Moonset Pit to Re-open on May 8 for Green Waste Disposal Benefiting Local Communities

Williams, Ariz., April 12, 2021—For Immediate Release. The Kaibab National Forest, in cooperation with the communities of Parks and Sherwood Forest Estates is pleased to announce the reopening of the Moonset Pit on May 8 of this year for residents to dispose of green waste materials from private property.

The pit will be open on the following days this year from 8am to 2pm:
Saturday-May 8, Saturday-May 22, Saturday-June 5, Saturday-June 19, and Saturday-July 10. Users will only be allowed to access and discard natural woody debris such as logs, limbs, branches, brush, needles, and leaves on these dates while staff is present. No bagged substances, lumber, construction material, household garbage or any other items should be deposited at the site.
The Moonset Pit serves the local area providing a location for the disposal of natural forest debris. Residents are encouraged to take advantage of this facility to make their private property more defensible against the threat of wildland fire.
Moonset Pit is located just west of the Parks community on a dirt road east of Spitz Springs on the north side of old Route 66.

Personal Use Cinder Information: Personal use cinder permits are now available from the Williams Ranger District Office. People who wish to acquire a permit will need to call the district office first and make an appointment to come in. Due to the ongoing pandemic and preventive procedures currently in place, a specific set of guidelines will be required to obtain a permit that will require payment by credit card only.

Click here to learn more: Cinder Permit Requirements 2021
Cinders will only be available for collection on weekends to avoid safety conflicts with Coconino County mining operations.
There are personal use cinders also available to the public all days of the week at the Wright Pit located off Lillie J Ranch road in Parks and the W-Triangle Pit north of Spring Valley.

For information about obtaining permits or questions about all these services, please call the Williams Ranger District office at 742 S Clover Road in Williams. (928) 635-5600.
The success of this community provision is largely attributed to the volunteers of the Parks Area Connection and Sherwood Forest Fire Department who staff the pit on Saturdays during the open hours of operation. This annual service is also supported by the Kaibab National Forest and the Rural Communities Fuels Management Partnership.

Forest Service News Release
Contact: Bob Blasi, Fire Information Officer
928-635-5653
sm.fs.kaibabpao@usda.gov www.fs.usda.gov/kaibab

Save the Dates

Saturday, June 5, 2021
Saturday, September 4, 2021

Last year’s community blood drive was so successful that this year plans are underway for two drives. Mark your calendars now. For further information contact Jeanna Roush at roushjeanna@gmail.com.

Christmas Decorating Challenge

Join your neighbors in lighting up the neighborhood for the holiday season. Plan to decorate your home before December 21^st to join the challenge.

It has been a very dark year and we hope that all home owners will join with us in the challenge to bring light to our neighborhood. Home owners of SFE and MRR are invited to enter into a house decorating challenge hosted by the SFEFD Auxiliary and SFE POA.

 To enter the challenge just email your address to suehamilton303@yahoo.com and we will make sure we come by your house on the 21^st to see the joy you bring to Christmas.

Sherwood Forest Estates
Halloween Party

WHEN:  Saturday Oct. 31 

TIME:     2:00 to 4:00 ish

WHERE:  7797 E Knighthood Lane 

All ages of kids in Sherwood Forest Estates are welcome to celebrate at this Halloween event.  We are hosting a Covid 19 safe Halloween event with masks and social distancing. There will be a costume parade (with prizes) at 3PM.  We have a fall backdrop for family pictures. . . .either on your phone or with our camera and emailed to you!!  There will be:  Corn hole. . . hot dogs, chili, chips and drinks and pre-bagged goodies for the kids.  

~Jeanna Roush and Brienne McDowell, SFE POA 
Questions: 928-623-2723

Fall Newsletter Download

and an excerpt:

Last Train Leaving

As you know the last attempt to bring high speed internet into the community did not get an adequate community response to the CenturyLink proposal to negotiate for a more reasonable offer. Therefore, it was dropped. That brings us to the last train leaving.

I have been in talks with a company that is interested in bringing Internet Fiber to the Door to a large number of communities here in Northern Arizona which includes us. As you know there is a risk in large ventures like this. To mitigate that risk, a buy in will be required for each community to participate. This buy in will be approximately one year of service and a small fee to bring the fiber to your door on your property including installation of the equipment. This “deposit or pre-payment” will be held in escrow until your service is up and running and then your escrow will disperse. If for some reason the project does not go forward due to a lack of participation from our community your funds will be returned and our community will be bypassed. There will be several tiers of service pricing available to fit your budget. This will be an unlimited bandwidth service, so watching TV over the internet will be possible. This can bring down almost by half of your overall cost by combining your services.

