This flagstone work blends seamlessly with the design and mission of the Oracle Community Center (OCC).  Mobility challenged individuals welcomed and well accomodated!

  Darrell fights retaining wall collapse in front of the Acadia Ranch Museum (OHS).  Heavy lifting and fine craftsmanship turn back the years and help stabalize one of Oracle's finest historical assets.

  A mystery vandal is trashing political signs around Oracle.  The same thing happened two years ago when several signs were ripped up and thrown in porta potties at the time of the Oracle Run.  The perpetrator remains unidentified and is still at large. 
  So who's responsible is an open question.  Messing with political signs is a felony under AZ law...which may be part of the thrill experienced by the sign vandal
  There has been speculation that because all the signs stolen, bent up and trashed support Democrats, the other party (and maybe its MAGA wing) is responsible.  One such openly  MAGAite accosted me on our own property two years ago, screaming, completely unhinged, when I declined to allow posting of a Trump/Pence sign across from the OHS.   

  Race Director Darrell Klesch reveals Michael Moore's charcoal rendering of Oracle's majestic oak puntuated landscape.  (Oracle runner Jane Redmann drew the insert!) Klesch and Kaz just installed the work on The Message Board next to the Oracle Post Office.

  Topping the run off will be award presentations of framed Michael Moore prints to triumphant runners (and walkers).  The tough 10K run is one of Oracle's premier annual events drawing an appreciative audience from near and far.

  Put composer/conductor Brian Holman (pictured here with Kaz) together with Steve Cook (Oracle Piano Society), Sharon Holnback (Triangle L), and Oracle Historical Society leaders (John Hernandez, Cinnamon Schiek, Kevin Armbrust), Damien Clinco (Arizona Historical Society) and what do you get?  A remarkable co-mingling of talent and energy that produced a multi-media production for the ages right in our own back yard. 
  If there's such a thing as a classic Oracle creative collaboration, back-to-back performances of "The Mine with the Iron Door" at the Triangle L and OrCA, accompanied by a talented ensemble of young musicians, gave exhilirating life to Holman's score (with Steve Cook on the weather machine, of course).

Our Mission:
To Find Solutions on Aging in Oracle
Elvia Schwenke, Sue Parra, Frank Pierson,
Craig Anderson, Melinda & Bill Hutton, Lily Herron,
Liz Lafarge, Ann Rose, Hector Lovemore, Darrell Klesch

  This small group of concerned residents in Oracle have come together to discuss and gather information about the elderly in Oracle. This group was formed because many of us over the years, have seen our friends and neighbors age or become ill and be forced into a position of having to leave their homes and community. It has become a heartbreaking fact because there are no assisted living homes or programs in Oracle. These are the issues this group intends to focus on, and hopefully help bring much needed services to Oracle.

  We have developed a simple survey to assess the needs of the elderly population and we need help in getting these surveys out to those who may need assistance.

If you would like more information about this group, or would like to help us get the survey out to people please contact any of us below:

Elvia     [email protected]
Sue     [email protected]
Frank     [email protected]
Lily     [email protected]
Craig     [email protected]
Liz     [email protected]
-------

   Closure of this top performing clinic was a huge blow to all of us in Oracle, the Tri-Community and Copper Corridor.

  One of the last times I visited with Gerardo Alcaraz he was recovering from a serious surgery in a skilled nursing facility in Tucson.  He was in need of dialysis and was buoyed by being able to access the dialysis unit in Mammoth, about 10 miles from Oracle.

  Today I ran into Gerardo in the Oracle Post Office.  In our talk he told me the Mammoth dialysis unit was closed... to him and the many others dependent on the services of the facility all up and down the Copper Corridor.

  That was the first I'd heard of it.  Like me, most local residents were (and are) clueless ... unless you personally or a family member or close friend have needed dialysis.
  "Nobody knew about the closure until it happened," Gerardo said.
  I promised him I'd do what I could to get the word out and help stir the pot ... so here I am trying to do just that.
------
ABC 15 article here: www.abc15.com/news/state/some-pinal-county-residents-concerned-over-lack-of-healthcare-as-dialysis-center-closes

  A month or so ago Kaz pulled me out of our back door to look way up at a huge oak next to our house. 
“See that?”
“Yes, I see it.  Oh, shit.” 
  We stood pondering what to do about a huge limb that had snapped almost all the way through with die back already becoming visible,  No telling when or how it would come crashing down.  Kaz worried that sooner or later it would descend destroying everything in its path - maybe even one of us.

