December 10, 2008

High up in the pristine White Mountains of Northern Arizona, is a place where the wind and snow can blow swift and vicious. Where trust and honesty are hard to find, if at all. Where everyone has a ‘secret,' from the dogcatcher to the Magistrate Judge. Where the secrets are protected with blatant corruption, intimidation, deceit, abuse of power, discrimination, maleficence of office, and a plethora of nefarious activities. Welcome to Springerville, Arizona.

This I-Report chronicles one woman's idealistic journey through the quagmire of corruption, abuse of power, and the consequences she would face as a result of this journey. The dog and pony show that ensued, in the coming years, would reveal the extent and reach of the corruption associated with Springerville, AZ., not unlike the current events unfolding in St. Johns, AZ., just thirty miles from Springerville, with an eight-year-old child being charged with murder.

Beginning in 1978, Tumbling T Drive, located in the Colter Subdivision, was being surfaced with highly toxic paper mill waste. Acquired from what is presently known as the Abitibi paper mill in Snowflake, AZ. The residents, living on Tumbling T Drive, complained, and appealed to, the Town Council members, and County officials, not only about the smell, but also, the copious amounts of dust they were breathing, created by a constant stream of speeding traffic. They were eventually successful in getting the Town officials to close the road, but nothing more. Surfacing the road with toxins continued, until I came into the mix, in 2002.

In 2002, without explanation, reason, or notification to the residents living on Tumbling T Drive, the Springerville Town Council members once again opened this road to through traffic, after resurfacing it with an unknown substance. Within weeks people and children, living on this road, began to get sick, with a variety of illnesses, mostly associated with respiratory problems. A five-month-old infant was flown out of Springerville, twice, because he stopped breathing. The neighbor and I began to investigate; what exactly had they put on our road? Eventually, we all met and compared notes. We discovered that we were ALL ill with the same symptoms. One individual, with a congenital heart disease, began to have an increase in difficulties with that issue; another resident suffered a mild heart attack, and I developed a new onset of not only Asthma, but also, a respiratory illness that took six weeks to recover from, and only with aggressive steroid treatment.

From Dec. 2002, until June 2005, I fought the Town and County to get the chemicals cleaned up off of our road and to close it once again to through traffic. Even after showing them the results of testing I had conducted by a Certified Industrial Hygienist, they continued to refuse. My fight escalated to the Arizona District Court, with a complaint I filed with nineteen counts of Breach of Fiduciary Obligation under Federal Law, and nine counts of Breach of Fiduciary Obligation under State Law, along with a separate complaint for Civil Rights violations, case numbers CV'04 1496 PCT FJM and CV '04 1495 PCT RCB, respectively. During this process the Town officials attempted, in a variety of ways, to "Shut me up," and put me back into my place. All of which are included in a book I wrote about the corruption, maleficence of office, and abuse of power I encountered while "Fighting City Hall," and, after the Town of Springerville paved the road and closed it to through traffic in 2005; "The Road, Memoir of Corruption and Abuse of Power," ISBN 1-4196-9793-5. I was forced to use a Pen Name to write my book, to protect it from sabotage; and those individuals that would rather it not see the light of day; Allyson Newell is the Pen Name I used.

I have included with this I-Report only a small portion of the activities the Town of Springerville officials went to to get my book cancelled and to retaliate against me for having the audacity to write it, e.g., an ‘interview' with a detective from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which was requested by the Springerville Police Dept. In this interview it is blatantly obvious that he was here to intimidate, threaten, and coerce me into canceling my book and blog. How do I know that? Because he brought a copy of my book with him, stating, " I borrowed it from the Springerville Police." I have received numerous death threats (pictures included of a recently murdered animal), thrown into my yard in broad daylight, and sent to me via email.

However, the people that live on Tumbling T Drive have had a reasonable quality of life restored to them, as well as to their children, who can now play in their yards without fear of being killed by a drunk driver, or from breathing carcinogenic toxins.

The Town of Springerville continues to use mining waste to surface the gravel roads in this community, and many cases of Silicosis have been diagnosed, reported, and discovered in this town.

As a result of the research I did to write my book, and prepare legal documents, the Town of Springerville has enacted a ‘new' Public Records Request Policy, making it more difficult to obtain "evidence" against them. A large part of the information, cited in my book, came directly from the Town's own public records.