THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
THE SUNDAY
Some EV ‘no’ votes on texting ban
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West Mesa Edition
Patriotism rally draws fans, critics PAGE 3 Sunday, April 21, 2019
Mesa foresees huge investment in roads near airport BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
BUSINESS................... 15 Rock climbing a growing business in East Valley.
SPORTS ...................... 18 EV standouts shine at ASU Pro Day. .
GET OUT.....................19 EV Circus harkens to the good old days
COMMUNITY.................12 BUSINESS........................15 OPINION................. ........17 SPORTS ...........................18 GETOUT...........................19 CLASSIFIED....................24
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esa knows where it’s going in the Gateway area. It just doesn’t know how to get there. The city is looking deeply into current development trends in hopes of figuring out when to build which roads for its high-flying southeastern corner. By late spring the effort will result in what will be called the Southeast Mesa Land Use and Transportation Plan. It’s the first official, in-depth study of the area since 2008, when the city published the Mesa Gateway Strategic Development Plan after 18 months of research. That document analyzed potential traffic
patterns in 2030. Now, 11 years later, the city has pushed its planning horizon out by another decade, focusing on the area from Southern Avenue going north to Germann Road, and Power Road going west to Meridian Road. The study area covers about 50 square miles. Al Zubi, supervising engineer for Mesa’s transportation department, said the city already knows what streets it wants to have in place 21 years from now. They are delineated in the 2040 Mesa master plan that voters approved in 2014. A map in the 2040 plan, for example, shows Meridian – which at that point is the county line – serving as a major thoroughfare as far south as Germann. It shows Pecos Road as a six-lane arterial between Ellsworth Road and Meridian.
Building those now now-existent arterials – and the other streets needed there – will cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. But that money comes incrementally as voters approve bond issues one by one and as the county doles out regional transportation dollars. So, Zubi said, Mesa has to play its cards in the right order. And what might have looked like the right order in 2008 might not work anymore. “There’s a lot of development that has happened, a lot of improvements, a lot of businesses, a lot of residential,” Zubi said. “We needed to update our priorities. We know what the system is going to look like in the
see GATEWAY page 3
Mesa police look eastward for expanded presence BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
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esa police are hiring 17 new officers and detectives with the proceeds of a sales tax increase approved by voters this fall, taking the first step toward a redeployment from the creation of a new northeast Mesa patrol district. Police Chief Ramon Batista said he has a highly diverse class of 30 recruits enrolled in a new police academy – one of two this year with plans to eventually add a third. Eventually, during a three-year period, the sales tax is anticipated to pay for an additional 51 officers, 31 non-sworn professional staff members and eight detectives, according to a police budget presentation before the Mesa City Council earlier this month. “The diversity ratio has been going up and up,’’ Batista said in an interview after the meet-
see POLICE page 8
The current Mesa Police Academy class is diverse and will soon be ready to take to the streets. (Special to the Tribune)
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