A Message from Steve K...07/17/2023

• John C. Scott

• Guitar at Flora’s  

• Bringing Closure to the Rats 

Guitar at Flora’s  

My team and I join in thanking Dawn Gouge for coming down from Phoenix and making the presentation on urban rodents last week. We had a full house in the community room plus another roughly 80 listening in online. The general take-away is that several species of rodents are present in our environment, they’re not going away and the best we can do is to manage our interactions with them. That is to say – keep them in their space while we enjoy ours. 

I was surprised to learn that mice/rodents have extremely flexible bodies. A small field mouse can enter a house through an opening that’s about the size of a dime. If there’s light coming in under your door sweep, a mouse can make it through. Not being a huge fan of sharing my indoor space with rats, that information wasn’t real comforting. There are commercial pest control companies who will come to your house and do an inspection, pointing out places that can be points of entry. 

Signs that you may have some rodent roommates include droppings around food packages, inside drawers or under the sink where it’s cool and possibly where they might have access to some dripping water, chewing on food packaging, or nesting material such as shredded paper, fabric or plant material. If you have fruit trees outside and notice that even the fruit that hasn’t dropped has been chewed on, you might have roof rats. 

There were several questions included in the exchange that was going on in the zoom chat. One of the topics Dawn covered was diseases rodents can transmit. Here’s a related exchange from the chat – with her answer bolded.

Are roof rats hantavirus pulmonary syndrome disease vectors? 

In the US, the deer mouse, the white-footed mouse, the rice rat, and the cotton rat are vectors of Hantavirus.  However, the pathogens carried by any rodent population are highly variable, so not all populations of any species always carry the virus. Roof rats have not been found to vector the hantavirus that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. But they have been found to carry and can transmit Seoul virus that is a member of the hantavirus family of rodent-borne viruses. Most people who contract Seoul virus experience mild or no symptoms, but there have been cases of a severe form of the disease. This is one of the reasons roof rats should not be tolerated indoors. 

During the meeting we talked about several ways to manage the rodent population in our neighborhoods. One is cleaning up fruit and things such as date palms once it hits the ground. Another is cats, although many of the people in attendance pointed out the conflict that brings with our ability to enjoy the birds. PACC had suggested barn owls. A G&F representative who came to the meeting cautioned that Game and Fish doesn’t have a ready supply to be handing out to neighborhoods. And they require nesting boxes, and may only be effective on field mice or small rodents. In addition, many of our midtown neighborhoods already have Great Horned Owls – they might prey on the small barn owls. The Great Horned Owl is the most aggressive of the owl species so if you’ve got some of them hooting around the neighborhood, introducing barn owls isn’t a good solution. 

Another option that was discussed is contraception. Posting bait boxes that include sterilization pellets. Here’s an exchange from the chat on that option, with Dawn’s reply bolded. 

Is Contrapest dangerous to other animals, those that consume the rats? 

In my opinion ContraPest poses a relatively low risk to nontarget animals (including humans), or the environment. The product is formulated for rats and deployed in containers that larger animals cannot get into.  Currently the oral contraceptive is registered in the US for management of roof rats (Rattus rattus) and Norway rats (R. norvegicus). The active ingredients are 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide and triptolide and if the rats stop feeding on the product they can become fertile once more and start again to reproduce. There are very few studies that have looked at non-target effects, and non in desert environments I could find. I would expect only the same size or smaller animals could access the ContraPest, because it is a liquid substance the rodents cannot relocate it outside of the bait-box. Some fertility products have been found to effect animals that consume dosed rodents, but I couldn’t find anything in the literature available to me regarding the ContraPest product.    

And we had some others in the chat who brought more information on the sterilization option. Here’s an add from another participant: 

As far as I know Contrapest is specific to mammals and a dose for a rodent would not affect a larger mammal.  Plus the effect is not permanent.  The rat has to keep coming back to the bait station.  Contrapest is most effective when used with trapping.  It won’t completely eliminate the rats but will keep them at a manageable level.  It was developed by a UA researcher trying to induce menopause in female rats.  It works on both males and females. 

