What shortage?
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
As early ballots were scheduled to go out today, Ahwatukee residents have a better idea of the two candidates vying for their votes following the community’s only forum featuring the two hopefuls for the 6th City Council District seat.
Sponsored by the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce and the Ahwatukee Foothills News, the forum drew nearly 300 people to hear incumbent
DiCiccio and challenger Kevin Patterson exchange views on a number of local and citywide issues.
Those issues ranged from the city’s multibillion-dollar pension problem to what the candidates can do about Ahwatukee’s economic development, its two beleaguered golf courses and the impact of the South Mountain Freeway.
On an individual level, DiCiccio was questioned about blocking critics on his Twitter account while Patterson was asked to explain why he did not vote in the last two City Council elections.
Kyrene grapples with the high cost of keeping students, luring new ones
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
Kyrene school officials are wrestling with a multi-million-dollar problem in their effort to improve the district’s attractiveness to parents amid the increasing competition for more students.
The governing board’s focus is Kyrene Traditional Academy–Sureno Campus in Chandler, which Superintendent Jan Vesely wants to convert from a kindergartenfifth grade school to one with classes for prekindergarten through eighth grade.
The move is envisioned as the first conversion of at least some Kyrene campuses to a PreK-8 model because parents generally prefer their kids to attend only one school until they are ready for high school.
But the board also is grappling with the fact that it has nowhere near the money it needs, and draft minutes of a July 19 retreat suggest relations among board members have been strained by the debate over what to do
Of the four seats up for election, only the district that includes Ahwatukee has a contest.
The election is Aug. 29 and voters can begin sending their early ballots in as soon as they receive them or they can drop them off at Pecos Community Center, the only local voting center.
While registration is closed, voters have until Aug. 18 to request an early ballot at phoenix.gov/elections or at Ironwood Library.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
Kyrene de la Sienna
Sal
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Ahwatukee woman heading to Borneo for primate study
AFN News Staff
Some people may have spent a few hours this summer watching the latest “Planet of the Apes” movie, but Jessica Peterschick of Ahwatukee is spending part of hers living with them
Peterschick is participating in the Earth Expeditions course that’s part of the Global Field masters program at Miami University of Ohio and is spending a month in Borneo studying primates.
In her second year seeking a masters of arts in biology, Peterschick goes ape over primates. She’s the Phoenix Zoo’s primate keeper as well as president of the Phoenix chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keeping.
“Primates are incredibly intelligent, social and challenging,” said Peterschick, whose B.S. is in biology. “I have always had a passion for helping the environment and animals.”
Borneo seems like a good destination for Peterschick.
“I work with Bornean orangutans and many other primates at the Phoenix Zoo,” she explained.
“Because of this I am passionate about learning more about them, seeing them in their natural habitat and experiencing community-based conservation actions across the world.”
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Once in Borneo, she’ll rendezvous with students from around the world.
Besides getting necessary vaccinations and consulting with a travel doctor,” Peterschick said she’s prepared for her trip by “researching the area, as well as scientific articles about natural ecology, community-based conservation and participatory education.”
Dean’s lists include Ahwatukee students
Word of Ahwatukee residents who have made dean’s lists at various colleges and universities continues to come in.
The latest honorees and their schools include: Ariana Macioce, Georgia Southern University; Logan Adam and Justin Maur, Briar Cliff University; and Taylor Gardner of Benedictine College.
(Special to AFN)
Jessica Peterschick of Ahwatukee is so ape over primates that she is heading to Borneo for a month to study them.
Summer depression may sneak up on Arizonans, some experts say
BY CHRIS BENINCASO Cronkite News
Mike Johnson, a 50-yearold flight reservation agent, endures summer’s blistering heat and hours of relentless sun behind his home’s shuttered blinds, saying he loses sleep and weight.
It isn’t clear whether he has summer depression, a rare seasonal disorder, but he feels especially sad and frustrated at this time of year.
Medical experts link summertime seasonal affective disorder to the change in seasons, driving insomnia, agitation and intense sadness.
It’s more common in hotter climates like Phoenix, with its string of triple-digit temperatures, experts say. Heat, light, circadian rhythms and even the empty streets during a sizzling day could be triggers.
Summer depression differs from its better-known counterpart, winter SAD, in key ways, according to a Mayo Clinic website.
The summer disorder causes agitation instead of lethargy, appetite loss instead of weight gain and insomnia instead of excessive sleep.
Summer depression is rare, estimated to affect 1 in 1,000 people at some point in their lives, said Dr. William Leasure, a psychiatrist and winter SAD expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Ian Cook, who directs the UCLA Depression Research and Clinic Program, said people may not realize they have summer depression.
“For some people, isolation is the big factor,” Cook said. “For other people feeling low self-worth is a major driver of it. For some people it’s their inability to think clearly and function. There are many different ways that a person can experience depression, and they’re all awful.”
Johnson, who moved to Phoenix from Chicago three years ago, said he was miserable his first summer. He thought his deflated mood was abnormal. He hadn’t heard of summer depression but said it explained his response to Phoenix summers.
“Without talking about it, especially
when it comes to mental health, a lot of people are stigmatized,” he said.
He said winter depression, which he faced in Chicago, was more readily accepted and generated more resources, like UV lamps designed to provide vitamin D.
Some dispute that seasonal depression exists. A study of more than 34,000 participants published last year in Clinical Psychological Science says they reported no change in depressive symptoms during different times of year.
But other medical experts and information on websites like WebMD and in publications like “Psychology Today” say summer seasonal disorder is real.
Thomas Wehr, former chief of clinical psychobiology at the National Institute of Mental Health, said his studies uncovered people who use a range of coping strategies.
He said one, known as the mole, would flee from one air-conditioned setting to another, be that a building or his car. Another woman swam in cold lakes every day. Another, based in China, built a refrigerated stronghold in his basement.
Johnson said commiserating with others on social media and writing in journals has helped. He said he also finds community in his husband, pets and activism.
“I have to find ways to force myself to go outside,” he said. “Or even if it’s just going to the store, forcing myself to get out of the house to get that interaction.”
Cook said people with depression symptoms should seek help from a care provider for consultation and treatment. He also recommended more social contact and simple measures like rest, healthy eating and exercise.
“Depression is a serious disorder,” Cook said. “It’s associated with more disability than heart disease or cancer, according to the World Health Organization. And as one of the advocacy groups coined the slogan many years ago, ‘depression is a flaw in chemistry, not in character.’ These are brain conditions, at least, and deserve to be treated.”
Pima Canyon trailhead closing Aug. 7 for major improvements
BY JIM WALSH AFN Staff Writer
The popular Pima Canyon trailhead at South Mountain Park will close for long-awaited renovations on Aug. 7, with Phoenix parks officials promising to preserve the natural landscape as much as possible.
A contractor will steer clear of an old Saguaro full of holes created by birds when crews install a new sewer line that will make it possible to replace antiquated pit toilets with a new restroom facility.
Re-vegetation of spider trails, carved into the fragile desert by hikers taking short cuts, is underway between Pima Canyon and Beverly Canyon.
Parks officials are asking the public to use the Beverly Canyon, Desert Foothills and Mormon trailheads until the Pima Canyon trailhead reopens in late fall.
The $22 million worth of trail and trail head improvements represent the
biggest overhaul of popular and sprawling South Mountain Regional Park in decades.
The Pima Canyon trailhead improvements include a new ramada, new restrooms, an increase in parking accomplished without paving over more desert, minimal ground-level safety lighting and repaving a quarter-mile road leading past the Arizona Grand golf course.
Mike Francis, park supervisor, said the renovations are long overdue and will replace aging facilities built in the 1970s. Pima Canyon is considered the park’s busiest trailhead, with an estimated 200,000 visitors using it each year.
“I think the community input drove a much better product,’’ said Aaron Jensen, a landscape architect and the project manager on the Pima Canyon improvements, during a tour with two residents and a reporter.
He assured residents David Drennon
(Jim Walsh/AFN Staff)
City parks landscape architect Aaron Jensen, right, talks with Ahwatukee resident David Drennon, left, and Mke Francis, park supervisor, about a sewer line that will be installed at the Pima Canton trail head.
and Joe Illing that Phoenix Parks is doing everything possible to preserve the natural habitat.
Only one mesquite tree near a wash will be removed when the new sewer connection is hooked up near 43rd Place, which will close for five days.
Park rangers will supervise the contractor. Dirt removed from the surface of the trampled trail where the sewer line is being installed will be saved in a separate pile, so it can be restored to the surface after the underground sewer pipes are installed.
A similar approach is being used on the trail restoration. Crews are using seed that matches native grasses and plants as they close and re-vegetate spider trails.
“We looked for areas that were already disturbed,’’ Jensen said. “I am confident that saguaro will stay put there.’’
Drennon said that residents were attracted to the nearby Cove neighborhood by the natural environment. Drennon’s home is located near the sewer line construction project, but he said he is motivated beyond self-interest.
“My biggest concern is that it’s preserved and not to dig it up,’’ Drennon said.
Foothills
Foothills Club West
As Chandler Boulevard Extension opens, flooding problem emerges
Ahwatukee Custom Estates
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
The new $11.2 million Chandler Boulevard Extension opened Friday, hailed by city and regional officials as an important link in the ultimate plan to complete the controversial South Mountain Freeway.
But even as officials hailed the opening of the 1.2-mile three-lane road, a new problem may have been created for residents living near it.
Runoff that previously had spread across a wide swath of desert is now being redirected into a portion of Foothills Reserve, according to Galen Schliem, president of that community’s HOA board.
“It definitely diverted water and we need to get mitigation,” said Schliem, pointing to a newly built bridge that is part of the extension. “It’s turning our whole landscaping into a foot-and-a-halftall river.”
The new reality for homeowners on the edge of the HOA closest to the new road struck Sunday night and early Monday, July 23-24, less than a week before the ribbon cutting for the Chandler Boulevard Extension.
Schliem said rainfall during that period exceeded two inches and was the equivalent of the amount in a so-called 100-year flood.
Runoff that before was easily dispersed
across desert was now channeled beneath the bridge, then turned toward the community, rushing through a break in the wall and gouging a nearly foot-deep gash in a small portion of a yard between two homes.
In another area, at least an inch of mud was caked on a cul de sac after water spilled over a wash.
Schleim estimated the flooding caused $60,000 to $80,000 worth of damage to the landscape, although no homes were reported to have been flooded.
The water is diverted after passing beneath the bridge, falling short of a box culvert that the Arizona Department of Transportation installed only about 20 feet away.
“Water goes off into a neighborhood,” Schliem said. “It’s never going to hit what ADOT put to take care of it unless someone builds a channel.”
Schliem said he had complained to the city Street Transportation Department and was told that building a channel was not its responsibility.
So, he called the office of city Councilman Sal DiCiccio and said he has been assured the problem will be addressed.
“They want to have a meeting and hope there’s a resolution,” Schliem said. “But until then, we’re going to have this problem.”
(Dietmar Hanke/Special to AFN)
This photo by a Foothills Reserve resident shows how water is diverted by the Chandler Boulevard Extension bridge toward residents in the community. Previously, it headed toward the mountain in the background.
There were no problems mentioned as DiCiccio and other local officials briefly spoke at the ribbon cutting for the extension.
DiCiccio praised state Rep. Jill Norgaard and state Sen. Sean Bowie for pressing city officials to add a third lane to what originally was to have been a twolane roadway.
It was that problem that prompted DiCiccio to save his most effusive praise for Chad Blostone, chairman of the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee.
Blostone immediately recognized the problem of having a two-lane road connecting two four-lane ends of Chandler Boulevard when the plan was first presented by city bureaucrats in August 2016.
He worried that an accident could bring traffic to a halt on what is now the only way in or out of subdivisions with more than 800 homes.
The stretch of Pecos Road past 19th Avenue that had been a primary road for those homes was closed permanently by ADOT after the ribbon cutting because it is in the path of the South Mountain Freeway.
Both Bowie and Norgaard also hailed the road.
Norgaard called it the product of constituent involvement, which she said “made a big difference.”
“We appreciate you coming out, voicing your concerns,” she told the small
audience at the ceremony.
Bowie called the new road “one step closer to the completion of the South Mountain Freeway.”
Dennis Smith, executive director of the Maricopa Association of Governments –which financed the extension – called the
road the “linchpin” in his long-awaited plan to complete the freeway.
“When you look at this project, you can say it’s small when compared to the 202 or a big interchange, but sometimes a project like this is the linchpin to make other things happen,” he said.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
On hand to open the Chandler Boulevard Extension on July 28 were, from left: Ray Dovalina, city Street Transportation Director; Galen Schliem, Foothills Reserve HOA board president; City Councilman Sal DiCiccio; Bill Fautsch, president of the Foothills HOA board; state Sen. Sean Bowie, state Rep. Jill Norgaard; Sandi Salvo, Foothills HOA board treasurer; Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce CEO/President Lindy Lutz Cash and Dennis Smith, executive director of the Maricopa Association of Governments.
with Kyrene Traditional Academy.
Minutes of a July 19 retreat indicates the discussion may have become so testy that one board member suggested the next retreat focus on “communications” while a colleague suggested it be led by the Arizona School Boards Association.
Unlike its usual practice, the district did not post a video of the July 19 retreat. Asked why not, spokeswoman Nancy Dudenhoefer replied, “The school board isn’t required to record all meetings.”
At the July 11 meeting, which is online, administrators gave the board two options for Sureno – remodeling the campus or demolishing it and building a new one.
The cost estimates ranged from $9.1 million to $19 million – almost all the bond money the district has left.
But several board members balked at the expense of a new state-of-the-art campus, prompting administrators and the district’s architect, Orcutt| Winslow to return July 19 with three remodeling plans ranging in cost between $7 million and $15 million.
The board’s July 11 discussion illustrated some of the major issues facing officials as they seek a more effective edge over neighboring districts and charters in the competition for more students and their effort to retain the ones they already have.
The district faces projected enrollment declines – and subsequent reductions in state subsidies – because fewer younger families with children are finding homes in Kyrene’s boundaries, which encompass Ahwatukee and parts of Chandler and Tempe.
In addition, more parents are looking for K-8 schools and/or schools that offer a traditional education curriculum.
“We are losing families and that’s the truth,” said Marianne Lescher, Kyrene Traditional Academy principal.
Kyrene Traditional Academy-Sureno Campus in Chandler has been eyed for a conversion to a Prekindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus, but the cost of retrofitting it totals millions of dollars.
To make matters more complicated for Kyrene officials, many schools in the cashstrapped district are over 30 years old and need expensive repairs or updates.
Along with all these issues, board members Michael Myrick and Michelle Fahy also expressed concern about how a new two-story building would affect Chandler homeowners near Sureno and whether that neighborhood was the right one for Kyrene’s first PreK-8 campus.
“I’m not sure this is the right site for this,” Myrick said. “I think we’d like to reach out to the neighbors and do a lot more due diligence on the front end.”
Fahy added, “I drove through Sureno. It’s a lovely little neighborhood. Is it a place where we want to back up a school right up to the back of these homes and drag a bunch of traffic through there trying to grow that program or is there some better location?”
Those concerns drew a rebuke later that evening from former board member Michelle Hirsch, who lives near Sureno. She said many parents have sent their children there because of the PreK-8 plan.
Hirsch also said that the board had studied Sureno for several years already
and that the time had come to begin its conversion.
Both Myrick and Fahy also questioned the cost of a new campus against Sureno’s current enrollment projections.
“I’m having a really hard time justifying the dollar numbers that we’re talking about for these kinds of numbers,” Myrick said.
Projected enrollment for the new school year at Sureno is 568 students for 201718 and 867 if seventh and eighth grades were available in 2019-20.
Fahy also questioned spending so much money on one campus when many district buildings are over 30 years old and need repairs.
“Is this the place for us to put our money? I don’t know,” Fahy said, adding:
“I am tremendously concerned about whether we are putting the cart before the horse. We have a budget situation that for the next five years is pretty dire and I am concerned about that.”
Myrick echoed those concerns, stating “Some other places need the dollars too.”
Kyrene Traditional Academy has garnered considerable praise from state and national educators for its program
and even Fahy and Myrick praised its student success.
Board President John King noted that if the district followed the premise that some Kyrene administrators used to justify a brand new state-of-the-art school, “we could spend half a billion dollars to replace all the schools.”
“How in the world are we going to do that? That’s not possible,” King said. “We just can’t consider this micro situation; we have to consider the macro situation.”
He also noted, “Most of the school buildings are in the same situation that this school is in.”
“I am not against expanding to K-8,” King added. “We’ve got to do this.”
Draft minutes for the July 19 retreat show the board zeroing in on the least expensive option – a $7.1-million plan that will be further discussed and refined next Tuesday, Aug. 8. Minutes indicate even that spending for plan is likely to be reduced.
Myrick cast the sole vote against moving forward.
Even after the vote, the minutes indicate, a debate ensued over “the merits of moving forward with KTA.”
“Mr. Myrick expressed frustration that the retreat was the first opportunity that the current board was able to engage in a discussion of expansion of KTA,” the minutes state.
Board member Bernadette Coggins is quoted as noting the previous board had discussed the K-8 conversion in the presence of board members who took office this year.
She also stressed “the importance of honoring the commitment to the KTA families to deliver PreK-8 instruction.”
Later, without any explanation in the minutes, Coggins also suggested that the board have another retreat in the future with a “focus on communications.”
Board Vice President Kristin Middleton suggested that discussion be “facilitated” by the Arizona School Boards Association.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
Arizona needs more dentists, U.S. rankings say
BY JIMMY MAGAHERN AFN Contributor
As the dean of the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health in Mesa, Dr. Jack Dillenberg has spent the last 10 years turning out dentists who deal with more than just crowns, bridges and teeth cleaning.
“It’s not just about the tooth,” Dillenberg is fond of saying. “It’s about the person attached to the tooth, the family attached to the person and the community attached to the family. We want to produce leaders in the community and along the way, teach them to be great doctors.”
But perhaps the most unusual thing about Dillenberg’s school is its main stated mission: to provide dental care for underserved areas. All 15 counties in the state, including Maricopa, have areas designated dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, or HPSAs, as designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
That may sound surprising to Ahwatukee residents accustomed to finding their mailboxes stuffed with flyers from new
dentists in the area looking for business. Are we really facing a shortage of dentists here? Is Arizona heading into a statewide epidemic of bad teeth?
Not exactly, said Kevin Earle, executive director of the Arizona Dental Association.
“I disagree with the premise that there’s not enough dentists here,” he said. “As a matter of fact, data has just come out from the Health Policy Institute of the American Dental Association that said, even when adjusted for population, the supply of dentists in Arizona has increased in the last 10 years by 7.1 percent.
