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July 17, 2022 | www.santansun.com

Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

Chandler near head of class for classy apartments BY CECILIA CHAN Staff Writer

The amenities race in the apartment industry has been intensifying in the country over the past decade with 86% of new builds classified as luxury dwellings, a recent study said. And Chandler is among the cities leading the pack. Arizona in particular showed a tendency toward luxury living since 2012 with Chandler as well as Gilbert and Scottsdale seeing almost exclusively high-end apartments going up within their boundaries, according to a study

Zaterra, one of Chandler’s newest luxury apartment complexes on Germann Road boasts an enormous array of amenities. Rent ranges from $1,800 to $2,800 a month.

by StorageCafe. In the study’s top 20 list of High-End Apartment Living, Gilbert, Chandler and Scottsdale landed the No. 1, 2 and 4 spots, respectively, in the country, according to StorageCafe. StorageCafe is a storage space search website that is part of Yardi Matrix, which develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for real estate companies. For the past decade, all 4,000 apartment units that opened in Gilbert were See

(Special to SanTan Sun News)

LUXURY on page 6

Five candidates eyeing Chandler Unified board BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

It appears there will be five candidates on November’s ballot for the two available seats on the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board. Candidates had until Nov. 11 to file

their nominating petitions with at least 400 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify. Incumbent Lara Bruner, and challengers Marilou Estes, Charlotte Golla, Kurt Rohrs and Patti Serrani all turned in more than enough signatures to qualify. However, there is a 10-day challenge

Chandler discouraging panhandler support BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

A city official says Chandler residents are very willing to help when it comes to the growing homeless population, but that it might be doing more harm than good. Now, the City of Chandler is starting a campaign to discourage citizens from giving money to panhandlers. Riann Balch, city community resources manager, told City Council at its June 23 meeting that giving money to the homeless people on street corners is not really going to help them and could make things worse. “Panhandling in Chandler, specifically, is extremely lucrative,” Balch said. “We’re a very generous community. Unfortunately, panhandling, while the intent is very good, the outcome is very bad.” “The longer you live on the street,

the faster you die,” she said. “So the average age for somebody that lives on the street is 49. That’s a very short lifespan.” Balch argued that giving money to panhandlers may solve their immediate needs, but it’s allowing them to continue to live on the streets. If people chose to give another way, then unsheltered people would be forced to seek out the city services that can help them get headed in the right direction again. The city is starting a marketing effort this summer to encourage residents to help the homeless without giving money to panhandlers by emphasizing the ChangeUp program, which it introduced in 2018. It will be using two different sets of signs to get the message out. See

PANHANDLER on page 20

Jane

period before any candidate is officially on the ballot. Current board member Lindsay Love is not seeking reelection. Four candidates filed statements of interest but did not submit signatures. They are Nicole Eidson, Michael Flores, Crystal Markowsky and Matt Young. Eidson, Flores and Markowsky all said

they did not file because they did not want to split the vote with like-minded candidates, clearing a path for those with opposing views from getting elected. Young said he had to deal with some issues that prevented him from

BOARD on page 10

Ready to turn 100

Larry Casey of Ahwatukee, right, is planning a special celebration at Sunrise at Chandler for his father Floyd when he marks his 100th birthday on July 20. Floyd also is a World War II veteran who played a role in some of the biggest European Theater battles. For the story, see PAGE 14. (David Minton/ Staff Photographer)

F E AT U R E D STO R I E S Lyft program extended for south Chandler . . . . . .News . . . . . . . . . . .Page 3 Cities get more power over short-term rentals . . .Real Estate . . . . Page 32

CHANDLER CITY COUNCIL

See

Indoor dog park a hit in Chandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Business. . . . . . . Page 36 Support for Chandler parents of LGBTQ kids . . . .NEIGHBORS . . . . . Page 46

More Back to School. . . 27 Real Estate . . . . . .31 Clip-It . . . . . . . . . 34 Business . . . . . . . 36 Sports . . . . . . . . . 42 Opinion . . . . . . . 44 Neighbors . . . . . 46 Faith . . . . . . . . . . 50 GetOut. . . . . . . . .51 Directory . . . . . . 53

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City renewing ride-sharing program for residents BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

The City of Chandler is renewing its First Mile/Last Mile program to address the transportation needs of South Chandler residents. City Council was expected to approve a contract for up to $50,000 with ride-sharing company Lyft at its July 14 meeting. That vote came after the deadline for this edition. Lyft has been picking up South Chandler residents and taking them to bus stations for more than a year. One end of the Lyft ride must be within a quarter-mile of a bus station to qualify. “I think it’s worked well for its intended purpose,” said Jason Crampton, the city’s transportation planning manager. “It was never intended to carry thousands of people every day. If we had that type of demand for transit down in that part of the city, we would need full bus service down there. So that was never its intent.” Crampton said the number of people using Lyft to get to and from transit centers has steadily grown, from a couple of hundred people a month when it first started in July of 2021 to about 500 a month now. Residents who use the service pay half the usual Lyft fare and the city pays the other half. The average fare paid by the city is $5.66. Through May, the program had cost the City $28,461 of the $50,000 set aside to pay for it.

Here are the service areas for the First Mile/Last Mile program. (City of Chandler)

Crampton said the Last Mile program does not compete with the new service the city just started, Chandler Flex. That program also serves primarily South Chandler residents and will help

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Chandler to study Hunt Highway safety concerns as casino nears BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Hunt Highway is an inviting target for anyone looking to drive fast. There are few impediments with only one stop sign between Cooper Road and Val Vista Drive for the highway, which marks the city’s southern border and lots of undeveloped land to the south. However, the Chandler half is very developed with lots of homes and people who like to go for walks and ride their bikes. Jason Crampton, city transportation planning manager, said those two things are in conflict and he wants to find out just how big a problem it might be. City Council was expected to approve spending $70,000 for a study to figure that out at its July 14 meeting. That vote came after the deadline for this edition. Complicating the study is that everything on Hunt Highway is likely to change once the Gila River Casino Santan Mountain opens. “Traffic speeds are very high and result in some safety issues,” Crampton said. “So yeah, this project is independent of the casino. But now that the casino is coming it does change the project a little bit.” Crampton said the city planned to take a look at pedestrian and bicyclist safety concerns along the Hunt Highway between Cooper and Val Vista in 2020, before it was announced the Gila River Indian Community intended to build a casino at Gilbert and Hunt Highway at the end of that year. “Our vehicle speeds on the highway prevent the average person from using the corridor,” said Ryan Peters,

the city’s strategic initiatives director. “Additionally, a Gila River Indian Community casino is currently under construction with the potential for future development expansion needs creating changes in traffic patterns that will need to be analyzed when considering bicycle pedestrian improvements, traffic calming and any other potential roadway changes. “This project will analyze several alternatives to that public outreach and recommend preferred design alternatives that could provide residents with a valuable and safe route in this underserved area.” Crampton said the city has no data on how many accidents or car-bike collisions have taken place on that stretch of Hunt Highway and that that is among the questions he hopes the study will answer. He said they have some options as far as traffic-calming measures. Dedicated bike lanes usually slows cars down. They could also narrow the roads further by putting a barrier of some sort between the car and bike lanes. So far, Gila River tribal officials are not involved in the study. Crampton said he intends to reach out to them to find out how much, if at all, they want to be involved. Crampton said it will take six-to-nine months to complete the study. The Santan Mountain Casino is expected to open at the end of this year or in early 2023. If it does open then, it would come during the research phase of the study and they will be able to incorporate data into the study showing how much the casino opening changed patterns for pedestrians and cyclists. For now, the City is not planning on

making a lot of changes in advance of the casino’s opening. “The City anticipates some additional traffic volume on Gilbert Road, Lindsay Road, and Hunt Highway,” said Dana Alvidrez, the city’s traffic engineer. “All three roadways currently operate below capacity, and as such have the ability to handle the expected traffic generated by the casino.” She said the one change that is coming will be a traffic light replacing the stop sign at Hunt Highway and Gilbert Road. Alvidrez said traffic patterns in South Chandler are expected to change when the Loop 202 and Lindsay Road interchange opens up. “The opening of the Lindsay Road traffic interchange with the Loop 202 is expected to significantly change travel patterns in this area south of Loop 202,” she said. “The City is aware of this and will be evaluating these changes and recommending improvements as necessary. In the meantime, the City has had a Lindsay Road widening project planned for years, and is currently in the design stage of this project.” Most of the $70,000 Hunt Highway study is being paid for with federal funds (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality). The city had to pay a small portion, which came to just under $4,000. Crampton admits there are some unknowns because of the casino. Still, he said it’s important to move forward. “That certainly will influence the findings of the study,” Crampton said. “But yeah, with or without the casino, I think we were still looking at these bike enhancements and potential traffic calming enhancements.”

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Chandler housing market zooms toward new balance BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor

Chandler is quickly becoming a homebuyers’ market or at least achieving a balance between supply and demand, a leading analyst of the Phoenix Metro housing market reports – but whether that brings new hope for buyers is another matter. The Cromford Report said Chandler and the entire region are seeing demand dip and inventory rising sharply – sending the Phoenix Metro area into territory not seen for well over two years. That change means that the rise in home prices has slowed to a crawl and sellers no longer are in the catbird seat in sales negotiations – often putting buyers at the mercy of bidding wars, foregoing inspections or making other

concessions in a desperate effort to secure a home. While a sudden flood of new listings might be welcome by prospective buyers, the Cromford Report said that they may be in for more heartache. The only difference is that at least some sellers will be grabbing their crying towels along with them as they watch their homes spend weeks on the for-sale lists. The Cromford Report and national real estate experts have noted that while the inventory of resale and new homes has been rising dramatically for the past month, demand for them is dropping sharply as buyers remain discouraged by prices at record levels and rising interest rates. “In summary, prices have stopped rising but are still much higher than last year while sales volumes are dramatical-

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ly lower than last year,” it said, adding that there has been more volatility with re-sales than new homes. Stating “it is predominantly the wealthy who are involved in the market at the moment” and that “most ordinary buyers are priced out,” the Cromford Report gave a gloomy assessment of the current Valley housing market. “The last two months have been dismal for the Greater Phoenix housing market, with demand fading sharply and supply growing at one of the fastest paces we have ever witnessed,” it said two weeks ago. “Either trend would have been negative but with both coming together, we have had a very chilly wind blowing through the market. “For many weeks, we have been See

MARKET on page 7

Total Circulation 27,250+ Driveways Fifty square mile coverage area from Price/101 to Greenfield and from Frye to Hunt Highway. SanTan Sun News is distributed by AZ Integrated Media, a circulation service company owned by Times Media Group. The public is permitted one copy per reader. For further information regarding the circulation of this publication or others in the Times Media Group family of publications, and for subscription information, please contact AZ Integrated Media at circ@azintegratedmedia.com or 480-898-5641. For circulation services please contact Aaron Kolodny at aaron@azintegatedmedia.com.

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NEWS

LUXURY

from page 1

categorized as luxury while Chandler boasted a rate of 99% – or 6,800 premium units – and Scottsdale had 98.5% or 8,600 deluxe units added to its housing inventory, according to study author Maria Gatea. Mesa came in at No. 53 with 84% – or 3,794 units classified as luxury out of 4,502 units built. The study analyzed 3.1 million apartment units built over the past decade in 100 of the nation’s biggest cities, looking only at complexes with 50 and more units, according to Gatea. The ranking is based on a patented property-rating system developed by Yardi. “We considered luxury properties that the property ranking system determines to be in the A+, A, A- and B+ categories, based on a series of factors, including unit

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

the study said. In Chandler, one of the more recent luxury apartment complexes to open is Zaterra at 200 W. Germann Road, where apartments range in size from 838-1,325 square feet, Each apartment boasts nine-foot ceilings, wood-style floorings, designer fixtures, and washers and dryers. Among these features, Samsung smart stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops are part of the fully equipped gourmet kitchens, while private patios or balconies connect residents with the outdoors. Additionally, each apartment has smart home technology including smart door locks, thermostats, and lights, which are all controlled with the MyAPT app by Cox. Zaterra’s extensive amenity package includes electric vehicle charging stations, a community dog park (one for

The current amenities strategies are totally “ changing the apartment feel, renters want the feel

of living in a house and not just another apartment, with more room to live, work and play. Renters want to feel like you’re more in a home.

”

– Doug Ressler

size, architecture, quality of construction, finishing details, amenities, and more,” Gatea said in an email. “Newer communities tend to outdo older apartment stock with most apartment buildings now featuring state-ofthe-art amenities and conveniences including cleverly designed interiors, smart home features, fitness centers, club houses and pools,” Gatea added. Gilbert especially is becoming a hub for premier living, Gatea said. “All these new apartment buildings come with resort-style pools and spas, manicured gardens and playgrounds, as well as more practical features like outside storage,” she said. Other high-end amenities include common lounge areas with gaming stations, outdoor seating areas with gas grills and fire pits, bicycle storage spaces and bicycle repair shops, according to Gatea. “Volleyball courts are also widespread in Gilbert – about 53% of the premier apartments built here over the past decade provide tenants with the opportunity to practice volleyball,” Gatea said. And “pet-related conveniences are becoming increasingly popular in Gilbert’s newest complexes, with pet washing and grooming rooms or bark parks providing pampering options for the residents’ four-legged friends.” Although Mesa didn’t make top ranking for luxury apartment living, it had the highest percent among cities analyzed for volleyball courts at 80%,

large breed and another for small breed dogs), a pet spa, a social club room with lounge seating, TVs and tabletop games, creative suites with a large conference room and individual private workspaces, 24-hour fitness center with on-demand classes and an outdoor yoga lawn, outdoor entertainment area, complimentary common area Wi-Fi for Cox customers, community playground and splash pad, grilling stations, two resort-style pools with hot tubs, cabanas and gaming lawns, 24-hour on-call maintenance, parcel pending package lockers, and more. The now-opened SeventyOne15 McDowell in Scottsdale touts amenities such as a two-story clubroom boasting an upscale kitchen with complementary coffee bar, upstairs billiard games, and lounge seating, resort-style swimming pool with an adjoining spa, a two-story fitness center and a rooftop deck with fire pits. In addition to the lifestyle-centered amenities, the apartments in Gilbert provide more elbow room, having an average size of over 1,000 square feet, about 250 square feet larger than those in the non-luxury category, Gatea said. Luxury apartments in Chandler and Scottsdale, averaged 970 and 983 square feet, respectively – about 200 square feet bigger than their non-luxury counterparts, she added. What’s driving developers to build these apartments with resort-style amenities is that people are remaining renters longer than before so their expectations of what their homes must

Here are how the top 20 cities in the country rank for luxury apartment construction over the last 10 years. (StorageCafe.com)

offer have changed, the study said. “The current amenities strategies are totally changing the apartment feel,” said Doug Ressler, business intelligence manager for Yardi Matrix. “Renters want the feel of living in a house and not just another apartment, with more room to live, work and play. Renters want to feel like you’re more in a home.” The trend of renters increasingly looking to places offering high-end living was amplified by the pandemic. In an effort to respond to the growing need for more housing and inclusive environments, most cities have supported the construction of new apartments, the study added. In general, apartment construction in the country is on an upward trend, with 2021 being the peak year of new apartment supply – 417,000 new units entered the market last year, up 12% year-over-year, according to Gatea. And 46% of the luxury apartments in

the country’s top 100 biggest cities were built during the past decade, she said. An expert sees the apartment building trend in the near future focusing on indoor air quality and broadband/5G networks as a selling feature. Buildings with larger units that provide more space for spreading out, plus a home office, and don’t make us feel so confined if we have to enter lockdown periods will be in higher demand for a time,” said Robert Aydukovic, who teaches at Michigan State University. “Buildings in close proximity to outdoor space for distancing and recreation will outperform. “Also, developers should pay attention to the preferences of Gen Z as the Millennials are aging out of the apartment lifestyle and looking for their first or second homes,” Aydukovic said. “Gen Z is trending to be highly mobile, very tech savvy and values experiences over material items.”

