SanTan Sun News 01-29-2023

Residents confront developer on Landings apartments

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

The controversial Landings On Ocotillo affordable housing project has two new names, but it still faces the same entrenched opposition from residents who live in the neighborhood.

That much was clear after a nearly three-hour public meeting the lead developer, Dominium Apartments, staged at Hamilton High School’s auditorium on Jan. 25. About 150 people attended, including at least five City Council members.

However, the interaction with neighbors might have led to some changes being made to the project proposed for on Ocotillo Road, about a quarter of a mile east of Arizona Avenue.

“I think one of the things I heard, for example, is we need more senior affordable housing, so we’re going to go look and see if we can maybe shift some more into more senior and less work-

force housing,” said Owen Metz, a senior vice president and project partner with Dominium’s Mountain West Region.

The developer currently proposes 336

units for families and 182 for seniors.

Dominium rebranded the project after being threatened with a lawsuit for using “Ocotillo,” in its name. Metz said

a lawsuit would have no merit, but that they decided to change the name because they already face enough opposition.

The new names are Paseo Crossings for the family side and Sonoran Landings for the senior living component.

No matter what it’s called, the neighbors were clear in their opposition to it. They contended it doesn’t fit in the city’s general plan, that it would increase traffic in an already congested area, that schools are over capacity and can’t handle 800 more residents with kids, and that there’s not enough water.

They also pointed to the city officials’ opposition, including City Council’s unanimous proclamation against it.

The county does not require a public meeting, but the developer decided to hold one anyway because of the strong opposition and what they

Chandler braces for challenges in local economy

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

The days of Chandler being a large manufacturing magnet are pretty much over. And the office space business is dead, killed by COVID with no clear picture if it’s ever coming back.

Those were two of the takeaways from a city council work session on the state of economic development in Chandler and the Valley.

Vice Mayor Matt Orlando asked the

head of the city’s Economic Development Department staff during a Jan. 23 work session if they’re trying to bring any automobile manufacturing plants to Chandler.

“We’re not going to be competitive. We don’t have the building and land size to compete for those projects,” Micah Miranda told Orlando. “They need 80, 100 acres of land for their manufacturing facilities. We are out of it.”

Both Casa Grande and Mesa have become homes to electric vehicle and truck manufacturing plants that employ thousands of people.

Chandler has built out more than 93% of its available land, leaving only small plots scattered about the city. There is no large space like Intel’s campus for new large companies.

But there remains room for smaller companies. Miranda said the city still goes after larger ones, hoping they’ll bring their engineers to Chandler.

“We really focus on the automotive tech engineering,” Miranda said. “So like you mentioned, GM Innovation Center, Maxim Integrated, all of the back-end engineering that goes into your product are the automotive tech companies

we’re targeting.”

There has been a huge drop in demand for commercial office space since the pandemic began, as many companies shifted to letting employees work from home. So far, it appears they are not shifting back.

“We don’t anticipate office coming back in any substantial form anytime soon,” Miranda said.

Miranda and Chris Camacho, who is president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, briefed the

Chandler ups the ante to fill police vacancies

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Despite offering thousands of dollars in bonuses, the Chandler Police Department is still not able to fill all its positions and so City Council appears likely to spend $381,000 to broaden its recruitment efforts.

“The Police Department [has] been averaging about 30 police officer vacancies per month for the last 18 months,” Chief Sean Duggan told Council at the Jan. 23 study session. “The reality is that we need to do more than we’re doing presently.”

The item before Council was a oneyear contract to ad agency Davidson Belluso for a digital marketing campaign to recruit new officers from outside Arizona.

“There are roughly 1,000 police officer vacancies in the Valley,” Duggan said.

“So, we are competing with every other agency in the Valley, and that pool of talented and qualified people that are still willing to be police officers has been depleted. So we need to set our sights outside of Arizona if we’re going to fill our ranks.”

Duggan said Chandler is targeting officers in the states around Arizona, the Pacific Northwest and Illinois.

Councilman Angel Encinas asked why Illinois?

“Why are we looking at those areas? Just anecdotally, the officers, the recruits, but especially with the laterals that we’ve hired from those states have been stellar,” Duggan said.

Matt Burdick, city communications and public affairs director, said the two states that have supplied most of the lateral officers Chandler has hired are California and Illinois.

“They are neck and neck,” Burdick said.

The contract with Davidson Belluso is not just for police. About $200,000 will be used to recruit talent for development services, information technology, public works and utilities and other professional-level positions.

But $181,000 is reserved just for the police force. This would be the second year of working with Davidson Belluso. The original one-year contract was approved in February 2022 and allowed for

up to four renewals.

In a two-month period, Chandler ads were seen 4.6 million times and generated more than 34,000 clicks to the “Join Team Chandler” website.

The final vote to approve the deal was scheduled for Jan. 26, after the deadline for this newspaper.

In other Council action on Jan. 23, there was some debate about a citizen

FEATURED STORIES

City hits the street to count the unsheltered. News Page 6 Chandler CEO's app aims for teen mental health. . . . . . . . . Business Page 25

Sun Lakes post looks at veterans and suicide. Neighbors Page 37

Irish banjo band coming to Chandler Arts Center.

Real estate attorney Ed Bull addressed homeowners during Dominium Apartments’ neighborhood meeting about its controversial proposed affordable housing in Chandler Jan. 25. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Experts give overview of Valley, Chandler economy. Page 27

Chandler Unified board ponders limit on cash reserve withdrawals

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Chandler Unified School District Superintendent Frank Narducci said it took decades to build up a cash reserve of $60 million and the district wants to make sure it won’t disappear quickly.

For the fi rst time, the district is putting limits on how much of its cash reserve officials can dip into in any one year. District officials asked the Governing Board to approve a proclamation limiting the amount they could withdraw in one year to 10%.

Not good enough, one of the two new members said.

“Why is this not a policy?” Kurt Rohrs asked in his fi rst full meeting sitting behind the dais since winning his seat in November’s election. “A resolution really doesn’t have much weight. It’s really just a guideline.”

The timing for placing a limit on the cash reserve fund comes as state lawmakers still have not passed an override to the Aggregate Expenditure Limit – a constitutional amendment passed in the early 1980s that places a limit on how much districts can spend in year based on a formula.

If the override is not passed by March 1, CUSD will have to trim $17 million from its planned spending for the fi nal quarter of the current school year, beginning April 1.

The money is there, it has already been approved by the state Legislature. But without waiving the spending cap or eliminating it altogether, the district won’t be able to spend it.

Lana Berry, chief fi nancial officer for CUSD, said the district could use some of the cash reserve funds to lessen the cutbacks if the spending cap is not waived, but it would require shuffling expenses around so that they can be covered by the cash account.

Berry said the district has three separate reserve funds: The cash account, another for maintenance and operations and the third for capital improvement.

Because most of the cuts would have to come from maintenance and operations, district officials would have to fi nd ways to justify moving some of those costs to cash to use that reserve fund.

Berry said the uncertainty over the Aggregate Expenditure Limit had nothing to do with the timing of this request to the board.

“When COVID happened, we spent about $18 million of our reserves before we ever started to get reimbursed, or know that there were additional federal dollars coming in,” Berry said.

That amount would easily exceed the 10% limit. However, the federal government ended up sending millions to schools to cover their increased costs because of the pandemic.

The 10% limit would not be a hard cap. The governing board would always have the flexibility of voting to exceed it if the situation called for it, Berry said.

Rohrs convinced the other board members to pursue making the limit a district policy.

With that assurance, he voted with the four other board members to approve the resolution. Narducci said he will get to work on writing a policy, but since this is a new concept that has not been used in CUSD or anywhere else that he is aware of, district officials need to do their research.

“It would be hard to generate those [that amount of money] over the next 30 years of what was generated over the last 40,” Narducci said, pointing out CUSD had been a fast-growing district over the past four decades but now officials expect enrollment to either stagnate or drop.

“So we wanted to have some resolution that gave the board power of at least thought, … that they would have to approve anything over the 10%, so that money wasn’t squandered on certain things that might be needed down the road.”

In other action during the board’s Jan. 18 meeting:

Teacher bonuses

It appears the board will approve a $700 bonus to teachers if they earned it through their performance. That’s a significant drop from the $3,200 they re-

ceived last year.

“The majority of the money that we’ve had in the past has been moved into the salary,” said Dr. Craig Gilbert, the district’s associate superintendent for Pre-K through 12 educational services.

Katie Nash is the former president of the Chandler Education Association, which represents CUSD teachers. She no longer works in the district, but now works for the Arizona Education Association. She said the Chandler group has yet to elect a new president.

Nash said that when teachers fi rst heard about the drop, they were very concerned. However, once they learned the details and saw the salary increase they were getting, most support the plan.

The district sent out a survey and they said 99% of teachers supported their proposal.

Mental health

New board President Jason Olive, who was selected at the board’s Jan. 11 meeting, said he wants a study session on mental health and teen suicide put on the agenda of the board’s next meeting. Also at the Jan. 11, Rohrs and Patti Serrano were sworn into office.

It was good timing. More than 30 people showed up in the audience to support two people who spoke during public comments.

Chandler High senior Riana Alexander called on the board to work with the community to fi nd answers.

“We applaud what the district is already doing to take action on mental health, in particular the Hope Institute,” Riana said. The Hope Institute is one of three health care providers the district is partnering with to help struggling students and staff.

“However, we know that mental health is not an issue that the district can tackle on their own,” Riana added. “We are asking for a community action advisory board made up of students and community members to work with the

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2023 Ostrich Fest will be one long weekend

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

This year’s Ostrich Festival will look more like it has for its 33 years as Chandler’s biggest event.

Last year the festival returned after being shut down for two years by the pandemic and organizers made up for that lost time by expanding it over two weekends.

That won’t be the case this year.

“We only did the two weekends last year because of the makeup for 2021,” said Terri Kimble, the president and CEO of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce – the organizing sponsor of the Ostrich Festival.

“We were so grateful for that,” she added, referring to the Chamber’s contract with city officials for running the Ostrich Fest. “But we went back to our original agreement and are having it on one weekend.”

However, the Chamber is still expanding that one weekend. Instead of holding it over the traditional three days, this year it plans four days of festivities – March 16-19 at Tumbleweed Park.

The Chamber relies on a grant from the City of Chandler to help pay for the festival.

The entertainment for this year’s festival has not been announced.

Kimble said the festival usually draws between 80,000 and 100,000 people over the course of a weekend. Many of those folks are from outside of Chandler.

“This year, we did an inside-the-fence kind of economic impact for the local community,” Kimble said. “And we estimated that the economic impact was

Ostriches in a pen entertained and startled guests at the 32nd annual Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival last March.

about $9.4 million for the local economy, from hotel nights to restaurants to just everything that it takes to put on the festival – which is pretty significant.”

Dr. AJ Chandler, the founder of the city, was a veterinarian and owned one of the largest ostrich farms in Maricopa County. He was not the only ostrich rancher in the early days of the city. The festival pays tribute to those origins.

In addition to big-name entertainment, the festival also offers rides and food – and, of course, some ostriches.

Kimble said it’s too soon to know how many ostriches will attend.

“It all depends,” Kimble said. “We work with Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm just south on the I-10. And we’d let him kind of decide who’s good. Those animals are his babies they are his family. And so he’s the one who kind of determines who they are going to bring up for the event.”

Expect some big-name acts for the night shows.

Past entertainment has included The Beach Boys, Flo Rida, The Temptations and Andy Grammer. Kimble said there is plenty of room for local acts as well.

The Chamber is currently accepting applications from anyone who is interested in performing during the Ostrich Festival or potential food vendors at ostrichfestival.com.

“We have a community stage where we produce over 100 hours of live entertainment from local dance groups, to obviously the award-winning headliners that we’ve had in the past,” Kimble said. “So we are looking for those local acts as well and dance groups or theater groups.”

CUSD from Page 4

district and board to implement critical resources to students suffering with depression, anxiety, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and other mental illnesses.”

As soon as Riana was called to speak, more than 30 people in the audience stood up and remained standing until

she and the Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan of the Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Chandler were done speaking. The church belongs to the Valley Interfaith Project.

“Valley Interfaith Project looks forward to working with the board and students to implement an advisory board to collaborate on this goal,” she said, supporting Riana’s call for a community action advisory board.

Chandler counts unsheltered people in the city

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

At about 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, a Chandler resident was reportedly upset that his dog wouldn’t quit barking because there was a homeless woman in his alley.

Police say 41-year-old James A. Taylor confronted the woman, Jessica Luz, and told her to leave. She refused. He went back into his home, retrieved a firearm, and then once again confronted Luz, telling her to leave.

Once again, she refused. Taylor later admitted to police that he shot her three times, twice when she was on the ground, because he was upset about his failed suicide attempt the day before.

Luz died and Taylor is in jail facing charges of first-degree murder and possession of a weapon by a prohibited possessor.

The city’s community navigators, who deal directly with the homeless, knew Luz.

“One of our homeless people got shot in an alley on Friday just for being in the alley,” said Quiana Thorvund, one of eight navigators who work directly with the homeless, trying to get them whatever services they can.

Each year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates communities that receive its grants conduct a count of their homeless population. This year’s Point-in-

Time count was conducted Jan. 24.

It was not a good day to count unsheltered people. It was 32 degrees when about 60 city staff and volunteers left the Chandler Fire Administration Building just after 6 a.m.

They were split into just under two dozen teams, each assigned a grid to

try and find people living on the street. Each navigator led one team because they know many of those people personally. They also know where they like to stay and what signs to look for.

A lot of money is on the line in finding every homeless person in Chandler. HUD awards funds based partly on the

count. Leah Powell, the city’s neighborhood resources director, said some of that money helps pay part of the salary of at least six navigators.

But on a cold morning, the homeless were looking for some place warm to sleep, making it harder to find them.

“From what I understand, a lot of them are in abandoned homes,” Thorvund said. “It’s just too cold. Some clients, they don’t tell us most of the time, but some of them will.”

They rarely give up the location of the abandoned home. Powell said navigators will do everything they can to help the homeless, but they won’t let them break the law.

Chandler reports its numbers to the Maricopa Association of Governments, which will spend several months analyzing the data before it releases the counts from last week.

The numbers that MAG documents are the actual count, but it’s not necessarily the number that HUD will use to award money. Powell said HUD uses multiple streams of data, including how many clients the city has.

In fiscal year 2021-22, that number was 442 households. The city had a 99% success rate in positive exits, which means getting them into a shelter or a program. However, that number will come down, Powell said.

See HOMELESS on Page 8

HUD is requiring a positive exit within a couple of months. Currently, there is no time limit which is why the success rate is so high.

Thorvund’s group found six unsheltered people in about three hours of searching a small portion of the city between downtown and the airport. She said most unsheltered people stay close to where they can get some services or support. That means downtown.

They also will stay close to bus routes because they typically don’t have transportation. So there will likely be few homeless people south of Germann Road.

Those who don’t stay near a food pantry, or other groups that provide help, usually stay in an area where they have family or friends who are helping them out.

MAG breaks down the homeless into two main categories, sheltered and unsheltered. The Point-in-Time count is looking for the unsheltered. The city knows how many are being sheltered at any time.

There is only one homeless shelter in Chandler, which is run by a group of

community churches. It’s called I-HELP. They each take turns hosting about two dozen people. The city also works with a few hotels to provide emergency shelter to the most vulnerable.

The wait list for the emergency shelter is about six weeks.

“You kind of wonder about the word ‘emergency,’” Powell said.

Each person placed there can only remain for about 60 days and a navigator checks on them daily.

Families with small children comprise one priority. Another is anyone with a medical condition.

“We will get people who are coming straight from the emergency room,” Powell said. “We’ve had that happen several times. And we know that because they’re coming out with a medical condition, the chances of them surviving on the street are diminished. So that’s the kind of person that we will go ahead and put into the hotel program.”

The final group that gets priority for the emergency shelter are seniors.

Thorvund said the best thing about the Point-in-Time count is identifying veterans who are homeless, who are helped by specially trained navigators. The government provides all kinds of resources to help them back on their feet.

