Gilbert Sun News - 02.21.2021

Town to help local renters

Crime lab discussed

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An edition of the East Valley Tribune

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Gilbert gradually addressing dangerous trail crossings

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

G

ilbert resident Scott Mallor is an avid bicyclist who has pedaled far and wide but often cycles along the Eastern Canal in town.

Despite riding for 15 years, logging on average 100 miles a week, he still becomes uneasy when he approaches trail crossings.

“For me personally, I’m just very appre-

hensive,” said Mallor, a manager for Bike Masters on Williams Field Road. “I look at every car like if they will hit me.

“I’ve ridden for years so I’m aware of the dangers and peek around and make sure everything is clear,” he explained. “But for someone who is entry-level it can be dangerous for them if they don’t pay attention.

On trail crossings some have lights but the ones without, you are on your own so I’m a bit apprehensive about crossing.”

Task force to examine Gilbert social problems

The town hired a consultant to determine just how safe are Gilbert’s crossings and completed the report last August.

Town Council in October 2019 pushed up the trail crossing safety assessment study because more people are using the trails, according to officials.

“The schedule for that study was moved forward because of several bike and pe-

see CROSSINGS page 3

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BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

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ilbert is moving closer to creating a Community Engagement Task Force to tackle social issues such as domestic violence, mental health, drug abuse and diversity in town.

Council at its Feb. 12 retreat discussed the group, which has been talked about since last year when civil unrest shook the country and reached into Gilbert.

“I will be working with the project team over the coming weeks to map out our draft timeline for the work we

see TASK FORCE page 6

Trace Tolby got the first of two COVID-19 vaccine doses at Highland High School Feb. 13 during a mass innoculation event sponsored by Gilbert Public Schools that distributed a total 2,417 doses to teachers and other employees of public, charter and private schools. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff)

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CROSSINGS from page 1

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destrian initiatives that were showing increased use of trails, which in turn necessitated the need to review the safety of the crossings,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Harrison.

Council’s decision also came a month after a teenage bicyclist was fatally hit by a vehicle near the Western Powerline Trail and Greenfield Road. The crossing is included in the consultant’s “Safety Improvements Trail crossings in Gilbert can pose a risk to pedestrians and bicyclists because of the absence of any signals or other warning signs for motorists on intersecting roads. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer) for Trial Crossings” report.

The town awarded the job to Y2K Engineering, which is San Tan Vista Trail and Ray Road, No. owned by Councilwoman Yung Ko- saw a total of 704 incidents, according 10. prowski. The bid was awarded to the to the report.

The cost estimates to improve the 10 The signalized and pedestrian-hybrid company for $90,580 before Koprowski totaled $2.4 million. was appointed to Council in April 2020. trail crossings were evaluated based on At No. 1 was the Heritage Trail at The 95-page report reviewed and existing traffic-control devices, traffic Baseline Road, which has a pedesprovided recommended fixes for 46 operation and pedestrian accessibility trian light midblock. The consultant trail crossings in Gilbert – 10 signalized and came with recommendations based recommended that crossing include a crossings, three crossings with pedes- on current standards rather than the high-visibility crosswalk and improved trian-hybrid beacons and 33 uncon- standards in place at the time of their signage. construction, according to the report. trolled crossings.

For the 33 uncontrolled crossThe crossings were then ranked, All the crossings are primarily along ings, the report named the top 10 and four main trails – Heritage, San Tan based on the anticipated safety benefits included cost estimates for their imVista, Marathon and Western Power- of proposed improvements. provements.

The top 10 uncontrolled trails ranked line trails – that connect to most of the Estimates for improving the contown’s parks and parallel the Valley’s by need of improvements are: San Tan trolled crossings were not included becanal system maintained by the Salt Vista Trail and Pecos Road at No. 1; cause they can be completed through River Project. The first three trails run Heritage Trail/Consolidated Canal at maintenance and operation activities, north-south while the Western Power- Warner Road, No. 2; San Tan Vista Rail according to Harrison. and Val Vista Drive, No. 3; Marathon line Trail runs east-west.

“Low-cost improvements such as The report looked at various factors, Trail and Pecos Road, No. 4; Marathon these are estimated internally and typisuch as average daily traffic volume, Trail and Higley Road, No. 5; cally do not warrant an estimate from a Also, Heritage Trail and Lindsay sight visibility and five years of crash consultant,” she said.

Road, No. 6; Heritage Trail and Guadadata through December 2019.

The No. 1 ranked San Tan Vista Trail The consultant used crash history lupe Road, No. 7; Western Powerline and Pecos Road included recommendwithin 500 feet of the crossing for each Trail and Greenfield Road, No. 8; Marlocation. Altogether, the 46 crossings athon Trail and Power Road, No. 9 and see CROSSINGS page 4

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Some municipalities, like Tempe, have a few of their trail crossings protected by so-called HAWK signals like the one on the left. Costing about $10,000, they are activtated when someone is on the trail approaching a busy road. Other municipalities use signals like the one at the right, which specifically directs bicycle traffic, though these signals are more expensive. Gilbert uses signals at a couple trail crossings but the town also uses other signage to protect trail users at crossings. (Special to GSN)

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NEWS

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Town fixing crossing where Gilbert girl died

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

A

pedestrian beacon is coming to Greenfield Road at the Western Powerline Trail next year after it was fast-tracked following the death of a teenager on the roadway.

It will still come nearly two years after 15-year-old Lauren Hutchins, a Gilbert High School sophomore, succumbed to her injuries a day after she was struck by a south-bound vehicle while pedaling her bicycle across Greenfield Road in September 2019.

The lighted pedestrian crossing is part of a larger project to connect the Powerline Trail between Greenfield Road and Val Vista Drive.

That study had been scheduled for Fiscal Year 2020-21 but was pushed up a year by Council in its Oct. 24, 2019 retreat.

“The crossing and the trail are currently under design,” said Kelsey Perry, a town spokeswoman. “Construction is anticipated to start in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 for the crossing of Greenfield Road, including the signal.”

Council took action a month after Lauren’s death and after a number of residents had contacted the town, asking it

Gilbert resident Lauren Hutchins, 15, was struck and killed at a trail crossing near Greenfield Road in 2019. (GSN file photo) to address the safety at that location.

“I’m writing you in the hopes you can help fix a problem that in part took a life of a young girl,” wrote one man in an email. “A crosswalk/light is desperately needed on Greenfield Road between Guadalupe and Elliot. This is not the first time someone has been hit by a car.”

Lauren’s uncle and a cousin even pleaded for the Council to act, speaking

Panel OKs mandatory pledge

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

T

he way Rep. John Fillmore sees it, young children need to hear and say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school.

He convinced Republican members of the House Government and Elections Committee last week to mandate it for anyone in gradess K-4.

The Apache Junction Republican said, “I think that it’s important that we have the kids learn what these words mean and drummed into their heads. America is a country where people are still dying to come to and they put their lives at risk to come here.’’

Students in grades 5-12 would have no pledge requirement. Instead, Fillmore’s HB 2060 would require at least a minute a day for students to “engage and quiet reflection and moral reasoning.’’

Fillmore said he wants that language rather than simply a moment of silence.

“Sometimes the moment of silence is ‘shut up and keep quiet’ vs. ‘think about what is good for society or yourself or your family, and for your parents and for your country and community,’ ‘’ he said. “Even if they only think about what they’re facing that day or the trials and tribulations in their little lives, I think (for) them to have that ability to have

see PLEDGE page 12

at the Oct. 17 meeting in 2019.

“There are a lot of children trying to cross that road for a while now,” said Darin Houle, who brought his young son Max. “I’m here on behalf of the Hutchins family and everyone else to help protect future accidents where another child could be killed.

“If the city can’t afford it, I would gladly go buy paint,” Houle said. “If you’d provide me a police officer, I’ll paint a crosswalk there. I’ll help pay whatever it needs so that there’s no more future accidents.”

Lauren’s parents declined to comment on the story.

According to the town at the time, it was unaware of any previous such incident at that location.

Houle also has asked the town to consider naming the crossing after his niece.

“The town has been made aware of the naming suggestion and will have more information as the project progresses,” Perry said.

Police did not pursue criminal charges against the motorist, a 56-yearold woman who said she was driving 35 mph when the bicyclist appeared in front of her, according to the town.

The posted speed limit for the four-lane

road is 45 mph.

With media and public attention on the accident, Town Attorney Chris Payne in an email advised sticking with the town-released statement and against answering questions about the accident.

“There is a real potential for litigation against the Town due to the accident,” Payne said. “As a result, I recommend not answering questions about it.”

The family, however, never filed a claim against Gilbert, Perry said. There also is no court record of the family pursuing a case against the driver.

According to Perry, the crossing, which includes the signal, ADA-accessible pedestrian ramps, is estimated to cost $1.3 million. The trail itself is estimated to cost $2 million, she said.

The signal’s $344,483 cost will be covered by a Maricopa Association of Governments grant, according to town documents.

The crossing was ranked among the top 10 uncontrolled trail crossings in need of improvements by a consultant.

Perry said it was anticipated to go out to bid for the crossing between February to April and that construction, including the traffic signal, will take about eight months to complete.

ed improvements such as installing stop signs on both trail approaches to Pecos, widening the existing sidewalk on the north and south sides of Pecos between the trail approaches.

It also recommended signs directing users to the nearby intersection of Lindsay and Pecos roads, which has a traffic signal. The cost of that project was estimated at $243,562.

The most expensive fix was the No. 9 ranked Marathon Trail and Power Road at $552,172, which include recommendations such as building a new pathway under the existing East Maricopa Floodway bridge at Power Road and at Guadalupe Road and installing overhead pedestrian lighting underneath both the bridge decks to light the

pathway.

The Greenfield Road trail crossing, where the teen girl was killed, and No. 3 ranked San Tan Vista Trail and Val Vista Drive were already scheduled in the town’s Capital Improvement Plan.

“There were seven additional projects identified and created as part of the Safety Crossings Study that are in the draft CIP update that will be presented to Council as part of the budget process this year,” Harrison said.

The seven trails proposed for funding are Marathon Trail at Higley Road, Marathon Trail at Pecos Road, Heritage Trail at Guadalupe Road, San Tan Vista Trail at Pecos Road, Heritage Trail at Lindsay Road; San Tan Vista Trail at Ray Road and Marathon at Power Road.

CROSSINGS from page 3

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need to do and when we think this effort will be ready for Council action,” Councilwoman Kathy Tilque told Gilbert Sun News last week. “My hope is that we will be able to bring recommendations to the full Council by mid- to late-May.” Tilque at the retreat volunteered to work with eight employees to narrow the task force’s scope and determine how many members to appoint. With a lifelong call for serving, the former 24year former Gilbert Chamber leader said she hoped to use her collaborative leadership style to bring about positive change in town.

Tilque said although Gilbert prides itself for its culture of kindness and helpfulness to others, there are many needs and challenges to be explored.

Tilque and the project team will rely on the town’s community needs assessment study and the feedback from the listening sessions held over the summer for their work, explaining they “will help to guide us in crafting a proposed scope of issues for the task force to address.”

The task force was born out of Coun-

cil discussions last fall about resurrecting the Human Relations Commission, which was tasked with addressing diversity problems.

The commission began meeting in 2000 but dissolved in January 2017 due to the lack of pressing issues, according to a former councilman.

The commission resulted from a recommendation by a task force that formed in 2000 in response to assaults in town by a white supremacist group of local high schoolers called the Devil Dogs.

Several former commissioners interviewed last year by Gilbert Sun News said they felt the group lacked any authority to effect meaningful change on race relations in Gilbert.

Council last year felt the need to address diversity after the racial unrest in the country manifested in Gilbert as weekly protests at Warner and Gilbert roads.

In Gilbert, Black Lives Matter proponents squared off across Warner Road against pro-police supporters whose

protests looked more like a Trump campaign rally.

The weekly face-off, which started in June, turned violent in August, resulting in a heavy police presence and concrete barricades separating the two groups for the duration of the protests, which lasted until the presidential election.

“Our largest protest was about 500 individuals,” said Leah Hubbard Rhineheimer, deputy town manager at the retreat. “We had Gilbert residents that participated on both sides of the corners.

We know those residents young and old felt they had a perspective they wanted to share and that they needed to share with the community.

“We also know as time went on the activities and the dialog became less and less productive to the point we had to deploy barriers and barricades to ensure safety for everyone combined.

These protests created a huge strain on our first-responders and on our community as well.”

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TASK FORCE from page 6

Town say they don’t know the full cost of the police enforcement and barricades.

The study Tilque and the project team is using was commissioned by the town.

Williams Institute for Ethics and Management completed a community needs assessment in 2014 and updated it in 2019. It identified vulnerable groups and issues that needed attention – including suicide, mental health, domestic violence and substance abuse.

During the listening sessions in June, the public was able to share their views on racism and police reforms with town officials.

Some concerns from those sessions included police transparency and a desire for the town to be more inclusive and celebrate diversity, according to Hubbard Rhineheimer.

“What’s interesting is a lot of that feedback has very close parallels or a nexus to the feedback from the community needs assessment that was shared in 2019,” she said, adding: “There were specific recommendations, the high-level recommendation was to develop programs to increase and enhance experiences of culturally diverse individuals, immigrants and refugees.”

Council had several options to structure the group, including forming a board or commission, work group, panel or task force. A majority of the Council members preferred a task force because it would lend more flexibility.

“Task forces work very well,” Councilman Scott Anderson said, adding he liked the idea of having an ad hoc group work on a specific task and then disbanding.

Anderson added that the Council in the past has established boards and commissions that didn’t work out well.

Bus Obayomi, who is Black and ran for Council in the August primary, was disappointed to hear a task force will be formed instead of a commission.

“A task force is meant to be temporary, just look at the issues and terminated,” Obayomi said. “Issues change over time.

A commission is more long term.”

Obayomi also has shared with town leaders his proposal for a Human Re-

NEWS

lations Commission with three scopes – community engagement, community development and community advancement.

He proposed community-wide engagement to improve relations between police and community and work on social issues such as suicide rate and addiction among youth and how to eliminate prejudice and discrimination.

Obayomi added he was interested in applying to join the task force.

“It’s a good opportunity,” he said. “I’m interested in how I can drive it in a positive way. If that’s the route the town wants to take I want to see what impact I can make.”

Hubbard Rhineheimer also proposed next steps, including building upon Gilbert Police’s new Data and Transparency Hub, where the public can view information such as calls for service, arrest statistics and crime reports.

Rhinehammer suggested a “transparency roadmap where the police department would work with our digital government team to proactively communicate messages to the public that would share how we are holding ourselves accountable, the things we are doing in trying to create and maintain transparency.”

Additional proposals included expanding police-community partnerships such as holding quarterly virtual town halls hosted by the chief, developing a strategic plan specifically to address domestic violence, sex crimes and human trafficking and conducting an in-depth assessment on engaging with culturally diverse populations in town.

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Gilbert awaits results of crime lab study

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

T

own Council should know in June options for a crime lab in Gilbert.

McClaren, Wilson & Lawrie, Inc. is performing a needs assessment while exploring potential partnerships and looking at the cost and design if the town opts to build its own facility.