NEWS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

MARKET

from page 4

looking for some convincing sign of the relaxation of one or both of these trends,” it continued. “We have not found any. Instead, over the last week, the situation has turned significantly worse, at least from a seller’s viewpoint. And it is worse from both a demand and a supply perspective.” It observed last week that the market here “hit the brakes so hard it has skidded off the road” because demand has fallen sharply while listings are skyrocketing. Realtor.com, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, said “Affordability will continue to remain a challenge for anyone looking to buy in the current market, as mortgage rates and home prices are not expected to drop this year; thankfully, they aren’t anticipated to grow as rapidly or significantly as they did earlier this year, though. “One strong positive is that the number of homes for sale is likely to increase as the year continues, meaning more options for buyers,” it continued. The Cromford Report based its predictions of the trend in the Phoenix Metro market on a variety of data it uses to compile the Cromford Market Index. The figures it arrives at each of the 17 major submarkets in the Valley indicate how close each community is to a balanced market, with numbers above 100 indicating a sellers’ market and numbers below 100 favorable for buyers.

which sellers are joining the stampede is slowing.” Still, a few days earlier, it also said, “More homes are being listed for sale than at any time since 2011.” But it added, “We are not seeing forced selling, like we experienced during the foreclosure wave of 2007 to 2011. This is people electing to sell because they fear a fall in home prices. That fear is likely to be self-fulfilling. When so many attempt to make it to the exit door ahead of everyone else, people get hurt. “We do not pretend to know how much prices will fall in numeric or percentage terms, but the latest data This 2,970-square-foot house on N. Kenneth Place in Chandler recently sold for $670,000. The suggests that it is already five-bedroom, 3 ½-bath house, built in 1996, boasts a recently renovated kitchen, formal living and impossible for home prices to dining rooms as well as an open-concept family room and two master bedrooms. rise under the current market (Special to SanTan Sun News) conditions,” it said. “As people get more anxious to dispose 2021 to 137 while Mesa has dwindled For all of 2021 and the first three of their housing assets, price from 433 a year ago to 161. months of this year, its CMI showed cuts are growing in number and size. The Cromford Report noted that numbers at times exceeding 500 – inThe very top and bottom of the market a wisp of panic among people trying dicating markets heavily tilted toward are least affected, but the mid-range, to sell their homes before losing any sellers as supply shriveled. where the vast majority of transactions But the latest CMI shows a starkly dif- advantage in the marketplace appears occur, is experiencing a big freeze. to be settling down. ferent picture, with those figures falling “When a buyer’s strike and a seller’s “The brighter sign is that the numbetween 31% and 42% from the previous stampede occur at the same time, the ber of new listings over the past seven month in 16 Valley municipalities. market stalls in mid-flight. A price cordays is down from the extreme high For Queen Creek, the Cromford rection becomes inevitable. The Federal of the week before,” it said on June 30. Report in June 2021 listed the town’s Reserve has stated that they want to “At some point the seller stampede CMI at 398. Last week, it listed Queen see a ‘reset in the housing market,’ and may run out of new sellers. This is not Creek’s index rating at 107. it looks increasingly likely that their happening yet, but at least the rate at Gilbert has fallen from 490 in July wish will come true.”

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

from page 3

started July 12 may require riders to walk a tenth of a mile to a pickup location. They also might have to share their ride with others. For now, as the city introduces the service, Chandler Flex is free. If demand becomes too much and starts to impact the quality of service, they plan to charge nominal fees. “It’s a little different style,” Crampton said. “We will certainly monitor usage within the Chandler Flex service area and see how that changes. Maybe Chandler Flex will replace all that ridership in that area. Or maybe it’ll be two different populations that are being served and it won’t replace it.” The Last Mile Lyft ride can cost about $6. The Last Mile program also serves all of South Chandler, from Pecos Use of the First Mile/Last Mile program has steadily grown. Road to the city’s southern border. (City of Chandler) The Chandler Flex program is based primarily in the Price Road Employment and running as quickly Corridor, although it does go a little fur- the service started before that date. Students can use Chandler Flex for free as we did,” Crampton ther north of Pecos to cover Downtown even if they do eventually start charging said, pointing to the and the Chandler High School area. others a nominal fee. supply chain issues Crampton said the programs allow “You know, it was almost a minor that have been a probthe city to save a lot of money by not miracle that we were able to get this up lem nationally. running bus service in South Chandler. He estimated it would cost between $3 to $6 million annually to start up bus South Chandler Transit service in that part of town. Last Mile: To get half-price Lyft rides to a transit center, He said the Chandler Flex service download the Lyft app and enter “ChandlerTransit” in is starting just when they hoped to get the promo code box when ordering a ride. it running. Chandler Unified School COLOR: Right click swatch, and find and replace with correct color Chandler Flex: To use the new Chandler Flex service, District students are returning to classdownload the app. rooms on July 20. He said it was always the goal to get

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2) Stimulate and increase small fiber nerves 3) Decrease brain-based pain

As you can see in Figure 2, as the blood vessels that surround the nerves become diseased they shrivel up which causes the nerves to not get the nutrients to continue to survive. When these nerves begin to “die” they cause you to have balance problems, pain, numbness, tingling, burning, and many additional symptoms.

(See the special neuropathy severity examination at the end of this article)

Endorsed by: Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke

treat your neuropathy three factors must be determined.

The amount of treatment needed to allow the nerves to fully recover varies from person to person and can only be determined after a detailed neurological and vascular evaluation. As long as you have not sustained at least 95% nerve damage there is hope!

1) Increase blood flow

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The treatment to increase blood flow, stimulate small nerve fibers and get you back to health is our new $50,000.00 SANEXAS UNIT! In addition, we use a stateof-the-art diagnostics like the TM Flow diagnostic unit to accurately determine the increase in blood flow and a small skin biopsy to accurately determine the increase in small nerve fibers! The Sanexas electric cell signaling system delivers energy to the affected area of your body at varying wavelengths, including both low-frequency and middlefrequency signals. It also uses amplitude modulated (AM) and frequency modulated (FM) signaling. During a treatment session, the Sanexas system automatically changes to simultaneously deliver AM and FM electric cell signal energy. THE GREAT NEWS IS THAT SANEXAS IS COVERED BY MEDICARE AND MOST INSURANCE! Depending

Aspen Medical will be offering this chronic pain and neuropathy severity examination from now until July 31, 2022. Call 480-274-3157 to make an appointment to determine if your chronic pain and peripheral neuropathy can be successfully treated. Due to our very busy office schedule, we are limiting this FREE consultation offer to the first 15 callers. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SUFFER ANOTHER MINUTE, CALL Call 480-274-3157 … NOW! We are extremely busy and if your call goes to our voicemail, please leave a message and we will get back to you asap.

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BOARD

from page 1

campaigning in earnest this year, but he intends to run again later. Here’s an early look at the five candidates running for the two seats: Lara Bruner: She has served on the Governing Board for four years. Bruner was the only member of the board to vote against approving Frank Narducci

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

dren who attended CUSD schools. Estes said she remains informed on the top issues of the day and does not like the polarized environment. She said she can offer a much-needed professional educator’s perspective to the Board if she is elected. Charlotte Golla: The mother of four CUSD students says expanding Problem Based Learning (PBL) will be the major issue of her campaign.

I will work tirelessly to ensure all students “ are provided an education that teaches them to think, teaches healthy habits of mind, and prepares them to enter the world, ”

– Charlotte Golla

as the District’s new superintendent, saying she voted against because she did not like the process the District followed in hiring him. She said it should have been more open and involved the community more. She said she is concerned about providing students with all types of opportunities, including academic, artistic, athletic and social and emotion growth of the whole child. She said that’s how schools can provide well-rounded adults in the future. Marilou Estes: The retired Chandler teacher spent 21 years in the District, working at Galveston, Bologna and Basha elementary schools. Her stepchil-

“I will work tirelessly to ensure all students are provided an education that teaches them to think, teaches healthy habits of mind, and prepares them to enter the world,” she wrote in an email. She worked as a regional sales manager for Benefits Concept until 2014. She left after the birth of her third child. Kurt Rohrs: The financial advisor has been active in Chandler schools, serving on the District’s budget committee and working as a substitute teacher. He is a regular speaker at the board’s meetings. He wrote in his email that his top issue will be making academic fun-

Chandler Unified School District Governing Board member Lindsay Love is not seeking reelection, opening up at least one seat in November’s election. It appears five candidates qualified to run for two available seats. (David Minton/Santan Sun News) damentals the primary focus of the District’s curriculum. He said reading and math achievement must improve for all students. Patti Serrano: A Hamilton High graduate, has worked in education research after earning a bachelor of science degree from Arizona State University.

She worked at ASU on education and child health. Serrano says that she will listen to the key stakeholders, starting with students, to develop well-rounded graduates. She said she wants to work on addressing all their needs, from academics and social to mental health.

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NEWS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Repair Café aims to slow down consumerism BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Melissa Anderson says the cycle of American consumerism is unsustainable. You can buy new goods for about the same, if not less, than it would cost to repair them. But should we? “We’re trying to slow the consumerism process of just buy a thing and use it. ‘Oh, it broke and it’s on sale, so I’ll just throw this in the trash and go buy a new one.’ Well, every time I put something in the trash like that, I think, ‘what if 6 billion other people put it in the trash?’” Anderson, the office administrator at the First Church of the Nazarene in Chandler, decided to do something about that. She asked the church’s pastor and board if she could start a Repair Cafe based out of the church. The second Repair Cafe is scheduled for July 23. Chandler residents can bring a household item that is in need of repair, and her team of volunteers will do their best to fix it. The first Repair Cafe at the church was held in the spring and Anderson said they repaired 65 items for free. There were only four items they could not repair. Anderson said that was because they didn’t have the proper equipment, in this case a TIG welder. They did fix furniture, clothing, sofa cushions, zippers, buttons, stuffed

Anderson got the idea for Repair Cafe while doing Mend with a Friend. She and a friend would offer to help people fix whatever clothing problems they were having. She realized that this could go beyond textiles. With a little Melissa Anderson of Chandler First Church of the Nazarene hangs up a sign for their Repair Cafe, where people can bring in research she discovered the Repair their items that need fixing, Thursday, July 7, 2022, in Chandler, Arizona. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) Cafe International Foundation started in The Netherlands animals, a hairdryer, a cell phone, weed in 2009. Today, it has more than 2,200 hackers and a 1959 rotary phone. chapters around the world. There are two “The nature of Repair Cafe is that in Arizona, with the other location in the we’re assisting the owner with learning Tucson area. to fix it,” Anderson said. She applied for a grant after getting She said they want to educate permission from church officials and people so they know how to make the was awarded one. Most of the money repairs themselves, or they can show went to getting the word out. Also, it is their family, friends and neighbors if an actual cafe with food and beverages they have a similar problem. served while items are being prepared. That’s because the Repair Cafe is She had more than 30 volunteers at only offered four times a year. the first Repair Cafe. She didn’t have “It helps to keep stuff out of the an exact number because she thought landfill, but it also empowers people to there were a few who didn’t register. know that they’re not at the mercy of manufacturers who are creating things to They ranged in age from 10 or 11 to be [disposable],” Anderson said. “It almost senior citizens. To volunteer or to start a Repair Cafe becomes more valuable to you when you in another community, visit repaircafe. know you were the one who fixed it.”

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org. There is also a Chandler Repair Cafe Facebook page where anyone interested in volunteering can do so. Anderson asks people bring in just one item per event, and that they must be able to carry it. If it’s too big to carry, then it’s probably too big for them to work on. In addition to keeping goods out of landfills and teaching people how to make their own repairs, Anderson said this project serves another purpose. Part of her role at the church is to bring people together and help build a community in Chandler. “I had to pull together a team from the community,” she said. “Well, I can pull the team together from anywhere, but I wanted to get people from different places in the community.” She built out her core volunteers, and then they reached out to others they knew. Soon, a community was forming. “They all know different circles of people. And so they went on to recruit volunteers and sponsors and the people to bring in their things to repair.”

Repair Cafe When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, July 23 Where: First Church of the Nazarene, 301 N. Hartford St. Cost: Free Limitations: Please bring only one item that you can carry. Nothing bigger.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Chandler man set to reach the century mark BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor

He is part of a rapidly diminishing breed of men, a member of the Greatest Generation, though when you ask him what thought comes to mind when he looks back on his days as a telegraph operator in the European theater during World War II. Floyd Casey without hesitation says: “The weather.” “The weather was so damn cold,” recalled Floyd, who becomes a centenarian on July 20 and already is the oldest resident at the Sunrise of Chandler assisted living community. “You couldn’t think every time you went out the door in the wintertime and summertime was so hot you couldn’t breathe.” But Floyd survived not just the weather but every bullet and shell the Germans could fling against his units in major WWII clashes like the Battle of the Ardennes, the Battle of Central Europe, and the Battle of Rhineland – all designated by the War Department in 1945 as Bronze Service Star campaigns. Floyd and his son, Larry Casey of Ahwatukee, share a history of combat service to the country, though separated by more than a quarter of a century. Larry was a helicopter mechanic and crew chief at a base at Pleiku in the central Highlands of Vietnam from 1969 to 1970 and recalls how “we were getting shot at every day” – a stressful time during which his weight dropped from 230 to 155 pounds. He exudes a pride in his dad’s service as well as a son’s love. He jokes how all the recalls how he often took his dad along on golf outings when Floyd lived with him and his wife Dianne. Floyd moved to Florida after his wife passed away from cancer in 1985 and lived there until 2017, when he moved to Ahwatukee to live with Larry and his wife Dianne. But after three years or so, Floyd decided he wanted the camaraderie and companionship of people his own age and so he moved to Sunrise at Chandler, where Larry has become as popular with the staff as his dad is as a result of his regular visits. Indeed, as Larry plans a small parade

see them, it’s too late.” For his service, Floyd received the American Service Medal; European African Middle Eastern Service Medal; Good Conduct Medal and was honorably discharged in October 1945. By then the first of his five children was close to turning 5 and as his family grew, he eventually left A&P, where he had risen to a manager position, and became a switchman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Elmira, New York. His late wife, Norma, and their five children – Larry is the middle child – lived in a small house in Elmira. New York, until 1959 Floyd Casey was among countless thousands of U.S. soldiers who fought in some of the signature before they moved to Horseheads, New York, to World War II battles. (David Minton/ Staff Photographer) work at a Westinghouse plant, where he was one of Addison, New York. and picnic at Sunrise at Chandler next the first men in the country to work But his Army duty was not without Wednesday, June 20 – Floyd’s birthday – on cathode ray tubes used in cameras hardship and danger. he made sure to invite the care home’s for outer-space travel, specifically the After getting conditioned for cold entire staff. moon landing. The staff already has arranged its own weather in training camps in Wisconsin Floyd and Norma’s five children have and Upper Michigan, he was shipped to given him 18 grandchildren, 11 great special tribute to Floyd, and will host a the European Theater – “it took 14 days grandchildren, and one great, great small formal presentation by the Quilts of Honor Foundation on his birthday for to get there and only three to come grandchild. back on the Queen Elizabeth,” he said. a presentation of a special handmade Floyd seems to take turning a centuHe spent hours each day with a quilt honoring Floyd for his service. ry old in stride. five-man radio communications team The youngest of three children who A football and track-and-field star in relaying and fielding messages between high school, he still exercises most days, got part of his formal education in a various Allied outposts, working “as one-room schoolhouse in the Finger using 5-pound weights to do arm curls. long as you could stay awake.” Lakes Region of New York, Floyd was But he misses fishing and golf – he was One day during the Battle of the a 20-year-old sales clerk for the Atlanpretty good at both, he said. Bulge, he was in the back of a cantic & Pacific Tea Co. who had recently He attributes his longevity to “all vas-covered transport when “a very big the vitamins and minerals I took” when married his high school sweetheart piece of metal” crashed through the at the time he enlisted in the Army in he and his wife were distributors for a canvas and “slammed into the radio and health supplements company. October 1941. smashed it to bits,” he said. “We had to He eventually became a Radio OpHe still keeps up on current events go back and get all new radios.” erator 740, eventually winning promoand marvels at all the changes and adDuring that same battle, he recalled, tion to Tech Sergeant 4th Class after vances in so many facets of society that at some points “we were all huddled becoming proficient in both American he has seen. together and could hear the shells” and Morse Code as well as telegraph Maybe that’s why when asked what without knowing exactly where they and typewriter skills. the biggest difference he sees between were coming from. He was grateful he Those skills were not completely today and years gone by, he seemed could hear them he said, because the new to him: he had acquired a founa little startled at the mind-boggling conventional wisdom of the battlefront nature of the question and then simply dation in them as a Boy Scout in his small Finger Lakes Region hometown of was “if you can’t hear them before you replied, “Everything is different.”