Now that the Virus has changed the business habits of many companies and schools, working and learning from home has become a new way of life for many. This was not for seen late last year while working with CenturyLink.

On a technical note, when the powers goes out, all of our CenturyLink phone and internet service goes out regardless of having a generator to keep your lights on at home. There is no backup power for the CenturyLink equipment feeding our community. This means the SFE Fire Dept has lost all communications too. Poor Cell Phone service is all that is left. The Fiber System will have backup batteries to maintain connectivity for an extended period of time. This will keep many of your cell phone apps and laptops connected with loved ones and others over your fiber internet service Wi-Fi. A backup battery will be required at your home to keep the fiber interface box and Wi-Fi powered up if you don’t have a generator.

For more information, questions and registering for the SFE FIBER project, please visit https://telcomwest.com Don’t mistype the web name or you will get the wrong website. This is an early bird offering so you can plan ahead. In short, we will need about 100 residences to participate to qualify for our portion of the project. For those who don’t participate in the initial project build out, your cost to extend the service across your property to your home will be much higher as the equipment will have to be brought in each time. Everything will be underground.

Be Safe and stay connected,
Judson Swearingen Jr, Member at large and newsletter editor.

From the Office of Matt Ryan:

Executive Order 2020-43 requires businesses to adhere to Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19 guidelines. Details are available on the Arizona Department of Health Services Business Dashboard. Under the requirements, certain businesses have been allowed to open when the three benchmarks fall within the Moderate range or below for a two-week period. The benchmarks include cases per 100,000 residents, percent positivity, and COVID-like illness as a percentage of hospitalizations. Coconino County has remained in the Moderate category for several months.

As Coconino County COVID-19 case numbers change over time, clarification regarding a move from the Moderate category to the Substantial category was requested by the County. ADHS confirmed that the all three benchmarks for transmission on the ADHS Business Dashboard must be met for 14 days, with a 12-day reporting lag, to move to a higher transmission phase. This is a change from previous guidance.

Coconino County is experiencing a substantial case incidence rate, however percent positivity and COVID-Like Illness are within the Minimal range. Based on the ADHS guidelines, Coconino County remains within a Moderate level of community transmission.

Finally,  on Thursday October 15^th from 1:00pm to 5pm Coconino County Health and Human Services and North Country HealthCare will host No Cost COVID-19 Testing as well a low cost flu vaccines. This event will be located at North Country HealthCare Williams – parking lot

300 S 6th St, Williams, AZ 86046.  Nasopharyngeal Swab and Saliva COVID testing will be available. Please call North Country HealthCare at 928-635-44410 to register for Nasopharyngeal COVID testing or flu vaccines. For COVID-19 salvia testing please pre-register through www.coconino.az.gov/covid19 .

From Matt Ryan’s Office:

Good Morning,

I hope everyone is well and safe. Matt asked me to send out an update. Overall cases decreased last week from the decline from the previous week. Please see the attached dashboard and graph. The COVID 19 Data will be updated at 10am for today and you can find the information here: https://www.coconino.az.gov/2376/Dashboard-Data

COVID-19 Surge testing has been extended. Please see the press release attached here in English and Spanish. Surge testing will continue through Friday September 4.

 Surge Testing Locations and Hours:

• Fort Tuthill County Park, 2446 Fort Tuthill Loop, Flagstaff, AZ
  • Now through September 4, daily, noon – 8 p.m.
• University Union Fieldhouse at NAU, 1050 Knoles Drive, Flagstaff, AZ
  • Now through August 30, daily, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m
  • This site is open to all Coconino County residents including the NAU community. Free parking is available on the upper levels of the San Francisco Parking Garage.
• Motel 6, 831 W. Rt. 66, Williams, AZ (parking lot)
  • Now through August 24, daily, noon – 8 p.m.
  • August 25 – September 3, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, noon – 5 p.m.

All testing sites will utilize self-administrated testing. At the site individuals will be instructed on how to conduct a self-administered nasal swab test. Health professionals will guide participants through the testing process. Individuals who do not feel comfortable self-administering a test should contact their healthcare provider or call the COVID-19 Information Line at 928-679-7300 for information on other testing options.

Individuals seeking COVID-19 testing at a Testing Surge site are asked to register in advance to expedite the testing process. Registration for testing is available at https://www.doineedacovid19test.com/ . Please the attached press release for more information.

Thank you for your continued help in getting this information out to our communities. Please let me know if you need anything. I stand ready to assist.

Best,
Gregory