Student athletes sidelined indefinitely
First phase of downtown jewel opening.
Couple launches clinic for
Chandler PD enhances 911 call tracking
Virus disrupts city, schools in Chandler
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
From parks to schools, dining to shopping, the emergency created by the COVID-19 pandemic has left Chandler reeling.
While school boards across the East Valley held special meetings last week to begin grappling with the possibility of a longer school closure than the shut-down currently in effect, Chandler Unified Governing Board was waiting until this week to meet as district officials provided limited direction to parents about online instruction.
City officials early last week resisted fol-
State Rep. Jennifer Jermaine of Chandler took extra precautions against COVID-19 during the legislative sessions last week, partly because she's in a high-risk category as a cancer survivor. (Capitol Media Services))
lowing Tempe and Phoenix directives that limited food service at bars and restaurants to takeout and delivery, but Gov. Doug Ducey took the matter out of Chandler’s hands by ordering that measure for all establishments in Maricopa and five other counties.
The coronavirus' impact hit Chandler recreation sites early last week as residents were already steering away from public facilities.
Andy Bass, the city’s community services director, told the Chandler City Council on Tuesday that his department noticed steep declines in attendance at nearly all city rec-
Chandler businesses in dire straits
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
This time of year is normally busy for Griffin Perry’s limousine business.
High school students in Chandler are booking rentals for their upcoming proms and brides are scheduling caravans for their spring weddings.
But the coronavirus pandemic put an end to it all.
The company immediately took a hit once public health officials discouraged Arizonans from attending festivals, sporting events or any large gathering.
“Our phones should be ringing right now,” Perry said, “but we haven’t been getting any phone calls.”
Perry’s business is one of many Chandler businesses feeling the impact of protocols put in place to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading. As more restrictions are
implemented to keep citizens from venturing outside their homes, the city’s brickand-mortar stores are noticing a rapid decline in business.
To help those businesses – and connect Chandler residents with them – the Chandler Chamber of Commerce created a dynamic web page offering information to business owners but also provides residents with a list of some of the many restaurants stopping in-store dining but are providing curbside pick-up and/or delivery.
This information is at chandlerchamber. com/chandler-chamber-covid19.
Perry said his company, GES Transportation, has had at least 10 cancellations in the last couple weeks and he’s not sure what the future will look like.
“It’s mainly what our services are used for,” Perry added. “It’s been a struggle.” GES Transportation is trying to think of creative ways to make its vehicles useful for
smaller gatherings, he said, but it’s been a challenge.
Denise McCreery, who owns d’Vine Gourmet on Alma School Road, said reaction to the coronavirus came quickly and suddenly.
Customers started calling her on March 11 to cancel orders. Then it just snowballed from there, McCreery recalled, with multiple cancellations coming in by the end of the week.
On the Monday after Gov. Doug Ducey announced a statewide closure of all schools, McCreery had to wait until nearly 1 p.m. before getting her first customer.
The retail center where her shop is located has turned into a ghost town, she noted, which worries the small business owner.
“I can’t afford to not have people walk through my door for more than a day or two,” McCreery said.
see VIRUS page 6 see
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Armed guards deployed at Chandler, other synagogues
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
After a series of attacks at synagogues across the country, Jewish communities in Chandler and neighboring communities are beefing up their security to prevent similar offenses.
Armed guards can sometimes be seen patrolling the grounds of Chandler’s Chabad of the East Valley – carrying firearms and keeping watch for any potential threats while congregants worship inside during Shabbat services.
Rabbi Mendy Deitsch said his synagogue has had volunteer guards providing security for the last couple years. Almost every other Jewish community in the Valley’s taking the same measures, he added, so it made sense for his facility to do something similar.
“That’s, unfortunately, the reality of the times we live in,” Deitsch said. He declined to disclose how often or how many volunteers provide security for his facility – citing security concerns – but said there haven’t been any prior incidents of violence at his synagogue.
The rabbi said he worried at first the presence of armed guards might intimidate congregants and discourage them from attending services. But this concern has since subsided.
“We found just the opposite is true,” Deitsch added. “In fact, more people come because of it. People are more comfortable and much more at ease.”
The Chandler synagogue is one of several places of worship taking extra precautions to secure its facilities after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 left 11 people dead – making it the deadliest attack on America’s Jewish community.
The 46-year-old man who carried out the crime was allegedly heard shouting “All Jews must die” before opening fire on the synagogue’s congregants.
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The 2018 massacre was one of 1,550 religiously-motivated offenses committed in the United States that year, according to data released by the FBI. More than 50 percent of those offenses were motivated by feelings of anti-Semitism.
Arizona has had its fair share of troubling incidents targeting the Valley’s Jewish community. In 2009, someone
spray-painted a red swastika on a sign posted outside the Chabad Center in Chandler.
Most recently, a Queen Creek man was arrested for conspiring with alleged neo-Nazis to harass a journalist from a Jewish-affiliated publication.
Though Rabbi Laibel Blotner has not felt discriminated or targeted since relocating to Mesa several years ago, he’s still concerned by the number of hate crimes he reads about in the news.
Violence touched Blotner’s family last year after his daughter’s father-in-law survived a deadly attack at a California synagogue.
Since then, Blotner has had surveillance cameras installed at the Chabad Jewish Center of Mesa and assembled a team of community members to provide armed security during services.
The rabbi said the 150 families attending his synagogue have, so far, not minded the presence of armed guards.
“I think the community has been very encouraging,” Blotner said. “I think they understand we need to take measures.”
Arizona law classifies churches, synagogues, and mosques as private property, so faith leaders like Blotner and Deitsch get to decide whether to allow armed individuals onto the premises.
Jewish communities are not the only
ones taking advantage of this discretion afforded to them under the law.
After a mass shooting at a New Zealand mosque last March, some of the Valley’s Islamic communities reacted by hiring off-duty police officers to watch over local mosques during religious celebrations.
The Secure Community Network, a Jewish-focused nonprofit, released a report in January highlighting the “urgency” existing for faith communities to devise security plans.
The report recommended synagogues having uniformed police officers stand guard during services, yet this may not always be a realistic option in every community.
Arming a group of volunteers could present more problems than solutions, the report states, if they’re not given any training to handle high-stress situations.
Yonatan Stern is helping to fill the training gap in Arizona by providing specialized firearms instruction.
The Pennsylvania resident is the founder of Cherev Gidon Israeli Tactical Training Academy and spends his winters in the desert, teaching local Jews how to defend themselves.
“There is a lot of demand,” Stern said, noting how he spent last month conducting training sessions for Jewish communities in Scottsdale, Chandler, and Phoenix.
After the Pittsburgh massacre, Stern said he redirected his efforts to focus on boosting security at synagogues. No one inside the Pittsburgh synagogue was armed, Stern noted, which he thinks might have changed the outcome.
Some of Stern’s training includes active-shooter simulations inside synagogues and allowing his students to “dry fire” their weapons – meaning they’re not loaded with ammunition.
This picture may sound dramatic to some, but Stern believes this type of training is necessary for the times.
“We don’t live in the 1950s anymore,” Stern said. “We live in a very dangerous time. It’s a matter of life or death.”
For Rabbi Blotner of Mesa, he hopes his synagogue’s armed guards will remain only a precaution and won’t ever be needed for an actual emergency.
These two armed men have provided protection for worshippers at Chabad of the East Valley in Chandler during services. (From the documentary "American Defense Forces)
State House Republicans balk at cost of virus help
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX – Efforts to enact a nogrowth budget to keep the state running in the face of COVID-19 hit a wall late last week after Republican lawmakers in the House balked at extra spending.
Both the House and Senate earlier Thursday adopted spending plans designed to provide all state agencies this coming fiscal year with the amount of money they have now, with adjustments for inflation and population growth.
The goal was to send lawmakers home for several weeks to both protect them from viral infections by being in group meetings and wait to see what the impact of the pandemic will be on the state budget.
ment for adults getting these benefits to seek work.
And the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, can increase what it pays to those who provide services to the elderly and disabled to ensure that they can meet the demand during the emergency.
All that was not acceptable to House Republicans, who even rejected a proposal by Rep. Arlando Teller, D-Chile, for $40 million simply aimed at preventing evictions.
House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, said the GOP majority is getting things backwards, insisting on adopting a ``baseline’’ budget now and putting off until later questions about what finances the state should put into helping to blunt the impact of the outbreak on Arizonans.
“This is a crisis,’’ Fernandez said. “This is what we should be dealing with first.’’ That wasn’t the only issue dividing members of the two parties.
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But when the Senate in a bipartisan vote approved $50 million in spending that is not in the House plan, House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, said those extra dollars are not acceptable to his Republican members.
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With a stalemate, lawmakers went home until Monday.
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The sticking point is the Senate version has provisions added by Democrats they say are designed to take care of immediate effects of the virus on Arizonans.
Most notably, that includes establishing a Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund to be administered by the governor for economic assistance during an emergency.
House Democrats also objected to the fact that a bill to continue state aid to education restores only half of the $128 million that is owed to schools in “district additional assistance.’’
Lawmakers eliminated the more than $300 million that schools had been getting for needs ranging from books and computers to buses. Some of the dollars were restored in prior years; Ducey in January promised to make schools whole this coming fiscal year.
The GOP budget puts off the last payment until the 2021-2022 school year.
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That includes housing assistance, such as payments to prevent eviction or foreclosure, funds for services for the homeless, cash for food bank operations, and economic assistance to health care providers, nonprofit organizations and businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
More to the point, it puts $50 million of tax dollars into the account and allows the governor to seek funds from other public or private sources.
