February 16, 2020 | www.santansun.com
Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
South Chandler red-light cameras are the busiest BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Motorists moving through two south Chandler intersections are ticketed via red-light cameras at a rate more than three times higher at 10 other crossroads in the city with photoenforcement. For the last few years, drivers passing through Chandler had to watch their speed around certain intersections or risk getting caught on camera.
Data shared by local law enforcement shows some intersections have significantly more traffic violators than others. According to numbers released by Chandler Police, drivers passing through the intersection of McQueen and Queen Creek roads received 8,376 tickets during a one-year period. The cameras at Arizona Avenue and Ocotillo Road issued the city’s second-highest number of tickets: 2,355. Chandler’s ten other intersections with traffic cameras issued between
684 and 2,200 tickets during the fiscal year which ended June 30, 2018. Chandler Police said the wide disparity between McQueen-Queen Creek and the other intersections might be explained by the lack of access to the Loop 202 from this region of Chandler. McQueen and Gilbert roads are the only throughway's to the freeway from the city’s southeast side, noted Detective Seth Tyler, and there are not many traffic signals to break up traffic around the McQueen-Queen Creek intersection.
“At the end of the day, speeding is an issue on this roadway, it’s why the cameras are there,” Tyler said. The city’s most recent traffic counts show McQueen-Queen Creek sees a fair number of cars each day, yet it does not appear to be the busiest intersection in Chandler. On the average weekday, 19,300 cars pass through the intersection along McQueen Road and 10,800 cars pass along Queen Creek Road. See
REDLIGHT on page 10
Chandler lawmakers push new teen suicide curbs BY JIM WALSH Staff Writer
Rachel Leland of Chandler makes dolls with disabilities and sees the market for her unique product expanding as a result of people with such special needs seeing the dolls as one way to reduce ther underrpresentation in popular culture. (Chris Mortenson/Staff Photographer)
Chandler woman sees big market for ‘disabled dolls’ BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Rachel Leland’s handmade stuffed animals don’t look like regular toys. Some are missing limbs. Some have insulin pumps. Some are hooked up to oxygen tanks. Over the years, Leland’s made a plush monkey with cochlear implants and a stuffed moose with a tracheotomy tube in its throat. The dolls are meant to normalize all the disabilities and ailments millions of people live with every day, Leland said – and help eliminate the stigma often associated with them. As soon as the 28-year-old Chandler resident started crocheting her handicapped dolls a few years ago, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Parents sent her heartfelt notes, thanking Leland for producing a toy matching their child’s appearance. “It made me feel so good to see the
child holding the animal looking like them,” Leland said. She quickly realized there was probably a market out there for people who often feel underrepresented in the media and popular culture. “You want to see someone who looks like you,” Leland said, “you want to have representation.” She started getting requests from around the world for dolls with specific disabilities and did her best to stitch elephants with intravenous tubes or penguins in wheelchairs. The demand for Leland’s dolls eventually started to outpace supply and she put a hold on the operation after getting a speech pathologist job at a San Tan Valley school. Each doll took between 10 and 20 hours to knit, she said, and Leland simply didn’t have time to devote to the hobby anymore. But she’s recently partnered with See
DOLLS on page 14
The health care insurance system failed 14-year-old Jacob Edward Machovsky miserably in 2015. An insurance company decided his in-patient treatment for a mental illness was not a “medical necessity,’’ ending the second of two hospitalizations within two months. This decision led to tragedy when Jacob, who had turned 15, took his life at his family’s Tempe home in January 2016. His parents, Denise and Ben Denslow – who have since moved to Gilbert – launched the JEM Foundation in Jacob’s memory, setting in motion their mission to save the lives of other teenagers suffering from mental illness. Now, the Denslows are hoping the same legislative coalition, that a year ago won passage of a landmark suicide prevention bill - will help them with the adoption of “Jake’s Law’’– a wide-ranging bill designed to improve access to treatment for troubled juveniles. “We don’t want any other family to go through this. It’s why we are fighting so hard,’’ Denise Denslow said. “We definitely have momentum from last year and we are going to build on it. It’s a huge next step and I am really proud of this bill.’’ Eight Chandler teens are among more than 30 East Valley teens who have taken their lives since March 2017. The law has drawn the back of influ-
ential Chandler members of the State Legislature on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Sen. J.D. Mesnard, Democratic Sen. Sean Bowie and Republican Rep. Jeff Weninger. Jake’s Law would: • Expand youth access to behavioral health services in schools at a cost of $8 million. • Establish a suicide mortality review team to start looking into the root causes of a death within a few days after teens take their own life. • Create parity in the insurance coverage of medical and mental health conditions. Approval of the parity measure would mean Arizona, for the first time, would be enforcing a federal law, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equality Act, signed in 2008 by former President George W. Bush. Jake’s Law would require insurance companies to demonstrate how they are complying with the federal law. This law requires insurance coverage for illnesses of the brain – such as depression, anxiety and addiction – be no more restrictive than any other medical condition, according to the JEM Foundation. “It’s access and having the industry treat mental health in the same manner as physical health,’’ Denslow said. “If he (Jacob) had gone to the hospital with a cardiac issue, they would not have
F E AT U R E STO R I E S Cactus League brings millions to Valley . . . . . . . . . .COMMUNITY . . . . . . Page 8 CBD business expands to Chandler. . . . . . . . . . . . . .BUSINESS . . . . . . . Page 24 New athletes inducted into Hall of Fame . . . . . . . .SPORTS . . . . . . . . . Page 35 Willis Junior High Mathletes count . . . . . . . . . . . . . .NEIGHBORS . . . . . . Page 41 Arcades inspire father-sin artists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ARTS . . . . . . . . . . Page 50
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SUICIDE on page 16
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