THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
East Valley $18M cash rescue effort
THE SUNDAY
Tribune
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INSIDE
This Week
NEWS............................... 3 Cities gearing up already for big count.
OPINION.................... 18 Columnist says Prescott boycott overdue.
EAST VALLEY
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West Mesa Edition
PAGE 12
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Big-dollar photo radar renewed for 5 years BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
M
esa drivers might be criticizing the city’s photo safety program for at least the next five years, but it might also end up saving some of their lives by using fear of tickets to reduce speeding and red-light running. Fearful of ending or curtailing a program credited with reducing collisions and fatalities, the Mesa City Council last week voted 5-2 to continue photo radar for five years through a contract with American Traffic Solutions at a cost of $1.87 million per year. But after all costs are deducted, Mesa makes about $1 million a year in profits – a fact that Mayor John Giles fears might feed into the false impression that the program is merely a cash machine for the city. Instead of merely being plowed back into the general fund, as in the past, Giles demanded more accountability on where the profits are
spent and asked that the money is used for additional traffic safety measures. “We need to sell this, that this is where the money is going. This is not a milking operation,’’ Giles said. While many council members appeared to agree with this concept, they expressed reser(Special to the Tribune) vations about Giles’ Photo radar in Mesa has resulted in thousands of tickets annually that bring in proposal to restrict about $3 million a year for Mesa – and, officials say, saves hundreds of people from the hours of photo death or injury on city streets. enforcement to they’re off. school hours in school zones. “I would not want to change what we have in Those photo cameras currently enforce a 35-mph limit during school hours when lights See CAMERAS on page 4 are flashing and allow a 45-mph speed when
The show goes on
EV coalition forms to address teen suicides BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
GET OUT.................... 22 British cartoon fave coming to Mesa for a visit.
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FOOD........................... 25 This bowl of comfort will warm your heart.
COMMUNITY.................12 BUSINESS........................16 OPINION.........................18 SPORTS ..........................20 GETOUT.......................... 22 CLASSIFIED.................... 27
A searing look at a tragedy
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
Tracie Jones, left, of Mesa went blind a year ago but that doesn’t stop her from directing performances by an East Valley acting troupe based in Gilbert. For her story, See Page 6.
group of social workers, counselors and teachers are moving to form an East Valley suicide prevention coalition in response to the growing number of teen suicides in the region. Ted Huntington, community programs manager for the Chandler Coalition on Youth Substance Abuse, said the coalition hopes to develop an action plan at its next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 10. “If nothing else comes out of this, there is a collaborative effort to remove the silos in our different agencies,’’ he said. “They are
working to come together as a community and they are willing to take some action.” And they now have help from the state, which has filled the position of suicide prevention coordinator that the State Legislature created earlier this year. Kelli Donley Williams, the new suicide prevention coordinator, told the group that she is looking forward to working with grassroots organizations and is planning a series of community meetings across the state. “Suicide touches me both personally and professionally,’’ Donley-Williams said. “I feel like our state plan is more academic than See
SUICIDES on page 7