Another bill eliminates the two-year lifetime limit on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families as well as a require-
Democrats argued that schools, shorted for years, need the money now. And they argued there is enough in current revenues to give them the cash, even if there is a downturn in the economy.
There was more consensus on legislation to maintain state aid to public schools if they remain closed past March 30 as long as they continue providing education to students.
The measure envisions online learning where available. But low-tech options
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reation buildings.
The Downtown Community Center, which typically sees about 250 visitors each day, only had 29 people show up on Monday, Bass said.
The Tumbleweed Recreation Center saw an 80-percent drop in usage and city youth camps saw a sharp drop in attendance.
All Chandler libraries also experienced declines in attendance at the beginning of the week with the Sunset Branch seeing about 450 fewer visitors.
Bass said recommended limits on public gatherings to stem the virus’ spread has been a struggle the last couple weeks since his department’s purpose is to provide spaces for the community to congregate.
“This is quite the challenge,” the director said. “We’re used to trying to bring everyone together and involve them.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, the council was reluctant to shut down Chandler’s public facilities – a measure adopted in Mesa, Gilbert and Tempe.
The council discussed whether to force the cancellation of the March 28
to closing facilities.
But that all changed within 24 hours.
The next morning, Councilman Matt Orlando said he had reevaluated his thoughts and decided it was in the public’s best interest to close all recreational facilities.
Orlando said he expressed his opinion to Reed and by the end of Wednesday, the city closed all libraries, pools and four recreation centers until March 31.
The Chandler Senior Center will also close and staff plan to offer to-go meals to elderly residents.
BBQ and Beer Festival, which attracts thousands of visitors. But the promoter took that matter out of its hands when it announced an indefinite postponement.
That’s how fluid this pandemic has been impacting Chandler, noted City
Manager Marsha Reed.
“This is a very volatile situation,” she said, “things keep changing by the hour.”
The council ended Tuesday’s meeting by deferring to Reed and letting her take a wait-and-see approach when it comes
Two weeks ago, dozens of senior citizens packed the Chandler Community Center 11 for the city’s annual Senior Expo, with many expressing a waitand-see attitude on health officials’ recommendations to stay indoors. Anne Marie McArthur, executive director of the volunteer group About Care, which assists elderly and other people
see VIRUS page 10
The advocacy group Save Our Schools on March 15 held a drive-through petition signature campaign for its November initiative to limit school vouchers, with supporters wearing masks and gloves and sterlizing pens used by people who signed the petitions. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
She recently ordered 120 pounds of peanuts to turn into specialty nut mixes. But if no orders come in during the next four weeks, McCreery said the shelf life of those peanuts will expire.
D’Vine Gourmet is known for selling various wines, desserts, and unique snacks like prickly pear-flavored popcorn. McCreery said businesses like hers are usually the first casualty of a major economic crisis.
“We’re a luxury service and it’s the first thing to go when people start being careful or cautious,” she said.
Chandler’s entertainment venues are also noticing fewer patrons coming in the door and worry how long COVID-19 will impact their business.
Kate Obermiller operates an escape room on Alma School Road and said she’s had to refund nearly all the corporate events and birthday parties previously scheduled.
The business, which has groups of players solving puzzles to escape out of a room, has made adjustments in response to COVID-19 to ensure groups don’t come into close contact and potentially infect each other with the virus.
Though Obermiller’s seen more families coming in to play recently, she hopes to see more bookings soon and is assessing the situation one day at a time.
“We have enough savings to get by for a short period,” Obermiller said, “But an extended period of fear in the public and market turmoil would devastate our business.”
To help small businesses, Congress took action last week, although some wondered if it is enough to keep them afloat.
The Senate gave overwhelming approval to a multibillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill, the second in two weeks, and immediately turned its attention to a third bill potentially with a $1 trillion price tag.
Both Arizona senators voted for the bill that passed 90-8 after the House agreed to weaken language that could have forced small businesses to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave to workers grappling with COVID-19.
The bill, which President Donald Trump quickly signed, would let the Labor secretary exempt businesses with fewer than 50 workers from the paid leave requirement, in the face of a labor
shortage.
This was not enough for the leader of a small-business group in Arizona, who has said the financial burden could drive small firms into bankruptcy and noted the law does not force the same leave requirements on big businesses.
But supporters said the bill, which also mandates free testing for the coronavirus and expands access to nutrition programs for the low-income and elderly, is sorely needed.
Approval of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act came less than two weeks after passage of a first COVID-19 emergency bill, which directed $8.3 billion to fund research and support federal and state response efforts, among other elements.
But administration and congressional leaders agreed those two bills are not enough to offset the virus’s impact on the economy and already working on economic stimulus packages, ranging from $750 billion to $1 trillion.
The Trump administration is floating a $1 trillion package to include $300 billion to help small businesses, $200 billion to support “distressed sectors of the economy” – $50 billion of which would be for airlines – and $500 billion for direct $1,000 payments to taxpayers as early as next month.
Senate Democrats are pushing a $750 billion plan directed more toward un-
facility clean and discouraging groups from standing to close to one another.
Desert Sky Games, located next door to Lake’s business, announced recently it was closing down its game rooms until further notice.
Lake said business owners like her are stuck in a waiting game to see whether the government will intervene and force a statewide shutdown of all recreation services.
A few cities in Arizona have issued proclamations closing down all non-essential businesses. As of Wednesday, the city of Chandler had chosen not to issue a similar proclamation.
When it comes to government intervention, some local business owners think there are some relief measures to be taken to keep businesses open.
Michael Garcia, who owns Sight on Site Mobile Eye Care in Chandler, thinks lowering interest rates on small business loans is a great way to help entrepreneurs survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
employment and foreclosure relief programs. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it “may not be enough,” but the “needs are immediate and strong and our package addresses them.”
Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs at the Economic Policy Institute, said neither proposal addresses the realities workers are facing.
“We think $1,000 is not sufficient to cover the kind of pain people are going to be experiencing,” said McNicholas, who said the payments should be twice the amount. “You can’t just sort of do this once. We have to have a structure in place such that if the economy doesn’t rebound, additional relief is provided directly to households.”
In Chandler, business at Swingin’ Safari Mini Golf on Ray Road had been great up until last weekend, according to owner Debbie Lake, around the time warnings about COVID-19 started circulating.
Spring break is typically when businesses start picking back up after a slow winter, Lake said, but attendance has suddenly come to a halt.
Foot traffic Lake noticed on Saturday was about half of what she normally sees.
“It’s churting us big time,” the business owner said.
She’s trying to ensure the golf course is still a safe place to visit by keeping the
“If businesses can get a loan to get by – with a low interest – it's going to be really beneficial,” he said.
His business revolves around visiting workplaces and conducting eye exams for a company’s employees. So when the government started telling people to work from home, Garcia’s optometrists didn’t have anyplace to go.
Most of March had been booked up with appointments, Garcia said, but then everyone started calling him to postpone their visit.
Garcia was planning to have a grand opening celebration at his company’s new office near Pecos and McQueen roads. But the event has predictably been delayed until the coronavirus crisis subsides.
In the meantime, Garcia said he’s looking to keep his expenses down by asking his company’s vendors to see if they will accept delayed payments.
“I’m just trying to think outside the box right now and see what can we do to make sure we survive this,” Garcia said.
During this tumultuous time, Griffin Perry of GES Transportation has decided to think optimistically about the future –believing he and Chandler’s other business owners will be able to weather this storm.
“We know we will get through this,” Perry added. “We have to be strong and work together.”
Denise McCreery of DeVine Gourmet in Chandler feared for her business' future, noting specialty stores like hers are often the first casualties when people start limiting their trips from home. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
New Waymo vehicles hitting the road with tech upgrades
People who are accustomed to seeing Waymo’s autonomous vans rolling around Chandler and the East Valley are due for a surprise.
The company is rolling out a new fleet of sportier-looking vehicles. And they’ll be equipped with a new generation of hardware the company says will make their vehicles even safer.
“While these vehicles will not be providing rides as part of its Waymo One fleet right away, local residents will see them driving around the East Valley,” a company spokeswoman said.
The all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles are equipped with a new suite of cameras, lidar and radar also is less expensive, a spokeswoman said – the benefit of “over 20 million miles of on-road experience and a deep understanding of the edge cases self-driving technology needs to handle to safely take people and things where they are going.”
The new “visions system” comprises 29 cameras - giving the Waymo Driver
A sporty Jaguar comprises the new fleet of Waymo vehicles, which will be using a fifth generation of high-tech hardware whose functions are illustrated above.
different perspectives of the road with overlapping fields of view.
They’re powerful enough to see a stop sign or pedestrian over 540 yards away and “capture more detail and provide sharper images in the toughest driving
environments,” the spokeswoman said.
In a blog detailing the new technology, Waymo said custom lenses and optomechanical engineering “enable much higher performance levels than cameras on cars today.”
tight gaps in city traffic and cover potential blind spots on hilly terrain.”
Lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method using light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges.
Waymo said its lidar “paints a 3D picture of its surroundings, allowing us to measure the size and distance of objects around our vehicle, whether they’re up close or over 300 meters away.”
This technology enables the vehicles “to identify objects driving into the sun on the brightest days as well as on moonless nights” and “provides a bird’seye view of what surrounds a vehicle with incredible long-distance accuracy – seeing cars, cyclists, pedestrians or an opening car door,” Ventura Zink said.
The company said its 360-degree lidar system “provides a bird’s-eye view of the cars, cyclists and pedestrians surrounding the vehicle.”
“It also gives our trucks the ability to spot road debris hundreds of meters ahead on the highway, so there’s enough time for a Waymo driven truck to stop or make a lane change,” the company added.
