Fire chief finalists named
Job training for teens
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
COMMUNITY......... 14 Gilbert teen bravely fights cancer.
REAL ESTATE Gilbert home prices soared 69% in two years.
SPORTS...................... 24 Families play big role in Gilbert sports.
COMMUNITY....................................... 14 BUSINESS............................................. 16 SPORTS..................................................24 GETOUT.................................................26 CLASSIFIEDS........................................31
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Town growth prompts Gilbert Police expansion BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
G
ilbert Police want a team of officers trained to deal with individuals going through mental-health crises in hopes of reducing arrests, overdoses, and use-offorce incidents. And to do that, the chief has asked to hire three officers and a sergeant for a full-time crisis response team. The additional officers and ongoing expenditures are part of the Police Department’s personnel cost totals $2.2 million inn
the budget proposal for 2022-23. The Police Department request for a total of 24 new employees is part of the town’s proposed $1.7-billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Town Council is expected on Tuesday, May 17, to adopt the preliminary budget, in which over half of the spending is allocated for capital improvements. As Gilbert continues to grow, so do calls for a crisis-intervention response, according to a 181-page budget-briefing report given to Council. Department data showed that Gilbert cops
New interchange chases tiny owls out of Gilbert
in the first six months of 2021 responded to 480 suicide attempts and 112 mentally ill calls. From April 1 to July 31 of the same year, Gilbert Police responded to 214 mental-health petition calls or involuntary commitment and took custody of 81 patients, reported Community Bridges, which treats mental health and addictions. The department calls Community Bridges when dealing with individuals in crisis. The treatment facility’s data also showed
see BUDGET page 8
New kids on the block
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
N
early a decade after Wild at Heart helped dig a habitat for the western burrowing owls at Zanjero Park, the raptor rescue nonprofit returned to relocate the ground-dwelling birds – uprooted by the nearby construction of the Lindsay Road Interchange. With the removal of the 8-inch-tall owls that nest underground, so went the only known spot in Gilbert where the public could view them up close. “It was a big draw for people who visited Gilbert,” said Greg Clark, Wild at Heart’s Burrowing Owl Habitat coordinator since 2001. “There were people going to Zanjero Park from other countries who were interested in birds and they knew they could go to Gilbert’s Zanjero Park to see the burrowing owls and Google Map would say there are burrowing
see OWLS page 6
Ashley Crandell of Gilbert and her husband Lance suddenly have a houseful of kids after she gave birth to quadruplets in February, but couldn’t bring them home until recently. For the story of their newfound joy, see page 4 for details. (Courtesy of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center)