Using federal stimulus funds, the BLM issued a $150,000 contract to install solar panels at each of the four contact stations. The systems track the sun’s path, making for a highly efficient collector. Each of the arrays is rated at 2.4 kilowatts, and is tied to the public power grid. In essence, when the contact station is up and operating, there should be sufficient power from the sun to meet the needs of the station, and during off hours (and off season) the power generated by the solar arrays will be pumped back into the public power grid, being purchased by the local power company.

This is the first solar project undertaken by the BLM in the Quartzsite area.

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

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.

With just two days remaining to turn in census forms, the government stats this morning show some interesting things:

For the US in general, 67% have already returned their census forms.

For Arizona as a state, 63% have “done their duty” and returned the form.

For LaPaz County, only 38% of the forms have come back–the least reporting number in the state.

And finally, (drum roll, please) for Quartzsite, the return rate is a but 35%.

To give credit to Quartzsiters, plenty of folks commented that a lot of census forms were left at homes that were obviously “closed for the season,” where snowbird owners had already gone home before census workers had shown up. We queried some of these government folk and asked them why would forms be left at residences where it was apparent no one was present. They told us they were mandated to leave the forms–even if it meant sticking them in closed gates. Should they find forms flying around on the street they were forbidden to pick them up.

Just how accurate the census will be out in QZ country is anyone’s guess.

Witness the phone call we received the other day: “Hate to bother you, but I’m afraid we’ve run out of gas.”

A “run out gas” situation in the Quartzsite area is one of two things: A quick trip across town — and how much town can there be in Quartzsite — or practically an expedition, complete with the need for Sherpas. This turned out to be the latter.

The “out of gas” party were two widowed Canadian women, traveling together in a Class C motorhome. They weren’t completely sure of their location, but it translated to Highway 95, south of Quartzsite, “Across the road from this building with a lot of flags on it.”

A lot of flags? South of Quartzsite? The only building we could imagine with a lot of flags on it was Stone Cabin, near the “pass” headed down into Yuma, about 30 miles south of the great QZ metropolis. When we needed another question answered, it would be simple, right? Just punch up the number they called from on your cell phone. We did that too. “Ah, I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’ll want to call them back here,” said a strange voice. “I just lent them my cell phone when I found them stranded by the side of the road. They’re a long ways back now.”

RVing without a cell phone? Who you kidding?

Russ found a sidekick with a yen for adventure and rounded up some gas cans. They headed south on 95, and sure enough, across the street from Stone Cabin, there were the stranded RVers. First order of business, “secure the scene,” as they say.

“OK, we may slop some gas, so please, turn off any of your appliances with pilot lights, or anything that might turn on, like your refrigerator, your hot water heater. We don’t want to blow anything up, right?” Sure enough, those fancy State of California approved gas cans, so well designed to curb air pollution from gas fumes are so clever. By the time you get the can hoisted high enough to cram it in a “side mount” filler neck, you’ve slopped a quart or better of gas down the side of the rig — hence contributing to the level of air pollution on the Arizona desert. But at least it’s not California air!

With a great deal of mumbling, we finally got the fuel in the tank, down the side of the rig, and on the ground. We capped the cans and put them back in the pickup. It was about that time Russ looked in the open door of the motorhome. Sitting on the dining table was a coffee pot — on top of a warmer, heated with a brightly burning candle. “Oh!,” said one of the rescued party, “Shall we put that out now?”

After ensuring the motorhome engine would fire up, we made discreet inquiries about how this whole misadventure came about. A slight tinge of embarrassment crept into the cheeks of one of the rescued ones. “Well, we pulled out of Yuma this morning, and sister asked how we were doing for fuel. And I said, ‘Remember, dear, we just filled it up the other day.’”

“Sister” chimed in, “And then she pointed to the fuel gauge and said, ‘See, it’s just a little below the full mark.’”

Turns out the “little below the full mark” was actually just a little above the empty mark. The confession: “I guess we forgot that when the kids came, we took them sightseeing in the motorhome. That was after we filled up!”

Yes, some of the brightest folks are snowbirds. But on the other hand . . .

But that security. Just yesterday your favorite Quartzsite bloggers made the run down to Los Algadones to pick up some prescriptions and get outfitted for a new pair of specs. We hustled through as quickly as we could, knowing that at this time of year, the last of the season mad rush can make a return to the US border crossing a bit of an endurance trial. Sure enough, the line at the border stretched out at least a couple of blocks, and while in line, we noticed uniformed Mexican military personnel eyeballing the line of US-bound auto traffic. Occasionally a vehicle was held up, while two of the men searched the car, as a third (armed with an assault rifle) stood close watch.

Results of shooting forbidden photos in Mexico

One of us, who shall remain nameless, thought that this would make a good blog posting, and of course, every good blog posting should have a supporting photograph, right? In the eyes of the Mexican government, WRONG! Your reactive reporter brought a digital camera to bear, and managed to fire off one seemingly unobtrusive shot from the crowd in line at the border crossing. Unobtrusive, (ahem), apparently it wasn’t. Soon the photog found unwelcome attention at the hand of one very unhappy soldier. Fearing that the camera might disappear (or worse, the photographer might), the offer was quickly extended to delete the evidently offending photograph. Sure enough, in all the drama, excitement, and stupidity, just remembering how to delete a photo seemed to elude the mind.