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

National hotline offers suicide prevention help BY ALEXANDRA CONFORTI Cronkite News

Mental health emergencies in the United States have lacked the attention and support they require, resulting in increased suicide rates over past decades, particularly among teens, young adults and people of color. Enter 988 – the federally mandated dialing code used to connect those in need to 24/7 suicide prevention services. A call or text to the number links individuals with trained counselors who are part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. The Federal Communications Commission requires phone providers to make 988 accessible by July 16. The Lifeline network’s number (1-800-2738255) will remain in operation, but the idea is to provide an easy-to-remember and faster way to get help. “The 988 lifeline … will help thousands of people overcome crisis situations every day, and it will serve as a universal entry point so that no matter where you live, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who could help,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a pre-rollout forum in May. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, is responsible for launching 988 in the state. An advisory committee has been assembled to guide implementation and ensure the new system meets the

needs of Arizonans. Last year, the state received a $135,000 award for planning; an additional $1.9 million grant will help the state recruit, hire and train additional 988 counselors. One goal of the new hotline is to reduce interactions between those experi-

Trust, a national foundation working to advance the mental, social and spiritual health of individuals. “That’s a totally different process than what happens when you call 911.” Research shows that people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more

encing a mental health crisis and police, who often are dispatched to handle such situations. A study this year by the Vera Institute of Justice examined 911 calls in nine U.S. cities, including Tucson, and found about 19% involved behavioral health situations. If trained properly, 911 dispatchers could transfer crisis calls to 988. Callers then would be connected to counselors who can provide support and resources, such as access to mobile mental health crisis teams, outpatient follow-up care, therapeutic interventions and more. “Mental health professionals are there from beginning to end,” said Benjamin Miller, president of Well Being

likely to be killed during a police encounter. “Ideally, the person answering the phone (via 988) is trained to handle mental health crises,” Miller said. “They know what to say to de-escalate, they know what to say to calm and what to say to help the individual figure out what their next steps might be.” The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which covers the nation with a network of more than 200 crisis centers, has received over 20 million calls since 2005. In 2020, the last year for which data are available, almost 43,000 of the 2.4 million calls were from people in Arizona. Calls to Lifeline from the state

have increased 86% since 2016. Federal officials predict that 988 could receive up to 7.6 million calls in the first year – requiring $560 million in funding to expand local and state call centers and increase training. So far, 21 states have enacted legislation related to 988, with several appropriating tax dollars or adding telecommunications fees to pay for services, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. There has been no proposed telecom fee in Arizona, however, and no increase in state funding to support the 988 hotline, according to AHCCCS spokeswoman Heidi Capriotti, who said the agency will further develop financial sustainability plans as 988 evolves. Experts say more states need to take action to secure funding for years to come. “If we want 988 to live up to its potential, it needs to be properly funded in every state,” said Molly Candon, a health economist at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2020, Arizona spent about $158 million on crisis services, including 911, through a combination of federal funds and money from the state general fund. In addition to the new 988 line, 23 other crisis lines operating in the state will be consolidated into a single statewide 800 number by October. Beyond funding, some advocates See

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Prop 470 a crucial item on Primary ballot PROP BY THE CITY OF CHANDLER

On Aug. 2, registered voters in Chandler will have the opportunity to cast a ballot for mayor, three City Council members and Proposition 470. Prop 470 asks voters to continue the Local Alternative Expenditure Limitation, also known as the Home Rule Option. Prop 470 is NOT a tax increase or an additional request for funding — it just allows your local City officials the right to spend tax revenues on city services and amenities that benefit all Chandler residents — as vetted through the annual budget process. A “Yes” vote means you are in favor of giving the City Council — who are elected by Chandler residents — the authority to set its annual spending limit based upon available revenues. A “No” vote means you’re not in favor of giving the city additional expenditure authority and that you want the city to

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question whether states have enough resources and counselors in place to support 988. One concern is a lack of mental health specialists trained to work with people of different races and ethnicities, or with LBGTQ people. Among racial and ethnic groups,

stay strictly within the State Expenditure Limitation Program. If Prop 470 fails, it will mean that for the next four years, Chandler’s budget would be held to the state expenditure limitation from the 1980s. This could result in Chandler having to eliminate more than $216 million from its budget impacting areas such as public safety, street maintenance, recreation, aquatics, library programs and planned capital improvement projects. Chandler voters have approved the Home Rule Option a total of 10 consecutive times since 1982 — most recently in August 2018. Informational pamphlets with detailed information about Prop 470 were distributed to Chandler voter households in late June. You also can view the pamphlet online at chandleraz.gov/elections. Click on the “2022 Primary Election” image and then “Information Pamphlet” to download or view the pamphlet.

Those voters on the Active Early Voting List within the City of Chandler and who are eligible to vote in this election were automatically mailed a ballot earlier this month. Make sure your vote is counted — the last recommended day to mail your ballot back is July 26, and postmarks do not count. If you want to track your ballot status, check out BeBallotReady. Vote, or sign up for ballot status alerts by texting “JOIN” to 628-683. Independent voters or voters not registered with a political party can participate in the August 2 Primary Election. You will be asked to pick which ballot you would like to receive: the Democrat race, the Republican race, or City of Chandler issues only ballot. City of Chandler measures will appear on the ballot for both parties, so all Chandler voters will be able to vote on City issues and City Council candidates. Call 602-506-1511 for more

information on how to request a ballot. For your convenience, voted ballots also can be dropped off at voting center locations or ballot drop boxes until 7 p.m. Aug. 2. Chandler City Hall will serve as a voting center location July 22 – Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday. On Election Day, voting locations (including Chandler City Hall) will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can find a complete list of voting center locations and ballot drop box hours and addresses at locations. maricopa.vote. For more information about the Chandler Primary Election, visit chandleraz.gov/elections. Voters also may call the City Clerk’s Office at 480-782-2181, or Maricopa County Elections at 602-5061511. Remember, your vote is your voice!

Native Americans have the highest suicide rates in the nation. Suicide is also a growing crisis in the LGBTQ community; about 45% of LGBTQ youth considered attempting suicide in the past year, according to a survey this year by The Trevor Project, a national organization fighting suicide among LGBTQ youth. Federal officials have partnered with The Trevor Project on 988 imple-

mentation and are developing training resources to help crisis counselors work with other high-risk populations, including Native Americans, Black youth and people in rural areas. “Cultural competency is a core part of the 988 legislation,” Candon said. “Having a shared, lived experience with counselors can be incredibly powerful.” More than a helpline, 988 is an oppor-

tunity to rethink approaches to mental health, substance use disorders and suicide prevention, Candon said, including expanding the reach of mobile crisis response teams or opening urgent care facilities that specialize in behavioral health. “My hope is that 988 will help improve the crisis continuum at large,” she said. “My fear is that we won’t prioritize the funding to do this.”

Este artículo también está disponible en español en chandleraz.gov/ choosingchandler.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Chandler filmmaker Mitesh Patel greeted guests at the premiere of his new film “Instant Karma” at LOOK Dine-in Cinema in Chandler last month. Guests took red carpet photos at the premiere of Mitesh Patel’s new film, “Instant Karma.” (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

Chandler filmmaker debuts new movie BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

Just like many others, Chandler filmmaker Mitesh Patel is ready to move on from COVID-19. He made three films during the pandemic that were all related in some way to the coronavirus. Now, he’s ready to have some fun. Patel debuted his newest film to a packed house June 29 at the LOOK Dine-in Cinemas in Chandler.

“Instant Karma” tells the story of a young couple learning about both the good, and bad sides of karma. He’s also close to releasing his next film, “Woman in the Maze,” which is about getting lost inside a cursed house. That’s quite a change from his three previous films, the documentary “COVID-19 vs. Arizona: Our Stories;” and feature films “Anti Corona Virus” and “House of Quarantine.” “We did it because I think it was a

big topic ... and people were scared, so that’s why I created “Anti Corona Virus,” just to keep people away from all this stuff going on,” said Patel, who is the president and director of Chandler’s International Film Festival. “But then, you know, we realized that it’s not going to be forever ... we needed to go to the different direction.” Patel calls “Instant Karma” a fantasy film and was pleased with the reaction he received from its debut. The film will be available to rent and stream on multiple platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple’s iTunes store. Patel is the producer, writer and director of the film. That’s a role that he prefers. “The reason I do it, is because I want to make sure everything is good,” he said. “When I’m depending on somebody, then it’s kind of like I’m not sure that I’m going to get what I want. So I make sure … they’re doing the right job.” Patel says he likes the freedom he gets as an independent filmmaker. He can break the rules whenever he wants and doesn’t have to answer to some big studio. That does make it harder to get

his films before the public. “We are not under pressure with some big studio, we just do what we love to do,” he said. “We’re not spending too much money, so we’re playing a safe game here, and we are still able to show what we want to show. That’s the beauty we have as an independent filmmaker, we can show anything we want, we don’t have restrictions. So I love that.” With “Instant Karma” now available to stream, Patel can focus on his next film, “Woman in the Maze.” He said the setting in Jerome, Arizona was perfect to build the suspense he wanted in this film. Patel said he’s hoping to debut it on Halloween, and release it in early 2023. “I’m gonna wait a little bit longer,” Patel said. “It's definitely the next level of filmmaking for me.” Patel said he delayed the release dates for both of his new films because he wanted to get the right deals in place for the distribution of the movies. “I kept it for a while because I was looking for better distribution deal on this,” Patel said. “I pitched it to so many companies and finally I found the best one for this one.”

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The first set will be near freeways. Unlike in 2018, the city can put signs on freeway land controlled by the Arizona Department of Transportation. However, city officials must follow ADOT rules that even dictate what words can appear on the sign. Crews put up the metal signs on poles last week near the off-ramps of highways at 14 different locations around Chandler. ADOT limits those signs to being in the same location for 30 days at a time. So, the city plans to rotate them to other off-ramps in the city. There are three sets of locations for the 14 signs. Balch said their rotation plan is designed to maximize that. Balch said the city is also planning to put up about 50 of its own signs on city streets around town, asking residents to give to ChangeUp instead of panhandlers. Those would likely start to be posted around town at the end of next month. Three Phoenix City Council members are having similar signs posted on light poles in their districts. Councilman Sal DiCiccio started that program and has had signs posted at various intersections in Ahwatukee. But it’s anybody’s guess how much of an impact those signs might have because there is no way to monitor that. The ChangeUp program collects money for the nonprofit For Our City Chandler. All the money donated to ChangeUp then goes to the city’s eight navigators, who are tasked with working directly with the homeless population in the city, helping them get whatever resources they need. “Navigators then can use it for things that a government grant … wouldn’t necessarily support,” Balch said. “For instance, if we need to put somebody in rehab right off that corner, we’ll pay the first week while we are working with them to get their insurance in place.” She said the money could also go to paying for a taxi ride so they can get to a medical appointment, or helping them get cleaned up for a job interview. The navigators have a lot of discretion to give money however they think will help that person best. However, Balch said she personally reviews and approves every request so there is some control on how the money is spent. Balch said so far Chandler residents have given about $20,000 since the ChangeUp program began in 2018. She said more help is needed, because the number of homeless in Chandler is increasing significantly. “We know that homelessness across our area, across our state, and certainly across our country is growing,” Balch

t? o G ws Ne

said. “And a lot of that is tied back to the housing for all incomes, and affordable housing.” She said they are seeing more people who simply can’t afford to live in the city any longer. Landlords raise rents to keep up with market demand, and they can no longer afford to stay in their place. When they go looking for a new place, prices everywhere are up and they can’t find a place they can afford. Balch said only about 20% of the homeless people they work with have either mental health or substance abuse issues. City Council approved a Community Development Block Grant request for nearly $110,000 to help the city’s homeless population at its June 23 meeting. It also approved other grants for about $73,000 for a public housing youth program and $21,500 for temporary housing and case coordination for the homeless. All that money comes from the federal government through a Housing and Urban Development program. The city received a little more than $1.4 million. Council then decided how they would distribute that money. The city also handed out nearly $1.1 million in general funds to local nonprofits, something they do each year. This year they were able to hand out more because of about $350,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds. AZCEND, a nonprofit that helps the homeless among other things, received four different grants for a total of $410,000. The grants included money for their food bank and senior nutrition programs. The city gave out $1.438 million to 48 programs. Nonprofits had requested more than $2.9 million for 54 programs. “I think it’s important to note that providing homeless services is much less costly than not providing homeless services,” Balch told Council. “So, when you don’t provide homeless services, what you have is an unsheltered population who are using our public services as their main source of service,” she added. She noted that many of these people “have lots of contact with police and fire, they go to the hospital and use the emergency room like it’s their doctor.” “They’re involved with the criminal justice system just for survival to meet their basic needs. Living like that costs, exponentially, more than being stably housed. “We can safely house people and provide support services for a fraction of the cost of people using our public services in a way that they weren’t meant to.”

Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-898-5647 or pmaryniak@timespublications.com

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Lethal bacteria outbreak reported in area lovebirds GERI KOEPPEL Contributor

Area residents are urged to keep an eye out for dead lovebirds in their yards and be careful about handling them or being near their waste after the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) confirmed a recent outbreak of a bacteria that can spread to humans. Judi Drake of Ahwatukee began seeing the birds dying in late May and eventually reported 22 dead lovebirds in all to AZGFD. “I lost one a day for three solid weeks,” she said. Prior to that, she said, she frequently saw about 40 lovebirds a day in her yard. Posts on a neighborhood Facebook page also reported dead lovebird sightings at 48th Street and Chandler Boulevard, on Knox Road and off of the Warner-Elliot Loop. Drake delivered one of the dead birds to the Mesa office of AZGFD in late June. Anne Justice-Allen, wildlife veterinarian for AZGFD, confirmed that a PCR test that checks for DNA confirmed the bird had avian chlamydiosis, or parrot fever, caused by the bacteria Chlamydia psittaci. The bacteria can spread to humans through inhaling dried droppings or secretions from infected birds. In people, the disease is called psittacosis, which can present as flu-like symptoms, eye irritation or conjunctivitis—and in severe cases, pneumonia.