Thorvund said city workers get a variety of responses from the people they

try to help.

One of the people counted on Jan. 24 was new to her. She asked for his name, and she said he gave her a false one. He said he didn’t need or want any help. Others are more willing to accept help. Navigators can assist in getting identification, replacing a Social Security card and help in finding housing. It won’t happen quickly, but they actually do get to place some who stay with the program into affordable housing. But some people don’t want the help.

“‘I’ve heard of you navigators,’” Thorvund quoted one person she tried to help. “You’re just trying to get us off the street!’

“Yeah, that would be the point,” she said.

The Maricopa Association fo Governments studied data derived from Point in Time counts and broke down the demographics of that unsheltered population. (MAG)

Republicans quash bill to make sidewalk sleeping a crime here

BY BOB CHRISTIE Capitol Media Services

A Republican state senator from Mesa’s personal experience with mental illness and homelessness derailed a bid by another GOP lawmaker, a former cop, to make sleeping on a sidewalk a state crime.

Sen. David Farnsworth’s extended comments about his struggles led the chairman of a Senate committee to pull Fountain Hills Sen. John Kavanagh’s proposal from consideration during a hearing this past week. Farnsworth described how a breakdown led him to leave his family home and travel to Seattle, where he lived on the streets and spent time in a homeless shelter.

``And it was a very educational experience for me because I came to the conclusion that mental illness like physical illness can come on any of us and we can heal from it,’’ Farnsworth said, saying he had panic attacks and was unable to live at home.

``As an adult with children, I ran away from home, so to speak, went up to Seattle, spent weeks up there sitting next to a park,’’ he said. ``During that time period, I was homeless even though I owned a home in Mesa.’’

Farnsworth spoke during discussions on Kavanagh hís plan to make it a top-level misdemeanor for someone to sleep, lie down or sit on a street, sidewalk or other public right of way. Kavanagh’s proposal mirrors a Phoenix ordinance that is currently on hold because a federal judge blocked enforcement.

Federal courts have held that bans on sleeping in public can ít be enforced if there are not enough public shelter beds to house the homeless. Marilyn Rodriguez, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told the committee that the ACLU sued over the Phoenix ordinance and if the proposal were to become law it likely would face a similar fate.

The number of homeless in the state ís two largest metro areas, Phoenix and Tucson, have grown significantly in the past five years. In Pima County, last year ís annual homeless count found more than 2,200 people did not have housing, compared to just under 1,400 in 2018. In Maricopa County during that same time period, the number of homeless grew from about 6,300 to more than 9,000.

Rodriguez noted that Phoenix has just 1,800 shelter beds.

But Kavanagh said in an interview with Capitol Media Services that there are often shelter beds available and that the homeless could go to parks or other public areas rather than camping out on the street if there are not open beds. And he noted that the Legislature earmarked $5 million last year for cities to build temporary shelters and Phoenix is not using that money.

``I think it’s because they don’t want to trigger having to clear their streets and parks,’’ he said.

Losing the support of any Republican in either chamber spells doom for any legislation that lacks Democratic backing, since the GOP has only onevote majorities in both the House and Senate. And even if bills make it out of the Legislature, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs may hit them with her veto stamp, which she has said she is ready to wield as often as needed.

The Legislature has a series of proposals to deal with homelessness, including an effort from Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, that would force homeless people to live in dedicated spots, bar sleeping elsewhere and require the state housing department to dedicate money to creating camping locations.

Livingston was not available for comment Friday. His bill, which failed to advance in the

State Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa, rebutted Scottsdale Republican Sen. John Kavanagh’s bid to make sleeping on sidewalks a crime by candidly talking about a time in his life when he was homeless. (Capitol Media Services)

Chandler Good Neighbor Classes resuming

BY THE CITY OF CHANDLER

Last year the City of Chandler’s Neighborhood Programs Office created a new series of classes designed to help residents learn more about the services and programs of City departments that most impact their neighborhood.

Named Good Neighbor 101, the free classes provide residents the opportunity to meet face-to-face with subject matter experts from multiple departments.

“We received great feedback from first year participants who shared that they learned something new at each class,” said Priscilla Quintana, neighborhood preservation program manager. “They’re also able to take this knowledge and share with their fellow HOA members or neighbors. And if there are any neighborhood issues or concerns, participants have a better understanding of which department(s) can best assist with possible solutions.”

The upcoming Good Neighbor 101 classes will be held on the following Wednesdays from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.:

• Feb. 8 - Neighborhood programs and code enforcement

• Feb. 22 - Community development and homeless services

• March 8 - Parks and Recreation and Chandler Museum

• March 22 - Water conservation/resources

senior living

Each class will start with a department overview to explain what programs and resources are available to benefit Chandler residents and their neighborhoods.

“I grew up in Chandler and it wasn’t until I started working at the City that I fully realized the extent of services and tools available to our constituents,” said Quintana. “This program aims to increase residents’ awareness of what we can do to assist them - especially if they have a specific concern or need.”

All sessions will be held at the Downtown Library, 22 S. Delaware St. The classes are limited to the first 40 participants who register online at chandleraz. gov/GoodNeighbor101.

In addition to Good Neighbor 101, the City’s Neighborhood Programs staff will also host the HOA Academy this April. More than 70% of Chandler residents live in an HOA community and there are always new things to learn - especially if you’re considering joining your HOA board.

The HOA Academy is taught by Mulcahy Law Firm P.C. To learn more about the available sessions and to register, visit chandleraz.gov/HOAacademy.

For more information about Good Neighbor 101 or the spring HOA Academy, residents may contact the Neighborhood Programs Office at 480-782-4348.

It’s casual, easy, and you’re invited.

Lunch & Learn | Wed ., February 8th • 11:30am

Join us for an informative presentation on senior. Afterwards, take a tour of our beautiful community and enjoy a delicious lunch. To RSVP, please call 480.400.8687.

LAWMAKER from Page 9

past two years, is set for a hearing on Monday.

New Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ executive budget also takes on the crisis in homelessness by putting $150 million into the state housing trust fund, money that can be used for homeless shelters, rental and utility assistance and to leverage federal funds to build new affordable housing.

The trust fund has been mainly neglected since its funding was stripped during the Great Recession, although it got a $60 million infusion last year when lawmakers doled out hundreds of millions in surplus cash.

Cities are struggling with how to deal with the homeless.

Phoenix faces a lawsuit from business owners near a sanctioned homeless encampment known as ``The Zone,’’ a halfmile from the state Capitol, seeking to declare the area a public nuisance.

In Tucson, advocates for the homeless filed suit last week seeking to bar police from conducting clean-up sweeps of encampments ahead of the annual Gem and Mineral Show, a huge tourist draw. The city also faces pressure to address the issue from business and civic groups who say it is a threat to public safety and

business.

The sidelining of the ban on sidewalk sleeping was the second Kavanagh bill that hit a roadblock this past week in the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security chaired by Sen. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista.

His other measure would have made it a crime to solicit for money in a raised or marked median, something that the longtime lawmaker calls dangerous. Kavanagh has tried for years to pass legislation that would prohibit asking for cash at freeway off-ramps or intersections, only to see those efforts fail.

The latest prohibition on begging in a median was pulled from consideration after Gowan amended it to allow people to sell items from the center of the street, a change that Kavanagh did not support.

Kavanagh’s bill on homeless sleeping on sidewalks is unlikely to be revived, at least in its current form, unless Kavanagh is able to change Farnsworth’s mind. But that possibility remains remote at this point.

"The homeless problem is a big problem that we need to address,” Farnsworth said.

"I’m not sure this is the way to do it,’’ he continued. "In fact, I’m not comfortable in addressing it this way.’’

What can you learn about

at our next event? A whole bunch.

City mascot Eli awards a certificate to Cynthia Hardy for participating in Chandler’s Good Neighbor classes.

initiative to relax some of the city’s regulations on medical marijuana.

Vice Mayor Matt Orlando took exception to calling it a “citizen initiative,” saying that made it sound like there was a lot of support being the request. He said he preferred applicant initiative.

What the backers are seeking is expansion of medical marijuana facilities to up to 5,000 square feet. That would be for all three types of facilities, dispensaries, cultivations and infusion.

Currently, dispensaries can be 2,500 square feet and cultivation facilities can be 3,000 square feet.

They also are asking to allow dispensaries to open three hours earlier at 7 a.m.

Backers point out that Chandler would still remain one of the most restrictive cities in the state when it comes to medical marijuana. And the city laws that require such facilities be far away from residential areas, schools and other buildings would make it nearly impossible for more facilities to open here, they

contend.

They also pointed out the city has never addressed infusion facilities, where medical marijuana brownies or gummies are made, and therefore there is currently no limit to how large they can be built.

Council is also being asked to approve $1.8 million to renovate the downtown police building. In 2015 the city started a process of improving police facilities, including building a training center, constructing a crime lab, improve the records lobby and move its SWAT team to a repurposed fire station.

“Today, I am certainly grateful and proud that the report back that we completed the majority of those build outs,” Duggan said. “But also included in that facilities master plan was the renovation of the downtown station behind us. So that was not yet completed.”

The new money will be used to remodel the main police building to fit its needs going forward after all those other units left. Duggan said they have been packed in pretty tightly and now they need to put that new space, about 7,000 square feet, they created to better use.

City of Chandler 2023 STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS Through the Decades

Mayor Kevin Hartke and the Chandler City Council invite you to explore the city’s past present and future.

Thursday, Feb. 16

Chandler Center for the Arts

250 N. Arizona Ave.

Lobby Experience: 5:30 p.m.

Mayoral Address: 6:30 p.m.

•Decade-themed vocal and dance performances from Chandler youth

•Mayor Hartke will take you Through the Decades to highlight Chandler’s growth and successes leading up to 2022.

Don’t miss the Lobby Experience, a pre-event reception that will take you back in time with f ree food and drink samples, decade décor and more.

chandleraz.gov/stateofthecity

*RSVPs are encouraged

said were misconceptions about the proposal.

In the past, the developers have said most of the opposition is coming from people who take a position of NIMBY –not in my backyard – and some neighbors took exception to that characterization.

“Please stop calling us names in the fluff pieces you put out in newspapers,” one speaker said. “We’re concerned parents, we’re concerned citizens, and we live here.”

A number of residents didn’t understand what the project is. The words “Section 8,” and “government-subsidized” housing were used at least a dozen times.

Two speakers said they were worried that a project like this would lower the value of their homes. And a third asked Metz if he wanted to live next to a project like this.

The residents asking questions appeared to each be holding copies of the same sheets of paper stapled together with a list of questions on it.

“We came prepared,” resident Anne Patterson said.

Metz said the project would receive no federal dollars.

By agreeing to cap rent prices, the. company receives federal tax credits that it uses to help secure private fi nancing.

Dominium Apartments is one of the largest affordable housing companies in the country. For example, the market rate for a one-bedroom apartment with utilities in Chandler is $1,900 a month. Dominium would charge $1,000.

The project is not Section 8, which does not exist anymore, or public housing, the developer stressed, and residents are responsible for all the rent.

The project would be located on a county island, more than 24 acres of unincorporated land surrounded by Chandler. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will have fi nal say on its fate.

To qualify, most residents could not make more than 60% of the median income level for the local area, which Do-

minium said is $88,800 for a family of four.

That means to qualify to live in this new project, single residents could not make more than $37,140 annually. A couple would have to make less than $42,420. For a couple with a child it would be $47,700 and a family of four it would be $52,980. About 10% of the units would be available for people who make 80% of the area median income.

The top concern expressed by most involves the traffic that 800 or more new residents would generate.

Ed Bull, a lawyer with Burch & Cracchiolo who led the presentation for Dominium, pointed to a traffic study that showed existing roads could accommodate any increase in vehicle trips. He also said a light industrial development would generate similar numbers based on their traffic study.

The neighbors reacted loudly to such claims.

Some speakers said the study must have been done during the heart of the pandemic when most people were working from home. They said it did not match with their daily experience driving through the Ocotillo-Arizona intersection.

The engineer who performed the study said traffic was measured in August 2021, many people were still work-

ing from home, and then again last November.

The neighbors said the study does not account for the expansion of Intel’s Ocotillo campus, which is expected to bring thousands more workers.

Some neighbors called the Ocotillo-Arizona intersection the most dangerous in the city. The engineer countered that Chandler Boulevard and Alma School has the highest crash rate at 2.2 per MEV (million entering vehicles). The data for Arizona and Ocotillo is 1.34 per MEV.

Another major concern was the capacity of schools.

Dominium representatives said they had met with school officials and were told local schools could handle more students.

That triggered cries of protest, and one speaker said the district is not going to turn down additional students because it will mean more funding.

Dr. Wendy Nance, Chandler Unified the associate superintendent for human resources and community services, read a statement at the meeting that said: “CUSD was asked if we have capacity at our schools to accommodate enrollment shifts or growth. We responded that we have that capacity across our district.”

A couple speakers cited the lack of water in Arizona and expressed concerns that there is not enough to support this project.

Bull said the project has enough water credits and that the city would actually end up with more water rights if it is built.

Council’s proclamation rejecting the project contended that the developer did not give serious consideration to 14 alternative sites the city offered.

Metz has said Dominium spent a month reviewing all 14 sites before determining they would not work. Nine are not for sale, Bull said, and half were too small.

All 14 sites would require the same zoning change Dominium is seeking now and are close to a residential neighborhood.

The residents took exception to Dominium’s characterization of the project as workforce housing for teachers, police officers, fi refighters and nurses.

“We’re being played on words with, ‘teachers, fi refighters, nurses,’ one speaker said. “Please don’t do that. … We’re not idiots.”

They pointed out that the starting wage for a CUSD teacher is $52,715, so a single teacher would not qualify to live there. The starting base salary for a fulltime police officer is $63,440, according to the city.

Another speaker said he is worried that the Chandler Police Department would need to deploy special units to monitor this complex.

“A quick Google, common knowledge search shows that government-subsidized housing has a history of being plagued with crime,” he said.

Metz pointed out that each resident must sign a lease agreement that allows evictions for tenants who break the law. He said most of Dominium’s residents are happy to have an affordable home, so they follow the rules.

Most residents appeared to share concerns an affordable housing apartment complex in their neighborhood would drive down their home values.

“[There are] a lot of million dollar, multi-million dollar, homes in this area,” one speaker said. “It does not fit. If you look at the neighborhood surrounding, a lot of those homes are valued at over $1 million…You are devaluing the properties.”

Metz said national studies prove that is not going to happen.

An Urban Institute study of a housing project in Alexandria, Virginia, found no significant change in property values except an increase in average home values of 0.9%.

Metz said Dominium will now discuss its next steps – such as possibly changing the mix of senior and family units – and eventually go before the county Planning and Zoning Commission. That meeting, whenever it takes place, would be open to the public.

People lined up to question Dominium Apartments representatives about the Ocotillo Road project during the neighborhood meeting last week. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Steve Fruend looks over one of the informational poster boards lining the Hamilton High auditorium as Dominium Apartments hosted a neighborhood meeting about its affordable housing plan. (David Minton/Staff Photographer

CUSD program to get ahead of teacher shortages

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Chandler Unified School District has felt little impact from the teacher shortages that have left tens of thousands of positions nationwide unfilled.

Still, district officials are thinking – and about to do something – about it.

“We have been fairly immune to the teacher shortage,” said Abby Druck, the district’s director of human resources, Professional Pathways. “As a lot of people know, it’s a great place to work, it’s a great place to live, so we’ve been fortunate in that way.

“But it is trickling down even to us now, particularly in some of the hard to fill areas, like special education.”

The district hopes to be fully certified soon for the state’s Educator Preparation Program, which they call Chandler RISE. It will allow them to fast-track converting teachers in residence to fully cer-

tified teachers.

In 2017, state lawmakers allowed anyone with a college degree to teach if

nesses just don’t want to be surprised.”

they had at least five years of relative experience in the field they would be instructing. CUSD calls these positions

teachers in residence.

