Mesa Tribune 02-19-2023

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Lehi loses battle against apartment project

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

Acontentious 222-unit apartment building proposed for northwest Mesa’s Lehi community cleared a final hurdle as Mesa City Council approved a rezone request during a Feb. 13 hearing.

The hearing on the project at the Red Mountain Loop 202 Freeway and McDowell Road was deflating for Lehi residents, many of whom started leaving Council Chambers before it wrapped up and discouraged by the lack of opposition on the council.

By the time council members voted unanimously to approve plans for Homestead at Lehi apartments, recently rechristened Sweetwater,

Big power lines bringing Mesa plenty of juice

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

Gray-colored electrical poles over 100-feet tall carrying 230 kV and 69 kV lines have risen along the Loop 202 between Warner and Elliot Roads, forever changing the horizon of Southeast Mesa.

The poles are part of the first phase of SRP’s Southeast Power Link project approved in 2018 and intended to help

SRP keep pace with growth in this part of Mesa.

It also aims to enhance the reliability of electricity – something critical for industries seeking environmental stability for critical operations like data centers. At full build-out, 7 miles of tall overhead lines will connect two east-west running high-voltage power lines in Mesa and Queen Creek.

SRP spokesperson Erica Roelfs said the first phase of 230kV lines will run from

a new substation just south of Warner Road to the high voltage lines just north of Elliot Road.

The first stretch of line is on track for completion in April, Roelfs said, and workers will begin constructing the second phase of lines from the new substation toward the south later this year.

The second phase will follow the State Route 24 corridor then plunge south

Marilyn Crosby, president of the Lehi Community Association, and her horse Peanut, stand on land that will soon give way to an apartment complex. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

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I Love Mesa Day returning for second year

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

People will have a chance again next weekend to enjoy free concerts, movies and discounts as the I Love Mesa Day returns for a second consecutive to downtown.

On Saturday, Feb. 25, the day-long celebration sponsored by the city and the Downtown Mesa Association aims to introduce Valley residents to the neighborhood’s unique attractions.

The inaugural I Love Mesa Day was held in late 2021 as a way to help small businesses that had been impacted by the pandemic in 2020, according to city spokeswoman Ana Pereira.

“This was a way to give back to the community after everything that happened in 2020,” Pereira said.

Jessica Brodersen, an event coordinator for the city who helped lead the charge for this event, said the collaborative effort brought some creative ideas for family fun for the first I Love Mesa Day in September 2021.

Brodersen and Pereira said the 2022 event was postponed to align with springtime and that the event may now become an annual fixture on the city’s social calendar.

Pereira has only worked for the city for a little over a year but already loves “the Mesa way”— a culture of the community that cares about its residents, and businesses including their own employees, she said.

“We’re very fortunate to be in a very caring community and that’s why we have these events,” Pereira said. “To show our gratitude and appreciate to our community for what they do for one another, their support to our businesses.”

A city employee for 23 years and a resident for nearly that same time, Brodersen noted, “I love the fact that we are the 35th largest city in the country, but still have a lot of small-town appeal.”

With 30 downtown businesses offering specials and the completion of The Plaza at Mesa City Center, Brodersen said I Love Mesa Day will have plenty of family fun

that starts at 8 a.m.

There will be a farmers market, carnival games, petting zoo, roller skating demos, open skating, face painting, outdoor movies, balloon animals, free museum admissions, along with concerts starting at 5 p.m. and ending with fireworks.

“I think that one thing that Mesa prides itself on continually is that there are a ton of activities in the Valley every day, but we consistently try to make things free or as inexpensive as possible for our families,” Brodersen said.

Cameron Selogie, managing partner for Il Vinaio Restaurant, said the economic recovery coming out of “COVID seclusion” remained slow until last November but downtown recently has become “very, very busy.”

“The merchants have been actively working together for years trying to come up with more events to bring people downtown,” Selogie said.

I Love Mesa Day is similar to prior city promotions like “Second Friday” and “Motorcycles on Main.”

And unlike other Valley cities that have become “very commercial,” Selogie said, Mesa has maintained the mom-and-pop atmosphere and that “uniqueness” is something worth celebrating.

“We celebrate our successes downtown and how we’ve all worked together to help build this thriving downtown and it’s getting bigger and better every year,” Selogie said.

“Everybody seems to look out for each other and help each other,” Selogie said. “It still has a small-town feel.”

Chuck Wennerlund of Greenbelt Succu-

lents and Cactus Gift Shop in downtown Mesa opened on April 22, 2022, Earth Day, and said he is “super stoked” to take part in this year’s event.

Wennerlund said since he started working in downtown Mesa in 1980, he loves the opportunity that there for entrepreneurs

If You Go...

“You’ve always got to position yourself as a business to make it through to provide a service and just offer some value to your customers,” Wennerlund said. “There’s plenty going on downtown and I think that the economic opportunity for an entrepreneur is endless in downtown Mesa.”

• Downtown Mesa Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. along the Center Street side of the Mesa Arts Center.

• Mesa’s i.d.e.a Museum and Arizona Museum of Natural History will offer free admission.

• Main Street and downtown activations will start at 11 a.m. and will include a petting zoo, carnival and rides.

• Free outdoor movies, roller skating demonstrations and open skating at The Plaza at Mesa City Center.

• 5 p.m. concerts followed by fireworks.

• For business promotions: downtownmesa.com/events/i-love-mesa-day-2023

• Pepper Place will be closed from west of Macdonald to Centennial Way and Macdonald will be closed from north of Pepper Place to Main Street from Friday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. to Sunday, Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. The parking lot behind Milano’s, at the southeast corner of Pepper Place and Macdonald, will close Thursday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m.

Schools' chief steps up initiative for armed campus personnel

The law enforcement official who was once second in command of the Phoenix Police Department is now heading the state schools chief’s initiative to place armed officers or security personnel on all school campuses.

Arizona Superintendent of Public

Schools Tom Horne appointed Michael Kurtenbach to be his director of school safety and former Phoenix Police Commander Allen Smith as assistant director.

As executive chief of the Phoenix force, Kurtenbach was a familiar face at Phoenix City Council hearings in 2021 and early 2022 as he reported on the dif-

ficulties his department was encountering in maintaining a sufficient number of patrol officers in the face of low recruitment results and a high rate of department retirements and resignations.

Former Police Chief Geri Williams last summer transferred Kurtenbach out of

Shoppers descended on downtown Mesa in 2021 for the inaugural I Love Mesa Day and it’s coming back next weekend. (City of Mesa)

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CAMPUS from page 3

that position, saying that because she was retiring, she wanted her successor to name his own person for the job. Kurtenbach subsequently retired.

“Every school should have a law enforcement officer to protect students and staff, and this should be accomplished on an urgent basis,” Horne said in a Feb. 8 release. “Delay in implementing this goal could leave schools more vulnerable to a tragic catastrophe.”

Horne also indicated that he won’t look favorably on school districts that request public safety grants for measures that do not include an armed officer or security guard.

