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MARANANEWS The Voice of Marana, Oro Valley and Northwest Tucson
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Local rocketeer dreams of taking out the trash
INSIDE Test to Treat
BY KAREN SCHAFFNER Tucson Local Media
County extends COVID-19 program.
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School security
Test your brainpower!
Wayne Barnett, deputy director of the Town of Marana’s Parks and Recreation Department, stands in his office at the Marana Municipal Complex, 11555 W Civic Center Drive. (Tom Leyde)
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Letters to the editor
Beg for more blue.
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Wayne Barnett passes park exam BY TOM LEYDE Tucson Local Media
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ayne Barnett, deputy director of the town of Marana’s Parks & Recreation Department, recently passed the Certified Parks and Recreation Executive (CPRE) exam, through the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA). He is now one of only 12 people in Arizona to obtain the prestigious certification and is one of just two people in Southern Arizona to achieve it. CPRE establishes a national standard for managerial, administrative and executive parks and
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recreation professionals. The mastery-level credential focuses on practical knowledge and current real-world skills needed in today’s changing parks and recreation environment. Barnett has been with the Town of Marana for three years. He grew up in Sierra Vista in a military family. Obtaining the certification has been one of his goals for several years, he said. He began preparing for the three-hour exam at the beginning of this year. “It was definitely a challenge and indicative of the work I’ve been doing,” Barnett said. The Town of Marana, he said, encourages its
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arana man is taking cleaning the environment to new heights. Rick Loehr dreamed of making it past the Kármán Line, an imaginary line scientists drew to mark 62 miles above Earth’s sea level. Loehr said this is the place where space begins and you officially become an astronaut. The 63-year-old said he doesn’t expect to get there himself. He planned on sending up a rocket he designed with propellant he formulated and cast. When his rocket gets there, he said he’s going to take out the trash — space trash. “We’re counting on the atmosphere,” Loehr said. “All we do is we impart a momentum change on the space debris to change its orbital mechanics.” The space debris then enters, and burns up in the earth’s atmosphere. The idea started when Loehr was young. He said he looked up, and what he beheld so captivated him he never stopped looking. “It puts a kink in my neck,” Loehr said. Loehr said he’s always been an amateur rocketeer, so at R3 Aerospace (R3 stands for Rick’s Rocket Ranch) Loehr and his team of a few technicians and a handful of Universi-
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