December 2017
Relentlessly local coverage of Gilbert and our neighboring communities
Season’s Greetings
Maddie Leppert, 6, dances with other children at the Gilbert Concert Series and Holiday Lighting event at Water Tower Plaza.
Fire Station 9 will help with four-minute response time
Students launch plant experiment in space
BY SRIANTHI PERERA
BY MELODY BIRKETT
Gilbert ceremoniously broke ground on construction of its last-planned fire station in November. Fire Station No. 9, located near Ocotillo and Higley roads, will serve residents in the far southeast part of town, which, until recently, consisted of quiet cotton and alfalfa fields surrounded by scrub desert horizons. Now, with more and more red roofs and plastered walls breaking up the view, the fire station is necessary to help Gilbert maintain its four-minute emergency
response time throughout the town, officials said. Station No. 9 is really the town’s 11th station. “It’s the last station that we have planned on the books,” said Fire Chief Jim Jobusch, addressing the town dignitaries, staffers and a handful of residents gathered at the site. “Somewhere in the future, we may have to add a station if the town grows up and reaches build out. As far as plans for today, this is it.” SEE
FIRE STATION
Five high school students representing Gilbert stood by at NASA’S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia recently. They were awaiting the NASA commercial cargo provider, Orbital ATK Cygnus Spacecraft, to launch its eighth mission to the International Space Station. The launch was special to them because the spacecraft was carrying their science experiment. Devised over many months, the experiment will evaluate the growth of micro clovers in microgravity PAGE 6 and how nitrogen deposited in the soil can
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Community Neighbors Business Youth
be used to grow additional plants in space. But at the site, the blast-off was more immediately exciting to the teens. Devin Askue, 16, a junior at Mesquite High School, said there were “no words” to describe it. “It was so loud. We were two miles away, and it felt like a small earthquake. It was crazy. It was beautiful. It was my first rocket launch experience, and I was in awe,” he said. SEE
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