Tusayan council OKs Nov. special election

after being convicted in Georgia of making harassing telephone calls has been arrested in southern Arizona.

Border Patrol officials say 28-year-old Fernando Alberto Santoyo-Martinez now faces federal criminal charges for reentry.

Agents in the Tucson Sector arrested the alleged gang member Sunday east of Douglas for illegally entering the United States.

They say Santoyo-Martinez was convicted for the harassing calls in Clayton County, Georgia, and has multiple gangrelated tattoos on his body.

Tucson’s police chief is the victim of theft

TUSAYAN — A tiny town outside the Grand Canyon that has battled over whether to raise building heights will hold a special election in November to vote on the issue.

The small town council in Tusayan voted unanimously Wednesday evening to send the issue to mail ballot months after it originally decided to raise maximum building heights from 35 to 65 feet.

Wednesday’s vote followed the enduring pushback from a local political action committee that submitted 27 petition signatures to force a referendum on the matter.

But the town clerk and Coconino County officials rejected the petition after a random sample from the signatures did not pass muster.

The committee fought that decision in court where a judge settled the dispute and both parties agreed the election could move forward.

Code-enforcement fee fails in Mohave

Service.

County Administrator Mike Hendrix said the hope is to make the codeenforcement program self-sustaining through landfill fees.

Funding of the program would be reviewed annually along with landfill rates, evaluations and adjustments.

The county has to give people a 30-day notice to clean up their trash.

Batteries to augment town’s power supply

PUNKIN CENTER — Arizona’s largest utility plans to install battery storage systems to augment a small but growing rural community’s power supply instead of rebuilding 20 miles of lines to increase their capacity.

Arizona Public Service Co. says construction of two battery storage systems will begin in the fall in Punkin Center, which is about 53 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix.

APS says reduced costs of battery technology, Punkin Center’s rural location and technological benefits make the community a good fit for battery technology.

APS spokeswoman Annie DeGraw says the batteries will be needed 20 to 30 days annually to provide additional power during high demand periods, such as summer late afternoons and early evenings.

Existing lines serving Punkin Center will feed electricity to the batteries at night when demand is low. — Staff and wire services