The Jags also are equipped with perimeter lidar helping them “to navigate
It said overall, the system enhances the vehicles’ ability to “scale our fleet to more challenging places.”
The vehicles’ new radar complements the camera and lidar systems and makes them able to “instantaneously see and measure an object’s velocity (or lack thereof) even in tough weather conditions such as rain, fog and snow,” the company blog said.
“Performance is further improved by overlapping the coverage between radars, and with the cameras and lidars as well,” it noted, saying the radar’s higher resolution and signal processing “allow it to better detect and track objectsmoving, barely moving or stopped.”
The longer-distance detection means the vehicles have a longer reaction time to obstacles farther ahead.
The company said despite the advancements in the technology, engineers have cut production costs in half.
Waymo developed the new hardware suite because no single type of sensor can provide the detail a combination of the three provide so its vehicles “can safely navigate complex environments,” the company said.
ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF
(Waymo)
Chandler PD enhances 911 location detection
Chandler’s emergency dispatchers are utilizing new technology to help them precisely pinpoint the locations of 911 callers.
The Chandler Police Department said the Jurisdiction View, an application providing immediate geographical coordinates for calls made from cell phones, enables dispatchers as soon as they receive a call to see a signal on a citywide map showing exactly where it is coming from.
Chandler Police had already been able to trace cellular calls, said Sgt. Jason McClimans, but the coordinates were not as accurate as what can be detected by Jurisdiction View.
Since not as many emergency calls are made through landlines, McClimans said there was a need for better technology to find calls being made from anyplace at any time.
The new application finds a caller more quickly and can trace the caller’s movements in real-time, McClimans said. If a caller is lost and doesn’t know their
location, then Jurisdiction View could theoretically find them without the caller having to describe their surroundings.
Or if a caller is on the run from a suspect, the dispatcher wouldn’t have to ask what direction they’re headed because the app is rapidly updating the victim’s movements.
RapidSOS, a New York-based tech company, developed the application by pulling hordes of data collected by Google, Uber, and Apple.
The flow of information being shared everywhere between phones, cars and buildings allowed RapidSOS to build a clearinghouse of data able to be accessed by 911 dispatchers.
The application further permits dispatchers to sift out 911 callers from a cluster of other calls coming in simultaneously.
When a dozen citizens call to report the same car accident, the dispatcher can also isolate nearby calls for non-related emergencies.
“With Jurisdiction View, 911 is able to plan out their response more efficiently than ever before,” said Tom Guthrie, Rap-
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idSOS’s vice president of public safety.
“They’ll be able to see exactly when and where emergencies are happening, and better assess the clustering and separation of these emergency service requests,” he added.
The company is letting public safety agencies to utilize Jurisdiction View for free.
Michelle Cahn, a spokesperson for Rapidsos, said the company’s able to offer the service at no cost because it makes money by providing a 911-call feature on apps used by Uber and Lyft.
RapidSOS helps the ride-hailing companies provide a discreet texting or calling function for riders needing to report an emergency.
When it comes to how RapidSOS handles all the data it gathers, Cahn said the company quickly disposes of it after 911 calls have ended.
“We do not access the data and our systems are designed to automatically delete all emergency-related personal information we collect within 12 hours of collection,” Cahn said.
The company spent several years
studying how first responders handle 911 calls to develop a platform it could ideally connect citizens with public safety more efficiently.
Chandler Police was one of the first agencies to pilot and integrate Jurisdictional View into its operations and claims it has already helped officers better respond to calls.
Michelle Potts, Chandler’s communications manager, said the app came to the rescue of a distressed man needing medical attention.
He had contacted dispatchers through a non-serviced initialized call, which kept dispatchers from calling the man back to gather more information on his location.
But Jurisdiction View was able to automatically display a phone number and address.
“With this, we were able to send officers to the location displayed and the male was transported and saved,” Potts recalled. “Without Jurisdiction View, there would have been no way to access this information and the male may have never been found.”
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Dr. Eckhauser graduated from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and served as Chief Resident, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He remained on the fulltime surgical faculty for 11 years teaching general/vascular surgery attaining the rank of Associate Professor of Surgery. He then practiced in southern Ohio where he started and endovascular program and organized the Vascular Institute of Northwest Ohio.
He then practiced in southern Ohio where he started and endovascular program and organized the Vascular Institute of Northwest Ohio.
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who are unable to easily leave their homes in Chandler and Gilbert because of age or disabilities, said neither the group’s clients nor volunteers have expressed much concern about the virus.
“Surprisingly we haven’t heard from our volunteers or clients about any concerns regarding the virus,” she said.
“Appointments are still being scheduled and picked up by our volunteers,” she said. “Things may change in the future, but for right now, it is business as usual, which we are happy about. Our services help our neighbors meet their basic needs, reduce isolation and remain in their homes. I would be so worried about them if we couldn’t provide these services.
“Obviously, we can help in other ways if isolation becomes part of the scheme, such as get their groceries or medications, call to make sure they are ok,” said McArthur, adding that she desperately needs additional volunteers, who can register at aboutcare.org.
Mary Lynn Kasunic, president/CEO of the Area Agency on the Aging Region 1, expressed the same observations.
Her agency contracts with 42 subcontractors to provide a range of services to senior citizens and provides funds to Chandler for its senior center.
Kasunic also said seniors can call the agency’s 24-hour hotline at 602-264HELP (4357) if they have questions related to the coronavirus and that she would be using 50 AmeriCorps volunteers to call on seniors living alone to make sure they were okay and “let them know someone cares about them.
Meanwhile, Mayor Kevin Hartke on Wednesday said the city was encouraging residents to continue patronizing local businesses by ordering to-go items and not assembling in large groups.
But Ducey’s executive order the next day in effect reversed the attempts by Hartke and his counterparts in Gilbert and Mesa to help already bars and restaurants that were already struggling as people began staying away from public gatherings without even a government directive.
The reverberations of the COVID-19 outbreak were felt by most Chandler businesses.
Chandler-based Waymo has scaled back the ride-share service it offers with its autonomous cars.
ImprovMania temporarily halted its weekly comedy shows at its downtown theatre and all performances at the Chandler Center for the Arts were postponed until April 30.
The Chandler Municipal Court is restricting who can attend court hearings and allowing residents to resolve their cases by phone or its website.
But less clear is the future of the rest of the school year for Chandler Unified’s students.
Ducey was widely expected today, March 22, to prolong his statewide school closure – possibly canceling inperson classes for the rest of the year.
While schools are closed, CUSD has instructed families to utilize a free online curriculum that can be accessed through various websites, but that had nothing to do with the curriculum Chandler students and teachers were following before spring break began two weeks ago.
Some school districts last week were already addressing that issue in limited ways, although all school districts also were wrestling with a variety of challenges.
There is the issue of how to train teachers to teach in a virtual classroom,
their petitions at the Arizona Secretary of State’s website at apps.azsos.gov/ equal – city and county hopefuls must get signatures on paper at a time when some organizations have told employees to not even accept a pen from someone.
Chandler City Council candidates need 1,000 petitions that must be filed by April 6.
That goal is now impossible to meet, council candidate Joseph Curbelo decided as he dropped out of the race.
“You want to be in front of people as much as you can in big gatherings and groups and that momentum is gone,” Curbelo said this week.
Curbelo works in real estate and said the pandemic has severely impacted his business – forcing him to devote more attention to his career rather than a campaign.
Christine Ellis, another council candidate, said she already has enough signatures, but she was hoping to collect at least 2,000 by the April deadline.
“The more you put down – the better,” Ellis said.
since not all have that training now.
There also is a federal requirement to address services for special-needs students and the matter of address graduation for high school seniors.
Even school boards that held special meetings last week were looking for answers – and turning to state and federal education officials for answers.
For students who don’t have internet access at home, CUSD said it’s working on alternative options that could include hardcopy instructional materials.
Another issue involved food insecurity for hundreds of needy students in the district.
CUSD is distributing free breakfast and lunch packs curbside at Hamilton and Chandler high schools for all children under 18 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Even the Primary Election campaign was impacted by the virus as some city candidates struggled to get ballot petition signatures at a time when health officials are asking people to avoid human interaction.
Unlike legislative and statewide candidates – who can have supporters sign
These next few weeks of campaigning will be a challenge, she added, as Ellis looks for new ways to continue engaging residents without meeting them face to face.
Even legislative candidates who can rely on online petition signatures said the virus would hamper their ability to become better known among voters –and raise money for their campaign.
In Legislative District 18, which covers west Chandler, incumbent Democratic Rep. Jennifer Jermaine, a Chandler resident, said, “I have the necessary signatures to qualify for the ballot” and that she stopped door-to-door visits.
A cancer survivor who is in a high-risk category for the virus, Jermaine said:\
“I canvassed heavily before the Tempe and Chandler elections last week. For now, I am taking a break from going door to door and heeding the advice of public health professionals to limit possible exposure to COVID-19.”
Jermaine said she counts herself as lucky.
“County, city, and school board level candidates do not have the option to get their signatures online,” Jermaine said. “I know many of them – from all political parties – have concerns about qualifying for the ballot now that large public events have been postponed.”
As part of Chandler Unified's effort to address food insecurity among needy students, Kelsey Bredeson handed out kids' meals to parents at Chandler High School. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
Classmates mourn Hamilton High freshman
ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF
Friends of a Hamilton High School freshman who took his life March 5 raised funds to memorialize him earlier this month.
Zachary McNamee, 14, is the latest East Valley student to die by suicide, which has claimed the lives of more than 40 teens in Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek, Mesa and Tempe since July 2017.
The Chandler Unified School District notified students and parents of Zach’s passing March 6 in a letter which also listed local grief counseling resources.