Such requests in the past have also involved more counselors or related personnel.

“Schools that currently have no armed presence yet submit grants applications that do not request an officer will not receive a recommendation from this department to the State Board of Education,” Horne said.

Horne said that while “I am a long-

How Will They

time supporter of each school having a counselor to help ensure the well-being of students” he is a strong believer in an armed presence on campuses.

“Schools still ought to have counselors but providing a safe school atmosphere that requires an armed presence is the first priority,” he said.

The Education Department noted that in recent weeks throughout the Valley, “there have been reported incidents of heightened school threats, real and fake weapons found on campus, and disturbing social media postings regarding school violence.

“Department staff have also received phone calls from teachers in a Phoenixarea high school district complaining of fights including one involving multiple students in which a female teacher was knocked down. This is a growing trend not just in Arizona but throughout the country,” the department said.

Horne said Kurtenbach and Smith “will work throughout the state providing schools with resources and expertise to implement effective personnel and safety procedures. They will also assist

school administrators in building trust with students to foster specific types of communication that help support a safer school environment.”

Kurtenbach has more than 32 years of experience in law enforcement. He has served as vice chair of Terros Behavioral Services, a member of the advisory board of the Arizona State University Center for Violence Prevention, a board member of AZ Common Ground and belongs to numerous law enforcement associations.

He attended the 2018 Anti-Defamation League National Counter Terrorism Seminar in Israel, and he has served as a grant reviewer for the U.S. Office of Justice Programs.

He is a recipient of the Freedom Fund Award for Law Enforcement from the Maricopa County NAACP, the MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award, Hero Award from the Center for Neighborhood Leadership and multiple law enforcement honors including the Phoenix Police Department Medal of Valor, Distinguished Service Award, Community Based Policing Award.

about half of the opponents in the audience had left.

Marilyn Crosby, president of the Lehi Community Improvement Association, which has opposed the project for a year-and-ahalf, said residents felt “disenfranchised” by the sense that the outcome was predetermined going into the hearing.

Sweetwater is planned for an agricultureoriented part of the city that is particularly sensitive to development.

Last week’s approval pointed to Council’s determination to grow Mesa’s available workforce housing even when it generates blowback.

Housing was cited by council members as one reason for supporting the project.

“These apartments are for skilled workforce or young professionals that Mesa needs to continue to attract economic development jobs in our city,” Councilman Mark Freeman said during an emotional reading of remarks.

“This housing is for young families, our sons and daughters, grandparents, parents who want to stay in the area that cannot afford a $600,000-plus house.”

The approval also suggested that by adding community benefits that align with council priorities, developers might have smoother sailing through the city approval process.

In the case of Sweetwater, the developer is donating a small portion of the site for a trailhead and promised to improve the canal trail and pedestrian underpass on the southern side of the property.

Two council members appreciated that the Park-n-Ride bus stop on the opposite side of the 202 could be accessed on foot from the apartments via Gilbert Road.

Council’s final vote rezoned the 9-acre site from low-density single family to multifamily zoning up to 30 units per acre, clearing the way for a three-story apartment building.

The rezone took the property from a maximum of nine units allowed to a 280-unit maximum.

The vote also eliminated a Historic Landmark Overlay on part of the site, which was formerly the Crismon Homestead.

The Crismon family put the overlay in place during the planning phase of the Loop 202 to help protect the historic buildings from destruction.

Mesa’s Historic Preservation Board recommended removing the designation in 2021 due to the loss of historic structures on the site in a 2007 fire.

Many council members agreed with the developer’s claim that the Crismon Homestead site, now a bare dirt bowl between the 202 and Salt River Project canals, simply makes sense for dense housing because it is adjacent to the freeway.

Lehi residents were not unanimously opposed to Sweetwater, with some preferring the apartments to the vacant lot.

But the comments submitted before last week’s hearing were overwhelmingly against it – 49 opposed to six in favor, the mayor reported.

Numerous apartment projects have generated controversy in Mesa, but Sweetwater seemed to touch a nerve in a part of town where livestock still roam the streets and histories run deep.

Latter-day Saint pioneers first crossed the Salt River from Utah and settled Lehi in 1877, and Lehi was not incorporated into Mesa until 1970.

Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury noted the neighborhood’s distinctive character, remarking that she thought Lehi was a separate town while growing up in Mesa –prompting one Lehi resident to whisper, “It really should be.”

Members of the public who spoke out against the apartments during public comments said they were not against developing the site, but wanted a project that fit better with the surrounding community’s

character – such as a plant nursery or a subdivision of horse properties.

Crosby pointed out that Mesa’s General Plan references “neighborhood character” 229 times, and “sense of place” 32 times.

The Sweetwater apartments would dilute Lehi’s neighborhood character, she and others argued.

One resident thought the project was an ignoble end to the circuitous history of the site over the years.

She reminded council that the Loop 202 was rerouted to protect the historic homes on site and at that one time the city owned the land and had plans to turn it into a park.

“Finally, it comes down to apartments,” she complained. “It does nothing to speak to Mesa’s history.”

A lawyer for the developers for Sweetwater countered that the apartment project would contribute to the character of Lehi by beautifying the canal trail near the project and get rid of an eyesore that attracts illegal dumping.

“If you experienced this property right now today, you will see trash and debris and Thirst Buster cups and some drug paraphernalia,” said Attorney Adam Baugh, representing Sweetwater Companies. “It’s not an area that’s inviting to anybody to walk, to jog, to ride a horse.”

Staff from Mesa’s Transportation Department told council that McDowell Road at this intersection is only at a third of its capacity of daily car trips.

They estimated the Sweetwater apartments would increase the current level of

daily trips by 2,000 trips, or 18% of current usage, which they claimed is still well below max capacity.

Developers have pointed out that the entrance to the apartment complex would be directly across McDowell Road from the 202 ramp, which they predicted would absorb much of the traffic.

The trail improvements included in the project seemed to carry a lot of weight with Mayor John Giles, who said he is “pretty sure” he lives “closer to the project than anybody who has spoken,” and has been a proponent of enhancing Mesa’s trail infrastructure.

“The improvements associated with this apartment complex are going to allow for the folks who live in my neighborhood in the south of this property to access that pedestrian underpass in a safe way for the first time,” he said.

“The people of Mesa … utilize that wonderful canal that goes from McDowell uninterrupted all the way up to the Granite Reef diversion dam,” Giles said.

“It’s a very unique and wonderful trail, 6 miles, where you can hike or bike or ride a horse and you won’t interact with any vehicular traffic.”

Giles said he was committed to “keeping Lehi Lehi,” but he doesn’t believe the parcel of land in question is worth preserving.

“I assure you that if we thought this was Lehi, we would fall on our swords to protect it,” he said. “I honestly can tell you that this is not Lehi. This is a remnant piece that was created as a result of the freeway … that is in desperate need of rehabilitation.”