Happily, the correct combination of button pushing made the offending “peek-chure” go away, and with stumbling apologies, the chastened gringo returned to the line headed back out of the country. Incidentally, security is much higher in the US entry station as well. As well as being asked what was being brought back in the US, it seemed as if everyone’s bags were being given a great deal of scrutiny, and a beleaguered room full of people pulled off the line, sat in an anteroom, apparently awaiting further checks.  One man who had apparently been through the mill was escorted back through the line by a Border Patrol agent, and chucked back out onto the Mexican side.  From the looks of what he was carrying, the miscreant had apparently tried to bring more liquor back into the US than the law allows.

So, in addition to being careful on not bringing back more liquor or prescription medication than the law allows, remember, it’s not polite to shoot the Mexican soldiers.

This weekend pucker up your taste-buds for the 7th Annual “It’s Chili in Quartzsite” the big chili cookoff bash, combined tastefully with the State Salsa Championship. There’s some hot stuff to be had over at Tyson Wells, courtesy of the local Quartzsite Business Chamber of Commerce. Shoot on in and be prepared with hankies and whatever it is you drown your overly stimulated taste buds with.

If big crowd-drawing events are what you measure the Quartzsite season with, then yep, this could be the end. On the other hand, if nature is your bent, then stick around. With the amount of rainfall the area has had this season, this could well be a memorable “bloom” year. A few things are beginning to pop up, but hey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Give it a couple more weeks or so, provided the warm weather continues, and the deserts may literally look like a carpet of flowers. It’s worth the wait!

2005 Quartzsite bloom. R&T DeMaris

According to a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, volunteers are even coming to popular snowbird destinations to present a leaflet campaign reminding those folks from the cold country to come home. We talked with Mario Vargas, the chief Minnesota state census campaign coordinator and he couldn’t help us figure out who these volunteers were, but there are those who are fanning out to three states to try and encourage Minnesotans to come home soon.

For all of us, it could backfire. Imagine what could happen to the Minnesota ‘Census Truant Officer’  who leaves Minneapolis, bundled up in a parka, equipped with mukluks, and heads by plane into Phoenix. Stepping off the plane and onto the jetway, that parka is suddenly going to seem a bit–well–too much. Next, drive that rental car in Quartzsite to leave a few hundred flyers at the Long Term Area, and that strange, brilliant object in the sky may just blind him. And finally, driving on his way to Sweet Darlene’s for a bite of dinner, he spots Paul Winer from the local bookstore, outfitted only in his G-string and desert boots. Why those last inhibitions just might fall away, and Hey Presto! That erstwhile guardian of Gopher State Integrity could just decide that being a snowbird isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Minnesota’s Vargas admitted there is some cause for concern. He acknowledged that in the last census, back in 2000, some in Quartzsite–we couldn’t say for certain it was town officials, or just “other interested parties” had put on a campaign for winter visitors to actually list themselves as Quartzsiters, forsaking whatever other place they might call home, for the sake of giving Quartzsite a larger share of official “residents” as it might otherwise have. Driving through town on a hot July day, it’s easy to believe that the “official” tally of nearly 3,500 residents could be a bit overstated. Maybe that’s how it happened.

Still, with St. Paul showing an average high temperature of only 49 degrees on April 1, it may be all the flyers in the world won’t bring those rigs back in time for the big census bash. Maybe the state could get the feds to change the official census taking date to July first. That’d surely fix the problem.

When not strolling the tables of the plethora of vendors, or sampling the treats of restaurantuers, what do Quartzsite visitors do?

For some, yard art. We certainly hope the artist here had help in obtaining the bottles required to create this huge field of bottle art. Must have, how could you stand up long enough to make the art if you’d consumed the contents of the containers?

As we reported, the developer, EnviroMission, plan is to build two chimneys, 2,400 feet tall each, and surround them with a solar heat collection field nearly two miles in circumference. As the sun’s heat is gathered in the collector field, it would be redirected up the chimney, driving the turbines.

Taking the figures for the height of the chimneys into account, and adding that these stacks would be 1000 feet higher than the Empire State Building, the Parker Pioneer has published an artist’s conception of what the new plant might look like. We reproduce it here for your consideration.

Quartzsite town fathers are readily in favor of the proposed plant, and it would appear to be environmentally friendly, and “desert wise,” as unlike other solar power plants, would not utilize water for generating steam. For a fuller description of the project, check back on our earlier post, “Quartzsite area could host hot air project.”

There are pros and cons aplenty floating about in the community view. If nothing else, the project–if realized–would certainly be one more thing for winter visitors to take a look at.  Even if they didn’t have to leave town to do it.

photo courtesy parkerliveonline.com