15K residents file jobless claims
Little Leaguers mourn season
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS.................................3 Pandemic dampens Memorial Day.
COMMUNITY......... 16 Higley names Teacher of the Year.
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Gilbert officials eye $273M water plant replacement project
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Yesssss!
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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ilbert wants to replace its treatment facility that’s capable of pumping up to 45 million gallons of drinking water each day and pay its estimated $273 million cost with bonds and a rate hike. The North Water Treatment Plant near Guadalupe and Higley roads faces challenges in complying with drinking-quality standards and is depleting the town’s future water supply, according to Andrew Jackson, town water manager at a recent Council financial retreat. “We’re now at the position where we have to make a substantial investment,” Jackson said. “Time is of the essence and there will be budget implications, all of which are necessary to ensure long-term compliance with regulatory agencies and for sustainable water resource adequacy.” In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new reg-
see WATER page 4
The final few months of Elijah Kalberg’s high school education were challenging, as they were for his peers, but he was ecstatic when he picked up his diploma at Desert Ridge High School;. For a special tribute to all the new graduates, see inside. (Elena Villa/Special to GSN)
Virus hospitalized Gilbert doc 55 days BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
BUSINESS................. 18 Joyride Tacos reopens for inside-dining.
COMMUNITY....................................... 16 BUSINESS............................................. 18 OPINION................................................20 PUZZLE........................................21 SPORTS....................................... 22 CLASSIFIED..........................................23
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46-year-old doctor has returned home to Gilbert after nearly two months in a hospital where he almost died from COVID-19 until a lastditch effort saved him. Dr. Karl Viddal is the second COVID-19 patient in Arizona and the 32nd in the country to be treated with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine or ECMO, which pumped and oxygenated his blood outside the body, allowing his ravaged lungs to heal.
He spent 16 days on ECMO – more than any other COVID-19 patient on the lifesaving machine in Arizona – and a total 55 days in the hospital. A 53-year-old Phoenix man with underlying health issues was the first in Arizona to survive COVID-19 after being treated with ECMO in April at HonerHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center. “This is the first day for the rest of my life,” said Viddal in a May 15 virtual news conference at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, shortly before his discharge. “It’s important to see my family and kids.
It’s been 55 days and I miss them.” Viddal, a family-medicine doctor with an independent practice in Chandler, came down with the coronavirus symptoms on March 21, days after a trip abroad. “It’s hard to believe this actually happened to me,” he said. “I’ve never been sick in my life really, no past medical conditions and this virus nearly killed me.” According to a medical bio, Viddal is quite active, enjoying exercising, hiking, skiing, hockey and world travel.
see COVID DOC page 6