Developers of the Sweetwater project in Lehi said it will enhance a run-down vacant area, though residents say horse properties or a plant nursery would be a better fit. (City of Mesa)

New uncertainty looms over gas tax extension

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

State lawmakers are moving to wrest control of transportation planning from local officials to instead represent their own political philosophies. And now the question is whose vision among all those lawmakers should take effect.

Strictly speaking, the debate on SB 1122 deals with whether Maricopa County voters will get a chance to extend a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects for another 20 years.

That can happen only with permission of the Republican-controlled Legislature. And several GOP lawmakers said they will give the go-ahead only if the amount set aside for mass transit is reduced from current levels – and if absolutely none of that goes to fund light rail.

For the moment, the 4-3 vote on Feb. 13 to kill SB 1122 by the Senate Committee on Transportation and Technology

quashes any future election.

The Maricopa levy is set to expire in 2025 unless lawmakers give the goahead for an election.

Last week’s debate and vote show that any county that wants to fund transit projects will get the necessary legislative approval to ask their own voters for approval only if the plan complies with how state lawmakers agree how the money should be spent.

And that has become tainted by political philosophies, including a specific bias toward roads at the expense of mass transit and light rail in particular.

Sen. Frank Carroll, R-Sun City, has backed a broader approach with continued funding for alternatives to freeway construction.

That’s the plan prepared by and backed by the Maricopa Association of Governments, made up of elected officials of all area cities, tribes and the urban areas of the Maricopa and Pima counties.

But Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, rejected that as being driven by “nudge theory.’’

“It’s a tactic the Left likes to use called ‘choice architecture,’ ‘’ he said, essentially forcing people to accept the policies desired by those setting the rules.

Hoffman said that’s what’s happening under President Biden by shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, curtailing offshore drilling and refusing to renew some lease permits for drilling in Alaska.

“The Left is making a concerted effort to drive up the cost of gas,’’ he argued, to advance its agenda of reducing driving and emissions.

But Carroll, who supports more money for mass transit – and even sponsored a bill continuing dollars for light rail – said while that may be true, it’s also irrelevant. He said the gas prices are a reality for taxpayers.

“They’ve still got to get to work, they’ve still got to get to places,’’ Carroll said. And that, he said, makes it logical

ENROLL NOW FOR CLASSES

to assume that ridership on mass transit will increase with higher gas prices.

The more over-arching question is whether lawmakers, being pushed by groups like the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona whose members are developing housing projects farther from the county’s urban core, know better than local elected officials what their constituents want.

Avondale Mayor Kenn Weise, who chairs MAG, acknowledged that not every community benefits from each part of the regionally developed plan. For example, he said, his residents would not be aided by light rail which doesn’t extend into his community.

But he said the plan was unanimously adopted after “extensive public input’’ as being the best for all concerned.

In fact, state lawmakers agreed last year to put that on the ballot. But that was quashed when then-Gov. Doug Du-

see TRANSPORTATION page 9

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is about connecting

First Lady visits Mesa Community College

BY PIPER HANSEN Cronkite News

First lady Jill Biden was met with praise and happy students Feb. 13 during a visit to Mesa Community College, where she applauded the city for its successful college scholarship program.

Following her trip to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Biden stopped in Mesa to vocalize again her support for Mesa College Promise, a public-private partnership commitment from the city of Mesa to all of its residents that eligible high school graduates can attend Mesa Community College for two years with Arizona resident tuition and fees fully funded.

“When I was second lady, we launched the College Promise to make community college tuition-free and help students cross the finish line,” Biden said. “And Joe and I continued to support this work at the Biden Foundation. Now, at the White House, we are still working to make community college free, despite challenges from Con-

gress.”

College Promise programs are offered at select schools across the country, giving lower-income, first-generation and other students enough financial support for their first two or more years of postsecondary education.

The program at Mesa Community College is in its second year, having doubled in size since its first cohort, and offers students more than just financial benefits.

Mesa Mayor John Giles said the cohort of students have “wraparound services” including counselors, technology to complete coursework and a support system network of professors and other faculty who are consistently checking in.

Alongside the first lady were U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, Gov. Katie Hobbs, Mesa Community College President Tammy Robinson and Maricopa Community Colleges Chancellor Steven Gonzales.

“Your president and his secretary of education know we need pipelines that start in

high school, provide access to two years of community college and connect to great jobs,” Biden said. “Because that’s the future of our workforce and our economy.”

The first lady’s remarks come on the

coattails of the president’s State of the Union address, where he reiterated his goal to “give public school teachers a raise” and said he was “making progress by reducing student debt, increasing Pell Grants for working and middle class families.”

“Let’s finish the job and connect students to career opportunities starting in high school. Provide access to two years of community college, the best career training in America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree,” Biden said in his Feb. 7 address.

By 2027, Cardona said, 70% of jobs will require some type of post-secondary education and that preparing students, aligning education with the workforce and “paving every pathway with equity and excellence in mind” is on us.

“We have an opportunity of a lifetime here to connect the dots,” Cardona said. “And you’re doing that exceptionally well here. You show what’s possible when local

First Lady Jill Biden praised the Mesa College Promise program Monday during a visit to Mesa Community College. The program lets eligible graduating Mesa high school students attend Mesa Community College for two years with their Arizona resident tuition and fees fully funded. (Drake Presto/Cronkite News)

governments, school districts, community colleges and industry partners work together to create affordable pathways to college and career.”

Lilly Hernandez, a first-generation student studying construction management at Mesa Community College, did not come to college right out of high school, waiting a handful of years because she did not want her parents to go into debt.

“The fact that I don’t have to pay for tuition is the only reason I’m able to stand here today,” she said.

Mesa College Promise began in early 2020 with the hopes of addressing a low rate of residents with college degrees.

“Raising funds has not been the challenge for this program. The challenge has been changing hearts and minds, helping families to see that over 80% of the participants in this program are first-time college families. And the thing we love about this program, it’s not just your tuition is paid, we’ll see a graduation,” Giles said.

During the 2021 legislative session, thenGov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law allowing community college students to earn bachelor’s degrees without needing to attend another higher education institution.

TRANSPORTATION from page 7

cey vetoed even letting the issue go to voters. That resulted in this year’s new and sharply modified plan, with more of the share going to pavement.

What the Legislature wants to do, Weise said, is override the locally adopted plan with its own priorities and those of “special interests,’’ meaning groups who would benefit financially by financing more road-construction rather than transit.

MAG wants lawmakers to simply give voters a chance to approve the plan it created, the votes that adopted the tax and the first 20-year plan in 1985 and its renewal in 2005.

Weise rejected Hoffman’s suggestion of two separate votes: One on road construction and the other on mass transit. That, he said, would destroy the idea of having a plan where everyone recognizes the needs of the larger community.

The first lady, who is not an elected member of Congress or a member of the president’s Cabinet, is generally responsible for advancing a set of social causes. Jill Biden has been a leading messenger on issues like reopening schools safely after the pandemic and has been supporting the president’s economic agenda.