  We knew who to call because weeks before I’d taken a number from the Oracle Post Office bulletin board from a guy who offered local “tree service”.  At the time neither of us had heard of Tom Berryman but I gave a call about some tree work we needed done.  He turned out to be incredibly skilled not to mention well equipped and dispatched three dead oaks in a day and a half.  In the process we learned he and his wife Amber had just moved to Oracle and live in our neighborhood.  Kind of amazing!
  So responding to our urgent call he arranges to come by after he gets off work in Metro Phoenix, no less.  He and Amber show up with ladder, climbing ropes, chain saw, trailer and chipper and go to work.  Tom and Amber had that dangerous broken limb cut, lowered, and chipped in a short order. 
  Tom and Amber are building a local business (while he continues to work full time in Metro Phoenix).   Another big plus for our neighborhood, town, and the trees we revere.
  Berryman's Tree Service - (928)231-4749

Heather and Andrew have begun to school us on the virtues of goatscaping!  Goats are pretty remarkable creatures willing to take on some very tough assignments.  Like helping to clear land overrun by catclaw and other noxious weeds.  

Their work on the triangle of land around the Oracle Post Office is the subject of what's fast becoming local lore.  They're so damn good at what they do!  Even long time residents like Ruben Perez marvel.

By getting into the weeds, they quicken the hearts of property owners like Kaz and me looking to defend against the threat of fire while beautifying the terrain.  And they add their own aesthetic touch by finding special places to rest and recuperate from their arduous work day!

They showed up early and went to work on the Triangle next to the Oracle Post Office.

Started on the western tip where American Avenue intersects with Old Mount Lemmon Highway. 

When I arrived 15 minutes before the advertised start of today's Monday Lunch, the Oracle Community Center parking lot was full and the hall was packed.   The OCC President delivered the news at the door: "Sold out!"  Whaaat?  I began to turn away when Kaz, who I had dropped off a few minutes earlier, waved a ticket in my direction and in I went.

I was very glad to make the cut!

The attraction was food prepared by the two women behind Oracle's buzzy new restaurant start-up - The Riot Grill. Judging by the wall-to-wall affirmation of the food and the enthusiam shared at the gathering we have a winner on our collective hands. It turned out there was enough for everybody!  Maybe not a "miracle of the loaves and fishes" but mighty impressive.
If you're so inclined, offer support for this "boot strap" venture here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/riotgrill/riot-grill

One disturbing fact jumps out from a reading of the Road Safety Assessment (RSA) study commissioned by Pinal County for American Avenue.  Here it is: 
Many of the safety improvements identified in the document can and should be made right now! 
Here's an example:  

That's one of several related to "road paintings" ... not just pavement striping but also stop bars that provide vital info to alert drivers how far to nose into cross traffic and crosswalks that slow traffic and alert drivers to pedestrians. 
The engineering consultants also identify bushes obscuring driver's sight lines, warning lights not functioning, and signage mis-located. 
So what gives?  Why not do what seems basic maintenance...immediately? 
Pinal County officials should carefully review the RSA document, identify what can and should be done right now, and authorize those actions without delay. 
--------------------------------

  Because American Avenue is in so many ways Oracle's lifeblood, what happens next is a big deal for our town.  The impacts on pedestrian and vehicular safety, local commerce, social, and religious life are considerable.  By clicking in to the doc above you can get a sense of what several Oracle residents think should happen from here.

  In the early 1970's the State of Arizona had big plans for American Avenue: Drive a high speed highway thru the center of town to facilitate truck traffic heading to Magma/San Manuel.  Oracle residents got pissed off and decided to fight it.  They made so much of a ruckus that the central planners in Phoenix had to back off.  After town meetings and a big petititon drive, Oracle won.  The "thru town" option was killed and the by-pass as we know it today was approved and built out a few years later. 

Active Oracle citizens won a big victory.  One of the first but definitely not the last.

    If you ever wondered why properties like this one - with a burned out trailer, an abandonned structure with door hanging open, and crap all over the place - escape the attention of Pinal County officials here's the answer.  The county will not move unless there is a citizen complaint.  After that, years down the road, something might happen by way of remediation if certain conditions prevail.  (In our neighborhood a burned out fifth wheel and a massive accumulation of trash took four years of neighborhood pestering to get action.)  The Board of Supervisors (BOS) is rethinking this bizare situation and might actually be on the verge of making changes to a completely broken system.  Let's hope so.  To unincorporated communities like ours it matters a lot.  Health, safety, fire threat not to mention property devaluing eyesores are at issue.  

  This property has been reported to Pinal County officials. It's much worse than these pics suggest.  Clear threats to the health and safety of children are present in a structure behind the trash pictured and a burned out trailer as images in a previous post reflect.  Slow walking remediation of this problem is not on county public works employees.  It's a fuction of rules and regs overseen by the Board of Supervisors.  

The fire last time...

  Fighting fires is a serious business.  So is reducing fuel loads.  Our town is fortunate to have dedicated volunteers to shepherd our efforts to safely burn brush and maintain Oracle's brush dump.