“If people are cleaning up the bird feeders or cleaning up the patio where lovebirds were around, wear a mask and gloves, and don’t use a leaf blower,” Justice-Allen said. Even though Drake wore gloves and handled the birds carefully, “I started getting sick and I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I thought it was COVID and I took three tests; no COVID. My fevers were running 104.4, 103.9.… chills, sweats, cough. I found out I had pneumonia that was pretty extensive on my left side.” She was treated with antibiotics and is recovering, but said she was “out of it” for about a week. Contrary to information on Facebook, “People don’t need to take the feeders down unless they’re starting to see birds dying,” Justice-Allen said. If you see dead lovebirds in your yard, remove the feeders, clean them with soap and water, and rinse them

with diluted bleach water to disinfect them. The ratio is one part bleach to 30 parts water, which is about one ounce per quart or five ounces per gallon. “It’s usually fairly local when we start seeing mortality in a given area,” Justice-Allen said. “It’s spread by direct bird-to-bird contact, which is why feeders are problematic.” Outbreaks also depend on variables such as temperature, density of the flock and movement, she said. A report co-written by Justice-Allen on the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) website details a case of a parrot fever outbreak and instance of psittacosis in an adult female in 2013. A similar epidemic among the lovebirds happened again last year, she said. The report noted about 30 birds died in 2013, and she said around the same number was reported last year. And though the disease can spread to other bird species, not all are susceptible to it, so don’t assume every dead bird you find has avian chlamydiosis. When AZGFD first detected the disease in 2013, Justice-Allen said, “We did a research study to see if others birds were getting infected or getting sick and dying from it, and we couldn’t detect it to any degree.”

However, “Parrots are more susceptible,” she warned, “so keep pet parrots inside.” Rosy-faced lovebirds—also known as rosy-collared or peach-faced lovebirds—are not native to Arizona. The colorful and vocal species lives in arid regions in Africa, but are popular as pets. The theory about the wild flocks, according to the online report on ADHS, is that 15 to 20 pet birds might have been released from an aviary in the East Valley in the 1980s. They were first seen in east Mesa in 1987 and have been multiplying ever since. On a half-day census in 2011, 984 wild lovebirds were recorded, and the entire population is estimated to comprise about 2,500 birds, according to the AZDH report. No more recent count was available. Drake stopped feeding the lovebirds for now and said only a couple of stragglers have returned, but said she hopes to resume in about a month. When she saw one was struggling, she’d put it in a small “hospice” cage where it could be isolated and die in peace. “Some of them died sitting in their water bowl, but it was comfortable for them,” she said. “It’s very sad. They’re very sweet little birds; they’re very personable.” For more information and to report dead birds, visit www.azgfd.com/Wildlife/Diseases.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

UArizona move creates Community Center opportunity BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

The University of Arizona has been operating a “Near You” campus in Chandler for a decade. It’s mostly out of view of the public, hidden away on the second floor of the city’s Community Center. If you’re not visiting the center, or going in and out of the city’s main public library, you might not know it’s there. And that’s one of the reasons that campus is moving to a more visible location in downtown Chandler. “The Community Center has been so welcoming to us,” said Kimberly Haynes, UArizona’s regional manager for Maricopa County. “However, it’s not a place where the community could easily identify us. Now, they will be able to walk up to us, there should be no trouble in finding us.” That’s only one of the reasons. The Chandler campus is also growing and has outgrown the limited space available at the Community Center, Haynes said. In recent years, UArizona has added programs for financial degrees, information technology, professional MBA, master of legal studies, cybersecurity education, and a partnership with Chandler Unified School District and Chandler-Gilbert Community College. UArizona plans to leave the Community Center by the end of next month and move into The Johnathan office building downtown. Chandler City Council agreed to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Board of Regents that provides UArizona $1 million to help with the move. The money will pay for tenant improvement costs, relocation and reimbursement for rent expenditures inside The Johnathan. The city gets discounted tuition for its employees and an assurance UArizona will participate in its Innovation Fair and host six public events a year. UArizona is expected to use 10,000 square feet of the space inside The Johnathan. Micah Miranda, the city’s economic development director, said the school paid $2,410 per month. Over the course of a decade that works out to about $290,000. With UArizona moving out it creates an opportunity for the Community Center, 125 E. Commonwealth Ave., to create more programs for residents. City Recreation Manager Joe Petrella said staff looked back to how they used the space before UArizona moved in to help figure out how to move forward. “So upstairs, we did a lot of rentals for community groups,” Petrella said. “We actually used to have our parks and rec board meetings up there. The administrative offices were up there too, before they built City Hall. So we’re just going to take a look at the space and reprogram it. So we were told to blow it out, just figure out how much we can put into these spaces, and offer some more programs to the community.” The Community Center already offers a variety of programs, including housing a couple of indoor pickleball courts and table tennis tournaments. They also rent space to the community for private

Joe Petrella, city recreation manager, shows off the areas of the Chandler Community Center recently vacated by the University of Arizona. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

gatherings, including quinceañeras, a coming of age party for girls on their 15th birthday in Mexican culture. They also offer karate lessons, ceramics classes with two kilns, and have a dance studio. There’s also a daycare program, which Petrella is careful not to call a preschool. “We’re not licensed,” he said. Still, they do try to educate the children in their care and it’s an option for many families struggling to find affordable daycare. Petrella said they are limited in some

of what they can do because of the age of the building. Some areas are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For example, the Community Center has a stage to put on shows, but that stage does not have a ramp making it accessible to all. John Sefton, the city’s community services director, says the City has other facilities that are ADA compliant, such as the stages at Tumbleweed Recreation Center or the Center for the Arts. So spending the money at the Community Center is not a priority

now. He said the city spends more than $300,000 a year making its older buildings ADA compliant. Tony Baumann, the City’s recreation coordinator II, said they do get requests for new programs and will be looking at those as they look to expand. “More karate classes that we’re not offering,” he said. “We offer kind of the basics. But more variety, so to speak. And then our arts and crafts and tumbling classes, we have a high demand for those classes that we can only offer, let’s say one or two of them.”

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

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3 significant initiatives sought for November ballot BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

Arizona voters are likely to get a chance to vote in November to bring an end to political commercials by anonymous special interest groups, reverse changes in election laws approved by Republican legislators and provide new protections for themselves against medical and other debt. Backers of three separate measures each turned in more than the minimum 237,645 valid signatures needed to put the issues to voters. State officials now have 20 days, exclusive of weekends and holidays, to do their initial processing of petition sheets, with counties then having another 15 business days to review a random sample of signatures to determine what percentage are qualified. And each is likely to face legal challenges from foes. But each, if approved, would make immediate and visible changes in Arizona. Backers of an initiative to make changes in bankruptcy and other laws turned in about 472,000 signatures Thursday to put a series of changes in state law on the November ballot. The measure, if approved, would increase the amount of equity someone could have in a home to keep it from being seized in bankruptcy to $400,000, up from $250,000. And it would mandate annual cost-of-living increases in that figure rather than having to wait for

state lawmakers to marshal the votes for future changes. Current law also allows individuals to keep up to $6,000 in household furniture, appliances and consumer electronics. That would increase to $15,000, also with inflation adjustments. And the protected equity in a motor vehicle would go from $6,000 to $15,000 for most individuals, with the figure going from $12,000 to $25,000 for any debtor or family member with a physical disability. Separately, the measure would cap the amount of someone’s wages that could be attached. And another provision specifically limits the amount of annual interest that could be charged on medical debt to no more than 3%. “Each one of us is only one major illness away from medical debt,’’ said the Rev. Dr. Bill Lyons, with the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ. “More than two thirds of all bankruptcies are tied to medical debt from health care costs," he said at a press conference Thursday when the petitions were submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office. “And 18% of Arizonans have medical bills that are past due.’’ Glendale resident Martha French said health insurance is not always an option. She said her husband had to wait until he was 65 to qualify for health insurance as she could not afford to have him as a dependent on the coverage she

had as a teacher. Campaign spokesman Rodd McLeod brushed aside questions about the fact that the sponsoring organization, Healthcare Rising Arizona, actually is financed largely by a California branch of the Service Employees International Union. The proposal by Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections contains a laundry list of changes in state elections laws. Some are new ideas for Arizona, such as allowing people to register and vote at the same time, including on Election Day. And people would be registered to vote automatically when they get an Arizona driver’s license unless they opt out. It would ensure that votes are counted no matter in what precinct they are cast as long as it is within the same county. The proposal also would reinstate the state’s permanent early voting list which automatically provides mail-in ballots for anyone who opts in. Lawmakers voted to repeal that last year, replacing it with a system that stops the early ballots from coming for those who do not use them for at least two election cycles, though they still would be able to vote in person. Backers of the initiative said that is not fair for those who may not be regular voters, turning out only when there are issues or candidates on the ballot of interest. Also gone would be the 2021 law that makes it a crime to take someone else’s voted early ballot to a polling place unless that person is a relative, member of

the same household or a caretaker. And the initiative would roll back decisions by lawmakers to increase the amount of money that individuals and political action committees can give to candidates, a figure currently set at $6,250. It would be capped at $1,000 for local and legislative candidates and $2,500 for statewide races. Also up for voter approval is a measure designed to put an end to “dark money’’ in political races. Campaign finance laws require public disclosure of who is spending money to influence candidate elections and ballot measures. But state lawmakers crafted an exception for “social welfare’’ organizations who are free to hide the names of their donors. “I believe that Arizonans should have the right to know who’s paying for the advertisements that they get bombarded with in every election,’’ said former Attorney General Terry Goddard who has spearheaded the campaign. He said the proof is as plain as what people are seeing in the 2022 election with TV ads for candidates, many of them listed solely as being paid for by organizations with names that provide no clue as to who actually is providing the financing. The initiative requires the disclosure of true source of donations of more than $5,000 on political campaigns. And See

INITIATIVES on page 26

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

House panel on teen mental health maps work BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor

A special state House committee on teen mental health in Arizona held its first meeting June 12 with one of the panel’s two co-chairs warning people not to expect any overnight fix. And with that warning by Gilbert state Rep. Travis Grantham, panel co-chair and Goodyear Rep. Joanne Osborne asked the participants to form three or four working groups and come back with specific proposals by September that can be studied and debated through the fall and presented to House Speaker Rusty Bowers before the end of the year. Reacting to a spate of suicides that claimed the lives of at least eight Valley teens between mid-March and midMay, Bowers, R-Mesa, created the panel of mental health experts to prepare potential solutions and recommendations to public and private agencies that address teen mental health issues and improving access to mental health care. Various expects on June 12 pointed out a variety of data illustrating that more teens – as well as adults – are struggling with anxiety and other mental and emotional issues that only intensified and engulfed more kids during the pandemic. Some experts also noted that access to care is difficult, often because of cost. Despite the steady increase in drug overdose deaths among Arizona kids 17 and under, there were some encouraging signs in 2020, said Sheila Sjolander, assistant director of public health services for the state Department of Health Services. Although data for 2021 won’t be available until November, she said deaths and nonfatal overdoses in that age group declined slightly in 2020, giving what Sjolander called “a glimmer of hope.” Grantham warned the panel and people in the audience against unrealistic hopes for the committee’s work. “There was an understanding that while mental health can be addressed and can be changed and for the better,” he said, “it’s like steering a ship: you turn the wheel and over time, the ship slowly starts to move, hopefully, in the right direction. It’s not an overnight fix.” He said that in relation to teen mental health, the Legislature first wanted to address funding for school resource officers “because if somebody at school is going to have something in their backpacks or do something bad be-

Suicide rates among female adolescents in Arizona have been trending upward while those among boys has been heading down, according to the latest available state data, which does not cover 2021. (State Health Services Department)

Left: Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, warned committee members and others at a hearing last week to not expect much from the panel’s work . Right: Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, said she wants the House Committee on Teen Mental Health to come up with actionable recommendations by December. (Arizona Legislature video)

cause they’re suicidal or because they have a mental health issue, we at least want every single request for an SRO at a school to be filled before addressing the next step, which was additional counselors and all those mental health programs and things that are important. “But we’ve gotten to a point where even if we threw $10 million at counselors, it wouldn’t change these problems,” Grantham continued, noting that increased funding for SROs was prioritized “to try to at least stop one of these issues from occurring in the first place and then address the mental health as well. “ On a more general note, Grantham said that after six years in the Legislature, he’s learned that government moves much slower than the private business sector. “We all come down here as legislators thinking we can like just enact or

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do something and change the trajectory of whatever the issue is,” he said. “It could be taxes. It could be mental health. I’m a business guy too. And government, unfortunately a lot of times, doesn’t work like business.” He told the group that it may want to consider what it actually can do, admitting “this will be a frustrating exercise.” “And that’s hard,” he said. “That’s a really hard thing to come up with. Everybody who’s in these working groups …needs to really focus in on what can government actually do to fix this

INITIATIVES

from page 25

Goddard said it has to be traced back to the original source and cannot be “laundered’’ through a series of groups. Retired business owner Bob Betrand, co-chairman of the campaign, said Arizonans got a close look at how the process works in 2014 when several groups, including the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Save Our Future Now, spent millions to secure the election of Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little to the Arizona Corporation Commission. The groups

problem? Can I do anything? Where can we focus our energy that way because the battle next year if we address this will be to get here in January and get at least 31 people in this room, in this chamber to agree to whatever is being proposed. And then 16 across the way and then a governor to sign it into law.” He noted that many agencies “will say ‘we can do that, just give us more money.’ “Well the problem is there’s not enough money for us to give to answer all those questions every year because every agency and every level of government – their asks never go down.” He added, “I wish there was more God in our schools and our families and our federal moral structure in our country. A lot of these problems would be solved. We have a decay occurring that you can’t fix here. But what you can do is at least try to empower the families give them more of their own resources back to address this internally and encourage them to do it in education. Government can’t legislate morality. We can’t make home life good for this body. All we can do is help create an environment that allows families to have a better home life.” Osborne, who is running in the Aug. 2 Primary Election, expressed a determination to have the committee produce concrete results that the can be addressed in the next Legislative session as well as by the new state administration next year. Stressing that “legislation is only a piece of what we’re doing,” Osborne said the panel also can address some of the gaps that experts and advocates noted – including access to mental health care and treatment. She suggested that some data being generated by agencies that reflect the state of teen mental health could be shared with school districts, churches and nonprofits. “We also have only a short window of time,” Osborne said. “This isn’t something we want to see (drag) in the next year, planning to death and having just a binder at the end of the day. We want to have something that’s pertinent now – within the next six months.” What those working groups come up with won’t be clear until the committee meets in full sometime in September.

refused to disclose the source of those dollars, citing their status as “social welfare’’ organizations. It took until 2019 for Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electric utility, to divulge it was the source of $10.7 million to elect the two regulators. A similar 2018 effort failed after foes mounted a court challenge to some of the 285,000 signatures collected, many by paid circulators. The 2020 measure using only volunteers faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic which included, for a period of time, a stay-at-home order.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