“Our thoughts and sympathies are with the McNamee family during this difficult time,” the district’s letter states. “As a community, we are grieving this tremendous loss.”
News of Zachary's death came the day before Hamilton’s students were about to depart for a two-week spring break. Yet, the district still dispatched a crisis team to the campus and provided counseling for any students needing help.
“We want to offer the Hamilton com-
munity numerous resources available during spring intersession,” the letter added, before listing guidelines for how parents can help youth overcome grief.
Some of those tips include establishing daily routines, spotting changes in a child’s physical appearance, and allowing youth a chance to discuss their fears.
A few days after Zachary’s death, his friends started a GoFundMe.com page to raise money for a special memorial service.
“Zach was always an optimistic person and kept a smile on no matter how dull the days were,” the GoFundMe page stated.
His friends went on to describe McNamee as “outgoing” and expressed a hint of guilt for his sudden death.
“We as his closest friends have let him down and failed to be there for him when he needed it the most,” the page states, “like when he was always there for us – when we needed it.”
As of last week, the page had collected more than $7,000 in donations.
Mental health has become a growing concern in Chandler schools since a series of teen suicides have been reported
in recent years around the region.
On a statewide level, Arizona reported 12.4 teens per 100,000 suicide deaths in 2018 – a much higher rate than the national average of 8.9 teens per every 100,000, according to the United Health Foundation.
Local lawmakers have responded to the statistics by passing legislation to expand access to mental health resources and Chandler Unified formed a new department dedicated exclusively to counseling services.
As of last school year, however, a new state Auditor General’s report said last week, the district’s per-pupil spending for counseling and related services was well below the statewide average and the per-pupil spending by districts of comparable size.
All high school students now have numbers to crisis hotlines on the backs of their identification badges. Stickers advertising suicide prevention have been posted inside Chandler’s school buses.
As part of this ongoing push to improve mental health, Hamilton High recently
(New Prostate Cancer Treatment)
Zachary McNamee, a 14-year-old Hamilton High freshman who died March 5, is being mourned by friends and classmates. (GoFundMe.com)
New Square phase one nears completion
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
The first phase of Chandler’s New Square development is nearing its completion, but developers will have to wait to celebrate this milestone.
Built upon a 4.7-acre lot near Arizona Avenue and Chicago Street, the New Square project features a collection of modern buildings capable of housing several new businesses.
A steakhouse, honky-tonk bar and Hilton Hotel are some of the tenants already committed to occupy sections of New Square and more are still in negotiations with the project’s developers.
City leaders were planning to hold a ceremony on March 25 to commemorate the project’s progression, but the coronavirus pandemic forced its postponement to a later date.
But New Square’s developers are still excited about what this project will bring to the city.
Spike Lawrence, one of those developers, said he wants New Square to have a fun, festive vibe further enhancing the growing vibrancy of downtown Chandler.
“I want it to be a gathering place, just another reason to come to downtown Chandler – to shop, to work, to play,” Lawrence said.
Aside from retail, the new project will offer a courtyard area hosting live entertainment throughout the year.
Downtown Chandler has already become a magnet for local musicians and artists, Lawrence said, so the developers wanted to provide another venue where visitors can be entertained.
The completion of New Square marks another addition to the regional redevelopment taking place in downtown Chandler over the last few years.
At the start of this century, downtown Chandler was known more for its vacant lots and empty buildings before city
planners tried sprucing it up by redeveloping the region as an entertainment district.
When the Overstreet Chandler project broke ground in 2017 on the corner of Chandler Boulevard and Arizona Avenue, city officials described it as a “game-changer” for re-energizing this area of Chandler.
Overstreet’s attracted a movie theatre, several upscale restaurants, and plenty of office tenants. Now, the arrival of New Square further expands this multi-use concept by offering a hospitality component.
The inclusion of a 110-room Hilton Garden Inn within the New Square site provides one of the few large-scale hotels in this part of Chandler.
A new hotel hasn’t been constructed in the downtown region since the historic San Marcos Resort first opened more than a century ago.
Job growth is off the charts in Chandler, Lawrence said, so there’s going to be demand for more hotels to accommo-
date all the business travelers coming to the city.
HCW, a real estate development company, helped Lawrence to bring the Hilton Inn to downtown Chandler.
“When we were approached by Spike Lawrence ventures to develop the Downtown Chandler Hilton Garden and New Square office park and retail buildings,” said HCW President Rick Huffman, “we recognized the tremendous growth and the redevelopment of downtown made a great location for new rooms in the area.”
Some of New Square’s other confirmed tenants include Great Western Bank, WellSky, DC Steak House and The Stillery.
The Stillery, a country-western concept owned by a Chandler couple who have two restaurants by the name in Nashville, Tennessee, is their first outside of the city.
DC Steak House is relocating from a few blocks away and owners Dean and Lorie LaPlant were scheduled to open a
much larger venue on March 27. It’s unclear if the date has been delayed given the virus crisis.
In 2017, the city put out a request for proposals to develop a piece of vacant land down the street from City Hall. Lawrence and his partners had their proposal picked from a pool of at least three submissions.
The entertainment aspect of their proposal likely made it more appealing to the city, Lawrence said, since everybody’s looking for innovative ways to get people out of their homes and into businesses.
“You’ve got to be creative and create a destination for people,” Lawrence said.
The city and Lawrence entered into an agreement in 2018, allowing him to buy the property for $6.50 per square foot. As part of the deal, the city agreed to build a new parking garage along Oregon Street.
The city spent up to $1.5 million designing and building the 293,000-squarefoot, five-level garage and finished the project last October.
Lawrence, a Chandler resident, has a long history of developing projects around the East Valley. He’s been buying up properties since graduating from Arizona State University and has played a part in designing Chandler’s modern retail aesthetic.
His firm was responsible for completing the Downtown Ocotillo development near Queen Creek and Dobson roads in 2015, which is home to several trendy restaurants and salons.
Phase two of the New Square project will include a six-story building at the southwest corner of Chicago Street and Arizona Avenue. Lawrence said the building will be home to a variety of tenants and construction should start later this year. There’s so much energy pulsating around downtown Chandler, Lawrence added, and New Square will hopefully enhance this energy.
Developer Spike Lawrence was forced to cancel the grand opening slated this week for his downtown development, New Square. (Chris Mortenson/Photographer)
created a “mindfulness” room on its campus for students needing to take a timeout from the stresses of the school day.
Chandler Unified has additionally tried increasing its staff by adding more social workers at each campus so guidance counselors have more time and resources dedicated to mental health needs.
Mental health experts often describe teen suicides as a complex phenomenon not prompted by one singular reason. Some common warning signs can be extreme social withdrawals, slowed thinking and a decreased interest in school, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In appearances before the Chandler Unified and other East Valley school boards early last year and late 2018, students talked of the pressures driving classmates to consider or complete suicide.
To a large extent, those pressures are driven by social media, which has intensified a feeling of isolation.
But those pressures also include a drive to succeed academically and/or socially as well as bullying and substance abuse. Last year, the valedictorian of Chan-
dler High School’s 2018 graduation class took his life. Around the same time, a 13-year-old Mesa girl died by suicide.
Zach’s obituary describes the 14-yearold as a “bright” student who enjoyed socializing with his friends every day.
“He brought smiles, laughter and love to all his family and friends,” his obituary stated. “He will be missed and will forever be in the hearts of his family and friends.”
Chandler education and suicideprevention advocate Katey McPherson posted on social media Zach’s death should be a wake-up call.
“For all of us, this should signal the long runway of silent struggle continuing to plague our community youth,” she wrote. “It’s the corner of hopelessness and overwhelmed. A corner all of us have stood upon.
“This isn’t solely a school issue, a parent issue, a so and so issue. It’s a local and national health crisis and a desperate cry for help. A systemic failure.”
McPherson also encouraged people to contribute “to these children who are seeking to give their friend a proper memorial.” She also urged people who wanted to join her effort to message her on Facebook.
Assisted Living
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Chandler Police released this photo of three juveniles who are suspected of vandalizing seven cars in the parking lof of Chandler Fashion Center around 1 p.m. March 13. Anyone with information should call 480948-6377. (Chandler Police)
Virus crisis hits special-needs kids and their parents hard
BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor
The closure of Arizona schools in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic created particularly severe challenges for special-needs children, whose parents rely on schools and outside therapists.
Michele Thorne, a Tempe mother of two autistic, said single moms raising special-needs children are particularly impacted.
It’s why Thorne is giving a free onemonth membership to her website, damesusa.com.
“The special needs community has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Thorne, a scientist who had been working for five years at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, until she decided she needed more time to care for her son
and daughter.
“This is not an extended vacation,” she said of the closures. “This is life or death for their children.”
Thorne’s experience as a mother of special needs children – or, as she prefers to call them, “differentlyabled” kids – inspired her to start an organization called DAMES, an acronym for Differently-Abled Mothers Empowerment Society.
The acronym plays off the name of an honorific title given women in Britain and some other countries.
Thorne said the indefinite school closures and decisions by many therapists to reduce or close office hours have impacted both kids
and parents.
“Many of our children thrive on routines and this change in routines has been extremely difficult for them,” she said, adding her website provides tools to help them through this crisis.
“Everything we do is online or on our mobile app because special needs parents are often isolated from society,” Thorne said. “Right now, we are in a moment in time where everyone is isolated from each other. We have lost access to the self-care tools grounding us.”
Because schools “are an incredible resource for the special-needs community,” closures are making it more difficult for children on Individualized Education Plans requiring “specialized instruction we as parents don’t know how to do at home.”