The town hired the Virginia-based consultant last June for $99,311 and spent an additional $36,000 for the internal management of the contract.

“We are looking at the future of how are we going to handle our crime lab needs,” Police Chief Michael Soelberg told the Council at its recent retreat.

“Our expectations in the community… (are) synonymous with safety. We want that to continue.

“Our community has those expectations that we will do everything we can to make sure we maintain that safety and part of that piece of the safety pie

or the puzzle is a proper, quick, efficient crime lab which provides us with the evidence we need in order to prosecute our crimes successfully.”

The chief said a full-service crime lab would help the town maintain and improve public safety with increased conviction rates, better efficiency and improved customer service.

Gilbert with 260,000 residents has consistently ranked in the top in the country for safety. The town is expected to reach building a decade from now with some 330,000 people.

The town currently contracts with Mesa and the state Department of Public Safety to process evidence in their crime labs.

Since 2012, Mesa has been handling evidence such as DNA, toxicology and controlled substances while DPS handles items, including firearms and impressions like from tires and footwear.

Gilbert Police handle fingerprinting, crime-scene processing and digital fo-

rensics in-house.

According to a Gilbert Police spokeswoman last year, the department sent approximately 3,500 cases a year to Mesa for processing at a cost of $513,884 for fiscal year 2019-20.

And though the town’s contract with Mesa will expire in July 2022, the city has indicated it’s willing to continue service for Gilbert, Soelberg said.

“The current contract with Mesa has a 12-month-out-clause for both,” Soelberg said. “If that happens to us, we have 12 months to figure out what to do. The only option is DPS, which is not a good option for us and the community.”

Because DPS handles all the evidence in the state, its caseload is heavy and backlogged, according to Soelberg “They do good work but they’re not able to take the capacity we send them,” he said, adding a town-owned lab would ensure stability.

Soelberg said the town has talked to

everyone in the East Valley about a potential lab partnership.

He said Chandler, which was in a similar predicament as Gilbert, was considering financing a $33-million crime laboratory in a bond for this November and depending on the vote outcome, the city could be a potential partner.

Soelberg also said Mesa has a full-size service lab that has the capacity to expand, so the town will be talking with the city to find out how realistic that is, the timeline and what the cost would be.

“Mesa is open to long-term solutions,” he said. “Our concern is longevity and are we in the position to be self-sufficient if things change.”

He said Tempe, which relies on DPS, was interested in talking with Gilbert but also was communicating with Mesa.

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

NEWS

Retaliation threatens voucher extension bill

9

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

R

epublican senators gave the goahead Monday for what could be a huge expansion in the use of tax dollars to send children to private and parochial schools.

But it may not be the last word.

On a 16-14 party-line vote, lawmakers advanced SB 1452 that Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, said will give new educational opportunities to students living in poverty. He said it is designed to ensure these children are not effectively trapped in neighborhood public schools that do not meet their needs.

It even allows parents to use their voucher dollars to finance transportation to get their youngsters to schools that are not nearby, including options like taxis and rideshare services.

And Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said there is a particular need in the wake of COVID-19, which has resulted in the closure of many public schools.

He said that has sent many parents looking for private schools that do have in-person instruction. What SB 1452 does, Petersen said, is make that a more realistic option for families who cannot otherwise afford it.

But the legislation took a detour last Tuesday.

In what appears to be a bit of political payback, Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, who a day earlier had voted for the measure, persuaded 19 of her colleagues to support her motion to reconsider SB 1452.

That included not only all 14 Democrats who have opposed the bill all along but six Republicans, including herself, who voted for the plan.

Her action came immediately after the Senate, on a tie vote, killed her proposal to make it easier to remove people from the “permanent early voting list.’’ Boyer voted with the Democrats to kill her SB 1069.

Ugenti-Rita did not respond to a request by Capitol Media Services for an explanation of her action.

But Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, said it was abundantly clear in her mind

Paul Boyer

Michelle Ugenti-Rita

what was occurring: retaliation. “Sometimes I feel like I have returned back to high school,’’ she said.

“I came here to vote on the merit of the bills,’’ Townsend continued. “And I’m horrified by what I saw this afternoon.’’

The vote does not necessarily mean that Boyer’s plan to make a majority of Arizona public school students eligible for vouchers of state tax dollars to attend private or parochial schools is dead. But it means it won’t move forward to the House until the dispute is settled.

Giving the bill another look is in line with what Democrats like Sen. Rebecca Rios of Phoenix want.

“We’re going to do this under the guise of helping poor children and children of color,’’ she said.

Sen. Kirsten Engel, D-Tucson, said there are ways to “game’’ the system of vouchers, formally known as “empowerment scholarship accounts.’’

She pointed out that eligibility extends to any student attending schools, which have enough poor students to classify them as eligible for federal Title I funds.

The income of any given child is irrelevant.

That potentially makes more than 700,000 students eligible for the vouchers out of the 1.1 million youngsters in public schools.

Engel pointed out that Boyer’s bill says that a student need be in a Title I

school for just 30 days to qualify. And given Arizona’s open-enrollment policies, she said, a parent of means who wants a voucher could put a child into a Title I school for a month, meet the requirement, and then be eligible for those state dollars to send the youngster to a private or parochial school.

The debate on the bill, which now goes to the House, took on racial overtones.

“This 100 percent furthers de facto, if not de jure, segregation,” said Sen. Martin Quezada.

That drew an angry reaction from Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who pointed out that civil rights leader H.K. Matthews supports the bill and the whole concept of vouchers.

“If the system is failing a low-income child, you are not allowed to fund your system off the back of that child and cry ‘racism’ if the child has an opportunity to leave,’’ he quoted Matthews.

“School choice is an extension of the civil rights movement because it gives parents, especially low-income and minority parents, the rights and resources to choose any school their child needs.’’

Boyer put a finer point on it.

“A family choosing for themselves to be in any school that works best for their child?’’ he said. “That’s not segregation.

That’s freedom.’’

Rios, however, said the vouchers of about $6,400 are not enough to help

Warren Peterson those truly in need as it does not cover the full cost of tuition at a private or parochial school. The result, she said is that only the families who can afford the difference will be able to take advantage of this.

Sen. Tony Navarrette, D-Phoenix, said state lawmakers, in declining to add needed dollars, had created “a manufactured crisis’’ in public schools to then use as an excuse to say that students need vouchers to go elsewhere.

If the party-line stance in favor of expansion holds, the measure should clear the House where Republicans have a 31-29 edge. And Gov. Doug Ducey has signed other voucher bills that have reached his desk.

But the last time GOP lawmakers sought to expand eligibility foes gathered enough signatures on petitions to send the issue directly to votes. And they overrode the legislative decision by a 2-1 margin.

There also has been some discussion about a legal challenge should the measure become law.

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Gilbert may sue company over sign flap

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

G

ilbert will sue a Mesa sign company that installed the crowd-scene graphics at the Cactus Yards ballpark if both sides fail to reach a resolution over the material used for the job.

Town Council last week without discussion gave Town Attorney Chris Payne the go-ahead to initiate litigation against Sierra Signs. The town would hire an outside attorney and anticipated recovering the cost if it wins the suit.

“The Town is wasting taxpayer monies if it files a lawsuit,” said attorney Ashley Adams, representing Sierra Signs, which has been in business for the last 30 years.

At issue is the aluminum panels Sierra Signs used for the town’s sports facility, which re-opened in February 2019. Gilbert shut down Cactus Yards in July 2017 for needed repairs and took back control from operator Big League Dreams.

Council in December 2018 voted to pay Sierra Signs $248,508 to fabricate

the grandstand graphics to replace the original graphics that were printed on vinyl tarps and had premature wear and a poor lifespan of one to three years.

The company was one of three that submitted bids to do the project with vinyl and the only one that gave an alternative quote for the more costly aluminum paneling.

Under the contract, the town was buying the top brand Dibond aluminum composite paneling for the outfield walls.

Instead, the company without telling the Town substituted some of the aluminum panels with the brand Maxmetal that the town asserted was of a lower quality and not what it paid for.

Former Councilman Jared Taylor and another sign company that did not bid on the project expressed concerns that Sierra Signs could not provide the Dibond at the price it quoted the town in January 2019. They went to the company for answers, conducting a site visit and reviewing the invoices for the project.

These are difficult times for everyone.

We find ourselves in uncharted waters while the demand for our services continues to grow.

In the midst of this pandemic, Chandler/Gilbert ARC continues to work diligently to maintain safe programs for the vulnerable people we support resulting in service modifications to our group homes and program sights in order to keep fulfilling our mission. We need your help.

The recent CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act allows taxpayers to take a charitable deduction of $300, even if they do not itemize. And the more recently Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extends and modifies the $300 charitable deduction for nonitemizers for 2021 and increases the maximum amount that may be deducted to $600 for married couples filing jointly. *Contributions also qualify for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on your AZ Tax Return. The maximum credit is $400 for a single head of the household or $800 for married taxpayers.

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After nearly a year of Sierra Signs maintaining it installed Dibond, the company owner acknowledged the switch but stated she was unaware of it because she had been out on medical leave and had since fired the employees involved.

Grimco, which provided Sierra Signs with Maxmetal, was given panel samples used at Cactus Yards that it sent out to an independent laboratory for testing.

According to a Grimco representative’s letter to the town, although the lab results showed the quality of Maxmetal panels, it “is not an equivalent to Dibond ACM and was not sold intended to be an equivalent.”

In a Feb. 3 letter, Payne rejected Sierra Signs’ offer of a five-year extended warranty “because it does not fully compensate the Town for the harm caused by Sierra Signs’ breach of the Agreement.”

Instead, Payne offered to settle the matter if the company provided a fiveyear full warranty for the paneling and the graphics and $23,382 – the difference between the material the Town

contracted for and what it actually received.

Sierra Signs counter-offered with $5,000, which the Town never responded to, according to Adams in an email.

“The Town has no damages,” Adams said. “Any warranty it would have received has since expired, and expired after one year. The materials were examined, at the direction of the Town’s attorney, and were found to be of equal, if not better quality, thickness, and durability.

“There have been no problems with the signs whatsoever, and they look great. We intend to seek our attorneys’ fees and costs if the Town does file suit, which will far exceed any alleged damages that the Town claims it has suffered.”

Council at the same meeting adopted an ordinance allowing Gilbert officials to suspend or debar a contractor from contracting with the Town on projects due to serious poor performance, lack of business honesty and integrity.

An appeal process is included in the ordinance.

position to help fund or partner on a lab but are looking at contracting out for the service.

The town also could partner with a private lab, although the consultant wasn’t able to find any public/private partnerships of this sort, Soelberg said.

That option has drawbacks – namely with the expense associated with transporting evidence back and forth with a lab, because most of them are out-ofstate.

Gilbert can ship all its evidence to NMS Labs in Pennsylvania, without worrying about a chain-of-custody issue, and have it shipped back but at a “huge cost,” Soelberg said.

Councilwoman Aimee Yentes, who had reservations about the issue back in June, said she ultimately would be in favor of Gilbert entering into an agreement with other Valley municipalities or contracting with a private forensic lab.

some kind of reasoning is a good thing.’’

Fillmore pointed out his measure does permit parents to excuse their children from the requirement.

Tory Roberg, lobbyist for the Secular Coalition of Arizona, suggested anything that pressures students to recite the pledge, with its language about the county being “one nation under God,’’ could be illegal religious coercion.

Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, said he was “amazed’’ at how many people had

registered at the legislative web site as opposed to the measure.

Payne pointed out that lawmakers begin each session with the same pledge. “I just don’t get it,’’ he said. “I thought we were in America.’’

In the only case addressing this, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that an Alabama law mandating a moment of silence was unconstitutional.

The 7-6 vote sends the measure to the full House.

LAB from page 8

PLEDGE from page4

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

NEWS

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Gilbert gets $7M to help with rent, utility debts

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

G

ilbert Town Council has approved two nonprofits to use a $7.7-million federal pandemic-relief grant to help residents who are behind in their rent and utilities.

Council last week approved Save the Family and AZCEND to distribute the funds. Both contracts end Dec. 31.

“My concern with this is more scope than anything,” said Councilwoman Aimee Yentes, the sole dissenter. “I know there are people in our community hurting, who are struggling to keep up with rent and utilities.”

Yentes said the town already gave $2 million of its initial federal allotment of $29.2 million from the coronavirus aid bill to nonprofits to help with those specific needs.

She asked town staff how many households would benefit from the grant.

Melanie Dykstra, volunteer and community resources manager, said there

was no way to determine who will qualify in Gilbert “because it is based on their current circumstances and they must meet the eligibility standards as set by the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.”

Gilbert on Jan. 5 resumed utility disconnections due to nonpayment and since Feb. 3, 500 residential properties have been disconnected, according to Kelsey Perry, a town spokeswoman. The figure, however, does not specify if the disconnects were due to COVID-related hardships.

Yentes at the meeting said she would like to see evidence that the town needs the full $7.7 million.

“I am considerably concerned with the deficit spending at the federal level,” she said. “We’re around $28 trillion in debt and no slowing down of this spending and printing of money.

“I would feel more comfortable with this if we knew the scope of the need and that $7 million in our community is what is really necessary to address that housing instability specific to what we have

seen as a result of COVID.” She added the two nonprofits approved to oversee the funds do a good job but “we can’t just keep spending our way into oblivion. My belief is we need to be more specific and scale down the scope of what we are spending those dollars on.”

Councilwoman Kathy Tilque pointed out quarterly reports of how the money was spent must be provided to the town and that any unspent funds would be returned to the federal government.

Dykstra also addressed Yentes’ concern that the eligibility is up to 12 months.

Although the town is allowed to pay 12 months ahead, it will instead pay three months and then check on the recipients to see if they still have a need and if they still qualify for help, Dykstra said.

Eligibility criteria for a renter household include unemployment or financial hardship due to COVID-19, risk of being homeless and a household income at or below 80 percent of the area median.

The funds cannot be used for mortgage payments and residents living in county islands in Gilbert are not eligible.

Yentes asked if the town had the ability to specify how much money it needed for this when it applied for the grant in January.

“It should start with a need and accept $2 million if that is what the need is required for instead of going forward and sending money back,” Yentes said.

Dykstra explained the U.S. Treasury used a formula in determining how much each applicant received.

“There was no opportunity to ask for a different amount,” Dykstra said. “At the time, this was the final determination for us.”

To which, Yentes responded, “I guess that is one of the reasons with what’s wrong with our federal government.”

Residents who want to apply for help can do so by going to gilbertaz.gov/ residents/community-and-neighborhood-services/community-resources/ foreclosure-prevention-predatory-lending-information

son,’’ he said, “more people wanting to watch it in a group setting because maybe they have a $20 bet on the game.’’

The 9-1 vote followed testimony by a parade of lobbyists for professional sports organizations.

Several of them told of the financial woes they faced after the pandemic shortened the seasons. They see legal wagering – and the money generated – as a financial lifeline.

The plan, if approved would generate anywhere from $20 million to $42 million a year for the state – lawmakers could use for new or expanded programs or even to grant tax cuts.