“We also have two dental schools here, including ASDOH, that graduate over 200 dentists every year.
“Our problem is not a workforce issue, because there are plenty of dentists to treat the population,” he said. “Our problem is, how can we entice folks to work in areas where they can treat the underserved?”
Naturally, it’s easy to find graduating dentists eager to do cosmetic dentistry in North Scottsdale, where the financial rewards for simply applying porcelain
veneers and teeth whitening treatments can be substantial.
It’s harder to persuade dentists still paying off their college loans to set up shop in a tiny rural town or on an American Indian reservation in Arizona, where the need for their services is much greater but where the average family income may be well below the national poverty level.
“In general, within the state of Arizona, we have a total of 177 dental HPSAs,” said Ana Roscetti with the Arizona Department of Health Services.
That office determines those shortages, along with shortages in primary care and mental health providers, by comparing the distribution of full-time providers in any given geo-
UPGRADE TO A SMART GARAGE
(Special to AFN)
Dr. Jack Dillenberg, dean of gthe Arizona School of Denistry and Oral Health, sees a shortage of dentists in the state.
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graphical area of the state to the residents living in that specific area.
“And there are about 2.3 million residents living in these dental HPSAs. So basically, we need 338 more dentists to negate all the shortages in the state of Arizona, and 181 to negate the shortages in Maricopa County alone.”
Fortunately, there are some incentives to help sweeten the pot. ADHS’s Arizona State Loan Repayment Programs allow dentists and other health professionals to receive generous loan repayments while providing service in underserved areas.
“Because many graduating dentists enter the field with a lot of student debt from their training, the loan repayment program provides a great incentive to work in these underserved areas,” Roscetti said.
To become prioritized as a candidate for the program, the dentist must first choose to work in an area designated as a dental HPSA.
How much they’re awarded will depend on where that locality scores on the National Health Services Corps’ determination of “high needs” areas.
That ranking weighs not only the area’s shortage of dentists (anything less than one dentist per 5,000 residents is considered insufficient).
It’s also what proportion of the population is living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
“The score can range from 0 to 26,” said Roscetti. “The higher the need, the higher the score.”
By that scale, a dentist working in an area with the highest need (having a score between 18 to 26) can receive an annual award of $65,000 in their first two years of serving in that community, dropping to $35,000 in their third year and $25,000 in their fourth.
for those first four years but in keeping them in the communities long after their student loans are paid off.
“According to a study done by the National Health Services Corps, which runs the federal loan repayment program, 87 percent of the providers who have received funding through the program continue to practice in the same underserved area at least 10 years after their commitment has finished,” Roscetti said. “That’s a pretty high retention rate.”
“ It’s not just about the tooth, it’s about the person attached to the tooth. ”
—Dr. Jack Dillenberg, dean of the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health
Working in a HPSA designation with the lowest needs score (0 to 13) will net the dentist $52,000 in their first two years, $28,000 in their third and $20,000 in their fourth.
The program has been successful in not only luring dentists to high-needs areas
But the Arizona Dental Association’s director said the loan repayment program only benefits a handful of select graduates, and is not enough in itself to fill in those shortage areas.
In a state where many of the underserved communities fall within the Native American reservations, Earle said there are also problems with the Indian Health Services loan repayment program.
“It’s the only loan repayment program
run by the government that is not taxfree, so the IHS has to allocate millions a year to pay taxes on the loans that they forgive, which prevents them from filling slots in their facilities and offering more opportunities for folks to work in those underserved areas.”
Enticing dentists to work in underserved communities can be facilitated by funding or innovative uses of technology. But for Jack Dillenberg, the best way to address the issue is to find aspiring dentists who already have a desire to help those who need it most.
“One of the critical issues in dealing with underserved areas and areas where there’s shortages is who you pick to become a dentist,” Dillenberg said.
“If I see someone whose main goal is to become affluent doing cosmetic dentistry in Scottsdale, they’re not my prime candidate,” he added.
“I want to get a man or a women who has documented community service, who wants to make a difference, and realizes they can make a great living even working on an Indian reservation or in a community health center in a rural community. What we do is we pick these young men and women and put them in a dental school culture that nurtures that.”
Teacher shortage no problem in Ahwatukee, area schools
BY JESSICA SURIANO AFN Staff Writer
As the new school year gets into full swing this week, teacher shortages are not nearly as high in Ahwatukee and the East Valley as experts say they are across Arizona.
In the seven major East Valley districts, as well as Horizon Honors secondary and elementary schools in Ahwatukee, there are relatively low numbers of unfilled teaching positions, and one even has no vacancies.
Among Tempe Union, Kyrene, Queen Creek, Higley, Gilbert, Mesa and Chandler school districts, only 128 teaching positions out of nearly 10,850 are unfilled. Horizon reported no vacancies among its 83 teaching positions at either its secondary or elementary schools in Ahwatukee.
“In the past we have occasionally struggled with specific subject area needs but have had excellent retention rates the last few years,” Horizon spokeswoman Melissa Hartley said.
In its September 2016 report, an Arizona School Personnel Administrators
Association survey of 130 school districts and charter schools found 2,041 teacher vacancies four weeks into the school year, which equates to about 25 percent of the total openings for that year.
“In 2015, I really heard a lot of concerns about a teacher shortage,” said Justin Wing, director of human resources at Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix and the immediate past ASPAA president.
“After hearing all these inputs and knowing that we’re a large elementary school district,” he continued, “we wanted to collect data so we don’t use generalities. We inform everybody – key decision makers, key leaders – here’s what the real data is telling us.”
The ASPAA conducts the survey four weeks into every school year, when Wing said most of these positions are filled because teachers are “coming out of the woodwork” for last-minute jobs.
Last year’s survey found that individuals who did not meet standard teaching requirements filled 22 percent of the positions and 465 teachers either abandoned or resigned from their jobs within the first four weeks.
Critics of Arizona’s education system say low pay and morale are moving many teachers to leave their jobs for posts in other states – or leaving the profession altogether.
As of May 2016, the annual average pay of an elementary school teacher in Arizona was just under $43,000, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When adjusted for the statewide costof-living, elementary school teacher pay in the state is the lowest in the nation, and high school teacher pay ranks 49th of the 50 states, according to a May 2017 report by the Arizona State University Morrison Institute for Public Policy.
Wing believes teacher retention and recruitment would improve with a substantial pay increase – and would attract more college students to the field and boost teacher morale.
“What we don’t do is address the main root cause (of teacher shortage) as a state,” Wing said. “They’ll address all the little ancillary, low-hanging fruit, but really teacher pay, in my mind, is the number one root cause.”
Chandler Unified is the only East
Valley district that has filled all of its teacher positions already.
CUSD has about 2,300 teacher positions; 270 teachers were hired for this school year to replace those who retired, moved from the area or left the profession.
District spokesman Terry Locke attributes CUSD’s successful recruitment this year to its reputation for diverse and competent faculty as well as competitive teacher salary.
In Mesa, Human Resources Assistant Superintendent Shaun Holmes said about 60 teaching positions remained to be filled. Typically, the district hires about 400 new teachers a year, and hosts around 3,800 teachers total, he added.
This year’s recruitment was more successful than past years, according to Holmes, because of a faster, easier application process. He said the district also participated in job fairs and recruited from other states earlier this year as well.
If there are still vacancies by Mesa’s first day of school on Aug. 9, substitute teachers will begin the classes.
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High school students pick up their books, now ready to hit them
TEACHERS
Across the East Valley, Holmes said special education, math and science positions are the most difficult to fill. Like Holmes, Jennifer Liewer, executive director of community relations for Tempe Union High School District, said teachers for advanced science classes, like physics, and special education are hardest to find. Administration jobs can be difficult to fill, too.
Liewer said that at the end of the last school year, 51 positions opened up and 30 percent of those openings were due to retirement. Tempe Union has a total of 722 teacher positions. As of July 25, only five full-time positions and four part-time positions were still unfilled.
The district is optimistic and expects to fill these spots by its first day, Aug. 7, according to Liewer. She said the district is in better shape than others because the majority of its teachers tend to stay after they are hired and that the district offers a competitive benefits package.
Tempe Union employs substitute teachers out of Education Services Inc., a Phoenix-based company.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
Horizon Honors Secondary students, who began the new school year July 31, and students at Desert Vista and Mountain Point high schools, who return to classes Aug. 7, picked up their textbooks last week. Clockwise from upper right, Desert Vista student Lexi Mars gives a high sign; Horizon student Camryn Marsall adds her name to her books; Selena Vista is all set for another year at Desert Vista; Adam Mendosa carries some weighty tomes for his next year at Horizona; and Karlie O’Nan is all smiles after securing her textbooks for a new year at Horizon. Kyrene students return to classes on Thursday, Aug. 3.
ESI President Phil Tavasci and vice president Tom Hancock said the company has been outsourcing substitute teachers for about three years and has found no shortage of people willing to be subs.
While ESI does not have a major shortage of subs, Tavasci and Hancock said there is a high turnover rate. Additionally, the majority of the subs the company outsources are for daily assignments. There are not many longterm assignments.
They said ESI sees surges in classroom teacher absences mostly around holidays and long weekends.
As of July 20, Kyrene School District only had three unfilled special-education teaching positions and one vacant physical education job. The district had 12 teachers retire in 2016 and 17 retire in 2017 so far.
“On the first day of school, each principal affected by an unfilled position will most likely have secured a longterm sub from our sub pool or they will secure a retiree to fill in while the search continues,” said Nancy Dudenhoefer, marketing and communications director for Kyrene.
Higley Unified had two elementary school teacher vacancies due to additional student enrollment as of its first day of school on July 24, according to district spokeswoman Michelle Reese.
The district has a total 647 classroom teachers and of those, 130 are new to Higley.
In addition to recruiting from ASU, Grand Canyon University and Northern Arizona University, Higley also recruited teachers from New Mexico and Ohio.
As of July 24, Gilbert Public Schools had 43 vacancies for certified teacher positions and had 2,067 teacher positions total.
GPS spokeswoman Irene MahoneyPaige said 193 teachers left at the end of last school year for retirement or other reasons. Again, special education, math and science positions have been the most difficult to fill.
Mahoney-Paige said the district will also utilize long-term substitutes to fill vacancies until a certified teacher becomes available.
In May, Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation that made teacher certification easier to obtain, a measure he said
he believes will help alleviate teacher shortages.
SB 1042 “allows highly qualified professionals who have significant experience in a subject matter, possess a higher education degree and have passed a background check to be certified to teach,” according to Ducey’s website.
Opponents argue it will only lower teaching standards and not actually significantly improve gaps in vacancies.
“(The) legislation is a win for schools, teachers, and students,” Ducey said in a prepared statement. “No longer will an outdated process keep qualified, dedicated individuals out of the classroom.”
While teachers are in high demand, the East Valley is experiencing an increasing supply of students.
According to U.S. Census Bureau, Maricopa County replaced Harris County, Texas, as the county with the nation’s highest annual population growth in March.
Regardless of varying public opinion on SB 1042, concerns of teacher shortages are not disappearing any time soon as long as Maricopa County continues to grow.
from page 20
Faces in the crowd at AFN-Chamber forum for council hopefuls
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
The council candidates forum sponsored by the Ahwatukee Foothills News and Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce drew nearly 300 interested citizens (lower left) to hear challenger Kevin Patterson, upper left, and Councilman Sal DiCiccio, above, exchange views. Ed Mangan, commander of Ahwatukee American Legion Post 64, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. In the photo at the right, comoderator Nick Knight, left and Chamber board member Joaquin Perez mingled with the crowd before the forum. Lower right, Chamber board member Harvey Gibson handled the questions for candidates. At left, Kathe Munyan, left, and Dee Gordon were among numerous Chamber volunteers who helped ensure that the forum went off without a hitch.
Both candidates remained congenial throughout the hour-long debate with Patterson scoring perhaps the loudest laughter after DiCiccio said he had blocked some of his constituents, supporters of his opponent.
“Kevin is upset because his followers and friends want to put graffiti on my wall. I’m not going to do that,” DiCiccio said, claiming that during the campaign season, some people’s conduct “drives all the people out who want to be part of the discussion.”
Immediately after that answer, Patterson was asked what makes him the better candidate.
“I won’t block you on Twitter,” he said.
“The people who were blocked on Twitter, many of them were constituents in District 6 who had basic questions,” Patterson continued, adding, “I will always be open-minded. I am not on a one-man crusade to fix anything. I need you. This is going to be a community involvement issue that we’re going to fix our city.”
Here are some highlights from the
City pension mess
Both DiCiccio and Patterson agreed that extending to 30 years the time it will take the city to pay off a $2.1 billion public safety pension liability – doubling the total cost – was unwise.
Patterson said the city had a responsibility to pensioners but that it needed to “not give tax breaks to rich corporations” and sell off some of the land it owns, which Patterson estimated is value at around $140 million.
DiCiccio called the recent city extension of the payoff time “insane” and noted he has a plan currently under review by Phoenix officials to borrow money at half the 7.4 percent interest rate it is currently paying now.
Golf courses
Both candidates addressed the stalemate between Ahwatukee Lakes residents and The True Life Companies over the deterioration of the defunct golf course as well as the quest to find cheaper water for Club West’s course.
On Ahwatukee Lakes, Patterson said it was “something we should have been working on well before it came to this point of impasse,” while DiCiccio said the matter would be resolved “by
On Club West, DiCiccio said the water issue “will be solved” and that he has been involved in ongoing negotiations to resolve the problem. Patterson complained that some residents feel shut out of developments in the ongoing effort to find a solution.
Economic development
Asked about how the city can stimulate Ahwatukee’s economy, DiCiccio said, “The first thing you must do is create an environment that businesses want to come to.” He took credit for the city’s adoption of speedy permit processes.
Patterson said the city should provide “the same incentives for small businesses that we’re offering to large corporations” and “make sure neighborhoods are livable.”
Both candidates also decried last year’s property tax increase and said they would not favor raising taxes on working families or seniors.
Freeway
DiCiccio called attention to his involvement in a bipartisan effort with legislators in trying to mitigate the freeway’s impact on Ahwatukee.
Public safety
DiCiccio said the city did not have nearly enough police officers on the street, but said “more like 38” officers are usually on the streets of Ahwatukee. Patterson contested that figure, saying “I’ve never heard we’re at 38,” adding that the “three is not acceptable.” He was referring to reports that most times on three officers are assigned to patrol Ahwatukee.
Both men clashed to a degree on whether Phoenix designates itself a sanctuary city for immigrants.
DiCiccio said he is “strongly opposed” to that effort while Patterson said, “We need to make sure this city is safe for everyone” and that “our public safety crisis is not such where we can support that right now.”
Watch the forum
Although the city has no control over the freeway’s construction, Patterson said sound barriers should already have gone up along Pecos Road, particularly since some already are in place on the western end of the thoroughfare.
Raphael Isaac of South Mountain Films taped the forum in its entirety. See it at ahwatukee.com
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Community
A fridge magnet provides Ahwatukee seniors security
BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA
Contributor
The scenario is a frightening one, but one that happens to someone in Ahwatukee almost every day.
A medical emergency occurs – a home accident, a recurrent medical problem, any number of things. Quickly, the Phoenix Fire Department paramedics arrive from one of the three village stations to handle the emergency.
The patient is well-cared for and transported to the hospital. But there can be so many questions that arise:
What medications are they on, or are allergic to? How is their house to be secured? Is there a neighbor or relative that should be contacted? Do they have a cell phone and charger, and where are they? Who’s their primary physician and how is she contacted? What is to be done with their pets left at home?
In Ahwatukee, thanks to the vision of two local women and active community volunteers, there is a proactive solution for
not only senior citizens residing here, but residents of any age.
Linda Jochim and Karen Young, both members of the Senior Advocacy Group of Ahwatukee, originated the idea of Med-
Stats kits in 2012 while researching a way for seniors to have all their medical history and important contact numbers and other information in one place in case of emergency.
The MedStats packets, free upon request, were designed by the two women with input from the Phoenix Fire Department and the United Phoenix Firefighter’s Association, which donates the printing of the packages.
Ahwatukee Captain paramedic Derrick Johnson of Station 46 was instrumental in providing suggestions for packet inclusions and in educating his fellow firefighters on the program.
“We needed a program for senior citi-
zens to help keep them safe, and for first responders to have information immediately available to them during an emergency,” said Johnson, who has served Ahwatukee the last five years of his 34 years as a Phoenix firefighter and paramedic.
“With a third of Ahwatukee consisting of adults 55 and older, this is a very crucial program,” said Young, assistant general manager at the Ahwatukee Board of Management who cited stats that showed of the 5,073 homes in the village, 1,628 are required to be 55-plus.
The MedStats document pouch is affixed with a heavy-duty magnet that is placed on a refrigerator.
Each packet contains forms on which important health information can be listed including current prescribed and over the counter medications being taken, and allergies. If desired, a living will or advance directive for health care is also provided and can be enclosed.
Melanoma scare prompts local woman to warn others
BY
Kelsey Furey, a fourth-grade teacher at Tempe’s Curry Elementary and a 2005 Desert Vista High School graduate, underwent a cancer scare that has her offering warnings to others: Get a second opinion and avoid tanning beds.
She advises young women especially against tanning beds because she believes they caused her melanoma.
Furey started tanning at local salons as a teenager, often going three times weekly – a practice she now bitterly regrets.
“I think you just get in the mindset of being tan. But melanoma risk rises 75 percent when someone uses a tanning bed before age 30,” she said. “If I had known these statistics when I was young, I
never would have put myself at such risk.”
She said since a cancer scare last June, she’s become a vocal advocate for sunscreens, sun-repellent clothing and regular skin checkups. She offers her backstory as a cautionary tale.
“I want people of the Valley to read my story of ignorance and realize how important it is to use high levels of water-resistant SPF, get skin checks often with your dermatologist and never use tanning beds,” she said.
“The World Health Organization now classifies tanning beds as the same cancer risk as tobacco, asbestos, and nuclear waste.”
According to the American Cancer Society, one in nine high school girls have used a tanning device.
“Despite the industry’s claims of ‘healthy and attractive skin,’ the science is very
clear. The ultraviolet radiation caused by indoor tanning beds is proven to cause skin cancer,” says the ACS Cancer Action Network, which is lobbying state legislatures to make them off-limits to anyone under 18.
Conversely, groups like TanningTruth.com agree that exposure to UV rays “from the sun or sunbeds” is considered a carcinogen by WHO and the National Institutes of health, and they have their response:
“So is bacon.”
