January
■ The cause of a large house fire on New Year’s Eve is under investigation with arson not having been ruled out. A home under construction on Eagle Lane in the Chapel area was burned.
■ On Jan. 3, nearly $800,000 worth of marijuana and THC was located in forest areas in Sedona and near Rimrock. Around 8 a.m., Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies found over 30 vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana weighing a total of 48 pounds and another package that contained several sheets of pre-packaged THC wax.
■ Eric Borowsky and his daughter, Lisa Borowsky, requested a 60-day continuance before appearing before the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors regarding the zone change request for the proposed Spring Creek Ranch housing development.
■ A Village of Oak Creek man was arrested on Jan. 6, for allegedly starting fires and later stealing a van in the Village of Oak Creek. A YCSO deputy detained the driver, 31-year-old MacKenzie Boswell.
■ The Sedona Police Department is continuing its investigation into a trio of burglaries and a final fourth attempt, all at Bloom Dispensary, in which an undisclosed amount of medical marijuana was stolen. No suspect was caught.
■ Jonathan David Messare, 41, was shot and killed by two Sedona police officers on Newcastle Lane around 1:30 p.m. Jan. 20, the first officer-involved fatal shooting in the city’s history. Police received a call from a resident that there was an unknown man on the property with a machete and a stick. The man refused to drop his weapons and ran toward officers. Dash cam video was released in August.
■ A 2019 report from the Drug Enforcement Agency found that between 2006 and 2012, 70,846,215 opioid pills were sold by pharmacies in Yavapai County, averaging 48 pills per resident, contributing to the ongoing opioid addiction crisis in the area.
■ The Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board agreed to give two teachers on the verge of retirement full-time positions after facing public backlash. The board voted against rehiring a 29- year staffer one year from retirement.
February
■ Airport Mesa has gotten 10,000 cubic yards bigger as rock from a new housing development was donated. The offering saved the 2023 runway expansion project $700,000.
■ As part of the Oak Creek Watershed Restoration project, the Arizona Department of Transportation will close 26 of 59 pullouts in Oak Creek Canyon.
■ Yavapai County’s Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to make the county a Second Amendment Sanctuary, banning the use of county law enforcement or resources to infringe on people’s right to bear arms.
■ Sedona Red Rock High School’s theater teacher of eight months, Maxwell Peters, resigned suddenly.
■ Representatives of Verde Valley communities and other stakeholders met to try to develop a region-wide plan on housing to address shortages.
■ The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approved spending of up to $70 million for a new criminal justice center in Prescott.
■ On Feb. 25, the Sedona City Council planned to purchase two lots on Forest Road for an Uptown parking garage.
■ Film director and actor Rob Reiner was presented with the Sedona International Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Feb. 29.
March
■ On March 17, Mayor Sandy Moriarty proclaimed a state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. The city of Sedona closed in-person access to city facilities. The city already canceled all large-scale events including St. Patrick’s Parade, Food Truck Festival and Celebration of Spring.
■ Despite announcing on March 13 that schools in the Verde Valley intended to remain open, all seven school districts closed for two weeks. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the Arizona Department of Education closed all schools in Arizona on March 27.
■ The Verde Valley Archaeological Center was approved for low-interest loans of up to $4.7 million in order to build a new museum on its property off of State Route 260.
■ A domestic violence incident in Clarkdale led to the shooting death of Joshua David Lord by a Clarkdale police officer after Lord allegedly attacked his mother and killed his 4-year-old son. Police body camera footage showed Lord acting erratically prior to being fatally shot.
■ Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty closed all restaurants, food courts, cafes, coffeehouses, retail food facilities and other similar businesses and establishments through March 31. Restaurants were limited to takeout only.
■ A crash near Midgley Bridge resulted in the death of a woman, Celeste Quinto, after her pickup truck was discovered at the bottom of the ravine. Quinto was a mother of three from Las Vegas.
■ Yavapai County Community Health Services reported the first three positive cases of COVID-19 in Yavapai County, with two in Sedona.
■ Councilwoman Janice Howes Hudson announced her resignation due to a relocation from the area March 27. Former Councilman Tom Lamkin was appointed May 12 to fill her seat.
■ The Circle K in West Sedona was closed temporarily due to a COVID-19 positive case in an employee.
April
■ Businesses and government services were shut down in April due to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home suggestion, issued March 30.
■ On April 3, Coconino National Forest Supervisor Laura Jo West closed many popular and iconic trails and recreation sites in the Red Rock Ranger District to limit the spread of COVID-19.
■ The latest hotel occupancy figures through April 11 showed that Sedona was at 10%, based on the total number of hotel rooms in the area.
■ The Verde Valley adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Churches went virtual, musicians started posting performances online and food banks stretched to accommodate massive demand. Workers in industries like food service, tourism and the arts faced months of uncertainty and many relied on federal unemployment.