Alberta, Canada is a largely agricultural area. They had some significant problems with rodents dating back to the ‘50’s. They instituted wide-spread control programs that have resulted in this decrease in rat infestations in the province: 

The trouble is one of their tools is rat poison. They have used public education, prohibiting having rats as pets, taking legal action against residents who allowed infestations to exist on their property and other measures. But the initial application of poison resulted in negative effects on other animals. What Alberta did is not something any of the experts at our forum are suggesting. This link describes what Alberta did, including some of the collateral damage: 

https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx 

The most effective approach is if neighbors can agree on a scaled, neighborhood approach. But individual homeowners can also take effective steps, including rodent-proofing your home to prevent entry, cleaning up food sources around your yard, avoiding having piles of debris (organic or otherwise) in your yard, and trimming branches so they’re not hanging over and in contact with your roof. We live with coyotes, javelina, bobcats, all sorts of birds of prey, snakes – and rodents.  

Daniel Shailer wrote a good recap of the event. Here’s a link to his article that ran in the Sentinel over the weekend:

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/071423_rat_prevention_training/schools-in-rats-out-rodent-training-ward-6-offers-no-easy-answers/  

And here’s the KVOA story Eric Fink ran the night of our rat meeting:

https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/homeowners-in-sam-hughes-neighborhood-surrounding-midtown-areas-meet-to-find-solution-to-growing-rodent/article_b7bd1d4a-2077-11ee-97ee-47b6d00e451b.html  

We get calls every day asking us to help you navigate the city bureaucracy. Constituent services are the main reason we’re here and we’re happy to help. Often people just want help with the first step and they’ll carry through on their own. To that end, here are some of the most commonly requested resources, with links to access help. 

For emergency police or medical you of course dial 911. But for on-line reporting of non-emergency crime, you can use this link:  

https://www.tucsonaz.gov/apps/crime-reporting/   

You can report issues surrounding homeless camps by using this link: 

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/10b590ae4b7e423ca9c02912996620a8 

The city uses a 3-tier approach to addressing camps. It isn’t until Tier 3 when evidence of criminal activity is happening that a camp will be removed. My approach would be to identify appropriate and inappropriate locations for camps before assigning a tier. For example, directly behind your back yard fence on an easement is not an appropriate place for people to be camped out. But M&C to this point have disagreed so the tiered approach is what will be followed. The online link will ask you for the location and description of the camp. It won’t assign a tier – that comes after the homeless protocol staff check the site you’re reporting. 

If your business has issues with people hanging out after hours on your property you should file a No Trespass letter with TPD. Use this link for that purpose:  

https://docs.tucsonaz.gov/Forms/TPD-Trespass-Letter-Of-Consent  

The No Trespass letter allows TPD to remove people from your property after hours without having to first track you down and ask permission. It’s a tool you can use to expedite protection of your property. 

Code issues can include overgrown weeds, junked motor vehicles left for months at a time, work without permits, improper storage, and more. One of our most proficient and under-appreciated city staffers is Laurie Pumphrey from code enforcement. Use this link to initiate an inspection – don't use it to simply harass a neighbor. We get a lot of these so please use the link judiciously and Laurie will get the process started: 

https://docs.tucsonaz.gov/Forms/EGSD-Code-Enforcement-Violation-Report  

With those links you can get started. If you have any questions though, please always feel free to reach out to us at the ward 6 office and we’ll lend you a hand. Our number is 520.791.4601. 

Speaking of lending a hand, I began working with Lend A Hand Senior Assistance (LAH) a couple of years ago right after my mom died. They’re a group of over a dozen midtown (all in ward 3) neighborhoods joined together to help neighbor seniors. The group is volunteer-driven. They help coordinate things such as providing meals, transportation, exercise programs, yard work – the kinds of things we all need help with from time to time, and the kinds of things having help with may result in a person being able to stay in their home. I walked through some of the tough places wanting to remain independent took me and my mom. I love the work LAH does and the impact it has on the lives of our senior population. 