School districts have been setting up
see NEEDS page 15
Chandler drug firm now bracing for the virus fight
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
Viraj Gandhi thinks the completion of his drug manufacturing facility in Chandler comes at a perfect time as Arizona braces for a potential health care crisis.
His company, Medivant Health Care, plans to start producing generic drugs next month in a new facility near Kyrene Road and Chandler Boulevard in West Chandler.
Phase one of the facility will employ about 30 workers to produce up to 40,000 vials of medicine to be sold to local hospitals and medical providers.
Though the facility’s been in the works for more than a year, Gandhi said the timing of its opening comes at a moment when hospitals could see a spike in demand for basic drugs.
As more Americans continue to test positive for the COVID-19 virus, doctors are bracing for the prospect of overwhelmed emergency rooms and empty medicine cabinets.
But long before the term “coronavirus” was ever spoken by public health officials, the nation’s health care network
was already grappling with an ongoing drug shortage and Gandhi was looking for a way to fix it.
“The problem in the U.S. has been there has been no real addition of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in the last 20 years,” Gandhi said.
A report released last year by the U.S.
Federal Drug Administration determined the country had a limited supply of at least 160 drugs – 67 of which had generic versions on the market.
Complex supply chains have made it harder for manufacturers to meet the industry’s demand, the FDA report concluded, because so many companies
have moved their operations offshore to countries like India or China.
Not having an abundant supply of these drugs could have catastrophic impacts on the quality of health care by delaying treatments or resorting to less effective medication, the report said.
Since the median price of these limited drugs is less than $9, Gandhi didn’t understand why more manufacturers weren’t producing cheaper drugs.
He had grown up in the pharmaceutical industry and knew all the costs associated with testing, producing, and distributing drugs. Yet, it baffled Gandhi such a rich country like the United States had a major gap in its drug supply.
“Imagine if you cannot give basic antibiotics and basic drugs to patients – why go to a hospital then?” he said.
Lidocaine, a numbing medication, is one drug with supply issues in the U.S. for several years due to manufacturing issues.
The big pharmaceutical companies are not interested in producing drugs like lidocaine, Gandhi said, because they know it probably won’t yield a huge profit
see MEDIVANT page 15
Viraj Gandhi thinks his new drug-manufacturing company in Chandler, Medivant Health Care, can fill a critical gap in the pharmaceutical supply chain. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
Michelle Thorne, a mother of two autistic children, is reaching out to other mothers of special-needs children to help them during the school closure crisis. (Arizonan file photo)
mechanisms to help fill the void created by the closures but “for now, we parents are in limbo” – particularly because the school programs are virtually the only source of needed therapy services.
Families who can afford private therapy in addition to whatever a school provides also are in a lurch, Thorne said.
“We are constantly worried about regression with our children,” she explained. “Many of them are already far behind their peers. We fear - with lack of access to services, they will not only stagnate but also regress.”
Thorne herself witnessed her children’s services canceled.
But it’s not just providers who are can-
“We in the special needs community are always mindful that there are those within this community that have medically fragile children and we are taking as many steps as we can to protect those who really need protecting from this virus.”
– Michele Thorne
celing since some parents also fear for their children’s lives as the virus spreads.
“We in the special needs community are always mindful there are those within this community with medically frag-
MEDIVANT
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technology and equipment filtering Medivant’s water resources, Gandhi said.
ile children and we are taking as many steps as we can to protect those who really need protecting from this virus,” she said.
Compounding those concerns is hoarding – especially of drugs.
“The biggest concern I’ve been hearing is not so much the schools or the therapies, but the access to prescription drugs and the incredible amount of hoarding taking place in this country,” Thorne said.
“Prescription drugs are a major concern for these families because they can often only get enough supplies for a month, and often these drugs are manufactured in China.
“With the advance of this virus, many of them are battling insurance compa-
immune system, those with chronic health conditions are not as strong to ward off the virus.
If this pandemic does get any worse, Gandhi said at least local hospitals will have another source for some medications. But the entire industry will need more manufacturers in the future to fix
nies to get more than a month’s worth of life-saving drugs for their children. This has and continues to be a problem for this community.”
Parents of medically fragile children “are having a difficult time finding enough supplies,” forcing them to “go to store after store looking for essentials to get them through and exposing them to more and more people.”
Thorn said she and parents like her pray for a greater sense of responsibility toward less fortunate people than they see now.
the underlying problem, he said.
The handful of generic drugs Medivant will produce won’t even “scratch the surface” at filling the nation’s gap, Gandhi added.
“It’s not even a drop in the ocean,” he said. “We’re barely making a difference.”
“These families are relying on others in the community to leave things on the shelf,” she said. “They are relying on people to stay home to stop the spread of this disease. They are relying on the kindness of others to help them get their child through this.” margin.
But Gandhi said he’s not interested in earning billions in revenue, which is why he was willing to invest at least $10 million to build his own manufacturing site.
And this type of project is no easy task. There are lots of regulations, a limited pool of trained labor, and an uncertain supply of water.
Drug manufacturers need lots of clean water to make their products and Arizona doesn’t have the best reputation for having sterile supply. Thankfully, there’s
More importantly, Medivant will be able to respond to the needs of doctors, Gandhi said, which will be valuable during a time when a pandemic is hanging over the health care community.
In response to the coronavirus, Gandhi said Medivant will be manufacturing at least four generic drugs to help treat cardiac disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned - individuals with heart issues are especially vulnerable to contracting the COVID-19 virus. Because the coronavirus weakens the
Medivant's Chandler plant will be manufacturing at least four generic drugs to help treat cardiac disease.
(Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
Police shoot Chandler ex-con during domestic disturbance
BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
AChandler man with a history of neglecting animals was killed by police officers on March 13 during a domestic violence incident.
Rosario Angel Alvarado, 46, died on March 16 after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds few days prior during a standoff with Chandler Police.
A woman had called 911 from a residence on Sacramento Street on the night of March 13 and claimed Alvarado was trying to kill her with a knife, according to Chandler Police.
When officers arrived at the home, Alvarado allegedly began yelling at them from inside the residence. The suspect
VIRUS LEG from page 4
are available, including using school buses to deliver lessons to students in rural areas.
Teller said that’s not really a solution in rural areas, including on reservations.
“The bus routes are only as good as the weather,’’ he said, noting it is still snow-
then exited the home carrying a replica handgun.
Chandler Police claims Alvarado refused to drop the handgun and pointed it at the officers. Three officers fired their weapons, striking Alvarado several times.
The suspect was transported to the hospital and succumbed to his injuries a couple days later. The woman who called 911 was treated for a minor injury.
Court records indicate this was not Alvarado’s first encounter with Chandler Police.
He was arrested in 2014 on 13 counts of animal cruelty after officers found several malnourished dogs on his property.
Thirteen adult pit-bull dogs and four
ing in some areas of the state.
Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, conceded the solution is not perfect.
But he said the problem, created by the viral pandemic and the order of Gov. Doug Ducey and Kathy Hoffman, the state schools chief, to shutter schools through at least March 28, provides no
puppies were observed to be covered in dirt, urine and feces. Some of the animals were bleeding and visibly wounded.
According to a police report, Alvarado claimed he didn’t own the dogs and only threw food over the fence to feed them. He told investigators he didn’t even know how many dogs were on the property, since they were too vicious for Alvarado to get near.
The Arizona Humane Society assessed the dogs and determined many were suffering from sarcoptic mange, a contagious skin disease that causes rashes and hair loss.
Because of their medical condition, the 13 adult dogs had to be euthanized. The four puppies were treated and put up for adoption.
easy answers.
“It is a Band-Aid,’’ he said. “It is something to tide us over this emergency that we’re in, this pandemic threat that we’re facing.’’
Less clear is when lawmakers will return to the Capitol after finishing the baseline budget.
Gov. Doug Ducey had proposed a $12.3
Alvarado pleaded guilty to three counts of animal cruelty, a Class 6 felony, and was sentenced by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to one year in prison. One condition of his sentencing obligated Alvarado to pay $3,000 to the Humane Society.
He was released from the state Department of Corrections in September 2015. Alvarado previously served time in prison for an assault charge committed in 1998 and marijuana offenses committed in 1992.
Alvarado’s death is the second fatal officer-involved shooting reported this year in Chandler. On Jan. 27, a 32-yearold man was shot and killed by a Chandler officer after attempting to flee in a stolen car.
billion spending plan and a $44 million tax cut for retired military based on revenue projections available in January. Since that time the COVID-19 outbreak has sent the stock market into a tailspin, cut into travel and tourism and, even before edicts to close bars and restaurants, reduced entertainment expenses.
State’s jobless benefits will stay at minimum wage
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
Arizonans forced out of work by COVID-19 may get jobless benefits – but not more than the minimum wage, no matter how much they were earning before.
State lawmakers provided additional flexibility to the Department of Economic Security to decide who can collect payments even if they do not meet what has until now been the definition of “unemployed.’’
All this comes as the nation is seeing a sharp hike in the number of people seek-
ing unemployment benefits.
For the week that ending March 14, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 281,000 people made an initial application for benefits – 70,000 more than the prior week.
So far, Arizona's preliminary figures for the past week put first-time claims at 3,844, a 14.5 percent increase from the week before. But the New York Times, analyzing preliminary data for the current week, showed nearly 630,000 claims, based on just 15 states.
Under state law, individuals who are laid off or fired through no fault of their own may collect payments equal to onehalf of what they were earning, for up to 26 weeks. Arizona law, however, limits benefits to $240 a week, no matter how much the person had been earning before. Only Mississippi at $235 has a lower cap.