The district has already been approved to begin the process for general teachers in grades K-through-8. It expects certification to include special education next month.

Chandler RISE is a two-year program in which the district will provide the training to its uncertified teachers for free with the hopes that they will teach for at least two years in CUSD once they are fully certified.

The district is covering all costs for that training, saving the teacher thousands they would have to pay in tuition to a college or university. That’s not the only benefit.

“They are working in that full teacher of record capacity, which means they’re on a full teacher salary and benefits,” Druck said.

See TEACHERS on Page 16

council on the state of economic development in both the city and region so it would be better informed heading into its annual strategic framework session where priorities for the coming year are set.

Both said it is mostly good news because the region has been one of the hottest in the country for a number of years.

“No where else in the country is posting this kind of output for our communities,” Camacho said. “And I’m very prideful in the fact that I don’t believe, maybe there’s two or three others that have the regional framework. …Not many places across the country are this united, that operate as one market.”

He said typically when large companiesare looking to build a new plant or offices in an area, they have to deal individually with each city in that region. Camacho said the GPEC operates as one-stop shopping, allowing companies to see what 22 different cities have available.

Camacho said they are looking for places that have the infrastructure they need, a low tax base and political stability.

“These companies aren’t making $2 million investments, you’re looking at $100-million-plus investments,” he said. “They want to know our tax position, property tax side is stable, or they want us to communicate that well in advance so that they can make investments. Busi-

Camacho said the questions he gets most from businesses looking to either build or relocate to the Valley are about the infrastructure, specifically water and the electrical grid.

“I will tell you that (the electrical grid is of) equal level of interest to me as is water, because we’re putting a lot of electrons in the grid right now,” he said.

“More than people know. We have to make sure we have strong baseload energy and diversity of energy grid.”

Miranda said attracting new businesses to Chandler is only part of his office’s job.

His staff also plays defense as much as offense, trying to keep other communities from enticing Chandler companies to move. He and his staff also work to enhance the infrastructure needed to both keep and attract new businesses.

That includes partnering with colleges and universities to make sure there is an employable work force with the education needed to fill high-paying jobs.

“We have to keep producing more career technical education, more STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM,” Camacho said. “That is critical for our state’s competitive position.”

Miranda said that challenge will get tougher as the city approaches build out.

“We have to think of different and creative ways to drive economic vitality, especially in specific areas market threat assessment, competitive positioning, tourism, and then as Chris talked about education of talent.”

Chandler has achieved considerable success attracting companies that generate high-tech workers, according to various demographics of Chandler’s job base that were detailed for City Council last week. (City of Chandler)

Math teachers undergo training by Chandler Unified School District staff.

Chandler lawmaker seeks to end voting by mail

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

One of Chandler’s newly elected state lawmakers who wants to overturn the 2022 election is now trying to get colleagues to outlaw voting by mail.

The proposal by Republican Rep. Liz Harris says anyone who wants to vote has to go to the polls. HB 2229 says the only exception would be those who are physically unable or those in the military who are overseas.

But that’s only part of her agenda.

Harris also is sponsoring HB 2232. It not only would preclude early voting even in person but also require that all ballots be counted by hand.

And her HB 2233 seeks to expand the grounds on which anyone could sue to overturn election results and give them and their allies the power to inspect each and every ballot. Current law permits the review of only a random sample.

But it is her bid to require people to actually go to the polls and vote in person that could have the broadest impact.

In the most recent race, more than 80% of the nearly 2.6 million voters chose to take advantage of a 1991 law that allows anyone to request an early ballot. But Harris said that doesn’t make it right.

She said the audit of the 2020 election ordered by then-Senate President Karen Fann provided access to both the ballot envelopes and each person’s voter registration card.

“They have a 12% mismatch rate that’s a firm mismatch rate,’’ Harris claimed. She said people “can see it firsthand’’ if they sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Harris, who lost her 2020 bid for the Legislature before winning a House seat this year, said this isn’t about Donald Trump or Kari Lake, who continues to in-

TEACHERS

from Page 14

That doesn’t mean it will be easy. In addition to teaching at a school, the participants will have to take classes and do the work required to get certified.

The district plans to use its own expertise to instruct these candidates.

“If we have, maybe a principal who is super strong with assessment and has taught assessment before, that’s kind of their area of expertise, we can bring that principal in for a two-hour course, and send them right back on their way to the rest of their day at their site,” Drucvk said.

“We’re not asking them to commit for like three months at a time, it’s really these little one-to six-hour chunks at a

sist that the gubernatorial election was stolen from her. She said the problem has existed since the law was adopted three decades ago.

So why would voters and lawmakers agree to kill a program that has proven so popular? Harris said it comes down to convincing the majority that there was fraud in the election and that their votes were stolen.

“Their vote is being canceled because there’s another vote being entered into the system,’’ she told Capitol Media Services. Harris said the reason people don’t know that is “the media.’’

Similar claims were raised in lawsuits challenging both the 2020 and 2022 elections. But challengers have failed in each

time.

CUSD is currently holding informational sessions to let staff know about the program. It will begin taking applications this month from internal candidates only.

Officials expect to choose the candidates by summer since classes will begin on July 5. The average salary for a CUSD teacher is $63,447.

The U.S. Department of Education released a report in August that detailed schools have about three unfilled teaching position on average. That’s means 200,000 classrooms nationwide have uncertified teachers. Arizona lawmakers decided to allow students who are currently seeking a bachelor’s degree to get training in the classroom in last year’s session.

attempt to convince a judge that any laws were broken.

Harris’s legislation is based on the legal theory that the only form of voting specifically authorized by the Arizona Constitution is in person and on Election Day. And she is hanging her hat on requirements for a “secret ballot.’’

“An election by secret ballot is an election in which voters are provided absolute protection against the possibility of any other person knowing how they voted,’’ Harris wrote in her legislation. And that, she said, includes family members, friends and coworkers.

“A person who is the head of a household can demand that the household vote together at the kitchen table or that any adult children allow the head of the household to vote their ballots since they live in that person’s home,’’ Harris said in HB 2229.

What in-person voting also precludes, Harris said, is the ability to buy someone’s vote, as the person offering the money has no way to know how the other person who was paid off, filling out his or her ballot inside a voting booth, actually marked the ballot.

“This physically protected area is the polling booth with privacy curtain, within a staffed polling location, with the ballots strictly controlled within the polling location and with no ballots coming in or going out,’’ her legislation reads. “Ballots are voted on site, folded and placed in a ballot box.’’

If the arguments sound familiar, they should.

They closely parallel claims made by attorney Alexander Kolodin last year in a lawsuit filed by the Arizona Republican Party. And he, too, cited that constitutional right to a secret ballot in his bid to

Last year, awmakers changed the law again to try and deal with the shortage. Starting this school year, people no longer must have a college degree to be a teacher.

The new law allows anyone who is enrolled in college, and working to become a teacher, to gain classroom experience by doing some teaching in a monitored capacity.

CUSD spokeswoman Stephanie Ingersoll said the district has not hired anyone as a teacher who does not have a college degree. She also said all the participants in the Chandler RISE program will have college degrees.

Druck said the initial RISE class will be limited in size and that eventually up to 25 teachers in residence will be in the program.

kill early voting.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen acknowledged that Kolodin presented examples of “bad actors’’ violating laws dealing with early voting.

That includes instances in Yuma County where a woman pleaded guilty to collecting the early ballots of others and, in some cases, marking how they should be voted. The judge said, however, that didn’t make the system unconstitutional.

“Furthermore, they do not show a pattern of conduct so egregious as to undermine the entire system of no-excuse mail-in voting as provided by the Arizona Legislature,’’ he wrote. “Enforcement mechanisms exist within the statutes to punish those that do not abide by the statutes.’’

Kolodin, elected this year along with Harris to the state House, has taken the case to the Court of Appeals which head arguments last month but has not yet issued an opinion.

Harris is doing more than introducing bills to change laws on voting based on her beliefs that prior elections were stolen.

Just days after the election, Harris staked out a public position by not only demanding a revote of the Nov. 8 election but saying that “I will now be withholding my vote on any bills this session without this new election in protest to what is clearly a potential fraudulent election.’’

Even though Republicans hold a bare 31-29 margin in the House, her refusal to go along may not matter.

Any measure approved strictly on party lines is likely to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. And if legislation has bipartisan support, Republicans won’t need her vote.

For now, officials will only consider applicants who are already working in the district, though Druck said that may be expandedt to include external candidates in the future.

The biggest need for people to fill positions, Druck said, is in special education.

“Some of our paraprofessionals that provide support in the classroom, maybe they have an undergraduate degree in another area, like psychology or something,” she said.

“But now that they’ve been working in the classroom, and they have found this kind of passion for education, they’ve decided they want their teacher certification. … At the end of that two years, they’ll be able to be fully certified in Arizona.”

Chandler Republican Rep. Liz Harris wants to end voting by mail and require all votes to be counted by hand. (Facebook)

Chandler among nation’s worse for skin health

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Valley of the Sun residents need water to survive. However, that combination of sun and water is doing a number on their skin.

HouseFresh, an indoor air quality company, released a survey of the worst cities in the U.S. for skin care. Chandler ranked third worst.

Leading the way was Scottsdale and five Valley cities ranked in the dubious top 10.

Experts are blaming the water and sun.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, OK?,” said Valley plastic surgeon Dr. Farhan Taghizadeh. “The water is only maybe 10-to20% of the problem. The majority of the problem is the high UV (ultraviolet) index.

“And the way that the sun hits the skin in this Valley, and that’s a big component of it. The failure to protect the skin against the sun … is the number one issue that we see here.”

The Valley got negative marks for the high amount of “hard” water people use to drink, shower and wash clothes with.

So what is hard water?

“Hard water is caused from water naturally picking up minerals, like calcium and magnesium, along its journey to the drinking water treatment plants,” said Chris Connor, utility regulatory affairs senior manager for the City of Chandler.

“Because the surface water that the Valley cities use travels hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles, it gives the water ample opportunity to pick up minerals along the way. Groundwater can also pick up minerals from the rock formations in the aquifer.”

Those minerals in the water can cause problems.

“When hard water is used for showering and bathing, the minerals can react with soap and body wash to form a film on the skin called soap scum,” said John Schaff, a dermatologist in Ahwatukee.

“This can lead to dry, itchy skin, as well as eczema and acne.”

So what can residents do about it?

Schaff said getting a water softener that removes those minerals from the water is a good first step.

He also suggested buying a shower filter that removes minerals and chlorine from the water and using soap and body wash, specifically formulated for use with hard water. Also, use a moisturizer to help hydrate and smooth itchy skin.”

However, Taghizadeh said people should be careful about the water softening system they buy.

“This is my own assessment,” he said. “Traditional water softeners are not adequate for the type of water that we have

here. And there are advanced systems that will remove more of the harsher elements in the water to help improve the tone and texture of the skin.”

Hard water is only about a fifth of the problem. Pollution also plays a role, Taghizadeh said.

But the biggest culprit is the excessive sunshine the Valley gets.

“So there’s two different components of sunlight, there’s UVB and UVA,” Taghizadeh said. “The UVB does more of the surface damage. That’s where people get the redness they get, the sunburn and some of that, but it’s the UVA that actually goes deep into the skin and causes damage to the DNA.”

It can lead to skin cancer.

It also makes people look older because the sunlight does significant damage to the cells that make collagen, which is a protein in skin.

He said skin begins to look weathered because the collagen is not being replaced.

“So you have pollution, you have sunlight, and then you have the water as sort of the three components that really mandate that people invest more in their skin,” Taghizadeh said.

“And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. And that’s why Phoenix, and especially this part of the Southwest, tends to have very poor scores as it relates to skin care.”

Biden infrastructure program passes on I-10 widening

BY HOWARD FISCHER

Capitol Media Services

Arizona taxpayers could end up having to shell out another $360 million if they want to smooth car and truck traffic between Tucson and Phoenix.

Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, said last week he is preparing legislation to have the state provide that cash after a request for a federal grant to widen a section of Interstate 10 was rejected.

He said using the funds the state already has would ensure the project’s completion – which he said is justified, given the number of Arizonans affected by the fact that a 26-mile stretch is now just two lanes in each direction.

The Legislature last year appropriated $400 million for the widening project.

Shope said his measure will have a sweetener for his colleagues who might otherwise balk at ponying up additional cash.

It says the dollars the state puts up would go back into the treasury for other priorities if and when some new source of federal dollars could be found.

Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland said that having the state front the funds fits into the scenario where there would be another bid for the grant.

“But we need to start moving on it now,’’ he said of the project. “We can’t wait for us to get all the money and begin the process.’’

Arizona’s bid for a share of National

The

(ADOT)

Infrastructure Project Assistance was rejected.

What appears to have happened, Shope said, is federal highway officials were more interested in funding what he called “green transportation’’ for this round of grants. That might include things like alternatives to driving, like bikeways.

“If we were talking about a central Phoenix or central Tucson project it obviously would have been more helpful,’’ he said, versus “a 26-mile stretch in the middle of the desert.’’

Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, was blunter in her comments why the state lost those federal dollars.

“To not fund an interstate because it does not have bike paths? because it doesn’t have a trail?’’ she asked.

“That’s ridiculous,’’ Martinez said. “If the Biden administration thinks that the I-10 interstate is not as important as a bike path I think they have misjudged the situation.’’

But it’s not clear that Arizona lost out because its proposal wasn’t “green enough.’’

Information provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly shows that of the nine grants that were funded this year, five were interstate expansion projects. And two actually were for widening stretches of I-10, one in California and the other in Louisiana.

It may also be the Arizona ask was just too large.

The California grant was for $60 million and Louisiana got $150 million. And there was only $1.1 billion available this year.

Less clear is whether the rejection by the U.S. Department of Transportation will delay the scheduled 2026 completion of the project -- and whether

Shope can convince colleagues to pony up additional dollars.

For its part, the Arizona Department of Transportation isn’t saying much. Spokesman Luis Lopez said his agency has not received official notification of the status of its grant application.

The state has been widening sections of the interstate, which stretches from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, for years. But the last section has been an issue.

Shope, who sponsored last year’s $400 million appropriation, said some of that had to do with the fact that the stretch from Queen Creek Road on the edge of Chandler to State Route 287 outside of Casa Grande runs through the Gila River Indian Community.

He said some of that was residual bad feelings from the tribe which felt it didn’t have any say when I-10 was cut through the reservation. Now, Shope said, Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the community, has been a participant.

Last year’s $400 million appropriation had little trouble getting enacted, with a 27-1 vote in the Senate and 55-1 in the House, as the state was flush with cash.

That was the result of a 17% increase in revenues in the 2022 fiscal year. But legislative budget staffers predict that will moderate to 6% this year and just 2% the year after that.

stretch of I-10 would be fully widened between Phoenix and Casa Grande, making the. highway three lanes in each direction between here and Tucson.

Math program at Willis producing impressive results

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

A program that was started to help close the learning gap caused by the pandemic is working so well at Willis Junior High School, the principal wants to expand it.

Arizona State University Prep Digital and the state Department of Education came up with the Math Momentum partnership. It was originally expected to last for three years and cost $9 million.

Willis teachers started using the program last school year and say they’ve already seen signifi cant results. As part of the program, each student is required to take three assessments each year.

“So, 14% of students have closed gaps in 10 weeks,” said Sarah Wiese, a pre-algebra teacher at Willis. “I would say maybe of my 80 to 90 kids in there, only one or two didn’t show any sort of growth between August and Thanksgiving.”

Math Momentum is essentially inviting a second teacher into the classroom for more individualized learning. Wiese teaches her pre-algebra class with Jennifer Cooke, who lives in Montana and works for ASU Prep Digital.

After an introductory period of the class, students break up into three groups: Four work with Cooke online in a Zoom classroom. Four work directly with Wiese. And the rest, maybe 10 or so, work on their own. After 15 minutes or so, they switch.

Wiese said the students who do not need as much individualized attention and have passed all the requirements for whatever lesson they are working on,

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But Shope said he hopes to convince colleagues that this isn’t just a Pinal County problem.