May
■ The Sedona Chamber of Commerce and the city of Sedona are preparing a public awareness campaign about steps businesses are taking to operate safely as reopening begins to help build confidence among Sedona shoppers.
■ Hair and nail salons became the first local businesses that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey allowed to return to operation he closed them to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants returned soon afterwards and Verde Valley Medical Center resumed elective surgeries.
■ A parade of purple flooded State Route 89A between Posse Grounds Park and Sedona Red Rock High School at 11 a.m. on May 18 as graduating seniors wore their caps and gowns to drive through a cacophony of lighthearted honks, cheers and fist pumps.
■ The first two nights of the Memorial Day weekend saw 77% hotel occupancy on that May 22, and then 91% the following May 23.
June
■ As life returns to some semblance of normalcy, signs of the Sedona area real estate market bouncing back are evident, with many homes selling in a matter of day or weeks, according to Rick Wesselhoff of Coldwell Banker.
■ After George Floyd, a black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, Black Lives Matter protests occur around the country with a small number resulting in violent clashes with police and counter-protestors. On June 8, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey briefly imposed a one-week 8 p.m. curfew statewide.
■ Since March 18, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District has distributed nearly 17,000 free meals to area children. The children don’t need to attend district schools in order to receive the meals. The parents don’t need to prove their income.
■ Following nearly two years of discussion and negotiations, Sedona’s two helicopter tour companies reached an agreement to establish a no-fly zone over the vast majority of the city.
■ Aaron Orrico, 49, of Rimrock, was sentenced last month in Yavapai County Superior Court to 24 years in prison on three counts of sexual assault against a trio of women for offenses that took place in 2016 while he was working as an independent massage therapist at Sedona spas.
■ The city of Sedona cancels July 4 events.
■ The Sedona City Council spent more than four hours on June 23 discussing whether or not to require masks be worn in public. Mayor Sandy Moriarty unilaterally issued an order without taking a vote.
July
■ Northern Arizona Healthcare announced plans to downgrade the Sedona Emergency Department, despite being in the midst of a global pandemic. On Oct. 15, after months of public backlash, NAH promised to keep the emergency room as-is for at least five years.
■ Bars and gyms were forced to close for a second time after briefly reopening.
■ Around 10:30 a.m. on July 5, a small aircraft made an emergency landing on State Route 89A in West Sedona. Sedona Fire District and Sedona Police Department personnel responded. No major injuries.
■ On July 9, 26 bars throughout the state of Arizona sued the governor, arguing that he did not have the authority to issue a closure order. Two Sedona bars, Mooney’s Irish Pub and Vino Di Sedona, joined the lawsuit, which now includes 150 bars.
■ The Sedona City Council unanimously approved a name change of a portion of Schnebly Road to Owenby Way.
■ Kurt Christianson accepted a position as Sedona City Attorney, replacing Robert Pickels.
■ Loretta Marion Larson, 92, co-founder of the Sedona Red Rock News, passed away July 22.
■ The city of Sedona’s Small grants Review Committee received requests for $263,860 and recommended issuing $166,500 in grants. Sedona City Council ignored the recommendation and only approved $45,200.
■ After more than 30 years of serving communities big and small, Sedona police officer Jackie McQuaid retired from SPD on July 30 after 23 years with the Sedona department.
■ Ducey allowed bars to reopen for the second time.
August
■ The night of Aug. 4, the SR 179 Sewer Main Replacement Project spilled 20,000 gallons of “untreated liquid effluent” along State Route 179, which flowed into Oak Creek. It was the third such spill on the project.
■ Incumbent Councilwoman Jessica Williamson was elected to serve another four-year term and Kathy Kinsella and Holi Ploog will fill vacancies left by Vice Mayor John Martinez and Councilman John Currivan, who did not seek re-election. Sandy Moriarty was elected to a fourth two-year term as mayor, narrowly defeating Kurt Gehlbach and write-in candidate Michael Werner.
■ Jennifer Wesselhoff, who has been with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce for nearly 20 years, 13 as president and CEO, announced she would be quitting to take a job with the Park City, Utah, chamber of commerce in October.
■ SOCSD students return to learn on Aug. 24, on campus for the first time since spring break started in mid-March.
September
■ Sedona Winefest and Red Rock Oktoberfest were canceled.
■ On Sept. 8, the Sedona City Council approved the purchase of three parcels of land in Uptown for a possible transit hub.
■ The city of Sedona established a 24-hour hotline and incident reporting form for problems with short-term rentals.
October
■ A hiker died at Bell Rock Oct. 1. The woman had reportedly fallen on Bell Rock Trail, hit her head and was unable to communicate. Passersby performed CPR before the arrival of emergency crews.
■ With tourism doing better in Sedona than expected, the city reinstated parking fees in Uptown, effective Oct. 12.