Only Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, D-Tucson, cast the dissenting vote, stating “Gambling is an addiction.’’

“People lose their homes and their livelihoods from gambling,’’ Powers Hannley continued. “We need to realize that we could have unintended consequences from expansion of gambling.’’

The Tucson lawmaker also said she’s not convinced that the private companies that will be hired by sports teams and franchises to run the operations will properly store and protect private information of those who place their bets online.

Powers Hannley said this could provide the opportunity for companies to “geotrack’’ the gamblers who make their wagers through their smart phones.

But other lawmakers were more inclined to listen the lobbyists who saw nothing but positive out of this.

Rob Dallagher who represents the Arizona Cardinals, one of the teams that would get the right to establish its own online and in-stadium wagering facility where people could bet not just on Cardinals game and not just on football but on any professional or college sporting event anywhere in the country.

Local lawmaker’s gaming law advances

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

P

romoted by an aide to Gov. Doug Ducey and urged on by sports teams and Native American tribes, a vastly expanded legal gaming proposal for Arizona has cleared a hurdle.

The far-reaching legislation approved by the House Commerce Committee would legalize the ability of Arizonans to wager on professional and college sports.

Betting on fantasy sports also would become legal if HB 2772 becomes law.

And all that could be done online through a smart phone.

On top of that, off-track betting locations and service organizations would get the right to legally offer keno. That’s a form of lottery but with a new game and new numbers up to 15 times every hour.

Chandler Rep. Jeff Weninger, whose district includes part of Gilbert, is sponsoring the House version of the off-reser-

Rep. Jeff Weninger vation gaming plan.

He said he sees a possible ripple effect.

“I truly think you’re going to see things where more people are going to games because it is exciting maybe to have a bet and maybe watching the game in per-

see GAMING page 15

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

NEWS

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Kids will get grades, but Arizona schools won’t he Arizona Department of Education wants to make sure parents understand their kids will be getting letter grades this year – and to drive home the point, the department sent the message last week in capital letters.

Actions taken by the governor and Legislature earlier last week apply to schools but “NOT individual student grade (ex. ‘A in Chemistry’ or ‘C+ in English’) – those are under the purview of local control,” the department said in a statement.

The statement followed Gov. Doug Ducey’s signing of a bill that declared state schools will not get grades reflecting their students’ performance on the AzMerit standardized tests this year, because of the ongoing pandemic.

An accompanying executive order and statement from Ducey said the law allowed “some flexibility around the state’s A-F letter grade system.”

Some parents apparently read that to mean the change applied to the letter

grades their kids receive – not their kids’ schools.

Phoenix resident Lori Worachek, who has two daughters in the school system, said her initial reaction was that the executive order was unfair to kids.

“It wasn’t the right way to approach it because it’s not fair to the kids that have been working hard,” she said.

But that was never the intention of the bill, said Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, the lead sponsor of HB 2402.

“Letter grades for schools are used by the state, by parents and by communities to hold schools accountable for teaching students,” Udall said.

“School letter grades include measures of student achievement on the statewide assessment, student growth, attendance, college and careers readiness indicators, metrics of various subgroups, etc.,” her statement said.

Suspending letter grades for students would cause serious issues with college admissions and preparation for future courses, Udall said.

In a letter accompanying his approval of the bill, Ducey said the law calls for stu-

dents to continue to be evaluated, “while also recognizing this year is unique and provides some flexibility around the state’s A-F letter grade system.”

But those student assessments are no good unless the board of education uses the data to compare learning progress during the pandemic year to other years, Ducey’s letter said.

“Students have been kept out of school for far too long, and I have serious concerns about the learning loss that has occurred this past year,” he said in the letter to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. “Getting kids caught up and on track needs to be a top focus of ours.”

Toward that end, Ducey signed an executive order directing the state board to use the AzMerit data – which he called a “critically valuable tool to gauge the educational attainment of Arizona students” – to prepare a report by Nov. 1 on academic progress in the past year and to present “evidence-based strategies to mitigate the impact of learning loss.”

The state Department of Education said it is ready to work with the Arizona State Board of Education “to analyze

data around the learning that occurred during the pandemic and strategies to address the opportunity gap to help schools meet all students’ academic needs.”

Sergio Chavez, president of the Arizona Parent Teacher Association, has no doubt there has been a “learning loss” the past year, as students and teachers have tried to figure out remote learning.

He noted the problems students might face when the teacher has recorded a lesson and an assignment, for example, but the student has questions and no opportunity to ask the teacher face-to-face.

Chavez said he hopes for strategies to “can help catch the children who are behind and it actually becomes what it says it’s going to be.”

After getting a clearer picture of the law and the executive order, Worachek called it “a good thing.”

“I think that’s a brilliant idea because it would be nice to get a perspective on the impact that the pandemic and virtual learning has had on the learning and the kids’ ability to be successful or not in the school year,” she said.

“If I wanted to go today and make a sports bet, there is a way for me to do that,’’ Dallagher said.

“What I’m not so certain about is, if I win, am I going to get paid, or is the person holding that bet for me using data that is legitimate to determine whether I won or lost that bet,’’ he continued. “And this bill covers both of those.’’

Amilyn Pierce, vice president of the Arizona Diamondbacks, said teams elsewhere have brought in new cash because their home states have given the goahead for sports wagering since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 voided a federal law banning such gambling.

“In the years since the ruling, we have watched as other states have significantly implemented sports betting and what it has done to the financial health of the teams who have been able to participate,’’ she told lawmakers.

“We cannot let Arizona fall behind, putting our sports teams at a significant

disadvantage in a competitive market.’’

What’s in HB 2772 and a mirror bill in the Senate of SB 1797 are half of a deal that Ducey cut with tribes as they are renegotiating the gaming compacts first approved in 2002.

In essence, the tribes would get opportunities for additional locations for casinos and the right to operate new games like craps and roulette. They, too, will be able to take in sports bets.

All the terms of that, however, have not been made public. Anni Foster, the governor’s legal counsel, said her boss is entitled to approve new terms without the approval of lawmakers.

What does require legislative ratification is what the tribes are giving the state in return: the right to operate new forms of off-reservation gaming that were prohibited in the original 2002 deal.

But the whole package is tied together: The tribes don’t get expanded gaming if lawmakers don’t OK the new off-reserva-

tion games. And sports betting is permitted only if the tribes in the Phoenix and Tucson areas approve the final deal.

The measure now goes to the full House following a review of its constitutionality. No date has been set to hear the Senate version sponsored by Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge.

Contact Cecilia Chan at 480-898-5613 or cchan@ timespublications.com

BY HALEIGH KOCHANSKI Cronkite News

T

GAMING

from page 13

GOT NEWS?

ANSWERS TO PUZZLE AND SUDOKU on Page 34

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NEWS

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Teen’s suicide an impetus to update manslaughter law

BY KEVIN REAGAN GSN Staff Writer

T

he family of a Chandler teenager who died by suicide in 2019 is hoping state lawmakers will pass legislation that allows law enforcement to prosecute individuals who encourage vulnerable minors to take their own lives.

The State House unanimously passed Chandler Rep. Jeff Weninger’s House Bill 2459, which expands the crime of manslaughter to include individuals who advise others how to commit suicide.

The impetus behind Weninger’s bill was the tragic death of Adrio Romine, who at age 16 was Chandler High School’s Class of 2018 valedictorian and graduated with a 4.9 QPA. On the surface, Romine appeared to have a bright future ahead of him with a scholarship to Arizona State University, where he was a pre-med student.

But Romine’s parents say the 17-yearold had been privately struggling with depression and had begun to secretly express his despair on Reddit, the online chat forum that’s home to 430 million users.

One user allegedly instructed Romine in how to take his life over the course of several days and was still chatting with the teenager hours before his death.

Romine died in the same manner explained to him by the Reddit user a few days before Mother’s Day in 2019.

Paolla Jordan, Romine’s mother, said she has preserved nearly 300 screenshots of her son’s disturbing dialogue with the individual and believes they prove her son’s death was the result of the Reddit user’s influence.

“This was a predator preying on my son and it will happen again,” she told the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 3 as she urged lawmakers to give police the ability to go after adults who coax children into taking their own lives.

Every agency claims their hands are tied in these situations, Jordan said, noting they claim to have no legal authority to investigate online

Adrio Romine manipulators who intend to harm others.

“Our family will not get justice for Adrio,” Jordan added. “As Adrio’s parents we need to make an effort to do something for future generations to come.”

After Romine’s death, his family contacted law enforcement agencies in Arizona and California – where the Reddit user is believed to have lived – and attempted to get them to file

Paolla Jordan traditionally been used in Arizona to prosecute killers who commit a homicide without premeditation.

Fatal car accidents or domestic fights that turned deadly have often been the types of cases that end in a manslaughter conviction.

The law presently applies to defendants who supply the physical means for someone to die by suicide but does not account for someone who emotionally coerces another person to

“This was not a matter of someone failing to help or flippantly saying ‘kill

yourself.’ This is a grown adult who knowingly, intentionally, continuously coached this young man to do this.”

– Shane Watson criminal charges.

Kelly Jordan, the teenager’s stepfather, said the authorities in those two states wanted to open an investigation but couldn’t because there was no statute that could be applied to Romine’s case.

“Even though everyone is willing, nobody has the ability to prosecute any of these cases,” he said. “And there’s nothing to try and stop anybody from doing this because there’s no law against it.”

Manslaughter charges have

commit such an act.

Manslaughter is currently classified as a Class 2 felony, meaning anyone found guilty under the legislation’s proposed amendments could be sentenced to several years in prison.

Weninger, who attempted to get a similar bill passed last year, said he was motivated to introduce HB 2459 after reviewing some of the alarming messages sent to Romine on the Reddit thread.

Romine was getting messages

detailing the most effective angles for pointing a gun at his head, the lawmaker noted.

“I just think that’s reprehensible and I want to make sure no parent has to go through this in the future,” Weninger said.

The legislation must still pass through the State Senate before it could be signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.

The legislation failed to pass last year after the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the possibility of most bills getting to the House or Senate floors for a final vote.

But several lawmakers signaled their support for Weninger’s bill early on and have been wishing to see it advance through the Legislature.

State Rep. Jennifer Pawlik, D-Chandler, voted to move the bill through the Judiciary Committee last session despite some concerns she had about the legislation’s vague language.

It is unclear how prosecutors can prove a defendant’s intent in cases like these, Pawlik said, yet it is clear parents need more support in patrolling the online activities of vulnerable children.

“As a parent, I can attest that it would be impossible to monitor all of your child’s interactions on social media,” Pawlik said last year after voting in favor of Weninger’s bill.

Pawlik and several other Chandler lawmakers have been introducing and supporting several pieces of legislation in recent years that attempt to curb the startling rate of teen suicides reported across the East Valley.

Nearly 60 students from various East Valley schools have died by suicide over the last four years, prompting parents and teenagers to demand for more resources from their local school districts to address students’ socialemotional needs.

Lawmakers have been trying to address the troubling trend by presenting bills that would provide more school counselors, require mental health instruction in schools and allow

see SUICIDE page 18

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Senators want sex education options for parents

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

S

aying parents need more control, a Senate panel voted last week to make sex education in Arizona schools optional in some respects and outlaw any form of it outright before the fifth grade.

SB 1456 also requires governing boards, before approving any sex ed instruction, to have at least two public hearings. And the course of study would have to be available for review and comment at least 60 days before final approval by the boards.

“These are common-sense improvements to what we’re all, I think, trying to achieve: putting parents back in control and making sure that they know and are, once again, fully responsible for their children’s education in every way, especially on a sensitive topic,’’ said Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix.

But foes of the legislation said what the Education Committee approved on a

5-3 party-line vote is troubling.

“This bill is unnecessary,’’ said Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson. She said parents already have options under state law to review all educational materials.

Her bigger concern was with language that spells out that parents need to separately opt in to any instruction, learning materials or presentations regarding gender identity or gender expression in courses other than formal sex education.

And yet another section requires specific written permission for students to learn about AIDS and HIV. All of that, Gonzales said, can lead to singling out and harming children who are different.

“I am speaking on behalf of children who are already dealing with discrimination at the school because they identify as different from how they look,’’ she said.

“We need to protect these children in our schools across the state,’’ Gonzales continued. “We cannot make them feel

bad because they identify with a different gender.’’

Sen. Christine Marsh, R-Phoenix, who said she has taught sex ed classes, said the issue is not as simple as the legislation makes it out to be.

“It is not about sex,’’ she said. “It is about human growth and development.’’

Geoff Esposito of the American Civil Liberties Union said that singling out issues like gender identification and gender expression for disparate treatment in sex ed classes amounts to a form of discrimination against those of the LGBTQ community.

Barto defended the language.

“Parents shouldn’t have to worry about what schools are teaching their children about human sexuality and gender identity,’’ she said. “They should have easy access to curriculum and the authority to opt in to sex ed and any other instruction related to sexual education.’’

see SEXED page 18

NEWS

PUBLIC NOTICE INITIATION OF FIVE-YEAR REVIEW AT THE FORMER WILLIAMS AIR FORCE BASE The United States Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) has initiated preparation of the fifth Five-Year Review to evaluate the ongoing environmental remedies at the former Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, Arizona.

The Five-Year Review report is being prepared pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Section 121, and the National Contingency Plan. Past disposal of hazardous materials, such as solvents, fuels and other chemicals resulted in soil and groundwater contamination. The purpose of the Five-Year Review process is to determine if the groundwater remedies, soil vapor extraction remedies, long-term landfill cap maintenance/monitoring remedy, and prescribed institutional controls continue to be protective of human health and the environment. The report also provides recommendations if deficiencies are found. The Air Force is the lead agency responsible for the Five-Year Review while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Arizona (Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Water Resources) review the report.

Public input is being solicited during the preparation of this Five-Year Review report. Any questions, comment, or input should be directed to the contact address located below. When the Five-Year Review is finalized, another public notice will be issued informing the community the review is complete. The completion date for the final document is September 2021 and it will become a part of the AFCEC Administrative Record for the former Williams Air Force Base on the web at: https://ar.afcec-cloud.af.mil/.

Ms. Catherine Jerrard, P.E. BRAC Environmental Coordinator Air Force Civil Engineer Center 706 Hangar RoadN Rome, New York 13441 315-356-0810 or email: afrpa.west.pa@us.af.mil

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“Children are so overexposed to sexual materials,’’ Bato said.

Marsh said the flaw in that is the presumption that there are responsible parents and they are doing their job. She spoke of a girl she would later take in as a foster child who had been abused and impregnated by her uncle at age 11.

“Her parents didn’t protect her,’’ Marsh said. “I’m all for parents’ rights but we’ve got to have a safety net in place.’’

And Marsh said that might not have occurred had the girl had been instructed at an early age about “good touch’’ and what is a healthy relationship.

SB 1456 does not spell out what can and cannot be taught, provided that a parent opts in to each of the specified areas, including sexual orientation and

HIV/AIDS instruction -- and as long as there’s no mention of any of that before fifth grade.

But Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, said that in some ways it is a reversal of a decision by lawmakers in 2019 to repeal a then-existing provision in sexed laws which spelled out that teachers could not promote homosexuality as a positive lifestyle. That same law also spelled out that if schools teach about “safe sex’’ they cannot say there is any such possibility when it involves homosexual conduct.

