The reality is that nothing, not here on Earth, or in the vastness of space, is truly independent. If we’ve learned anything in the past three years it is that, despite all desires born from any number of rationales, we continuously impact each other regardless of distance, race, or nationality.

In December 2022, the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance (PARA) filed legal objections to two permits issued by Arizona state agencies for the Hermosa Project in the Patagonia Mountains: an Aquifer Protection Permit (groundwater impacts) and an Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (surface water impacts). Aquifer protection permit. In 2018,...

Note: An epic 3,800-word version of this column will be available on this website shortly, with additional photos. Stay tuned. What follows is the 750-word version, as available in the PRT’s print edition. I am standing outside in the early afternoon sun of December. I am panning for gold...

As the year comes to an end and the winter approaches, everyone has just one thing on their mind: good food. No? Just me?. For anyone who shares the same love of food, the Patagonia Library has great book options for you. A warm, rich soup from “Soup for Syria:...

This has been a great year for the Patagonia Pool and PRAC (Patagonia Regional Aquatic Center). We have secured 501(C)3 nonprofit status, received five grants, held, or participated in, at least 11 local events which brought in over $12,000, received donations from about 70 donors, purchased a basketball hoop and volleyball net for the pool, and have had many, many hours of time donated. The relationships with Patagonia Schools and the town are strong and we foresee that continuing into the future.

The PRT Good Neighbor Award recognizes people who voluntarily build a better community in Canelo, Elgin, Sonoita and Patagonia. We asked our readers to nominate someone they knew who was a ‘good neighbor.’ Winners in both adult and youth divisions were selected. Gift certificates to local restaurants were awarded to both the winners of the contest and to those who nominated them. Thank you for sending in your nominations for the 2022 Good Neighbor Awards.

A pair of white shoes continues to haunt me. When I found them, they lay upright and spare, neatly arranged along the edge of a dirt road, as if their occupant had disappeared somehow with other garments and forgotten them. But the shoes were not forgotten, a fact that I learned gradually and grudgingly during several years of fieldwork in the US–Mexico borderlands of southern Arizona. Those shoes had been placed deliberately and with an intention that I continue to try to comprehend from the field where I found them, among others who continuously engage in attempts at comprehension as part of their daily routines, and who regularly experience the effects of such rupturing events.

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Selects Ana “Anita” Moreno as the Santa Cruz County Recorder, Effective January 1, 2023. On December 20, 2022, at the regular Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted to appoint Ana “Anita” Moreno as the new Santa Cruz County Recorder, effective January 1, 2023. Ms. Moreno was appointed to replace Santa Cruz County Suzanne “Suzie” Sainz who is retiring on December 31, 2022.

For the second time in three years, a Patagonia Union High School student has been admitted to an Ivy League university with a full scholarship. PUHS senior Nicholas Dekhtyar will enter Columbia University in New York as a freshman in Fall, 2023. “I’ve always dreamed of going to an Ivy...

The Department of Justice filed suit today seeking a court order to immediately halt further construction of Gov. Doug Ducey’s makeshift cargo container wall in Coronado National Forest along the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall there is now almost four miles long. The federal government told U.S. District Court Judge...

On Wednesday afternoon, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway made an unscheduled visit to the group of protesters who have been working since Nov. 29 to stop construction of the container wall by the state of Arizona in Coronado National Forest, inside the neighboring Cochise County. “He just came riding...

Santa Cruz County Recorder has notified the Board of Supervisors of her intent to retire December 31, 2022. County Recorder Sainz’s service to the community spans 27 years as Recorder and an additional 14 years at the County Assessor’s Office. The Board of Supervisors accepted the County Recorder’s resignation at their regular meeting on December 6, 2022.

As of Dec. 7, 466 shipping containers, ordered by AZ Gov. Doug Ducey, have been stacked on the border in Cochise County to fill in gaps along the border that were left when Biden halted Trump’s Border Wall. This wall is heading west across the San Raphael Valley towards Santa Cruz County. If the construction crosses the County line, SCC Sheriff David Hathaway vowed last week to arrest the crew working on it for “illegal dumping.” In contrast to Hathaway, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels supports construction of the container wall. “It will deter crime and stop criminal behavior,” he said recently.

“If the containers reach Santa Cruz County, we are drawing a line in the sand”, Sheriff Hathaway said in a phone call with the PRT on Dec. 2, 2022. Hathaway stated that “We will be arresting and charging anyone involved in placing these containers with ‘illegal dumping on public land.'”

Suzanne “Suzie” Sainz, Santa Cruz County Recorder, has submitted her letter of retirement to the county supervisors. Her resignation takes effect Dec. 31, 2022. Sainz has two years remaining in her current elected term and has been in her position for over 28 years. According to the agenda...

We at the PRT are really excited to share our December issue with you. This issue is loaded with important and entertaining news stories. Be sure to read Lynn Davison’s article on the container wall at the border, Kat Crockett’s article about the County’s efforts to control the fentanyl epidemic, and the frustrations of Verizon users in Patagonia, to name but a few of the stories here. Once again, I am in awe of our citizen journalists who volunteer their time and expertise to keep our community informed. Truly, local news matters.