Furey, now a Gilbert resident, said she learned she had melanoma after receiving a phone call from her doctor’s
(Dianne Ross/AFN Contributor) Jeanne McLain of Ahwatukee said MedStats probably saved her life during an emergency at her home.
(Special to AFN
Kelsey Furey reported for duty on Monday, July 31, at Curry Elementary in Tempe, where she teaches
COTY DOLORES MIRANDA
AFN Contributor
Running group in Ahwatukee prepares for 12th season
An Ahwatukee physical therapy clinic is ready to start its 12th season of the Foothills Running Group, a loosely knit organization aimed at helping people either train for a marathon or just adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Sponsored by Foothills Rehab in Ahwatukee, spokeswoman Sara Boncutter said usually about 75 runners and walkers typically join the group, though she added, “The more the merrier.”
“Our group is diverse, but a majority of the members are between the ages of 30 to 60 years old,” Boncutter said. “We also attract runners and walkers of all abilities.”
Foothills Rehab is holding an organizational meeting at 8 a.m. Aug. 19 at 15410 S. Mountain Parkway, Ahwatukee.
During the 16-week program, the group engages in weekly speed workouts, Saturday morning running activities, a group fitness class each week, social outings and happy hours.
Lori Francoeur, a physical therapist and owner of Foothills Rehab in Ahwatukee, is one of the coaches for the group and said the speed workouts are led by Clint “Flash” Santoro of Ahwatukee, a master’s national champion in steeplechase and 5K races.
The group also is led by Jeff Bloom, who directs the FAST program, an acronym for Foothills Acceleration and Sports Training.
“We work with our patients and clients to help them lead a healthier lifestyle,” he said. “By joining a local running group, our patients are able to meet like-mind-
ed community members, build healthy habits and push themselves to meet their personal goals.”
Foothills Rehab was first founded as Foothills Sports Medicine Physical Therapy in 2000 by Michael Basten.
Francouer said weekly speed workouts are often held at local school tracks or parks. “Our Saturday morning group runs will typically start from our Ahwatukee or Tempe locations, or Kiwanis Park,” she said.
Boncutter said the group includes runners of all abilities and walkers.
“Initially, we try to put our runners into groups based on their average mile pace,” she said. “After a couple of weeks, these similar paced runners will naturally run together and help one another and push each other to reach their goals.
“During speed workouts, Coach Flash will modify workouts based on ability level. We will have a beginner and an intermediate/advanced group.”
Francouer has been running since seventh grade and was involved in cross-country and track throughout high school. She also ran two years at Boston University on its indoor/outdoor track teams.
“I have run several marathons and countless half marathons over the last 25+ years,” she added.
Bloom has been coaching runners involved in track and field and distance events since 2000. He has completed four marathons, seven half-marathons and numerous 10Ks.
Information: fast-training.com/foothills-running-group.
(Special to AFN)
Some members of the running group include, from left: Iqbal Dhindsa, Jeff Bloom, Diane McCloskey and Dan Beeks.
All very important to first responders, said Johnson.
“We’d go on calls and we’d have no information to help them,” said Johnson, an Ahwatukee resident.
“And sometimes we wouldn’t know who to contact, or what their current medical conditions or allergies to medications. These are all important things for our first responders.”
And there are other issues important to the patient.
“We call them ‘soft things,’” said Johnson. “Things like how to secure the home when they leave; what to do for their pets – water, food; and something as simple as locating their cell phones or grabbing a charger. It would bother anybody when they go to the hospital. People worry about those things.”
He said seniors often have neighbors who regularly look in on them. If the friend or neighbor is listed in the MedStats pouch information, they can be notified.
“They might have neighbors who watch after them, and they go in to check on them and they’re gone. This is another way for people to stay connected,” he said.
Other contacts include family members who may live in another state. These, too, should be listed so the Fire Department can let them know where their loved one is and what their condition is.
“This is all a part of your customer service,” he said. “Obviously, we go there for the emergency, but there’s a lot that happens and this helps the patient, us, the doctors, and the person’s friends and relatives. These are things the firefighters on the trucks care about, and if its prepared beforehand, it just helps everybody.”
For Jeanne McLain of Ahwatukee, the MedStats program has already been of lifesaving help.
“I’m a type 1 diabetic, and several times I’ve had an insulin reaction. One time I passed out, and the firemen who answered my call were lifesavers, and I mean they literally saved my life,” said McLain, 86.
“I keep the package on the front of my refrigerator and I have a list that includes my daughter’s contact information,” she added.
McLain’s daughter, Deborah Davis, lives just 10 minutes away from her mother; her son lives in Kansas City, where McLain last resided.
“I tell you, being able to get help so very
SAGA plans senior expo in October
People can register now for an education conference and expo sponsored by Senior Advocacy Group of Ahwatukee, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at Pecos Community Center.
Titled “Straight Talk! Ways to Combat Loneliness and Isolation Today,” the free conference is open to adult children who care
quickly is comforting,” said McLain. “And those wonderful firefighters who answer my calls are just wonderful.”
The MedStats pouches, which has their logo prominently displayed, are distributed through the Ahwatukee Foothills Family YMCA, Ahwatukee Recreation Center, Pecos Senior Center and the offices of the Ahwatukee Board of Management.
A UV-protected window sticker is also included so that first responders know to look for the important information inside the house.
Jochim said, to date, approximately 3,800 kits have been distributed throughout Ahwatukee and another 200 will be soon reprinted and made available.
“We don’t limit MedStats to 55 and
for aging parents, older adults and paid and unpaid caregivers.
Sponsorships also are available. SAGA meets 8:30-10 a.m. the first Tuesday of every month except January and July. Contact SAGA for location. Information: admin@sagaseniors.org, 480-270.8276 or facebook.com/seniorsaga.
older though that was the group originally targeted through Senior Advocacy,” said Young. “This program should not know any age. “
Jochim, community outreach director of the Y OPAS program headquartered at the Ahwatukee Foothills Family YMCA, and one of the founding SAGA members, said she recently had a conversation with a Phoenix Fire captain from another district who told her he’d wished he’d had a Medstats pouch on the last call to which he responded.
The trademarked MedStats name and logo were designed by Ahwatukee resident RuthAn Schmidtt of Schmidtt Graphics. For more information on the MedStats program, phone 623-565-8853 or email Admin@SAGAseniors.org.
office following removal of a mole on her back that had become bothersome.
“My family physician didn’t see anything abnormal but said she’d remove it if my insurance approved. I had it shaved off, and the biopsy came back three days later as melanoma,” she said.
“My physician told me this over the phone, so I had little to no information. All I knew was that melanoma is cancer of the cells in the skin that produce pigment.”
Furey had the report faxed to her dermatologist, and made an appointment for the next day so she could have the doctor read the results to her.
“I was told I had stage four melanoma, which meant that the cancer has spread to other organs in my body. I sobbed uncontrollably, as the survival rate is very low for this stage of melanoma, the deadliest form of the three skin cancers,”
Routine dermological exams are recommended for sun worshippers.
I had a few years left to live. I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
Upon learning of her diagnosis, friends and family sprang into action. A former high school classmate, Kendall Lang, started a GoFundMe page to help cover medical costs, and sister-in-law Alexis Furey accompanied her to countless doctor visits.
Furey gathered her strength and began
Furey said she was told she didn’t have stage four melanoma, but stage three.
“There’s no way to determine melanoma staging without the completion of three tests – the pathology from the skin biopsy, a CT/PET scan, and a lymph node biopsy,” she explained.
“Over the course of three weeks I accomplished each of these tasks.”
She said her family and friends were supportive throughout this journey.
“The best course of action was surgery so I went under the knife to remove eight inches of skin off my back, as well as lymph nodes that contained cancer cells. A week after my surgery, I heard back from my surgeon that the surgery was successful and all cancer cells had been removed. I’m now
“If I’d known more information out sun safety, especially living here in Arizona, I would have been much more careful. For the rest of my life, I will have scars across my body that will remind me of my ignorance,” she said.
“If my story can inspire one person to stop using tanning beds, then my job is done.”
Furey must now undergo thorough skin checks every two months for the next five years.
“There is the possibility that my melanoma cells can come back at anytime, anywhere on my body,” she explained.
“Patients who have had melanoma are also more likely to develop other cancers throughout their lives, such as breast and liver.”
When Furey discovered her melanoma was in remission, she had Lang close down the GoFundMe page. She instead encourages donations to the Melanoma Research Foundation in her honor.
For now, her eyes are on Aug. 8, when she begins her fifth year of teaching at Curry Elementary.
Though Furey is relieved beyond measure, she has taken up the cause of
“That was my first question to my cancer doctor, ‘Can I go back to school in August?’ I love teaching. My passion is education and inspiring children to love learning.”
(Special to AFN)
A New You is a Day Away
Young kids need to stay cool and active despite heat
BY DONNA SHOTT AFN Guest Writer
Record temperatures and heat advisories are as much a part of Arizona summers as pool parties and barbecues. It’s best to stay indoors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when young, healthy minds and bodies need the stimulation of movement and play.
First Things First offers the following tips to keep kids birth to 5 years safe and entertained during the dog days of summer:
Bring the play inside.
Read stories, then let kids dress up and create their own tales. Check the First Things First-funded Thrive to Five Family Resource Centers to see if they offer story times.
Keep a list of activities you can suggest if kids become restless, like board games, craft projects, finger-painting and you can even make a musical instrument out of an upside down pot and a spoon.
Museums and other attractions often offer special hours – and discounts – for families during the summer.
Get social. Trade play dates with other parents so you can all get things done while kids play inside together. Also, use social media to steal shamelessly from other parents’ ideas for activities – from building a furniture obstacle course to whipping up cookie-cutter snacks.
Keep kids cool outside.
Remind kids to drink something every 30 minutes or so. Water is best, but water-dense foods like fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, beans and pasta are good, too. Keep babies under 6 months out of the sun. For kids over 6 months, keep them inside or shaded between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Use the highest SPF sunscreen on kids 30 minutes before sun exposure. Re-apply often.
Dress kids in lightweight cotton clothing that covers their arms and legs, plus sunglasses and hats.
In the pool, keep kids within arm’s reach and don’t assume anyone else is watching them.
Install and maintain pool fences and gates.
Search parks and community centers for free or reduced cost swim lessons. Never leave your child unattended in a vehicle.
Always make sure all children have left the car when you reach your destination. Use this information to keep young kids cool and happy over the summer.
-Donna Shott is spokesperson for First Things First, a voter-created, statewide organization that funds early education and health programs to help kids be successful once they enter kindergarten. Decisions about how those funds are spent are made by local councils staffed by community volunteers. To learn more: FirstThingsFirst.org.
Ready for Cerritos 'makers'
(Special to AFN Teachers at Cerritos Leadership Academy got a chance to check out the "maker space" that Principal Darcy DiCosmo created to stimulate students' creativity and resourcefulness.
SATURDAY, AUG. 5
Protecting kids is topic
It’s back to school time, when kids have their parents’ attention more than usual. Local attorney and mom Amie Mendoza will explain how to properly name legal guardians for your children, including how to avoid common mistakes.
DETAILS>> 2-3 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Free. Register in the calendar section at phxlib.org.
FRIDAY, AUG. 11
Arriba Grill has hatch chiles
Arriba Mexican Grill will begin six to eight weekends of of roasting hatch chiles in front of its store every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The chiles will be $1.99 per pound and a few different food specials featuring hatch chiles will be on the menu.
DETAILS>> 4649 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. 480753-4453
THURSDAY, AUG. 17
Blood drive scheduled
Give the gift of blood at the American Red Cross Blood Drive at Ironwood Library. Appointments are recommended by going to redcrossblood.org and selecting the “Donating Blood” option to submit your appointment time. Walk-in donations are also welcome as available.
DETAILS>> 2:30-7:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 20
Eclipse talk slated
Host
CALENDAR
Kids 5 to 12 years old and their families can prepare for the solar eclipse on Aug. 21 by making a pinhole eclipse viewer and other astronomy-related crafts.
DETAILS>> 2-3 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Ages 6-11. No registration required. Free.
Y has paddleboard yoga
The Ahwatukee Foothills Family YMCA is teaming up with Riverbound Sports and offering a standup paddleboard yoga by a certified paddleboard yoga instructor. Paddleboards will be provided by Riverbound Sports.
DETAILS>> The partnership kicks off with its first class 4-5 p.m. 1030 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee. Cost: $35 for members, $45 nonmembers. Call or stop by the YMCA to reserve a board. 480-759-6762.
THURSDAY, AUG. 24
Desert Lawn Care
Get practical advice for maintaining a healthy, beautiful and water-efficient lawn. This free workshop presented in partnership with City of Phoenix Water Department.
DETAILS>> 6:30-7:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Register online in the calendar section at phxlib.org.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
Back-to-school party is on
Back-to-school party! Join us for craft, snacks, and Smash Bros.
DETAILS>> 2-4 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Open to teens ages 12-17. Free, no registration required.
StudentExchange
Make a lifelong friend from abroad.
Enrich your family with another culture. Now you can host a high school exchange student (girl or boy) from France, Germany, Scandinavia, Spain, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Italy or other countries. Single parents, as well as couples with or without children, may host. Contact us ASAP for more information or to select your student.
DAILY
Online reading is rewarding
The Maricopa County Reads Online Summer Reading Program will continue through Aug. 1. Adults, teens, children, and babies can log onto maricopacountyreads.org to record their reading and earn points toward a voucher for a free book and other prizes. Just read 20 minutes a day, every day.
DETAILS>> Registration is online. Come to Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, to pick up the schedule. Attend programs and earn points toward a free book. All ages. Free.
SUNDAYS
‘TinkerTime’ open for kids
A makerspace for children to design, experiment, and invent as they explore hands-on STEAM activities through self-guided tinkering.
DETAILS>> 1-4 p.m. every Sunday, Ironwood Library 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Ages 6-11. Free; No registration required.
Learn gardening from pros
Learn desert gardening by getting your hands dirty with the Ahwatukee Community Gardening Project. Share in the knowledge, the produce, and the smiles. All ages welcome Bring sun protection and water, tools optional.
DETAILS>> 7-9 a.m. in the northwest corner of the park at 4700 E. Warner Road, Ahwatukee. Information : acgarden.org or 480-759-5338
MONDAYS
Chamber offers networking
The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce networking and leads group is open to chamber members.
DETAILS>> Noon, Native Grill and Wings, 5030 E. Ray Road, Ahwatukee. Devida Lewis, 480-753-7676.
LD 18 Dems meet monthly
Legislative District 18 Democrats gather monthly, usually the second Monday, to share news, opportunities, food and laughter. Meetings include guest speakers, legislative updates, how-to sessions and Q&A. Volunteer or just enjoy an evening with likeminded folks.
DETAILS>> For times and places: ld18democrats.org/ calendar.
TUESDAYS STEM for kids available
Join us at the library for this fun, handson STEM based program. Kids will create a different project each week including: Circuit Bugs with LEDs, straw rocket ships, binary code keychains, wobblebots, turtle weavings and robotic hand building.
DETAILS>> Free. 4-5 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 6-11. No registration required. Does not meet Tuesday, July 4.
Chair yoga featured
Inner Vision Yoga Studio offers chair yoga to help seniors and people recovering from injuries to stay fit.
DETAILS>> 1:30-2:30 p.m., 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. $5 per class. Information: donna@ innervisionyoga.com or 480-330-2015.
Toastmasters sharpen skills
Improve your speaking skills and meet interesting people at Ahwatukee Toastmasters meetings
DETAILS>> 6:45-8 a.m at the Dignity Health Community Room, 4545 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee.
Power Partners available
The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce networking and leads group is open to chamber members.
DETAILS>> 8-9 a.m., Four Points by Sheraton, 10831 S. 51st St., Ahwatukee. Dorothy Abril, 480-753-7676.
WEDNESDAYS
Watercolor classes available
Watercolor classes that teach both bold and beautiful as well as soft and subtle approaches to the art are available twice a week for beginners and intermediate students who are at least 15 years old. Step-by-step instruction and personal help are provided.
DETAILS>> 2:30-5 Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays at Hobby Lobby, 46th Street and Ray Road, Ahwatukee. Cost: $25 per class, $80 for four classes. Registration required: jlokits@yahoo.com or 480-4718505.
Montessori holds open house
Ahwatukee Foothills Montessori holds an open house weekly. It includes a short talk about Montessori education, followed by a tour of its campus.
DETAILS>> 4 p.m. Wednesdays, 3221 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Information: 480-759-3810
Grief support is free
Hospice of the Valley offers a free ongoing grief support group for adults and is open to any adult who has experienced a loss through death. No registration required.
DETAILS>> 6-7 p.m. first and third Wednesdays, Pecos Community Center, 17010 S. 48th St. 602-6365390 or HOV.org.
Foothills Women meet
An informal, relaxed social organization of about 90 women living in the Ahwatukee Foothills/Club West area. A way to escape once a month to have fun and meet with other ladies in the area. Guest speaker or entertainment featured.
DETAILS>> 7 p.m. second Wednesday of the month, Foothills Golf Club, 2201 E. Clubhouse Drive. Contact Shelley Miller, president, at 602-527-6789 or essentiallyshelley@gmail.com
Parents can ‘drop in’
Parents are invited to join a drop-in group to ask questions, share ideas or just listen to what’s going on with today’s teenagers.
DETAILS>> 5:30-7 p.m. second Wednesday of each month. Maricopa Cooperative Extension, 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix. Free. RSVP at 602-827-8200, ext. 348, or rcarter@cals.arizona.edu.
‘Dems and Donuts’ set
Legislative District 18 Democrats gather for an informal chat.
DETAILS>> Free and open to the public 7:30-9 a.m. the third Wednesday of the month at Denny’s, 7400 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler. RSVP: marie9@q.com or 480-592-0052.
LD 18 Dems meet in Tempe
The Legislative District 18 Democrats meet the second Monday of the month.
DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m. social time, 7-8:30 p.m. meeting time. Because the location may be different from month to month, see ld18democrats.org. Information: ld18demsinfo@gmail.com. Free and open to the public.
Victoria from Australia, 17 yrs.
spending time with her family and younger siblings.
Giorgio from Italy, 16 yrs.
to play baseball and spend time with his dogs. Giorgio also plays the guitar, and his dream is to join a drama club at his American high school.
AROUND
from page 30
Special networking offered
Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce has a networking and leads group is open to chamber members.
DETAILS>> 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Radisson Hotel, 7475 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler. Devida Lewis, 480-7537676.
THURSDAYS
Crazy 8s Math Club meets
Math plus mischief equals fun at the library. Kids will have a crazy fun time while keeping their math skills sharp with hand-on activities like Laser Maze Craze, Firefighter Training, Daring Darts, and more!
