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TheFoothillsFocus.com
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ................. 6
Phoenix found good and bad in the 2021 State Legislature session
FEATURES ........ 22 Starlight dances into summer with iconic musical, ‘Footloose’
YOUTH ............. 25 Students are awarded to dean’s and presisdent’s list
OPINION ................... 10 BUSINESS ................. 19 FEATURES ................ 22 YOUTH ...................... 25 CLASSIFIEDS ............ 26 Zone I
Serving the communities of Anthem, Desert Hills, Norterra, Sonoran Foothills, Stetson Valley, Tramonto, New River, Desert Ridge and North Phoenix
Anthem Area Edition
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20
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Valley’s Nicholas Balboa recalls condo collapse BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI Foothills Focus Executive Editor
N
icholas Balboa shrugs off any suggestion that he’s brave. The former Glendale resident was walking his dog in Surfside, Florida, outside of Miami, when Champlain Towers South collapsed a block away from him. He felt the ground shake and went to investigate. It was then he heard the cries of a teenage boy and other victims buried in the rubble. “It was something I wasn’t expecting,” Balboa said. “In that moment, you see it and it doesn’t register that a building just fell. It’s an inanimate object, but there are people inside. I was still processing. I began to take photos, and I got closer to the building. As I got closer, I could hear people yelling and
screaming in the debris.” Balboa responded to the 15-year-old boy, Jonah Handler, who raised his hand through the rubble. Balboa told Jonah he would find first responders. “He said, ‘Please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me,’” Balboa recalled. “I grabbed my flashlight and flashed it toward the first responders to get their attention. “A police officer came over to me and told me to get back. I told him there was somebody here. I led the police officer to him and then the officer called over firefighters and they began their extraction.” Jonah’s 54-year-old mother, Stacie Dawn Fang, was rescued as well, but she died after being taken to the hospital for treatment.
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Champlain Towers South is believed to have collapsed due to long-term degradation of reinforced concrete support structures in the underground parking garage. (Photo by Nicholas Balboa)
Meet the neighbors at Anthem resident town hall
BY ALLISON BROWN Foothills Focus Staff Writer
Anthem is hosting an in-person resident town hall at the civic building on July 28 with light refreshments in an informal and laidback atmosphere. The event gives new residents the chance to meet their neighbors, discuss
upcoming community events, ask questions of the Anthem Community Council and homeowners association and learn about community center and dog park memberships. “We have had a lot of new people move into Anthem over the last year and we had some closures due to COVID, so we haven’t been able to connect with every-
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body,” said Kristi Northcutt, senior director of community relations for Anthem. “We’re having this new resident town hall to invite anyone who’s new to the area who hasn’t had a chance to come to the civic building or meet our staff and board members, to just come in a casual,
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