1. By Christine Steele
christine.steele@svherald.com
BISBEE — One of Bisbee’s newest galleries
has closed after one of the owners of the build-
ing requested that seven pieces of art he deemed
“offensive” be removed from the show. Instead,
gallery operators Meggen Connolley and Eric
Meyer chose to close their gallery rather than be
censored.
The Windows Gallery opened in June in the
front room of the Bisbee Convention Center at 2
Copper Queen Plaza in Old Bisbee. Their latest
exhibit, “Spirits of West” showing paintings by
artist Eric Kasper and photographs by Ty Mc-
Neely, opened Saturday, Nov. 14.
Several hundred people turned out for the open-
ing, and the overwhelming response was positive,
Meggen said. Their first clue that there was a
problem was on Monday when they were notified
by text by Michael Page, who was the building
liaison to the gallery, that he had received four
complaints about the art and wanted to meet to
discuss remedies. The second text said:
“This will be a discussion about a replacement
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ReviewTHursday november 19, 2015 — 75¢ News at www.svherald.com
B I S B E E D A I L Y
Excellence
ANA
1stGeneral
High:67 Low:30
SUNNY
By Derek Jordan
derek.jordan@svherald.com
SIERRA VISTA — The city’s eco-
nomic development manager on
Tuesday outlined her office’s many
projects currently underway in an
effort to identify, grow and retain
Sierra Vista’s economic opportu-
nities in the months and years to
come.
Simone McFarland’s presenta-
tion to the Sierra Vista City Coun-
cil during Tuesday’s work session
detailed her efforts to “create the
environment for jobs to flourish”
since being hired 10 months ago as
the city’s first economic develop-
ment manager.
Her initial months were spent fol-
lowing the council’s directive to es-
tablish partnerships with the many
business and economic develop-
ment groups in the area, to include
various chambers of commerce,
the Southeastern Arizona Govern-
ments Organization, the Huachuca
50 and local commercial brokers, in
order to identify how best to lever-
age the strengths of each group to-
ward the shared goal of economic
prosperity.
“We’re bringing in those partners
to work with in different capacities,
whatever they’re best at,” McFar-
land said.
In that time, the city’s economic
development website, www.sier-
ravistaazbusiness.com, has also
gone live and continues to be updat-
ed with information useful to busi-
nesses interested in having a pres-
ence here or for existing businesses
looking for help in attracting more
employees.
“The businesses told us they were
City’seconomicdevelopmentprogressoutlined
SeeMCFarland,PageA7
EYE of the Beholder
SeeGallery,PageA6
Oneseesart,anotherseespornography
In the end, a Bisbee gallery closes
amid controversy over exhibit
By Chris Fisk
For the Herald/Review
Sierra Vista — Geoff Es-
posito, a Government Re-
lations Analyst with the
Arizona School Boards
Association (ASBA), made
the trek to Sierra Vista
Tuesday night to give an
“advocacy training” at
Coronado School. Educa-
tors, parents and commu-
nity members received in-
sight into expediting and
optimizing access to their
legislators on matters of
education.
With the funding of edu-
cation a hot-button topic
for many currently, and
in particular for rural
schools, such as those in
the Palaminas district,
being able to effectively
access to elected officials
to weigh in on proposed
legislation is vital.
“I want to get them fired
up to want access to the
elected officials,” said an
enthusiastic Esposito.
ASBA provides a num-
ber of tools through their
website that ensure that
voices are heard in Phoe-
nix. The site allows for
streamlined communi-
cation targeting those
in position to make deci-
sions about budgets and
standards.
“Legislators don’t gen-
erally hear from constitu-
ents. It can really make a
big difference to use the
‘Request to Speak’ sys-
tem,” said Esposito, who
spoke at length of the
value of the system.
During the training ses-
sion Esposito explained
Trainingsharestoolsfor
reachinglegislatorseffectively
SeeTraining,PageA7
By Derek Jordan
derek.jordan@gmail.com
SIERRA VISTA — After
more than half a year, main-
tenance and upgrade work
along several miles of High-
way 80 west of Bisbee have
been completed, a spokes-
man for the Arizona Depart-
ment of Transportation said
Wednesday.
Beginning last May, traffic
between the Mule Pass Tun-
nel and the terminus of High-
way 90 has been subjected to
delays and lane restrictions
while the project was under-
way. Crews first worked to re-
place aging guardrails along
seven miles of highway. That
portion was completed in
August.
After that began repaving
that same stretch of roadway,
leading to more delays.
The $4 million project
wrapped up this month, said
Dustin Krugel.
“The final lane striping,
which occurs approximately
30 days after final paving,
was completed earlier this
month,” Krugel said.
While the guardrails were
likely replaced as needed
over time, the last time that
there was a pavement pres-
ervation project in the area
was in 1992. The passing lane
heading into Bisbee was con-
structed in 1995.
Highway80projectcomplete
LEFT:Windows
Gallery owners
Eric Meyer and
wife Meggen
Connolly move
an Eric Kasper
piece from their
Bisbee gallery
Wednesday. The
Herald/Review
shaded the
controversial
portion of the
painting.
BELOW: Megan
Connolly, owner
of both Magnetic
Threads and
Windows Gallery,
begins to move
things out of
the Magnetic
Threads shop.
The shop
now contains
Windows Gallery
art which has
been removed
from the gallery
due to com-
plaints about the
content of some
of the artwork.
Photo
illustrations
by MARK.LEVY@
SVHERALD.COM
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2015
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