EVIT expands Power campus, renovates main BY CECE TODD East Valley Institute of Technology

The 2022-23 school year at the East Valley Institute of Technology will include expanded programs at the Power Campus, renovations at the Main Campus and reorganization as EVIT prepares to grow its adult programs, offer associate degrees and create more opportunities for youth in foster care. In the spring, state lawmakers approved legislation that will allow Career Technical Education Districts (CTEDs) like EVIT to offer associate degrees. Gov. Doug Ducey also signed a new state budget that includes $10 million for EVIT to construct a residence hall for foster youth on its Main Campus. “EVIT’s foundation is rooted in seeking ways to support students and communities that at times have been overlooked, underserved and under-supported,” said Superintendent Dr. Chad Wilson. For instance, he said, “Arizona has a qualified labor shortage and poor education attainment levels. With CTEDs being able to offer associate degrees, adults will have another option for obtaining the training and education they need to be successful.” Arizona also has a growing number of youth who are facing significant challenges as they transition out of

Left: EVIT’s medical assistant program is one of about a dozen health-care career programs offered by the East Valley Institute of Technology. (EVIT) Right: Welding is one of three new programs that the East Valley Institute of Technology has added to its Power Campus this year. Other new programs at Power include criminal justice and aesthetics. (EVIT)

foster care. EVIT offers a program that allows foster youth to enroll in EVIT career training while they work toward obtaining their GED. The residence hall that will be constructed will provide additional services and support. “EVIT now has the opportunity to truly change their lives by giving them the structure and support they need to transition into a better future,” Wilson said. EVIT will be laying the groundwork for associate degree and foster care initiatives this year by seeking approval from its accrediting body, the Council

on Occupational Education, to offer associate degrees, reorganizing and hiring staff, and renovating the Main Campus. Upon approval by COE, EVIT plans to offer its first associate degree in registered nursing in 2023-24. EVIT has also entered into a partnership with Heritage Academy to allow the charter school to open a high school on the Main Campus that will give preferential placement to foster youth. The charter high school will open in 2023-24. Meanwhile this school year, EVIT has expanded programs at the Power Cam-

pus, 6625 S. Power Road, to better meet the needs of the growing population in the southeast Valley. Facilities have been expanded for the veterinary, aviation and engineering programs and renovated and upgraded for cosmetology and health care programs. The Power Campus also has three new programs this year – criminal justice, aesthetics and welding – that are also offered at the Main Campus. “The expansion of these programs will allow students in the southeast Valley to attend EVIT closer to home,” Wilson said. At the Main Campus, 1601 W. Main St., Mesa, EVIT offers over 40 career training programs for high school students and a dozen post-secondary programs for adults. EVIT also provides programs at a branch campus at Apache Junction High School. Over 5,000 high school students and adults are currently enrolled at the three campuses for the 2022-23 school year. High school students attend tuition-free; adults pay tuition with financial aid available in some programs for those who qualify. Enrollment is still being accepted for 2022-23. Start the process at evit.com/enroll. For more information, visit evit.com. CeCe Todd is the public information officer for the East Valley Institute of Technology.

After 13 Years, Bella Montessori under new ownership BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA Contributor

A well-respected Gilbert Montessori school serving Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa, has undergone an ownership change. Bella Montessori began in 2009 in Davina Goff ’s home before growing into a site at 700 S. Island Drive West in 2011. It is now owned by Mary Navarro, a former special education and high school math teacher who has been an instructor with Montessori for years. A Chandler resident and mother of four, Navarro met Goff in 2016. Goff’s daughter, Bella, was one of her students, and the two women bonded and became friends. Their association grew as both were teaching colleagues at the Arizona Montessori Teacher Education Program, the Montessori training center located at Bella Montessori. When Goff considered selling the 6,500 square foot, multiple- classroom school, she suggested Navarro might consider taking it over. For Navarro, the opportunity was exactly what she’d hoped to explore in her future. “It’s always been a long-term goal of mine to start a Montessori school,” Navarro confessed. “I’ve worked at many Montessori schools in the state, that because of size and administrative complexity, never quite measured up

Bella Montessori teacher Corina Brajerich offers encouragement to Asher Redshaw during a learning session. (Special to SanTan Sun News)

to my expectation of what Montessori should be.” To her, Montessori schools meant enriching their charges by utilizing cooperation between the teaching staff, parents and students. “I’ve always envisioned a small community that could serve staff and families with a holistic approach - not only for the child but for the families and staff as well,” she said. “Raising littles doesn’t come with a manual, and having a village of support can be life changing. “The impact parents and teachers can have in brain development early on in childhood is astronomical, and at Bel-

la we strive to optimize that window by building strong family partnerships, and ongoing staff professional development to maintain the best practices while maintaining Montessori as our core.” Goff received her Montessori certification through the Center for Montessori Education/New York and is currently an instructor for a valley Montessori training program. She said life changes spurred her letting go of the school that she named for her daughter. “I absolutely loved my time as owner/teacher at Bella, but my life is shifting with my son, Mason finishing his software engineering degree at ASU, and my daughter Bella, beginning her second year at NAU,” she said. “Mary and I met while she worked for another local Montessori and she was one of my daughter’s teachers. Both my husband Aaron and I really appreciated the way she fully embraced the Montessori philosophy,” Goff continued. “Mary has always been well respected in the Montessori and educational realms, and I knew from Mary’s passion for Montessori and education that she was the one to carry on the legacy that my husband and I built.” “The stars aligned and we talked about it and here we are. I truly could not have hoped for a more amazing

person to pass the torch to than Mary.” Located at the border of Chandler and Gilbert, the spacious and bright classrooms house separate spaces for the toddler, primary and elementary students and the NIDO Program for infants beginning at six weeks. Enrollment is currently underway for the new fall session that begins Tuesday, Aug. 2. Free tours of the school can be scheduled at www.bellamontessori. com. Tours are offered year-round except during the first two weeks of each school session. Both the new owner and Bella’s previous owner are instructors for Arizona Montessori Teacher Education Program helping train Montessori teachers from throughout the state. Bella Montessori full-day classes run from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and half-day programs 8:30 to noon. Extended care hours are available for an additional cost. Information: BellaMontessori.com. Scholarships are available in Kindergarten-3rd grade through Arizona Tuition Connection. All Montessori Schools follow the Montessori methodology, an education approach developed by Italian physician Maria Montessori. The approach focuses on independence and hands-on learning.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Cities get more short-term rental oversight BY MARK MORAN Staff Writer

Gov. Doug Ducey earlier this month signed a bill providing local cities and towns with more authority to fine and penalize short term rental “bad actors,” but stops well short of banning them or limiting the length of their leases. Co-sponsored by Republicans Sen. J.D. Mesnard of Chandler and Steve Kaiser of Phoenix, SB 1168 is being called a “compromise,” and gives cities and towns increased authority to fine homeowners whose occupants violate noise and other community ordinances. Those rules are often breached by weekend visitors who rent a large house for the weekend, fill it with raucous revelers who party late into the night, disrupting families and yearround residents’ peace and quiet, as well as their normal routines. Philip Minardi, a spokesman for Expedia Group, hailed the legislation, calling it “a targeted, sensible package of protections and reforms to Arizona’s vacation-rental industry.” He said the measure puts “Arizona at the forefront of innovative policy solutions for this important industry that supports over 75,000 jobs statewide” and said it creates “new mechanisms to ensure neighborhood safety while fostering an environment that will allow vacation rental hosts and their guests to continue their important contributions to a vibrant tourism economy in Arizona.” The Legislature in 2016 took away municipalities’ authority to impose regulations on short-term rentals but in recent years has given them some leeway to control rowdy party houses. The northeast Mesa community of Las Sendas recently voted to amend

Sun Lakes beauty This 2,848-square-foot house on S. Pecan Drive in Sun Lakes recently sold for $1.4 million. The four-bedroom, 3 ½-bath house, built in 2006, boasts a resort-style backyard with a negative-edge pool, a ﬁreplace and ﬁre pit and extensive landscaping. (Special to SanTan Sun News)

its Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, or CC&Rs, to restrict rentals to no fewer than 31 days. The measure passed with the support of 75% of Las Sendas residents after a six-month campaign that the HOA board publicly supported. Of the 3,090 total votes cast, 2,604 votes were in favor of the amendment and 486 were opposed. SB 1168 really has no bearing on authority to regulate short-term rentals, according to Las Sendas attorney Curtis Ekmark. “The state doesn’t have anything to do with communities,” he said. “They left intact an association’s ability to ban STRs. But it allows the City of Mesa to fine people who violate noise and other ordinances.” The measure also shifts fines and penalties away from online rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO and places them on the property owner or management company that is renting out the house. It also makes various other technical and legal changes to the terms of STR agreements in Arizona. In an earlier interview with the Tribune, Shannon Preston who, with her husband Colin owns a home in Las Sendas but lives in Oregon, said that an outright ban on STRs is not in line with what they thought they bought into when they purchased their Mesa home. “The CC&Rs are a contract that we entered into when we purchased our property with the homeowner’s association. “For them to just take a one-sided majority vote and remove our property rights doesn’t seem like that’s fair,” Preston said. “They are using our dues to take our property rights away from us.” The Prestons advocated for an approach that stops short of banning short term rentals outright, such as a

higher fee structure, which Senate Bill 1168 addresses, or a “three strikes and you’re out” policy for people who receive multiple complaints about their renters. “There has to be some ways around just changing everyone’s rights,” Preston said. The new state law may give people who live near disruptive party houses in Las Sendas an avenue for their frequent complaints. Given that the new law empowers the City of Mesa to enforce noise ordinances, disgruntled neighbors will be able to call the police with their complaints. As it stands now, annoyed neighbors say they themselves fear being the target of legal action for “harassing” short-term homeowners’ “guests.” Newer communities write short term rental bans directly into their CC&Rs as a matter of course, but older, more established communities that are often sought by weekend partiers have remained wide open and largely unregulated. This issue is not likely to go away any time soon for Las Sendas or any other community that votes to ban the short-term rentals. A quick internet search reveals page after page of suggestions on how to get around such regulations, for instance. Beyond that, Valley real estate attorney Ben Gottlieb says a decision in March by the Arizona Supreme Court, Kalway v. Calabria, could have a significant impact across the entire state, and on a community’s ability to change its CC&Rs. In a nutshell, the case states that in order to amend them, a community’s original CC&Rs must make mention of the possibility that the rules could, potentially, be altered in the future. “You have short term renters who

will come in and seek declaratory relief,” said Gottleib. “And say ‘wait a minute, under the Kalway case this amendment is invalid and I want to protect my investment here and I had no notice that this would happen.’ So, I think this is going to have interesting ramifications. The Kalway case really makes it clear that everything hinges on what is in the original CC&Rs.” State Rep. John Kavanaugh, R-Scottsdale, who has been involved in short-term rental legislation since they became an issue, said it will be difficult to get around the HOAs approved ban. “The HOA’s will have no problem enforcing that,” he said. “First of all, the neighbors will know when different people start showing up every weekend.” Kavanaugh, a pro-business Republican understands both sides of the issue, but falls clearly on the side of people opposed to short term rentals. “On one side there is the right of people to own their property and do what they want,” he said. “On the other side is the right of people to rely on zoning laws that were in effect when they bought their land. “No one purchased their homes thinking that there would be horizontal hotels popping up next to them. The fact that people made the biggest investment of their lives and then had that open up next to them is a real shame. It destroys their life and their property value, he said.” As far as the Kalway v. Calabria case? “That’s gonna play out in the courts,” Kavanaugh said. But even Ekmark, the Las Sendas attorney, acknowledges that the community’s CC&R amendment is far from a slam dunk. “Every association considering banning short term rentals should be aware of Kalway,” he said.

REAL ESTATE

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

How inflation can impact resident, business leases BY BEN GOTTLIEB Guest Writer

After enduring the COVID-19 pandemic and navigating around a barrage of state and federal executive orders inhibiting landlords’ ability to carry out eviction actions, landlords and tenants are now living in a world facing the highest rates of inflation since the Great Inflation period transpired during the 1970s. High inflation in the overall economy is translating into higher rent being demanded by landlords and carries key implications in the landlord-tenant space, especially since most landlords and tenants have not paid much attention to it lately since inflation has not been a significant news headline in decades. Also, long-term leases – especially

commercial leases – usually provide the tenant with an option to renew the lease several years in the future from when the original lease is executed. Some leases (mostly commercial) have provisions addressing inflation in connection with the renewal period in the event a tenant exercises a negotiated option to renew the lease. Extra attention and care should be used in drafting options to renew in leases. Landlords may want to negotiate shorter rental periods and/or have lease provisions addressing escalating rent that accounts for rising rental rates in any renewal period, while tenants should attempt to negotiate rental rate “locks” or modest rent increases. It is important to note that most leases provide the tenant with the option to renew the lease. The option must generally be

exercised in writing and in accordance with the option to renew clause. If the tenant does not exercise the option to renew but remains at the premises, the tenant will be considered a “holdover tenant.” Lease provisions addressing holdover terms usually contain a higher rental rate and the holdover period runs month-to-month (meaning the holdover term can be terminated with 30 days’ notice). Many tenants are left scrambling at the end of their lease periods and do not want to renew their lease at a higher rental rate. Ultimately, if the lease is properly terminated by the landlord, the landlord could proceed with an eviction of the tenant. In the residential context, the landlord is not permitted to “lock out” the tenant. Under the Arizona Residential Land-

lord Tenant Act, the landlord must proceed with a judicial eviction and obtain what is called a Writ of Restitution from the eviction judge. In the commercial realm, if the lease permits a “lock out” remedy, the landlord may simply change the locks if the tenant has defaulted under the lease and need not pursue a judicial eviction. Of course, a landlord cannot raise rent or charge the tenant unauthorized fees in contravention to the lease terms. In all cases, the parties should follow the lease. Patrick MacQueen and Benjamin Gottlieb created a different kind of law firm using state of the art legal software and technology combined with award-winning legal minds to provide the best real estate representation available. If you have additional questions, contact Ben Gottlieb at 602-5332840 or ben@mandglawgroup.com.