He said probably half of the residents of the Casa Grande area with jobs drive daily into Maricopa County.

“When they do that, they drop their sales tax dollars into Maricopa County,’’ Shope said.

He also figures that the road links the

are given more fun things to do. The students who feel they could use some additional help will often sit in her group.

“The reason I’m talking to you, and the reason I was talking to my superintendent, and the reason I will talk to anybody about this is this model is not limited to grant money,” Wiese said. “I think this model is something that you could implement outside of the math subject area and is very feasible and doable.”

Her principal is on board.

“The most effective thing that happens is that they’re continually assessing kids,” Principal Jeff Delp said. “And so through that assessment piece, they have data to see where specifi cally kids are struggling, and then they’ll group kids based upon what they need.

three largest counties in the state where more than three-quarters of its residents live.

And Martinez said the road is used by more than just Pinal County residents. Then there’s the commerce aspect of it.

“If people in Maricopa want their Amazon packages or groceries in the grocery store, Interstate 10 doesn’t just benefit people in Pinal County,’’ she said.

Kelly said he shares the view of the importance of this project.

“Arizonans rely on the I-10 to connect

“And so we’ve seen some dramatic shifts in terms of gains that kids are making and growth that are that kids are making, just because of that targeted approach.

“I’m pushing ASU,” Delp continued. “I tell them ‘if you want to expand, I think in education just in general, the exciting thing is that this would work in other subject areas.’

“Especially right now, with teacher retention, and teacher shortages, when you start saying, ‘Okay, can we bring in people that are willing to work online, to supplement what’s going on in the classroom?’ It’s a pretty good deal.”

The key to tracking student performance is ALEKS, an adaptive learning platform put out by McGraw Hill. It tracks each student, identifying areas

them to jobs, educational opportunities and their families, which is why improving and expanding this highway is still a top priority for me,’’ he said in a prepared statement.

The guarantee of a refund to taxpayers if a federal grant comes through is based on the premise that Arizona will have more success the second time around.

“I hope so,’’ McFarland said.

“I think we’ll learn from the first one,’’ he continued. “And, hopefully, we’ll get some feedback from the feds hopefully as to what we may have not done right in the first application.’’

McFarland also called it “pretty normal’’ for applicants not to get federal grants the first time they ask for it.

An aide to Kelly said the senator is waiting for state officials to be briefed “on why projects were or were not funded this year’’ to figure out how to get the grant moving forward.

Shope said Arizona may have something else working for it in its bid for federal dollars: Newly elected Republican Arizona Congressman Juan Ciscomani was placed on the House Appropriations Committee.

Shope also said he understands if the feds are looking to fund alternatives for transit aside from more pavement.

“I don’t believe that just the three lanes (in each direction) alone is going to solve the long-term problem that this is

that they need more work in. That allows teachers such as Wiese and Cooke, to put students who need work in the same area together for one of their small group sessions.

Wiese said the key to making it work is the communication between the two teachers.

“You’ve got to build this relationship, right?,” Wiese said. “You got to meet weekly, you’ve got to go back with that person and refi ne. But now that we’re in our second year, this class just kind of runs itself.”

Brian Austin is the Math Momentum Principal at ASU Prep Digital. He said being able to bring in teachers from across the country has helped with recruiting teachers, even when there are shortages in the profession in many communities.

“We have the opportunity to recruit amazing talent from across the United States,” he wrote in an email. “This allows us to bring on amazing, talented teachers with a wealth of experience. We have teachers from all over the U.S., from Florida to California.”

Willis is sharing its math classrooms with five ASU Prep Digital teachers.

Wiese said she’s is the programs biggest advocate and would love to see the program continue past its three-year window, and expanded.

“As a teacher, I feel so supported, because there’s someone behind me helping me to kind of track data,” Wiese said. “And we are targeting intervention. The kids have taken so much ownership of their own learning. And then this is kind of what you’d love to have in a classroom.”

going to be,’’ he said. And part of that, Shope said, is the fact that the situation will become more than the current rushhour pattern, with heavy northbound traffic in the morning and the reverse in the evening.

For example, he said Lucid Motors –which is now operating in Casa Grande –already has upwards of 5,000 employees. And many, Shope said, are driving in from the Southeast Valley of Maricopa County.

“You’re going to have the same situation with Nikola,’’ he said, which is expanding its truck manufacturing operation in Coolidge. And Shope noted that Procter & Gamble selected Coolidge as the location for its next manufacturing plant.

“So you’re going to have cross-traffic going either way, as opposed to just directional,’’ he said.

So far, though, intercity rail in Arizona has largely gotten no farther than studies.

Amtrak last year unveiled a 15-year expansion plan to connect communities in 25 states, including trips between Tucson and Phoenix with stops in Marana, Coolidge, Queen Creek and Tempe, with extensions out to Avondale and Buckeye.

Stephen Gardner, Amtrak president, estimated the line would attract 200,000 annual riders.

Sarah Wiese works with a small group of students in her eighth grade Pre-Algebra class at Willis Junior High School as other students work with another teacher out of state using Zoom. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

EV parents turn their grief into a campaign

BY CECILIA CHAN Staff Writer

A year and four months have passed but the death of his 15-year-old son Christian still gnaws at Bruce Petillo’s heart.

“We are devastated,” the Gilbert dad said. “You never come to terms with it.

“The fact that this was a preventable accident makes it worse.”

It was Labor Day weekend 2022 and Christian was at a friend’s house on a county island in Queen Creek.

The friend was showing off his mom’s handgun to Christian and other boys in a bedroom. As Christian held the gun, it went off, firing a 9mm bullet into his chest, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s report.

The high school sophomore was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner determined the shooting was accidental.

The Petillos’ youngest child also left behind a brother and sister.

“As parents you’re constantly looking to protect your children,” Petillo said. “I lay awake at night thinking about ‘what if.’

“Quite frankly we were supposed to be in Hawaii that weekend and postponed the trip because I got sick early in the week…and he went with friends and the accident happened.”

Petillo and his wife, Claire, have now channeled their grief into preventing needless deaths such as Christian’s.

The couple has formed the No Do-Overs organization with the goal of stopping children from gaining unauthorized and unsupervised access to guns

via education, advocacy and legislation. They’ve also set up a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 toward that effort.

“One of the reasons we looked at this name for the foundation No Do-Overs is that children are going to make mistakes,” Petillo said. “Most of the time they have the opportunity to learn from them.

“When it comes to guns there are no do-overs and as we as parents look back, we know we can’t change what happened with Christian. There’s no do-over for us.

“We do know we can take what’s happened and save the next child, the next family from having to endure the same tragedy that we’ve endured.”

The organization is pushing a bill called Christian’s Law, which requires gun owners to secure their firearms and ammunition and carries a $1,000 penalty for violation.

Petillo backed up the effectiveness of such a law by pointing to a report by the RAND Corp.

The nonprofit think tank found that child-access prevention laws or safe storage laws reduce self-inflicted fatal or nonfatal firearm injuries, including unintentional and intentional self-injuries, among youth and also reduce firearm homicides among youth.

State Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, introduced HB 2192 on Jan. 12. Longdon is a long-time advocate for gun safety after she was paralyzed in a random drive-by shooting in 2004.

Christian’s Law is actually a resurrection of HB 2367, which Longdon introduced in the 2022 legislative session and was held up in the Republican-controlled Rules Committee. Longdon introduced a to-

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Bruce Petillo, holding a photo of his late son Christian, has launched a crusade for gun safety laws but he faces an uphill battle with a Republican-controlled state Legislature, which has refused to even consider similar bills in the past. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) See CAMPAIGN on Page 23

CAMPAIGN

tal of 10 bills in the last session related to gun regulation, all of which were stalled in committees.

The three-term representative said she is unsure how this latest measure will fare.

“With dozens of new members and a new governor, I don’t know how to compare our chances to last year,” Longdon said. “These are often, you know, a very long view with public policy and especially with common-sense gun safety. It’s just been too long.”

She added that as a survivor of gun violence, she - like the Petillos – isn’t going away.

“We’re going to keep pushing this for as long as it takes, for as long as we can because honestly, that’s what we should be doing,” she said. “This is an issue that has broad public support and it would absolutely save lives.

“But the reality is that the Republicans still control a slight majority and they overall are terrified of the power of the gun lobby, the extremist gun lobby. So even incremental common-sense changes are a huge challenge and require political courage and that’s a rare commodity around here.

“And so it takes courage of families like the Petillos and others to get this done. The issue isn’t going away. And neither are we.”

Fellow House Democrat Jennifer Pawlik, whose Legislative District 13 covers a part of Gilbert, is the bill’s co-sponsor.

“It’s a matter of being responsible and knowing where your guns are and making sure they are properly secured,” Petillo said Petillo pointed to recent stories in the Valley that’s occurred since Christian’s death such as in November when a 16-year-old boy was accidentally shot by a gun in Chandler that he and another 16-year-old boy were playing with.

In fact, in 2021, 56 children in the state died from a firearm injury and all of them were determined to be preventable, said Petillo, citing from the Arizona Department of Health Service’s latest annual child fatality report.

According to the nonprofit Brady: United Against Gun Violence, every day 22 children and teens are shot in the country.

“We have over 6,000 kids a year being injured or killed by guns and no other Western society deals with this,” Petillo said. “There are lots of really responsible gun owners out there. Unfortunately, there are also a significant number of gun owners who are not responsible.

“Responsible gun owners would be supporting this kind of legislation…because these are the types of things that will improve outcomes for kids and start reducing injuries and deaths in children associated with guns and actually help more of these gun owners be more responsible when they are not and help the gun industry. And ultimately it doesn’t infringe on anyone’s right to own a gun.”

Petillo acknowledged that some people may get “a little upset” when it comes to any sort of gun regulation but

Learn more and help

Gilbert parents Bruce and Claire Petillo have formed the No DoOvers organization, which attempts to prevent unnecessarily gun deaths among children and teenagers.

For more information, go to www.nodoovers.org

The couple also has set up a GoFundMe page for the organization. To donate, go to gofundme.com and search “no do overs.”

House Bill 2192

Here is a summary of a bill that sponsor Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, hopes will get a fair hearing by the Republican-controlled Legislature:

A. A person shall not store or keep a firearm or ammunition, or both, in any residence unless the person either:

1. Keeps the firearm or ammunition, or both, in a securely locked box or equips the firearm with a device that renders the firearm inoperable without a key or combination.

2. Carries the firearm or ammunition, or both, on his person or within such close proximity to his person that the person can readily retrieve and use the firearm as if it was carried on his person

B. A person who violates this section is subject to a civil penalty of at least $1,000.

he compared the proposed legislation to laws on the book such as seat belt use and drunken driving – which save lives.

The Petillos also are working with the Song family in Connecticut on passing similar legislation nationally called Ethan’s Law, named after 15-year-old Ethan Song, who was fatally shot by an improperly stored gun at a friend’s house.

Petillo said friends are volunteering to help with the grassroots nonprofit and get the momentum going.

No Do-Overs will partner with other organizations for help in passing legislation, raise awareness and “help us educate and really draw attention to this,” Petillo said.

It will also lobby the technology industry to come up with solutions to provide more safety and security when it comes to firearms and kids, according to Petillo.

“All of us love our children,” he said.

“And I think if we look at this from a human perspective and understand that this is a very small step that can actually save a substantial number of children’s lives without infringing on Second Amendment right, I think it makes sense.

“It can happen to anyone. This was not something we would ever think would happen to us. We didn’t have guns in our home. It was just a personal preference. At the end of the day this is a human discussion.

“It’s really a matter of our children and doing what is right for them.”

Area couple aims to help seniors stay in their homes

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Both James and Analaura DeVary had first-hand experience with how essential a good caregiver can be. When it came time to start their own business, they said it was an easy choice to buy a Senior Helpers franchise.

“My dad actually had a pretty debilitating stroke three years ago,” Analaura said. “So when [James] was looking at different franchises and things like that, I just felt like that was something that I had experience with and something that we can contribute to somebody’s quality of life.”

They purchased the franchise for the Chandler and Gilbert area.

“I’ve been around, or been a caregiver, for quite a while,” James said. “So my brother is one of the oldest surviving patients from St. Jude’s.”

His brother, Tony, is still living, but continues to face medical challenges.

Senior Helpers is one of the nation’s leading caregiving organizations for seniors. Their employees can perform a range of tasks, from helping with light housework to driving patients to medical appointments and back.

The DeVarys offer an option to seniors who wish to remain independent,

but need a little help around the house. They can staff a client for as little as four hours, or for 24 hours a day, seven days a week if needed.

They opened up their Chandler-Gilbert office in mid-December and had their first client in a couple of days.

“Our first client was a woman that called and she needed care for her mom that was in hospice, and she was like, ‘I

need care today, now,’” Analaura said. “And that was literally what she needed.”

James says what sets Senior Helpers apart from others is the training they provide for the caregivers. In their office they have a space set aside that is set up like a small apartment, with a bed, couch, bathtub and kitchen area.

Each person they hire to be a caregiver goes through training so they know what

to expect and how to handle different situations when they are at someone’s home.

Each applicant must pass both a background and drug test before they are officially hired.

“There’s a lot of competition here,” James said. “There really is. But to that, we chose Senior Helpers because the company started 20 years ago.”

He said having the support of the other Senior Helpers offices in the Valley, including in Scottsdale and Mesa, helped them decide this was the right franchise for them to join.

The company currently has seven employees with hopes of growing that to 75 or so, as they continue to expand. He said they haven’t run into any issues hiring, pointing out they had 11 applicants come in last weekend.

He said the company has a reputation for giving their caregivers a lot of support, and paying them well.

“We’re rolling out what we believe to be a fair compensation package,” James said. “And we’re also doing a lot of bonuses. Right? So if you’re hit all your shifts, you’re not late to your shift, we’re going to bonus people out.”

See HELPERS on Page 26

Chandler CEO launching kids’ mental health app

BY JOSH ORTEGA Staff Writer

While everyone else was learning how to make sourdough bread during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Ben Smith was learning how to launch an app that asks users a single question but could hold many answers in the youth mental health crisis.

Smith is founder/CEO of GnosisIQ, an artificial intelligence software company based in Chandler that partnered with nonprofits Death2Life and notMYkid to provide Arizona teens with immediate access to mental health and emotional support resources.

Smith wants to revolutionize education and considers this the next step in his company’s mission to help young people excel.

“The best way to engage with kids is to make it universal, comfortable, approachable and something they’re familiar with,” Smith said.

The GnosisIQ app checks all those boxes with kids answering a single question: “How are you feeling?”

They answer by picking one of 12 emojis: happy, confident, excited, content, bored, confused, mad, sad, stressed, sick and tired, and depressed. The app records their answers by date and time of day to help track a student’s well-being.

Gnosis IQ can help predict and track a student’s success. It also lever-

ages academic research, artificial intelligence and educator insight to support the holistic success of K-12 students.

Smith said Gnosis IQ allows teachers, administrators, and parents to know how students perform academically and their state of mind at any given time through

individualized dashboards.

For those concerned about privacy, Smith said the app doesn’t record location, opting instead for a simpler record-keeping, like that of a journal.

“While the software is free, we don’t sell the data,” Smith added.

Because the data belongs to the user, Smith said they can access it anytime like a journal.

“What I didn’t expect was for this tool to replace what used to be journaling,’ Smith said. “I used to keep a little notepad next to my bed, I’d scribble down thoughts and such, and I would just do bullet points. And for a lot of kids, this is replacing that.”

Smith said tech companies haven’t really innovated much on behalf of education, and this app could be the beginning.

“They focus on aerospace, and the military and different aspects of business, banking, and so on,” Smith said. “No one really innovates in education.”

“We’re 100% self-funded, and now I’m just looking to maintain that so I don’t go bankrupt,” Smith said.

Both nonprofits partnering with him

have a similar vision of finding innovative ways to assist struggling youth amid a shortage of counselors and emotional support specialists on school campuses.

