It could cost more to store a plane at the airport, fix a communications tower, ask for same day water hookup, or rent out park facilities if the Payson Town
Payson will get at least a little C.C. Cragin Reservoir water this year and the East Verde River will get a six-month reprieve before it dwindles toward running dry.
The news emerged last week from a meeting on how to save the reservoir by thinning the 64,000-acre watershed.
The dry winter left the 15,000-acre-foot reservoir just 29% full at the end of the spring runoff period, leading the Salt River Project to hold off pumping water out to deliver to Payson and release into the East Verde.
However, SRP started the pumps on May 1 and will continue moving water for about six weeks, perhaps enough to keep the East Verde from drying up before the onset of the monsoon in July. The National Weather Service predicts a hot, dry May and June, but perhaps a blessedly average monsoon this year. The fire season is already well underway, with evacuations already ordered in the face of at least two wildfires in the state.