Quick home fixes can save on your electric bill STSN NEWS SERVICES

Whether you live in a mansion or a condo, homes consume a ton of expensive energy—in the form of electricity, water, or gas. You can lower these bills and free up cash and the changes are far from complicated—some are as simple as switching your lightbulbs or tweaking the settings on your appliances. Energy Sage says residential electricity rates have increased about 14% over the past 10 years. With fuel costs continuing to rise, you can bet your bottom dollar that that number isn’t getting any lower. One way to cut down on your electric bill is by killing the “energy vampires” in your home. Those are the little lights all over your house that indicate printers and chargers are plugged in and ready but not in use. Energy vampires suck dollars out of your wallet, an average of $250 a year for a typical U.S. household. The low-tech solution? Unplug these

items before bed, which will save you as much as 10% on your energy bill. The high-tech solution? Power cords such as the Embertec Emberstrip AV+ ($45) will turn off equipment when they sense it’s not in use. Another way to reduce your bill is switching to low-energy lightbulbs. A sixpack of LED bulbs (which replaces 60-watt incandescent bulbs and retails for only $20) can save you up to 85% on your energy bill. And because these bulbs last an average of 18 years, another bonus is not needing to swap them out as often! Many local utility companies offer energy audits—often for free. This involves experts assessing your home’s energy consumption patterns and looking for areas where you could cut back on electricity, gas, or water to lower your utility bills. Auditors might do this remotely by poring over your records. Or they might visit your home to examine everything from its windows to ductwork to showerheads—saving you as much as 30% of

your monthly bills. Something you might not have considered when it comes to your ultrahot showers is how much scalding water costs. “About 20% of the energy used in a home goes toward water heating,” says Michael Thomas, founder of Carbon Switch. “One of the most effective ways to cut down on that energy use is to install a heat pump water heater (aka hybrid water heater).” According to Thomas, you can save anywhere from $20 to $600 a year making this switch. Another option when it comes to your pricey hot water? Consider cranking it down just a tad. Lowering the settings by just 20 degrees (to a still-hot albeit more reasonable 120 degrees Fahrenheit) will save you anywhere from 6% to 10% on your heating costs. Yes, your clothes will still get clean—some stains actually come out more readily in cold water—and you’ll save about $130 a year. And since dryers account for 12% of

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the energy used in an average household, consider line-drying clothes in nice weather to save between $100 and $280 per year, depending on how many loads you dry. “Even the smallest gaps around a window or door frame allow air to leak inside,” says Mark Liston, president of Glass Doctor. “An eighth of an inch gap under a 36-inch-wide door in the winter will let in as much cold air as a 2.4-inch-diameter hole punched in a wall.” Depending on where you live, you could save as much as 20% on heating and cooling costs by properly sealing and insulating your windows and doors. Sealing your home from air leaks isn’t the only way to save money on heating and AC bills. Another idea? Consider installing a set of smart thermostats. “Smart thermostats can save the average homeowner $100 on their home energy bills a year,” says Thomas. “Given that most smart thermostats cost less than $200, that means a payback of fewer than two years.”

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

For more community news visit SanTanSun.com

Left: Ally Smith of Mak Pack watches over the small dog yard as a group of pups run and play. Mak Pack, Arizona’s first indoor dog park opened in Chandler recently and features small and large dog indoor play yards, grooming and training. Right: A dozen friendly pups flood into the entry to say hi as Laura Braidi tries to get her Schnauzer Indigo into the small dog yard at Mak Pack. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Going to the dogs makes sense at this business BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer

It seems like such a no-brainer, you have to wonder why someone didn’t think of the idea sooner: A cool place for dogs to play when the sun is hot and their coats won’t come off sounds perfect. Spencer Mak and his wife opened the state’s first indoor dog park, Mak Pack Dog Training & Boarding, in Tempe

in 2020 as the pandemic was beginning. They just recently opened up a second location in Chandler. “I think a lot of people have thought of it, but the execution of it is incredibly difficult,” said Brittany Myer, who manages the Chandler location. “When it comes to thinking about safety, cleanliness, making sure it’s a good environment for the dogs with toys and things we need to run and jump on, as well as making sure the owners are safe

in that space. “There’s been … about 18 months’ worth of thoughts and processing that had to go into it. It definitely took a while, but we got here eventually.” Myer said many of the people visiting the Tempe location were driving from Chandler, so that’s how they settled on where to open their second location. It’s in a large building that was a gym at the corner of Gilbert and Queen Creek roads.

“Spencer put a lot of work into Tempe,” Myer said. “He was, at one point the only person running it, so he was doing training, … he was sleeping there overnight with the boarding dogs, and then there with the daycare dogs. So it was a one man show for a little while.” Mak Pack offers a variety of services, including use of the indoor dog park, group training sessions and private See

DOGS on page 38

Asian-themed business cluster growing here BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer

The number of Asian-themed businesses is increasing around the Chandler Boulevard and Dobson Road intersection. It’s not by accident. The increase in Asian-themed businesses is meant to serve the largest growing minority population in Chandler. All the tech industries that have settled in the city have hired employees with the skills they need, and many of them happen to be of Asian descent. The city’s Asian population has grown from 17,500 in 2011 to nearly 28,000 in 2020. That a jump of 59%. Asian-themed businesses have noticed. “A lot of the tenants that we were kind of working with, wanted to see a project in Arizona, because that is the market that they want to enter,” said Naoyuki Kondo, a leasing specialist for NewQuest Properties, which manages the Chandler Ranch mall at the corner of Dobson and Chandler Boulevard. That mall currently has nearly a dozen Asian-themed businesses. There are more in the shopping center across the street. Daiso Japan, Gen Korean BBQ House, and SomiSomi Korean Soft

Christy Nguyen “employs” yellow drink robots at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar in Chandler Ranch. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Serve are all scheduled to open soon. They join the existing businesses and a number of other businesses: Asian Corner Cafe, Ramen Hood, and Kura

Sushi. The anchor store of the Chandler Ranch center is 99 Ranch Market, which is an Asian supermarket. Signage inside is in English and Mandarin, and the aisles

are filled with both American and Asian products. See

RANCH on page 37

BUSINESS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

RANCH

veyor belt straight from the kitchen. “It’s a very good story to tell when people from California or New York are coming to Arizona, and they got that comfort zone when … when they see a lot of Asian population within the shopping center,” Kondo said. “And what they also see a lot of retailers and restaurants doing well in that corridor.” Kondo said they began remodeling Chandler Ranch in the early days of the pandemic. Now, they are closing in on 100% occupancy. “We want to make sure that what we’re providing is serving a community around it,” said Caitlin Jones, the marketing director for NewQuest. “We’re a

from page 36

“Business has actually been booming,” said Christy Nguyen, the manager of Kura Sushi. “We have a lot of good sales. The Chandler Ranch area is more of an Asian predominant community, but here we’ve been having a lot of diversity.” Kura Sushi is far from the traditional sit-down sushi bar many people have experienced. It’s meant to be more casual and fun. A robot will bring you your drinks. The sushi goes by your table on a conveyor belt, so if you see something you like, grab it. You can also order another dish, say ramen, and it will be delivered to your table by another con-

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar is far from the traditional sit-down sushi bar many people have experienced. It’s meant to be more casual and fun. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

See

RANCH on page 38

2 Chandler buildings sell in $62.4M deal SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

An independent subsidiary of one of the world’s large real estate companies last month paid $62.4 million for two buildings in the second phase of Chandler’s Lotus Project on the southeast corner of 56th Street and Chandler Boulevard. LaSalle Investment Management Co. made the deal with Conor Commercial Real Estate for the buildings, according to Valley real estate tracker vizzda.com. In February 2021, LaSalle plunked down $21 million to buy four adjacent buildings

that are part of the overall project from Conor, vizzda records show. Lotus Project-Phase II is a new industrial park with three state-of-theart advanced manufacturing and light industrial buildings totaling 292,098 square feet. “The sale of Lotus Project – Phase II is a great milestone for our team,”said Conor Vice President Sven Tustin in a release. “It marks the fulfillment of our goal to create a best-in-class development to attract institutional users in the advanced manufacturing industry which, in turn, provides more than a thousand new jobs for

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the community.” At the time of sale, the buildings were fully leased to two investment-grade tenants. A defense/ aerospace company leased the 144,321-squre-foot Building 5 and a medical device company leased the 104,740-square-foot Building 6. Built in 2021, the two buildings sit on just over 17 acres and the sale broke down to $3.6 million per acre and $254 per square foot, vizzda reported. Conor lauded the site, noting its strategic location next to the SanTan Loop 202 Freeway. “The Class A business park is

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BUSINESS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Chandler woman receives AC company’s first award

Chandler resident Machel Considine, second from left, is flanked by PriceMyAC.com CEO John Lamont, left, and Vice President Jodi Zimmerman with COLORME spa founder Debra Lee Morrow on the far right. (Special to SanTan Sun News)

deeply about our community and the people who make it great,” he said. Custom designed by artist Debra Lee Murrow, founder COLORME Art Spa, the award reflects values that Considine values, the company said. “Social justice and education are at the core of my being,” said Considine. In its first year, “Making the World a Cooler Place” award program will recognize two citizens for their contributions and community service. In 2023, the program will grow to honor four citizens and present the awards on a quarterly basis. Eventually, the company plans to honor a recipient each month. PriceMyAC.com boasts that it is the only AC company in Arizona with a 100% transparent pricing on new system installations.

It would be unfair to say the entire mall is Asian-themed. There’s a Peter Piper Pizza, a Jack In the Box and a new Cajun seafood place opening soon. But there’s still a lot of Asian left,

including a Chinese hotpot restaurant and plans to bring in a Japanese retailer. “One of the main reasons why we chose Chandler was because of the growth for Asian population,” Kondo

said. “This was actually a home run for us where all the biggest variables when it comes to demographics, sales, and just the location, fit perfectly for Chandler Ranch.”

vaccination before their pup can mingle with other dogs. “The dogs that are boarding will also go into daycare during the day, we pride ourselves in being all inclusive. So a lot of places will charge extra for them to have play time during the day. We don’t. It’s automatically part of that as long as they’re comfortable with their dogs playing with others.” Myer said the Chandler location is

off to a great start. “Our weekends are really busy with the dog park,” she said. “Obviously people are off work they’re able to come in and it’s been fun watching everyone from Chandler come in and say, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re right around the corner. I’ve been needing somewhere to bring my dog.’ We get a ton more daycare here.” Mak Pack also has a private room available to rent for doggie birthday parties. They’ve

also played host to some group fun. “We had a bunch of doodles come in for a little doodle romp, unplanned by us,” Myer said. “Last weekend, we had a Boston Terrier romp. We had a ton of Boston terriers come in.”

SANTAN SUN NEWS STAFF

PriceMyAC.com, a technology-driven HVAC company has named a Chandler woman one of its “Making the World a Cooler Place” awards program honoring “ordinary citizens who humbly and quietly make impact through community service, volunteering and philanthropy.” Machel Considine, a longtime Rotary Club member, won the award, which PriceMyAC CEO said is “meant to be meaningful and demonstrate our company’s culture and ongoing dedication to community support, as well as a deep and personal pride in recognizing citizens who make an impact through their efforts. “There is more to running a company than making a profit. We care

RANCH

from page 37

neighborhood essential and community driven. And those are the types of shop-

DOGS

from page 36

lessons. There’s also overnight boarding available. Myer said the dogs are never left alone, that someone is there overnight with them. Before showing up with your dog, you need to register in advance. And on the first trip to Mak Pack, the dog’s owner needs to bring along proof of

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ping centers that we really aim to build.”

Prop 470

YES OR NO

There’s an election on Tuesday, Aug. 2, and Chandler voters will cast a ballot for Prop 470, asking voters to continue the Local Alternative Expenditure Limitation, also known as Home Rule. The Home Rule Option allows a city to make its own decisions about how to spend its tax revenues. If it doesn’t pass, the City would have to cut more than $216 million from its budget impacting public safety, street maintenance, recreation programs and planned capital improvement projects. Remember, Prop 470 is NOT a tax increase. El martes 2 de agosto se llevará a cabo una elección, y los electores de Chandler emitirán su voto con respecto a la Proposición 470, la cual les pide a los electores que continúe la Alternativa Local al Límite de Gastos, también conocida como la Opción de la Regla de Autogobierno. La Opción de la Regla de Autogobierno permite a una ciudad tomar sus propias decisiones con respecto a cómo gasta sus ingresos fiscales. Si no es aprobada, la Ciudad tendría que recortar más de $216 millones de dólares de su presupuesto, impactando a la seguridad pública, el mantenimiento de calles, programas de recreación y proyectos planificados de mejoramiento capital. Recuerde que la Proposición 470 NO es un aumento a los impuestos.

chandleraz.gov/elections

BUSINESS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

How to protect yourself from stock market downturn down and have to wait years for the stock market to recover; OR do I cut my losses and sell much of my stock market holdings right now? Let’s clarify this discussion with a live example. A reader of my newspaper column called me and stated that she had $550,000 total financial assets and virtually all was in the stock market. It dropped to $450,000 and she decided to pull it out entirely from the stock market and it’s sitting in a money market fund. She asked whether this was the right decision. I asked her, “How much steady income do you need in retirement to cover all your living expenses, fun money and hopefully bucket list dream money?” She said $90,000 a year would be fantastic. The average dividend yield in the S&P 500 Index companies since Jan. 1, 2000, has only been 2.02% and the average interest rate on a US 10-year or 30-year Treasury bond was around 3%. Here are more details about this single lady: She normally earns $150,000 selling houses and is age 62. She has

BY HAROLD WONG Guest Writer

A CNBC article by Samantha Subin and Fred Imbert on June 13 was titled “S&P 500 tumbles nearly 4% to new low for the year, closes in bear market territory.” The S&P 500 Index was down 21% from its January 2021 record. The DowJones Index was down 17% off its record high and the NASDAQ Composite dropped by more than 33%. When the stock market indices drop by 10%, it’s considered a “correction” and when it drops at least 20%, it’s considered a “bear market.” In the following two weeks, the stock market had a small recovery, but on June 30, a story in yahoo.finance. com by Emily McCormick said “Stock market news live updates: Stocks fall, S&P 500 heads for worst first half in 52 years.” This leaves investors in a dilemma: Do I ride the stock market all the way

three major decisions: keep her total $450,000 out of or in the stock market; work longer; and when to take her Social Security retirement benefits. Scenario 1: Retire at age 64 but take Social Security at age 62, like most do, and put her $450,000 back into the stock market. Her Social Security income will be $1,600 a month and she has no old-fashioned pension. Assume that she can save $25,000 in the next 2 years and this will be her emergency fund that is deposited in a bank. If her $450,000 of financial assets earns 2%, this generates $9,000 of annual dividend income. Her total income is now $28,200 and is nowhere close to her current $90,000 of annual spending. Scenario 2: She retires at 70 and starts major savings and income tax reduction. She’s able to save $50,000 per year over the next 8 years; averages an 8% return; and this adds $574,378 to her retirement fund. If this can continue to earn 8%, this is $45,950 of income at age 70. By waiting until age 70 to take Social Security (SS), and counting major cost-of-living

BREAKING

increases due to current high inflation, assume that her SS will be $3,500 a month or $42,000 a year. Now her total retirement income is $87,950. If $350,000 of her current $450,000 assets were deposited today in a private pension, by age 70 it would generate $35,000/year. Now her total annual retirement income would be $122,950 and she can afford her bucket list dreams. Conclusion: More important than gambling in the stock market is protecting principal from stock market crashes; waiting until age 70 to take SS; saving lots of income tax; and substantially increasing your annual savings. To schedule a free consultation on taxes or retirement planning, contact Dr. Harold Wong at (480) 706-0177 or harold_wong@hotmail.com. His websites are drharoldwong.com or www. solarbusinessinvestments.com. Dr. Wong earned his Ph.D. in economics at University of California/ Berkeley and has appeared on over 400 TV/radio programs.

NEWS

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Why do 500,000 American app developers build on Google Play?

