THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
Coping with ‘In-Between Times’
THE SUNDAY
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EAST VALLEY
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West Mesa Edition
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This Week
COMMUNITY ....... 10 The Arizona Rangers help keep the peace.
SPORTS........................ 17 Fewer high school boys are signing up for football because of concussion fears
Battling skin cancer scourge PAGE 4
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Voters get final say Tuesday in slew of EV races Tribune News Staff
E
ast Valley voters will have their last chance on Tuesday to help decide the outcome of a number of municipal and legislative races – or at least determine who gets to the final round of the 2018 campaign season in November. Competitive council races await a resolution in Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert as well as in almost all East Valley legislative districts. Some or all council races could be resolved on Tuesday. Outcomes in the legislative primaries either will set the stage for the fall
Legislative races are hot in EV
Primary election contests exist in almost all East Valley legislative districts. Page 6. Go to eastvalleytribune.com Tuesday night for results.
campaign or determine who goes to the State Capitol in January. In Mesa, there are races for three of the four seats up for election. Six candidates are facing off for three seats on the Chandler City Council while seven candidates are duking it out for four seats on Gilbert Town Council. On the legislative level, competitive races
exist in primaries for the State House, State Senate or both in almost all East Valley districts. Of course, voters also will be deciding key races for both parties for governor, U.S. Senate and a handful of other state offices. If you have a mail-in ballot but didn’t send it off, you’ll have to turn it in at one of a number of drop-off spots set up by the county Recorder’s Office because the U.S. Postal Service will never deliver it to be counted in time. Drop off sites can be found at recorder.maricopa.gov See
ELECTION on page 6
Council to consider a re-do of a fallen Mesa attraction BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
W
GET OUT ...................19 Where you can cool off in Arizona for the long weekend.
DINING
20
Too hot to cook lasagna? Not if you follow Jan D’Atri
COMMUNITY........... 10 BUSINESS ...................13 OPINION .................... 15 SPORTS ....................... 17 CLASSIFIEDS ............. 24
hat probably is the most highly anticipated redevelopment project in the history of southwest Mesa has at last made it onto a City Council agenda. Final approval probably won’t come until October, at the earliest. But it would put the seal of city approval on a total makeover of the northwest corner of Alma School Road and Southern Avenue. The 16-acre tract, formerly the Fiesta Village shopping center, has moldered behind chain-link fences for more than a decade, a victim both of shoppers’ changing tastes and of the Great Recession, which decimated construction projects throughout the Southeast Valley. Introduction of an ordinance to rezone the property appeared on the Aug. 20 council agenda, but was pushed back a few weeks to Oct. 1. Typically, the council approves ordinances two weeks after introduction. Eventually, bulldozers will scrape away the remnants of what was one of Mesa’s most
(Special to the Tribune)
This rendering shows an architect’s vision for a rebirth of the old Fiesta Village, located in the shadow of the now closed Fiesta Mall. Once a go-to destination in the 1980s and 1990s, it has languished behind a chain link fence for years. But now City Coucil is preparing to review a proposal that would pave the way for a complex of four commercial buildings and 220 apartment units.
popular attractions throughout the 1980s and into the ’90s. Costumed waiters entertained throngs of diners at Bobby McGee’s restaurant, people lined up for first-run movies and
shoppers could browse an eclectic variety of locally owned shops. See
FIESTA on page 8