The question of payments is strictly a state decision. But it is the issue of who gets to collect benefits that is now in sharp focus. One issue is that Arizona law says an individual has to be available to work for any willing employer.
A law signed in 2018 by Ducey says that people who don’t take pretty much any job after four weeks automatically lose their unemployment benefits.
The problem with that in the face of COVID-19, according to the Department of Labor, is that it does not account for what happens when an employer temporarily shuts down due to the virus, with the expectation the worker will return when business resumes.
The Department of Labor says states are free to conclude that someone who had been working for that firm can collect benefits as long as they are available to retake the original job.
Pregnancy Care Centers slate fundraising walk
BY LACEY LYONS Staff Writer
With a mission to ensure every client feels loved, cared for and equipped with the right resources, the Pregnancy Care Centers of Chandler and Gilbert strive to take the fear out of unplanned pregnancies.
And to increase awareness of this mission, the centers are holding their Preborn Vision Life Walk on April 4.
The Pregnancy Care Centers of Chandler and Gilbert offer free pregnancy testing, counseling, level one ultrasounds and prenatal classes for mothers and fathers to be.
The nonprofit helps both women and men through unplanned pregnancies.
Its operation is funded by businesses, churches and two annual fundraising events.
“We meet with women before, during and after pregnancy,” said Executive Director Lisa Henry. “It starts with a pregnancy test, then we meet with the
women for options counseling, such as if they are choosing to carry and parent if they are choosing to carry and adopt or if they are choosing abortion.”
The centers at 894 E. Warner Road, near Lindsey Road in Gilbert and at 590 N. Alma School Road near Galveston Street in Chandler.
Henry said, “Oftentimes the women just need someone to meet with and listen.”
Parenting classes are aimed at helping women who have no experience interacting with children, telling them “Even if you have had no experience or interaction with children, everyone has to start somewhere. You may feel you do not have the abilities to raise a child, but there is help available to you.
“With the support of caring people, parenting classes and other resources, you will find the help you need to make this choice.”
The centers also help women weigh adoption as a possibility, noting “it may be the best choice for you and a loving choice for your baby.”
PREGNANCY page 19
Chandler teacher named space agency ambassador
BY LINDSAY LYONS Staff Writer
Rachna Nath, a science-loving mother of two, added another title to her resume after she was named the 2020 Chandler National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar System Ambassador.
“Being a NASA ambassador means a huge deal to me because I do not just get to represent NASA and talk about their work, but being able to gain resources and knowledge, for myself, my students and even my own children is incredible,” said the Chandler teacher.
A native of Assam, India, who moved to Arizona in 2003, Rachna is a STEM enthusiast and a research-based teacher who believes in DRIPBL – Dream,
Research, and Innovate Project Based Learning.
While living in India, Nath earned her first master’s degree from Cotton College. She recently earned her second in biology from Arizona State University.
Nath is currently the STEM coordinator and an honors biology teacher at Arizona College Preparatory in Chandler. She also works with her students through Arizona State University on their ongoing research with honey bees.
She was recently awarded the Global Innovation Award by Turnitin and received an honorable mention for a Presidential Innovation Award for Environment Educators and also Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology Excite Awards.
She also was honored as an educator
by Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke
during his State of the City address last month.
She said she is “extremely honored and humbled” by the NASA honor because she can share the space agency’s resources not only with the Chandler community but also with her alma mater in India.
The Solar System Ambassadors program is composed of motivated volunteers across the nation who share NASA science and mission discoveries through a variety of events in their communities.
The competitive program only accepts applications once a year. They are vetted by NASA for the right combination of presentation, motivation and ideas for community engagement.
see NASA page 19
The Pregnancy Care Centers of Chandler and Gilbert hold a fundraising luncheon to help with their mission of providing information and resources to expectant women. (Facebook)
Rachna Nath
The centers have a small paid staff but are mostly run by experienced volunteers. Henry said a nurse volunteers to do the level one ultrasounds, which include checking for a heartbeat and confirming a due date.
A volunteer doctor instructs classes and an experienced nanny volunteers to
watch the children of those men and women who already are parents but feel they need some additional parenting resources. The center also accepts donations of items such as clothes, blankets and toys so expecting mothers can grab what they need for their baby free of charge. If expecting mothers or fathers attend classes, they can then earn what the centers call “Baby Bucks” to be exchanged for
new items for their babies, Henry said.
The walk will begin at 9 a.m. April 4 at Evident Life Church, 415 N. Gilbert Road, near Guadalupe Road, Gilbert. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and participants can opt for a mile-long or three-mile walk.
The event is family-friendly with a bounce house and face painting for children who attend.
With a goal to raise $30,000 from the walk, Henry says she is confident they will meet this goal.
The center is always looking for volunteers and donations. Henry said she expects over 100 people to attend the walk.
To register for the walk and donate please visit: togetherweraise.com/ pccchandler
Since the Solar System Ambassadors program was reorganized in 2000, volunteers such as Rachna Nath have conducted over 40,000 events, reaching more than 9 million people through inperson events.
Nath hopes to use her passion for aerospace and her presentation skills to excite and engage groups of all ages about aviation, astronomy and space exploration.
She also aims to connect other fields of science to help people understand the work of NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help them understand the interdisciplinary aspect of space science. Nath anticipates no problem arranging
the four events the ambassador program requires because of her countless opportunities at Arizona College Prep and Arizona State University.
“I am trying to create the mindset NASA is not just about physics, astronomy and math. It is so much more than that. NASA is also biochemistry and life science,” said Nath.
Nath expressed her excitement over her student’s “hydro hat” invention recently earning them a spot in the Chandler Innovations program.
She described the invention as a wearable device able to detect heat strokes and notify the wearer their body temperature is getting too high and they must cool down.
“I want to change people’s thinking
from ‘9th graders cannot think creatively’ to them saying ‘of course they can.’ All the students need a point in the right direction and the proper access to resources,” said Nath.
Nath said she enjoys getting to brainstorm, work and invent alongside her students. “Being a NASA ambassador allows me to gain more contacts and it is where my motivation comes from. Networking is one of my biggest assets and the more contacts I have, the more contacts my students have as well,” Nath added.
Nath said she and her students venture into the “unknown” of research and ideas often and added, “It is not all 100 percent success, but without failures, you do not know what success is.”
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NASA from page 17
Chandler teacher Rachna Nath, seen at right welcoming attendees at a STEM event, has been named an ambassador for NASA. (Courtesy of Rachna Nath)
Business
Couple offers PTSD therapy in Chandler
BY SRIANTHI PERERA Arizonan Contributor
Aluxurious house in south Chandler is offering treatment to people suffering from post-traumatic shock disorder.
Exhale PTSD Recovery Center, owned by Jason and Tammy Nelson and founded last year, offers trauma recovery in a pleasant, home-away-from-home atmosphere.
“There isn’t a place like this in the Valley,” said Jason Nelson, a recovered burn victim who was scarred mentally and physically from his ordeal six years ago and established the center as a way of giving back.
Though commonly associated with soldiers who suffer trauma in armed conflict, PTSD can happen to anyone, anywhere.
Jason lit a cigarette inside his home garage, not knowing about the gas leak inside. He was engulfed in a fireball suffered burns to 80 percent of his body from the knees to his ankles and waist to face.
His life was saved, but he said he received “zero mental health help” in the Arizona Burn Center, where he spent seven months. “They didn’t support the PTSD; they didn’t address it at all,” he said.
Jason underwent 45 surgeries, most after leaving the hospital.
He didn’t return to his job as a manager at a telecommunications company.
The normal life of earlier days was shattered and he was suicidal.
“There are things done to burn survivors medically necessary to save their lives – dressing changes often, scrub downs, re-bandaging. They’re very traumatic. My PTSD was a lot from that. It wasn’t from the explosion so much,” Jason said.
His family arranged a therapist and after intensive sessions, he made progress.
“This is my sixth year of recovery and finally, I’m to the point of back-to-normal. It took that long, that much coun-
compliance manager. There’s trauma massage, trauma yoga, art and equine therapies, among others, with all treatments customized to the individual.
“We have the cream of the crop working here. Most of the employees who work here have had their own trauma or PTSD,” Tammy said. “It wasn’t a requirement, but they really do understand more.”
the Chandler center.
“Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better because you’re unpacking so much in there,” Tammy said.
seling, that much therapy to get back to being who I was before,” Jason said. “I’m still not the same person.”
But he wasn’t the only person in the family who suffered PTSD after his ordeal. Tammy, too, began having extreme panic attacks.
“I actually had more PTSD than he had because I saw it all, I heard it all. He was in a coma and he didn’t remember what happened to him, but I was there,” she said. “I didn’t even know it was PTSD. I had anxiety, I was short-tempered and crying all the time.”
She looked for an out-patient facility to receive treatment but didn’t find one. The Valley offers rehabilitation centers for drugs, alcohol, eating disorders and other conditions, but not for PTSD.
It’s when they decided to create a facility to cure others like themselves, and in the process, help the community that helped them.
The Nelsons first operated Exhale on an outpatient level. Realizing its success, they opened the Chandler facility in 2018. They are licensed to treat eight individuals at a time and have so far treated more than 30 – all of whom left them glowing reviews. Word of mouth is spreading and sometimes they have a waiting list.
Exhale offers 24-hour nursing care, a behavioral health technician, three therapists, psychiatrist, medical doctor and
One of the most powerful treatments for PTSD is a psychotherapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR); it involves eye movement, tapping or sound and enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress as a result from disturbing experiences.
Jason and Tammy have both undergone the therapy and attest to its success.
During her sessions, Tammy was shown a photograph of Jason during his early days in the hospital when he was covered in bandages from top to toe. It was a trigger.