Hobbs said she’s working to increase investments in rural colleges and continue funding in STEM training programs at colleges in urban areas. She said she hopes to expand access to dual-enrollment programs, something she said high school students aren’t utilizing in ways they should.

Job training focused on STEM — for science, technology, engineering and math — has been a massive part of conversations in and about Arizona, with the president visiting in recent months to tour computer chip plants in the state.

In Congress, Stanton has been backing bipartisan infrastructure plans in ongoing projects like Mesa Gateway Airport, aerospace companies and Fortune 500 corporations. He has also touted benefits from the CHIPS Act, which will encourage development of advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., at facilities like Arizona’s Intel and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plants.

He said that’s what enabled the MAG plan to include money for extension of State Route 24 in Hoffman’s district even though his own residents might otherwise have wanted dollars for a new State Route 30 to funnel traffic into his own area of the county.

Hoffman and some other lawmakers also want to insert other political ele ments before giving local voters permis sion to vote on transit funding.

For example, he wants to say that proj ects cannot be developed to fit “demand management’’ policies to reduce vehicle miles traveled. And he said he is not bothered if that means giving up federal dollars, a large share of transit funding that the state and counties receive.

The committee’s vote leaves in limbo the question of whether Maricopa County voters will get a chance to enact or extend existing taxes for their transportation plans if they do not meet with approval of a majority of lawmakers.

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EV lawmaker makes impassioned plea for kids’ mental health

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor

As he appeared Feb. 14 before the state House Education Committee, state Rep. Travis Grantham bluntly told it that he wasn’t happy last year when he was assigned to the taks force on teen mental health that had brought him before them.

“In the last session, I was asked to serve on an ad hoc committee dealing with teen mental health,” the Gilbert Republican told his colleagues. “And to be honest with you, I didn’t want to. But once I got on the committee and I understood how important of an issue this is, I changed my mind.”

Grantham had been appointed with then-state Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, to co-chair a committee that would “take a substantive look into the issues and causes affecting

teen mental health, including substance abuse, depression, and suicide, and to identify potential solutions and improvements.”

From September through November, that panel – comprising police, school officials and various medical experts – heard at times gut-wrenching testimony about the rising incidents of drug overdoses, substance abuse, suicides and attempted suicides among teenagers in Arizona.

That panel produced 23 recommendations and Grantham in the committee’s first meeting warned members and the audience they shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Grantham warned the panel and people in the audience against unrealistic hopes for the committee’s work.

“There was an understanding that while mental health can be addressed and can be changed and for the better,” he said, “it’s like steering

a ship: you turn the wheel and over time, the ship slowly starts to move, hopefully, in the right direction. It’s not an overnight fix.”

And though he echoed those cautionary remarks in the task force’s final meeting in December, he appeared before the House committee last week as a crusader.

“I heard stories that quite honestly made me want to cry and formed a new appreciation for the folks who

are the professionals in this industry who work so hard to try to solve these problems and the people who deal with this on a day to day basis,” he said.

A tragedy also struck closer to home for Grantham.

A female sophomore at a Gilbert private school died by suicide only a day earlier.

Stare Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, implored the House Education Committee to approve the first of three bills he has submitted to improve state and local response to the worsening teen mental crisis in Arizona. (Arizona Legislature)

“We had an incident in my own district just a couple days ago where a young woman (died by) suicide and it set the school in a crisis mode,” Grantham told the committee.

“And I’m sure it’s affected a lot of her friends and the people who knew her. And every time a student or a young person does that, we lose tremendously and it’s devastating,” he said.

“I can’t tell you that this legislation will change the social aspect of the family or whatever might be weighing on these people that are choosing to go down this road or having mental health issues, but at least it provides the opportunity for help to be there at the push of a button.”

The legislation he was referring to was the first – and probably easiest – of three bills he has filed to help push Arizona into a more proactive response to a crisis that has been aggravated by pandemic school closures, social media, bullying and other peer pressures.

He won when the committee voted to send to the House a measure that would allow school districts to develop or buy an app that would enable students to anonymously report safety issues ranging from selfharm to threats against students and receive anonymous clinical support 24/7.

The app also would provide students and parents with resources on mental health, bullying and substance abuse issues. It does not require districts to provide such an app but rather clears any administrative hurdles that might be preventing one from being offered, Grantham stressed.

Grantham’s other bills would create a teen mental health program within the state Department of Health Services and provide a sofar unspecified amount of money to fund its operation.

Such a program – which Osborne suggested could be funded with some of the $14 million Arizona will

receive from the settlement of its lawsuit against Juul for a marketing campaign that led millions of children and teen into vaping addictions – could help pay for school district programs like the app.

Grantham’s bill would empower DHS to also pay school districts and nonprofits for training on mental health first aid, youth resiliency and substance abuse for staff, parents and peers.

It also would require the Health Services Department to make an annual report on projects it funded and the outcomes it achieved.

Grantham’s appearance also comes on the heels of a Chandler Unified School District report that disclosed 395 district students had considered suicide since July – and those are just the ones that officials know about.

Before the House committee took its unanimous vote, Osborne also addressed the crisis, noting that Grantham, a major in the Arizona Air National Guard, knows all too well about the “horrendous” suicide rate among military veterans in the United States. The Guard uses the app the committee voted on to the full House.

She then cited a new report by the Centers of Disease Control last week that said 57% of adolescent girls “feel persistently sad or hopeless.”

“That’s the highest rate in a decade and 30% said they have seriously considered dying by suicide, a percentage that has risen by nearly 60% over the past 10 years.],” Osborne said.

“We have a crisis. It’s not an answer from one bill. It’s not an answer from one organization or one group or one teacher. It’s all of us. As parents, it’s our churches. It’s our schools. It’s our communities. We’ve got to recognize this because our kids don’t have five years for us to wake up as adults and say we got a problem here.

“It’s at our doorstep right now. And it’s affecting every one of our districts. There is no social, economic or whatever to it. Kids are having trouble.”

WARNING!

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The only way to effectively treat chronic pain and/or peripheral neuropathy is by targeting the source, which is the result of nerve damage owing to inadequate blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet. This often causes weakness, numbness, balance problems. A lack of nutrients causes the nerves degenerate – an insidious

cannot survive, and thus, slowly die. This leads to those painful and frustrating consequences we were talking about earlier, like weakness, numbness, tingling, balance issues, and perhaps even a burning sensation.

The drugs your doctor might prescribe will temporarily conceal the problems, putting a “Band-Aid” over a situation that will only continue to deteriorate without further action.

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Aspen Medical begins by analyzing the extent of the nerve damage –a complimentary service for your friends and family. Each exam comprises a detailed sensory evaluation, extensive peripheral vascular testing, and comprehensive analysis of neuropathy findings.

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along Crismon Road to lines in Queen Creek south of Germann.

Local leaders say these power lines will have a major payoff for the city’s economic prospects by helping lure companies that seek heavy loads of reliable electrical power.

“For Mesa this is extremely important infrastructure,” Mesa Economic Development Director Bill Jabjiniak said.