Dawna Allington, director of peer programs at notMYkid based in Scottsdale, said partnering with Gnosis IQ provides a way to find youth who need support.

“My hope is that the software Gnosis IQ provides will find the individuals who would not otherwise ask for help and allow us the opportunity to assist them,” Allington said.

Whether teens need to talk to someone day or night, they will have access to a Death2Life counselor through notMYkid’s [I]nspired program app, which connects youth with a certified peer support specialist who has a wide variety of life experiences so that talking about life’s problems becomes a little more relatable for teens.

According to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Arizona schools have more than 700 students for one school counselor and a more than 3,000 students for one social worker. Those ratios should be 250-to-1.

For school psychologists, Arizona’s ratio of 1,593-to-1 is more than three times the suggested 500-to-1.

“I don’t want lack of funding to result in the death of a student,” Smith said.

Ben Smith is founder-CEO of GnosisIQ in Chandler. (Special to SanTan Sun News)

James and Analaura DeVary have started the Chandler-Gilbert Senior Helpers franchise.

(David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

Valley housing analyst sees sellers bouncing back

SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

The leading analyst of the Valley’s housing market says 2023 is starting to look like the year when the sellers market will return after a gloomy second half of 2022.

But the Cromford Report says it might take a while psychologically for both buyers and sellers to find much to be happy about.

“The trend is now moving in favor of sellers, having been favorable to buyers a month ago,” it said earlier this month. “So, although there is gloom and despondency almost everywhere, amid the murk there are clear signs of improvement. Because sentiment is so poor, there is psychological pressure to lower prices. However, there is no such downward pressure coming from the market. If all trading was done by unemotional computers, prices should be stabilizing right now.”

It also advised, “At this stage in the market cycle, where we are just emerging from despair, all positive signs will be greeted with generous amounts of cynicism. We recommend eliminating all emotions and just focusing on the numbers.”

In looking at market shifts in favor of sellers in the Valley, the Cromford Report said, “Fastest movers over the last month are Chandler, Avondale and Mesa” but warned, “Sun Lakes looks very weak with unusually low demand.”

Still, it’s hard put on a happy face in light of some of the numbers the Cromford Report served up.

Compared to Jan. 1, 2022, it said, the opening bell for this year found that while listings were up 182%, those under contract were down 41.9% and monthly sales plummeted 44.6% – from 9,265 to 5,132.

“We have very low volumes of closings because both buyers and sellers are discouraged,” Cromford Report explained.

“The numbers confirm that demand is very weak compared to normal for the time of year, and even weaker compared to the strong demand 12 months ago,” it continued. “However weak demand does not necessarily make a market

crash. Excess supply is what really drives prices down hard. This is what we saw in 2006 through 2008. But in 2023 supply is low and getting lower. It is much higher than this time last year, when it was abnormally low, but it is still a long way below normal.”

It also saw little reason to worry about a 3.5% decline in the median price of homes – down to about $410,000 from $425,000 – because “sales prices are a trailing indicator and these moves reflect the balance in the market in November, when we experienced a clear advantage for buyers.”

“Leading indicators are looking more positive,” it said. “This probably stems from interest rates being less horrible than they were six weeks ago. Demand is starting to stabilize and even showing a few signs of a slow recovery. With new supply very weak, we are not witnessing a market crash. This is merely a correction, with prices now just a tad lower

than a year ago.”

The big unknown is the Federal Reserve, it said.

“We are still dependent on the whims of the Federal Reserve. If they continue to push the Federal Funds Rate higher in an attempt to curb inflation, then mortgage rates could move higher too, putting a quick damper on any recovery in demand. However, if the 30-year fixed mortgage rate stays between 6% and 6.75%, then we should have confidence that the housing market can operate normally at this level.”

It said such market confidence will come from several months of interest rate stability and conceded, “This is by no means certain to happen, but it is possible.”

“Once the fear is removed,” it added, “we should see more signs of a recovery in demand and volumes will rise back towards a more normal level.”

The Cromford Report also said, “The gap between the re-sale and newly built numbers continues to grow. The newhome market is far more healthy than the re-sale market both in volume and in pricing.”

It also said that among the Valley’s 17 major home sub-markets, “Paradise Valley is improving for sellers at an astonishing pace, with supply dropping and demand rising. Not far behind are Avondale, Chandler and Mesa, all up more than 30% over the past month.” Phoenix was not far behind, rising 24% in favor of sellers.

That data helped explain the Cromford Report’s cautious optimism when it said, “Confidence could be making a comeback sooner than expected.” HELPERS from Page 24

Not everyone is cut out to be a caregiver. There is a good chance the people they care for will die. What they hope to do is extend their lives by allowing them to remain independent in their own homes, where they tend to be happiest.

He said they also go into every new client’s home and do a full assessment.

“There’s 144 risk that we’re looking for,”

James said. “And we create the care plan based on that. So dementia, right, so we’re looking for, are they falling? What’s the front door look like? Are there bars? Are there steps? Is there screen doors? So we’re looking for all these little things? … What’s the proper bench to use? So all of this goes in our care plan.

“Our goal is to get them to not go into the hospital. So we create our care plan, based upon the risks that we see we make recommendations.”

Valentines for Seniors

The Chandler-Gilbert Senior Helpers o ce is conducting a Valentine’s Day card drive to give to residents at senior centers in Chandler and Gilbert. The owners are hoping to get at least 500 cards donated. Address them to: Dear Senior, and drop them o at the Senior Helpers o ce by Feb. 10.

This 4,100-square-foot hangar home on Venus Way in Chandler’s Stellar Air Park recently sold for $2.27 million. Boasting four bedrooms and bathrooms, the house is the only one in the park with two hangars and featured a fireplace, chef kitchen, putting green and numerous other amenities. (Special to SanTan Sun News)

Job growth likely to continue in region, panel says

BY CECILIA CHAN Staff Writer

Insurance agents, industrial truck and tractor operators, restaurant cooks and home health aides have been the fastest growing jobs in Greater Phoenix.

In fact, the Phoenix metropolitan area recovered all the jobs lost due to the pandemic and is expected to see a job growth through 2024.

“We will continue to see a lot of job growth but not as high as we’ve seen in the past couple of years,” said Brad Smidt, senior vice president of Business Development for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council or GPEC.

The regional economic group works with 22-member communities, including Gilbert, Chandler and Queen Creek to help attract businesses with high-capital investments and high-wage jobs.

Smidt and a panel of experts presented the Tri-City Economic Development Update on Jan. 19 at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

He said the local market was driven by construction and retail trade in the past and “I think we kind of gotten away from that especially with these larger manufacturing announcements that we’ve seen in the last couple of years with Intel, TSMC, etcetera.

“Overall we’re seeing a much more balanced economy.”

The largest industries in the Valley were professional and businesses ser-

vices at 16% and healthcare and social assistance at 14% Retail trade made up 11% of the job market and construction 6%.

According to Smidt, the unemployment rate for Phoenix Metro sat at about 3% and the gross domestic product was still growing – the GDP was $262 billion in 2021 and grew by 7% over the previous year.

Smidt said the unemployment rate for the country and probably Arizona will increase. For Greater Phoenix, it could go as high as 4% or even into the low 5%-range, he said.

“We’ll see kind of where that happens

in the next six months to a year,” he added.

Also in the Phoenix metro area and Arizona, overall personal income grew faster than the national average from 2020 to 2021, according to Smidt. In Greater Phoenix, the growth was 7.6% and for the state, 6.1% compared to the national rate of 3.3%.

Inflation has taken a big bite out of the local economy and has been at or near its highest rate in a decade, Smidt added, noting that metro housing prices have increased for over a decade but are dropping after hitting a high in June.

Consumer confidence nationally remained at or near its lowest level in the past 10 years, according to Smidt, who noted that holiday sales came in lower than expected and will cause it to further drop.

Additionally, the business confidence index was in a downturn, measuring 99.7 in October – the second consecutive month where the reading was below 100, Smidt said.

Although the cost of living in Greater Phoenix was 5.8% higher than the na-

See JOBS on Page 28

The Valley saw an increase in a wide variety of jobs last year over 2021. (GPEC)

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tional average, it was still cheaper than competitive markets in California, Denver, Colorado and the Northeast, he said.

Only the Texan cities of Houston, Austin and Dallas along with Albuquerque, New Mexico boast a lower cost of living.

Smidt also gave a summary of GPEC’s accomplishments for the current fiscal year.

By the end of 2022, the group has helped bring in 22 companies, creating almost 5,000 jobs and $23.7 billion in capital investment just for the first six months of the current fiscal year, according to Smidt.

“In terms of active prospects, we have about 230 active deals in our portfolio right now at some stage of looking at this market for potential expansion,” he said.

If all those companies came through, it would mean a capital investment of $120.5 billion and 32,649 jobs created, he added.

“What we are seeing right now is about 80 to 85% of our projects are industrial-focused,” Smidt said. “So those are distribution, manufacturing and that includes data center projects that are active in the market.”

He said that since the pandemic, there’s been a huge swing in industrial projects, which captured 55% or so of the market pre-Covid.

Office users, however, went from 45% of GPEC’s portfolio down to 15 to 20%, he said.

“Where we are as a market is we probably have over 20 million square feet of sub-lease space that is on the market that these companies don’t know what to do with,” Smidt said. “They are not utilizing this kind of space.”

But there is still some office activity happening with the office projects coming in smaller now.

“It’s just not the 100,000 square feet, the 150,000, the 200,000-square-foot type of project that we are seeing,” he said. “But we are working on a couple of deals. “We certainly are doing everything we can to find those employers and find those types of projects in back office, in financing, in corporate headquarters.”

He said GPEC is hopeful that a return to office will happen a little later in 2023 and hopefully continue to rise in 2024 and beyond.

CEO J. Brian O’Neill gave an update of what’s occurring at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which he described as a 3,000-acre economic development project and job creator that just happens to have a thriving regional airport and three runways as part of its infrastructure. In 2021, the airport pumped $1.8 billion into the local economy.

“We at the airport really pride ourselves on the diversity of opportunities that we have,” O’Neill said.

The former Air Force base is owned and operated by a joint powers airport authority comprises Mesa, Phoenix, Apache Junction, Queen Creek, Gilbert and the Gila River Indian Community.

According to O’Neill, over 1 million square feet of private development is underway at the airport, which includes Gulfstream building a 225,000-squarefoot West Coast service center and Virgin Galactic building two hangars, totaling 180,000 square feet.

About 1,000 developable acres are left and 660 of those acres are under professional, commercial development, O’Neill said.

“We got two large master developers that are working hard to develop the aeronautical and non-aeronautical land that is still available at the airport,” he said.

Also, there’s $70 million in private investment going into the airport’s infrastructure such as roadways, sewer, water, electricity and taxi lane extensions.

“All of that is being invested into the airport by private companies so they can unlock the remaining land for future development,” he said.

To keep pace with its growing popularity, the airport’s also embarked on a number of projects, including a $30-million air traffic control tower dedicated in August, a five-gate terminal, runway reconstruction and continued rental car infrastructure improvements.

Five airlines – Allegiant, Flair Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, Swoop and West Jet – fly out of the airport to over 50 nonstop locations in the country and in Canada. In 2022, the airport set a record with 1.9 million passengers.

O’Neill said future plans for the interim portable structure, in use during the construction of the new terminal, is to turn it into a federal inspection facili-

JOBS from Page 27

The Phoenix metro area has seen a steady increase in jobs through last November. (GPEC)

JOBS from Page 28

ty, which would allow for international flights to Mexico and beyond.

Currently the five destinations in Canada are all U.S.-preclearance locations, according to O’Neill.

The audience also heard about trends in their respective municipalities from Economic Development Directors Doreen Cott of Queen Creek, Dan Henderson, Gilbert, and Micah Miranda, Chandler.

Miranda said because Chandler was at a different stage in its growth cycle it was beginning to see a trend in infill and redevelopment projects.

He also said that Chandler’s mindset for the past five years has been, it doesn’t have to win all the projects but just get the right ones.

“We’re becoming more selective in the projects we are going for,” Miranda said.

“We are looking at long-term economic impacts and we are very selective and hyper focused on what residents ask for in the General Plan.”

Cott said Queen Creek is seeing an interest in industrial development with the recent annexation of 4,100 acres of State Trust Land in its northern tier.

The town, which has always had a robust retail environment, is now seeing second locations for some of its retailers such as a second Sprouts, a second Target and a second hotel, Cott added.

Henderson said as Gilbert reaches build-out, the town is looking at infill, redevelopment and mixed-used development.

“This idea of just wide-open growth… that is not Gilbert’s story anymore,” Henderson said.

Freshmen playing key roles in Basha basketball’s success

BY ZACH ALVIRA

Sports Editor

Basha basketball coach Mike Grothaus knows he has a special team on his hands this season.

His players have come together to form a bond that extends well beyond the court. They’ve been able to win close matchups with some of the best teams in the state. They’ve been able to show their strength and win big at time, too.

While they have stumbled twice on the year — a one-point loss to Brophy and big loss to the state’s top program in Perry — it doesn’t change the trajectory of the Basha program this season.

The Bears are contenders for the state title. And they have two freshmen helping lead the charge.

“They’re big time,” Grothaus said. “For one, they’re great kids. They come in, they’re coachable and work hard every day. Their potential is limitless. They’ve got a chance to be big time players.”

Mason Magee and Elijah Summers-Livingston have had to grow up on the fly this season. The two freshman stars have quickly become pivotal to Basha’s success.

It started last off-season in an open gym shoot around. The two frequented them at Basha and made their desire to attend the school well known. Throughout the summer they worked with the team, building chemistry and earning their spots as starters.

“I had no idea where I was going to go for high school, but I saw Basha lost one of its seniors from last year and I knew I could fit right in,” Magee said. “This summer changed my life. It’s a blessing.”

Magee, a shifty 5-foot-11 guard, runs

the point for Basha. The offense goes through him and it’s an opportunity he enjoys. Summers-Livingston is a 6-foot-

7 big man that has already proven his ability to crash the boards on numerous occasions this season. Together, the duo is a unique pair of first-year high school

students with the talent level of veteran players.

But with the rest of the Basha roster, they make up a portion of a starting rotation that has been dominant at times this season.

“Our chemistry, we’ve all known each

other for a long time,” Summers-Livingston said. “So, the way we play together, the way we can bring each other back up when we’re down, it’s really good. We’ve built bonds that are stronger than just on

Hockey becoming more popular in the desert

BY REMY MASTEY Cronkite News

Ice hockey and the desert may seem like a strange pair at first, but the sport has thrived in Arizona and reached unprecedented levels in a state known for its ice-melting climate.

Through the rise of professional, collegiate and youth hockey, Arizona has grown a robust hockey culture that rivals the best in the United States. But hockey didn’t become popular overnight in Arizona. It took decades for the sport to start spreading rapidly across the state.

“When I was growing up in Arizona, I would ask my friends to try hockey, and they would just laugh at me and say, ‘It is the wildest and weirdest sport in the world,’” said Justin Rogers, director of hockey operations with the VOSHA Titans. “So now to see this growth is unbelievable.”

On May 16, 1967, the course of hock-

ey in the Valley changed forever. The Western Hockey League, a major junior ice hockey league, approved moving

Due to financial difficulties, the Roadrunners folded in the WHL. Still, they would go on to play in the World Hockey Association, the Central Hockey League, the Pacific Hockey League and the International Hockey League.

The Roadrunners attracted an average of 5,794 fans per game during the 1990-91 season. That number jumped to 7,454 fans during the team’s 1995-96 campaign. Then, after 79 years of the NHL’s existence, Arizona landed a team after the Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix on July 1, 1996.

When the Coyotes arrived in the Valley, only three ice rinks had been built. As far as the number of skaters, only 2,100 people were registered as youth and adult hockey players at the time.

The Coyotes helped create positive change. By 2000, Arizona had six yearround ice skating facilities and 5,500

the Victoria Maple Leafs from Victoria, Canada to Phoenix and renamed the team the Phoenix Roadrunners.