DETAILS>> Free. 2-4 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 6-11. No registration required. Kiwanis meets weekly
The Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club meets weekly and welcomes newcomers. Future speakers Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio tomorrow, July 27; Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Lindy Lutz Cash on Aug 10; and state Rep. Mitzi Epstein on Aug. 31.
DETAILS>>7:30 a.m. Biscuits Restaurant, 4623 E. Elliot Road, Ahwatukee. Information: mike.maloney2003@ gmail.com.
Mothers of Preschoolers gather
Free child care for ages 0 to 5.
DETAILS>> 9 a.m. second and fourth Thursday, Foothills Baptist Church, 15450 S. 21st St. Call Kim at 480-759-2118, ext. 218.
‘Gentle yoga’ offered
Inner Vision Yoga Studio offers “gentle floor yoga” for core strengthening and healthy backs. The class moves to Thursdays from Fridays beginning Aug. 24. DETAILS>> 1:30-2:30 p.m. 4025 E. Chandler,
Ahwatukee. $5 per class. Information: 480-330-2015 or donna@innervisionyoga.com.
SATURDAYS
Kids can play at Ironwood
Head to ironwood library for some cool indoor play time. kids can participate in a variety of activities including giant dice games, bingo, Code & Go with robot mice, and more.
DETAILS>> Saturdays 2-4:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. No registration required; for school-aged children and their families.
Read to therapy dogs
Reading aloud to certified therapy dogs is an excellent way for emerging readers to practice their skills (and lots of fun, too!) Come read to our certified therapy dogs.
DETAILS>> 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 1-11. First come first served.
Alzheimer’s support group meets
Caregivers for Alzheimer’s patients can find support monthly.
DETAILS>> 10-11:30 a.m. Ahwatukee Alzheimer’s Support Group meets the first Saturday of the month at Mountain View Lutheran Church, 11002 S. 48th St.
Bosom Buddies slates meetings
Ahwatukee/Chandler nonprofit breast cancer support group.
DETAILS>> 10 a.m. to noon, second Saturday of the month. Morrison Boardroom next to Chandler Regional Medical Center, 1875 W. Frye Road, Chandler. Contact Patti Lynch at 480-893-8900 or tomklynch@ msn.com or Cele Ludig at 480-330-4301.
— Email calendar items to pmaryniak@ahwatukees.com
AROUND AHWATUKEE
Planning meeting called for lights fest Kick-Off Party
The Festival of Lights committee will reconvene to begin planning for the Nov. 25 holiday Kickoff Party. All interested people are invited to attend the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Desert Foothills United Methodist Church, 2156 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee.
The committees to be formed will include sponsorships, restaurants, vendors for Marketplace, entertainment, logistics, beer/wine tavern, rides/games, Santa’s Village, volunteers and motorcycle parade. There will be positions for either advance planning and/or the day of the event.
Cub Scout Pack 278 seeks new boys to join and have fun
Ahwatukee boys in first through fifth grade are invioted to check out Cub Scout Pack 278 at its first meeting at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 21 at Corpus Christi Church, rooms 5 and 6, 3350 E. Knox Road.
Scouts learn to be helpful, friendly, kind, brave, reverent, have fun camping, making rockets and racing pinewood derby cars,” a release stated. Cub Scout Pack 278 has boys from many schools in the area, including Colina, Lomas, Monte Vista, Horizon, and Summit.
All families welcome to the meeting and no commitment required. Information: azpack278@gmail.com or azpack278.com.
Mountain Pointe, Desert Vista high schools getting new vans
Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe high schools are getting brand new Dodge Caravan vans for transportation to athletic and other extracurricular activities as well as “other uses determined by administrators,” records show.
The Tempe Union High School District Governing Board recently approved spending $162,000 to buy a van for each of its seven schools. The cost per van was about $23,000, district records show.
The vans currently in use were purchased between 1994 and 2001.
Local prof’s homeless outreach in downtown Phoenix is Aug. 12
Project Humanities’ year-round outreach led by an Ahwatukee professor to help the homeless in downtown Phoenix will be held 6:45-8:15 a.m. Saturday, July 29. Volunteers are welcome to meet on South 12th Avenue between West Jefferson and West Madison streets to help homeless people pick out clothing, shoes and toiletries.
Neal Lester, Foundation Professor of English at Arizona State University and the founder/director of ASU’s Project Humanities, also reminds residents they can donate bottled water at AZ Spine & Disc, 4530 E. Ray Road, Ahwatukee during normal business hours. Other items can be donated at Project Humanities’ Tempe headquarters.
Information on donating and volunteering: 480-7277030 or projecthumanities@asu.edu.
Courtney Valleywide Properties is excited to announce that we have joined the Weichert® family. Weichert has been in business since 1969 and is one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in the nation.
We are now WEICHERT, REALTORS® - Courtney Valleywide. Randy Courtney, Broker/Owner, a 31-year real estate veteran, founded Courtney Valleywide in 2003. Together with Weichert’s proven systems and our local experience, we will be working to deliver the highest level of personal service for our customers.
Randy Courtney
Chandler couple gives back to hospital that saved their preemie
BY COLLEEN SPARKS
AFN Staff Writer
Breann and Jesse Vogt of Chandler understand the fear, chaos and trauma that parents endure when their babies are fighting to survive in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital.
Their son Asher, who recently turned 1 year old, spent 310 days at Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa after he was born at 29½ weeks.
That’s why the Vogts decided to collect toys and other baby items to donate to the medical center as a way to comfort families whose little ones are getting treated there.
Breann, 33, and Jesse, 37, who also have a 2½-year-old son, Colton, aimed to get 300 goodies donated from friends, family and anyone else to donate to the medical center. They surpassed their goal, gathering 600 items. Arizona Milk Producers/Dairy Council of Arizona donated 400 gifts – coloring books, storybooks, crayons, onesies, bibs, rattles, playing cards, toy keys, blankets and stuffed animal cows. Through an Amazon donation drive, people donated 200 items, including books, stuffed animals, monthly stickers, pacifiers and security blankets.
They pushed in carts full of boxes and gift bags at the medical center July 21, where smiling nurses and other staff members gratefully accepted the presents they can pass along to parents.
When Asher was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and later the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Cardon, the Vogts received notes and gifts from other parents whose babies had been born prematurely.
“We had more than a handful of times NICU and PICU grads reached out to us,” Breann said. “It really was inspiring. It really gives you hope to get through.”
From January to July 21, Cardon Children’s Medical Center has cared for 145 babies in the NICU that were born before 35 weeks. Out of those babies, 14 were born at 23 weeks or less in their mothers’ wombs.
Cardon NICU registered nurses Jen Hoth and Jackie Marnell spent months with Breann, Jesse and baby Asher when he was a patient and are amazed by the couple’s generosity.
“The gifts will help brighten a lot of days,” Hoth of Chandler said. “I think it will help bring some comfort to a lot of parents to know someone’s going through the same things they’re going through.”
Asher Vogt,
tubes. He was recently released from the hospital.
She said often people donate linens and knit hats for babies in the medical center but it’s rare to get such a large donation of items like these.
Breann said the nurses at Cardon are “all our besties” and always “just seemed to know what to say” to encourage her and Jesse.
Hoth and Marnell said they were impressed with Breann and Jesse’s dedication to baby Asher and how they kept taking great care of their older son, Colton, through Asher’s hospital ordeal.
“It blows my mind,” Marnell said of the gifts the Vogts donated. “They’re just so generous. I just find it so impressive that their son was here for so long, yet they’re able to find the good things and just be thankful and pay it forward.”
Breann said the difficult times began when she started bleeding in her seventh week of pregnancy. Doctors determined she had a blood clot but the bleeding eventually
hospital with Asher, and Jesse, who works in marketing, would come to the hospital at night, after work.
“(Asher) had quite a journey with us,” Hoth said. She recalls how Breann would read “On the Night You Were Born” by Nancy Tillman to Asher every day.
The nurses say Breann and Jesse kept their spirits up by planning themed days, like one where everyone wore Chicago Cubs T-shirts, with Asher wearing a Cubs onesie.
Because Asher’s condition was not improving, he underwent a tracheostomy, in which an artificial airway is inserted into the windpipe through a surgical incision to offer a long-term way to ventilate him.
While Asher had “some really tough days,” Hoth said “he got stronger and bigger.” Asher is a fighter and when he was feeling good he would give everyone “the biggest smile,” said Marti Marnell, neonatal nurse practitioner at Cardon and Jackie’s mother.
Asher came home in April for three weeks but was not out of the woods. He suffered bronchial spasms, which Breann said are like a “severe asthma attack.” Asher had to return to the hospital to receive “more aggressive breathing treatments to open his airways” and get on the hospital ventilator for more support. He came home again on May 23 but had to return just four days later due to the same issues.
Breann said the good news is Asher has been home since June 14 and he’s making progress.
almost stopped completely so they did not anticipate any issues with her delivery. However, her water broke at 23 weeks and a test could not reveal whether she had any amniotic fluid leaking.
A few weeks later, an ultrasound revealed she had low amniotic fluid and another test showed her amniotic sac had ruptured. Breann had to go on bed rest in Banner Desert Medical Center for 35 days.
When Asher was born, Breann said “he wasn’t breathing” and she had “no idea what condition he was in.” He was given oxygen and breathing tubes were placed in him. Breann said Asher was born with “severely underdeveloped lungs.”
She said her employer was understanding, allowing her to work part time as the communications director at Arizona Milk Producers while on bed rest and after Asher was born. Breann would work for a while in the morning, and then spend her days at the
“Now he’s doing great,” Breann said. “Everything’s coming together. It was just head-spinning, chaotic (previously). He’s been improving on his physical therapy. He’s turning pages, he sticks his tongue out, he’s been able to breathe.”
A physical therapist comes twice a week to work with Asher, who has a gastrostomyjejunostomy tube, which is inserted through his abdomen that delivers nutrition to his stomach as he can’t eat orally. He also has the tracheostomy tube and a ventilator to help him breathe. Still it’s “night and day” from where he was, Breann said.
“He’s so much more stable,” she said. “Just having him that stable makes such a difference.”
Meanwhile the staff members at Cardon say they’re thrilled Asher’s condition improved and he’s at home with his family, though they miss him.
“We’re so happy for him,” Marti Marnell said. “We just celebrate every day he’s home.”
(Special to AFN)
One-year-old
above, is now a healthy baby after spending nearly a year in the hospital after a premature birth left him hooked to
SRP ready to handle storms as monsoon season continues
BY PATTY LYKENS
AFN Guest Writer
As the monsoon season continues to hit the Valley, Salt River Project is prepared to handle the heat and storms.
SRP’s transmission, distribution, generation and planned energy purchases are equipped to serve the increased summer demand and summer monsoons.
SRP plans for the summer heat and storms throughout the year by maintaining its transmission and distribution systems to ensure reliability. Summer preparedness also includes preventative maintenance, tree trimming, pole reinforcement, cable replacement and storm planning for additional crews.
SRP replaced approximately 2,000 wooden poles throughout the year to ensure reliability. Equipment and maintenance schedules are built around the high temperatures of the desert. For example, large power transformers are equipped with cooling systems that are designed to safely protect these devices during extreme temperatures.
The SRP mobile substation will be on standby to assist with any power needs that could come about from unexpected outages. The large mobile unit has the ability to replace a distribution transformer should it need to be replaced or repaired, and is in addition to six existing mobile substations
standing ready for summer duty.
SRP alerts residential customers via email when their home is in an area where an outage has occurred as well as when the power has been restored.
Customers can also sign up to receive outage notifications via text by calling SRP’s customer service center at 602-2368888 or through My Account, SRP’s online account management tool.
The SRP outage map – which provides details such as outage locations, how many customers are impacted, the outage start time, cause and the estimated time of restoration – is available on the web and on mo-
bile devices at www.srpnet.com/outages.
For real-time updates, get connected, and follow @SRPconnect on Twitter or “like” SRP’s Facebook page at facebook. com/srpconnect. SRP customer service representatives can also be reached any time at 602-236-8888.
Download the free SRP Mobile App to get a snapshot of energy costs and daily usage; view balances and make payments as well as report or view outage information and get estimated restoration times.
SRP reminds residents to follow these summer safety tips:
• Be sure to fully charge mobile devices
Tips to save your home from monsoon damage
BY EMILY BLUME Cronkite News
Monsoons can be tough on homes. Debbie Hernandez of Home Depot offers tips to keep a storm from wrecking a house or yard:
Prepare outside and inside your home by locking down pillows, cushions, umbrellas or anything that can blow away. Tie the items down or put them in a container. Encourage your neighbors to do the same. Seal cracks and gaps around the house and on the roof with caulking. You can use weather stripping for windows and doors. Use gap filler near the foundation and stucco to prevent water from seeping in. It will prevent problems including mold, mildew and bacteria.
Make sure your gutters are clear of debris and gazebos are secured to the ground properly. They have “taken
flight” around Phoenix. Change your air filters after a monsoon because they collect all the dust and debris from the storm.
Prepare an emergency kit. Add the date
and tablets in case of an outage. Also, have flashlights, a battery-operated radio and a phone readily accessible, and check to make sure the batteries are good.
• Maintain a first-aid kit that includes your family’s prescription medications. Make sure items in the first-aid kit are in usable condition.
• Try to remain indoors during a storm. If caught outdoors, stay at least 100 feet from any downed power lines.
• Never try to help someone trapped by a power line. The line could be energized and endanger your own safety. Instead, immediately call 911 for help. Then call SRP’s emergency number, 602-236-8811, to report the incident.
• If a power line hits your car while you are in it, stay inside the car until professional help arrives. If your vehicle catches fire and you must leave it, avoid making contact with the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Jump from the vehicle, landing with both feet together. Shuffle or hop away, keeping both feet in contact with each other until you are at least 100 feet from the vehicle. This may avoid making your body a ground path between energized and grounded areas or objects.
• Do not swim during a storm. Lightning can strike bodies of water.
Information: srpnet.com/storm.
-Patty Lykens is a media relations coordinator for SRP.
ponchos, portable power source for a cell phone, a generator or other power source, surge protectors for appliances and computers, a five-gallon bucket in case of leaks and plywood to cover broken windows.
During a storm, stay inside your home to avoid mishaps like trouble breathing, falling or slipping, eye damage or getting hit by a falling object.
Bring pets inside because they can get stranded and very frightened in a storm. Keep cars and bikes in the garage to avoid damage from falling trees or light poles.
to the bin so you can track the age of the items inside.
Some items to include are bottled water, a first-aid kit, light sticks, head lamp, flashlights, batteries, candles, umbrellas, rain
After a storm, report flooded areas. If your neighborhood floods or you see a flooded area, contact city officials. Phoenix has monsoon information and emergency numbers on their websites or can be reached through Twitter accounts. Report any fallen trees or debris that look hazardous to city officials.
Don’t play in flood waters. They carry nasty germs. Save swimming and splashing for the pool or lake.
(Special to AFN
A dust storm can create plenty of problems for SRP, but the utility says it's ready for anything the monsoon season dishes out.
( Emily Blume/Cronkite News)
Debbie Hernandez displays items she recommends having on hand to best prepare for the monsoon.
PLUMBING
Hi Everyone,
Tobias General Manager
Just a friendly reminder that if your toilet water supply has a thin white plastic nut, you should consider changing it to a steel braided, steel-tipped supply line. We have been seeing these plastic ones crack at the fitting and they can do a large amount of flood damage to your house, especially if you’re not home when it happens. If you are unsure if yours should be changed, please give us a call. Thank you!
Matt
Area public pools take measures to fight cryptosporidium
BY GABRIELLA J. DEL RIO AFN Staff Writer
Last year, 549 people visiting public swimming pools in the Valley were infected with cryptosporidium, a bacterium found in feces that causes diarrhea and/or extreme vomiting.
This summer, public pools are taking action to ensure that those numbers are kept low.
Mark Foote of Mesa Public Pools said crypto outbreaks happen every year, just not in such large numbers.
“Crypto is one of the most highly susceptible” water-borne illnesses, said Zach Crader, an inspector for the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department. “It doesn’t take very much to get someone sick.”
The infection does not typically call for a trip to the hospital, according to Dr. Jeannine Hinds, a family physician with HonorHealth. She advises patients to rest and drink plenty of fluids.
Because 74 pools were affected with the bacteria last year according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local pools are updating maintenance procedures and equipment. For some pools, the precautions taken can be as minimal as taking breaks.
“We do safety breaks every hour,” Foote said. “We pull them out to remind them, not only to rehydrate, but also to use the bathroom. We have posters and fliers that patrons can read to practice what the CDC advises.”
Even the bigger waterparks in Arizona are acting by installing new equipment to ensure it doesn’t strike again.
Wet ‘n’ Wild in Phoenix has invested $500,000 into a new UV sanitation filtration system, according to spokeswoman Heather Austin. The new equipment “works with [our] existing filtration and chlorination systems to deactivate microorganisms in the water, including chlorine-re-
sistant pathogens,” she said.
Although no cases of cryptosporidium were reported in any of the Chandler public pools, the city of Chandler has also installed secondary UV equipment to prevent any parasitic outbreaks in its pools.
“UV is one of the only effective methods to kill the parasite,” Sheri Passey, aquatic superintendent of the city of Chandler said.
A third type of disinfectant has also been incorporated at Mesquite Groves and Hamilton Aquatic Centers, according to Passey. The third system adds oxygen, a disinfectant, into the water.
“We are on a super-chlorination schedule for each body of water, which is typically every two weeks and we disinfect surfaces like handrails, door handles, etc., with a 3 percent hydrogen peroxide solution on a weekly basis,” Passey said. “In addition, we follow the recommendations from Maricopa County and CDC when a fecal incident occurs and maintain proper disinfectant levels in the pools.”
Mesa pools use super-high-rate sand filters, which does a good job of turning over the water, according to Foote. He explained Mesa pools alternatively uses gas chlorine, which is more effective for sanitation.
While these pools are working to ensure bacteria doesn’t spread once more, people at home can also contribute to keeping the pools clean.
Swimmers are urged to shower before and after entering the water, put diapers on children who are not potty-trained, and use restrooms frequently. For people who have been ill with diarrhea, they should wait at least two weeks before going into the water, according to Passey.
“We are diligently taking proactive measures in our facilities because the health and safety of our customers is a top priority,” Passey said.
Matt
(Special to AFN)
Public swimming pools in the region have taken measures to kill bacteria that causes severe illness.
Ahwatukee did itself proud at council candidate forum
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
Phoenix City Council
candidate Kevin Patterson, in his introductory remarks at last week’s forum, said it was “refreshing” to see how many people were interested in city politics.
