Parents put teachers on notice PAGE 6
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
COMMUNITY............. 16 An 11-year-old Higley Unified student writes a book to help kids with ADHD.
BUSINESS..................... 19 A Gilbert restaurateur is making patrons farm believers.
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Doughnut hours an issue PAGE 13
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Wetter-than-usual summer elevates EV mosquito risks BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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pickup truck mounted with a fogging machine drives along an East Valley roadway, unleashing chemicals into the night air in an effort to control mosquitoes and the disease they carry. Just this past July, Maricopa County Environmental Services sent out its trucks 17 days, mostly to the East Valley and largely to the Gilbert area, according to the county’s fogging calendar. They could be making many more trips as the second wettest monsoon season in two decades increases the breeding areas for mosquitos. Even without the heavy rains, mosquitoes take to Gilbert and the rest of the East Valley. “The east side is comprised of areas with lots of older communities and drainage systems,” department spokesman Johnny Dilone explained. “Plus, it has floor irrigation and agriculture areas in closer proximity to housing developments.” August’s rainfall so far is making this monsoon season the second wettest on record since 1990, according to meteorologist Mar-
The dreaded Culex mosquito is the most common carrier of West Nile virus.
vin Percha with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “So far in the monsoon season we are definitely above average,” Percha said. “Now, of course, we still have the rest of it to go and if we dry out and don’t get anymore, we will fall behind.” From June 15, the start of the monsoon season, to Aug. 12, the Phoenix metropolitan area got on average 2.3 inches of rain, Percha said. “Right now, the outlook favors above-average for the remainder of the monsoon,” he said. “The odds are we will have an El Niño by late fall and winter and there is a tendency for those years to be wetter.” El Niño is a warming in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean that brings moisture.
(Special to GSN)
Laboratory technician Scott Harden of the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department sorts through a batch of dead mosquitoes to determine how many may be carrying a virus.
Water and heat make prime breeding grounds for mosquitoes, Dilone said. Over 40 species of mosquitoes exist in the state, but only a handful spread disease when
see MOSQUITOES page 8
Mesa, Gilbert mayors side with APS in clean-energy suit SPORTS......................... 23 Gilbert, Higley high schools are ready for some football.
COMMUNITY.................16 BUSINESS.......................19 OPINION........................ 22 SPORTS. ........................ 23 GETOUT. ........................25 CLASSIFIED. ..................27
BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY GSN Managing Editor
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legal challenge to the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona ballot initiative has high-profile backing from two East Valley mayors. Mesa Mayor John Giles and Gilbert Mayor Jenn Daniels both signed on as plaintiffs on the lawsuit that challenges the ballot initiative, although they won’t discuss their reasons.
The challenge comes from Arizonans for Affordable Energy, a group funded by APS parent company Pinnacle West. If passed by voters, the measure would require some Arizona electricity providers to pull at least 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Arizonans for Affordable Energy argues that the initiative, if passed, could double customers’ electric bills. DJ Quinlan, spokesman for Clean Energy
for a Healthy Arizona, pushed back at that allegation. He said that a study commissioned by Natural Resources Defense Council and performed by energy firm ICF found that the initiative would reduce average electricity bills in Arizona by $3 per month in 2030 and result in $4 billion in savings between 2020 and 2040.
see APS page 4