LAH has over 125 clients scattered throughout the community. They’re supported by 57 active volunteers. They can always use more volunteer help. Check them out at their website:  

www.lahseniorhelp.org. 

The current coordinator for the LAH work is retiring at the end of ‘23 and they’re recruiting for a replacement. That person helps coordinate the services, the volunteers, and the transportation LAH provides. The coordinator facilitates their monthly meetings, and serves as the public face for LAH. The coordinator will receive a stipend of $1,500 per month for working the roughly 25-30 hours per week pulling the LAH strings. They’re looking for someone who has worked with seniors, has some computer skills and who has some knowledge of Spanish. 

If you are interested, or if you know someone who may be, please reach out to Vicki at vamills@arizona.edu and she’ll get you connected with an application. 

Friend of the ward office and friend of the plastics program Chip sent me an interesting article about a study done through ABC News in which they tracked some single use bags to see what really happens to them after being dropped at one of the plastic bags drops you see in some grocery stores. For this study they glued some tracking Air Tags to some bags and wrapped them up together so the tracking device wouldn’t get dislodged. They used some Target and some Walmart stores in their study. 

This likely won’t come as a huge surprise to those of you who are already involved with the Tucson plastic program, but ABC tracked half of the bags to a landfill, several more ended up ‘stranded’ at a transfer station that didn’t do any recycling, and a few never left the store where they had been dropped off. Of the 46 involved in the study only 4 ended up at a facility that was involved with recycling plastic bags. So, if you’re taking your single use plastic bags to a grocery store expecting them to be recycled, this one study shows about 10% of the bags you take there actually get to a recycle center. Most is landfilled. Judith Enk is the president of Beyond Plastics. She’s also a former EPA administrator. Her comment to ABC News was “People should keep recycling their metal, glass, their paper. But plastic recycling has been an abysmal failure.” We know. 

I won’t keep the weekly running total going because we’re at a pretty stable 4-5-ton range per week. If that changes, I can start the count again but for now we’re over 130 tons collected since the pilot started last August. About 100 tons – and counting – is what the city is right now trying to manage while we wait on our partner to build the processing machine, and while we finish gathering costs for and building the operating facility. Nobody is as eager to see this program get up and running than my staff and I. We’ll get there. Our environmental services team is working hard to pull numbers together so we can make some final calls and commitments. Hopefully this week or next. 

...Food Waste 

Side bar environmental note – we have a partnership with several local restaurants, the Reid Park Zoo and the UA student union through which we collect food and green waste. If we can keep that material out of the landfill, we can make a significant impact on the expected 70 year life span of the landfill. In the first quarter of this year through these partnerships we’ve diverted over 420 tons of green waste from the landfill. 

We created the Compost Cat FoodCycle program just under 10 years ago. Any Tucson business that generates food or green waste can sign up to be a part of the FoodCycle program. Some of our current partners include Hotel Congress, Tucson Convention Center, U of A‘s Global Student Center, U of A Memorial Student Union, two U of A Campus Starbucks stores, the 3000 Club, Govinda's Natural Foods, Snooze Eatery, Beyond Bread, Raging Sage, Intuit, Whole Foods on Speedway and Reid Park Zoo. In the case of the zoo, they’re collecting the food and green waste, but they also have ‘access to’ quite a bit of, well, manure. That’s their Zoo Doo program. That’s added to the rest of the program material and we’re creating some pretty nitrogen and potassium rich compost material. 

Diverting green waste from the landfill has the added benefit of reducing the carbon emissions out at Los Reales. Less greenhouse gas being emitted means cleaner air for Tucson. If you’d like to look into how you can get involved with the FoodCycle program, check this link: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Environmental-and-General-Services/Recycling/FoodCycle-Compost-Program  When residents visit Los Reales, you’ll now find separate drop off areas for your green waste.  