In the words of Smokey Robinson, I second that emotion.
With just under 300 people attending the candidate forum sponsored by the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce and the Ahwatukee Foothills News, both Chamber President CEO/ President Lindy Lutz Cash and I were elated.
As was forum moderator Harvey Gibson and Nick Knight, chair of the Chamber’s Public Policy Committee.
Having organized a couple dozen candidate forums over the last 10 years in the East Valley, I can tell you that the turnout was not only the largest but among the most engaged.
No one catcalled their favorite’s opponent. The questions overwhelmingly reflected a concern about not just issues affecting Ahwatukee but those affecting
Reader slams DiCiccio for LGBT ‘bigotry’ and 'hate'
I had the opportunity to attend the Phoenix Council District 6 Candidate Forum on Wednesday, July 26, sponsored by the AFN and the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce. I thank both organizations for letting us hear directly from the people that represent our community in the nation’s fifth-largest city.
I submitted the following question: “Based on what I can see, both of your fiscal policies are mostly similar. What concerns me is a candidate’s ability to support equal rights for all residents. How will you as a council member be vocal and empathetic to fight discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation such
Ahwatukee as part of the whole, namely the city of Phoenix.
AFN Publisher Steve Strickbine – my boss – and I were pleased for a couple of reasons.
We like to see a community engaged in the issues of the day and interested in having a voice in determining its future.
And while we are committed to making both the newspaper and our website the go-to sources of news about Ahwatukee, forums offer a different but significant medium for information as well.
As with our candidate questionnaires and our series of columns by the candidates, we want to give our readers as much information as we can about the candidates’ positions – and provide that information in the least filtered way possible.
And you can’t get any less filtered than getting that information from the candidates’ mouths themselves.
What was especially gratifying for me and my Chamber colleagues was that not only did the candidates maintain a high level of decorum, but so did the audience.
It’s almost impossible to turn on the TV these days and find a meeting involving the public with either their elected representatives or hopefuls that doesn’t
look like a cage fight.
Shouting, name-calling and other ugliness abound in public forums these days – when what is needed most is not just reasonable debate but reasoned discussion.
Given the issues facing us at a local, state and national level, we have never needed such discussion more. And Ahwatukee residents who attended our forum proved that it is still possible to have that discussion with dignity.
There are a few people whom I need to publicly thank for bringing this model of public discourse to Ahwatukee.
First, there’s the Chamber itself, particularly Lindy, Harvey, Nick and staff and volunteers who manned tables, handled question cards and greeted guests.
Lindy not only added some refinements to the forum – the cookies were especially welcomed – but had the idea of suggesting that people pre-register. As a result, she learned that far more people than we initially expected were actually interested in this forum.
With less than 10 days to go, she found an alternative venue to accommodate everyone comfortably.
Then there is Mountain Park
LETTERS
as eating at restaurants?”
Unfortunately, my question was censored, while high priority was given to too many questions about golf courses. I am extremely disappointed that the chamber purposely ignored questions that dealt with protecting people against business discrimination.
Sal DiCiccio is on record for being a bigot against the LGBT community.
In a February 2014 council meeting, he said Phoenix’s anti-discrimination ordinance, passed in March 2013, which made it unlawful to deny a person employment, housing or public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation was “extremist and radical for Phoenix” and “criminalizing businesses.”
When I recently discussed this with the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, which
endorses DiCiccio, it was clear that it is more important for businesses they represent to make money than to worry about discriminatory practices against the LGBT community.
Sad. I am an owner and operator of multi-family complexes in Phoenix and Scottsdale. My business does better when I include everyone.
DiCiccio’s words were never about bathrooms as it was never about water fountains. I will never forget his hateful and repressive words that hurt me and my family. He is perfectly fine with legal discrimination if you are gay or transgender.
I would argue as a successful businessman, and most Fortune 500 companies agree, that inclusion is a better business model.
Community Church – specifically, Senior Pastor Alan Fuller and facilities manager Ron Nelson. Their hospitality extended not only to AFN and the Chamber, but to the entire community.
That they accommodated us amid the final, frantic stages of moving to their new church at 48th Street and Frye Road was much appreciated.
I also need to give a shout out to Raphael Isaac of South Mountain Films, who taped the forum, which you can see in its unedited entirety on ahwatukee. com and the ahwatukeechamber.com.
Of course, both Patterson and incumbent Councilman Sal DiCiccio deserve credit for agreeing to appear at this forum.
Finally, thanks to all of you who showed up. Both the Chamber and AFN hope you found it informative and that it has ignited a desire to learn more about the candidates as well as the issues affecting your community.
And once you feel sufficiently up to speed on both, remember the biggest reason we held this forum in the first place: There’s an election that starts today and concludes Aug. 29.
You know what that means.
Please go and vote.
Sal DiCiccio’s hateful stance against those different from him should automatically disqualify him from public office. I am a fiscal conservative, but I do not prescribe to discrimination. A vote for him endorses and rewards bigotry and hate in our neighborhood. It is time for him to be held accountable for his bigotry and be voted out as our representative.
-Paul Hopkins
'We all want to save our schools,' include Arizona
There’s a lot of discussion about how to save our public schools. We can wipe out any school other than public schools and
Three ways to identify opioid dependence in a loved one
DR. RAVI CHANDIRAMANI AFN Guest Writer
The opioid epidemic is the deadliest in U.S. history –killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. For comparison, more Americans died of drug overdoses in 2015 than car accidents and gun violence.
Prescription drug addiction can happen to anyone – many of the signs may not fit the description of what you think is a “typical” addict. There are many signs and symptoms to look out for when it comes to identifying opioid dependence. It’s important to get a few terms identified first.
Tolerance means that you need a higher dose or more of a medication to achieve the desired effect.
Physical dependence is when you go through withdrawal if you don’t take a substance. For instance, if you usually
LETTERS
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make all children go to public schools. This might give teachers more money, as this seems to be the main focus right now. How to pay teachers more. Of course, then we’d be like many other states where only the rich can afford private schools. Hmm.
There are excellent public schools, charter schools and private schools. There are also low-achieving public, charter and private schools. Money helps but does not guarantee a good achieving school. Maybe we all should be looking at the highachieving schools and copy their format. I was in education for 30 years and I saw some excellent schools and teachers in both private and public education.
drink coffee but one day you don’t and you get a headache, that is a withdrawal symptom.
Withdrawal symptoms with opioids include: anxiety, agitation, muscle aches, bone pain, joint pain, nausea, diarrhea, runny nose, hot flashes/cold chills, insomnia and the feeling of crawling out of one’s skin.
Addiction is when behavior becomes dysfunctional and patients pick the substance over healthy choices, such as personal relationships or career. You can see this when patients begin to have trouble with their family life, at work or with the law.
You can be physically dependent on something without being addicted. However, even physical dependence can mean that you need help if the substance you take is dangerous at high doses. This is exactly the case with opioids. Opioids are dangerous because they can stop a person from breathing, which is
Here are some K-12 Statistics for the State of Arizona you may want to consider.
Arizona is ranked 28th in indexed teacher pay, which is comparable to neighboring states and even better than Colorado, Texas and Wyoming. This takes in account pay and how much it costs to live in the state.
Arizona is a growth state, making it difficult to compare to other states with flat or declining K-12 populations.
All but two of the fastest-growing states in K-12 population appear in the bottom third of per pupil expenditures.
Arizona is consistently ranked in the top 10 states that increased dollars to the K-12 system even though we have a lower per pupil amount, which is typical of growth states.
Arizona ranks 17th in state and local tax
how overdose death occurs. So, whether your loved one is merely physically dependent or addicted, they need help either way.
Signs a loved one is dependent or addicted:
They are supremely motivated to do whatever they can to avoid the above opioid withdrawal symptoms, including hoarding medications.
They have anxiety about running out of medications and whether they will have enough to last to their next doctor’s appointment and go outside of their primary doctor’s care to ER or urgent care to get prescriptions (“doctor shopping”). They have anxiety about being away from their medication.
Behavioral changes, including being defensive about their use of opioids, lying or not being upfront about opioid use and having difficulty in relationships with family members, as well as the medical team surrounding their use of
revenue per $1,000 of personal income for public education, so its weight of effort is above the national median.
Arizona is a lean state, but we designate about 50 percent of our general fund to education, with K-12 taking the majority of those funds.
Arizona demographics paint a different picture than those in other states:
States usually at the top of K-12 per pupil expenditures ranking show low percentages of youths and high percentages of working-age adults (New York, Vermont, Maryland, etc.);
Arizona is in the top 10 states with a high percentage of people under 18 and 12th in the percentage of people 65 and older.
This leaves us at 49th in percentage of working-age population (18-64).
opioids.
Dangerous behavior includes taking more than prescribed, increasing their dose, taking opioids in the middle of the night (the most dangerous dose), buying pills outside from friends or acquaintances and taking other people’s pain pills.
If you are concerned about a loved one, visit bluedoor.org and scroll down on the home page to the “opioid dose calculator” to see what their morphine equivalent dose is.
This allows us to determine their risk of opioid overdose. It also will help you determine if you need to have the lifesaving opioid reversal drug Naltrexone on hand.
There is help out there. The door is open.
-Dr. Ravi Chandiramani, ND, is the medical director and co-founder of Blue Door Therapeutics, an outpatient opioid treatment center.
To place Arizona at the nationwide average for per pupil spending, it would require a $3.8 billion tax increase. A statewide property tax burden on Arizona property owners (example: $6.72 per $100 of NAV, an additional $1,679 on a $250,000 home).
Most young workers and retired people don’t have an additional $1,679 for more taxes each year. The states with high taxes are losing people.
I think Arizona is trying to do right by their teachers and will continue to do so. By the way, Democrats voted against an ongoing $1,000 teacher raise. Hmmm. -Nancy Dombrowski
Power is in the flower for Ahwatukee’s only florist Business
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
In Freddi Grimes’ business, a rose is a rose is a dollar.
So is a peony, a lily and hundreds of other flowers and plants that go through her Foothills Floral Galley on Chandler Boulevard and 48th Street, where she is the only independent florist in Ahwatukee.
Her road to that position began because she needed a job. Along the way, she discovered she had an interest and a talent in floral design, made the leap from manager to owner of a store and was one of the survivors of a recession that “wiped out the industry to the bare bones because of the luxury niche we’re in.”
The Safford native began working in the floral industry 16 years ago, when supermarkets and discount warehouses weren’t selling flowers much and people who needed even simple arrangements looked up the name of a business in the Yellow Pages.
“I just needed a job and then it was because, like, I couldn’t get out of the floral business. It kept pulling me back in,” she said.
Her evolution as a floral designer was largely through on-the-job experience, starting at Foothills Floral Gallery when it was at a different location and under a different owner.
“I bounced around a little after that, came back to Foothills Floral when it was under a new owner,” she recalled.
Four years ago, she continued, “I wanted to move up from a manager, and the owner wanted to move on, so my husband and I decided to buy the shop,” which by then had been located already for four years in the rear of a strip mall that also houses a gun store and Va Bene Restaurant.
The business also had changed by the time she became a flower shop owner.
“Sixteen years ago, you didn’t have the internet,” she said. “Now, everything is a photo. People see something online and want that exact arrangement. Before, we could sell more of what we had on hand. Now, you have to pay more attention to what’s on your website.”
Despite her on-the-job training,
coupled with workshops she attended, her occupation “is not just something you can sit up and do,” Grimes said.
“You have to pay attention to making sure the stems are all touching the bottom so they don’t dry up quickly, pay attention to the types of flowers you group,” she said, addomg:
“I like to mix my textures. Some are fluffy and soft and others are a little harder. Some are dainty and some are elegant. And you have to have a focal point in the arrangement.”
Florists also have to pay attention to seasonality of many flowers, she said.
Relying mainly on three distributors – one each in Arizona, Ecuador and California, though she also gets many from Holland – Grimes carefully manages her website display so as not to be showing varieties that are out of season.
There are a couple of exceptions. “Roses are definitely popular year-round,” she said. “And lilies. People love lilies.”
But customers also are somewhat attuned to seasons as well, she notes.
For example, now that school is beginning, “people are thinking fall.”
They want sunflowers and lots of reds and oranges to remind them of fall, she said, even though there’s still half of the monsoon season ahead.
Still, her business has its highs and lows as she cycles through the year.
“I’d say it goes from January with early wedding season, then you have Valentine’s Day, spring formals and semiformals, weddings, Mother’s Day, proms and then when school’s out, the floral industry goes through a lull.”
Big-ticket orders such as weddings and funerals poses their biggest challenges in different ways.
“Weddings are probably the most stressful,” Grimes said. “There’s an expectation and no second chance. Sometimes it’s a matter of not being able to get the customer everything they want.”
Yet, Grimes also is resourceful, as she was recently when – for a funeral – “one gentleman wanted a huge tennis ball.”
“I talked him into adding a tennis racket into the arrangement and it turned out real good.”
Sometimes these unusual demands extend to basic arrangements as well, as one did with a request for something that looked “like the moon and stars.”
Grimes found some celestial pieces that resembled stars to add to an arrangement, topping it off with a Christmas ornament that resembled the moon.
Though her she serves customers as far away as Scottsdale and nearly into Gilbert,
most of Grimes’ business is closer to home.
That’s why when prom season hits, the three high schools in Ahwatukee give her more than enough to do when it comes to corsages.
But after that age bracket, her clientele seems to skip a generation she said, until people who are starting to get married find need of her services. By far, however, most of her customers are in the 55- to 75-yearold age bracket – “generally gentlemen and good floral buyers.”
Open all day Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays, Grimes does far more than make floral arrangements. She’ll decorate Christmas trees, string lights, sell hand-made baskets of Christmas foods and, of course, make fresh wreaths. While her wreaths generally are between 16 and 48 inches in diameter, she can supply 60-inch wreaths that can fit across the middle of a set of double doors, coming in two pieces that seamlessly join together when they are closed.
As for those big stores that compete with independent florists, Grimes said there are a number of differences, starting with the freshness of her product because everything she sells is refrigerated until it reaches the customer’s hands.
“I look for something pleasing to the eye, not your everyday boring ‘flowers are sticking straight up.’”
Floral classes planned
Foothills Floral Gallery, 4647 E. Chandler Blvd., has scheduled a series of flower arrangement workshops that will be held 6-8 p.m. on the following dates:
Floral head wreaths, Aug. 10; succulents and cactus potting, Sept. 7; Thanksgiving centerpieces, Nov. 9; and winter wreaths, Dec. 7.
Owner Freddi Grimes said pricing with me posted on her website, foothillsfloral.com and tickets will not be transferable to another class. Spaces is limited and refreshments will be provided.
Reservations: 480-496-0202
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer) As As the owner of Ahwatukee's only independent floral shop, designer Freddi Grimes of Foothills Floral Gallery offers a gamut of services.
NYC firm buys second Ahwatukee apartment complex in two weeks
BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY AFN Staff Writer
New York City-based Rivendell
Global Real Estate added an Ahwatukee luxury apartment complex to its portfolio for the second time in the past two weeks when it purchased San Paulo for $32.5 million.
The high-end class A property, located at 14625 S. Mountain Pkwy., features 208 units and one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans.
The garden-style community was built in 1996 and is part of the Mountain Park Ranch master-planned community that includes access to tennis courts, swimming pools and parks.
Rivendell previously purchased Santa Rosa, a 20-year-old class A property that is part of the Lakewood Master Plan, for $19.8 million.
It is the company’s fifth property in Phoenix.
markets to add to its portfolio, Rivendell global real estate managing director Yonatan Linenberg said when speaking about the Santa Rosa purchase.
The company found several aspects of the area attractive, including the growth along Chandler Boulevard and the Loop 202 expansion.
“Located in the preferred Ahwatukee submarket, San Paulo presents a tremendous investment opportunity,” CBRE Vice Chairman Sean Cunningham said in a press release.
“The community is surrounded by numerous established master-planned communities with strong demographics, access to top-rated schools and proximity to some of the East Valley’s largest employers,” he added.
CBRE represented the seller, Seattle’s PrivatePortfolio Group, in the deal.
Existing luxury apartment properties in Ahwatukee are attractive to buyers because there is no space left to build out in the community and there is a high barrier of entry, CBRE Vice Chairman Tyler Anderson said.
“This is a solid community that is positioned well for someone to (undertake renovations) and take a value add approach to the community,” said Anderson. Rivendell identified Phoenix – and Ahwatukee specifically – as desirable
Goettl leaving a legacy as a longstanding cooling company
BY RALPH ZUBIATE AFN Managing Editor
For 78 years, Goettl Air Conditioning has been cooling off the sweltering East Valley and Ahwatukee.
Now, the hard-to-spell company is adjusting to new consumer needs and technology while expanding its footprint to Southern California and Nevada.
Gust and Adam Goettl developed the Phoenix area’s first evaporative cooler and refrigerated air conditioning unit in 1939 to battle the severe desert temperatures, according to the Goettl website.
Dan Burke, chairman of Goettl, joined the company in 1989.
“At the time I came, the business was focused on building and manufacturing of air conditioning equipment,” Burke said of the Tempe-based firm. “As time went by, we could see there was a growing need for high-quality and expert contracting to repair and replace units.” Goettl survived and thrived in its small-business phase.
“We were one of the fewer smaller
manufacturers still operating,” he said.
“Most had already been gobbled up by bigger companies. In this business, you can’t be a small manufacturer.”
Times have changed for Goettl.
“We’re a big contractor but we’re a relative small company and we do what we can,” Burke said.
“We do have a shortage of technicians and will probably always have that going forward. There is a lot of movement of employees, and a lot of competing for technicians.”
Burke listed reasons Goettl is a great place for an air conditioning tech to work.
“We have work year-round, at a level that will keep anybody who is good and wants to be successful in this industry busy,” he said. “We have a great operation here.”
The company’s unique Southwestern base helps it approach the job differently.
“For us, it’s not a hobby,” Burke said. “Back East and in the Midwest, you can open a window. But here, it’s not that way.
“It’s not just temperatures but dust
Ahwatukee’s strong employment and income fundamentals and the increasing demand for class A apartment rentals throughout the Valley also made San Paulo attractive to investors.
“There is such (positive) population growth and employment growth in the Valley that there is a solid demand for class A (apartments),” said Anderson.
storms and the monsoon. You need compression systems to deal with that. Otherwise, your utilities bills will continue to increase.
“Goettl provides comfort at a decent price.”
The company also made the shift to service because of government
(Special to AFN)
San Paulo apartment complex on S. Mountain Parkway is the second Ahwatukee apartment complex purchased in two weeks by New York-based Rivendell Global Real Estate.