  Two recent structure fires testify to the ongoing threat.  Terrible as they were they could have been much worse if surrounding properties had been torched.

   Way back in 2017 Pinal County Open Space and Trails leader Kent Taylor spearheaded the Oracle Park improvement project.  Several neighbors got together to offer their perspectives and students from the UA's School of Landscape Architecture were enlisted to help out.  Then covid hit and things seemed to go sideways.  But Taylor persisted behind the scenes among other things figuring out a funding stream and responding to neighborhoods concerns. 

  Backed first by Supervisor Peter Rios, followed by Supervisors Kevin Cavanaugh and Jeff McClure, Taylor's efforts chugged along as plans were formalized and construction contracts bid out. 

  Then in early March construction crews began showing up.  That's when we knew the improvements were for real!

    Union Yes!

  It seemed pretty much impossible a few short months ago that a group of young students in the Tri-Community could pull together a band concert in the San Manuel School District Auditorium before the end of the school year. After all, most of the 30+ members had never played their instruments individually much less collectively before the new band program began in  the fall. 
  But skeptics (Kaz and I admit to being among them) failed to reckon with the talent, professionalism, and determination of Lorena Candelaria.  We know Lorena and her familly from church, Zumba, and the Oracle Community Center but had never been witness to her consumate skills in building a musical program from scratch with young people in a few short monnths.   In that regard the concert last night was revelatory!

  There are so many back stories to this accomplishment that I can't begin to detail them here.  There's the role of the Oracle Piano Society and the brilliant leadership of Dr. Stephen Cook and OPS board leader Rachel Opinsky (pictured above with Dr. Cook, Lorena, and congratulatory flower deliverer Kaz).  There's the vital role of music in educating the young recognized by Mammoth-San Manuel school leaders.  And there's Lorena's personal history teaching, raising a family and overcoming life threatening health challenges.
  (That's just for starters.) 
  "Amazing" is an overused word these days but here its richly deserved.  The band concert last evening in San Manuel was truly amazing.

  Cuba is distinguished by the magnificence of its arts and culture creatives.  Now upon return from our visit we can testify personally to this reality.
  It’s no surprise that the performative arts of Cuba resonated deeply with Kaz and myself.  After all we have lived in Oracle for more than 40 years and our town’s future, a bit like Cuba’s, depends in part on diverse artistic endeavors to sustain residents and attract visitors.   So now the “Oracle-Cuba connection” emerges as especially rich and timely.  
  While on our trip to Havana we couldn’t even begin to plumb the depths of Cuban sensibilities, we did experience enough to come away blown away by the energy and talent that graced performances we witnessed. To a person our group of 37 from the US felt the same way.

  One of several high points of our shared experience was a concert led by Aldo López-Gavilán himself.  When word of his concert spread, people of all ages and backgrounds flocked to the event. We overheard locals declare he could fill a stadium with fans of his musicality… on a day’s notice. 
  During an almost three hour performance Aldo summoned masters (many of them youngsters!) of keyboards. drums, and horns to join him on stage, contributing to a sense of collective accomplishment that was met with raucous approval by the audience (including us).  We came away believing Aldo and company were Cuban rock stars (or should we say “jazz stars”) true to their own unique calling.

  We applaud Steve and Bridget Cook and the  Oracle Piano Society for any and all efforts  to more deeply connect Oracle, Arizona  with Havana, Cuba now and into the future.

  Getting in and out of Cuba for a US Citizen is tricky.  Though it’s about as far from Miami, Florida as Oracle is from Sky Harbor, a maze of obstacles awaits US travelers … which is why most visitors determined to visit Cuba need a leader/guide.
  We had one such leader and a support institution.  The guide was Neil Birmbaum with Cuba Rhythm and Views.  Our supporting institution was the Oracle Piano Society led by Steve Cook.  Birnbaum is just quirky enough to be a good fit with Oracle residents like Kaz and myself.  And his team working with him in Cuba is open to sharing insights into “the real Cuba” allowing us to feel a bit like insiders.

  We did a lot of walking which was a challenge for me with a bum ankle and balance issues.  But I had a stick that helped out as did the supportive hands and shoulders made available at difficult moments.  
  One of the walk destinations was a daycare facility for pre-school age children run by the Sisters for the Love of God.  A ways up an Havana side street, a cavernous old building like so many in Cuba’s biggest city, housed the service.  The children under the nun’s care literally lit up the place.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Catholic Church in Cuba supports such a vital presence.  Exactly what it’s doing in a “communist” country is a bit of a mystery (along with many other mysteries unique to the island nation).

   Our visit was graced with the presence of these lovely youngsters,  (Yes, we had permission to take pictures.)