April 10, 2022 | www.santansun.com
Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Freeway bottlenecks top MAG transit priorities BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
City staff provided Chandler City Council with this update on where it and its neighbors stand with paying down billions in unfunded public safety pension liability. (City of Chandler)
Chandler sees light at end of police-fire pension tunnel BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke was keeping count of every time Councilman Matt Orlando shouted, ‘Hip, hip, hooray,’ during the city’s second budget workshop last month.
The final tally was six after more than two hours of staff giving the members of the council mostly good news. Revenues are up and Council members have a lot of extra money they can use to address priorities. See
BUDGET on page 6
Addressing bottlenecks on the Santan and Loop 101 freeways and adding two rapid bus routes are among the transportation priorities in Chandler for county officials. Audra Koester Thomas, the transportation planning program manager for the Maricopa Association of Governments, said every project on its list is important, but that expanding the number of lanes on the Santan Loop 202 Freeway between the Loop 101 and I-10 as the most important. Two rapid-bus routes are planned. One would go up Arizona Avenue through the heart of downtown Chandler to Mesa and a light rail transit center and the other between Scottsdale Fashion Square and Chandler Fashion Center. She and other officials briefed business leaders on the region’s transportation plan at a Chandler Chamber of Commerce event. “The purpose of the route is more about connecting Chandler, Scottsdale
and Tempe residents with downtown Tempe/ASU and downtown Scottsdale, along with a connection to either mall at the north/south end and the Chandler Fashion Center,” said Jason Crampton. “Additionally, the route will provide a faster connection to light rail and other regional bus lines in the area.” That route would travel mostly on Rural and Scottsdale roads. Another high priority is addressing the rush-hour bottleneck on the Loop 101 between U.S. 60 and the Red Mountain Freeway. A key to addressing all those priorities is voters passing an extension to Prop. 400, a half-cent sales tax dedicated to addressing the region’s transportation needs. It will likely be included on this year’s ballot in November, although at this newspaper’s deadline, both chambers in the Legislature were considering a bill to put the tax on renewal on this year’s ballot. The current tax expires in 2025. See
TRANSIT on page 3
Election 2022 begins for Chandler teen inventor Chandler mayor, council earns big national nod BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
The campaign season for the 2022 city election is officially underway in Chandler. The deadline for submitting signatures to qualify for the Aug. 2 primary election was April 4 and two candidates for mayor and five for three Council seats appeared to have qualified, though the deadline for challenging petitions is April 18. Unlike his inaugural run four years ago, Mayor Kevin Hartke appears headed for a contest as he faces Ruth Jones. Jones, who said she submitted more than 1,500 signatures – 500 over the number needed. In the Council race, only incumbent Matt Orlando is seeking reelection as council members Rene Lopez and Terry Roe are termed out. Roe, a Republican, is running for the state House in Legislative District 12, which covers northern Chandler, while Lopez is one of six GOP hopefuls running for a chance to challenge incumbent Congressman Greg Stanton in the fall. Here’s a look at the candidates in the city election:
Mayor
Kevin Hartke: The current mayor is pastor at Trinity Christian Fellowship in
Chandler, where he started working in 1985. He has served on council for nine years and before that worked on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the Human Relations Commission. He said he thinks the biggest issue the city faces in the coming years is adjusting to build-out. Hartke started this year with about $206,483 for the election, according to his campaign finance reports, raising more than $78,500 in the final quarter of 2021.
Ruth Jones: Jones said she got inspired to get involved in local government after the death of her 17-year-old son, Joshua, from cancer. It was while he was getting treatment in Utah that she first joined some city commissions. She started her career as a network analyst for the National Security Administration, has done marketing and business and for the past 20 years has focused on finance. Jones said her top campaign issue will be public safety and beefing up the police department. Council Angel Encinas: Raised in down-
town Chandler, where he still lives, he is a Chandler High and Arizona State University grad who manages an immigration consulting firm and a real estate See
ELECTION on page 14
BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Prisha Shroff may need to brush up on patent law if she keeps on inventing at the pace she’s currently on. The Hamilton High School freshman can already claim four inventions, including one that won a national award. Not bad for a 15-year-old. All of her inventions to date are to solve problems that she witnessed or heard about. NASA is having a problem with its rovers running out of power on Mars; Prisha has a solution for that. The family comes home from a trip to find its backyard flooded by the swimming pool; there’s a fix for that. Drones are running out of power after only about 10 minutes of flight; she’s got a plan for that. But the one she won the $10,000 national Broadcom Foundation Lemel-
Prisha Shroff son Award for Invention came after seeing a wildfire shut down a highway in Los Angeles. Her invention is an artifi-
F E AT U R E D STO R I E S Chandler part of arts impact study . . . . . . . . . . . . . .NEWS . . . . . . . . . Page 10 The Alexander has been sold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Business ...............Page 21 Assistance League's big hopes for casino night . . .NEIGHBORS . . . . . Page 26 Electric season at arts center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GETOUT . . . . . . . Page 28
See
PRISHNA on page 10
More News . . . . . . . . 1-20 Health . . . . . . .21-22 Business . . . . 23-24 Opinion . . . . . . . 25 Neighbors . . 26-27 GetOut. . . . . 28-32 Faith . . . . . . . . . . 33 Directory . . . 34-38