“It’s sad to see them descent further every day into intolerance and hatred,’’ said Quezada, who worked on that 2019 repeal, in a Twitter post.

The measure now goes to the full Senate.

pupils to miss school for a mental health problem.

Yet those other bills don’t approach the issue from a criminal justice standpoint quite like HB 2459, which attempts to prevent suicides by criminalizing the behavior of those who knew the deceased was contemplating suicide and urged them to follow through with it.

The legislation is similar to the criminal case of Michelle Carter, a young Massachusetts woman who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after her boyfriend died by suicide in 2014.

Carter encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself through several phone calls and text messages exchanged in the days leading up to his death.

Though Carter’s attorneys argued the state had no authority to prosecute, the courts ruled the defendant’s messages showed she had criminal intent to harm her boyfriend.

Carter’s case set a precedent that some legal experts felt opened the door for prosecutors to violate an individual’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

But supporters of HB 2459 don’t think Arizona is encroaching upon the constitutional liberties of its residents

by passing the legislation.

Shane Watson, a suicide prevention specialist, said the legislation is not trying to suppress someone’s controversial opinion on suicide, it’s trying to stop someone who intends to do harm.

“It’s about protecting our most vulnerable and ensuring our future,” he said.

Watson, a spokesman for Not My Kid, a nonprofit specializing in mental health resources, said Romine’s case illustrates the gaps that exist in society where a young person can secretly be influenced by a stranger online without anyone else knowing.

“This was not a matter of someone failing to help or flippantly saying ‘kill yourself’,” Watson added. “This is a grown adult who knowingly, intentionally, continuously coached this young man to do this.”

Romine’s family plans to get other states to introduce legislation similar to HB 2459 and hope to eventually get the laws changed nationwide.

In the meantime, the family will continue operating the Laloboy Foundation, which aims to provide counseling services for children and internet safety workshops for parents.

SUICIDE from page 16

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SEXED from page 17

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REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

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Unprecedented low supply strains housing market

BY PAUL MARYNIAK GSN Executive Editor

The inventory of homes for sale in the Valley has reached the lowest levels in modern history, real estate experts say.

And that means that while the few homes that are on the market are drawing multiple offers – sometimes scores of them for one house – anxious buyers will soon be casting their eyes far from the center of the Phoenix Metro.

During Land Advisors Organization’s annual presentation last month that assessed the state of the Phoenix real estate scene, two experts saw no end to the home buying frenzy or the accelerating upward trend in prices.

Melanie Nemetz

And Jeff Palacios Jr., director of research for John Burns Real Estate Consulting, and Land Advisors CEO Greg Vogel, indicated homebuyers may have to look as far away as Casa Grande, the Lake Pleasant area and Florence.

None of this comes as a surprise to the Cromford Report, which also closely watches housing trends in the Valley and recently observed, “The supply situation is the worst we have ever recorded.”

“It is difficult to describe the state of the housing market in Greater Phoenix these days,” it said. “Just quoting the raw facts makes many people feel you are exaggerating wildly. There are those who seem to believe it cannot really be true when so many people are strug-

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gling with their daily lives, battling the worst pandemic we have seen for many decades.”

“Variations in demand are almost insignificant,” it continued. “This is because the supply of re-sale homes is so poor it crashes below all-time record lows almost every week.”

Cromford said the ratio between homes under contract and homes for sale without a contract is so out of whack that “we have never before had to invent a description” for it.

It noted that as of Feb. 1, listings were

56.7 percent below total listings a year earlier, the median sales price jumped nearly 17 percent and the average price per square foot climbed over 19 percent.

That will be good news for homeowners in a way.

Cromford said, “The annual appreciation rate has already surpassed 19 percent and could easily reach 30 percent by the time we are well into the second quarter.”

It noted last week, “The speed of ap-

see MARKET page RE4

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REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Gilbert’s tight housing market can be navigated

BY MINDY JONES NEVAREZ GSN Guest Writer

T

he month of love always seems to be a turning point in a new year. Often, you are one month into your new year’s resolutions and have either fallen off the wagon or recommitted at least once or twice and are starting to see success.

The middle of the month also marks the time where it becomes less and less socially appropriate to wish people a happy new year and many families start to plan their spring and summer vacations.

In the residential real estate space, February typically marks the beginning of the “season” for buying and selling Arizona homes. While there is no “dead zone” for real estate in Arizona, summer

is actually a great time to purchase – as is winter, where luxury properties typically shine.

February is when we start to see the steady incline of inventory from folks who waited until after the new year to get their home on the market and buyers who waited until after the holidays to get serious about their search.

With the upcoming tax deadline and many W2s already received, buyers and sellers are often leveraging their refund to help with home related expenses. The weather is nice, the birds are chirping, and so begins your typical season of rising inventory, rising home prices, and rising sales.

But wait, haven’t we already been seeing rising home prices and rising sales?

For many years, the average price per square foot across all listings and all price ranges in the Valley was just under $200.

Keep in mind, that doesn’t mean we haven’t seen single digit appreciation year

over year in the Valley. It only means that there was a healthy mix of property types and appreciation rates that ultimately kept the average pretty steady.

Last October, we crossed the $200-square-foot mark, quickly rising to $210/sf and at the beginning of this month rose up to $220/sf – a 16 percent increase in just six months.

In order for prices to start trending down, we would need to see something significant change in the market – buying patterns significantly decreasing, sellers listing at a significantly faster pace, builders to building at a pre-market crash rate.

But none of these things are happening.

In Gilbert, we’ve sunk down to just five days worth of supply – a tenth of what we had just two years ago. With only 79 listings available on the market and homes selling at more than 100 percent of their list price, it’s no surprise that we’re inching towards the #1 spot for appreciation in the Valley.

@AmyJonesGroup Each office is independently owned and operated

We’ve got about 10 percent more of the available inventory wrapped up in new home communities than normal, less inventory available at prices under $500K as opposed to those houses between $500K-$1M, AND a local desire for homes over $1M as Gilbert secures its position as one of the top five cities in Arizona for home sales over $1M in 2020.

With inventory down 61 percent and a median sales price that is rising by double digits, it is a good time to buy and sell.

What is the likelihood that you’ll have another opportunity to not only get 20%+ appreciation on the home you are selling in a year’s time and buy one with a similar expected outlook, allowing you to speed up the pace at which you become financially “eligible” to move again if needed?

We’re seeing folks who made quick decisions at the start of COVID-19 and,

...a Tradition of Trust

see MINDY page RE3

REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

MINDY from page re2

whether they’ve had a change of mind, heart or circumstance, they are entering back into the market because they CAN. We’re obviously seeing a demand for more home offices, larger backyards, and high-speed internet as well as a decrease in the importance of proximity to work and amenities – and a greater interest in suburban and rural areas.

We get the question a lot: “I’m sold on the idea of selling but how do I buy in this kind of a market?”

When the MLS is quickly becoming Zillow in terms of availability and clarity of the market opportunity, we’re turning to our roots of match-making buyers and sellers. It’s a beautiful space to be working in and one that allows for the true negotiations to center around terms, flexibility and timeline.

Price is, of course, pushing boundaries but with the vast amount of equity many of our clients are seeing in their home, that’s not the only benefit of finding the right buyer. We’ve helped clients who only want to have showings for a weekend, some even less and others who

want us to find the buyer that meets their needs without ever putting the house on the MLS. There are 100 different ways to sell your home right now and about as many to coordinate your move – lease back, short term rental, long term rental, equity access, and more.

The key is to partner with someone who can present all of the solutions and tailor the ultimate plan to your goal. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen the gap between housing units built and the demand for housing in the Southeast Valley explode – a problem that will not have a 2021 solution.

As affordability continues to be challenged by rising prices and rising interest rates, it is absolutely the time to claim a piece of real estate while you still can.

Mindy Jones Nevarez, a Gilbert Realtor and owner of the Amy Jones Group at Keller Williams Integrity First, can be reached at 480-250-3857, Mindy@AmyJonesGroup. com or AmyJonesGroup.com

Gilbert Real Estate Snapshot Provided by the Amy Jones Group Your Local Real Estate Team

(480) 250-3857 | www.amyjonesgroup.com

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Tri Pointe offers townhouse community in Gilbert GSN NEWS STAFF

T

ri Pointe Homes, a major Valley homebuilder that had gone under the name Maracay, has opened 251 townhome sites in The Towns at Annecy in Gilbert.

Customers are encouraged to join the priority list to schedule a private tour of the four model homes or they can go to its website and shop online.

The development is located near Williams Field Road and Val Vista Drive, near another Tri Pointe community –the detached and semi-detached condominiums that comprise The Lakes at Annecy.

“The Towns at Annecy offers homebuyers so many connections, from the carefully crafted floor plans and flexible living space options to the quality amenities and convenient, walkable appeal,” said Tri Pointe Homes Division President James Attwood.

7 YEARS BEST OF OUR VALLEY

The attached, two-story townhomes, which have Spanish and Italian architecture, start in the high-$200,000s and come with four different floor plans ranging from 1,194 to 1,921 square feet.

Customizable flex layouts consist of two or three bedrooms, two to 2.5 bathrooms and two-bay garages.

They are set amid multiple lakes and water features and connected by lighted walking paths and the community includes a pool, playground, basketball court, park and greenbelt.

The Towns at Annecy also is close to the Loop 202 SanTan Freeway and the 272-acre Gilbert Regional Park.

The townhomes will be designed and independently certified to exceed local energy codes and will be enhanced with money saving, energy-efficient features throughout, Tri Pointe said. Each home

$700M+ SOLD REAL ESTATE

see ANNECY page RE6

2,300+ SOLD HOMES

• Average Days on Market: 28 days Down from 29 Days Last Month

• Active Listings: 78 Down from 108 Listings Last Month

• Monthly Sales: 303 Down from 414 Sales Last Month

• Listings Under Contract: 392 Up from 367 Listings Under Contract Last Month

• Average Sales Price: $474,177 Down from $488,971 Last Month

• Monthly Supply of Inventory: 0.3 Same as 0.3 Monthly Supply Last Month

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REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

This chart shows the history of home development in the Valley over the last 50 years with areas in purple being the areas where most development is expected in the next couple years.

(Land Advisors Organization)

Several of the master planned communities identified on this map will be built out in a year, Land Advisors Organization said.

MARKET from page re1

preciation is about to step higher, not lower. It will not take much for appreciation rates to exceed 30 percent and possibly 40 percent over the next few months.”

“New home builders are trying as hard as they can to create more supply, but there are many physical, financial and legal limits to how quickly they can do this,” Cromford also said. “These additional homes are sure to be priced well above the current level.”

Palacios said “the ridiculously strong” housing market in the Valley is evidenced by the fact that home sales in 2020 were 80 percent higher than the norm for the years 2014-2019.

Indeed, he advised homebuilders sales were so strong that “it is going to be tough to get your growth this year” and said that any overall sales growth, primarily for new homes, will not occur before the second half of 2021.

And new-home communities will be getting bigger from the start – and extending the boundaries of the major Phoenix market well beyond what they look like today.

“You’ve got to think about community count growth, but then you also have to think about how communities are going to be bigger than they were a year ago,” he said.

Palacios said that prices and demand not only will be driven by a seemingly no early end to “crazy cheap money” in

The areas in red are considered the next hot spots for home construction and master planned community development.

(Land Advisors Organization)

the form of low mortgage rates but also by the unrelenting influx of out-of-state residents and the growing trend toward working at home.

“I’ve talked a lot about work from home,” he said. “It is going to be trigger. It is triggering a massive catalyst for housing demand. …So, affordability will get stretched beyond what you think is the norm.”

Vogel said it’s not just home sales market that has entered into new territory but land sales as well, saying he sees the

market going “from a chronic shortage that we were experiencing for several years into a panic that’s leading to rapid appreciation.”

“Even when we look at the 500,000-$2-million price range, we’ve gone from 283 days down by 90 to 26 days,” he said of the time houses are staying on the market before coming under contract.

“We have outsized appreciation,” Vogel said. “I think this is too much. We are going to have a real hard time adding

enough supply to curtail this but this can get quickly unaffordable.”

Vogel noted that the number of building permits soared last year primarily in the West Valley and Pinal County, as available land in the East Valley has all but vanished except for huge tracts of State Trust Land in far east Mesa.

He noted that the current inventory of finished lots in the Phoenix Metro market totals about 13,000 after 28,700

see MARKETpage RE5

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

REAL ESTATE

re5

Corcoran adds new Realtor in Gilbert

First-time homebuyers face ‘rude awakening’

GSN NEWS STAFF

GSN NEWS SERVICES

H

eidi Spielman has joined Corcoran Platinum Living’s Gilbert office.

Corcoran is an independent luxury real estate brokerage with five offices and over 150 agents across Arizona.

Spielman has been a Realtor for eight years and “prides herself on delivering warm, individualized support, seeking out innovative solutions, anticipating problems and protecting her clients at all costs,” Corcoran co-owner Michelle Macklin said.

“I joined Corcoran Platinum Living because they are part of a global network that can get my clients’ homes in front of potential buyers whether they are in Arizona, California, New York, or across the globe,” said Spielman. “Jay Macklin’s coaching is well known for taking agents to the next level.”

Spielman has received numerous

awards for her professional achievements and is a member of the Southeast Valley Regional Association of Realtors, Arizona Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Spielman also is trained in the needs and challenges of military members.

Information: platinumliving.com

building permits were issued in 2020.

“It’s a little bit frightening related to the supply that is being burned off,” he said. “The builders bought 21,000 lots this past year. Some of those are larger supplies that will last several years, but there’s clearly a deep shortage and the shortage is not only looming but growing.”

He said builders and developers “have

to buy land differently than they did in the years prior, where they were able to buy morsels or be able to digest 60 lots and have an option on another 60.

“They need to buy big platforms and we’re seeing that occur very often at this point. It is not unusual for a builder to come in and buy 300 to 600 units. That was not occurring even just pre-COVID,” Vogel said.

MARKET from page re4

Heidi Spielman

S

tarry-eyed first-time home buyers are getting a rude awakening to the realities of today’s high-stakes home-buying market, Realtor.com reports.

“The coronavirus pandemic supercharged the housing market, as buyers urgently seeking more space flooded the market, lured by low mortgage rates,” it said last week.

“That’s on top of the usual dynamics of household expansion: Many millennials hit 30 and wanted homes that could accommodate a growing family,” it continued.

“Amid a historic shortage of properties for sale, the result has been bidding wars and record-high prices. It’s enough to make a first-time buyer’s head spin.”

Just under half of first-time buyers and more than a third of prospective buyers were either outbid on their dream home or discovered they couldn’t afford it, according to a recent realtor.com housing survey.

Roughly a fifth of these buyers made five or more offers on different properties before having one accepted.

“The market has been extremely competitive,” said realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu. “There is a critical shortage of homes for sale, which has caused multiple bids to become the norm across the country.”

“For first-time buyers, especially, this environment means having your financing and budgeting together is paramount,” he added.

