RVing Quartzsite

Quartzsite has weathered yet another contentious election, the results are finally in.

Mayor:  Ed Foster, 338 votes.  Wes Huntley, 311.

Of the three seats on the town council, open for the top three winners came out to be the current incumbents:

Jerry Lukkason,  322

Patricia Anderson, 317

Robert Kelley, 315

Also rans:  Chaunce Hamilton,  309

Russell Sias, 308

Bill Moore, 254.

While the election was held Tuesday, the results were not confirmed by the County until Thursday, as the ‘to-close-to-call’ election was decided by provisional ballot counting. As of Wednesday near closing time, one town hall employee told us that employees were near to holding their breaths, wondering what the outcome would be.

The run up to the election was marked with plenty of verbal fireworks. Comments in local blog from opposing sides were often marked with verbal pot-shots and name calling. Whether Quartzsite returns to its normal graveyard-like quietude associated with the warmer months is yet to be seen.

photo: joebeone on flickr.com through creative commons license

With the Long Term Visitor Areas empty, and a few hardy souls still taking their chances with the heat in the short term area, Quartzsite could seem like “Dullsville, USA.”  Never fear, the locals are keeping plenty of action going.

Last weekend we were “out and about” near former mayor Steve Bennett’s home up on Tyson Street. A huge group of “official” looking vehicles were parked outside of Bennett’s place, and seeming crowds were going hither and thither past the “Keep Out” signs. What gives? Is Steve having a big yard sale? Nope, it seems the Bennett family was preparing for the summer season by filling up their swimming pool. But alas! Instead of cool, clear, water, the pool started to fill up with a sickly looking greenish liquid, complete with a layer of sediment that might be good enough for some kind of weird aquaculture project.

Perhaps it’s because it’s now election season, or maybe the boredom has set in. Pretty soon members of the town council, the town manager, and other notables were making the trek up Steve’s driveway to have a look for themselves. And since the only thing nearly as fast as the speed of light in Quartzsite is that of gossip, news of the green gunk water was passing from man and woman everywhere around town.

No official news on what Bennett’s pool had in it; the fire department came and pumped it out. The town tested the water and says they can’t find anything in the water supply that would make it unsafe to drink. We know of few who are hardy enough to drink the stuff direct from the tap, so that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.

Elsewhere in the local news cauldron:

If things are too quiet at home, put Tuesday evenings at Town Hall on your calendar. Recently, local citizen Michael Roth showed up for the weekly council meeting. After testifying before the council on concerns of the potential abuse of civil rights by the Quartzsite Police Department, he was asked to leave the building. When Roth failed to do so, he was given a free escort to the county lockup in Parker where he spent the night accused of creating a public disturbance.

Pet groomer, “Jade” told RVing Quartzsite staffers she too, has been ejected from council meetings on two occasions this season, also after testifying on her concerns on hot topics. She recently had a run-in with local police officials after she questioned a large number of political campaign signs that had been posted near her establishment at the Greasewood vending area.

It’s all getting a bit too hot–and not in a way that can be measured on the thermometer. One of the town’s year-around business folk sighed to us, “I’ll just be so glad when this whole thing is over!” If the election will bring the sought-after peace, it won’t be long now. May 18 marks the date of the hotly contested election.