“I can tell you we already talk about it (with companies) on a regular basis,” he said.

Roelfs explained the Southeast Power Link is needed to meet growing power demands from residential, commercial and industrial customers in the Elliot corridor.

Adding the new transmission lines will “also provide reliable back-up power supply to the area, meaning there is ‘redundant’ power in the event of an outage to a transmission line or major piece of equipment,” Roelfs said. “This helps to prevent prolonged outages.”

Jabjiniak said “redundancy” in the power supply is important to many companies scouting locations for new

operations.

“Any business, any time they are to lose power, it shocks the system,” he said. “Reliable power is one of the things we talk about (with prospective companies). You don’t have earthquakes (here), you don’t have the floods.

“It’s uninterrupted service. SRP has been one of the most reliable (utilities) in the country.”

An SRP spokesperson told the Tribune last year that the height of the poles helps protect high-voltage lines from damage.

Meta’s $800 million, 2.5-millionsquare-foot data center currently under construction on Elliot and Ellsworth will benefit from Southeast Power Link, as well as other data centers in the Elliot Road Tech Corridor.

Data centers need access to large power loads because they use electricity both to power their equipment and cool it, since their operations generate heat.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “data centers are one of the most energy-intensive building types, consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office building.”

The agency estimates data centers now account for 2% of U.S. electrical usage.

In August, SRP received a Certificate of Environmental Capability for a half-mile 230kV line connecting Meta’s data center campus with the first phase of the Southeast Power Link.

A spokesman for Meta said the first phase of the data center is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2024.

In another electrical development coming into alignment for Meta’s data center, the first of three utilityscale solar plants that will provide a total 450 megawatts of solar power to off-set Meta’s power usage opened in early February.

The West Line Solar plant outside Eloy will generate 100 MW of solar power.

Half of the new plant’s output will be dedicated to Meta and the other half is earmarked for customers of SRP’s Solar Choice program.

The other two plants supplying Meta are expected to open later this year.

This map shows the Southeast Power Link route from SRP at Warner Road and the Santan Loop 202 Freeway. (Special to the Tribune)

The 100-foot poles carry plenty of juice for big developments in southeast Mesa. (Special to the Tribune)

City’s new water rep meets with Sinema

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

Mesa City Councilman Mark Freeman got some face time with U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to discuss the city’s requests of the federal government during record-low water levels in Colorado River reservoirs and uncertainty about Arizona’s future share of river water.

About half of Mesa’s water currently comes from the Colorado River, a figure the city is trying to draw down and bring into greater balance with its other water sources, which include the Salt River and groundwater.

Freeman’s exchange with Sinema was part of a meeting convened earlier this month between the senator and the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, a coalition of 10 Val -

ley cities, of which Mesa is a founding member.

The group was created in 1969 to encourage cooperation among cities and towns in securing and maintaining water for urban uses. Freeman took over this year as Mesa’s representative.

Former council member Kevin Thompson represented Mesa on the AMWUA board for many years before terming out and winning election last year to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Freeman said his top message to Sinema was that the federal government must implement “equitable” water cuts among Colorado River states as the u.S.Bureau of Reclamation seeks to stabilize water levels in the major reservoirs Lakes Powell and Mead.

“Equitable reductions” is the polite way of saying California needs to

take cuts comparable to that of other Colorado basin states, which have lower-priority rights based on the century-old Colorado River Compact of 1922 and other agreements.

California’s priority is the reason Arizona has taken most of the cuts to shore up reservoir levels so far, and the Golden State is resisting deep cuts as Lake Powell gets closer to deadpool.

Following a January federal deadline for the states to submit a plan for water reduction, Arizona and five other river states submitted a plan and California submitted its own competing plan.

“The one thing that we need to understand is, California has the most senior water rights, and they’re going to play that card every time,” Freeman said.

“You know, the good saying is ‘whiskey’s for drinking and water’s

for fighting,’” he said.

Freeman said he also asked to increase federal dollars for water infrastructure projects.

He said Mesa and other Arizona cities can stretch existing water supplies with better infrastructure, such as pipelines for moving water from one part of the city to another.

Mesa currently has two pipelines planned – one to deliver treated wastewater to the Gila River Indian Community to exchange for Colorado River water rights, and another pipeline to connect Mesa’s Northwest and Southeast Water Reclamation Plants.

The water exchange with GRIC could net Mesa an additional 7,000 acre-feet of water supply a year, or about 16% of the city’s current usage, but costs for the project have

see WATER page 17

EV man’s website pays homage to Holocaust survivors

BY ALEX GALLAGHER Tribune Staff Writer

Even though Jerry Guttman was a child when he was introduced to the gruesome reality that his parents had survived during World War II, the East Valley man said it wasn’t until he was older that they began recounting the horrors they witnessed.

The youngest of three children of Irving Guttman and Rosie Polkenfeld of Detroit, Michigan, Jerry always felt a burning curiosity about his parents’ earlier life in Europe.

“I was very young when I learned that they were in the Holocaust, but my mom would never tell a story,” Guttman recalled. “My brother was born in a displaced prisoner of war camp (DPW) in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany, so he is also considered a survivor.

“My father told some stories… but most people who went through the atrocity didn’t want to tell their story.”

It wasn’t until his father passed away in May 1997 that his mother began talking about her life in the Nazis concentration camp at Auschwitz in the late 1930s into the early 40s.

Rosie Polkenfeld was born in June 1927 as one of six children in Petrova, Romania, but relocated to Hungary when she was 14 to care for her mother’s cousin.

Upon her arrival in Hungary, she was met with the frightening presence of the German Nazi party’s growing presence.

Though she led a somewhat normal life throughout her early teens, Polkenfeld’s life was ripped away from her around age 16 when she was taken from her home, shaved of her hair and transported to Auschwitz. She split her imprisonment between there and the camp at Bergen-Belsen throughout the Holocaust.

She shared a bed with 13 other people and subsisted on one loaf of bread a week and a bowl of soup that contained one potato and a bean.

She worked on an assembly-line-style conveyor belt, examining hundreds of bodies prisoners executed in gas cham-

bers and harvesting any valuable dental work before they were incinerated.

Although workers were expected to remain emotionless during their long, draining days of work along that assembly line, Polkenfeld one day was overwhelmed by the shock of seeing her pregnant cousin’s corpse.

Prison guards reacted by lashing her, leaving permanent scars on her shoulder.

Rosie remained in concentration camps until English forces advanced onto the eastern front and began liberating camps.

Irving Guttman was born as one of six kids in 1915 in Poland at a time the country was already becoming a battleground that evolved into World War I.

“The Great War” put the Guttmans in a strong economic position as the family owned a successful creamery that was so busy Irving left school after the seventh grade to work there. The creamery

was closed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

German soldiers showed up at the Guttman home, forcing Irving and his brother to hide and listen as the soldiers executed his mother and three sisters.

Irving refused to live in a German settlement and eluded the invaders, spending months on the run from the Nazis.

