Around Town

The AP story concerning the problems with Congress Elementary School District has spread across the country. Buffalo News, KTEN.com, Houston Chronicle, AZCentral, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, Huffington Post, Athens Daily Review, NJ.com, KWQC, LehighValleyLive.com.

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Born February 1, 1937 in San Diego, Calif., Duane W. “Sarge” Seibert, age 71, passed away Nov. 25 in Prescott, Ariz. Memorial services were held Sunday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. at the Yarnell viewpoint.

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Jerry Kirkpatrick will make a presentation concerning "Records Management."

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Liz Hill, the Assistant Ombudsman for Public Access, will conduct open meeting law training.

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There will be three parts to this meeting: Tim Carter, Yavapai County School Superintendent, speaking about the 5-member board petition; A Panel discussion with Dr. Jim Howard (Nebraska, Prescott and Agua Fria) and Board Member Howard Moody (Humboldt); An opportunity to meet the 4 Local Candidates running for the School Board and ask them questions.

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Dr. Bonnie F. Saunders, Ph.D., President, League of Women's Voters, AZ moderating the forum on held on Saturday, September 13, 2008. Each candidate was given two minutes for an opening statement. They then answered questions from the floor, with a limit of two minutes for any given answer. Members of the audience were reminded to keep their questions brief, civil, and relevant to school board matters.

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Today is the anniversary of the day Chuck Peterson was killed while riding his bicycle, September 18, 2007.

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Congress voters will have three opportunities to speak with the four candidates running for school board office starting this Saturday, September 13 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. This year is special as many residents are interested in increasing the school board to five-man from the current three.

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Delores Arletta (Armagost) Williams was born in Farlington, Kansas, on November 10, 1941, the second of three children born to Miles and Florence Armagost. She left this earth August 2, 2007.

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Because whether we in the U.S. choose to admit it or not, China is a world leader. If China were to embrace personal religious freedom, many other countries in the world might be persuaded to follow suite.

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If you haven't seen the movie or read the book or seen the movie which lays out Ron Kovic's life, now's the time. The short poem at the start of the 2005 reprint says it all: Memorial Day on wheels.

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The Congress Public Library will have a kick-off BBQ Potluck on Saturday, May 31 10-12 p.m. at the Congress Community Center.

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Here's just what you need when filing your income tax.

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The following information concerning the CESD meeting of 1/28/08 is available at the Congress Library:

Open Meeting Law handout provided by Chris Thomas
DVD video recording of the discussion
CD voice recording of the discussion

Take-home copies may be made.

This same information has been sent to the Attorney General’s Office along with a letter asking for clarification.

A letter of findings by the Attorney General’s Office Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team was sent to the Congress Elementary School District Board on December 12, 2007 regarding allegations that the Board has violated the Open Meeting Law. One of the three allegations was found to have violated the Law.

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Three articles concerning Congress appeared in the Wickenburg Sun of December 12, 2007.

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	Did you know? Shift happens -- globalization in the Information Age

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The original article on the Congress Health Council now has 11 lengthy comments so I decided to reproduce the last comment by Pat Fisher at the Water District and put my reply here as I continue to verify the information concerning this organization and it's parent organization, the Wickenburg Health Alliance, which has yet to comply with the public disclosure requirement of the IRS.

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Well over a hundred people enjoyed an Easter Sunday breakfast put on by the Volunteer Fire Department at the Congress Community Center.

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The map of Congress has been updated to "Version 3.2ba November 2006" with the addition of three businesses: Aunt Betty’s Garden, Bottomline Accounting Tax Service and Congress Grocery. In addition the location of Gold Pro Enterprises has been moved to its new location in the Congress Grocery complex.

As usual, copies are available at the Congress Water District Office.

The night before Halloween was Spooky Science Night at Congress Elementary School.

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I have over 35 years experience in education. I have held nearly every position from teacher to superintendent. I currently work as Reading Coach/Dean of Students in a neighboring school district.

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While I have never served on a School Board before, I believe my practical life experiences, including being Self Employed for over 15 years, has taught me many skills that would be very useful to the School Board.

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Yavapai Meals On Wheels is now serving hot meals to Congress and the North Ranch area. We are looking for volunteers to help deliver the meals once a week for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

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Mother Nature blew a gale, Friday, October 6th, 2006 for the opening of Old Congress Days, threatening to cancel the dance under the stars announced last weeks. But the Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Virgil Suitor rescued the performance ...

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Congress, the “little town that could” over came weather, county permitting issues, requirements for insurance and false rumors of cancellation to hold a great parade, arts & craft fair and community event.

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In addition to the dance and parade, there was great community involvement and participation by local artists, civic and business groups made this years’ events a fun and educational day!

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Judy and Jerry Stone moved to Peru, Indiana on 9/30/06. The new owners of Aunt Betty's Garden are the Valadez Family: mother, father, Victor, Edward and Cynthia.

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Recently I was watering the Allepo pine I purchased from Aunt Betty's Garden which was not doing so well so I was going to ask Judy or Jerry Stone what I could do to help. They were busy loading their goods to go to Indiana: I had no idea it was permanent as I thought it was temporary.

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Skunks are a very misunderstood and maligned creature. Many myths were created to justify killing this animal instead of risk getting sprayed. Once you know what their body language means and how to act around them, they are very easy to coexist with -- provided you keep your dogs inside from dusk to dawn.

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The 5th Annual National Night Out was held on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 from 5pm to 9pm at Tenderfoot Hill Park.

Organized by the Congress Block Watch, it was sponsored by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, the Congress Fire Department, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and APS who provided the give aways for the young and young at heart. In addition to the organizations many members of the community pitched in and helped with the event.

As you can see from the following photos, there was good food and people enjoyed meeting their neighbors and having a go with the Firearms training trailer.

		The annual Congress Vounteer Fire Department’s potluck dinner was held at the fire station as usual with more than fifty people enjoying eating with their neighbors.

Photo by Dave McLane

A pie social fund raiser for the Congress Community Planning Board was held at the Community Center on Saturday, May 13th at 6:30 pm; a Happy Mother's Day event. Pies were displayed at the front of the hall, ice cream and drinks were available along the side wall, and tables were decorated with tablecloths and bows. The late afternoon light coming through the window cast a warm glow over the evening.

Some of the many pies on display

Pie socials have a long history in the United States and have been held for at least a hundred years. They take various forms many times being combined with dialogues, recitations, speeches, songs, and skits. In almost all cases they are used to raise money for some pubic cause, sometimes by charging admission, but more often by auctioning off donations:

    Ladies bake your prettiest pies,
    Gents you won't believe your eyes!
    Be sure you bring a bunch of money,
    Since if you run short it won't be funny,
    Your girl will be muttering slurs,
    If you fail to purchase hers!

Besides raising money and socializing, there was of course sharing and eating ice cream and pie.

Left to right: Shirley & Carl Johnoff, Chuck Kilgariff, George Summers

There were eleven choices in all: Carol Birdwell’s key lime pie; Cathy Goodwin's lemon meringue pie and toasted coconut cream pie; Jane Summer’s vanilla cream pie with strawberries; Judi Hill’s pineapple upside-down cake; Millie Patterson’s apple Bavarian cheese cake; Rusty Jackson’s two peanut-butter pies; Shirley Johnoff’s Granny Smith apple pie; plus a Dutch apple pie and a cherry pie contributed anonymously. The total amount collected was $120.00