■ ADOT pulls slip lanes from the Sedona in Motion program, stating the minor improvement was not worth the expense. The city of Sedona agreed.
■ A man out hiking with two others near Sedona disappeared from the trail Oct. 8. His body was found the next day. Jordan Sean Brashears, 29, reportedly fell about 100 feet to his death.
■ In a letter issued to its residents, the Sedona Winds Retirement Community announced residents may have been potentially exposed to COVID-19 at the facility on Oct. 9. Courtney R. Beller, an attorney with Fennemore Craig, went beyond the letter to confirm the case.
■ Early voting in Yavapai County broke records weeks before election day.
■ A new spike in COVID-19 cases in the Verde Valley began, far outpacing the previous spike in early summer.
■ At the 2020 Arizona Newspapers Association’s awards ceremony held Oct. 15, Larson Newspapers won a total of 30 journalism awards and eight advertising awards.
■ Sedona police arrested a man suspected of starting a pair of small fires in Uptown during the early morning hours of Oct. 18.
■ Sedona-Oak Creek School District issued statements about students and staff testing positive for COVID-19. By the end of the semester there were 11 such cases.
November
■ Sedona police open an Uptown resource center at Sinagua Plaza. The resource center will be staffed by nearly a dozen SPD volunteers. There, the volunteers can offer assistance on things from general information to found or lost property.
■ Sedona Red Rock High School’s junior high school volleyball team secured a 2-0 win, claiming the league championship.
■ Democrat Donna Michaels unseated incumbent Republican Randy Garrison in the race for Yavapai County District 3 supervisor.
■ Republicans swept state legislative races in the area, with incumbent Rep. Walt Blackman and former Rep. Brenda Barton winning seats in the Arizona House of Representatives, and Wendy Rogers winning in the State Senate, her first win after five consecutive loses for various seats since 2010.
■ Democrat Mark Kelly defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Martha McSally and will serve the last two years of the six-year term the late U.S. Sen. John McCain won in 2016. Then-Rep. McSally lost a senate race to then-Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in 2018, but was appointed to McCain’s seat after he died in August 2018 and per state law, had to face a special election in 2020. McSally has the unique distinction of losing two races for U.S. senate seats in two years and single-handedly flipping a state’s senate delegation from one party to the other.
■ Former Vice President Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump. Biden won 306 electoral votes, including 11 from Arizona, to Trump’s 232 votes. Biden was the first Democrat to win Arizona’s electoral votes since Bill Clinton in 1992.
■ Maria Husted and Barbara Trautwein will both be the newest members of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board in 2021. They are the wives of the city’s police chief and fire chief, respectively.
■ On Nov. 7, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a residence on Cathedral Rock Drive in reference to a domestic disturbance in which the female subject involved had reportedly discharged a firearm. A patrol sergeant on scene fired one shot and killed the woman, 56-year-old Wendy Jones.
■ Virginia “Ginny” Volkman announced she would be retiring as director of Sedona Public Library after 24 years in Sedona and 40 in the field.
■ After a four-month search, the Sedona Arts Center has found a new director: Julie Richard, who resigned from her position as executive director of the Maine Arts Commission to move to Sedona.
■ The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors voted to end the proposed Verde Connect project, citing outsize costs. Due to a technical glitch, the board was to vote again to confirm its earlier vote, but instead reversed course and undid the earlier decision.
■ Recreational use and possession of marijuana becomes legal on Nov. 30 after Arizona officials certify election results. Sales won’t begin until summer 2021.
■ Thanks to the overwhelming passage of Proposition 207, legalizing recreational marijuana, dispensaries began looking into the process of getting licensed for recreational sales.
December
■ The Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission approved expanded hours for the Sedona Community Farmers Market.
■ The Sedona Chamber of Commerce announced Dec. 8 it hired Candace Carr Strauss, of Big Sky, Mont., to be the new president and CEO.
■ The Sedona City Council approved a construction contract of $731,565 for the Dry Creek Road Shared Use Path Improvements Project.
■ Matthew Paul Tucciarone was arrested for trespassing at a grocery store after he refused to obey the store policy requiring a face mask. Tucciarone reportedly refused to leave, then resisted arrest.
■ A Sedona police officer was injured and a suspect was shot following a reported auto theft and struggle, in what is now the department’s second officer-involved shooting of the year. The three suspects abandoned the stolen vehicle and one, Michael Paul Bergsma fought with Sedona police officer Steve Willadsen, who shot him during a struggle for the officer’s gun. The suspect was treated and booked at the Yavapai County Detention Center in Camp Verde.
■ Verde Valley Medical Center received the first COVID-19 vaccines and began inoculating health care workers.
■ Local schools saw significant drops in attendance in the first semester of this year, much of it attributable to ongoing changes due to the coronavirus.
—Jo Page
Larson Newspapers