(Special to AFN)
Goettl vans can be seen all over Ahwatukee and the East Valley, installing units or servicing them. The company has been based in Tempe for 13 years.
Flinn Foundation bioscience winners range from bug zappers to brain games
BY ALEXA ARMES Cronkite News
What does a bug zapper and a brain game have in common?
The Flinn Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, recently announced its seven early-stage bioscience award winners. The foundation will provide $30,000 each in funding support and program services to help these companies grow as part of the Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program.
Here’s a look at two of the award winners:
Phoenix Interface Technologies
Tempe-based Phoenix Interface Technologies has created a way to help eliminate disease-spreading and cropdamaging insects while sparing the beneficial ones.
The Solar Rid device is essentially a modern-day bug zapper. It uses five sensory outputs – such as sound, smell and sight – to attract specific insects like mosquitos, corn earworms and navel orangeworms.
The device runs on solar power. Creator Tom Brown said the machine may help decrease the amount of pesticides sprayed on crops.
“Just think of the advantages – instead of spraying these poisons across this whole wide area, you can have the insects come to you, then you’re only killing in this little tiny spot, instead of spraying deadly stuff across acres and acres and acres,” Brown said.
Officials with Maricopa County’s vector control department, which sprays for insects, said they only use about 1 teaspoon of pesticide per acre to keep mosquitos and other insects from harming crops and spreading disease.
The Solar Rid device can attract and kill bugs in a 10-acre area, Brown said.
Biosensing Instrument
This Tempe-based company designs instruments to analyze molecular interactions based on surface plasmon resonance, a technique used across the life sciences and nanotechnology applications, according to the release.
Its latest invention, the SPRm 200, is a solution of surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM) that combines optical microscopy and surface plasmon resonance technologies in one instrument. According to the site, “it is the only scientific solution in the market that
enables label-free in vitro measurement of binding reactions and kinetics of individual cells in their native environment and in real time.”
Since 2014, the Flinn Foundation has allocated $645,000 in grants to local nonprofits to provide funding and
services to 22 bioscience firms, according to a news release.
This year’s other winners include:
SMART Brain Aging: This Scottsdalebased company offers online courses for clients looking to find help outside the clinic and get in some extra activity.
BMSEED: This Phoenixbased company, which stands for BioMedical Sustainable Elastic Electronic Devices, uses stretchable gold films for its products, which have biomedical applications, including those that require soft and stretchable solutions like cells, tissue or skin.
Iron Horse Diagnostics: This Scottsdale-based company is developing a diagnostic test to rapidly determine whether a patient has Lou Gehrig’s disease. The firm also is working on a test to detect and monitor brain injury and concussion.
Poba Medical: This Flagstaff-based medical device company provides engineering expertise in thermoplastic balloons.
Reglagene: This Tucson-based startup uses DNA quadruplex science to regulate genes as part of the drug-discovery process, according to the release.
– Times staff writer Gabriella Del Rio contributed to this article.
(Special to
New technology forcing power company regulators to adapt
BY BEN MOFFAT Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – For most people, electricity is simple: Flip on a switch or plug into the wall and power your devices.
But for power companies and the regulators who oversee them, emerging technologies and innovations have introduced complications that are forcing administrators to rethink how they do their jobs.
That was the message Arizona Corporation Commissioner Doug Little brought to Washington, where he was part of a panel discussion last week at the Smart Electric Power Alliance’s Grid Evolution Summit.
Little told the audience of industry officials and policy experts that regulators need to “stay out of the prescription business” when it comes to finding the best way forward, both for themselves and for the power companies they oversee.
“What’s happening in terms of the way that the industry is evolving, and in terms of the technology innovations and the way the industry is changing, people are asking their utility companies today for things that, 25 years ago, they never would have considered asking them for,” Little said.
As an example, Little pointed to the initial clamor for compact fluorescent lights when they were first introduced.
“There was a time that CFLs were designated as being the best way to
GOETTL
from page 38
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Doug Little took part in a forum in Washington this week. He said regulators are being forced to
rethink the way they do their jobs to keep up with the dizzying pace of change in the power-generation industry. regulation.
“I’m not sure the typical homeowner realizes the regulations in this business,” Burke said. “We had to shift our focus to become expert in service. That has allowed us to grow.
“We decided to let the bigger companies make the best equipment and we would focus on best service and installation. That was a good decision for us.”
Goettl and Burke have seen a lot of new innovations in their years. Among the most current are variable-speed and variable-capacity units.
“Now, units can operate at a lower performance level when you have less areas to cool or the temperature is less demanding,” Burke said. “That saves
reduce energy consumption and get away from incandescents, and now if I drop a CFL in my house, it turns it into a toxic waste site,” he said.
“LEDs were not even on the horizon, but now I think we all agree that LED technology is absolutely the way to go,” he said. “The market found a way to make it happen, not the legislators saying, ‘This is the best technology.’”
But Little also questioned whether the market always makes the right
money and gives more comfort.
“Having it not run, then run like hell, then not run doesn’t provide the best comfort.”
Networked units and apps are also changing the game.
“Another thing being implemented now is a self-diagnostic systems that will alert homeowner or service company things it detects,” he said.
“Now, you can get applications through your wireless device to control the thermostat. When you’re getting on an airplane, you can tell your home in Phoenix to turn on the air conditioning.
“It’s really a wireless thing. The next generation of people are quite comfortable with those kinds of apps.”
Despite all the new tech, gadgets and gizmos, the best thing a consumer can do to help keep the air conditioner in good shape is a simple one.
decisions. He said free-market capitalism needs to be balanced with regulated monopolies, like Arizona Public Service.
“What we’ve seen happening is, in some of the organized markets, you’re driving to the lowest cost per kilowatthour, and some of the things that are important to the stability and resiliency of the grid… traditionally have just come along for free,” he said.
“When we had coal, when we had
“Make sure the filters are changed regularly,” Burke said. “If you don’t do that, you can get debris, cat hair and dust into the coils of the equipment, and that reduces the efficiency and slows down air flow.”
Burke also recommends maintenance.
“Units should be checked every year,” he said. “Refrigerant, tuneups and a general tightening would avoid a really extensive, serious failure later.
“Relatively modest repairs can help avoid major repairs.”
nuclear, when we had gas – the introduction of renewables has changed that equation a little bit,” Little said in the session.
Tanuj Deora, an executive vice president of SEPA, said Little took a “thoughtful” approach on the four-man panel, which was composed of two Democrats and two Republicans, two regulators who were elected and two who were appointed. Deora said that while the content at the conference may have flown over most people’s heads, it was still an important topic.
“It touches our lives all the time,” he said. “All the equipment here comes from electric power. Really, the electric power system is fundamental to modern civilization.”
But, he said, the power grid is too important to ignore.
“On some level, everyone should care,” Deora said. “But, of course, we often take it for granted because we just expect it to be there when we need it.”
( Ben Moffat/Cronkite News)
(CDP Commercial/Special to AFN)
Dan Burke, chairman of Goettl, joined the company in 1989.
Blue Chip Signworks
15920 S. 48th St. Suite 104, Ahwatukee. 480-785-3940, bluechipsignworks.com.
Providing products for internal signs, external and electrical signs, trade show displays and vehicle graphics. Blue Chip Signs will work with you to develop an imaging, messaging, and branding strategy that delivers measurable results.
Imagine Technology Group
420 N. Roosevelt Ave., Chandler. 602-454-0720, itgarizona.com.
With years of experience in perfecting all solutions, Imagine Technology Group has experts at everything from Toshiba, Sharp, Kyocera, Samsung and HP products. Imagine Technology Group is a family-owned and operated organization aligned to provide the best in technology solutions across Arizona. We not only meet our guaranteed response time of four hours, but often exceed it due to our optimal support team.
United Brokers Group - Jim Hunt
106 S. Kyrene Road, Suite 2, Chandler. 480-221-2883, huntazhomes.com.
Clients come first. We pledge to be in constant communication with our clients, keeping them fully informed throughout the entire buying or selling process. We believe that if you’re not left with an amazing experience, we haven’t done our job. We don’t measure success through achievements or awards, but through the satisfaction of our clients.
United Blood Services
6220 E. Oak St., Scottsdale 480-272-5899, unitedbloodservicesaz.org.
Serving patients and hospitals across the nation, United Blood Services is appealing to the hero in each of us to make a difference to those in need. Make your appointment today.
Arizona Grand Resort Golf Course
8000 E. Arizona Grand Pkwy., Ahwatukee. 602-659-6334. arizonagrandresort.com,
Nestled at the base of America’s largest urban park and wilderness preserve, Arizona’s only AAA Four Diamond allsuite resort features spacious one and two-bedroom suites. Whether meeting with colleagues or vacationing with friends, gracious service, creative culinary delights, and unique recreational activities await
Main Street Ahwatukee
Ahwatukee Chamber hosts 5th annual expo for the community
KÄTHE MUNYAN AFN Guest Writer
Hello Ahwatukee! Your Ahwatukee
Foothills Chamber of Commerce is hosting its fifth annual Business Expo 4:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Four Points by Sheraton, near the I-10 and Elliot Road.
We invite the community to come out and enjoy the festivities. Included will be over 70 exhibitors and entertainment, from student performances to local talent.
The expo “tour” of vendor booths is open to all, free of charge and provides residents with an opportunity to visit with a wide range of local businesses and industries representing health and wellness, finance, tourism, shopping, restaurants and more.
Vendor booths will share information and host giveaways and drawings. Some will include demos to show features and aspects of their business. The idea is to provide our
community with an occasion to discover more about who and what is available right in our backyard.
Further, keynote speakers will provide 50-minute workshops for those interested in participating.
These workshops require pre-registration and payment of a modest fee. They include well-known Phoenix-area speaker and marketing guru Debbie Allen leading a workshop called “Become an Expert in Your Niche Market,” which will include content beneficial to any type of business or organization.
Sean O’Neil, founder and leader of Memory Dynamics, will present a fun and informative workshop on memory techniques that will help in all aspects of your life. Sean consistently receives rave reviews about his creative workshops.
The expo also features a large raffle with many baskets and gifts, donated by local businesses. The proceeds of this raffle benefit our Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!), sponsored by the Ahwatukee Chamber Community Foundation.
The YEA! program teaches local students how to start and run their own real businesses. Local business people serve as Investor Panelists and fund the students’ businesses to help them get started. Let’s support this dynamic program for our students.
If you own, or are part of, a business and are interested in being an exhibitor, please go to our website, ahwatukeechamber.com or e-mail events@ahwatukeechamber.com, to obtain more details and reserve your spot.
Our Early Bird Booth Registration runs through Aug. 10 with special pricing. Registration and more information about the workshops will be available Aug. 10 on the Chamber website.
We look forward to seeing many Ahwatukee residents and sharing this powerful event with you, where you can meet and learn about local businesses who give so much back to our great Ahwatukee community!
-Käthe Munyan, of Wells Fargo Bank, is chairing the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce 2017 Business Expo.
Wake Up Ahwatukee Morning Mixer
LIV Ahwatukee
16025 S. 50th St., Ahwatukee. 8-9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8. $5 members, $15 general admission
Ribbon cutting Generations at Ahwatukee 15815 S. 50th St., Ahwatukee.
(Special to AFN)
Working the registration table are co-chairs Dr. Nicole Gerard and Samantha Thompson, Ambassadors Tracy Jones and Dee Gordon and chamber staff Gina Jenkins and Sara Fuhrmark.
(Special to AFN)
Co-chair Dr. Nicole Gerard awaits raffle giveaway at Smokin Fins.
SPIRITUAL SIDE
Life is good, even in the middle of a Valley summer
BY RABBI SUSAN SCHANERMAN AFN Guest Writer
Our seasonal temperatures channel my thoughts to Torah (Bible) passages in which Israelites wander through the desert for 40 years.
No air conditioning, no electric fans, no popsicles in the freezer to counter the sun’s beating rays. Tents and close quarters, primitive sanitation, uncertainty about where they’re headed, doubt in a God who has promised liberation but so far has provided merely sustenance in an untenable land.
A leader named Moses who tends to disappear on mountaintops, tribesmen who challenge authority at every turn and scouts who insist that the future is bleak and foreboding.
Mmmm, maybe summer in Phoenix isn’t so bad after all.
Maybe we have much to be grateful for, even as we yearn for cool breezes and gentle temperatures.
Maybe there are lessons to be learned from the persistence of an ancient people who survived for an entire generation in physical distress but still managed to celebrate faith in a higher being, joy in the notion of freedom, and comfort in the strength of community.
Maybe we, today, take such things for
granted when we could be more mindful of what we do possess in our comfort-driven lives.
The stories of our many religious traditions remind us – through folklore, mythology and tales of our ancestors – that life is often about struggle but that faith reassures us that within that struggle rests much joy and delight in the mere fact of being alive.
Whether we choose to live in joy or live in struggle is largely up to each of us. All religions teach this. And, so, each morning we awake to a new opportunity to view the world through the prisms of light and love or fear and despair.
National and world news can be
troubling and discouraging, but our local newspaper is filled with stories of high-achieving students, selfless community leaders, concerned citizens fighting for what they value in their communities, business owners stepping up to help less fortunate, neighbors reaching out to those down the street, even pets finding loving homes in our neighborhoods.
Let us not dismiss these stories, but let us rejoice in them and let them blow as a cooling breeze through our souls. Life is good, even in the middle of a heat wave.
-Rabbi Susan Schanerman leads Congregation NefeshSoul in Ahwatukee. Information: nefeshsoul.org or rabbi@nefeshsoul.org
SUNDAYS
BIBLE EXPLORED
This biblical scripture study embraces a spirit-filled, intellectually honest, and understandable exploration of God’s Word. Lessons will combine Christian and Jewish theology along with Bible history, archaeology and linguistics for a rich learning experience.
DETAILS>> 9:15 a.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. 480-893-2579, mvlutheran.org.
HORIZON SEEKS YOUNG PEOPLE
High school and middle school students meet to worship and do life together.
DETAILS>> 5 p.m. at Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. 480-460-1480 or email joel@horizonchurch.com.
KIDS CAN LEARN JEWISH LIFE
Children can learn and experience Jewish life. Chabad Hebrew School focuses on Jewish heritage, culture and holidays.
DETAILS>> 9:30 a.m. to noon, for children ages 5-13 at Pollack Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 875 N. McClintock Drive, Chandler. 480-855-4333, info@chabadcenter.com, or chabadcenter.com.
SUNDAY CELEBRATION SERVICE
Inspirational messages and music to lift your spirit. A welcoming community committed to living from the heart. Many classes and events offered. We welcome you!
DETAILS>> 10 a.m. Sundays at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103, Tempe. Information: 480792-1800, unityoftempe.com.
FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH
The Foundations of Faith Bible study embraces a spirit-filled, intellectually honest, and refreshingly understandable exploration of God’s Word. Lessons will combine Christian and Jewish theology along with bible history, archaeology and linguistics for a rich learning experience.
DETAILS>> 9:15 a.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. 480-893-2579. mvlutheran.org.
MONDAYS
JOIN CHRIST-CENTERED YOGA
This Flow 1-2 class (intermediate) is free and open to the community.
DETAILS>> 6-7 p.m., Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. Greg Battle at 480-7596200 or gbattle@moutainpark.org.
CLASS TARGETS THE GRIEVING Classes for those grieving over death or divorce.
DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m., Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. 480-963-4127.
TUESDAYS
GRIEFSHARE
Mountain Park Community Church is offering an ongoing GriefShare programs to help people deal with the pain of losing a loved one.
DETAILS>> 6:30-8 p.m., 2408 E. Pecos Road, Ahwatukee. To register: mountainpark.org and click on Launch. Information: Alex at 480-759-6200
FINDING HEALING FOR PAIN
HOPE, an acronym for “Help Overcome Painful Experiences,” offers support for men and women who seek God’s grace and healing.
DETAILS>> 6:30-8 p.m.
Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. mountainpark.org.
SENIORS ENJOY
TUESDAYS
portunity to meet other Christian women.
DETAILS>> 10-11:30 a.m., Living Word Ahwatukee, 14647 W. 50th St., Ste. 165, Ahwatukee. Free child care.
THURSDAYS
The Terrific Tuesdays program is free and includes bagels and coffee and a different speaker or theme each week. Registration not needed.
DETAILS>> 10-11 a.m., Barness Family East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. evjcc.org or 480-897-0588.
WEDNESDAYS
CELEBRATE RECOVERY
Celebrate Recovery is a biblical 12-step program that helps you find hope and healing from all of life’s hurts, habits and hang-ups. Whether it’s addiction, loss, anger or stress, you can find the freedom you’re looking for today.
DETAILS>> 6:20 p.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee.. 480-893-2579. mvlutheran.org.
DIVORCE CARE
Don’t go through one of life’s most difficult times alone. Divorce Care is a friendly, caring group that will walk alongside you and provide support through divorce or separation.
DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. 480-893-2579. mvlutheran.org.
WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY OFFERED
Living Word Ahwatukee women’s Bible study and fellowship that offers “a short, low-key time of praise and worship in music and message.” It’s also an op-
SLEEPING BAGS FOR THE HOMELESS
Ugly Quilts has made more than 15,500 sleeping bags for the area homeless, and continues to do so at First United Methodist Church every Thursday. Quilters stitch donated fabric, comforters, sheets and blankets into sleeping bags. Those are then distributed to the Salvation Army, churches and veterans’ organizations.
DETAILS>> 8 a.m.-2 p.m., 15 E. 1st Ave., Mesa. Information: 480-969-5577.
KIDS CAN FIND SUPPORT
Support group for children ages 6 to 12 coping with a separation or divorce in the family. Onetime $10 fee includes snacks and workbook.
DETAILS>> 6:30-8:30 p.m., 1825 S. Alma School Road, Room C202, Chandler. Pastor Larry Daily, 480-9633997, ext. 141, larrydaily@chandlercc.org or chandlercc.org.
FRIDAYS
NEFESHSOUL HOLDS SERVICES
Congregation NefeshSoul holds Shabbat services the
second Friday of every month on the campus of the Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation. DETAILS>> 6:15 p.m., 6400 W. Del Rio St., Chandler. Information: nefeshsoul.org.
TOTS TAUGHT TORAH
Hosted by Chabad of the East Valley for children ages 2 to 5. Features hands-on activities about the Shabbat, songs, stories and crafts. Children will make and braid their own challah.
DETAILS>> 10:15-11 a.m., members’ homes. 480-785-5831
SATURDAYS
JEWISH STUDY OFFERED
Congregation NefeshSoul Jewish study for adults is held weekly.
