May 2018
Relentlessly local coverage of Gilbert and our neighboring communities
Tiny Dancer
Alexa Valenzuela performs at the Gilbert Global Village Festival.
Gilbert gets new tenant for St. Xavier building BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY
More than a year after St. Xavier University vacated the $34 million, taxpayerfunded building it occupied in Gilbert, the town has found a new higher-education partner to fill a portion of the facility. At its April 5 meeting, the Gilbert Town Council approved a three-year lease with Missouri-based Park University. The nonprofit institution opened in 1875 and operates 42 locations in 22 states, including two schools in Arizona at Luke and Davis-Monthan air force bases. The university will lease 10,411 square
feet of administrative and classroom space on the first floor of the four-story, 87,000-square-foot building. Park University will pay $799,128 in rent over the course of the lease and will also be required to pay a $26,027.50 security deposit when the lease is signed. The lease includes two- and three-year lease extension options. Those payments will not completely replace the money the town lost when St. SEE
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Recovering addicts find new outlook at Volken ranch BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY
In southern Gilbert, where Val Vista Drive meets Hunt Highway and gives way to open desert, there sits a working ranch that can house nearly 150 horses for riders and owners from around the East Valley. While horse properties are a dime a dozen in the area, this one stands out from the crowd for one reason: it doubles as a recovery center for men fighting addiction. The John Volken Academy Ranch is a therapeutic community that provides job and life skills training to recovering addicts on the program’s 50-plus-acre prop-
erty. The John Volken Academy also runs therapeutic communities in Vancouver and Seattle. At the ranch, residents pay a one-time $5,000 intake fee and the program provides a grant for further expenses. Much of those expenses are offset by the work the students perform as part of their recovery. The program is not for everyone. The ranch only accepts male students between the ages of 18 and 32. Volken said
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