“He would always try to find places under stairs and he’d have a piece of wood with him so he could go under the stairs, pull the piece of wood, and then they would not see him,” Jerry recalled his mother telling him.

When his father was captured, Irving surrendered and was sent to a labor camp, where he worked alongside his father until the two were stricken by typhoid. Irving returned to work but his father was too weak to return.

They never saw each other again.

Irving was sent to a small camp in Poland of 800 Jews that were under looser

supervision than other camps.

One rainy night, he slipped under a fence and ran to the forest, eventually finding refuge in a Polish village where he was given clothes and a place to live for months.

Irving later found work working on a highway alongside the Russian army paving his way through what was then Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany. He eventually ended in the same displaced persons camp where Polkenfeld had been searching for her family.

Polkenfeld and Guttman fell in love, married and Rosie gave birth to their first child at this camp. They eventually got to the United States in the early 1950s, living in their cousin’s basement in Michigan and working multiple jobs.

“(My dad) worked three jobs and my mom worked two jobs,” Jerry recalled. “They worked for Dodge, they worked for Chrysler. My dad used to move furniture at midnight. They did whatever they could to scrounge up what money they could.”

Eventually, the Guttmans saved enough funds to purchase a small storefront in Hamtramck, Michigan, that was originally a furniture store that would become the famous Irving’s Delicatessen.

Though the duo became known for their delicious dishes like gefilte fish, fresh challah bread and chicken-inthe-pot with kreplach, matzah ball and boiled potato, they were most renowned for the care that they showed to every customer who walked through the door.

“If you came into our restaurant, my mom would walk up to you, see what she was cooking in the back, talk to get your name, your phone number and learn a little bit about you,” Jerry recalled. “She would take your kids in the back in the kitchen where they’d make bread and they’d make coleslaw.

“Then they’d go to my father, who would teach them one of six Slavic languages of the day, then he put a pack of gum in their pocket and gave them a scoop of ice cream and you became part

Jerry Guttman, the son of Holocaust survivors Irving Guttman and Rosie Polkenfeld and the creator of OurHolocaustStory.com, looks over the memorabilia form his parents’ ordeal.

(David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

Legislation awaiting a House vote would override most local ordinances that now keep poultry out of many residential areas and allow for more chickens that Chandler’s new ordinance does.

The measure is being pushed by Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, would allow residents to keep up to nine birds as long as they comply with certain conditions. It would not supersede HOA rules against chicken coops.

“Chickens are loving birds,’’ Payne told members of the House Committee on Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs last week, likening it to having a pet.

“You can hold them,’’ he said. “They purr. They help soothe people.’’

Payne also said they “love to have company,’’ which is why his HB 2483 seeks to allow more than just a lone chicken.

And then there’s the practical side.

“They produce eggs, the golden nuggets

that come out,’’ he said.

Only thing is, not every community sees things the same way. And even in cities and counties that allow residents to have the birds, the rules are not uniform.

This would change all that.

In essence, the proposal said if you live in a single-family detached home, you can have chickens.

Still, there would be rules.

Noisy roosters are still poultry-non-grata.

Letting the chickens roam cage free on a lot of less than half an acre also would be off limits. Instead, they would have to be kept in an enclosure at the side or rear of the property at least 15 feet from a neighbor. And the pens could be no larger than 200 feet.

Then there would be requirements to maintain the pens and either pick up or compost the manure at least twice a week, and do it in a way to prevent insects.

There also are requirements to have adequate overflow drainage for water sources and that food be stored in insect-proof and

rodent-proof containers.

Glendale resident Shelly Honn urged lawmakers to approve the measure after she was forced to get rid of “the girls’’ in her yard. And she said efforts to get the city to change its ordinance proved unsuccessful.

Honn also told lawmakers they need to consider the issue in light of other events, ranging from fires at egg ranches to other disasters.

That would include incidents of bird flu which have required flocks to be destroyed. And that, in turn, has been one of the things that has driven up the price of eggs.

“Arizonans need some sort of food security,’’ Honn said.

“Some want to live sustainably,’’ she continued. “A small flock of chickens would go a long way with both of these.’’

Not everyone was enthusiastic.

Marshall Pimentel, lobbyist for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns said his organization is not opposed in concept. But he would like changes, like limiting chicken ownership to lots of more

than a half acre, with a six-bird cap.

Lawmakers were not persuaded as they voted unanimously to approve the measure.

“With the cost of food nowadays, this is how families can afford good-quality protein,’’ said Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford.

There is one group left out of this: Residents of homeowner associations which can enact their own restrictions, regardless of local ordinances.

Lawmakers could override HOA rules. And they’ve done that in the past.

Consider the measures they have approved governing everything from allowing political signs to permitting them to fly certain flags like those honoring first responders or remembering prisoners of war.

In fact, there’s a bill this year awaiting Senate action to allow HOA residents to display “any historic version of the American flag, including the Betsy Ross flag, without regard to how the stars and stripes are arranged on the flag.’’

Payne’s measure, however, contains no similar override.

AG probing local supermarket chains’ merger

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating whether to try to block the proposed merger of the state’s two largest grocery chains.

Mayes said Thursday she wants to know what will be the effects of allowing the combination of Kroger Co., the parent of Smith’s and Fry’s Foods, with Albertsons Companies, which operates not just stores under its own name but purchased Safeway and all the stores that company owned in 2015.

It starts, she said, with whether that combination will be able to drive up prices for consumers who already are suffering under high inflation.

“The impacts of this merger, in particular at a time when people are struggling to pay for groceries and prices are high, could be huge,’’ she said.

Then there’s the question of whether the merged company will close stores, forcing some people to travel farther. And Mayes wants to know how all of this would affect the 35,000 workers now employed by both.

Much of that, she said, will come from “listening sessions’’ her office will conduct to hear what Arizonans think of the deal and how it will affect them.

Mayes is not the only one looking at the deal announced last year.

The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an inquiry into the $24.6 billion deal where Kroger would purchase its competitor while a group of consumers has filed suit in California to block the deal.

Mayes, however, is focused more on what the combination of the two giants would mean here. In fact, she told Capitol Media Services that, on a per capita basis, the merger will have a greater effect on Arizonans than any other state.

What she’s able to do about it, however, remains to be seen.

State law forbids any “contract, combination or conspiracy by two or more persons in restraint of, or to monopolize

trade or commerce.’’

What Mayes said she needs to study is whether what the two grocery giants are doing, at least in Arizona, meets that definition.

“The people of Arizona have important input to make here, people who live in the neighborhoods where a Fry’s or a Safeway or a Smith’s could be shut down,’’ she said.

That goes not just to the question of whether the combined operation, no longer competing for customers with each other, would be free to raise prices. Mayes said that decisions by the new company to shutter some of the stores could mean much longer drives to get food.

But she said it isn’t just the people shopping there who might be affected.

“We’re going to be getting input from the dairy operators in Arizona and the farmers and cattle growers who are worried about the reduction in competition in Arizona and the reduction in the number of outlets for their products,’’ Mayes said.