(Left) Basha freshman forward Elijah Summers-Livingston has grown into his role as one of the starters for the Bears this season alongside Mason Magee. Together they add a unique set of skills that help cater to other starters at times. (Right) Basha freshman guard Mason Magee is one half of a duo that is helping lead the Bears to a successful season. Currently, they are one of the top-ranked teams in the state in the new Open Division rankings. (Dave Minton/Staff Photographer)

During the 2015-16 NHL season, 7,510 kids from Arizona were registered with USA Hockey. By the 2017-18 season, that number increased to 8,617, and the drafting of the Valley’s Auston Matthews by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016 is believed to have contributed to that. (Courtesy of Arizona Coyotes)

registered players, more than double the amount from 1996.

Since the Coyotes arrived in the Valley, the team has taken community investment to heart. Over the span of five years from 2013-2018, the Coyotes have donated 2,100 sets of hockey equipment to youth, adult, special needs and sled hockey programs. In addition, the franchise donated $300,000 to local rinks and more than 12,000 jerseys to hockey programs across the state.

The Coyotes’ involvement in the community led Arizona to be ranked second among NHL markets in total growth percentage over a five-year span (201418 seasons) and first in total percentage growth for female hockey players.

As a result of the boom and Arizona’s limited number of ice rinks, it’s not unusual for kids to run into NHL players in the Valley.

“We have such a tight-knit community,” Doan said. “In Canada, a city of 10,000 people would have around 15 to 20 ice sheets, and you could go your entire life without ever running into an NHL player. Where(as) if you go play hockey in Arizona, you will run into NHL players because in the community, there are so many NHL players at the rinks all the time.

“The kids have the opportunity to listen and see and be around NHL players. It’s become a big part of the hockey structure.”

Over the 26 years, Coyotes players have been influential to the community – and no one has been more important to this growth than Doan.

Drafted by the Jets in 1995, Doan is widely considered the best Coyotes player of all time. He played from 1996 to 2017, and became team captain in 2003 to serve not only his teammates but the entire Arizona community.

“Shane Doan, for as long he has been here, being the face of the franchise, has been huge for Arizona,” said former ASU hockey coach Mike DeAngeles, who currently works as the director of hockey operations for the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes, a youth hockey organization.

After Doan’s illustrious career with the Coyotes, instead of returning to his hometown of Halkirk, Canada, he stayed in Arizona and imparted his wisdom at the junior level.

“I think just the longer the Coyotes have been here, the more it’s grown,” ASU hockey coach Greg Powers said. “When you have the NHL in a major market, you have guys like Shane Doan, Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick, and superstars like that have played here, and that helped grow the game.”

The rise of youth programs has also led to an increase in talented players from Arizona. The most prominent player to come out of Arizona is current Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews.

Matthews was drafted by the Maple Leafs with the first overall pick in 2016, becoming Arizona’s first top selection and sparking new hope for kids striving to play hockey in the state.

During the 2015-16 NHL season, 7,510 kids from Arizona were registered with USA Hockey. By the 2017-18 season, 8,617 kids were registered.

In the past, Arizona State University was traditionally known for its strong football and basketball programs while the school’s hockey program was sometimes considered as an afterthought.

In the early 1980s, ASU’s ice hockey club began, and it didn’t take long to become official. ASU joined the Division II American Collegiate Hockey League and by 1996 qualified to play in the ACHA Division I tournament.

Over the years through the process, ASU started to develop as a legitimate hockey program.

In 2014, ASU won the ACHA Division I national championship for the first time to bring much-needed attention to the up-and-coming hockey program.

On Nov. 18, 2014, ASU Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson announced that the school would move its hockey program to Division I. Two years later, ASU played its first full season in Division I but didn’t blossom into a true contender until the 2018-19 season with a 21-13-1 record to earn the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance.

Led by Powers, the ASU hockey program is starting to gain recognition nationally. On this year’s Sun Devils roster, there are 26 out-of-state players.

High-caliber players born and raised in Arizona are also deciding to stay home to play college hockey at ASU, including NHL prospects Josh Doan, a second-round pick by the Coyotes in the 2021 NHL draft, and Demetrious Koumontzis, a fourth-round pick by the Calgary Flames in the 2018 draft.

The Sun Devils have sent off an astonishing 23 players to play professional hockey, including the NHL’s Joey Daccord and Brinson Pasichnuk. Six ASU graduates from the 2021-22 team currently play professionally.

Following the conclusion of the 2021-22 season, ASU closed their long rich history at Oceanside and officially moved into the newly built Mullett Arena.

Mullett Arena is a 5,000-seat stateof-the-art arena that puts the program in another stratosphere.

During the 2021-22 season at Oceanside, the Sun Devils averaged 721 fans per game due to limited seats in the arena. At Mullett Arena this season, the Sun Devils have averaged roughly 4,300 fans per game, a huge increase from previous years.

Grand Canyon University started a club in 2016, and the University of Arizona boasts a team that has made the ACHA National Tournament five times in the last eight years. The Wildcats, who won the Western Collegiate Hockey championship in 2019 and 2020, plan to build a new 3,000-seat arena for the men’s and women’s hockey programs by 2024.

“It’s been such an amazing transformation,” DeAngeles said. “Hockey in the Southwest United States is something I have always dreamt of happening and now it’s here.”

BASHA from Page 32

the court.”

Magee and Summers-Livingston have learned from the older players. Junior wing Christian Warren has taught them grit and toughness on the floor. Guard Izaih Johnson has shown them how to push the ball up the court in transition and how to be a natural leader.

Those are key characteristics the two have had to pick up on in a hurry. Magee especially.

With the offense running through him he knows he has to bring his A-game on a nightly basis. So far, he’s done just that.

There are times Grothaus forgets Magee is only a freshman. He played his first two games of the season at just 13 years old.

The speed of the game at the varsity level was a transition for Magee. But he took it in stride. He shined throughout the summer at major tournaments such as Section 7 and it’s carried over to the regular season.

“Age has always been just a number to me,” Magee said. “I’ve always played up and high school it’s the same thing. I just keep going. I’ve been hooping my whole life, since I was 4, so it’s nothing to me.”

At 19-2 heading into Thursday’s matchup with Hamilton, Basha is off to its best start since the 2016-17 season, when the Bears went 31-1 and captured the 6A title.

But the Bears’ goals are different this time around with the Open Division in play. Thirty-two teams from the 4A-6A

conferences will all be placed in one bracket to contend for a true state championship. Teams that lost in the first two rounds will be placed back into conference tournaments, giving them another shot at making a run just not for the Open.

The new tournament presents the opportunity to truly see which team reigns supreme in Arizona for both boys and girls. It’s a unique opportunity Grothaus and his players are aiming for this season.

“Big games in general, those conference games, that’s where we need to bring the same energy,” Summers-Linvingston said. “We all know we still have so much potential for growth.”

Basha still has region games against Hamilton, Chandler, Brophy and Perry — the only two teams to beat the Bears — remaining on the schedule. Even with the lopsided loss to the Pumas last Monday night, Basha remains confident.

The Bears have the veteran leadership to make a run. They have the coaching to make a run.

And perhaps something that has become important this season with other schools displaying the same characteristic, they have talented freshman players that are willing to do what it takes to help their team make a run.

“We’re talented across the board and we have great depth,” Grothaus said. “Every guy on the team understands their role. We just have to continue to get better. We’re still a long way away from a finished product, which is an exciting thing as a coach.”

Basha alumna is a Marshal Scholarship winner

SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

While students were attending virtual classes due to the pandemic in March 2020, Katie Sue Pascavis was laying down the groundwork for her patent applications.

Following several months of collaborative research, the Chandler woman and Arizona State University senior and her team at the Luminosity Lab were selected as winners of the XPRIZE NextGen Mask Challenge for their inexpensive, reusable, fog-free N95 mask design. They were awarded $500,000.

This accomplishment would be a career-maker for most undergraduates, but for Pascavis, it was only the beginning. S

She went on to win a Goldwater Scholarship, a Udall Scholarship, apply for two patents and secure first authorship on several publications.

Now, she is hoping for graduate study at Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar, the British Embassy in Washington has announced. She is one of only 40 students selected nationwide for this major fellowship.

A dual major in mechanical engineering and global health, Pascavis will grad-

uate in May 2023 with honors from Barrett, The Honors College. As a Marshall Scholar, she hopes to pursue a master

of philosophy in engineering for sustainable development at the University of Cambridge, followed by a master of science in water, sanitation and health engineering at the University of Leeds.

Named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Marshall Scholarship Program began as a gesture of gratitude to the U.S. for the assistance that the U.K. received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Recipients may study any academic subject at any U.K. university for up to three years. Marshall Scholars represent a breadth of expertise in almost every academic field, producing numerous university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, one Nobel Laureate, 14 MacArthur Fellows, two Academy Award nominees, two U.S. Supreme Court justices and a NASA astronaut.

The British Embassy said that in the 2023 competition cycle, the program received over 950 applications from

candidates nominated by colleges and universities across the U.S.

Pascavis was one of nine students nominated by ASU for the Marshall Scholarship this year. She is the 18th Sun Devil to win a Marshall Scholarship since it was established in 1953, and the fifth ASU nominee to be awarded in the past 10 years, according to Kyle Mox, associate dean for national scholarships and director of the Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement.

The Marshall Scholarship is among the most selective international fellowships, with an average selection rate of approximately 4%. Scholars are chosen on the basis of academic merit, leadership potential and ambassadorial potential.

Originally from Bloomington, Illinois, Pascavis graduated from Basha High School in Chandler, and she was one of 20 Arizona students selected by the Flinn Foundation to receive a full-ride scholarship on the basis of her academic performance, service and leadership achievements in high school.

“Because of the Flinn Scholarship, I chose ASU over a prestigious eastern

See PASCAVIS on Page 35

14 Chandler students among 82 Flinn semifinalists

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

The Chandler area is well represented on the list of 82 Flinn Scholarship, with two Chandler Unified School District high schools tying for the most from any one school in the state.

There are 14 students who either attend a Chandler or CUSD school, or who are Chandler residents that were selected as semifinalists.

Hamilton High School Principal Mi-

chael De La Torre said all four of his students named semifinalists are exceptional in some way, noting some commonalities among the Flinn semifinalists over the years.

“They have been those students who really push themselves,” he said. “These students are taking a full course load of advanced placement courses, and they’re at the highest levels. They’re special individuals, these kids are not just doing stuff in the classroom. If you look at all the other things that they’re involved in, they’re in community service, they’re in clubs, and they’re busy. They keep themselves genuinely busy.”

Arizona College Prep and Hamilton high schools both had four named. They tied with Tucson University High for the most in the state. Basha High School was one of two that had three students selected.

The Flinn Scholarship awards about Arizona 20 students tuition, housing and meals at any one of the state’s three public universities. It’s valued at more than $130,000. They also have two opportunities for all-expense paid study abroad and are connected with some of the leading professionals in various fields.

There were 1,045 applications. The

semifinalists will each be interviewed and about half will be selected as finalists. That group will interview again in March with the committee that will make the final decision on who will be awarded a scholarship.

The is the Flinn Foundation’s 38th year of awarding the scholarship. The final winners will be announced in April.

Of the 82 semifinalists, 34 live in the East Valley. That’s more than 41%.

De La Torre credited the teachers who came before with playing a significant role in helping these students become such high-achievers.

“Being at the high school level, you know, we’re the beneficiary of kids who have been on track to do some great things for years coming into us,” De La Torre said.

“So it doesn’t just happen in high school. You know, it’s about their elementary experience, or middle school experience, and where they were supported there, and the families that are supporting them to get there as well.”

He said the school will do everything it can to help their four semifinalists advance to the final round, and potentially be named a Flinn Scholar.

“Our counselors will set up mock interviews and work with them on questions and how to project themselves as best as possible in those interviews,” De La Torre said. “It’s kind of a group effort, of all those people that are involved in supporting those students. But those students are very special for what they’re doing to prep themselves to get to this point.”

Flinn Semifinalists

The Flinn Foundation named 82 semifinalists for its prestigious scholarship. Of the 82 Arizona students, 14 either live in Chandler, or attend a Chandler or CUSD school. They are:

Student School Residence

Cameron Bautista..... Basha High School ............. Gilbert

Dean Brasen Arizona College Prep Chandler

Carol Chen .................. Hamilton High School ..... Gilbert

Joseph Chen Hamilton High School Chandler

Richa Chirravuri ......... Hamilton High School ..... Chandler

Megan Dowd Arizona College Prep Gilbert

Allyson Huynh ........... Basha High School ............. Gilbert

Mihira Karnik Arizona College Prep Chandler

Sneha Lakamsani ...... Hamilton High School ..... Chandler

Anika Lanke BASIS Chandler Gilbert

Merilyn Li ..................... Corona Del Sol.................... Chandler

Sofia Llanos Basha High School Chandler

Diya Nath .................... Arizona College Prep........ Chandler

Lorraine Osterling Casteel High School Gilbert

Katie Sue Pascavis, a Basha High grad, is graduating from Arizona State University’s Barrett, The Honor College in May and hoping to study at Cambridge University in England. (ASU)

Dean Brasen, a senior at Arizona College Prep and a Chandler resident, is among the local Flinn Scholarship semifinalists. (File photo)

university, and it was the best choice of my life,” Pascavis said.

“Due to ASU’s size, it has an overwhelming number of opportunities to get involved, from clubs to research to even double-majoring. I have met so many wonderful people at ASU who have supported me in this journey.”

In May 2023, she will receive two degrees: a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering and a bachelor of arts in global health, with minor fi elds of study in sustainability and Spanish. In her time at ASU, she posted near-perfect grades while completing an average of 22 credit hours per term.

Beyond her work in the classroom, Pascavis has been nationally recognized for her accomplishments in STEM research and commitment to environmental sustainability, receiving both the Goldwater Scholarship and a Udall Scholarship in 2021.

“I have known Katie during most of her undergraduate time at ASU, starting from when she came to my offi ce and asked how to get involved in water-related research activities,” said Paul Westerhoff, Regents Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment and the Fulton Chair of Environmental Engineering.

“Throughout her undergraduate engineering experience, she volunteered to help initiate and co-develop with my group several water-related technolo-

gies, including light-emitting diodes and optical fi bers to disinfect biofi lms in water.

“Katie exemplifi es the student innovator who boldly fi nds and takes on new challenges that advance the human well-being,” Westerhoff said.

ASU President Michael M. Crow added: “Arizona State University prides itself on supporting learners with multidisciplinary interests and the creative drive to advance new ideas and solutions.

“Katie Pascavis embodies the best of 21st century scholars. She is a unique thinker capable of broad learning who quickly weaves complex ideas together in innovative and constructive ways that better society. Katie represents hope for the future.”

Pascavis served as president of the ASU chapter of Engineers Without Borders and founded the GlobalResolve Club, which is an outgrowth of an international service-learning program of the same name that is housed in Barrett, the Honors College.

“Through Engineers Without Borders, I learned about the role of engineers in community health, and that inspired my interest in water, sanitation and health engineering,” Pascavis said.

In the long term, Pascavis plans to develop technologies to provide safe, clean water to communities in need throughout the world.

“Two billion people globally lack access to safely managed drinking water,” she said.

“The world is failing to make nearly enough progress on water and sanitation access. Working in the water, sanitation and health sector as an engineer, I can fi nd green solutions that uplift the women and children denied rights and education through water insecurity.”

In terms of ambassadorial potential, Pascavis hopes to learn about approaches to water, sanitation and hygiene engineering that are offered only in the U.K.

As the North American representative on the Global 4H Committee, she hopes to connect with the U.K. counterpart of 4H, the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, and engage them in the Global 4H Sustainability Initiative, an international program she created to help rural youth become environmental activists in their own communities.

“The practical, hands-on approach promoted by 4H can be seen in Katie Sue’s approach to engineering solutions,” Mox said.

“She thinks fi rst about the end-user, the young child who needs clean water, the doctor who needs a functional mask, the farmer who watches her crops wither and die in a drought. I have been advising Marshall Scholarship applicants for 17 years, and I have worked with few applicants who demonstrates such high levels of achievements in so many different spheres.

