Yavapai County District 3 supervisor candidates Republican Lori Drake and Democrat Nikki Check made their only joint appearance of the campaign season at the Sedona Chamber of Commerce’s Community Pulse event at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Oct. 9, where they gave presentations on their platforms and took questions.
“Sustainable economic development is something that’s very important to me,” Check said. “Food security is really important for our county and [is] going to be an important topic when we come to dealing with water policy, making sure that agriculture still has a place in our water future.”
Check said water issues were one of the race’s defining issues and that the county needs to create local solutions to water management to avoid mandates from higher levels of government, in part because the Prescott Active Management Area will not meet its stated management goal of having a safe yield of water by 2025.
She said that the upcoming revision of Yavapai County’s zoning ordinance would be an opportunity to incorporate a conservation open space overlay that would help preserve the area’s natural resources.
“The other thing is really prioritizing the Big Chino Aquifer for open space,” Check said. “There’s been some great movement forward there. The Yavapai Ranch, which is checkerboard private land and forest land, the largest holding of private land in the county, just got 1,800 acres put into conservation easement in the last couple of weeks. I’d like to see more of that, and we have the capacity to guide that process.”
“The Verde Valley in District 3 is very important to me,” Drake said. “It is a community in which my family immigrated here to grow roots, raise their families and start businesses, and I’m very much somebody that is for the small business part of our community. I’ve also watched our community struggle, but I also understand that we need to start bringing in more industry to help families continue to live here.”
Drake had previously stated that bringing in additional industry would help raise the median income and support family growth in the district.
“I am a 4-H and FFA kind of girl,” Drake said. “I very much believe that we need to preserve our open spaces while we grow, that we need to look at the best option to grow. I very much want to be able to provide for the community, for the small businesses, for the industry that could come here.”
Drake and Check both oppose water metering on private property.
“I know we have some new substations going in which does help in response time, especially in the [Village of Oak Creek], is one of the areas where they would like to have a better response time. That does help with some of the issues happening with your short-term rentals,” Drake said of her support for the sheriff’s expansion.
“Hopefully that helps a little more in your fire safety when it comes to creating a localized consolidation dispatch hub. Fire safety is something that is utmost on our minds, especially in the summer in Arizona, we do need to start concentrating on fire breaks.”
An audience member asked Check about the campaign contributions she received from Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow and political action committees. Check’s reply was that she has received campaign contributions from Arizona List and the Democrats of the Red Rocks, which also endorsed her in the primary over incumbent Donna Michaels.
Third-quarter campaign finance reports from both candidates had not yet been released.
An audience member asked Drake if she would work with ditch bosses or those responsible for irrigation ditch systems to upgrade diversion gates in the district.
“I think that’s a fabulous idea,” Drake responded. “I actually spent yesterday morning on a farm tour in District 2 and I’m very impressed with how they conserve water and their low water usage for their crops.” Another audience member asked Drake how she would support small businesses. “It would be nice if small businesses received an incentive for growth and to be able to preserve their small business growth, maybe expand,” Drake responded