“I start crying, sweating and responding. Then we did EMDR. I followed the light, listened to the buzzy,” she said.
Afterward, she was shown the photo again and asked how it felt.
“I feel O.K. It doesn’t bother me. This picture doesn’t bother me to think about that moment,” Tammy said.
PTSD can be a result of experiencing a terrifying event such as the loss of a child, accident, divorce or firing from employment. It can occur in first responders, who frequently encounter and witness disturbing events in the course of their work.
The disorder can manifest itself as fear, panic attacks, stress, tremors and hyper-ventilation.
After EMDR, those memories are still present, but it doesn’t affect you, Tammy said.
Exhale’s patients’ average length of stay is three weeks and after leaving, they are placed into out-patient care with a reputed therapist. They also have opportunities to attend alumni events at
“There are times when it gets worse for them periodically and there’s days when I come to visit when there are patients who want to hug me and have a smile on their faces and sometimes when I come in they don’t want to be touched because they’re processing their grief and going through what they did not want to think about and go through,” she said.
“They’re forced to because it’s the only way to get it out.”
Tammy calls it “methods to the madness.”
“It seems crazy but it works. We did it ourselves,” she said.
After his EMDR therapy sessions, Jason came home with a “life-changing” difference, according to Tammy.
In addition to the mental agony, a burn patient is also physically disfigured and the therapy has to help him get past it.
“Once you get past all that and they start loving themselves, he started making jokes about his burns. He went from hanging in the closet all the time in the dark depressed to happy,” she said, adding:
“And it didn’t take long, it didn’t take many sessions to get to that. So it’s how I knew there was something to this.”
“It’s a process but it’s working,” said Jason, who serves on the board of the Arizona Burn Foundation.
Tammy, a former chiropractic assistant, is involved in running Exhale. Her son changed his degree from engineering to psychology because he developed an interest in the topic. Jason’s son is studying psychiatry.
“The tragedy was really tough for us, for our family and our friends, but at the same time, we’re better for it,” Tammy said. “We have more empathy, we understand and recognize people’s traumas. We always say, we don’t regret what happened because it catapulted us into something.”
Details: exhalerecovery.com.
Tammy and Jason Nelson’s Exhale PTSD Recovery Center is gaining ground in Chandler. (Srianthi Perera/ Contributor)
Opinion
Independent voters should be allowed in presidential primary
I’m not allowed to vote in Arizona’s presidential preference election (PPE) on March 17. It’s a tough pill for me to swallow.
I served more than 30 years on military active duty followed by 14 years in Arizona State service. Throughout both careers, I remained apolitical.
To vote in Arizona’s closed PPEs, one must be a registered Republican or Democrat. It’s a difficult ask for most of Arizona’s 1.4 million registered Independents.
I chose not to change my registration. I could not add my name to the partisan divide polarizing our democracy, even if it would have given me the opportunity to vote.
Barring registered Independents from voting in PPEs created a perception of voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression. The Legislature tacitly supports this by funding closed PPEs with public money from Republican, Democrat, and Independent taxpayers. Fortunately, closed PPEs can be remedied if there is a will to do so. Our elected officials can eliminate public finding and compel the parties to use their own money.
Letters
Or better yet, pass legislation opening PPEs to all registered voters. Democracy matters!
-Dennis Flaherty
Chandler engineer fights rigged Arizona system
If Greg Mills is not an engineer, it would be a surprise to General Dynamics.
The aerospace and defense contractor hired him from Rayovac in 1996, and put him to work designing electronics for satellites and other sophisticated systems.
As a “responsible design engineer,” he even supervised teams of other engineers at the Fortune 100 company.
But now Mills has gone solo as cofounder of his own electrical design shop in Chandler, industry insiders on a government board have decided to shut him down.
They assert any independent agent in Arizona who uses the “engineer” label or does any kind of engineering work must first obtain permission from the state –even when someone like Mills has more than 30 years of relevant experience.
The Arizona Board of Technical Registration does not care about such accomplishments.
It will not let entrepreneurs break free from existing firms and spin-off potential rival firms without first accumulating eight years as an apprentice to a
state-licensed engineer.
Mills never did this before starting his company, Southwest Engineering Concepts. Neither did the founders of Amazon, Apple, Google and HP.
They just opened shop and went to work. Apparently, Arizona cannot tolerate this kind of entrepreneurial spirit.
Fortunately, Mills decided to fight back. As SanTan Sun News writer Kevin Reagan reported earlier this year, he partnered with the nonprofit Institute for Justice and filed a civil rights lawsuit to defend his free speech rights and freedom to earn a living.
Among other issues, the complaint highlights a double standard allowing Mills to work as an engineer for someone else in Arizona, but not for himself.
The loophole, set up for big companies like General Dynamics, allows the vast majority of Arizona engineers to work without a license as long as their employer manufactures products.
Mills does not do this at his small business because he is an engineer, not a manufacturer. But he worked for 20 years as an employee under the exemption.
Even if he had stayed in the corporate world for another 20 years, he never would have met the apprenticeship requirement because Arizona manufacturers don’t keep licensed engineers on
their payrolls.
The rule only applies to others, not themselves.
Mills rejects this unequal protection under the law.
He does not even engage in the kind of engineering requiring a license. Most licensed engineers work on construction plans—signing and stamping plans for bridges, buildings and public works.
Mills does not do any of this, nor does he design anything going into such projects.
Instead, he helps small businesses, startups and other entrepreneurs turn their ideas for new electronic products into prototypes for manufacturing. This was his dream when he took off his employee badge and hired himself in 2008. Since then, his essential job functions have not changed. But now, after more than 10 years, the state board wants to shut him down and fined him thousands of dollars.
This interference is not right.
Mills’ ability to earn an honest living should not depend on whether he receives a W-2 or 1099 tax form.
A law based on such an arbitrary distinction cannot stand.
If he is qualified to work for a manufacturer, he is qualified to work for himself.
–Adam Griffin
How to help your stressed-out teenagers
BY SHANE WATSON Arizonan Guest Writer
Teens are stressed. It’s important for parents, grandparents, guardians, and other adults with teens in their lives to be aware of ways to help teens who are dealing with stress.
The good news is that we are able to
help, and that the strategies for assisting stressed out teens don’t have to be complicated.
Here are some steps for helping kids cope.
Encourage them to speak up. Let them know that you’re available and willing to listen. Set aside time to be there for them.
Let them speak and actively listen. Don’t feel as if you need to solve all of their problems. What you can do is listen and make it clear that they are being heard.
Believe them. Don’t downplay their feelings or act as if their stress isn’t real. Perhaps in comparison to what we deal with as adults, teen stress may seem less
serious or complicated, but it’s very real to them.
Empathize. Make it clear that you acknowledge their feelings as their truth and their reality. Phrases like “I understand how difficult that must be for you” or “I can tell this situation is painful for you” can make it clear to your teen that
you understand.
Help them identify what they’re feeling. Research has shown that being able to identify and label emotions can make it easier to deal with and adapt to them. Be self-aware. Be conscious of your own reactions to stressful situations around them. They look to us for guidance and leadership. It’s ok to acknowledge that you may be under stress too, but it’s important that we maintain control of our emotions.
Help them protect their body. Sleep, exercise and nutrition are important, and even more so when a teen is dealing with stress. One of the ways parents can make sure that their teens are getting
more sleep is by not allowing them to take their devices into their bedrooms at night.
Balance their technology use. Smart devices have become many kids’ primary method of communication. We don’t want to completely restrict their use. But it’s important to know how to keep their device use in balance with the remainder of their lives. Designate certain periods of the day for device use. We need to set the same example ourselves.
Encourage self-care. Make sure your teen is spending time doing things they love, things that help reduce their anxiety and cause a natural release of feelgood neurotransmitters.
These things can include yoga, meditation, art, music, writing, sports, skate-
boarding, deep breathing exercises, making or reading memes, watching humorous videos, getting outdoors, time with pets, etc.
Serve others. Have your teen join you in doing something nice for someone else. It can be as simple as an encouraging phone call, making someone a gift, or taking the time to listen to someone else.
Restore control. During times of stress, life can feel out of control, especially for young people. Let them be the one to pick what you have for dinner,
what movie you watch, or what activity you do as a family. It can be a nice change from them feeling like they have no control over anything.
Take care of yourself. We can be much better prepared to help our kids if we are taking care of our own basic physical, mental, spiritual and emotional needs.
- Shane Watson is a spokesman for the nonprofit, notMYkid, which helps families and communities identify and counteract negative teen behavior. Information: notmykid.org.
2020 FALCON FIELD AIRPORT
9 AM - 3 PM
To support preventive measures underway statewide and nationally related to the coronavirus/COVID-19, the City of Mesa has cancelled upcoming large events and mass gatherings hosted by the City through the end of April. This includes cancellation of the Falcon Field Airport Open House that was scheduled for Saturday, March 28. These actions coincide with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and the State of Arizona.
Updated information about City of Mesa facility closures and event cancellations will be provided during the upcoming weeks at www.mesaaz.gov/city-hall/coronavirus.
Sports
AIA suspends school sports for 2 weeks
BY ZACH ALVIRA Arizonan Sports Editor
The Arizona Interscholastic Association announced Monday it was postponing all spring high school sports through Saturday, March 28 as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The decision came during the executive board meeting Monday, where the board entered executive session for nearly an hour and a half to discuss all possible outcomes.
“We have about 150,000 kids that compete out of 325,000 that are in our high school association. They are very much involved in the activities they do,” AIA Executive Director David Hines said. “The first thing is, what can we do to try and give them some opportunity, if we can? We have been paying attention to the state health department, and as we move forward, we are going to use that and the CDC’s information.