DETAILS>> 8:45-9:45am, 6400 W. Del Rio St., Chandler, in the sanctuary. Information: nefeshsoul.org or rabbi@nefeshsoul.org
WEEKLY SERVICES SCHEDULED
International, nondenominational church offers weekly Sabbath services. Congregational meeting in the morning and Bible study in the afternoon.
DETAILS>> 10:30 a.m.-noon; 1:30-2:45 p.m. at True Jesus Church, 2640 N. Dobson Road, Chandler. 480-8991488 or tjcphoenix@tjc.org.
JEWISH KIDS PROGRAM AVAILABLE
Shabbat Yeladim is a free Shabbat program for Jewish children ages 3-7 sponsored by Ahwatukee’s NefeshSoul Jewish Community.
DETAILS>> 10-11 a.m. on the Valley Unitarian Universalist Campus, 6400 W. Del Rio, Chandler. Contact Rabbi Susan Schanerman at rabbi@nefeshsoul.org or nefeshsoul.org.
Submit your releases to pmaryniak@ahwatukee.com
East Valley youth ready to swing into ‘Tarzan’ musical
BY MELODY BIRKETT GET OUT Contributor
There will be plenty of singing – and swinging – next month as Studio 3 Performing Arts in Gilbert presents “Tarzan the Stage Musical.”
About 30 cast members from Studio 3 will perform Limelight Performing Arts’ version of the Disney classic.
“Some of the characters are a little bit different,” said Emma England, artistic director for Limelight Performing Arts, which owns Studio 3 Performing Arts.
“One of the characters who dies in the movie doesn’t die in our version,” England said. “There’s also some new songs.”
The musical is about Tarzan’s family shipwrecked on an island. His parents die and mother ape Kala finds Tarzan and decides she wants to raise him since she lost a child of her own.
The story fast-forwards to when Tarzan is coming into contact with humans, specifically Jane, for the first time.
“Without giving the ending away, he has to make that decision on whether he wants to be part of the human world or if he wants to stay with his animal family,” said England. “And Jane has to make that same decision too. You need to come to the performance to see how it ends.”
The music is by Phil Collins.
“I like the music in the show because it can be related to by lots of generations,” England explained. “A lot of different people can fall in love with it.”
This version has many of the same songs as the Disney movie, including the Academy Award-winning “You’ll Be in My Heart” along with “Son of Man” and “Two Worlds”.
“Phil Collins, in general, he’s got a good way of creating these catchy beats that kind of make you feel good,” added England. “So, as you’re watching the show you can really get into it.”
It has been a challenge pulling off the production during the summer months.
“So it’s about 10 weeks of rehearsal altogether,” England said. “We did a lot of rehearsal upfront before everyone started leaving on vacation. We have not had a rehearsal yet with the whole cast here. There has always been at least two people gone until the day before opening when we ac-
tually have our entire cast with us.”
In the meantime, videos were made and posted online so the kids could practice at home or while on vacation.
Another unique thing about this production is that young Tarzan is played by a girl. England said her production company is open to different casting, explaining:
“We believe that age and gender and race and all those things, sometimes there’s flexibility there. We had so many girls audition that were just so talented that we decided we were going to be open. And they all came in wanting to be young Tarzan which was funny. So we were like, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’”
There are also understudies for all the roles to give as many kids a chance as possible at having a lead role.
Ava Wright, 10, plays young Tarzan. She attends Chandler’s C T Liberty Elementary School and has been in theater since age 5.
“In past plays, I always auditioned for boy roles because girls roles I don’t fit in because I’m a tomboy,” Ava said. “I’m not a girly girl.”
The role is very athletic, but Ava said, “There are a lot of stunts, but I do enjoy it. They’re pretty hard, but they’re really fun to do.”
“You’re being flipped, you’re being pushed around in some of these acts and it’s kind of hard to keep your voice without shaking and stuff,” she added.
Ava hopes to make a career out of musical theatre one day, noting, “Acting is my life. I love singing. I love dancing.”
Tarzan (or rather the grown-up Tarzan) is played by Connor Brigola, 17, a senior at Hamilton High School. He has been in musical theater for about five years and is enjoying the role of Tarzan.
“It’s honestly really a lot of fun,” said Connor. “It’s one of those roles that you just always want as a kid. You watch the movie and you say, ‘I want to be Tarzan … It’d be so cool swinging on vines, fighting lions and
leopards and digging up bad guys and getting the girl in the end.’”
He feels the pressure of having such a big role.
“It a lot of stress, but it’s so much fun to be up there singing Phil Collins’ legendary song ‘Strangers Like Me’ and just trying to do him justice and Disney justice through the show Tarzan and being able to portray that character.”
The reward is the feedback from the audience.
“I love just seeing the audience’s faces when you’re up their singing and entertaining, doing what we do best, and just seeing the audience’s reactions whether it be sad, or happy, or when they get scared if something really suspenseful happens,” he said.
While he would love to make a career out of it, Connor plans to major in medicine in college and do a minor in musical theater.
Audrey Coleman, 15, who plays the role of Jane, is a sophomore at Gilbert Classical Academy and been performing since she was 3 and doing musical theatre since 7.
“The thing I love about Jane is she has a very strong love for plants and discovering and doing research and stuff like that because she’s a botanist,” said Audrey.
“So, I can relate because I have a love for
Gilbert.
animals and love for plants.”
Annabelle Skala, 15, a sophomore at Queen Creek High who plays the role of Tarzan’s ape mother, describes her costume as having a lot of fringe that’s “ape-like.”
Nicolas Caglia, 19, of Mesa, is starting college in the fall, so this is his last show before moving to New York and attending American Academy for Dramatic Arts. He plays the role of Kerchak.
“I’m Kala’s husband and she brings in Tarzan to the family and I don’t like it since he’s a human and my family was killed by humans,” he explained. “So, I push him away until he gets older and starts proving himself and at the end I finally accept him.”
Young Terk is played by Abby Springer, 10, and a sixth-grader at Mesa’s Barbara Bush Elementary. She started musical theater when she was around 7.
“Young Terk is very confident,” bby said. “He’s full of himself. He thinks he’s super duper cool. He thinks he’s strong and better than everyone. He thinks he can do everything. He’s a really fun character to play. And he’s also best friends with the role of young Tarzan.”
(Special to AFN)
Katy Springer, left, who plays Young Terk in “Tarzan,” rehearses a scene with Ava Wright, who plays a young Tarzan in the musical, which will run the next two weekends at Limelight Performing Arts Studio in
John Waite will revisit his catalog with a full band at Talking Stick Resort
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GET OUT Contributor
John Waite is rarely at a loss for words.
However, when he played with Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band in Phoenix several years ago, he was awestruck.
“I don’t often get speechless, but I was playing away on stage and I looked to the right and there was Ringo,” he said. “To play something on guitar or bass and have him follow you in or vice versa? You have to pinch yourself.”
The show was hard on Waite, but for different reasons.
“I had pneumonia and I was almost dying on stage,” he said. “Ringo was behind the drums laughing at me; I could hardly sing. He liked it when it got interesting.”
The vignette offers insight into Waite’s passion for music, which remains after runs with The Babys and Bad English, as well as a successful solo career.
He returns to the Valley to play Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale on Friday, Aug. 11.
“What’s not to be passionate about?” Waite said. “It’s music. My tastes in music diversified as I got older. I like jazz and just discovered opera – Puccini. It kills me. I still
love blues and country, but my tastes as a musician have broadened as I grew up. You hear real wonderful stuff in the most unexpected places.”
Those who say they “live for rock ‘n’ roll” are limiting their abilities, he adds.
“I know how to write a song,” Waite said. “It’s about closing your eyes. There’s not a lot to it. There are only three or four or five chords in rock. With classical, there’s an endless stream of chords and it rarely repeats itself.
“I can listen to it without pulling it apart and knowing how somebody’s done something. It surprises me all the time.
Having said that, you can take three chords and reinvent anything. That’s the wonder of those three chords.”
Derived from the blues, the chords can be turned in any direction.
“How you voice the chords on guitar or piano can have a tremendous effect on them,” Waite explains. “There’s always the
possibility of doing something original, which is staggering, if you think about it.”
Speaking of something original, the 64-year-old Waite recently wrapped up recording “Acoustic Anthology,” an unplugged album that revisits his collections from 1995’s “Temple Bar” and onward.
“I also re-recorded ‘Missing You’ and several other songs,” Waite said. “There are six or seven songs that were recut. It’s really an insane acoustic record.”
While his similarly formatted acoustic tour has been a hit, the Talking Stick Resort show will be with a band, or the “full Monty,” as he said. The hit-laden concert will feature deep tracks and a few subtle changes that make the songs different.
“The songs are written to last,” he said. “I didn’t write the songs to reflect what was in vogue at the time. They’re rooted in very simple chord changes where the melody was on top of everything else.
“They were meant to be playable in 20, 30 years. The songs are always engaging and slightly different. It never gets old.”
IF YOU GO
What: An Evening with John Waite When: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11. Where: Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Talking Stick Way, Scottsdale.
Cost: $30-$40
Info: 480-850-7777, talkingstickresort. com
Dr. Anita Marra and Staff
(Special to AFN)
Musician John Waite will peform Aug. 11 in Scottsdale.
Alice Cooper brings ‘Paranormal’ to life at Ak-Chin Pavilion
BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO
GET OUT Contributor
Alice Cooper’s heyday may have been back in the 1970s, when tours behind albums like “Billion Dollar Babies” were breaking the Rolling Stones’ concert attendance records.
But the man born Vincent Damon Furnier is still creatively vibrant nearly four decades later.
July saw the release of the Bob Ezrinproduced “Paranormal,” the duo’s first collaboration since 2011’s “Welcome 2 My Nightmare.”
Like its predecessor, the new project is a star-studded affair that features cameos from the likes of U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr., ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover.
For the Valley resident, the odd array of unlikely guests played into the notion he and Ezrin had about not wanting these songs to be united by a singular concept.
“Bob and I decided we were going to make an album that didn’t necessarily have a story line this time, but an album that got us off,” Cooper explained.
“Every song is a song that we would go, ‘Yes, that’s a great song.’ And they don’t necessarily conform to any style. Alice Cooper is always going to do guitar rock. That’s always what I do. But the styles kind of go all over the place, which is great.
“Using Larry Mullen Jr. from U2 on drums was a great idea. When we got to the studio, he asked to see the lyrics. I’ve never ever had a drummer ask me about the lyrics and he said he plays to the lyrics. And I said that I loved that. It turned it into something totally different and totally not what I was expecting, yet it works all the way. You hear the whole album and it gives it a different punch to it.”
Most interesting was a reunion of the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper lineup of bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and guitarist Michael Bruce (guitarist Glen Buxton died in 1997).
Those four musicians played on the albums that made Cooper one of the biggest stars of the 1970s and are widely considered artistic high points of his career — Killer, released in 1971, followed by 1972’s School’s Out and 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies
By the time Cooper decided he wanted to make what became 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare, bandmates Buxton, Dunaway, Smith and Bruce had decided the wear and tear from multiple platinum
albums, relentless touring and being together nonstop all through high school and college added up to massive burnout.
But while the breakup was mutually agreed upon, Cooper pointed out the friendship the former bandmates maintained over the years helped facilitate this mini-reunion. The result was three of 20 songs the reunited bandmates worked on making the cut, about which Cooper was elated.
“We never broke up with any bad blood,” Cooper said.
“Dennis, Neal, Mike, Glen and I were all best of friends. There were no lawsuits. Nobody ever threatened anybody. I stayed in touch with everybody. That band never got back together. Glen passed away. He was our Keith Richards. That was a huge part of the personality of that band. When that happened, that weakened the base even further. But we always stayed together.
“We worked together (on the new material) and there was never one minute where I asked who was going to play on it. We had Neal, Mike and Dennis to play on these songs and Bob absolutely agreed. They came in and nailed it. We’re very objective about it and these three songs were the ones that were good enough to make this album. I was really happy about it.”
With all this under his belt, the 69-yearold rocker continues to enjoy playing live. Even more so, he’s hooked up with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act Deep Purple for a tour that hits Ak-Chin Pavilion on Tuesday, August 15. It’s a bill he’s convinced won’t leave attendees unsatisfied.
“I kind of like the idea of two classic rock bands playing together. I think it’s really cool for the fans,” he said. “Every single song that you hear on that stage is something that you heard on the radio. And that’s really a plus for the audience.
We did that with Mötley Crüe, and when we did that with them, it was really successful. We sold out every venue.”
Once his own touring commitments are fulfilled, there’s also a chance Cooper may pop up as part of his celebrated side band, the Hollywood Vampires, a group that also features Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and actor/ guitarist/recording artist Johnny Depp.
The group released its first album in 2015. Along with a pair of originals, it includes cover versions of songs by musicians who have passed away.
Covers on the guest-filled Hollywood Vampires album included “My Generation” (by the Who), “Jump Into the Fire” (by Nilsson), as well as tunes by Jimi Hendrix (“Manic Depression”), Spirit (“I Got a Line on You”) and the Doors (“Five to One/Break On Through”). Several guest musicians pop up as well, most notably Paul McCartney, who is featured on a version of “Come and Get It” (a song he wrote for Badfinger).
Cooper said despite having a name like Hollywood Vampires, the group’s shows will be nothing like his own highly theatrical, horror-themed concerts.
“The cool thing about the Vampires is, it’s a totally opposite thing than my show, than the Alice Cooper show,” he said. “I don’t think about theatrics when I think about the Vampires. It’s basically, when we put it together, all of us started out as bar bands. We all started out learning the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the Who and Chuck Berry and Paul Butterfield, all the stuff we learned from, the Beatles. We said that’s basically what we are.”
IF YOU GO
What: Deep Purple and Alice Cooper w/Edgar Winter
When: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15.
Where: Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix.
Cost: Start at $15.
Info: akchinpav.com.
(Special to AFN)
Valley rock legend Alice Cooper is excited about his new album, “paranormal,” and tour.
Hip-hop ‘Outlawz’: Gilbert-based dance troupe takes on the world
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GET OUT Contributor
Red Mountain High School graduate Max Thompson doesn’t know the meaning of “give up.” Thompson and his Gilbert-based dance troupe, Outlawz, have been rehearsing for its August world championship bout for a year.
Veterans of the TV show “America’s Got Talent,” Outlawz will compete against the best street dancers and dance crews from 50 countries during the USA and World Hip Hop Dance Championships held in the Valley from Aug. 4 to Aug. 12.
The World Hip Hop Dance Championship finals start at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, at GCU Arena. All USA Championship events (Aug. 4 to 6), World Preliminary Championship events and World Battles (Aug. 7 to 11) will be held at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa. The competitions are the flagship events developed and organized by Hip Hop International and its founders, Howard and Karen Schwartz. They also created the Emmy Award-winning TV series “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
“The Outlawz are proud of ‘America’s Got Talent,’” Thompson said. “It was a pretty
big accomplishment because it’s hard for dancers to make it on that show. We were on three episodes and made it to the live shows, which a lot of dancers don’t do.
“With this, we’re pretty confident that we’re going to do well. We’ve been doing this competition for three years now. We know how it goes. We took third in the world last year. This year, we know what we need to do to get first.”
Outlawz are the 2016 USA Hip Hop Dance Champions and World bronze medalists, adult division. If Outlawz win the worlds, it’ll be the first U.S. troupe to do so in HHI’s history. In the group, Thompson is joined by Dominic LaRovere of Chandler, Phoenix Banuelos of Gilbert, Marcus Pope of Peoria, Tam Rapp of Los Angeles and Josh Ulep and A.J. Pak, both of Hawaii.
“USA has never won worlds before,” Thompson said. “We just don’t give up. Some crews make it as far as we have, they get second or third, and just stop. We got third last year and decided we had to try one more time.”
Dancing is something that Thompson only took up in high school, and it wasn’t for the most practical of reasons.
“I would dance, honestly, to impress girls,” he said with a laugh. “I would just mess around when they had a DJ at lunch. Then, I realized I really liked it.”
Before dancing to the likes of rappers Drake, Chance the Rapper and Travis Scott, Thompson played on Red Mountain’s basketball and football teams. He is the
second oldest member of Outlawz.
“We’re all pretty experienced the same way, in terms of dance, but I’m way more experienced in life,” Thompson said. “I hope that the younger members look up to me and, more so, my life experience. They can
(Special to AFN)
The Outlawz hope they can repeat their 2016 USA Hip Hop Dance Champion title this week.
Dinos and ladies roller derby highlight this weekend’s fun
BY JUSTIN FERRIS GET OUT Editor
‘The Little Mermaid’
Head under the sea for the musical version of Disney’s timeless classic “The Little Mermaid.” It features your favorite characters, including Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder, and hits songs like “Part of Your World” and “Kiss the Girl.”
DETAILS>> Wednesdays-Saturdays, Aug.2Aug. 19. Hale Centre Theatre, 50 W. Page Ave., Gilbert. Tickets: $22-$32. 480-497-1181. haletheatrearizona.com.
Santa Pachita with Funky Bonz
This nine-piece band combines musical styles such as ska, cumbia, rumba-salsa and more into a night of dance-friendly energy.
DETAILS>> 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4. Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler. Cost: Free. 480-782-2680. chandlercenter.org.
Yoga at the Mill
Interested in some outdoor yoga? Head down to the olive groves for an all-levels yoga session.
DETAILS>> 7-8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5. Queen Creek Olive Mill, 25062 S. Meridian Road, Queen Creek. Tickets: $15. qcyoga.com.
Prowl & Play: Dinosaurs!
Dig for dino bones, meet Raja the baby T. rex, play in the water, make crafts, get awesome photos and much more.
DETAILS>> 5:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5. Phoenix Zoo, 455 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix. Tickets: $8. 602-286-3800. phoenixzoo.org.
TARZAN
Like young Tarzan, Abby also has a boy role. “There weren’t very many girl roles in this anyway,” she said. “I don’t really care what I play. Whether it’s a girl or a boy, it’s still fun just to do it.”
Abby is taking her part very seriously.
“I still have to figure out what a guy would do,” she explained. “I’m watching the guys in there, watching how they walk, watching what they do with their heads, just really weird stuff.”
She has done about a dozen performanc es in her short career.
“My favorite part of doing the show is making people happy whether it’s a happy show or not. Making them believe it’s ac
Ethiopian Fest
Cafe Lalibela hosts an evening celebration of Ethiopian food, dance, music and other customs and festivities.
DETAILS>> 6:30-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5. Mesa Convention Center, 263 N. Center St., Mesa. Tickets: $40. ethiopianfest.splashthat.com.