“Typically, Goldwater Scholars boast impressive GPAs and a remarkable research CV, while Udall Scholars demonstrate passionate leadership related to the environment, often at the sac-

rifi ce of technical expertise or academic achievement. Katie combines natural leadership abilities, remarkable academic and scholarly potential, and a commitment to global service. She represents the best of what ASU has to offer the world,” Mox said.

Given the extraordinary competitiveness of the program, the application process for the Marshall Scholarship can be arduous, spanning several months.

“The process was extensive and required rewriting essays many times,” Pascavis said.

“Through the writing and interviews, I learned more about myself. I even did eight practice interviews. I can never thank ONSA, the Flinn Foundation and the many ASU professors who helped me prepare. Thank you especially to Dr. Mox, Dr. Westerhoff, Dr. (Jared) Schoepf and Dr. (Mark) Naufel,” Pascavis said. Pascavis admits that the news came as a shock when she received a call from the British Consulate the day after her interview.

“My only thought was ‘I did it! I’m going to Cambridge!’” she said.

. In 2017, Barrett Outstanding Graduate Erin Schulte received the award, followed by ASU Truman Scholar Frank Smith III in 2018. Most recently, Alexander Sojourney, student president of the West campus and a student regent, was awarded in 2021. Pascavis will be joined in the U.K. by Barrett graduate and fellow Flinn Scholar Nathaniel Ross, who recently was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.

Chandler resident guest on new mystery series podcast

SANTAN SUN ENWS STAFF

Chandler author-artist Laurie Fagen said her new venture – a weekly podcast – is off to a great start and she’s lined up another Chandler author for her upcoming broadcast to keep her audience tuning in.

Author Howard Gershkowitz of Chandler is the featured guest on Episode 5 of “Murder in the Air Mystery Theatre” podcast, which drops Feb. 8 on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever podcasts are heard as well as at buzzsprout.com/2076782/11967569.

Fagen will interview Gershkowitz, who will read from his medical mystery “Not on My Watch.”

A financial adviser by day for 36 years, Gershkowitz is also an avid science fiction fan who writes poetry and fiction.

“My goal is to educate, entertain and encourage my readers to take another look a closer look at themselves and their universe,” he said.

His debut novel, “The Operator,” came out in October 2018, and he noted “Not on My Watch” was inspired by actual events at several hospitals that were indicted for a $100 million Medicare fraud.

In the story, a local nurse tries to protect her hospital – and her career – from the takeover attempt of a ruthless conglomerate.

“Howard’s book is a real page turner

about a little-known subject of Medicare fraud,” Fagen said. “I’ve had a great time interviewing authors and having them read from their books or short stories.”

Gershkowitz said, “I have been working for the past eight years, publishing

short stories and poetry in a variety of eZines and anthologies, including The Blue Guitar, a publication of the Arizona Consortium of the Arts, and Michigan State University’s literary quarterly, ‘The Off beat.’ Last year, I took first place for poetry in the Tempe Public Library’s an-

nual writing contest, which was officiated by the Creative Writing Department of Arizona State University.”

He said he also is a history buff and uses “both my love of sci-fi and my penchant for the past to create my stories and poetry.

“My goal is to educate, entertain, and encourage my readers to take another look a closer look at themselves and their universe, said Gershkowitz, a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and a volunteer in Chandler.

The first season of “Murder in the Air Mystery Theatre” podcast features interviews with and readings from mystery, suspense and thriller authors as well as episodes from portions of Fagen’s first two audiobooks, “Fade Out” and “Dead Air.”

Devon Hancock of Tempe composed original music and is handling editing, mixing and mastering for the podcast.

In addition to podcast platforms, “Murder in the Air Mystery Theatre” can also be heard on Fagen’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@readlauriefagenmurderintheair. For those wanting sneak peeks, extra content and to support the podcast, there’s a Patreon page at tinyurl. com/MurderInTheAirMysteryTheatre.

For podcast details, go to ReadLaurieFagen.com or email Fagen at Laurie@ ReadLaurieFagen.com.

Chandler author Howard Gershkowitz is the featured guest on Chandler author-artist Laurie Fagen’s next installment in her “Murder int he ir Mystery Theatre” podcast Feb. 8.

(Courtesy of Howard Gershkowitz)

Suicides among veterans is JWV Post topic

SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

Jewish War Veterans Copper State Post 619 in Sun Lakes will host a discussion by Major (Retired) Cassandra “CaS” Facciponti, founder of Operation Shockwave next month.

She will discuss how her organization helps veterans to heal to prevent suicides. The meeting takes place at 10 a.m. Feb. 19 at the poolside building of Oakwood Country Club, 24218 S. Oakwood Blvd., Sun Lakes.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Facciponti served in the Army for more than 10 years. Following medical retirement, she continues to support fellow veterans and their families on their healing journeys.

Since September 2022, Operation Shockwave’s purpose has never been more evident.

Operation Deep Dive, funded by Bristol Meyers Squibb Foundation and verified by the Department of Defense, reported that over 44 veterans a day die by suicide and self-injury mortality.

This is 2.4 times higher than the most recent Department of Veterans Affairs statistic. Moreover, Arizona is now ranked 5th (formerly 6th) in the country in veteran-suicide rates.

Shockwave’s upstream healing programs are unique and not offered anywhere else.

“Our belief is that trauma does not discriminate. To heal the veteran, we must also heal the family and other support team members,” states Facciponti.

Shockwave offers creative holistic events for veterans and their families through book clubs, open mics, social

excursions for veterans with service animals, ice baths, and the Alpaca Your Trauma Program at Harpster Farms with leash-led alpacas and llamas.

Last year, Operation Shockwave was able to provide hands-on help to 6,863 Valley veterans including their families. The 5-year-old organization has no paid staff and only three volunteers – Facciponti and her best friends, Jae and Natalie Marek.

In 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans named Facciponti one of 27 women Veteran Trailblazers of the Year.

Complimentary bagels, lox, doughnuts, and coffee start at 9:30 a.m. Everyone is invited and there is no charge, but a attendees wishing to eat are asked to notify Judy Wolin at 480-802-8521 or cjsunlakes@ msn.com by Feb. 17.

Fundraising activities enable the post to accomplish its mission of supporting veterans who are hospitalized, at-risk or experiencing homelessness. Through its poppy campaign, JWV volunteers raise sufficient funds to contribute to veterans’ organizations in the valley throughout the year.

JWV Post 619, which meets the third Sunday of the month from September-May, welcomes both veterans and patrons of all faiths.

To learn more about JWV activities and membership, email nancy.stutman@ gmail.com.

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Vea más sobre la historia de Megan en DignityAZWeightLoss.org

CASSANDRA “CAS” FACCIPONTI

Multicultural talent

Mesa music teacher studied with guitar greats

SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

As a teacher at Music Makers Workshop in Ahwatukee, Dr. Steve Kinigstein helps his students master the strings of guitars and ukeles.

As a composer and professional musician, Kinigstein by his own account is an explorer traversing an endless universe of sounds and melodies.

“My favorite thing about being a musician is the joy of discovery,” he said. “Whether I am playing or composing there is always something new that pops up. When I’m teaching, I love that moment of epiphany when the expression on the face of a student tells me something new has just clicked.”

And as a musician, he said, “Whatever I might be playing, there is always something popping up that arouses my desire to explore.”

He recalled that when he started learning the guitar at age 8, “music had a compound and somewhat complex role in the early years of my life” as he discovered that music “was transporting to me” and in turn “I brought my own curiosity to the table.”

At age 14, tragedy struck when his father passed away and because he had no siblings he could share his grief with, he found comfort in music, practicing for hours after school and throughout the weekend so much so that he came “a musical recluse” for about a year.

Kinigstein’s desire to play in a band ended his grieving period and soon he was off on a musical odyssey that deepened his passion for music and expanded

his reportoire.

His formal education included a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a master’s degree and doctorate from Columbia University in New York City.

His “informal” education, though, included studying under some of the great guitarists and composers of several generations.

He studied guitar with masters of the instrument such as Jim Hall, George Benson, Ike Isaacs, and Harry Leahy. Recommended for the doctoral program at Columbia by the late composer Milton

Babbitt, who earned a reputation for his work in electronic music, Kinigstein studied composition under some of the giants in composing, including Ursula Mamlok, David Rakowski, Mario Davidovsky, Giampaolo Bracali and George Edwards.

While living in New York and going to school there, he earned his living performing as a substitute guitarist in the orchestras of several Broadway shows, including “Grease,” “They’re Playing our Song” and “Shenandoah,” and as a studio guitarist for recordings and commercials as well as teaching guitar privately.

In 2009, he began writing for Just Jazz Guitar magazine, leading him to a friendship with his idol, Mundell Lowe, the late American jazz guitarist who worked often in radio, television and film, and as a session musician.

Kinigstein wrote and delivered Lowe’s eulogy at his funeral.

Lowe had chosen Kinigstein to produce his final CD, “Poor Butterfly,” which rose to #58 on the national jazz “Top 100” chart and still gets air-play in the USA and abroad.

Kinigstein’s teaching career began in

the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1998, where, despite a two-year battle with cancer, he was a band and orchestra director and served as chairman of instrumental music. He also created and designed the guitar course for the district. He also was a clinician on a national level, giving seminars to improve the effectiveness of guitar teachers who were working in the secondary level classroom.

A Mesa resident since 2020, Kinigstein recently completed a biography on Lowe.

He also teaches students at all levels at Music Makers Workshop and composes..

“Being a trained composer, I, of course, write my own music,” he said. “I don’t really have what I would call a definitive creative process. I do have some of my own rules to which I strictly stick. If I’m composing for guitar, I never have my instrument in my hands.

“This comes from a studious avoidance – even a fear – of composing to my own technique rather than the pure musical idea. I always let that which I’ve written sit overnight before I revise or develop it further. I never show it to anyone until it is absolutely finished.”

As he looks at his career as a performer, a highlight for him was his appearance at age 18 in the Atlanta Pop Festival in Georgia at the stadium that hosted Braves games.

“Waiting in the dugout and watching the other performers until it was time to

Dr. Steve Kinigstein teaches guitar to all levels of students at Music Makers Workshop in Ahwatukee. (Courtesy of Music Makers Workshop)

Performers from Halau Hula ‘O Ka’anohiokala in Hula Dance Studio Payson showrf off their dancing moves at the 2023 Chandler Multicultural Festival Jan. 14 while Abhiraj Kulkarni, 5, colored a drawing (lower right) and Yuna Buhrman helped Rhett Howard, 5, create a helicopter from markers and a plastic cup. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Chandler Education Foundation supports district

BY MURRAY SIEGEL Guest Writer

In 1986, Chandler Unified School District was small but community members realized it was growing and would need support to maintain its quality schools.

The Chandler Education Foundation was formed twith a mission of providing “community support for excellence in education.”

“We are proud to partner with Chandler Education Foundation, a premier educational partner who believes a successful education system inspires student learning, engages community stakeholders, and connects opportunity to classrooms across CUSD,” said Superintendent Frank Narducci.

“The dedicated work of CEF and their volunteer board is instrumental in providing exceptional programs while funding scholarships for students and grants for schools,” he continued, adding:

MUSIC from Page 38

go on, I was sitting among stars such as Frank Zappa, Steve Winwood, and Duane Allman. Albert King, my favorite blues guitar player was sitting next to me, holding his guitar. Summoning up my courage,

“The foundation priorities are in alignment with our strategic plan and academic goals, in addition to our portrait of a learner which focuses on skills and attributes necessary for success for all students in this rapidly changing, increasingly diverse, and interconnected world.”

CEF is currently running a Winner’s Choice Car or Cash raffle, which raises over $100,000 each year. The proceeds benefit the IMPACT Chandler Scholars program.

The raffle winner is given the choice of $27,000 off the purchase of a new Toyota or $20,000 in cash. CUSD staff are huge supporters of the raffle, illustrating a commitment to students’ lifelong learning.

In addition to IMPACT scholarships, donor scholarships are hosted by the Foundation, providing almost $100,000 in additional funding to graduates. These scholarships are privately funded by philanthropic families and businesses who know a

commitment to education extends beyond a student’s K-12 years.

Another CEF program is the Cash for Classrooms campaign, which asks for community contributions.

CUSD staff are known to go above and beyond, taking extra time to write proposals that provide enrichment experiences for their students.

One such proposal resulted in hydroponic growing stations which allowed students to understand a plant’s growth cycle. Materials for this project were purchased with Cash for Classrooms funds.

Another major fundraiser is the CEF Golf Tournament at the Whirlwind Golf Club at Wildhorse Pass in September.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Jen Hewitt, the foundation continues to provide the support for innovative programs allowing CUSD to produce graduates who will be outstanding future members of the community.

I asked him if he was going to play my absolute, number one favorite Albert King tune, ‘As the Years Go Passing By.’

“I was shocked when he handed me his guitar and said, ‘Why don’t you?’ I had copied and learned the solo from the song note for note. By some miracle my nerves – which were already in fifth

gear – didn’t force me to choke. When I finished playing it, I handed him back his guitar. He just looked at me and said, ‘That’s right boy. You’re doing it right.’ I couldn’t believe what had just happened – right in front of Zappa, Winwood, and Allman.”

He said he likes to tell his students to

“get a clear idea of their musical goals.” “These will evolve through time.” he tells them. “If you stick with it, you will achieve them.”

To learn about his lessons and those of other Music Makers Workshop teachers, call 480-706-1224, email lessons@ mmwaz.com or check out mmwaz.com.

JENNIFER HEWITT

is still the best hope for the world

BY RABBI IRWIN WIENER Coumnist

February is such a dull month. The only significant holiday listed on the calendar this year is President’s Day.

Traditionally there were two holidays –one commemorating the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator, and the other, the birth of the father of our nation, George Washington.

Somewhere in time Congress determined to combine the two holidays and, in turn, honor all the presidents past, present and future.

These two giants contributed to our survival as a nation, but also to the understanding of what it means to be an American.

Abraham Lincoln kept us together by ultimately abolishing the stain of slavery from the fabric of our souls. He reinforced the proposition that all men

were created equal. After all, we are a nation of people who su ered inhuman treatment from tyrannical despots and potentates.

George Washington ensured our continuity as a sovereign community by contributing wealth and fortitude so that the shackles of ingratitude and ignorance as displayed by King George of England could be broken. And it was not just his resources and courage, but also his determination and example. America is still the hope of the world.

The message that was transmitted by a few valiant people reverberated around the world and is responsible, to this day, for millions of people living free.

And we are still a beacon of hope to those yearning to taste liberty and independence. The lamp at the doorway to America is lit for all to see, for all to enjoy, for all to use as a guide to the glow of self-determination.

Each president of these United States, the people elected to the di erent branches of government, and the citizen

on every corner of this great nation contributed in some way to the furtherance of these lofty ideals dreamed about through the ages. And finally, a resting place was found nestled in the arms of a caring and loving leadership destined to create a haven of goodness and mercy assisted by a noble Deity

So, as we visit the malls and rummage through the newspapers looking for the coupons of the day, remember that it is possible because of these two men who dared to dream, dared to display that special bravery.

And because they had the ability to motivate and encourage others to rally to their banner of optimism and faith.

God bless America. May the memory of these men, all the presidents, the people wearing a uniform who served and forfeited their lives, continue to be a blessing to all of us. This to me is what it means to be an American.

Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D., is the spiritual leader of the Sun Lakes Jewish Community.

Western Week galloping back to Scottsdale

BY ALEX GALLAGHER GetOut Staff Writer

Western Week has returned to, bringing a broad range of classic events that pay homage to the history of the “West’s Most Western Town.”

This year brings plenty of promise as two keystone events will be celebrating big anniversaries.

The Hash Knife Pony Express will make its 65th annual pilgrimage from Holbrook to Scottsdale to deliver the mail via pony express and the Parada Del Sol will march for the 69th consecutive year.

The parade follows a route from Drinkwater Boulevard along Scottsdale Road, finishing at Brown Avenue and Indian School Road.