“As long as schools are closed, we wanted to make sure people knew there would be not athletic competition.”
All games and scrimmages across the state will seize immediately. It was not immediately clear whether those games would be made up or canceled. At this time, spring postseason tournaments and meets will take place as scheduled. Hines said it would conduct tournaments in their entirety if the season needs to be extended along with school.
“If the state said we had to push back school then we would certainly have the ability to extend our postseason,” Hines said. “We would do that based on information from our schools. If the word is schools won’t have to make up days missed, we would stay with our current schedule and adapt the number of games we play and make the adjustment on our end.
Hines added should state officials not resume school, tournaments would likely be canceled.
According to a release from the AIA shortly after the announcement, the earliest possible resumption of sports will be Monday, March 30. However, Hines added games likely wouldn’t take place until a few days after in order to allow teams a chance to prepare.
Should schools decide to further cancel events out of precaution, the AIA will respect those decisions and cancellation fees will be waived.
“We just have to wait and see,” Mesa Public Schools District Athletic Director Steve Hogan said. “I think that’s good. Let’s take this opportunity to say not to make a decision until you have to.”
The AIA said in its release it would leave it up to member schools to decide whether or not practices for spring sports teams continue, an idea Hogan wasn’t keen on.
“I’m not real big on the idea of leaving it up to schools to practice,” Hogan said, “I think that should be something we all do the same.”
Some district and school athletic directors in attendance Monday gathered
outside the AIA office shortly after the ruling. Most, including Mesa Public Schools and Gilbert Public Schools, said they would not allow teams to practice.
Tempe Union High School District Athletic Director Bruce Kipper said in a text message, officials have “shut down all athletics and activities, including practice.”
Dr. Camille Casteel, the superintendent of the Chandler Unified School District, said she and District Athletic Director Marcus Williams would gather input from parents regarding whether or not to continue practices.
“I indicated to him that we need to get parental input and draw up a proposal to keep our kids safe,” she said. “Whether it’s through extraordinary sanitizing and keeping the numbers below the 50 mark. But having that parent support is going to be key.”
Monday afternoon, it was announced all Chandler district athletic teams would not practice. Scottsdale Unified School District also said teams would not practice during the two-week closure.
Scottsdale Unified School District announced in a statement Monday afternoon all of its athletic programs would also not practice during the two-week suspension of play.
An email to Higley Unified School District officials was not answered.
Mountain View Athletic Director Roxanne Perrin, who was in attendance, said she had received several questions regarding practice from her coaches.
“We’ve been telling them the kids can get together on their own without coaches,” Perrin said. “I don’t think that message is going to change.”
All rules and bylaws in the AIA handbook will still be applied during the twoweek hiatus. That includes rule 14.2.2, which does not allow athletes from different schools to practice or train with one another during the season. Hines said kids from the same school can train together, but should they get any instruction it has to be limited to one-on-one.
Hogan hopes to discuss that rule in depth on Monday, March 23 when the AIA executive board, its conference chair members and school and district athletic directors meet again.
“I was hoping for a little more clarification on that,” Hogan said. “I’m concerned there will be kids who break a bylaw because they inadvertently get together and go to some event or are at some batting cage together and not have a clue they’re breaking the bylaw.”
One change that will take place, however, involves transfers. Should spring sports resume as scheduled, student athletes that were forced to sit for half the season will have eligibility restored immediately.
Perrin was pleased the board’s decision.
“This has been such a fluid situation and things have been changing consistently,” Perrin said. “Our biggest concern is keeping our kids and our coaches safe and so having that two-week buffer where we aren’t having school and not practicing, I’m in favor of that.”
Hamilton coach Mike Woods addressed his team Saturday, March 14 in what was the final game for the Huskies for at least two weeks as the Arizona Interscholastic Association announced Monday it was postponing all spring high school sports through Saturday, March 28. (Zach Alvira/Arizonan Staff)
Clear Title Agency bringing new technology to real estate closings
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
Clear Title Agency of Arizona has introduced a tech-savvy solution for depositing earnest funds during a real estate transaction.
The Arizona-based company has teamed up with the application provider Zoccam to bring customers enhanced options that utilize technology to improve the real estate closing process.
This new technology being offered by Clear Title, allows earnest money to be deposited via mobile app using a photo of the check. The earnest money deposit is a key step to officially opening escrow during a real estate transaction.
Clear Title Agency Executive Vice President Mike Winters says his company saw the need in the marketplace and took the initiative to find a solution.
“We open thousands of real estate transactions each year and we listen to feedback from those customers,” Winters says.
“This type of thing has been around in consumer banking but not been available when accepting deposits for earnest funds during a real estate transaction. It’s new and unique to our industry. As a locally owned and operated company we are proud to be leading on this and bringing new technology to the market.”
The mobile app is easy, he adds. Customers can download the free app from the App store for Apple users, or Google Play for Android devices. Once they download the app, they create an account and take a photo of their check to deposit earnest money needed to start the escrow process.
“Prior to this technology, title companies needed to be in possession of the physical check to receipt in earnest money.
With this new technology, the process is expedited saving everyone valuable time.
The mobile app is being quickly adopted and has already been used by customers in every single Clear Title branch location.
Locally owned and operated, Clear Title Agency of Arizona provides full-service residential and commercial title and escrow services with multiple locations across the Valley and in Flagstaff. The company has been recognized by Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies and Phoenix Business Journal’s Best Places to Work numerous times and ranks in the top 1% of all First American agents nationally.
For more information, visit cleartitleaz.com.
Obituaries
Employment General
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Childcare Providers
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Employment General
Senior Software Engineer, IQVIA, Mesa, AZ: Eng ineer, design & develop cloud & mobile-base d p roducts using Salesforce.com, AWS, Heroku, & iOS for the life science industry. Provide technica l guidance to a distributed team to prepare technical design documents, design & develop solutions. Work i n a geographically dispersed environment. Mus t have a Bachelor’s in Science, Computer Information Systems or Engineering & 4 yrs exp in software dev elopment using Agile SCRUM, Salesforce.com , A WS, Heroku, iOS in Health care & life sciences domain. Alternatively may have Masters in Science, Computer Information Systems or Engineering & 2 y rs exp in software development using Agil e S CRUM, Salesforce.com, AWS, Heroku, iOS i n H ealth care & life sciences domain. Must hav e Salesforce.com Developer certification. Exp may be gained concurrently. Mail resume & cover letter to K. Mallardi, [Req. #R1122413 ] IQVIA, 1 IMS Dr., Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. No calls.
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Lessons/ Tutoring
PROFESSIONAL TUTORING
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Prayer Announcements
PRAYER
Dear heart of Jesus in the past I have asked many favours. This time I ask you this special one (mention favour). Take it dear heart of Jesus and place it within your heart where your father sees it. Then in his merciful eyes it will become your own favor not mine. Amen. Say this prayer three times for three days and your favour will be granted. Never been known to fail. Must promise publication of prayer. S.P.
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POOL REPAIR
Public Notices
CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified firm or team to act as the Job Order Contractor for the following:
WATER AND WATER RECLAMATION PLANT FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION SERVICESPROJECT NO. JOC-W20
The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Contractor to provide Job Order Water and Water Reclamation Plant Facilities Construction Services. All qualified firms that are interested in providing these services are invited to submit their Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) in accordance with the requirements detailed in the Request for Qualifications (RFQ).
The following is a summary of the project.
The Water and Water Reclamation Plant Facilities Construction Services Job Order Contract (JOC) will require a variety of tasks to be completed, including but not limited to services for maintenance, repair, minor and major new construction services including minor associated design services for a broad range of City Water and Water Reclamation-related projects. The Contractor shall provide all labor, tools, equipment, and materials as required (except as indicated otherwise in the specifications) to perform all work in strict accordance with the specifications and plans required for the JOC. The initial term of the Job Order contracts resulting from this solicitation will be for one (1) year and may be renewed for up to two (2) additional, one-year terms.
A Pre-Submittal Conference will be NOT be held for this project.
Contact with City Employees. All firms interested in this project (including the firm’s employees, representatives, agents, lobbyists, attorneys, and subconsultants) will refrain, under penalty of disqualification, from direct or indirect contact for the purpose of influencing the selection or creating bias in the selection process with any person who may play a part in the selection process. This policy is intended to create a level playing field for all potential firms, a ssure that contract decisions are made in public and to protect the integrity of the selection process. All contact on this selection process should be addressed to the authorized representative identified below.
RFQ Lists. The RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/construction-manager-at-risk-and-job-order-contractingopportunities.
The Statement of Qualifications shall include a one-page cover letter, plus a maximum of 10 pages to address the SOQ evaluation criteria (excluding resumes but including an organization chart with key personnel and their affiliation). Resumes for each team member shall be limited to a maximum length of two pages and should be attached as an appendix to the SOQ. Minimum font size shall be 10pt. Please provide six (6) hard copies and one (1) electronic copy (CD or USB drive) of the Statement of Qualifications by Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 2:00 pm. The City reserves the right to accept or reject any and all Statements of Qualifications. The City is an equal opportunity employer.
Delivered or hand-carried submittals must be delivered to the Engineering Department reception area on the fifth floor of Mesa City Plaza Buil ding in a sealed package. On the submittal package, please display: Firm name, project number, and/or project title.
Firms who wish to do business with the City of Mesa must be registered in the City of Mesa Vendor Self Service (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service).
Questions. Questions pertaining to the Construction Manager at Risk selection process or contract issues should be directed to Michele Davila of the Engineering Department at michele.davila@mesaaz.gov.
ATTEST:
BETH HUNING City Engineer