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

For more community news visit SanTanSun.com

Biruk Stephens making his mark for ACP football BY ZACH ALVIRA Sports Editor

Biruk Stephens was just 5 years old when he was uprooted from Ethiopia, his home country. Wanting a better life than what she could provide, his birth mother made the decision to give him up for adoption. That’s when John and Jeanette Stephens stepped in and brought him to Arizona. The Arizona College Prep senior didn’t understand any English for about the first year he was in the United States. He was quiet, reserved and confused when he initially was adopted by the Stephens family. But it soon felt like home, and he’s thrived ever since. “It was kind of hard at first because I was settled in Ethiopia. I kind of understood what was going on,” Biruk said. “Getting uprooted and moved to America was difficult. For the first year it was hard to communicate with everybody. But once I got the hang of it, I was able to learn and being homeschooled helped introduce me to everything.” Biruk was homeschooled the first few years he was in the United States. He began to show his intelligence level early on and it carried over when he enrolled in public school. He also began to thrive in sports. He gravitated toward football, which was common in the family. John played football and Jeanette’s family was always involved with the game and other sports. Biruk’s older brother, Andrew, just finished his high school career at Arizona College Prep and committed to Bethel University. He will join their cousin, Jordan Diaz, who was the first player from ACP to move on to the next level. Now a senior, Biruk is ready to for a breakout season. Head coach Myron Blueford said he was expecting it to come last year before he was sidelined with nagging injuries. But Biruk’s progression in the weight room and on the field has Blueford and the rest of the coaching staff excited for his senior campaign. “He’s done everything this off-season to give us the confidence that he is going to have that breakout year I thought I would see,” Blueford said. “He’s right back on path with that and we are really excited for him. Biruk’s goals for himself extend well-beyond the football field. While he weighs the opportunities he currently has to play at the next level, he has already come up with another plan if football isn’t part of his future. He has become interested in attending a university that offers a criminology program that is designed for those interested in becoming an agent for the FBI. He became enamored with the thought of being an FBI agent a few years ago when he toured the headquarters in Washington D.C. Biruk had already been considering a career working for the government, military or in some law enforcement role. He took an aptitude test that said he would be a good fit as a special agent. His parents agreed. “Biruk has always had this sense of justice, he’s always had this sense of right and wrong,” said John, who also adopted their youngest daughter from China with Jeanette before Biruk. “I’ve always felt he would be well-suited for some kind of career in law enforcement, something along those lines. Now, he may get into college and decide this isn’t for him and that’s ok. It’s really a matter of what he thinks will be the best for him long term.” Biruk’s passion to be a good person is

arguably one of his most impressive traits. Jeanette said she and John never had to push him to accomplish his goals. He set them himself and has ever since sought after the best route to accomplish them. His drive to take advantage of the opportunities given to him since his adoption is mesmerizing to the family. “We knew his whole birth family had really wanted him to have opportunities that weren’t available to him over there,” Jeanette said. “I think it’s just in his nature to be driven. I am more proud of the man he is becoming. It’s super special he has accomplished exactly what his birth family had hoped for.” Biruk remains thankful for Jeanette,

Getting uprooted “ and moved to America

was difficult. For the first year it was hard to communicate with everybody. But once I got the hang of it, I was able to learn and being homeschooled helped introduce me to everything.

”

– Biruk Stephens

John and his three siblings. He is thankful for the opportunities they have given him and for making him feel at home right away. He’s thankful to Blueford and ACP for challenging him in his honors classes and on the field to make him a better student-athlete. Most importantly, he is thankful for his birth mother making a selfless decision that she knew would ultimately benefit him. He still has some communication with her and has a desire to build a relationship with her after he is finished with high school. But in the meantime, he wants to make her and everyone else proud. And he will do what it takes to make that happen. “When I look back into it, Ethiopia is still a third-world country without many opportunities so I don’t know where I would be,” Biruk said. “It was frustrating at first because I wanted to be with my mom, but I also had to understand what she was going for. I think the best way to remember her is to live up to what she wanted me to do and what she wanted me to pursue. “Being blessed with all of these opportunities, it just makes me happy.” Top: Arizona College Prep senior Biruk Stephens was adopted at 5 years old from Ethiopia. With the help of Jeanette and John Stephens, he’s been able to grow into a standout football player for the Knights and a high-academic student overall. Bottom: Arizona College Prep coach Myron Blueford is expecting a breakout year for Biruk this year. He’s seen his dedication to getting bigger in the weight room and faster on the field. He also knows his drive to be great will power him to a breakout season. (Dave Minton/Staff)

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

For more community news visit SanTanSun.com

Join the next Chandler Citizen Police Academy BY LAURIE FAGEN Guest Writer

Watch Chandler Police Department’s K-9 dogs sniff drugs. Learn how 9-1-1 calls come in to CPD and how they’re dispatched. Find out why traffic issues are the top complaint in Chandler. Go on a “ridealong” with a Chandler police officer. Hear from CPD officers working in robbery, homicide, narcotics, firearms, street gangs, SWAT and more during the next free Chandler Citizen Police

Academy which runs for 13 weeks from 6-9 p.m. each Wednesday from Aug. 17 through Nov. 9. All classes are held at the Public Safety Training Facility at 3550 S. Dobson R in oad, Chandler. I graduated from the Chandler Citizen Police Academy in 2018, and was not only impressed with all the great information I learned about the Chandler Police Department, but also how dedicated the local officers are to their jobs. The Academy is designed for Chandler residents to get an up close and

personal look at the inner dealings of the Chandler Police Department. Participants will walk away with more awareness and understanding of law enforcement’s role in our community. It’s a great resource for those 18 and older who live in Chandler to find out what police officers deal with every day in their work. I hope you’ll consider checking this out and telling your neighbors about the opportunity. Once you’ve gone through the classes, you are eligible to join the Citizens Police Academy Association of Chandler, or CPAAC, a

nonprofit organization where members are goodwill ambassadors who advocate and volunteer in support of CPD’s mission to provide a safe community. Check CPAAC out at CPAAC.org. Registration for the next Citizens Police Academy starts July 18. For more details, visit ChandlerAZPD.gov/citizens-academy or call 480-782-4960 for information. Laurie Fagen is a long-time resident of Chandler, a crime fiction novelist, an artist and former publisher of SanTan Sun News.

Maybe we should each think of ourselves as a choice BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Columnist

She was a 12th grader on the afternoon she got the news she was pregnant, in the humid summer days of 1964. The girl was 17, with a beehive hairdo piled to the sky and dreams of going to nursing school. She told her boyfriend the news after he got off work at the bicycle shop. The first of many conversations ensued. Abortion was still six years from

becoming legal in New York, where the girl and the 18-year-old boy lived. Roe v. Wade was still nine years away from the United States Supreme Court. Still, there were ways. But they were illegal and dangerous and they cost an outrageous sum of money. In the end, the girl and the boy talked themselves into a decision. They drove one mid-August morning to a small town named Elkton on the Maryland border. They brought with them two witnesses, themselves barely adults. The elopement complete, they returned to Queens, married.

I was born six months later. My mother told me the story of her choice not to illustrate a political point, I believe, but to underscore that I was a choice, a defining one, a decision that changed the course of her life and my father’s. She eventually became a nurse, but it wasn’t for another 25 years. My father worked three jobs to put himself through night school to earn a college degree. That one choice led to a million sacrifices, disadvantages that could have been avoided with a single decision, to remove the tiny clump of cells that were only a few weeks along and – in my view – not yet human, a life in potential only. I remember asking my mother, “Why not get an abortion?” Her response: “I just couldn’t. I thought about it so much. But I loved your father and I wanted to have his baby. So that was it.” My mother, as liberal as they come, didn’t live to see the Friday in June when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I know the news would have been a gut punch for her – a woman who herself had a choice, and believed deeply that every woman should have the same freedom to choose. I can imagine her phone call and where the conversation would have taken us: To topics like personal freedom, the right of a woman

and a man to decide their own destinies. We would have discussed sacrifice, because it was a theme my mother drilled into me until the day she died. We choose what we become, and every choice we make negates countless other choices. So choose thoughtfully and with love in your heart, because that is the way your parents chose to have you, son. They were fortunate to have such a choice, because not everyone does. And now, after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that choice is gone for many women in many states. My mother, who chose one path for herself, never once spoke ill of the 17-year-old girls who chose a ride that didn’t lead to a courthouse in Maryland. “I could have had an abortion,” my mother told me. “That wasn’t my choice. But I understand it, because my life was never the same.” To say I’m glad my mother chose as she did will sound macabre, because without that choice there would be no column, no life, no me. So, let me say this instead: Imagine if we each lived with consciousness that we are a choice, a set of sacrifices. Then we might not so easily trample the freedoms of others. And America might not be in the sad state in which we find it today.

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Chandler Pride marks a year of helping parents BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer

Every month Chandler Pride hosts a meeting where parents who are dealing with their child coming out as LGBTQ+ can get support. “I show up,” said Schroder, who is president of Chandler Pride. “I have been there in the past alone waiting for someone to come join me and sometimes they don’t come.” Chandler Pride is celebrating its first anniversary as an advocacy organization this month. Schroder, and the group’s secretary, Jennifer Morrison, know what it’s like to go through that coming out process as a parent. Schroder is the mother of a transgender child, and Morrison the mother of a gay child. “We’re fortunate enough to have, I think, maneuvered through the coming out process with our children,” Morrison said. “Not that it isn’t challenging, and shocking, and sometimes difficult. But we managed to come through that in a very positive way.” The group, which officially became a nonprofit in July 2021, has staged a Pride event, put together a candidate forum, and hosts the monthly Parents & Ally support group. But some of the most important

Eduarda Schroder and Jennifer Morrison lead Chandler Pride, which helps parents of LGBTQ+ children. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) work they do, Schroder said, is to connect people. For example, a group of student activists wanted to protest the city’s refusal to adopt a non-discrimination ordinance (NDO) to protect its LGBTQ+ residents. She helped student leaders from different campuses connect so they could work on it together.

Same with students concerned about mental health. Since LGBTQ students are more likely to die by suicide, they decided to get involved in that issue as well. “There are other organizations in the community that we are pulling in to our events,” Schroder said. “And then from here on, one of the focuses would

be to continue to have conversations around youth mental health, youth homelessness specifically. “Then look around and see what potential partners we can develop, who might be interested in, in contributing to alleviating, if not solving, the problems.” Schroder said one moment where she felt like Chandler Pride was making a difference came during its candidate forum. Council candidate Farhana Shifa gave the group credit for helping her think differently about the NDO issue. Chandler is the largest city in Arizona without a NDO to protect its LGBTQ residents. While she did not commit to voting in favor of one, Shifa said that if shown enough evidence that one was needed, then perhaps she would be willing to consider it. That was a bit of an evolution from her answer at the Chamber of Commerce forum, where she said she would vote against one if given the chance. Three Council candidates favor a NDO: Angel Encinas, Matt Orlando and Jane Poston. So does mayoral candidate Ruth Jones. Mayor Kevin Hartke and Shifa are against it. Council candidate Darla Gonzalez has not taken a position. Shifa credited Schroder with helpSee

PRIDE on page 47

EV Dream Center helps people in need in many ways BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer

Jovani Cedeno didn’t have to look far to find the inspiration for the nonprofit that he and his half-brother, Dan Gonzalez, started in Chandler. It was their mother. “I took my mom out once when we went door knocking, and she got teary because I was giving them the spiel of what we’re doing here,” Cedeno said. “And she says, ‘Man, if someone came to my door, and told me, they’re going to pick you up from school, they’re going to feed you. You’re getting in sports, you’re doing counseling, and they’re dropping you off. I would have signed all five of you up really quick.” Cedeno and Gonzalez started the East Valley Dream Center just before the pandemic began. Their goal was to help people get off of government assistance and to become thriving members of the community. “So my brother and I, we grew up with inner city, Chicago, single mom and all that and welfare, public aid, Section 8, and very poor and just kind of grew up in inner city noticing how she struggled. We chose not to [get involved with] the gangs, the drugs and we wanted to grow up and do something in the community.” Gonzalez moved to Chandler and Cedeno soon followed. They wanted to do something to help those in the

The East Valley Dream Center offers an app where residents can request a delivery of food, household essentials and cleaning supplies. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

community, but figured how much help was really needed in the Chandler-Gilbert area. “But then we found [problems in] the downtown Chandler area,” Cedeno said. “And so we had to do something. So three years ago, it was him, myself and a friend, we got together in my living room and say, let’s just start a nonprofit up.” They went to Costco and bought some food and then went to a park to hand it out to folks in need. “It kind of grew from there,” Cedeno

said. They were soon hosting block parties in parks and attendance was growing. But then the pandemic struck and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said block parties were no longer a good idea. “But we didn’t want to stop,” Cedeno said. “So, we kind of went back to the drawing board.” They decided to knock on doors, mostly in public housing complexes. “It was incredible,” he said. “We got to know these families.”

All of this was before they qualified for any grants, so they were managing on about $1,000 a month in donations. The door knocking became so successful, they now are getting grants and are much more sophisticated in what they offer. First, they have their own app. It allows the people they help to let them know what household goods they need and which they don’t. They also have a center on Pecos Road where they hold financial literacy courses, teaching people how to manage their money. They pay people who attend the four courses to encourage them to stick with it. The East Valley Dream Center also gets to know the children, and develops programs for them. There are classes during the week, and then group outings, including going to see a movie. The City of Chandler recently awarded a block grant of $10,000 to the East Valley Dream Center. They have become such an important part of the community, Cedeno says the schools will often call them when there is a problem with one of the students in their program. “When the school has a hard time, they contact us saying, ‘Can you really go knock on the door, because they don’t trust the individual on our end.’ And so that’s a service we’re taking pride in.” See

DREAM on page 47

NEIGHBORS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Rotarians of the Month named in Sun Lakes BY DR. HONORA NORTON Guest Writer

The Rotary Club of Sun Lakes named Ed Anderson its July 2022 Rotarian of the Month and former club President Jon Lyons its June Rotarian of the Month. It was in 2015, while playing golf at Oakwood Country Club, that Ed was asked to a RCSL breakfast. Ed served as 2018-19 club president and for many years has served on the golf committee, various other committees, and community service projects. Since 2020, Ed has served as Rotary International District 5495 assistant governor and advises five of the 65 clubs in the district. Ed is a US Army veteran and Sun Lakes resident. Ed is now semi-retired with many years in real estate

PRIDE

from page 46

ing to educate her on the issue. So did Shifa change her answer because she was at a Chandler Pride forum, or was it a true change of heart? “I think the most important thing

DREAM

from page 46

Cedeno says he is proud of how the nonprofit that he and his brother start-

and currently is an award-winning sales agent with West USA Realty. Jon served two terms club president, currently serves on the RCSL Board as past president and sergeant of arms and serves on Rotary International District 5495 committees. Jon joined RCSL in 2016 and immediately took on responsibilities, including membership chair and other roles. Jon is an Arizona State University graduate with a BS in accounting and has worked in many disciplines, including finance, sourcing, quality, lean manufacturing and operations. He retired in April 2016. The Chandler Chamber of Commerce honored Jon at its 33rd annual Chandler Chamber Community Awards Dinner with the Community Cup Award for his outstanding contributions to the community.

Ed Anderson

Jon Lyons

out of that is holding a forum that holds them accountable,” Morrison said. “Having them have to answer the question. This topic for some people is very uncomfortable. And they answer with the equivalent of, you know, hope and prayers. But they don’t answer the hard question of what will you do?”

There is no PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays) chapter in Chandler, Schroder said. So, Chandler Pride is the only group as of now to help anyone who is struggling with the coming out process. So every first Tuesday of the month, Schroder or another member of Chan-

dler Pride’s leadership, heads to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church between 6:30 and 8 p.m., just in case someone needs to chat. “We’re there, and we are going to continue to show up,” Schroder said.

ed has grown. He’s also proud that the children in their program can look at him and see a Latino man with tattoos is able to succeed and give back to his community.

And they may have the coronavirus pandemic to thank for their growth. “You know, if it wasn’t for that, we still would have been doing the block parties and all that,” he said.