The attorney general said she also wants to look at how many workers at the two companies will end up unem-

ployed if the deal goes through.

A spokesman for Albertsons said there would be no comment about Mayes’ investigation. And officials from Kroger did not immediately respond to inquiries.

But on a website set up by the two chains, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said the deal will “deliver superior value to customers, associates, communities and shareholders.’’

It also claims that after the deal is closed, Kroger will invest $500 million to lower prices, $1.3 billion into Albertsons stores “to enhance the customer experience,’’ and $1 billion “to continue raising associate wages and comprehensive benefits.’’

Mayes, for her part, said she wants details.

Beyond that, she wants to hear not just from the corporations who will be getting questioned by her investigators, but from those living in the affected communities.

“I think there’s value involved in bringing to light what this potential merger means to the state of Arizona and offering a forum for Arizonans to express what it means to them,’’ Mayes said.

“We’re talking about neighborhoods that could experience the closure of a grocery store, entire communities that might have to drive 100 miles or more to get to a grocery store, and potentially the layoff of thousands of people,’’ she continued.

That gets into one of the details that Mayes wants and could affect any decision on whether there would be violations of Arizona’s antitrust laws.

In its announcement, the retailers said they are willing to divest up to 650 of the stores to overcome regulatory concerns. None of the possible locations have been announced.

But even if that happens, that is no guarantee the stores will stay open.

When Albertsons bought Safeway, it agreed to sell 146 stores to Haggen, a regional grocer. But Haggen eventually went bankrupt and Albertson’s bought back many of the stores.

Then there’s the question of whether anyone would be willing to buy the stores the new company is willing to shed, what with the possibility they are likely to offer up those which are least profitable.

There is, however, a backup plan: If a buyer can’t be found for the stores the new company is willing to sell, there is an offer to create a spin-off, still owned by Albertsons shareholders, which would operate independently and compete with the newly merged operation.

The merger – and whether it violates state antitrust laws – isn’t occurring in a vacuum. that also needs to be considered is what competition would remain in Arizona.

Bashas’ operates 118 stores, mostly in Arizona, under that name as well as Food City and AJ’s Fine Foods.

Mayes said these will be conducted in the next few months, with her office probably having to make a decision on what action to take, if any, within six months. That should still be enough time to intercede given that the two companies are looking to finalize the deal sometime in 2024.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wants to see if the upcoming merger of the state’s two largest supermarket chains will impact customers and neighborhoods adversely. (Capitol Media Servcies)

skyrocketed.

“Two-and-a half years ago, that was an $85 million project. Today, it’s $185 (million),” Freeman said.

Cost estimates are starting to come down, he said, “but there’s urgency to put in this pipeline. We can’t wait any longer.”

Freeman said his third message to Sinema was the need to reduce regulatory hurdles for water projects.

Less red tape would speed up construction and reduce costs on all sorts of infrastructure, Freeman said, but he singled out a plan by Valley cities to raise the level of Bartlett Dam, which stores Verde River water.

The dam has lost storage capacity over the decades through silt accumulating behind the dam.

Raising Bartlett’s height would restore storage capacity, but the project has a very long timeline, in part because of the administrative processes involved.

The project would be a massive and expensive undertaking. A December 2021 report from the Bureau of Reclamation estimated it would cost between $700 and $860 million.

“We wouldn’t even start building on it for eight to nine years from now, and that’s why I brought that up to her. I said, ‘you know, it’d be nice to reduce the regulatory timelines and allow these things,’” Freeman said.

“That really triggered her to where she said, ‘Well, please let my office know, because we can help assist in reducing regulatory guidelines.’ So she’s all on board to help in regulatory assistance to pave the way for permitting,” he added.

Freeman said that AMWUA members are also interested in “direct potable reuse,” or using treated wastewater for drinking water.

Recycling wastewater to potable standards would help cities get more usage out of existing supplies, and regulation changes and funding would help implement direct potable reuse.

Phoenix is currently refurbishing

the closed Cave Creek Water Reclamation Plant as the first step in doing just that for its waste water treatment system.

Freeman said the senator “wrote down almost everything that we mentioned.”

He remarked that listening to other cities deliver messages to the senator drove home for him that Arizona cities are “doing their due diligence on water conservation.”

Freeman is a farmer who buys about 300 acre-feet of water a year for his crops, including alfalfa for feeding dairy cows.

“Growing up in a farming family … seeing what water does to landscape and growth for municipalities for development – I just like the dynamics of water,” he said.

Freeman’s deep roots in agriculture give him unusual perspective at AMWUA, which is dedicated to urban water use.

Currently, agriculture accounts for 74% of Arizona’s water consumption, which makes the industry a target for water cuts.

“Water produces the food that we eat today,” he said, “and the farmers are very resilient and we have ultrasavings in water (and) best management practices.”

“Those lands that were ag have water rights entitlements … and once those lands are consumed by development that water is transferred to the cities,” he said. “So water is life. It’s full circle – agriculture basically has given its lifecycle back to municipal water use.”

HOLOCAUST from page 14

of our family.”

Jerry recalled instances where his parents sent a week’s supply of food to regulars if they were ill and said they remained active in the community even after they sold their booming business that grew to as many as three locations.

What stuck out the most to Jerry was how welcoming his parents were to fellow immigrants.

“My dad used to give me a little piece of paper on a Saturday (with an address on it) and say, ‘Go pick up these folks,’” Jerry said. “(My parents) would give them clothes, food and money to get them settled and help them adjust to the country. My parents were just amazing people in the Detroit community.”

Yet, their traumatic background haunted Jerry throughout his life – especially because he still had so many questions about where his parents came from.

Because of this, Jerry began tracking down documents relating to his parent’s past in Europe about a decade ago and has since recovered his father’s European driver’s license, records stating his parents had been at displaced person camps, sponsorship documents to immigrate to the United States and loads of photos of his parents.

Although this piqued his curiosity, Jerry then realized that he couldn’t be alone and felt compelled to create a website called OurHolocaustStory.com, where other survivors and their children could keep these stories alive.

“As I compile things and as I learn more, the more they become my heroes to survive what they went through,” Jerry said.

Jerry hopes that he can hear more heroic stories about how people survived one of the worst genocides in history and keep the dark history of what happened decades ago for generations to come.

“My goal with this is to have other survivors or family members who have documentation, pictures, videos, audio that we can upload for them, and create a library so others or teachers can use it to teach people and try to eliminate hate,” Jerry said.

City Councilman Mark Freeman earlier this month joined the Mesa Fire and Medical Department, Queen Creek Fire & Medical, Superstition Fire & Medical District, and United Mesa Fire Fighters IAFF Local 2260 for a regional Fire OPS 101 event. (Facebook)

QC Girl Scouts’ garden brightens Mesa hospital

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

Amid the chilly winter December nights and onslaught of the pandemic, seven Queen Creek Girl Scouts began work on a project that will now warm the hearts and spirits of everyone at Mountain Vista Medical Center in East Mesa.

