Two-step or sidestep?

Posted by Cindy Yurth | Feb 9, 2017 | News |

Vernon man accuses Apache County of illegally leasing equipment shed

Submitted
This photo, from 2015, shows a country-western dance at the Apache County equipment shed in Chinle. It was posted on Apache County District One Manager Patrick Sandoval’s Facebook page.

CHINLE

A Vernon, Arizona man says Apache County has for years been illegally renting out its equipment shed in Chinle for country-western dances and other events — most recently last Saturday — and can’t produce any evidence the rental fee or any proceeds from the events made their way into county coffers.

“I don’t know where all the money is going, but it’s not going to Apache County,” stated George Walsh.

Walsh, who describes himself as a concerned taxpayer and alternate member of the county’s planning and zoning board, shared with the Times documents he received from the county after filing a public records request.

Walsh said the dances have been going on for years according to photographs Chinle residents have shared with him (some of which he posted on a Facebook page he created called “Apache County Individual and Property Rights Association”), but the county was only able to produce two “Facilities Use Request” forms, one for a dance on Feb. 1, 2016 to benefit “rodeo awards” and one from Feb. 22, 2016 to benefit the Chinle High School Pow-Wow Club.

The forms specify a “facility usage fee” of $400, although in the case of the pow-wow club the figure was crossed out and replaced with $100.

Walsh has no problem with the discrepancy between the amounts — “They probably have some sort of sliding scale, which is fine,” he said — but after requesting county financial documents, he could find no evidence that either of those checks, or any money from any of the dances, had been deposited with the county.