometimes going miles without seeing a single soul, while checking on his livestock and water tanks.

"Part of our Valley has good cell service. Other parts have none."

He thinks is going to take more than a border fence.

"In our Valley, you look around, you see where you are and you pick it up and no signal. You know where you to go to get that signal. But are you going to get there in time to help yourself or save yourself?" Kimble says. He also giving ranchers radios will help too.

And that cell phone is a lifeline for ranchers who confront illegal immigrants, smugglers. And it can give authorities a fix by way of GPS on where to send help. "It might save your life if you can get far enough away and call for help."

Rancher Gary Thrasher says it seems like common sense. "We kinda had our list of stupid little things that should have been fixed a long time ago. And I mean stupid. There were things that were funded, they have money for."

"You were able to put temporary towers all around Cottonwood and Sedona when there was a presidential candidate goin'. You can put an emergency tower out there."

Rancher Robert Krentz was found shot to death March 27 on his ranch near Douglas. Arizona Attorney General Goddard said evidence at the scene appears consistent with the known behavior of drug runners working for cartels based in Mexico.



Last 5 Comments


http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1283918

This makes much more sense than foreign aid to Brunei or Burundi.