Ok, back to plastic – here's a story Alisa Reznick from KJZZ ran last week. Alisa has been following the progress of the program since the beginning.

https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1851491/tucson-project-turning-plastic-waste-construction-grade-building-blocks   

We know you care about this program based on the continue donations we receive. When KOLD ran their story on the arrival of the tiny home last week they had over 20,000 page views of the story on their website. That’s an unheard of number for anything but a gruesome crime story. 

Join the Team!

Microgrids 

When I asked some folks from the city to give me an estimate on what it’d cost to put a little canopy of solar panels up to power the 80 sq/ft tiny home we now have in front of the office I didn’t expect anything close to the “between $30,000 and $50,000.” It’s an ‘estimate‘. This cost includes the installation of a 2KW solar system on the unit's rooftop, a battery storage system of 1000amp hours, and an inverter.  And the gear would have to be installed on the interior of the unit, effectively reducing the floor space by an unacceptable amount. My reply – that’s nuts. If you’re in the business and have a better option, let me know. 

In San Diego they are moving ahead with microgrids such as what I’ve proposed the city look into. They began construction on the first of what will be 8 solar-powered microgrids, all with the aim of reducing their carbon footprint, saving money and building resiliency into their power system. 

In San Diego they’re setting up microgrids that can operate independently from the larger power grid. Theirs will be located at police and fire stations, community and recreational centers. They estimate their energy savings will be in the $6M range over the next 25 years.  

This is a rendering of a ‘microgrid’ (not so micro) being proposed for JFK International Airport in New York. Their planned grid will provide over 11.4 megawatts of power. That’s a lot. Wood Mackenzie does research and market analysis on utilities. They’re estimating a 20% increase in demand for microgrids in just the next 5 years.  

One component of microgrids is battery storage. There’s a lot of design development going into those right now. Microgrids often require a significant up front capital investment. With the growth in their popularity that financing challenge is also getting a fresh look. 

I won’t be paying $30K to power the little tiny house, but I will continue advocating for the city to enter the microgrid world, using them to power our cooling stations, water pumps and other critical infrastructure. 

The Tucson Sector of Border Patrol is right now receiving roughly 1/3 of all of the people crossing our southern border. That means Casa Alitas is stretched to the limit, receiving over 600 new guests every day. I’m opening this section with a big note of thanks to Wade, the GM for operations at our local PepsiCo distribution center. He and his team have donated 100 cases of bottled water and 60 cases of Gatorade to Casa Alitas. I’m in conversation with him about what the next few weeks might look like from the standpoint of getting fluids to the migrants, but getting this first donation was significant, and it came at a significantly important time for the people involved. 

On Wednesday of this week, we at ward 6 will be hosting a fill the pick-up event where we invite you to come by and leave cases of bottled water in the truck, we’ll have parked outside of the ward office from 9am to 1pm. All of it will be taken directly to Casa Alitas at the end of the day. We’d love to have to make multiple trips. 

Also, out at Casa Alitas they’re in need of men’s pants sizes 26 to 32. The people arriving at the center have lost lots of weight during their trek getting here. Most of the pants donations Alitas has received in the past have been too large and end up getting passed onto other agencies to help meet their needs. And of course the sunscreen, hygiene products, new underwear, tennis shoes sizes 9-13, shoelaces (Border Patrol confiscates their laces), ball caps and kid’s toys. Alitas is at the ward office weekly picking up what you’ve donated. 

Our Tucson homeless protocol team is also I need of some pretty specific items. Those include sheets, blankets, towels, and pillows. When people accept a room at one of the city-run hotels they always need that bedding material from the start.  Household goods are always appreciated because most folks in shelter do not have much to take with them when they move into their unit.  Microwave ovens are helpful as not all apartments have one.  Currently at Wildcat they have 25 children varying in age from newborns to teenagers so baby items, toys, books, games, kids’ activities are some of the things they hope to collect.  

Ann and I visited an Independent Living community last Friday and spoke to them about homeless, migrants and human needs generally. That group will be putting together bags with bottled water and something packaged to eat. They’ll be handing it to people who are otherwise asking for money at some of our intersections. We appreciate that outreach, and noted it’s important to consider handing them food and drink and not money. At ward 6 we appreciate all of the generosity this community exhibits. 