But it’s not all bad news. About 47 percent of first-time buyers found their budgets were larger than they had thought, according to the survey. That’s largely due to mortgage rates, which averaged just 2.73 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan in the week ending Jan. 28, according to Freddie Mac. However, 21 percent of first-time buyers learned their money wouldn’t stretch as far as they had hoped.

Even those in a better financial position still had to compromise on what they wanted in a home – and where it’s located.

About a fifth were forced to look in cheaper neighborhoods. Another fifth had to spend more than they had originally planned, and nearly the same number had to forgo some of the home features on their wish lists.

These included things like a garage, a big backyard, a finished basement and a pool.

To save up for a down payment, many also had to make sacrifices. Half of recent first-time homeowners saved up in less than three years by setting aside a portion of their paycheck each month, cutting out discretionary spending on the fun stuff, and depositing windfalls like tax refunds and bonuses in the bank.

Just over half also turned to their family and friends for help.

“First-time buyers tend to be younger.

This generation has higher student debt than any prior generation,” said Ratiu. “Not surprisingly, family help with providing down payment assistance plays a big role in today’s market.”

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re6

REAL ESTATE

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Eviction ban no panacea for delinquent tenants

BY BEN GOTTLIEB GSN Guest Writer

T

he courageous investors who plunged into the deep end of the stock market swimming pool in March of 2020 have basked in delight and euphoria these past 10 months as their household net worth rose dramatically due to a rising stock market.

This is also especially true for those affiliated or invested with companies like Zoom, Peloton, Big Tech, Netflix – to name just a few – that were uniquely positioned to benefit from the post-COVID-19 economy.

For others not so fortunate, however.

The past 10 months have wrought significant and ongoing emotional and financial distress – waiting precariously for the next executive order or stimulus check to arrive just to get by and meet monthly ex-

penses or avoid being dispossessed from the home in which they reside.

Experts refer to this phenomenon as a “K-Shaped Recovery,” which has gripped the post-COVID-19 economy, significantly exacerbating economic disparity among different divisions, sectors, and demographics of the U.S. economy.

This phenomenon is on full display in the real estate market, where thanks in part to record low interest rates many households are benefiting from purchasing their first home, upgrading their home or refinancing their existing mortgage.

Others are unemployed and are at risk of being removed from their home to eviction or foreclosure.

The numbers are too large to ignore.

Recent data produced by Zillow reveals that millions of renters in the U.S. are not employed and are at risk of losing their homes once the federal eviction moratorium expires.

In the Phoenix metro area, numerous

renters cannot afford rent even with stimulus checks and unemployment payments.

This presents a unique problem both for the unemployed tenants as well as the landlords renting out the property.

From the tenant perspective, if the federal eviction moratorium expires at the end of March 2021 and is not extended – an unlikely scenario based on recent history – you can count on an avalanche of eviction lawyers lining up in lockstep on the courthouse steps on April 1.

If the moratorium is not extended, these tenants won’t be honoring or celebrating April Fool’s Day. Instead, the joke will be on them as they will be focusing on finding replacement housing.

On its face, the federal eviction moratorium appears to protect landlords who are not getting paid by tenants because the order does not relieve any obligation that a tenant owes under the lease.

In reality, however, real estate experts are leery of a landlord’s ability to collect

on a significant judgment against a tenant who has not paid rent in several months.

If a tenant qualifies under the federal eviction moratorium, the reason is that the tenant cannot afford to pay rent due to a loss or reduction in income. If a tenant cannot afford to pay rent, it is unlikely that same tenant can satisfy a large court judgment.

Thus, if and when the federal eviction moratorium expires, not only will many tenants be forced to move, but landlords will be forced to reckon with the reality that they may never be made whole on the months no rent was paid.

It is also important to note that the federal eviction moratorium does not protect all renters.

The tenant must sign a declaration, which can be found on the CDC website.

The declaration form provides that the tenant cannot afford rent, has sought governmental assistance, and is likely to be deemed homeless if evicted.

Many landlords are still proceeding with eviction lawsuits, raising arguments about the truthfulness of the declaration signed by the tenant.

In other cases, landlords are proceeding with eviction actions for cases that do not relate to non-payment of rent – i.e., the tenant damaged the property or engaged in criminal activity.

Ben Gottlieb is a partner in MacQueen & Gottlieb, PLC, the state’s leading real estate law firm. Information: 602-5332840.

ANNECY from page re3

will also include wi-fi connectivity to control many features.

In 2014, Maracay merged with five regional homebuilding brands to form TRI Pointe Group, one of the largest homebuilders in the nation.

Last year those and the other regional brands united under the Tri Pointe Homes as a single company that debuted with developments in Goodyear and southeast Mesa.

Information about the Towns of Annecy: tripointehomes.com.

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

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The kitchen offers lots of cabinet and counter space and a walk in pantry that is amazing! The downstairs offers one bedroom + bath with shower. Upstairs offers 3 secondary bedrooms - one with a walk in closet. You will love the spacious bonus/playroom/loft/office room. The master bedroom includes a sitting room, access to the balcony and an ensuite with dual sinks, separate tub and shower, and walk in closet. Enjoy Arizona outdoor living with the paver patio and pond. You will want to see this home!

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COMMUNITY

Community

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@Gilber tSunNews

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

For more community news visit gilbertsunnews.com

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Gilbert fields 5 Flinn Scholarship finalists GSN NEWS STAFF

F

ive Gilbert residents are among the 35 high school seniors who are finalists for a prestigious merit-based scholarship that pays for all four years’ tuition and other academic perks one of Arizona’s three public university systems.

The Gilbert finalists are Hanaan Abdulle from Highland High School; Sophia Hammer and Eugenia Trakal from Gilbert Classical Academy; Aryan Mathur from Chandler High School; and Jennifer Tran from Mesquite High School.

No other community fielded as many finalists for the scholarship.

“Our selection committee will have a very difficult task in choosing the Class of 2021 Flinn Scholars,” said Anne Lassen, Flinn Foundation vice president of schol-

arship and education initiatives in a released statement.

“The 35 finalists are all incredibly gifted student leaders, representing a diverse mix of schools and cities, who we would be proud to have as Flinn Scholars.”

Nearly 1,000 Arizona high-school seniors applied last fall for the Class of 2021 Flinn Scholarship. The chosen 20 winners will be announced in April after an interview process in March.

Each scholarship is valued over $120,000 and covers tuition, fees, housing, meals and study abroad.

The application process began last August, resulting in 951 applications from 209 high schools, 73 cities and towns, and 13 of the state’s 15 counties.

The Gilbert Sun News reached out to each five students with questions. Those who responded told us more about

themselves.

Sophia Hammer Age: 18 Extracurriculars: “I dedicate the majority of my time towards activism! I am a part of Arizona March For Our Lives, working as the East Valley Region Lead and organizing high schools in order to fight and lobby for gun reform and more suicide prevention measures.

I am an intern at Arizona Jews For Justice, where I work aiding homeless communities, educating on gun violence prevention, and providing aid to asylum seekers. I run the Activism For Our Lives Club at my school and we focus on making our school as inclusive as possible working with organizations like GLSEN Arizona, Red for Ed, and March for Our Lives. Besides activism, I really love writ-

ing and am in the Poetry Club and write for the school paper.”

Recognitions/awards: Oberlin High School Book Award, awarded to one high school junior for work in social justice; Magna Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam; Principal’s List; First Place Science Fair and attended and competed in AZSEF State Science Fair.

Which state university? “I am committed to the University of Arizona. UofA has an amazing small-town feel and really amazing small businesses. I love the small-college town feel that UofA has. As someone who is progressive and wants to go into local government it is the perfect place. I am also Jewish and the Jewish community in Tucson is very large, so it will definitely be a welcoming environ-

see FINALISTS page 27

Arizona Brainfood feeding kids in 125 schools

BY MELODY BIRKETT GSN Contributor

D

espite the pandemic’s impact on in-classroom learning, Arizona Brainfood is still feeding kids in need – including students at 13 Gilbert Public Schools elementary campuses.

Whether they are learning at home or go to school, the same need exists now as it did when the nonprofit started.

“We started in 2009 because I was talking to a teacher who said students were coming to school on Monday morning hungry and he would spend time trying to feed them,” recalled founder-President Ruth Collins, whose organization now serves students at 125 schools, most in the East Valley.

“That bothered me because I didn’t realize there were kids out there who were that hungry and who would go without

“But then there’s this small percent of kids who when they go home on the weekends, there’s no food for them,” Collins said.

“So, those are the ones we’re looking for.

“Once the idea started rolling and I talked to a few people, I got a few sponsors,” said Arizona Brainfood is an all-volunteer nonprofit, making Arizona Brainfood founder-President Ruth Collins Collins. “We started sure kids have something to eat over the weekend surveys the packing of weekend food bags for Gilbert in two schools with when they are not in school. (Facebook) and other students. (Special to GSN) about 100 kids.”

Shortly after starting the program, Collins said, “It just food on the weekends. I was born and duced the idea of bringing a bag of food snowballed.

After just four years, we raised in Mesa and was surprised it was on Friday for kids to take home so they were in every elementary school in Mesa, happening in Mesa. I’m a mother of four wouldn’t go hungry on the weekends. and it just made sense to me we do some- She noted that many children she is help- which is about 55 of them. Then we had a thing.” ing get free or reduced lunch at school Collins talked to the teacher and intro- through the week. see BRAINFOOD page 28

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

27

FINALISTS from page 26

ment.

“The university has an amazing program/major called Politics, Philosophy, Economics, and Law. I love philosophy and political thought. Because I want to go into politics, I think it is essential to learn philosophy because it is the basis for all political thought. Economics and law will also aid me in my political journey. PPEL also has a club for students in the major, which is an amazing way to meet others that want to go into the same field as me. I also want to minor in public policy and government.”

Planned major/career: “I want to major in PPE. The major is amazing because it teaches the foundations of moral and historical economic, political and legal institutions. I am dedicated to serving Arizona and believe there isn’t enough emphasis on local government.

“I want to eventually run a progressive campaign for a school board or town council whether that be in Gilbert or in Tucson. And one day hopefully I get to represent my community in the state Legislature. In college I hope to continue my work for activist organizations and working as an organizer for progressive campaigns (especially local campaigns).”

Role model: “My teacher, Elise Villescaz, is my role model. She is dedicated to teaching and education in Arizona and fights for the safety and health of students and teachers always. Although she isn’t currently my teacher, she encourages me every day to be my best self and fight for the change I want to see in my community. She has attended several activist events with me and pushed me to be a better student and leader.”

How hard was the pandemic on your schooling and how did you overcome those challenges? “I struggle with mental-health problems so it is hard for me to keep up with school especially when there are so many changes happening within the Gilbert Public Schools District.

“The amount of work that teachers have been doing in order to make learning as interactive and fun as possible is truly what makes me ready and excited to learn every day even if this year is very far from normal. Being able to take mental health breaks and talk about my emotions whether that be with a teacher or

Sophia Hammer

Eugenia Trakal

friend or through writing has helped me overcome the challenges of this year.

“Participating in activism events, even if they are online, has also been an outlet for me and a way to aid the community.

We all are going through a pandemic so it is hard on a lot of us. We need to check up on one another and help each other during these times.”

Eugenia Trakal Age: 17 Extracurriculars: Founder and president of Spanish Club; Secretary of Mu Alpha Theta (Mathematics Honor Society), Music Council, and Spartan Athlete Leadership Team; Member of Ambassadors Club and National Honor Society; Principal violinist for the Youth Symphony of the Southwest; Co-captain on the Girls’ Varsity Tennis Team; Self-employed violin teacher; Instructor at Mathnasium Tutoring Center; Finance manager for her team’s community service project through ASU’s Engineering Projects in Community Service Program; Head teen volunteer at Friend’s Place Bookstore; Volunteer math and Spanish tutor at school.

Awards: National Hispanic Scholar, Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar, Hispanic Heritage Foundation Scholarship winner, Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship winner; Coca-Cola Scholarship semifinalist; GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship semifinalist; United Nations Association of National Community Service Ambassador; AP Scholar with Honor; Three-time violinist for the Regional Orchestra; Three-time National Spanish Exam gold medalist; Most Valuable Player on Girls’ Varsity Tennis Team; First place, ASU’s Engineering Projects in Community Service Program; ASU Fleischer Scholar; Indiana University Balfour Scholar;

Jennifer Tran

Aryan Mathur

Indiana University Young Women’s Institute Case Competition winner; Candidate for U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

Which state university? “I am leaning towards ASU. Last fall, I attended ASU’s Fleischer Scholars Program, a business institute for under-represented minorities. Through the program, I discussed with current students and faculty about my interests in the intersection of finance, international business and sustainability. Having the opportunity to converse and learn from both students and faculty has provided me with an intimate relationship to the W.P. Carey School of Business.”

Planned major/career: “I hope to double major in finance and global studies with a minor in sustainability. I am captivated by the practice of impact investing – deploying charitable capital in ways that create both a social and financial return, often leveraging additional financing to bring projects to scale and achieve greater impact.

“In the long-term, I plan to work for a nonprofit, like the Arizona Community Foundation, or a nongovernmental organization, like the United Nations, to mobilize the financial sector’s support for sustainable development.”

Role model: “My role models are my parents, who had the courage and strength to leave their families behind in Argentina to provide their children with greater opportunities. I am who I am today because I came from hard-working, humble, and loving parents who sacrificed their own lives for their children.”

How hard was the pandemic on your schooling and how did you overcome those challenges? “While the transition to primarily online schooling was difficult because of the lack of interaction with peers, I personally took ad-

Hanaan Abdulle

vantage of my flexible schedule to set up meetings with my new Global Academy teachers and to establish relationships with peers to break the technological divide, while successfully preparing for my AP exams.

“The pandemic has definitely taught me about the importance of persevering through obstacles and taking the initiative. Above all though, I am grateful for my teachers who have accommodated to students’ needs and prioritized our well-being, while still pushing our academic horizons.”

Jennifer Tran Age: 18 Extracurriculars: “Power To The Period Arizona, #Fight4HER Arizona, Speech and Debate, photography.

Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, Mesquite High School Golden Scholar.

Which state university? “Currently, I am in the process of attending virtual visits for all public Arizona universities, so I have not picked a university yet. I am visiting each school with an open mind, but as of right now, I am drawn to ASU and UofA because they both have strong sociology programs.

Planned major/career: “I plan on majoring in sociology because I want to study factors in society that contribute to social injustice and discover the solutions to problems that exist in the status quo. Through sociology, I want to help create a more equitable world.

Role model: “My older sister is my role model. My sister has always unapologetically pursued her passions, which inspires me to do the same in my academic career and personal life.

How hard was the pandemic on your

see FINALISTS page 28

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COMMUNITY

BRAINFOOD from page 26

couple of churches in Fountain Hills come to us and say, ‘We will sponsor two Fountain Hills schools if we can start those.’

“Then we started expanding to Gilbert, then Tempe and then we had a group from Chandler and Scottsdale come to us.

Over these 12 years, we’re doing about 125 schools in the East Valley.”

Before the pandemic, Collins and her all-volunteer staff were delivering up to 3,500 bags of food weekly for the last several years. Now, about 2,500-weekend food bags are being sent home with kids.

