Making ice cream with gas PAGE 15
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS .................................. 8 Layton Lakes neighbors clash with developer.
COMMUNITY ............ 14 Cooley Middle students have a creative space.
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State Fair has concert bargains PAGE 21
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Council approves higher water bills BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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ilbert residents will soon be paying more money every time they flush the toilet or drink a glass of water from the
tap. Town Council has voted to boost the rates for drinking water, wastewater and reclaimed water for business and residential customers, effective Nov. 1. The town’s rising costs for buying, treating, pumping and delivering water necessitated the rate hikes. At least one resident, Joe Bakas, a director of the Silverhawke Homeowners’ Associa-
tion, said it wasn’t the rate increase, but the timing that he didn’t like. “Our budget is based on the calendar year,” he said at the public hearing that ended with the rate hike’s approval. “It’s a pretty significant impact to HOAs who work on a calendar year. We’re looking at a $6,000 increase in our budget next year.” He asked the Town Council to delay the rates until Jan. 1 to give the HOA time to adjust its budget. Water Resources Manager Eric Braun told the council the rates are built on a full fiscalyear, which runs from July 1 to the following June 30. Even with the rate hike occurring Nov. 1, he said, the town already has lost
Latest FBI crime stats good news for Gilbert, EV
four months of revenue projected from the increases. Delaying the rate hike to January would mean a $1.2 million impact to the town, which means funding for capital improvement water projects would be pushed back, according to Management and Budget Director Kelly Pfost. She said a delay wasn’t impossible but recommended keeping the November start date. She also said that during the town’s extensive outreach, the issue that Bakas raised at the hearing had never come to staff’s attention.
see WATER page 6
Hip, hip hooray!
BY JIM WALSH GSN Staff Writer
SPORTS ........................... 18 Running back trio making Highland a gridiron contender.
COMMUNITY................. 12 BUSINESS ...................... 15 OPINION ........................ 17 SPORTS ..........................18 GETOUT ........................20 CLASSIFIED .................. 24
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roperty crime dropped in East Valley cities during 2017, consistent with a nationwide trend that has been noted in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime report for the past 15 years. The biggest declines were in Mesa and Chandler, while Gilbert’s already low numbers dropped a little further, according to a Tribune analysis of the numbers released by the FBI for 2016 and 2017. While the FBI also noted a troubling 9.5 percent increase in violent crime in Arizona as a whole from 2016 to 2017, that trend did not extend into the East Valley cities. Only Chandler registering a relatively small increase in violent crime, primarily in aggravated assaults related to domestic violence. The Arizona spike in violent crimes was apparent in Phoenix, where more than 1,800 more violent crimes were reported last year than in 2016. Arizona’s violent crime numbers for last year were up 7.9 per-
see CRIME page 7
(Kimberly Carrillo/GSN Staff Photographer)
Bryson Quinn of Gilbert holds the pins that he wore in his hip for four months as doctors fought save it from a rare bone disease. Now, he and his family want to give back to help others. Details: Page 12