Gilbert bakery celebrates birthday PAGE 31
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS.................................... 7 A former Gilbert Junior High coach gets prison for sex with a minor.
BUSINESS...................... 29 New Gilbert bar aims to mime speakeasies of the Roaring 20s.
SPORTS........................... 38
Highland High cross-country players are fleet of foot. COMMUNITY..................18 BUSINESS...................... 29 OPINION........................ 35 SPORTS.......................... 38 GETOUT.........................44 CLASSIFIED....................47
Young Marine gets big salute PAGE 20
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Sunday, OCTOBER 7, 2018
Pizza owner slams town’s rejection of his soccer plan BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
G
ilbert has turned down local businessman Jamie Hamzeh’s proposal to run the indoor soccer pavilion at the beleaguered Elliot District Park – and he says officials are gambling with tax dollars. Although Hamzeh guarantees a return for the town without further burdening taxpayers, town officials decided to pass on Hamzeh’s bid and opted to take operations in-house – saying they can do it more cheaply and realize a bigger profit. Hamzeh begs to differ. “The public needs to know that they would rather risk the taxpayers’ money than take a
guarantee, which I am willing to offer,” said Hamzeh, adding: “Gilbert believes that they will make more money from one soccer field than they will from eight baseball fields, which is impossible. I’m trying to help them realize that beJAMIE HAMZEH fore they make a big mistake like with Big League Dreams in the past.” The town issued a request for proposals on
June 25 for the operation of the pavilion and/ or the batting cages at the 272-acre park near Powell and Elliot roads as it tries to recover from the Big League Dreams debacle. Gilbert is in litigation with Big League Dreams, which oversaw the park since its opening in January 2008. Almost from the beginning, it has been a nightmare for the town, which had to sue the company that built it for millions of dollars in structural defects. Since then, Gilbert has claimed that Big League Dreams failed to perform adequate maintenance, creating the need for millions of dollars more in repairs.
Business gets town OK to go to Triple play the dogs – but only little ones
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
A
n overnight boarding and daycare that promises to treat small dogs like princes or princesses is coming to Gilbert. The Gilbert Planning Commission last week granted a conditional use permit for Happy Pets Royal Palace to set up shop at the 7-acre Elliot Ranch Plaza shopping center on the northeast corner of Val Vista Drive and Elliot Road. “We will be the only facility in Arizona that takes and caters to teacup-size or toy-size dogs,” said owner Linda Huss, a Mesa resident. “This is for dogs so spoiled that their feet effectively never
touch the ground because they are so pampered.” Plans are to open for business Oct. 22 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Nov. 10, according to Huss. She has a location in Mesa, now in its fifth year, and a new location opening in Chandler by Thanksgiving. Those two locations cater to all sizes of canines, Huss said. The Gilbert location will only take full-grown dogs weighing less than 20 pounds, such as Shih Tzu, Miniature Dachshund and Maltese. “We won’t be taking dogs that are larger than 20 pounds in adult weight,” Huss said. “Little
see DOGS page 5
see SOCCER page4
(Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)
Brian and Summer Richardson of Gilbert are parents of triplets – from left, Hope, Jaxon and Skye – and Summer has found a valuable resource and occasional retreat from all the attention they require in the Busy Bee Mothers of Multiples. For a look at what the nonprofit does for moms of twins, triplets, quads and more, please see page 18.