“The schools are the ones who determine which kids need it,” explained Col-

FINALISTS from page 27

schooling and how did you overcome those challenges? “Due to the pandemic, it was difficult for me to fully absorb information in my classes because online learning is extremely independent.

To combat this, I sought out extra help by visiting my teachers’ virtual office hours and took advantage of educational videos and resources online.

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

lins. “They know the kids the most. They know the families. We have a person in charge of brain food at each school we take bags to and they’re the ones who determine which kids need the food.

“Every week they email us a number.

We don’t have names. We don’t know anything about the kids except a number,” adding the numbers change regularly because many families move frequently and are living in a shelter or motel.

“We’ve told every school, ‘If a child needs a bag of food, we’ll give you a bag of food,’” said Collins. “We don’t care what week it is if they’re homeschooled or not,” adding that all food is dropped off at elementary schools so kids/parents just need to find a way to pick it up.

The bags contain food items such as canned pasta, canned stew, tuna packs, beef jerky, peanut butter and fruit packs, fruit juice and chocolate milk.

“Food bags are meant for the individual,” Collins said. “We hand out a food bag, we’re making the assumption – although it’s not always true – that the child will go home and feed themselves. Every

child in that family who is in elementary school will get their own bag. If a family has three children in elementary school, they’ll each get a bag.”

Students also get a 12-pack of tortillas every other week and a loaf of bread once or twice a month to help feed other family members. If there are preschool kids at home who are going hungry, an extra bag of food is sent home.

“When we started this, there were no backpack programs around here,” Collins explained. “Valley of the Sun United Way and United Food Bank have since started some. I think it’s great. If everybody in their area would take care of their schools and make sure their kids are being fed, I think that’s awesome.”

Prior to starting Arizona Brainfood, Collins had no prior experience in the non-profit world.

“Zero experience and zero desire or even the thought in my brain that this was going to be something I would do,” Collins said. “There were kids going without food and desperate parents trying to feed their kids and not being able to. We

had no idea it would turn into this.”

The non-profit’s goal is to have all children returning to school on Monday mentally and physically able to concentrate in class.

“The reason we called it ‘brain food’ from the beginning, besides feeding children and making sure nobody’s hungry, is to make sure they can also be educated,” said Collins.

“If they’re hungry and if they’re wondering where their next meal is coming from, they’re not paying attention in school. And we want them to become educated to change the poverty cycle or whatever the problem they’re in.”

That change occurs when children can study and get an education, Collins said.

With some food over the weekend, she explained, “So hopefully they’ll come to school more, will stay in school longer, will get their education to help them provide for themselves and their families.

The nonprofit relies heavily on individual donations. To help: azbrainfood.org, info@azbrainfood.org or 480-415-0066.

BUSINESS

Business

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

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@Gilber tSunNews

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EV firm aims to take a bite out of electric bills GSN NEWS STAFF

M

ike Rodrigues is so confident about his product that he puts his money where his promise is.

As the owner of True North Energies in Chandler, he says if his Energy Cool high-performing secondary condenser for air conditioning systems doesn’t cut his residential or commercial customer’s energy consumption by at least 20 percent, they don’t owe him a dime.

The Chandler man and his partner/ operations manager Joseph Marino, also of Chandler, are in a good place to back that claim since 50 percent of a building’s energy costs involve air conditioning.

And with the air running a good six to eight months a year in Arizona, they feel their product will be especially appealing to places, like restaurants, that have had to reduce occupancy because of the pandemic.

“I was expecting a good savings but I was pleasantly surprised when the Energy Cool units saved me 42 percent on my HVACs electrical use,” said Scott Yarbrough, a Chandler Chick-fil-A franchisee.

Explained Rodrigues: “Many restaurants can only sit a fracture of their dining capacity but have to cool their entire space. The weighted cost of the electricity is significantly higher than what it was pre-COVID. So when we can come in and reduce that burden for them, it creates a sizable increase to their bottom line instantly.”

That explains why Rodrigues thinks that the pandemic in the long run “will enhance our value proposition.”

He wasn’t so cheery about the pandemic when it first hit Arizona.

A native of Hawaii who has lived in Arizona the last 20 years - operating a financial services firm with his wife

Mike Rodrigues owns True North Energies, a company backs its claim that it can reduce energy consumpion for residential or commercial customers by at least 20 percent. (Special to GSN)

for most of that time - Rodrigues had planned to launch True North Energies after spending the previous six months preparing.

“Of course we, like everyone else, never expected a worldwide pandemic to hit at the end of Q1 2020,” he said. “That shut down our supply chain for a while and disrupted conversations we started to have with major retailers. Our target customers shut down their facilities and didn’t know when they would reopen and what their new-normal would look like, so most of them weren’t very open to make changes.

“But as things opened up, we’ve been able to pick back up on most of those discussions and start many new ones.”

Rodrigues got interested in Energy Cool after meeting the owner of the patent, who lives in Japan.

“I was amazed how well the product worked,” he said, “how the results could

be validated, and yet it wasn’t being sold in the United States. I first helped get it into Hawaii and now am building our distribution in the continental United States, starting with Arizona.”

And he and Marino picked Chandler as their base not just because they have homes here, but because “Chandler is a very pro-business city. It supports its local businesses and has the entrepreneurial climate that we wanted to be in to grow our business in.”

Energy Cool is a high-performing secondary condenser for air conditioners with a multi-stage double cooling system that maximizes an air conditioner’s efficiency while reducing its energy consumption.

It’s not something that anyone can install on their own, which explains why North Star is aggressively courting HVAC companies. ”Our product is a natural fit and enhances HVAC companies’ product

offerings,” Rodrigues explained.

As for how the product works, Rodrigues said, “It’s basic physics.”

“The most efficient way to cool something is to increase its surface area. By increasing the amount of condenser coils, this is achieved. But with the increase in length of the coils, other products have run into the problem of the refrigerant getting stuck and clogging the system. What’s patented in our device is the adapter nozzle that accelerates the refrigerant all the way through.

“So it provides the additional cooling area without any of the problems previously associated with additional condenser coils. The net effect is that the HVAC’s compressor runs less and therefore consumes less electricity.

Additional benefits are reduced CO2 emissions and the life of the HVAC gets extended.”

Some notable companies have bought into Energy Cool among them, Toyota, Marriott, Sony, 7-Eleven, Panasonic and TDK. As with any start-up, Rodrigues said his biggest challenge is “getting to the decision maker.”

“Once I can have a conversation with him or her, typically good things happen,” he said. “It just makes sense and they have absolutely nothing to lose to get a No-Cost Performance Pilot Program going at their place of business to experience our results. We prove the system works to them before they buy.”

Still he recognizes as well that “many business owners are dealing with major problems and are in survival mode.”

“I understand why they are consumed with what’s wrong but for those who think strategically and act proactively, our devices will get them to their financial goals quicker.”

Information: TrueNorthEnergies.com or 480-462-8022.

Sports & Recreation 30

SPORTS

GilbertSunNews.com

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

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Check us out and like Gilbert Sun News on Facebook and follow @GilbertSunNews on Twitter

Many football prospects migrating to Pacific Northwest

BY CHRISTIAN BABCOCK Cronkite News

T

yler Shough. Johnny Johnson III. They are familiar names to college sports fans in Arizona and Oregon. Johnson, a wide receiver, graduated from Chandler High and made several highlight plays for the Ducks in their 2019 loss to Arizona State. Shough, a product of Hamilton High, also in Chandler, started at quarterback for Oregon in 2020.

And there are going to be more Ducks where they came from.

According to the 247Sports Composite Ratings, which use an algorithm to compile prospect rankings and ratings, three of the top five high school players of the class of 2021 in Arizona, and four of the state’s top 14 this year, have signed with Oregon.

Quarterback Ty Thompson from Mesquite High in Gilbert is the class headliner and graded out among the top signal callers in the nation at the Elite 11 Finals, a national competition that invited 20 of the top quarterback prospects in the country to Nashville.

Thompson moved past offensive lineman Bram Walden of Scottsdale’s Saguaro High to the top of 247Sports’ Arizona rankings, and offensive guard Jonah Miller from Sahuaro High in Tucson joined the ranks at fifth.

And Chandler High linebacker Brandon Buckner, who is the Composite’s 14th-ranked player from Arizona in 2021, follows Johnson to Oregon.

So how has Oregon made such big recruiting inroads into the desert? They do their homework.

“They go and try to identify players and they actively recruit them,” Chandler coach Rick Garretson said. “They don’t just throw an offer and then don’t recruit them. I know this for a fact, that (Oregon coach) Mario Cristobal came to

Mesquite quarterback Ty Thompson headlines a 2021recruiting class for Oregon that includes several Arizona high school football stars. (Zac BonDurant/GSN Contributor)

Chandler High School in January of 2019 to offer Brandon Buckner his first scholarship offer. That was the head coach personally coming to make that offer. So that’s a pretty big deal in today’s world.”

According to Cristobal, landing a quarterback like Mesquite’s Thompson in the early signing period laid the groundwork for Oregon’s highly regarded 2021 class. He described Thompson as a dynamic player who fits Oregon’s system and who Oregon’s staff believes is one of the best players in the country.

“We always thought he was the best (quarterback) in the country, hands down,” Cristobal said. “He can do it all.

And he has the makeup to match. He has a DNA made of the right stuff, raised the right way.”

For Thompson, the class headliner, the decision involved a desire to get on the field and contribute early to his team of choice. Private quarterbacks coach Mike Giovando, who trained Thompson in high school, said he thought Thompson would have a chance to start anywhere he went.

“I’m sure that he feels like he’s going to be able to play sooner than later there,” Giovando said. “And I know there’s a guy there already from Arizona, Tyler Shough … played this year, but I think Ty felt like, ‘Hey, I think I can go in there and really have an opportunity to compete early.’ I think he could have done that kind of anywhere.”

Much of the buzz around Thompson that helped vault him into the conversation for top quarterback in the 2021 class originated from the Elite 11 Finals.

An exclusive quarterback camp held last summer in Nashville, the competition pitted Thompson against Caleb Williams, the No. 1-rated quarterback in the country according to 247Sports, along with several other top signal-callers.

see OREGON page 31

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

OREGON from page 30

Thompson graded out well, finishing as the runner-up to Williams. Rivals later anointed him a five-star recruit, the No. 9 player in the country overall and the No. 3-ranked quarterback behind Williams and Brock Vandagriff from Georgia.

Giovando isn’t so sure Thompson wasn’t the best quarterback at the competition.

“I think he should have won, (to) tell you the truth,” Giovando said. “I don’t know what the other guy did better than him. Maybe he came in with a little higher ranking. It’s kind of like, to beat the guy with the No. 1 ranking … you really can’t make any mistakes.”

Oregon’s opulent facilities are a major attraction for elite recruits. The Hatfield-Dowlin complex, which houses Oregon’s football performance center, ranked No. 2 in the nation in 247Sports’ 2020 college football facilities rankings.

It was funded by a $68 million donation from Oregon graduate Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike.

Buckner, who helped lead Chandler to its fifth straight title in 2020, said he was “shocked” when Cristobal arrived at Chandler and he was offered.

“I remember the day when it happened,” Buckner said. “It was probably a couple weeks after my sophomore year, and I was in the weight room training, and coach (Garretson) just called me out and he was just like, ‘Coach Cristobal came in and he said that they want to offer you.’

“And at first I didn’t believe it, because I was just so shocked, and it felt so surreal. But he told me, ‘Yeah, they want to come down here and they offered you a scholarship.’ And I was just lost for words, but it was definitely a day that changed my life. So that day really means a lot to me.”

The resources extend to academics, too.

Buckner said the academic support Oregon offers also contributed to his decision to commit, not to mention the occasional presence of a certain Nike

founder.

“Especially for what I want to major in, which is like business, marketing; they definitely have a lot of tools or resources where I can go and do internships and just focus in on what I want to do after football,” Buckner said. “And Phil Knight, he has a really tight connection with the program.”

So, why this Oregon trail from Arizona?

Along with having a highly rated quarterback to play with, Buckner emphasized the influence of Cristobal in raising the Ducks’ recruiting profile nationally and in Arizona. The defensive improve-

ments under Cristobal have also intrigued Buckner.

After Cristobal took over, the Ducks quickly gained a reputation for defensive excellence. “(The) Pac-12 is really not known for defense, but coach Cristobal has definitely changed that,” Buckner said. “Hard hitting, making plays, flying around, getting to the ball, and I really feel it’s like he’s bringing that culture.

“Not just getting players on the West Coast, but he’s just getting players from all over who he wants to come compete and make plays and go out there and win games.”

Have a good sports story?

Contact Zach Alvira at zalvira@timespublications.com and follow him on Twitter @ZachAlvira.

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Chandler store houses a whole wine-making operation GETOUT STAFF

Y

ou won’t find grapevines or even grapes around Basil and Colleen Kaspar’s Chandler store, but inside you’ll find all the makings for the small-batch, home-made wines they make, bottle and sell there.

What started as a hobby for Basil 18 years ago has evolved into Down Time Wines at 393 W. Warner Road – a store, a boutique restaurant-special events venue and a growing distribution center owned by Colleen, a former bank teller supervisor, and her husband, a vice president for IT at Bank of America.

Some social discomfort started all this.

“He always told people he was embarrassed to go some place and take a bottle of Mogen,” Colleen explained.

“He wanted to make his own.”

And so he started doing just that.

He gets juices from various vineyards and experiments with various ingredients – whipping up wines like a peach chardonnay, three varieties of a Tuscan red and even a coffee wine. He also has a Christmas line which he puts out around Thanksgiving – and sells out of well before Dec. 25.

At most times, the store’s shelves are loaded with 30 to 40 different varieties of Basil’s wine creations priced between $12 to $18 generally.

His entire operation is housed at the store – a welcome change for Colleen from where he used to make his wine.

Back then, Basil’s hobby occupied “my dining room and my kitchen” she recalled until “I finally said, ‘OK, this is enough.’”

Colleen quit her job as a bank teller supervisor four years ago to run the store while Basil splits his time between his job as a vice president of IT operations for a bank and orchestrating the whole fermentation, flavoring and bottling operation at the store.

Basil and Colleen Kaspar own Down Time Wines in Chandler, where Basil makes all the wines and the two host a variety of special events as well as daily dinner and lunch. (Pablo Robles/GetOut Photographer) Basil executes the whole fermentation process at the store, using plastic barrels because they are easier to sanitize.

“We bottle it, cork it, label it – everything all right here,” Colleen said.

“We’ve got barrels that hold up to 150 bottles.”

“I keep a schedule of what needs to be done each day – this needs to be mixed, this needs to be racked, this needs to be started, whatever,” she added. “We might not have anything and other days we might have three or four to work on.”

The wine also has no nitrates or preservatives, opening the Kaspars’ product to an entirely new demographic.

“Many people who can’t normally drink wine because it causes them to break out, get headaches or have other adverse reactions have come to find they can drink our wine with no problems,” Colleen explained.

The home-made labels – and their brand name – have a sentimental attachment for the couple.

