As we know, the greatest existential threats to our town are fires and floods. 
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this bond for Flagstaff’s future. It includes four sections, which include: purchasing five new wildland fire trucks for a little more than $2 million, helping to increase stormwater infrastructure in the Spruce Wash for $26 million, building wastewater capacity for our wastewater plant for $21 million and creating energy efficiencies and sustainable practices at the wastewater plant by $8 million.
As we know, the greatest existential threats to our town are fires and floods. The weather and climate are changing, our forests are burning down and what used to be flooding, categorized as happening once every 100 to 200 years, has happened six times in the last 10 years. Our basic infrastructure that was built decades ago simply cannot withstand the powers of Mother Nature as they are today. We have to adapt, and that is going to take some serious investment.
Wastewater, though, is something that people tend to know less about, but we are at a tipping point. Our wastewater plant is at capacity right now. If we do not update the plant in the next couple of years, we are going to be in real trouble, with difficulties treating the water before it goes into our aquifer. I know the price tag is high, but we simply have to deal with this, and bonding is our only concrete option.
The other section of the bond – energy efficiencies – is going to help with our sustainability goals, doing such things as capturing the methane from the wastewater plant for energy reuse. Some of these improvements could lead to us having a dryer at the plant, which would capture fuel for transport so that we could resell our waste. As Northern Arizona University continues to consider building a biofuel plant on south campus to heat buildings and residents’ homes, this would be a great way for them to have a steady supply of fuel. A local biofuel plant would be extraordinarily beneficial to our forest thinning goals, allowing a productive use of the slash in the forest.
I want to thank all of our firefighters, public works staff and everyone who has been fighting the fires and responding to our natural disasters. Even when dealing with emergencies, they are planning for the future, giving us ways we can invest in the protection of our city and surrounding community. Proposition 441 will go a long way to building that investment.
Stay safe, Flagstaff. FBN
By Paul Deasy, FBN
Paul Deasy is the mayor of Flagstaff.
All opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Flagstaff City Council
