Removal of board members could tilt PSWID

By Sam Schwalm
Gazette Contributor

We have received a few emails from people asking what can be done about the current situation with the Pine Strawberry Water Improvment District and the possibility of a recall.

There are three seats up for election in November. Those seats are currently held by Mr. Haney, Mr. Greer, and Mr. Calderon. My understanding is that a board member has to serve at least six months before a recall effort can be made, so a recall of Mr. Lovetro could not be started until October. The others, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Weekes, and Mr. Smith, could be targeted for recall. I would assume that if the recall effort was done soon it would be rolled into the November election. It might happen sooner than that, (but) I don’t know at this time.

Removal of Mr. Greer and Mr. Calderon in November would be sufficient to tip control of the board away from the conspiracy theory faction. Board members elected in November aren’t seated until the January meeting, so it may be too late by then to keep the decisions that are not in the best interests of the community from being cemented in place. Members that are removed by recall are seated at the next meeting after the election, so that would be the November meeting.

The bottom line is that we would need candidates to run for these positions. Petitions to get on the November ballot have to be in by August 4. Twenty-two signatures are needed and we can help round those up. If you would be interested in being a candidate or know someone who is, have them contact us.

Some other actions to take:

Let the board members know what you think about what has been going on. Their email addresses are:

WILLIAM HANEY (wfhaney@cox.net); DONALD L. SMITH (dlsdds@msn.com); Richard Dickinson (rbdickinson@msn.com); Michael Greer (hatcreekelectric@qwestoffice.net); Ron Calderon (ron@newworldaz.com); Tom Weekes (pineice@gmail.com); Gary Lovetro (glovetro@me.com);
Conspiracy theory faction: Dickinson, Greer, Lovetro, Calderon

Write a letter to the editor with your thoughts/concerns about the situation.
For the Rim Country Gazette Blog (www.rimcountrygazette.blogspot.com), e-mail letters or anonymous rants to peoplesgazette@gmail.com.
For the Mogollon Connection: payson@mogollonconnection.com
Payson Roundup Letters can be submitted on their website.

Let your friends and neighbors know what is going on and that they can get information by signing up for the email or going to the website.

If you have ideas about how to better communicate what is going on or how to influence the board to start making decisions that are in the community’s interest, let us know.

I need some help. My work has become much more demanding of my time and attention over the last nine months and it has become difficult to keep up with all of this. If you would like to help, let me know and we can talk about what you might be interested in doing.

This update is from the group Water For Pine Strawberry. We will provide an update after each of the PSWID meetings with a summary of what the board did, additional facts that are relevant to what went on, and some commentary. Please forward this email to friends and neighbors that are interested in the local water issues. If you would like to be added to or removed from the list for these emails, please reply to WaterForPineStrawberry@hotmail.com. Updates on earlier meetings are available on our website: www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com .

Water For Pine Strawberry is a group of residents who are concerned about the communities water issues and how they can best be resolved. Visit our web site, www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com, for more information. The website for PSWID is www.pswid.org .

Clarifications can be submitted by anyone who is explicitly named, implicitly identifiable, or a board member to items in this update. Clarifications will be posted on our website. We reserve the right to post a response. Clarifications must deal with the topics discussed in the email that relate to the individual or the board. They must be in family friendly language and be non-abusive. When the clarification is accepted, it will be posted to the website and notice of that posting will be added to the next update.