“It’s got a picture of Canyon Lake – that’s kind of part of the story of where I started. We had a boat at Canyon Lake

and we love Canyon Lake and our boat didn’t have a name on it when we bought it. We had it in a slip out there and we’d go out every weekend and people kept saying ‘you got to

Nights,” when patrons can play a popular dice game and relax with a glass; “Wine Wednesday” and “Fantastic Friday” for wine tastings all day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

They also host birthday and other kinds of parties and a monthly dinnerand-wine event, featuring fare like prime rib and Italian specialties from restaurants that carry their wine.

Though they still hold the dice game nights – Colleen calls the game “like Yahtzee but more fun” – they have been holding off on many of those larger gatherings because of the pandemic.

Still, the pandemic hasn’t stopped them from offering memberships in their wine club, which patrons can join to have wine delivered or ready for pick-up at the store.

Aside from catered dinners once a month, they also have a daily menu of $5 croissant Basil Kaspar started making wine as a hobby, but it got so sandwiches, other kinds many raves he decided to make a business of it. He offers of sandwiches, chips, anywhere from 30 to 40 varieties at any given time. pizza and salads.

(Pablo Robles/Staff Photographer) “The pizza we get from name your boat, it’s not good luck to Nicatoni’s in Gilbert,” Colleen said. “He have a boat without a name.’ So Basil carries our wine and we carry his 10finally came up with the name ‘Down inch pizza here. We’ve got three kinds Time’ because we’d go to the lake for and he makes them for us and then he downtime.” partially bakes them and then we get They had to sell the boat when them frozen and then we continue the they started the store – and that was baking process.” probably all for the better since they do They even have a gift shop with “winemore than make, bottle and sell wine at themed items” such as glasses, tumblers, the establishment. towels. And they even personalize their The front of the store can seat 30 labels for special occasions and events. people and before the pandemic struck, “Those make special gifts for private Down Time Wines hosted comedy nights celebrations and even for businesses the third Friday of the month. that want to give their customers a token They also host paint parties, where an of their appreciation,” Colleen noted. artist comes in with table top easels so Information: downtimewines.com. patrons can sip and create; “Fine Farkle

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King Crossword ACROSS

1 Seize 5 Butte’s kin 9 Cardinal cap letters 12 “Othello” villain 13 In -- (lined up) 14 Weeding tool 15 Reality show for aspiring entrepreneurs 17 PC key 18 Minor quibbles 19 Hospital sections 21 Type of beam 24 Pack (down) 25 Reverberate 26 Rubber wedge, say 30 Small battery 31 All better 32 Actress Thurman 33 Hoedown musicians 35 Author Harte 36 Seeing things 37 Tubular pasta 38 Tribal emblem 40 Coffee, slangily 42 Mess up 43 Temporary

PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 15

48 GPS suggestion 49 Last write-up 50 Despot 51 British verb ending 52 Zilch 53 Bigfoot’s cousin

DOWN

1 USO audience 2 Fan’s cry 3 Khan title 4 Third-largest island 5 “The Martian” actor Damon 6 Historic periods 7 Junior 8 Clumsy 9 Mountain road feature 10 Snitched 11 Reply to “Shall we?”

16 White wine cocktail 20 Mornings (Abbr.)

21 Piece of lettuce 22 Exotic berry 23 Elm, for one 24 Low digits 26 Union payment 27 Bruins legend

28 Portent 29 Canape spread 31 South Carolina university 34 Decorate Easter eggs 35 Actor Warren

37 Beetle Bailey’s

rank (Abbr.)

38 Garr of “Tootsie” 39 Scraps 40 Unite 41 Museo display 44 Showtime rival

45 Jargon suffix 46 Squealer 47 Hosp. scan 44 Med. plan option 45 Not ‘neath 46 Like some humor

Sudoku

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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Employ ment

Obituaries Donna Maria Dorris (Hamilton)

A resident of Gold Canyon, AZ died in a local hospital on February 2,2021. Donna was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on June 9,1946. Her surviving children are son Isaac Demetrius and daughter Hope Laverne.

Patricia "Pat" Moulton Fulks

Age 90, passed away Dec 15, 2020 in Chandler AZ. Born in Montana to Norman D. and Anna (Brend) Moulton. The family moved to Glendale AZ in 1944.

Pat graduated from Glendale High School, married, started a family then attended Arizona State University, graduating with honors. A teacher for several years, in 1969 she changed careers and went to work for Bashas' Markets as an insurance clerk, ultimately retiring as the Vice President of Labor Relations. Upon retirement, she enjoyed traveling and went around the US, Europe and Australia to visit her far-flung children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, extended family and friends. But, she best loved Arizona, her cabin at Christopher Creek and her home and farm in Chandler Heights.

Survived by her children, Larry Fulks, Paula (Fulks) Dickinson, Brenda (Fulks) Dossey, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren.

Also survived by her sister, Sharon Adams (Ken) and brother Bill Moulton (Ann). Pre-deceased by sisters Beverly McGaffic, Sandra Hilbink and brothers Walt and Dan Moulton.

Pat will be remembered as a trusted, loyal and generous friend, big sister, loving parent and grandparent and 'Aunt Pat' to so many nieces, nephews, extended family and multitude of friends. No funeral, she donated her body to the University of Arizona School of Medicine. The family hopes to be able to have a memorial later in the spring Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor's choosing.

Obituaries - Death NOtices iN MeMOriaM We are here to make this difficult time easier for you. Our 24 hour online service is easy to use and will walk you through the steps of placing a paid obituary in the East Valley Tribune or a free death notice online.

Visit: obituaries.EastValleyTribune.com

Obituaries James Patrick Geraghty On Thursday, February 11th, 2021, loving husband and father, James (Jim) Patrick Geraghty, passed away at the age of 78. Jim was born on August 4th, 1942 in Fairbury, NE to Merrill and Edna (Trotter) Geraghty. He received his teaching degree from Arizona State University in 1964 and Masters of Education in 1978. He joined the United States Air Force in September of 1964 to August 1968. He was a radio operator stationed in Okinawa, and while there, participated on the Air Force Track & Field team where he was nicknamed “Go Go Geraghty.” In 1974, he married Loreen Ann McCue and together they resided in Arizona and raised one daughter, Patricia Kelly Geraghty. He was preceded in death by his parents, Merrill and Edna, and brother Tom, who died in Vietnam in 1968. He is survived by his wife Loreen, daughter Trish and her partner Kristen, grandson Scott, brothers Dennis, Dan, and Mike, and sister Sandra and nephew Chris. Jim had a passion for teaching high school and coaching track and football, which he did for 34 years. He loved history and sharing that knowledge with others and was an avid reader and book collector. He liked backyard projects including woodworking, gardening, and home repairs, and enjoyed hiking and playing tennis. He loved animals and adored his pets, although his greatest passion in life was his daughter Trish, who he was so very proud of. He always said he was looking forward to being reunited with his beloved dogs one day, and we know they welcomed him home on Thursday.

In lieu of flowers, please make a charitable donation to Marcos de Niza High School where he taught and coached for 30 years, or the Arizona Humane Society.

Your Ad can go ONLINE ANY Day! Call to place your ad online!

Classifieds 480-898-6465

Employment General Business Technical Analyst - BS Engg, Info Sci or rel. + 2 yrs exp.

Rally, TFS, Agile, SDLC, SQL, Cherwell.

Travel req. Mail res: Virat Inc, 6909 W Ray Rd #148, Chandler, AZ 85226 Financial Statement Manager sought by K & R Tax Accounting Services, LLC (Mesa, AZ) w/ min. Bach's deg in Business Admin foreign equivalency acceptable & 3 yrs; exp in fin'l reviews & presentation. Must have specific knowl of Canadian taxation regulations to oversee fin'l statement of Canadian nationals.

Please mail resumes to K & R Tax Accounting Services, LLC, attn.: Kelly Lowry - 2853 S Sossaman Rd, Ste A101, Mesa, AZ 85212.

Employment General SENIOR COMPUTER PROGRAMMER: Design, develop, scale and maintain infrastructures.

Create, manage, maintain technical web-based info. systems running on Java, Perl, PHP, MySQL on Linux/AIX operating systems. Required to keep systems operational as directed.

Qualifications: Knowledge of languages BASH, PERL, & CGI. Exp. w/one of the major programming languages, I.E. JAVA, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, ETC. BS degree in IT or related field + 3 yrs. exp.

Job site: Mesa, AZ To apply send resume to Crimshield Inc: info@crimshield.com

If Stability is what you are looking for, then MAAX Spas, one of the Best Places to Work in the Chandler area has immediate openings for 1st and 2nd shift production.

Many associates have been with us for 10 to 35 years and we are looking to add more to the family. Generous pay with full health insurance, paid vacation and sick time, combined with matched 401K program are the just the start.

Call today to learn more about the opportunities and join the MAAX Spas family, 480-8954575. OR Apply online at maaxspas.com.

Obituaries H E A D STO N E S

EVERLASTING MONUMENT Co.

“Memories cut in Stone” • MONUMENTS • GRANITE & BRONZE • CEMETERY LETTERING • CUSTOM DESIGNS

480-969-0788 75 W. Baseline Rd. Ste. A-8 Gilbert, AZ 85233

www.everlastingmonumentco.com info@everlastingmonument.phxcoxmail.com

Make your choice Everlasting

CULVER’S IS HIRING FOR ALL POSITIONS! Kitchen & Front Positions H Part-Time & Full-Time Hours H Flexible Scheduling & Benefits Available H Please apply online at www.culvers.com H 1841 S. Greenfield Rd. Mesa, AZ 85206

36

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Gilbert Sun News

1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway #219 • Tempe, AZ 85282 480.898.6465 class@timespublications.com

Deadlines

Classifieds: Thursday 11am for Sunday Life Events: Thursday 10am for Sunday

The Place “To Find” Everything You Need | GilbertSunNews.com Employment General Senior Software Development Engineer (Job Code: SV0601) sought by 41st Parameter, Inc. in Scottsdale, AZ. Produce Java code related to new features, enhancements & bug fixes for the CrossCore product. BS + 5 yrs. Apply by email at recruitment@ experian.com (Reference Job Code)

Announce

ments Religion Healing Ministry Sufi Tradition If interested send letter of inquiry care of Master Warren Muen 4340 E. Indian School Rd, Ste 21-126, Phoenix, AZ 85018.

DO YOU OFFER Lessons & Tutoring?

Children need your help!

Place your ad today Contact us: class@times publications.com or Call 480-898-6465

Prayer Announcements

Merch andise

Wanted to Buy MIRACLE PRAYER Dear heart of Jesus in the past I have asked many favours. This time I ask you this special one (mention favour). Take it dear heart of Jesus and place it within your heart where your father sees it. Then in his merciful eyes it will become your own favor not mine. Amen.

Say this prayer three times for three days and your favour will be granted. Never been known to fail. Must promise publication of prayer. S.P.

Cash 4 Diabetic Strips!

Best Prices in Town.

Sealed and Unexpired.

480-652-1317 Diabetic Test Strips by the box, unused. Any type or brand.

Will pay top dollar.

Call Pat 480-323-8846 WANTED BY COLLECTOR OLDER MODEL 22 CALIBER RIFLES AND HANDGUNS IN NICE CONDITION CONSIDER OTHERS I DO NOT SELL GUNS. CALL WITH WHAT YOU HAVE. LEE 602-448-6487

Sell Your Stuff!

Call Classifieds Today!

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Motorcycles/ Scooters 1969 Yamaha R3.

350cc Engine. Great Condition. Located in San Tan Valley.

Asking $4,500.00. Call for Appointment to see 480-223-2022

Employment General Region Technologies has openings for the following positions in Phoenix, AZ and/or client sites in the US. Must be willing to travel/relocate. IT Engineer reqs US Masters/foreign equiv or bachelors + 5 yrs exp to design/dev/test systems/apps using Java/J2EE/CSS/Net/Database/Data Analysis/Mainframe/Testing technologies on Linux/Unix/Windows/HTML. IT Analyst reqs US Bachelors/equiv (3 or 4 yr degree) to test/maintain/monitor systems/programs using Hadoop/Bigdata/Tableau/SQL/Selenium/QA on Linux/Unix/Windows.

Send resume to careers@regiontechnologies.com with ref # 2021-19 for IT Eng; 2021-21 for IT Analyst & ref EVT ad

Manufactured Homes

CLASS@TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM

Manufactured Homes BRAND NEW NEVER LIVED IN 2 BED / 2 BATH HOMES $58,900 Financing Available 55+ Mobile Home Park in Great Chandler Loc. Call Kim 480-233-2035

Real Estate

For Rent Apartments

2021 Champion Park Model 11x36, 1B/1B, Awning, Steps, Skirting, 2 Door Refer, Elec Range, Laminate Wood Like Flooring, Walk in Shower, 2" Blinds, Patio Door. All set on 5 Star, 55+ RV Resort in Apache Junction. $39,999.

Call Sandy at 480-2287786

ALMA SCH & MAIN 1b 1 bath duplex Income verified UTILITIES INCLUDED Bad Credit OK. No Deposit Close to Lightrail $700 (602) 339-1555

Air Conditioning/Heating

0

%

BRAND NEW 2019 Clayton, 2B/2B, in AJ. 16x66, Central A/C, Front Porch, Covered Concrete Drive, W/D Hkups, 2 Door Refer, Gas Range, MW, DW, Spacious Floor Plan, Steps, Skirting, all set in a 55+ Active Resort Community, near Banks, Shopping and More. $68,800 Call Sandy 480-228-7786

Family Owned & Operated

Three Phase Mechanical

480-671-0833

www.3phasemech.com Sales, Service & Installation

NO TRIP CHARGE • NOT COMMISSION BASED ACCREDITED BUSINESS

ROC# 247803 Bonded • Insured

Manufactured Homes

HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING

THE LINKS ESTATES

QUALITY, VALUE and a GREAT PRICE!

Why Rent The Lot When

YOU CAN OWN THE LAND And Own Your New Home

FROM THE UPPER 100’S

ASK US HOW YOUR $105,000 CASH INVESTMENT AND OUR SENIOR LOAN PROGRAM ENABLES QUALIFIED 62+ SENIORS MAKING THE LINKS THEIR PRIMARY RESIDENCE HAVE NO MORTGAGE PAYMENT & NO LOT RENT AS LONG AS YOU LIVE IN HOME.

Gawthorp & Associates Realty 40667 N Wedge Dr • San Tan Valley, AZ 85140

602-402-2213

www.linksestates.net

Lifetime Warranty on Workmanship Furnace / AC Tune Up - $69 New 3-Ton AC Units - now $3,995 New Trane Air Conditioners NO INTEREST FINANCING - 60 MONTHS!

‘A’ RATED AC REPAIR FREE ESTIMATE SAME DAY SERVICE

Bonded/Insured • ROC #289252

480-405-7588

ItsJustPlumbSmart.com

with new Air Conditioner installation*

SPECIAL

APR FINANCING WITH

*

480-977-6916 aircareaz.com *With a qualifying unit purchase. See store for details.