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

Gilbert girl, 6, now one of world’s youngest authors BY CECILIA CHAN Managing Editor

When Kyra Mishra laid eyes on Cowboy, a Shetland pony, she felt an instant bond. The Gilbert girl, then 4 1/2 years old, had insisted on equestrian lessons and Cowboy was her first ride in a saddle. “He’s a grumpy horse and everybody told me to stay away from him,” Kyra recalled. “He looked really sad.” But remembering her mother’s advice to trust her instincts, Kyra did trust the horse and the two became fast friends. “They were good for each other,” mom Isha said. “She would give apples to Cowboy and he started recognizing her and started neighing. They just connected.” Kyra, who is now 6, penned and published a book in June based on her experience with Cowboy titled, “Kids, Horses and Apples: Come Join My Horsey Fun.” And that’s not all – Kyra’s dedicating a portion of the book’s proceeds to horse-rescue organizations such as S.T.A.R.S. of Horsemanship, where she continues to take weekly lessons to this day. “I thought that abandoned horse needed help,” Kyra said. “And I wanted to share my story with lots of kids.” The book’s available in paperback and

Left: Kyra Mishra’s family includes her father, Abhudaya Mishra, mother Isha, and baby sister Amaira. Kyra is one of the youngest published authors with her book “Kids, Horses and Apples.” (David Minton/Staff Photographer) Right: Cowboy inspired Kyra’s book. on Kindle at Amazon and the Barnes & Noble store in Mesa. The Mesa Public Library also has purchased the book for patrons to check out. So far, the book’s getting five stars with one person calling it, “Fantastic... seamless and encouraging” and a United Kingdom reader saying, “Excellent read,

will be waiting for the next one.” Kyra’s now one of the world’s youngest female published authors. The title for the youngest to publish a book belongs to a British girl, who was 5 years and 211 days old, according to Guinness World Records. The youngest boy to achieve that distinction was 4

years and 356 days old. Kyra put pen to paper last fall as a kindergartener and wrote the book in bits and pieces, taking one to two weeks to accomplish her task. She’s dedicated the book to sister, Amaira, who’s soon turnSee

AUTHOR on page 49

䨀唀䰀夀匀䄀䰀䔀匀䔀嘀䔀一吀

䌀栀愀渀最椀渀最琀栀攀眀愀礀䄀洀攀爀椀挀愀眀愀琀挀栀攀猀吀嘀䴀攀搀椀愀眀愀氀氀猀唀匀䄀⸀挀漀洀

NEIGHBORS

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

AUTHOR

from page 48

ing 4 months old. One of the most fun parts of writing was coming up with the glossary to acquaint readers with equestrian words and phrases, Kyra said. Isha said her daughter often wrote stories on her own but when she saw how serious her oldest born was with her book, a professional illustrator was called in. Although Isha said she had a hand at editing for grammar, everything else was Kyra, including her thought process, telling the illustrator what scenes she

wanted depicted and the colors used in the book. “I’m like she ended up actually writing and publishing a book,” Isha said. “Best thing about her is how much she cares about animals. It was her idea to do something for Cowboy. “For her to say she wanted to write a book and contribute to them, I’m so proud of her.” Isha said her daughter developed an interest in horses at an early age, explaining that “my grandfather was a polo player.” And, without fail, every time they drive to the stables, Kyra brings along carrots or apples for all the horses. Kyra’s accomplishment at such a

young age is no surprise to Isha or dad Abhudaya, who says their daughter is a star pupil at a BASIS charter school. Danya Wright, founder of S.T.A.R.S. of Horsemanship near Williams Field and Lindsay roads, called Kyra’s endeavor “wonderful.” “Almost all the horses in our program are rescues and many were once in an auction kill pen,” Wright said. “Cowboy, however, was owned by a lady who did parades with one of our instructors and she sold him to our program.” The equestrian facility teaches English and Western Horseback riding lessons to all ages and also has a Special Olympics Equestrian Team.

“My business motto is, my horse, my hero,” Wright said, “because of how much they have inspired me and changed my life. I am so thrilled to hear Cowboy has inspired Kyra to write a book about horses.” Kyra no longer rides Cowboy, having advanced in her skills and is on the backs of larger and more athletic horses. She says she wants to become a doctor and an equestrian when she grows up. But for now, she has first grade to look forward to and a second book is in the works. “I’m trying to finish my tooth fairy story,” she said, unsure when she might publish again but then adding, “Maybe next year on June 22.”

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

For more community news visit SanTanSun.com

Understanding the value of faith and believing RABBI IRWIN WIENER Columnist

Over time I hear different attitudes and concepts regarding faith and observances. Most will tell me all that is needed is to believe. “I believe in God, what more is needed?” “I am a good person, isn’t that enough?” Both questions are certainly logical but are difficult to answer. We observe different customs because of backgrounds or locations and then change them as time moves on. Some enhance these traditions with strict observance, and some declare that they are old fashioned and hold no relevance in today’s world. When listening to these and other comments regarding religion and faith, I am reminded of a man who lived in the 12th century. I am referring to a scholar, physician, rabbi, and acknowledged expert in the field of religious understanding, Maimonides. His feats were many, primarily in the field of medicine and faith. In fact, some of his medical pronouncements are still used today. He promoted and developed philosophical traditions of Aristotle. Albert the Great and Thomas

Aquinas were among the notables of Western readers of Maimonides. There were equal legions of Scripture scholars who embraced his writings and interpretations. Because of his worldly appeal and his love of philosophy he was criticized by his peers and even threatened with ex-communication. He sat down and among his most notable writings, we find the Thirteen Principles of Faith. It

has its standards of these beliefs. ach generation goes through adjustments of thought. And each generation proclaims its commitment in ways that may seem strange to generations past and maybe even stranger to the generations that will follow. This does not mean that each is right or wrong. hat it does mean is that just as we have alternative concepts of God, we adjust our traditions to fit these

Faith is trust, and it allows us to imagine, because “ we can never really know God. This is the beauty of faith: The imagination of magnificence. ” is a digest of all religious laws and their significance to human values and our relationship to God. There are many who will dispute some of these beliefs because they seem strange in our modern concepts of God. As time progresses so does our thinking and our understanding of life and its origins as well as its finality. Thoughts and philosophies always change with time – and faith is no exception. Each generation goes through its battles with beliefs. Each generation

notions. God gave us the ability to think and choose. That is why change is not a repudiation of the past but rather an enhancement. We could not have modern ideas if they were not preceded by ancient heritages. So, saying, “I believe in God” is not as bad as it sounds as-long-as it is accompanied by further clarification through word and deed. We all can’t be as firm in our faith as Maimonides and we all can’t sit down

and write thirteen principles of faith. It is important to remember that we come together as we do for prayer and meditation to proclaim some belief because we know that without faith there can be no future. Faith is just not belief in God. Faith is also confidence in ourselves. Faith is loyalty to family. Faith is the ability to love. Faith is all these things and more. We round it out with an expectation of benevolence. Faith is trust, and it allows us to imagine, because we can never really know God. This is the beauty of faith: The imagination of magnificence. Maimonides searched for this reality and came to his conclusions after a lifetime of learning and teaching and applying his God given craft. We may not be as extensive in our search, but we know that each of us can reach heights that seem unreachable because of two simple words: “I believe.” At this time in our lives, going through ordeals unimagined before, should give us the ability to understand the value of faith and believing. Hopefully it will get us through these times of sorrow and upheaval. Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D. is spiritual leader of Sun Lakes Jewish Community.

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‘The Lion King’ comes to ASU Gammage BY ABI CELAYA GetOut Staff Writer

Darian Sanders and Michelle Scalpone are obsessed with “The Lion King.” They call the musical – now at ASU Gammage through July 31 – beautiful, stunning and a story for all ages. “I have been obsessed with big cats and lions my entire life,” said Sanders, who plays Simba. “I named my first dog Nala and this was 15 years ago. I was obsessed with the animated feature. I absolutely loved it. It’s been cool to come full circle.” Broadway’s “The Lion King” hit stages for the first time in 1997, three years after Disney’s animated film was released. Since then, it has garnered more than 70 theatrical awards. With roots in Kentucky, Sanders joined the cast of “The Lion King” in September 2019. He heard about the role after singing the national anthem at a basketball game. And, thanks to his former manager, he was connected with “The Lion King” producers. He was hired as a cover for Simba and was in the ensemble for the Broadway show. Last year, he landed the role of Simba on the national tour. Sanders said, in some ways, he’s similar to his character. “Everybody has a little bit of Simba in them,” he said. “That story and that journey are personalized for everyone when they come and

Darian Sanders as Simba and Kayla Cyphers as Nola share a tender moment in “The Lion King,” now at ASU Gammage Theater. (Special to GetOut)

watch the show.” The strongest connection between Sanders and Simba rests in their faith. “My faith is what grounds me,” said

Sanders, who also works as a worship leader. “For Simba, Mufasa has told him that the kings of the past are who he can rest on and who he can call upon and I say, ‘Man, that’s awesome.’” Sanders, who made his theatrical debut at Lexington Theater Co., said audiences should keep an eye on the opening scene, “The Circle of Life.” “There’s something about being there in the theater and having Rafiki do that opening call,” Sanders said. “That just shifts and changes something in your heart and it brings you back to the first moment you ever saw the animated feature.” At Tucson native, Scalpone is the assistant stage manager for “The Lion King.” She speaks to the joy of working on such a large-scale production. She fell in love with the magic of stage management at a young age when she attended a production of “Beauty and the Beast.” “I remember more things that happened in that wing than what happened on stage,” Scalpone said. “I immediately went to my middle school like, ‘How do I do that?’ I staged my way through high school and went to college for it and then I went to Juilliard working professionally and now I work for Disney,” Scalpone said. She started with the legendary company 10 days before the pandemic put its clamp on the world. She was working on “Love Life” for

Encores at City Center when she got a text from her mentor asking her if she wanted to go on tour for “The Lion King.” Scalpone interviewed and two days later she was hired. Scalpone — who travels by car so she can sightsee—agrees with Sanders that the opening scene is moving. “I’ve been working here, technically, for two years,” she said. “‘The Circle of Life’ still brings me to tears because it is just so beautiful.” She said her favorite line in the performance is, “The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it or you can learn from it.” Sanders and Scalpone say they believe “The Lion King” is a show for people of all ages. He said anyone who has a pulse, heartbeat and breath in their lungs needs to see “The Lion King.” “It is phenomenally great, and it is timeless,” Sanders said. Scalpone was quick to add that the show isn’t just for kids. “The messages are so universal and make you feel like it is an individual story being told just to you,” Scalpone said. “The Lion King” is about inner strength and being OK with your journey, she adds. “The aspect of redemption” is important, Sanders adds. “There is nothing you can do or a spot you can go too far that you can’t come back and be redeemed from.”

Estefan musical brings audiences to their feet BY ERYKA FORQUER GetOut Contributor

The ideal of the American dream is brought to life in scenes from “On Your Feet!” as Gloria Estefan works to make an impact on the music industry as a Cuban immigrant. Phoenix Theatre Company Associate Producing Director Pasha Yamotahari said the musical celebrates immigrants’ influence on other cultures. “Whether you’re living in Kentucky hearing this music or it’s jammed into your Walkman in the early ’90s on a cassette tape in New York City, music is music,” Yamotahari said. “Her music is that, in a way that makes us move, it makes us think, it makes us breathe and it makes us live.” “On Your Feet” hits the Phoenix Theatre Company stage through Aug. 28. It recounts Gloria and Emilio’s climb to stardom, detailing Gloria’s childhood in Miami and the tour bus crash that left her with a fractured spine. Yamotahari said the musical will bring back memories of Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. “It’s going to be a great way to rekindle our love for the Miami Sound Machine and to revisit Gloria and Emilio’s life,” Yamotahari said. The story is accompanied by music and lyrics from the Estefans and the Mi-

Kassandra Haddock plays Gloria Estefan in “On Your Feet,” a musical that celebrates her career. (Special to GetOut)

ami Sound Machine and features songs like “Conga” and “1-2-3.” Yamotahari calls the couple’s music “anthems” that will encourage audience members to sing the lyrics with the cast. “As a community of audience members, they all remember what it felt like to be at a concert, or in their car or in their house vacuuming their carpet and hearing a song,” he said.

Yamotahari said the music will be brought to life by a 13-piece band with Phoenix musicians who blend synth and Afro-Cuban sounds with music from South America and Central America. “On Your Feet!” also captures the relationship between Gloria and Estefan. As scenes from their relationship unfold, the audience will witness the pivotal role that the two played in each other’s lives. “It’s a crazy, passionate and challenging relationship that they had,” Yamotahari said. Emilio and Gloria’s relationship was fiery and passionate, which they parlayed into their careers. The pair worked with fervor as they tried to change “what pop music should be defined as.” The actress who plays Gloria, Kassandra Haddock, said audience members will get a sense of community and family from the show. Haddock said she appreciates the relationship between Gloria and Emilio. In the musical, Emilio encourages Gloria to keep going. “It is the Emilio and Gloria Estefan show,” Haddock said. “Every moment with them is so funny, it’s so real and it’s so inspiring. Who doesn’t want that kind of love?” Haddock, who grew up singing in choirs, was introduced to musical theater in high school when she auditioned for her first musical role in “Joseph and the

Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Now at 29 years old, Haddock said playing the role of Gloria is terrifying as she prepares to step into “really, really big shoes.” Haddock said she is inspired by Gloria’s “endless drive” and her pursuit of the American dream. “She has dealt with so many hardships in her life,” she said. “From coming to America as an immigrant and then having to help raise her sister and care for her father, my question the whole time is how did you become a superstar? She didn’t have any trajectory.” Yamotahari said the musical has all the ingredients for a memorable show. You have top-tier choreography and dancers, amazing vocalists and amazing actors all working together within a beautiful design of the show to create a memorable postcard for anyone that’s attending.”

“On Your Feet! The Story Of Emilio & Gloria Estefan”

When: Various times through Aug. 28 Where: The Phoenix Theatre Company, 1825 N. Central Ave., Phoenix Cost: Tickets start at $44 Info: Phoenixtheatre.Com

THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

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Justice College will host a Transnational Association of Christian College and Schools (TRACS) on-site evaluation team visit on August 2-5, 2022 for the purpose of evaluating the college for ‘candidate' status. Third party comments are invited and may be addressed to: TRACS, 15935 Forest Road, Forest, VA 24551 TRACS is approved by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally-recognized institutional accrediting agency and appears on the Secretary’s List of Approved Accrediting Agencies, which is provided in the Higher Education Directory. TRACS is also recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022

TRUST ★ HONOR ★ INTEGRITY

My Priorities #DREAMBIGCHANDLER

✔ Maintain ﬁscally conservative taxes and budget, enabling taxpayers and businesses to grow and thrive.

✔ Continue to support our local police keeping Chandler as one of the safest cities in the US.

✔ Bring a common sense approach to Chandler government.

✔ Honor our Constitution and Chandler City Charter protecting your “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

✔ Bring resources for Chandler families and individuals struggling with mental illness and disabilities.

✔ Provide excellent servant leadership to Chandler residents.

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In May, I was honored to be awarded a “Ambassador For Peace” award from the Universal Peace Federation and Chandler Councilwoman Christine Ellis.

www.DarlaForChandler.com

Endorsed by:Mayor Kevin Hartke • Vice Mayor, Terry Roe • Councilmen, Rene Lopez • Mark Stewart • Councilwoman, Christine Ellis • LD 13 State Senator, J.D. Mesnard Paid for by Darla Gonzalez for Chandler