Election day for the city council/mayor primary is coming on Tuesday, August 1st. The city clerk’s office is right now looking for people to help work at the various voting stations that’ll be scattered around town that day. Before that date election workers will be required to sit through one training class.  

The work day on election day begins early – 5am – and it runs until polls close at 7pm. The duties will include accepting and keeping a tally of drop off ballots, and helping with the tear down of the tents at the end of the day. The clerk’s office pays a stipend of $225 for the day. If you can help the city on election day, please reach out to City Records Manager Jesus Acedo at jesus.acedo@tucsonaz.gov, or call him at 520.791.4213.  

Operation Splash 

It is going to rain. Maybe even today. Our transportation folks have put Operation Splash back into effect in an effort to convince the clouds that they have a job to do – and we’ll be ready. 

Our transportation staff is already on call 24 hours per day. That’ll continue through mid-September. As washes flood, crews are on call to close off roadways and dip crossings where needed. They’ve got over 500 barricades ready to deploy. Don’t try to drive through a running dip. Every year there are swift water rescues – or attempts at them – resulting from motorists who ignore the reality that dips during monsoons can be deadly. And those rescue efforts put our own public safety personnel at risk as well. 

Sandbag distribution has also started. As was true in the past, use the east parking lot at Hi Corbett in Reid Park to fill up to 10 sandbags per vehicle. Bring your own shovel. This is a self-serve site that operates on the honor system. 

At ward 6 we’re grateful to all of our hard working transportation staff, and to our TFD emergency personnel who are out in the elements risking their own safety on behalf of the community. 

Are you looking for work? Tucson Water is hosting a one day hiring event where you might be offered a position on the same day as the interview. On Saturday, July 22nd from 9am until 2pm the event will take place at the water building located at 310 W. Alameda.  

These are Account Relations Specialists. You’ll be working with Tucson Water customers finding solutions to their account questions. People don’t like to lead with questions about pay and benefits during a pre-employment interview for fear of leaving the impression that’s all they’re interested in. So, I’ll share the benefits of city employment here: 

Check this link for more information on working for the city.  

💧 http://bit.ly/tucsonwaterjobs   

And qualified Spanish speaking candidates may receive extra pay once they’ve passed the required testing. 

Recently I asked for a study session during which we’d get clarification on what role the city has, or does not have in eliminating racist and unenforceable language from conditions, covenants and restrictions (CCR’s) found in many older neighborhoods. These are legacy restrictions that date back to pre-1964  when the Civil Rights Act was passed, and pre-1968 when the Fair Housing Act was adopted. “Redlining” is illegal. And yet many CCR’s continue to contain restrictions based on race. During the study session the legal advice for us was the CCR’s are private contracts between homeowners and the city has no legal role in excising the racist language – even though it’s legally unenforceable. 

Legal counsel we were given suggested the only way to get rid of the offensive clauses was to ‘reopen’ the CCR’s on a neighborhood scale, vote to eliminate the offensive clauses and get the court to validate the changes. That’s a shortened description, but the process was lengthy, and costly. 

The San Carlos neighborhood recently went through a process that others might want to look into. They’ve avoided the long and expensive legal process and still were able to get their CCR’s changed and recorded at the Pima County Recorder’s Office. I’m sharing the full process they went through. I would encourage any neighborhood association to check with their own legal counsel and get an opinion as to the sufficiency and legality of what San Carlos did. I’ve read through it, and it looks pretty intuitive and well thought out. Here’s the bottom line – if someone wants to sue you, they’ll be suing to have language reinstated into your CCR’s that is in violation of federal and state law. I’d be willing to roll those dice.  

With thanks to San Carlos president Peter Williams for sharing this with me here's how they’ve handled the issue of racist CCR’s. The linchpin of their change was the clause they have that allows any element found to be invalid to be declared null and void. Look for a severability clause in your own CCR’s. I’ve highlighted that step in the San Carlos process below.