Teen suicide alarm raised
Water supply concerns mount
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Video glitch buries Town Council tiff BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
GRADUATION SECTION
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
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ilbert’s mayor publicly berated a councilman on the dais May 17 but that scolding never made it to viewers watching it live from home or on the town’s video archive to view later. A town spokeswoman blamed the glitch on the information technology staff. “IT has advised that a main part of the video recording system, the encoder, failed last night and the last 20 minutes of the meeting were not recorded,” spokeswoman Jennifer Harrison said. “When the encoder failed, both the livestream and video recording
were stopped.” Councilman Laurin Hendrix, who was at the receiving end of Mayor Brigette Peterson’s heated reproach, called the failure unusual. “Holy cow, I don’t recall the last time when that happened,” said Hendrix two days after the meeting. “I’ve never seen it get cut before. It seems so odd that the mayor exploded and goes absolutely nuts and all of that magically doesn’t exist.” Council meetings are generally not well-attended by the public unless there is a hot-button issue. Seated in the audience at the May 17 meeting were Alderman Mark Cosgrove and mem-
bers of his team from Antrim-Newtownabbey Borough Council in Northern Ireland. They were in town for a May 20 ribbon cutting of the Gilbert Sister Cities’ Friendship Garden. Compared to the current budget year, spending on the IT department increased by 40.3% to $22.7 million in the preliminary $1.7 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2023 that Council adopted May 17. The department’s budget includes $389,000 for three new hires – an IT application supervisor, a telecom engineer and an audio/visual technician. What led up to the mayor’s rebuke was an agenda item regarding the state Attorney
see TIFF page 4
Homeowners fume over Ocotillo Road widening COMMUNITY......... 13 Gilbert man pens new children’s book.
SPORTS...................... 23 Gilbert athletes shine in state track tourney.
COMMUNITY........................................13 BUSINESS.............................................20 SPORTS..................................................23 GETOUT.................................................50 CLASSIFIEDS....................................... 55
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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ric and Terri Naddy enjoy a rural lifestyle on nearly 2.5 acres, raising 60 quails, chickens, three dogs and two desert tortoises. They planned on putting in a barn and an aboveground pool to farm fish. But earlier this month, the couple learned their way of life may soon be gone as Gilbert moves forward with taking part of their land and that of 45 of their neighbors in southeast Gilbert for a road-widening project. Most of the other properties in the area are 1 acre in size and some homeowners have horses. Town Council in January unanimously approved eminent domain proceedings on the properties bordering Ocotillo Road on the north and south sides from Greenfield to Val Vista roads. Nine of the properties are in Gilbert’s jurisdiction and 37, including
see DOMAIN page 7
Terri and Eric Naddy stand to lose a substantial portion of their property as the Town of Gilbert widens Ocotillo Road between Val Vista Drive and Greenfield Road. (David Minton/
GSN Staff Photographer)