Roller derby bout
Watch hard-hitting roller derby action from the Arizona Rollergirls, plus participate in raffles for a chance to win great prizes.
DETAILS>> 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5. Broadway Recreation Center, 59 E. Broadway Road, Mesa. Tickets: $10 online, $15 at the door, Free for kids 13 and under. arizonarollergirls.com.
Star Wars Launch Party
Be one of the first to play the new Star Wars pinball game from Stern Pinball. Plus, play in a pinball tournament for great prizes, dress up in your finest Star Wars duds, and enjoy food and beverages.
DETAILS>> 1-6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6. Tilt Studio, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Suite 669, Tempe. Cost: Free entry. 480-648-1222. tiltstudio.com.
Summer Sangria Social
Last month’s social was so popular, you can attend an encore. Sip house-made sangria in special flavors, eat grilled food and socialize outside.
DETAILS>> 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6. Queen Creek Olive Mill, 25062 S. Meridian Road, Queen Creek. Cost: Free entry. 480-888-9290. queencreekolivemill.com.
OUTLAWZ
learn a lot through me, with what I’ve been through. I want to teach them to have a good attitude and be patient with people.”
Human relations came into play when Outlawz traveled to China to promote the HHI brand and dance on the Great Wall of China.
“That was super-cool,” said Thompson, who is planning a move to Los Angeles. “We got first place in the USA our first year. We had the opportunity to go to China and teach and coach. We performed our routine for them and showed them how to dance. It was awesome.
“I learned, through the trip, that all cultures are completely different from each other. We should appreciate America because we’re super blessed over here.”
And Thompson is blessed with the opportunities he’s received thanks to HHI. The HHI championships have earned the respect of dancers and choreographers worldwide. Many competitors discovered by Hip Hop International have launched careers working with the likes of Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez and Rhianna. Hiphop dance is represented routinely in countless awards shows and can be seen promoting respected brands including the Grammys, Emmys, Oscars, NBA, NFL and
Cirque Du Soleil among many others.
“In today’s world, where travel bans and proposed walls to separate peoples are prompting concern, the longstanding mission of Hip Hop International to unite the world of hip-hop through dance is more relevant than ever,” Howard Schwartz said in a press release.
All events are open to the public. Tickets for the family-friendly events start at $25. Complete event schedules, ticket information, championship videos and more can be found at hiphopinternational.com.
IF YOU GO
What: USA and World Preliminary Championships When: Aug. 4-11
Where: Arizona Grand Resort and Spa, 8000 Arizona Grand Parkway, Phoenix. Cost: $25-$200 Info: hiphopinternational.com
What: World Hip Hop Dance Championship When: 6:30-11 p.m. Aug. 12. Where: Grand Canyon University Arena
Cost: $29.50-$64.500. Info: hiphopinternational.com, gcuarena.com
Nutella mousse Klondike cake is easy, scrumptious summertime dessert
BY JAN D’ATRI
AFN Contributor
It’s frosty! It’s scrumptious! It’s refreshing! It’s so easy!
I don’t think I’m going to have to talk you into trying this Nutella mousse Klondike cake. It takes some of our favorite dessert ingredients and turns them into a sensational frozen cake that you cut into slices of delicious decadence. The Nutella whips up with heavy cream or Cool Whip to make a mouthwatering mousse that gets sandwiched in between layers of chocolate wafer cookies, vanilla ice cream and, oh, did I mention frozen Klondike Bars?
Yeah, those too! This is about as easy to put together as it gets and the only real challenge is waiting for it to freeze. But so worth the wait. Watch my how-to video: jandatri.com/recipes/ one-minute-kitchen.
Ingredients:
1 pint heavy cream/whipping cream or 8 oz. container Cool Whip
1 small jar (13 oz.) Nutella
1 (9 oz.) box Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1 (6-count) pack Klondike Bars of your choice
1 bar dark chocolate (3.5 oz.)
Directions:
Make the Nutella mousse: Whip heavy cream then mix together with 1/4 cup Nutella. (If using Cool Whip, mix together container of Cool Whip and Nutella until well combined).
Place a layer of chocolate wafer cookies on the bottom of a bread-size baking container or small casserole dish. Spoon first layer of Nutella mousse over top. Place Klondike Bars over top of mousse, filling in all spaces with sliced bars. Spoon softened vanilla ice cream over top of bars. Add second layer of chocolate wafer cookies. Slather second layer of mousse over top.
Add last layer of softened ice cream. Curl or shave chocolate bar with knife or potato peeler. (Chocolate curls better if slightly warm). Spread over the top. Freeze cake for several hours or best if frozen overnight. Slice or spoon onto serving dishes.
Hicks kicks his way from Desert Vista to Butler
BY RYAN CLARKE AFN Contributor
Alifelong passion for soccer culminated in a commitment to Butler University for Desert Vista High School defender Brendan Hicks. His career began at age 3. Now, nearly 15 years later, Hicks fulfilled his lifelong dream of playing college soccer. Every practice, game, tournament and orange slice from Mom led up to that moment.
Hicks said if it weren’t for the support of his parents, he wouldn’t have reached this point in his career as his senior year approaches.
“My parents do so much for me,” Hicks said. “They’d drive me to games and practices all around the country and sacrificed so much for me to be successful.”
Advice from sister Nicole — who graduated from Desert Vista in 2014 and now runs cross country for TCU — shaped Hicks’s view of the model studentathlete: someone with equal focus on academics and athletics.
At Butler, Hicks found the ideal blend of these two pillars. The soccer program is on the rise and remains a presence in the Top 25, and the academic opportunity is there for an aspiring business student.
“It’s a great atmosphere,” Hicks said of Butler’s campus. “My parents are
originally from Indiana so I have a lot of family and friends there.”
Going out of state for college is tough for any 18-year-old, but Hicks is lucky to have people in Indiana that can help make the transition easier.
One is former Brophy soccer player Michael Peay, who’s coming up on his junior year with the Bulldogs.
Peay and Hicks didn’t know each other in the one year their high school careers crossed over, but since his commitment, Hicks has made an effort to reach out to Peay through some of his club teammates and get a feel for the college experience.
Oddly enough, Hicks’ favorite high school soccer memory involves Peay’s alma mater.
In the first round of the 2016 state playoffs, No. 16 seed Desert Vista upset No. 1 Brophy in penalty kicks, propelling the Thunder to an appearance in the state semifinals.
“It was a crazy game, almost unbelievable,” Hicks said. “I took the first kick for my team, and thankfully I was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Peay was already playing for Butler at the time of the game, but it still provides some bragging rights for Hicks over his future teammate. No doubt the two will be able to bond and trade jabs over their respective high school careers.
Hicks made plenty of memories outside
Ahwatukee Little Leaguers look to next year after loss
BY GREG MACAFEE
AFN Sports Editor
The Ahwatukee Little League
11-year-old All-Stars’ state tournament run came to an end last week after they lost to Queen Creek in back-to-back do-or-die games in the state championship.
In the first of a double-elimination scenario, Ahwatukee fell to Queen Creek by a score of 10-7. On Wednesday, July
of high school, too.
An integral part of the soccer experience for young players in the U.S. is club completion, and Hicks was able to travel around the country (and world) with SC del Sol, a club based in Phoenix.
SC del Sol won back-to-back state championships during Hicks’ time with the club.
The highlight of the experience, though, was traveling to England in the summer
of 2014. Hicks and his teammates toured Premier League stadiums and had a chance to compete with English youth teams.
Hicks was struck by the skill of the younger players and tried to absorb as much from the experience as he could.
“We definitely had the physical advantage since we were a bit bigger,” Hicks said. “But technically and tactically, they were far superior.”
That experience, along with hundreds of other club and high school games throughout his career, shaped the kind of player Hicks would become. He describes himself as an aggressive hard worker with a knack for playing the ball in the air and reading plays before they happen.
At Butler, those skills will come in handy, and so too will his passion for the game.
“It’s a way of life and a huge part of my life,” Hicks said. “It’s such an enjoyable experience to go out and compete with your friends against other people.
“The satisfaction of winning after the whistle blows is a lot to process.”
As the final whistle blows on his prep and club careers, Hicks prepares for extra time in the form of college soccer.
The pressure to perform increases – as does the physical challenge – and it’s up to Hicks to remain one step ahead of the competition, much like he was on the back line for Desert Vista.
See LEAGUE on page 54
(Andy Staten/Special to AFN)
Ahwatukee All-Stars pitcher Brett Crossland collapses in defeat as Queen Creek players erupt in celebration after scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 3-3 tie and win the deciding game of the Little League Baseball 10-11 state championship in Show Low on July 26.
(Special to AFN)
Desert Vista High School soccer standout Brendan Hicks has committed to Butler University in Indiana.
26, behind a strong showing from Bryce McKnight on the mound, the Ahwatukee
Pride alumnus Emmanuel Butler making noise at NAU
BY ART PREUSS AFN Contributor
Although Northern Arizona University fields a Division I football team, its mid-major FCS program runs into trouble when it tries to recruit in-state: It has to take its place in line behind the big boys since Arizona has two Pac-12 football programs.
Thankfully, the state has enough talent to help stock the Lumberjack program – as illustrated recently when the Big Sky Conference announced its preseason All-Conference teams.
Of the 27 players named to the team, three were Lumberjacks, including Mountain Pointe High School alumnus Emmanuel Butler. He and two
others were local products.
And all three were unanimous selections by a group that includes Big Sky media members and sports information directors.
Besides seniors Butler and Tyler Shank from Chandler High, there’s sophomore Griffin Roehler from Avondale.
Butler has gained the most recognition simply by virtue of his wide receiver position that
has allowed him to make his mark in the stat columns.
And those stats have been impressive. He will come into the 2017 season with a good chance to set two of the school’s career records.
Butler needs 597 receiving yards to break the NAU record in that category and is just three touchdown receptions away from the other record. He ranks fourth in the NCAA in career receiving yards and
LEAGUE
from page 53
all-stars fell one-run short of becoming the Arizona state champions by a score of 4-3.
“It was a great run. It just didn’t end the way we wanted it to,” said Ahwatukee skipper Tim Romaine. “We didn’t get enough hits when we had runners in scoring position. It wasn’t that we didn’t hit the ball. We hit the ball hard; we just hit it right at them. It seemed like we had the bases loaded every inning and
we only scored three runs.”
Romaine recalled two situations in the final game in which his team was able to make contact but the defense either made a great play or the ball was hit right at someone. One of those situations came with runners on second and third base with two outs.
“One of our kids hit a ball up the middle and the second baseman made a great play, ending the inning,” he said.
In the next inning, Romaine said they had the bases loaded with an opportunity to score and another scorching hit found
yards per game.
He already holds the single-season record of 1,208 receiving yards, so 597 is well within his reach.
A record-setting senior season will be a fitting way to cap off a football career that included helping Mountain Pointe to an undefeated season and its first state championship.
The Lumberjacks underachieved last season, finishing 5-6 overall and 4-4 in conference after having been picked in the preseason to win the Big Sky. They go into this season projected to finish third in the conference. They will be tested early. The ’Jacks open the season Sept. 2 on the road at Arizona State.
-Reach Art Preuss at phxfan.com
League. With a team full of strong hitters Romaine hopes they will make another run at a state championship, and possibly more, next season.
“The one thing you can never control is who grows and who doesn’t,” Romaine said. “Some of the other leagues will have more influx of 12 year olds for their last year that didn’t play 11’s so I think it depends on who on our team gets bigger, faster, stronger, things like that, and if they do, then we should have the talent to make another run at it.”
With a team full of stars that play every inning of every game, no matter what team they are on, Romaine said the players’ unselfishness stood out for him the most during their run to the state championship game.
“We challenged the players before we even practiced and said the only way this is going to work is if we’re not selfish,” Romaine said, adding:
the glove of a Queen Creek infielder.
“One of our players hit a screaming line drive straight at the second baseman,” Romaine said. “If it’s a foot higher, it probably goes all the way to the wall and scores three runs.”
Ahwatukee’s bats were on fire all tournament long before running into Queen Creek in the state championship game. But their hot bats were not enough to hold off their opponents from advancing to the next round.
The team will look to next year as it will move on to the next age division in Little
“I couldn’t thank them enough for that because it was a big deal. It’s hard to root for someone that is subbing in for you, but they did. They made winning a priority. I was proud of that because they really did put a lot of stuff aside for the betterment of the team.”
Romaine also wanted to thank the Ahwatukee community for the support throughout the state tournament.
“There have been plenty of people stopping me saying, ‘Hey, great run, really proud of you guys,’” Romaine said. “That was really nice. That was a good feeling.”
Do you have a human-interest or feature story idea? Contact Sports Editor Greg Macafee at gmacafee@ timespublications.com or by phone at 480-898-5630.
(Special to AFN)
Ahwatukee All-Stars on the 11-year-old team include OJ Alig, Connor Crossland, Brett Crossland, Evan Gerken, Karter Hopkins, Bryce McKnight, Jake Romaine, Chase Schaefer, Andrew Smith, Zach Stevens, Sam Yeager and Vito Zilles. Manager was Tim Romaine and Chris Yeager and Torrey Stevens were the coaches. They’re looking forward to reuniting in the 12-year-old division next year.
(Special to AFN)
Mountain Pointe High School graduate and Pride cross-country star Jeremy Rasmussen now is head coach of Arizona State’s crosscountry team, replacing Louie Quintana.
Mountain Pointe High grad takes over ASU cross country
BY ART PREUSS AFN Contributor
The first meet on Arizona State‘s 2017 cross country schedule is just six weeks away. Not a good time to be changing head coaches.
But the Sun Devils had little choice after Louie Quintana, ASU’s head coach for the past 12 years, departed to take over the women’s program at Oregon State.
The solution to keeping the program on the rails and be ready in time for the Sept. 3 George Kyte Invitational in Flagstaff? Hire from within.
So ASU has elevated Quintana’s assistant, Jeremy Rasmussen, to head coach and given him the reins of the men’s and women’s programs. “Jeremy’s experience and history with our program will make for a seamless transition for our Sun Devil cross country program,” explained Greg Kraft, the school’s director of track and field.
With the promotion, Rasmussen, a graduate of Mountain Pointe High School, becomes the eighth men’s coach and sixth women’s coach in the 55-year
history of the tradition-rich program.
He also becomes the first to graduate from the program and then take it over as head coach.
Rasmussen was a walk-on at ASU but, before his career in maroon and gold was done, he became the 2000 Pac-10 champion in the 3k steeplechase, and then followed that with a couple of runner-up finishes.
Now, 15 years later, he’s working on developing new championship-caliber distance runners for the school that gave him an opportunity to prove himself at a sport he loved.
There’s little question he’s paid his dues while moving up the ranks to finally get his seat in the head coach’s office.
Rasmussen has served ASU as a volunteer coach, graduate assistant, director of operations, meet director, and assistant coach.
He joined the Sun Devil track program after graduating in 2003 and spent four years with the Pac-12 program before leaving to accept an assistant coach position at the University of Illinois. In 2014, he returned to rejoin
the ASU program.
As a college athlete at ASU he helped the 2001 men’s team break the 100-point barrier in conference competition, marking the first time in program history a men’s team reached that goal.
As a Sun Devil assistant, he helped develop one of the best distance runners in ASU history, Shelby Houlihan, a 12-time All-American who holds five school records and was a Pac-12 champion in 2014 and Olympic qualifier in 2016.
Now Rasmussen gets a chance to set the direction for the entire program. Last season, the women’s team finished eighth at the NCAA West Regionals and the men came in 13th. There is definitely room for improvement.
This season, the Devils will compete in-state for the first three weeks of the schedule, but then will head for a couple of destinations not included on recent travel schedules.
At the end of September, one group will participate in the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater and another group will head to Minneapolis for the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational.
The schedule will wrap Nov. 10 with the West Regionals, held this year at the University of Washington.
-Reach Art Preuss at phxfan.com
(Special to AFN)
Mountain Pointe High School graduate and Pride cross-country star Jeremy Rasmussen now is head coach of Arizona State’s cross-country team, replacing Louie Quintana.
Karate Clips Kung fu is more than Bruce Lee movies
BY RICK SAVAGIAN AFN GUEST WRITER
hen we hear the term
“kung fu,” we automatically think of martial arts fighting systems, monks dressed in orange robes practicing an ancient martial arts and Bruce Lee’s Chinese martial arts films.
It actually refers to a skill that requires a very dedicated process and proficiency in such arts as cooking, music – to name a few. However, the one skill everyone associates with kung fu is a fighting system.
Kung fu is the more popular westernized term used to categorize some of these Chinese fighting systems, among the most ancient martial arts practiced. Most of the popular martial arts have their roots in these sys-
tems.
Wushu is the term for a martial art.
A deep history going back to the Shaolin Temple influenced the Chinese martial arts.
It is said that Chinese martial arts go back 4,000 years. These hard and soft techniques – the wrestling-style movements, joint locks, pressure points striking techniques – were all early influences.
A monk named Bodhihirma organized one of the first systems. It included hand-to-hand techniques, which were developed by studying five animals – the tiger, crane, monkey, snake and leopard. This style also incorporated weapons such as staff and some sword.
Like other martial arts, kung fu’s training includes stances, striking techniques, kicking techniques, forms, weapons, meditation, exercises for developing Chi, fighting tech-
niques) and philosophy.
Martial arts are well known. Kung fu holds a mystery and an air about it.
That is why it has become one of the martial arts that students through-
out history have sought out to learn about.
Rick Savagian is the founder of Mountainside Martial Arts in Ahwatukee. Reach him at 480-759-4540.
(AFN file photo)
Rick Savagian of Mountainside Martial Arts puts some students through their paces.
Are you affected by someone who is dealing with an addiction? If so, know that you are not alone and that the PAL (Parents of Addicted Loved Ones) group can help The group is available to provide education and support to anyone 18 years or older who is dealing with a friend or family member with an addiction See our local meeting list at palgroup.org
Meetings/Events
Crops of Luv
"My dream is that one day we will be able to give every "wish" child a scrapbook to remind them that dreams do come true " Jody, co-founder Ahwatukee based nonprofit
Come Join us: Help make embellishments, organize or assist with events, scrapbook donate your time, money or space
Come be apart of something Awesome!
Cropsofluv com 480 634 7763 cropsofluv@cox net
Meetings/Events
Aegis Hospice Grief/Loss Support Group
We meet 6 pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month
Legacy Funeral Home: 1722 N Banning St Mesa, Refreshments provided Contact: Rick Wesley 480-219-4790 rick@ aegishospice.com
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS SENIOR ASSOCIATION (AFSA)
Attention: Seniors 55+
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