Appliance Repairs

Service Directory Air Conditioning/Heating

FREE COVID KILLING UV LIGHT

Appliance Repair Now

If It’s Broken, We Can Fix It! • Same Day Service • On-Site Repairs • Servicing All Major Brands • Quality Guaranteed

We Also Buy, Sell & Trade Used Appliances Working or Not

480-659-1400 Licensed & Insured NOTICE:

Most service advertisers have an ROC# or "Not a licensed contractor" in their ad, this is in accordance to the AZ state law.

Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC): The advertising requirements of the statute does not prevent anyone from placing an ad in the yellow pages, on business cards, or on flyers.

What it does require under A.R.S. §32-1121A14(c) <http://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01165.htm> , is that the advertising party, if not properly licensed as a contractor, disclose that fact on any form of advertising to the public by including the words "not a licensed contractor" in the advertisement.

Again, this requirement is intended to make sure that the consumer is made aware of the unlicensed status of the individual or company.

Contractors who advertise and do not disclose their unlicensed status are not eligible for the handyman's exception.

Reference: (http://www.azroc.gov/invest/licensed_by_law.html) As a consumer, being aware of the law is for your protection. You can check a businesses ROC status at: http://www.azroc.gov/

37

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Cleaning Services

CARPET & UPHOLSTERY STEAM CLEANING

SPARKLE & SHINE CLEANING SERVICE Immaculate, Dependable Service. Affordable Rates.

Commercial & Residential services All supplies included.

Sanitized & masks worn You've tried the rest, now try the BEST!" Ask for Martha or Annie 480-495-5516 or 480-797-6023

FREE

furniture moving pre-spotting deodOrizer

39 free hall $ HALL 79 5FREErooms

$

$

2 rooms

sofa & loveseAT

89 Free chair

No hidden charges.

Senior and veteran discounts.

FREE ESTIMATES

480.773.4700

Car for Sale?

Advertise It Here!

Call 480.898.6465

Garage/Doors GARAGE DOOR SERVICE East Valley/ Ahwatukee

Broken Springs Replaced Nights/Weekends Bonded/Insured 480-251-8610

Not a licensed contractor

Marks the Spot for ALL Your Handyman Needs!

GLASS, MIRRORS, Marks the Spot for ALL•Your Handyman Needs! ✔ Painting Painting Flooring • Electrical SHOWER DOORS “No Job Too ✔Small Flooring Painting • Flooring • Electrical Plumbing • Drywall • Carpentry Man!”

Family OwnedPlumbing with 50 • Drywall • Carpentry ✔ Electrical Decks • Tile • More! years' EXPERIENCE.Decks • Tile le, Quality Work Since 1999 ✔ Plumbing Affordab • More!

2010, 2011 Shower and tub enclos2012, 2013, 2014 Call Bruce at 602.670.7038 ✔ Drywall ures, Framed, FrameAhwatukee Resident/ References/ Insured/ Not a Licensed Contractor “No Job ✔ Carpentry less or Custom Doors, Too Small Marks the Spot for“No Job Too ALL Your Handyman Needs! ✔ Decks We also install insuPainting • Flooring • Electrical Small Man!” “No Job Too Man!” lated glass, mirrored ✔ Tile Plumbing • Drywall • Carpentry Small Man!” Decks • Tile • More! closet doors, window ✔ Kitchens 9 199 ce Sin rk Wo patio glass, mirrors, y alit Affordable, Qu ✔ Bathrooms BSMALLMAN@Q.COM 2010, 2011 9 199 ce Sin rk Wo doors, glass table proy Qualit able, 2012, “No 2013, Job Too Afford And More!

2010, 2011 Small Man!” 2014 Call Bruce at 602.670.7038 tectors. If it’s glass, we

HOME FOR Call Bruce at 602.670.7038 RENT? Resident/ References/ Insured/ NotResident a Licensed Contractor help you. can Ahwatukee Ahwatukee / References Call Bruce atQUAL602.670.7038 Ahwatukee Resident/ References/ Insured/ Not a Licensed Contractor at ComITY SERVICE Insured / Not aCall Licensed Contractor Bruce at 602.670.7038 Place it here! petitive Prices.

2012, 2013, 2014

Since 1999 Affordable, Quality Work

81% of our readers, read the Classifieds!

Call Classifieds 480-898-6465

FREE Estimates

WESLEY'S GLASS & MIRROR wesleysglass.com SERVICING THE ENTIRE VALLEY Call 480-306-5113

Electrical Services

• Serving Arizona Since 2005 •

RETAINING WALL BLOCK FENCE PLANTER BBQ

FOUNDATION DRIVEWAY SIDEWALK PATIO

PAVER • CONCRETE REMOVAL • HARDSCAPE BONDED & INSURED • ROC#321648 SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! FREE ESTIMATES • 16 YEARS EXPERIENCE RESIDENTIAL CALL JOHN: 480.797.2985 COMMERCIAL

LLC

• Drywall Repair • Bathroom Remodeling • Home Renovations

• Electrical Repair • Plumbing Repair • Dry rot and termite damage repair

GENERAL CONTRACTOR / HANDYMAN SERVICES SERVING THE ENTIRE VALLEY

HONESTY • INTEGRITY • QUALITY

Concrete & Masonry

C O N C RETE & MA S O N RY BLOCKWALL CONCRETE

2010, 2011 2012, 2013, 2014

Ahwatukee Resident/ References/ Insured/ Not a Licensed Contractor

CLASS@TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM

DESERT ROCK

Marks the Spot for ALL Your Handyman Needs!

Painting • Flooring • Electrical Handyman Plumbing • Drywall • Carpentry Decks • Tile • More!

Glass/Mirror

All Estimates are Free • Call:

520.508.1420

www.husbands2go.com

• Panel Changes and Repairs • Installation of Ceiling Fans • Switches/Outlets • Home Remodel

Licensed, Bonded & Insured • ROC#317949 Ask me about FREE water testing!

Hauling

ALL RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL ELECTRICAL Call Jim Endres 480.282.7932 Over 28 Years Experience • ROC #246019 Bonded/Insured

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising”

• Furniture • Appliances • Mattresses • Televisions • Garage Clean-Out • Construction Debris

• Old Paint & Chems.

• Yard Waste • Concrete Slab • Remodeling Debris • Old Tires

602-789-6929 Roc #057163

WE DO IT ALL!

Bath & Kitchen Remodels • Car-Port to Garage Conversion Drywall & Stucco Repairs • Plumbing • Electrical • Can Lights Windows • Doors • Cabinets • Painting • Block Fences Wrought Iron Gates • Remodeling • Additions • Patios Tenant Improvements

class@timespublications.com

480-833-7353 - Office 480-430-7737 - Cell A+

LIC/BONDED/INSURED Res/Comm’l ROC#218802

aaaActionContractingInc.com

-S

I

E NC

19

78

Licensed • Bonded • Insured • ROC118198

One Call, We Do It All! 602-339-4766 Owner Does All Work, All Honey-Do Lists

Free Estimates with Pride & Prompt Service!

ACTION CONTRACTING INC.

East Valley

MORE CLASSIFIED ADS ONLINE! www.GilbertSunNews.com

480 898 6465

All Remodeling, Additions, Kitchen, Bath, Patio Covers, Garage, Sheds, Windows, Doors, Drywall & Roofing Repairs, Painting, All Plumbing, Electrical, Concrete, Block, Stucco, Stack Stone, All Flooring, Wood, Tile, Carpet, Welding, Gates, Fences, All Repairs.

Home Improvement

480.898.6465

You never know what you’ll find inside

General Contacting, Inc.

Block Fence * Gates

YOU’LL LIKE US - THE BEST!

HOME REMODELING REPAIRS & CUSTOM INTERIOR PAINTING Move a wall; turn a door into a window.

From small jobs and repairs to room additions, I do it all.

Precision interior painting, carpentry, drywall, tile, windows, doors, skylights, electrical, fans, plumbing and more.

All trades done by hands-on General Contractor.

Friendly, artistic, intelligent, honest and affordable.

40 years' experience.

Call Ron Wolfgang Pleas text or leave message Cell 602-628-9653 Wolfgang Construction Inc. Licensed & Bonded ROC 124934

CLASS@ TIMESPUBLICATIONS .COM

Home Improvement

- Mark Twain

Lowest Prices * 30 Yrs Exp Serving Entire Valley

Home Improvement

-

Home Remodeling • BASE BOARDS • DRYWALL • ELECTRICAL • PAINTING • PLUMBING • BATHROOMS • WOOD FLOORING • FRAMING WALLS • FREE ESTIMATES • GRANITE FABRICATION & INSTALLATION • CARPET INSTALLATION • LANDSCAPING

No Job Too Small!

Senior Discounts!

David Hernandez (602) 802 3600

NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR

Carpet Cleaning

daveshomerepair@yahoo.com • Se Habla Español

38

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Irrigation

Landscape/Maintenance Juan Hernandez

• Sprinkler/Drip Repairs • New Installs Poly/PVC • Same Day Service

NTY 5-YEAR WARRA

480.654.5600 azirrigation.com Cutting Edge LLC • ROC 281671

Not a licensed contractor

TREE

TRIMMING

25 years exp. Call Now (480) 720-3840

25 Years exp (480) 720-3840

Insured/Bonded Free Estimates

ALL Pro S E R V I C E

L L C

Prepare for Spring Season!

LANDSCAPING, TREES & MAINTENANCE

Repairs • Modifications • Installs

Juan Hernandez

HOME IMPROVEMENT & PAINTING Interior/Exterior Painting 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE Dunn Edwards Quality Paint Small Stucco/Drywall Repairs

We Are State Licensed and Reliable!

T R E E

Sprinkler & Drip Systems

Pool Service / Repair

Juan Hernandez

SPRINKLER Drip/Install/Repair & Tune ups!

Painting

Tree Trimming • Tree Removal Stump Grinding Storm Damage • Bushes/Shrubs Yard Clean-up Commercial and Residential PMB 435 • 2733 N. Power Rd. • Suite 102 • Mesa dennis@allprotrees.com

480-354-5802

Your Ad can go ONLINE ANY Day! Call to place your ad online!!

Classifieds 480-898-6465

Free Estimates • Senior Discounts

480-338-4011

ROC#309706

PAINTING OF ALL TYPES SPECIALIZING IN: Wood & Stucco Repairs • Deck Restoration Roofing, Shingles & Metal • Exterior/Interior Painting Elastometric & Clear Coats • Power Washing Leaf Guards (20yr No Clog) New 6" Seamless Gutters (Gutter Art Available)

Pavers • Concrete • Water Features • Sprinkler Repair

PPebbleOcracking, O L Plaster R Epeeling, P ARebar IR showing, Pool Light out? I CAN HELP!

FALL SPECIAL! $500 OFF COMPLETE REMODEL! 25 Years Experience • Dependable & Reliable

Call Juan at

480-720-3840 Not a licensed contractor.

Roofing

480-532-2525 • Residential / Commercial

ROC 296559 • Licensed, Bonded & insured

ADD COLOR TO YOUR AD!

Ask Us. Call Classifieds Today!

480.898.6465 CLASS@TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM

Over 30 yrs. Experience

480-706-1453

Licensed/Bonded/Insured • ROC #236099

Window Cleaning

APPEARANCE Professional service since 1995

• 20 Years Experience • 6 Year Warranty

480.345.1800 Landscape/Maintenance

Irrigation Repair Services Inc.

$110 - One Story $150 - Two Story

Plumbing

Voted #1 Paint Interior & Exterior • Drywall Repair Light Carpentry • Power Washing • Textures Matched Popcorn Removal • Pool Deck Coatings Garage Floor Coatings • Color Consulting

10% OFF

Licensed • Bonded • Insured Technician

We Beat Competitors Prices & Quality

Specializing in Controllers, Valves, Sprinklers, Landscape Lighting, P.V.C. & Poly Drip Systems

Free Estimates!

Home of the 10-Year Warranty!

Call Lance White

480.721.4146 www.irsaz.com

ROC# 256752

480-688-4770

www.eastvalleypainters.com Family Owned & Operated Bonded/Insured • ROC#153131

Now Accepting all major credit cards

PLUMBERS CHARGE TOO MUCH! Beat Any Price By 10% • Lifetime Warranty Water Heaters Installed - $799 Unclog Drains - $49 FREE RO UNIT w/Any WATER SOFTENER INSTALL NO INTEREST FINANCING - 60 Months!!

‘A’ RATED PLUMBING REPAIR Free Estimates • Same Day Service

Includes in & out up to 30 Panes Sun Screens Cleaned $3 each Attention to detail and tidy in your home.

(480) 584-1643

Bonded & Insured

Oooh, MORE ads online!

Check Our Online Classifieds Too!

Bonded/Insured • ROC #223709

480-405-7099 ItsJustPlumbSmart.com

LLC

ROC 304267 • Licensed & Bonded

Window Cleaning

East Valley PAINTERS

COUNTS

Painting

Tiles, shingles, flat, repairs & new work Free Estimates • Ahwatukee Resident

www.GilbertSunNews.com

39

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

NOW OPEN

NOW OPEN HAPPY HOUR

Every Day 2pm-6pm and 10pm-CLOSE • $5 Chips, Salsa, Guacamole • $4 House Wine • $8 Nachos, Load ‘Em Fries or chips • $2 Well Drinks • $8 Chicken Poppers • $4 Titos, Bacardi, Tanqueray, • $2 OFF ALL Draft Beer Herradura Silver, Jack Daniels

ALL DAY SPECIALS

MONDAY $10 Burgers WEDNESDAY $10 Wraps

FRIDAY $9 Fish & Chips and Fishy Wrap

TUESDAY 1/2 OFF ALL APPETIZERS

SATURDAY Kids Eat Free SUNDAY $10 Pastas

THURSDAY BUY ONE, GET ONE WINGS

1026 S Gilbert Rd Gilbert AZ 85296 www.howlerssportsbar.com

480-687-2864

REGULAR HOURS : DAILY 11AM - 12AM

40

GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 21, 2021

tm

VOW RENEWAL!

What’s more romantic this Valentine’s Day than to retell the person you love that you “still do” after all these years?

Have some fun this year and have Elvis renew your vows in a drive thru vow renewal! You will also enjoy a lasagna dinner for two to take home.

February 14th

LivGenerations Ahwatukee 15815 S. 50th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85048 Please call to RSVP to (480) 485-3000 to secure a spot

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day - LivGenerations Agritopia will be hosting a contest for the couple with the most unique, touching, or entertaining “Love Story”.

Winning recipient will be awarded a Romantic Gourmet Gift Basket!

Contact LivGenerations Agritopia at 480-485-2000 or visit our website at www.livgenerations.com for details of how to submit your entry. *Entries must be submitted by the end of the day on Febaury 21st

We still do.

LivGenerations Ahwatukee

tm

LivGenerations Agritopia

15815 S. 50th Street | Phoenix, AZ 85048

2811 E. Agritopia Loop S. | Gilbert, AZ 85296

480-485-3000

480-485-2000

livgenerationsahwatukee.com

livgenerationsagritopia.com

I N D E P E N D E N T L I V I N G | A S S I S T E D L I V I N G | M E M O R Y C A R E | S I G N AT U R E S E R V I C E S