East Valley Tribune: Chandler Edition - Sept. 18, 2016

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THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING

ADOT begins work on freeway

THE SUNDAY

Tribune

PAGE 11

EAST VALLEY

Tiny charity caught in flow of ADA suits PAGE 4

Sunday, September 18, 2016

FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | EastValleyTribune.com

Chandler/Tempe Edition

INSIDE

Mofford helped save baseball in East Valley

COVER STORY

This Week

NEWS .............................. 8

Former governor died Sept. 15 in Phoenix

Roadside memorials hold their ground, are allowed to remain

BY GARY NELSON TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

R

BUSINESS ................. 22 Mesa landmark Milano’s celebrates 70 years of making music

(Tim Trumble/Special to the Tribune)

The iconic ASU Gammage had an estimated $100 million economic impact on the Valley last season.

FAITH ...........................27 Mesa man met Mother Teresa, celebrates her canonization in Rome

State of the arts

East Valley venues emulate Gammage in competitive entertainment market BY LEE SHAPPELL TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR

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OKTOBERFEST ...... 28 Go German with food and music celebrations in the East Valley

COMMUNITY ............... 14 OPINION ....................... 20 SPORTS .......................... 24 CLASSIFIED ....................32

s the curtain rises on another East Valley performing-arts season, ASU Gammage is reprising its role as the 800-Pound Gorilla. The cast of supporting players also is essentially unchanged for 2016-17, which in itself is worth a hearty “Bravo” in a performing-arts community that is crowded and competitive, where not all companies survive. “Since we opened (27 years ago), we’ve added 11,000 seats in our region, so it’s an incredible market, among the top five most-competitive in the country,” said Michelle Mac Lennan, general manager

of the Chandler Center for the Arts. “I wouldn’t say it’s difficult—we had our most successful season last year in attendance and gross sales—but what is difficult is securing artists, especially when you’re next door to so many other presenting organizations. It’s challenging when you’re curating a season.” Not all in the industry in the Valley have fared as well. The Arizona Theatre Company came within days of losing its season before last-ditch fundraising saved it in July. Ballet Arizona announced that it would part ways with the Phoenix Symphony for its “Nutcracker” this year, a cost-saving move that will bring in canned music. Broadway See

ARTS on page 3

ose Mofford, former governor, beehived baseball fan and Cactus League savior, died Sept. 15 in Phoenix at age 94. She ascended to the governorship in 1988 as the state reeled from the ordeal of Evan Mecham’s impeachment and removal from office. Her tenure lasted less than three years, during which she is widely credited with an amiable, steady governance (Cronkite News) that soothed much Rose Mofford once of the angst that joked, “I used to go had roiled Arizona steady with Abner during Mecham’s Doubleday.” tempestuous term. Back about 1940, Mofford was Rose Perica, a young high school valedictorian and softball star. She made her way from the mining town of Globe, through Mesa and Tempe and into Phoenix, where she had landed a job in state government. The route most likely would have taken her along old U.S. 60, which is now known as Main Street and Apache Boulevard. She would have passed the neon-lit hotels that wooed road-weary travelers in the early automotive age—among them Buckhorn See

MOFFORD on page 6


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