THE NEWSPAPER OF AVONDALE, BUCKEYE, GOODYEAR, LITCHFIELD PARK & TOLLESON
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This Week
NEWS ............ 10 Fairlife investing $200M in Goodyear milk facility
SPORTS ......... 20 New varsity football coach takes the reins at La Joya
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LETTERS.........................13 BUSINESS..................... 16 SPORTS...........................18 FEATURES......................24 NEIGHBORHOOD.......28 YOUTH............................30 OBITUARIES..................34 CLASSIFIEDS.................35 NORTH
The Voice of the West Valley for 33 years
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April 17, 2019
Goodyear to build new city hall, park, library BY ANDREA ESTRADA
West Valley View Staff Writer
After starting and stalling five times in the last 35 years, Goodyear’s new city hall project is finally underway. Goodyear City Council approved a letter of intent in early April outlining a public-private partnership with investment company Globe Corporation for the development of Goodyear Civic Square at Estrella Falls. The project, slated to be completed by mid-2022, will be located north of McDowell Road near 150th Drive, and will include a city hall, library, two-acre park and Class A office space – the highest quality office space. Goodyear City Manager Julie Arendall said the square will serve as a public space for events and activities. “We’re really looking to create a vibrant gathering place for the Goodyear community. A place where we can have art festivals and concerts and really make that hometown feel for Goodyear,” she said. And a project like Civic Square at Estrella Falls is long overdue, Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord said. “Through the years we’ve done our citizen surveys. You can see that those needs and wants are there,” Lord said. “It’s go-
Goodyear approved a letter of intent in early April to build a new city hall, library, two-acre park and Class A office space north of McDowell Road near 150th Drive. (Photo courtesy city of Goodyear)
ing to be a great meeting place for our citizens, which they have really longed for, for some time.” While the project will fulfill a longstanding demand, it will also generate jobs and retain a high concentration of people in Goodyear during the daytime, something
Arendall said will attract business opportunities in the future. “What we don’t have in Goodyear right now is a density of daytime population. Our workforce leaves Goodyear
City Hall...continued on page 3
Meck: ‘The state of the city of Buckeye is excellent’ BY CONNOR DZIAWURA
West Valley View Managing Editor
With only 5% of its 640 square miles developed, the city of Buckeye’s room for growth was a theme of Mayor Jackie Meck’s recent State of the City address. And if projections come true, the city’s
current population of 80,000 will reach 1.5 to 1.8 million residents in the next 50 to 100 years. That projected growth is something for which the city is preparing, Meck assured during the April 10 Palo Verde Energy Education Center talk. Currently, as he summarized, “the state
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of the city of Buckeye is excellent.” “I don’t consider myself a politician. I consider myself a resident of Buckeye that wants to see Buckeye grow,” Meck said, tracing back his lineage in the fifth fastest-growing city in the nation among those
Buckeye...continued on page 2
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