Immediately following the parade, Old Town transforms into a massive Western-style block party with a kids’ zone, food trucks, merchandise vendors and multiple stages with live entertainment from today’s popular bands to traditional performers.

This year’s theme – Cowboy Kickoff –recognizes Super Bowl LVII the following weekend. Guests can expect a fun melding for both modern-day cowpokes and football fans.

All the events will be restriction-free for the first time in three years.

“Last year, I was pleasantly surprised

with the number of people we attracted for both Hash Knife Pony Express and the Parada Del Sol,” said city Tourism and Events Director Karen Churchard.

“You could tell that even last year, people were excited to be out again. I think this year we’re anticipating record attendance at a lot of our upcoming events.”

One event Churchard expects staggering attendance at is the Arizona Indian Festival Feb. 4-5.

“One of the biggest things that we’re excited about is having the Arizona Indian Festival back in the Civic Center where it debuted as an annual event seven years ago and will be one of the first free events in the newly opened Civic Center,” Churchard said.

However, the cornerstones of Western Week are still the arrival of the Hash Knife Pony Express and the Parada Del Sol that follows a day later.

Because of this, Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West offers a unique conversation with Hash Knife Pony Express Captain Mark Reynolds –which Scholefield says has been a popular attraction during Western Week.

“Last year, we formally scheduled Mark to formally speak at the museum and despite the suggested guidelines we had in place to keep everyone six feet apart, we had a standing-room-only crowd in our theater,” said museum spokesman David Scholefield. “Although we advised people to be concerned about COVID, they persisted because they thought ‘this is so interesting.’”

This year, Reynolds will speak at the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Theater/Auditorium at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West at 9:45 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Feb. 3 and Feb 4. The free talks are part of the museum’s free admission days Feb. 3 and Feb. 4.

Reynolds will not be the only voice delivering an informative talk at the Museum of the West. Scottsdale historian Joan Fudala will discuss the past six decades of the Parada Del Sol Feb. 2.

Western Week will also benefit from the coming uptick of tourism brought on by the Super Bowl at State Farm Stadium

See WESTERN on Page 42

Ireland’s We Banjo 3 coming to Chandler center

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GetOut Editor

Arizona hasn’t been kind to the Galway, Ireland-based act We Banjo 3. Four of their shows were postponed in February 2022 and each time it’s been to the Grand Canyon State, it’s rained.

Vocalist David Howley is hoping for a better result — and some warm weather — when We Banjo 3 returns to the state, including Feb. 4 at the Chandler Center for the Arts.

“These are very special shows for us,” he said.

“We have a lot of new music that’s creeping in from (the new record) ‘Open the Road.’ It’s more of an explanation and understanding as well of where the band is at. We’re probably going to ask the crowd to dance at some point. We love when people move. Movement in music is so important, particularly as we’ve had a break from it for a couple of years. We’re excited to be back.”

The two sets of brothers – Enda (banjo, mandolin and tenor guitar) and Fergal Scahill (fiddle, guitar and Bodhran) and David (banjo, vocals, guitar) and Martin Howley (banjo, mandolin, tenor guitar) –plan an extended break from their rolling banjos, soaring fiddle and mandolin runs that swirl around propulsive vocals and perfect harmonies.

“We all have a lot of projects that

we’ve been working on,” he said.

“Since coming back after the pandemic, we have been on the road pretty much constantly. So, we’re going to do something mad and crazy that musicians never do – we’re going to take some time off.”

David has solo tours coming up. Martin plays mandolin in the Broadway show

“Come from Away,” while Fergal’s talents went viral during the pandemic when he played a tune every day on social media. Enda has a “fantastic Patreon” where he has created a hub for learning Irish tenor banjo.

“We all have stuff happening,” he says.

We Banjo 3 grew out of jam sessions

among the four men. After Enda returned to Galway from a tour playing bluegrass and old-time festivals, he called David and Martin and asked them to come over to his house to play music.

In 2009, they started playing gigs, dubbing themselves We Banjo 3, as they all played the instrument. David added vocals and guitar, and Fergal joined later on fiddle.

After a performance at International Arts Festival, the biggest art festival in Europe, We Banjo 3 was awarded a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland, which the musicians used to record their first album and continued to tour Ireland.

Touring the world, they’ve showed off

their musicianship and recently they released “Open the Road,” a 10-track collection. Upbeat and powerful, We Banjo 3’s music is what the world needs, he said.

“Music is a very inclusive, communicative thing,” he said. “It brings people together. I think that that’s the beautiful thing about coming out to a show. You could come to our gig knowing ever lyric of every song, and you could also come to our gig without ever hearing a single song. We build the gig around the idea that both of those people are included.”

David said the pandemic proved there was a lot more music within them that they weren’t exploring.

“The statement of that album is there are no rules,” he says. “There’s not even a destination really in the album. It’s very much just one large exploration of what comes out of your mind if you just let yourself have fun.”

If you go

We Banjo 3

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4

WHERE: Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler COST: Tickets start at $26 INFO: chandlercenter.org

Western Week brings western flare back to the west’s most western town. (Facebook)

We Banjo 3 will play at the Chandler Center for the Arts on Feb. 4. (Special to GetOut)

We Came as Romans shares grief on new record, tour

BY ALEX GALLAGHER GetOut Staff Writer

We Came as Romans bassist Andy Glass will never forget 7:40 a.m. Aug. 25, 2018, a time he now has tattooed on his forearm.

It was when he learned that his friend and lead singer Kyle Pavone died of an accidental overdose.

In the years since learning of the news, Glass and his bandmates –Dave Stephens, Lou Cotton, Joshua Moore and David Puckett – have been through a lengthy grieving process.

“At first it was really hard because we spent so much time going through the grieving process, going to therapy and doing all this other stuff to try to put ourselves back together and figure out what life is,” Glass said.

We Came as Romans released two singles titled “Carry The Weight” and “From The First Note” in honor of their fallen vocalist and to reassure fans that they were going to move forward.

The Troy, Michigan, band thought the best way to do so was to share its grieving process. Writing their first full-length record since 2017’s “Cold Like War” was a large undertaking.

“It was just really hard to put into words how we felt about losing our friend and our brother, but we really wanted to do something to commemorate Kyle and honor him,” Glass said. “We also wanted to write a record about how we felt and create something that might be able to help people get to a better place because it helped us get to a better place.”

The record’s early drafts featured as many as 40 songs, many of which dwelled on the darker parts of grieving, he said. That was until Glass met with Stephens and Moore a week before the band entered the studio.

“(I told them) Kyle was never a sad/ down person, he was always full of energy and excited about music and we need to tap into that,” Glass said. “If we’re go-

ing to be writing about him, he would be rolling over in his grave if we recorded these sad songs. So, we had to shift our mindset going into the studio for ‘Darkbloom.’”

Entering the studio with a sunnier disposition, We Came as Romans wrote upbeat riff-heavy metalcore tunes like “Plagues” and “Daggers.” However, the somber “One More Day,” “Promise You” and “Holding the Embers” were emotionally challenging.

Glass’ creativity was not only limited to the music as he also came up with the name of the record.

Glass, a graphic designer by trade, had been reading “Shadow Work Journal: Bring Your Shadows to Light” and had an epiphany.

“I was reading in this book and there was this quote that said, ‘Don’t let your dark bloom and encompass everything you are. Let it breathe and grow,’” Glass recalls.

When he pitched the name “Darkbloom” to the bandmates, who decided unanimously to name the record that.

“We really wanted to not only commemorate Kyle but we needed to do it for ourselves,” Glass said. “Then the goal became to help people that have gone through stuff like that and let them know it’s OK to not be OK and it’s OK to talk about these things.”

This was best exemplified by the record’s sixth song, “One More Day.”

“‘One More Day’ is about basically saying, ‘I wish I had one more day to talk to you and to talk to me about what you’re feeling and what you’re going through.’ So, I hope when people hear the song, maybe then they will reach out to a friend they haven’t reached out to in a while and it could help to save someone maybe or maybe help them open up a bit.”

This is a dialogue that Glass hopes to open up when the song and seven others

One of the top attractions of Western Week remains the Parada Del Sol. (Facebook) WESTERN from Page 41

Feb. 12.

Because of this, Churchard teased that there could be some cross-partnership between the Super Bowl and Western

Western Week highlights

Old Town Scottsdale

Farmers Market

Feb. 4 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Brown Avenue & 1st Street

Offers indigenous specialties of the West, flowers, free-range beef, eggs, local cheeses, freshly baked artisan breads, jams and more from local purveyors.

Western Spirit

Gold Palette ArtWalk

Feb. 2 | 6:30-9 p.m.

Scottsdale Arts District

Guests can stroll the streets of the Scottsdale Arts District and take in authentic Western entertainment as well as exclusive Western-themed exhibitions at participating galleries.

Marching through Six Decades of Parada Del Sol

Feb. 2 | 6-7 p.m.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West

3830 N. Marshall Way

Scottsdale’s Community Historian Joan Fudala leads this special photo-rich presentation on the Parada from its origins to date. Held in the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Theater, the event does not require registration but attendance is limited.

65th Annual Hashknife

Pony Express Arrival

Feb. 3 | 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West

Attendees are invited to “saddle up” for this one-of-a-kind experience in celebration of the arrival of the Hashknife Pony Express, the oldest officially sanctioned Pony Express in the world, which delivers more than 20,000 pieces of U.S. Mail to the steps of Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.

The event begins with live music, bands, line dancers, Native American hoop dancers and royalty, kids’ activities and food trucks. Riders arrive at noon. Event is free, as is admission to the museum all day.

History and Stories of the Hashknife Pony Express

Feb. 3 | 9:45 and 10:45 a.m. and Feb. 4 | 9:45 and 10:45 a.m.

Week.

“We’re working with the Arizona Super Bowl host committee about having some components to recognize and celebrate when the Super Bowl comes into town the following weekend,” Churchard said.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West

In addition to free admission to the museum, Western Spirit hosts multiple History and “Stories of the Hashknife Pony Express” educational seminars in the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Theater/ Auditorium.

69th Annual Scottsdale

Parada del Sol Historic Parade and Trail’s End Festival

Feb. 4 | 10 a.m.-noon (parade), noon-4 p.m. (festival)

Old Town Scottsdale – Scottsdale Road

Presented by Oliver Smith Jeweler, the 69th Annual Scottsdale Parada Del Sol Parade and Trail’s End Festival celebrates the city’s Wild West roots beginning with a family-friendly parade featuring more than 125 entries such as vibrant floats, mounted horse-riders, horse-drawn carriages, school marching bands, wagons and stagecoaches representing multiple cultures from Mexican and Native American to Arabian and Western.

Arizona Indian Festival

Feb. 4 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Feb. 5 | 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Scottsdale Civic Center

The Arizona American Indian Tourism Association (AAITA), in partnership with Arizona’s Native American tribes, hosts this annual event that offers guests the unique opportunity to learn more about the state’s Native American Indian tribes by exploring examples of traditional Indian villages and dwellings, experiencing traditional arts and crafts demonstrations and enjoying native food vendors and native mainstage entertainment such as dancing and singing.

The Tribal Travel and Tourism offices will showcase native destinations.

The city of Scottsdale’s rich history dates back more than 130 years to the original farming and ranching operations that earned it the title of “The West’s Most Western Town.” Today, Old Town is a bustling and sophisticated area with dozens of local boutiques, art galleries, fine dining establishments, wineries and craft breweries.

However, the city works hard to maintain its “Wild West” charm and keep its heritage alive through events such as Western Week.

More information: scottsdalewesternweek.com.

We Came as Romans had to work their way through grief over the overdose death of their lead singer. (Special to GetOut)

Pony Express saddles up for 65th anniversary

BY ALEX GALLAGHER

SanTan Sun News Staff Writer

For the past 65 years, one of the pinnacles of Western Week has been the arrival of the historic Hash Knife Pony Express.

The oldest officially sanctioned Pony Express in the world, its riders on horseback gallop from Holbrook to Scottsdale to drop off priority express mail.

The route ridden by nearly 30 riders covers over 200 miles from the majestic Mogollon Rim through the wilderness of the Mazatzal range to “The West’s most Western Town,” where they will arrive at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West at 11 a.m. Feb. 3.

Among those riders is Hash Knife Pony Express Captain Mark Reynolds, who has been riding the route for 45 years. This is his 25th as captain.

“My dad and my brother were involved in it when I got out of the Air Force,” Reynolds recalls. “I’ve been riding with the Navajo County Sheriff ’s Posse ever since.”

Like Reynolds, he says that most of the riders work in the Navajo County Mounted Search and Rescue.

Although these riders have a genuine love for equines, Reynolds says higher cause motivates them for the two-day ride that stops near Payson.

“We do this to keep the Old West

alive,” said Reynolds. “It is a thrill to be able to watch the horses come down Marshall Way, delivering the mail to the

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postmaster and handing out our posters to our sponsors.”

Reynolds and his band of riders also celebrate the history of the state.

“Every time I do this, I think about all those people that have got us to the 65th year. We couldn’t have done it without them,” Reynolds said.

The Hash Knife Pony Express dates back to 1959, when Navajo County Hashknife Sheriff ’s Posse founder Roy Downing had an idea to invite Arizona Governor Paul Fannin to the Hash Knife Stampede Rodeo in Holbrook. They began conversing about an idea where the mail could be delivered via the pony express, as it had nearly a century earlier.

Fannin liked the idea and gave the green light for the Hash Knife Pony Express to deliver mail via horseback and the posse made the pilgrimage south to deliver the mail.

A year later, the ride would stop slightly northeast in Scottsdale to deliver the mail and kick off the annual Parada Del Sol.

Though he has made the ride 45 times, Reynolds still feels a sense of pride when he is greeted with the warm welcome he receives in Scottsdale each year.

“What I look forward to is delivering the mail in Scottsdale,” Reynolds exclaims. “When we get to Holbrook, we

probably have maybe 50 to 75 people. When we get to Payson, There are 200 or 300 people.

“But when we get to Scottsdale, there are 2,000 to 2,500 people waiting for us at the museum (of the West) and they’re clapping and yelling, and it hits home because I’ve been doing it for so long.

It is a real accomplishment to take the mail from Holbrook Arizona and deliver it to the Scottsdale postmaster.”

In total, the Hash Knife Pony Express annually delivers around 20,000 pieces of first-class mail that is hand-stamped by the riders with a seal of history.

“We have two stamps: we have our hand stamp cache on the left-hand corner of the letter and then we have a cancellation stamp from the post office that cancels the stamp since a lot of people tend to write letters to the post office,” Reynolds explained. “The letters that we hand out are historical documents because we are a historical event.”

If you go

65th annual Hash Knife

Pony Express arrival

WHEN: 11 a.m. Feb. 3

WHERE: Western Spirit:

Scottsdale’s Museum of the West: 3830 N. Marshall Way

COST: Free

INFO: scottsdalewesternweek.com

ROMANS

from Page 42

from the 10-track record are performed live on We Came as Romans’ upcoming jaunt, which includes a Friday, Feb.3, stop at The Nile Theater in Mesa.

“I’m really excited to see how ‘One More Day’ is received because it’s a very emotionally driven song, it’s a little bit slower and a bit more vulnerable,” Glass said.

Glass said they will break out the heavy tracks during the 17-song setlist.

No matter which song fans gravitate toward, Glass hopes they leave feeling inspired.

“I just want people to walk away just feeling like they got something they needed to get out and leave feeling like they’ve left their stress or their problems at the door and then they just got everything out that they needed to get out,” Glass said.

If you go

We Came as Romans w/ Erra and Brand of Sacrifice

WHEN: 6 p.m. Feb. 3

WHERE: The Nile Theater, 105 W. Main St., Mesa

COST: $25

INFO: iamdarkbloom.com, theniletheater.com

Nearly 30 riders will saddle up for the 65th annual Hash Knife Pony Express, carrying mail on horseback from Holbrook 200 miles south to Scottsdale.

(Courtesy of Hash Knife Pony Express)

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