Their work led to the recent opening of Mountain Vista’s Sunshine Therapy Garden on its grounds, 1301 S. Crismon Road.

During the pandemic, Troop 3632 members Kayla Porter, Madi Roberts, Isabella Ronning, Chloe Copeland, Addie Bernier, and Ally and Lizzy Small spent many days with their families outside of the hospital’s intensive care unit.

There, they talked and prayed with patients’ loved ones. The Girl Scouts were so moved by the plight the patients faced because of COVID-19 and pandemic restric-

tions. that they decided to do something meaningful,

“We just kind of felt pretty helpless – like, how can we help?” said Troop 3632 leader Darcy Small, whose daughter Ally was among the girls who created a therapy garden for patients, nurses and other hospital personnel.

The two-year project was born in December 2020 when the girls tried to visit the Mountain Vista ICU.

Initially, they had planned to show their respect and gratitude for workers as the night shift came on to relieve the day shift employees.

With candles in hand and songs picked out, Darcy said they didn’t know what to expect.

They arrived and found families watching their loved ones battling COVID-19 from outside their room window and seeing the medical workers with “agony in their faces,” Darcy recalled.

“The girls experienced secondhand what it was like to have a loved one going through that and also see the health care workers what they were going through,” she said.

The girls maintained their weekly vigil Friday nights for five months, handing out extra candles to families and singing hymns.

One night, Darcy said, a patient’s son asked if they had extra candles, and Darcy’s daughter Lizzy asked what their loved one’s favorite hymn was so they could sing it.

After singing “How Great Thou Art,” a relative told the girls their loved one was just taken off the ventilator and “would be going to heaven soon.”

“You think, these 12- and 13-year-olds, like how are they processing this,” Darcy said. “And one of them just said, ‘Can I pray over you guys?’”

“This family, their loved one and the amazing staff here was my personal inspi-

ration for Sunshine Therapy,” Lizzy said.

The girls joined the family outside the ICU window to pray and have since become friends.

Darcy said similar moments got the girls thinking at the time about a future for the gravel area outside the ground-floor ICU.

“They wanted it to be a place where anybody that’s at the hospital visiting can come out and get fresh air and vitamin D. Health care workers have a place to come catch their breath, and then family members have a place to gather,” Darcy said.

The seven girls, aged 12 and 13, brainstormed a few ideas that led them to “sunshine therapy.”

They worked with hospital administrators, submitted plans to the city and eventually raised $30,000 in monetary and material donations to build the garden.

Now 14 and 15, the girls have developed

see GIRL SCOUTS page 19

Mesa teens shine in Limelight’s new comedy

BY KATY SPRINGER Tribune Contributor

It’s a play that goes wrong in every sense of the word, but the mishaps, setbacks and mistakes come together to deliver high comedy in “The Play that Goes Wrong: High School Edition.”

Fresh off Broadway, the smash-hit farce is presented by Limelight Performing Arts.

With a cast of 13 teenage actors from across the Valley, Limelight is the first theater in Arizona to present “The Play that Goes Wrong: High School Edition.”

Performances are Feb. 24-March 5 at Limelight’s Artspace Theatre, 511 W. Guadalupe Road, Gilbert.

“I wanted to be in this show because I was able to see it last summer in New York and thought it was hilarious,” said Mesa resident Lauren Martineau, 16, who plays the role of Sandra in the Setback cast.

She’s not the only one who thinks so. Hailed as a “gut-busting hit” by the New York Times, “The Play that Goes Wrong” won an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, snagged two Tony Awards and is the longest-running show in the 100-year history of London’s Old Red Lion Theatre.

A hybrid of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes, this play-within-a-play follows a woefully misguided troupe

Mesa cast members in Limelight Performing Arts’ production of “The Play that Goes Wrong: High School Edition” include, form left: Lauren Martineau, Owen Aspinau, Allie Weed, London Foushee, McKenna Henry. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

GIRL SCOUTS from page 18

leadership skills through their project that have contributed to their advancement in the Girl Scouts, high school and in life, Darcy said.

“There for a while, I thought, ‘I don’t know if this is actually going to happen,’” Darcy said. “And these girls, they did not give up. They were like, ‘no, this hospital needs this.’”

Sunshine Therapy Garden has transformed the once-gravel lot into an area for a quick rest and rehabilitation, complete trees, plants, a seating area with tables and park benches, a canvas shade covering, trees, and over 400 rocks painted with “messages of hope, love and inspiration.”

Kristie Porter has worked as an Occupational Therapist at Mountain Vista for 13 years and said this garden brings a sense of comfort to those who need(ed) it most.

“They cared for us as healthcare providers and provided comfort to patients and families who were going through the worst times of their life,” Porter said. “By choosing to build this beautiful courtyard is a blessing to more people than they will ever

know.”

Her daughter Kayla, who plans to study sports medicine in college, said she came up with the idea for a lamp post that “symbolizes the light God has shown through the darkness of COVID,” Kayla said. “I thought it would be special to have this displayed to encourage healthcare workers, patients and family members of this statement.”

Tami Shreve spoke at a dedication ceremony and said she spent much of December 2021 at Mountain Vista as a patient under Kristie’s care.

After she turned a corner in her recovery, she noticed the Girl Scout troop and learned about their project.

“In the middle of the world being turned upside down and everyone dealing with a virus that is absolutely unforgiving and

not selective on who it chooses, they saw hope,” Shreve said.

Besides cookie sales, three donors helped make the project possible through financial and material donation. They included Tami Shreve’s Evening Entertainment Group, Baseline Trees and Ronning Landscaping.

Ally, who wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, said she wants to bring hope and encouragement to those and keep their determination strong when it may feel weak.

“It is our hope that when staff, families or patients might be needing some extra encouragement, one of these rocks will inspire them to not give up,” Ally said.

Darcy said she just hopes that people will see what the girls accomplished with this project and show the world that the kind gesture, no matter big or small, means a lot when it comes from the heart.

“I am so hopeful that by sharing this, it will give others inspiration to always be on the lookout for ways to help in the community, in small ways or big ways,” Darcy said. “I fully see these seven girls graduating from high school as a Girl Scout troop.”

Queen Creek Girl Scout Troop 3632 members who worked ewith Mountain Vista Medical Center to open a Sunshine Therapy Garden include, form left: Front: Lizzy Small, Ally Small, Kayla Porter, Isabella Ronning, Chloe Copeland, Addie Bernier and Madi Roberts. Back: Darcy Small, Kristie Porter, Rachel Ronning, Erika Copeland, Tara Bernier and Amy Roberts.

of players during their opening night performance of “The Murder at Haversham Manor.”

Forgotten lines, technical gaffes and set malfunctions all conspire to ruin the show, but cast members persist –and persist – in their quest to arrive at the final curtain call.

“Anyone who has done live theater knows that things rarely go as planned, so actors have to be ready at all times to improvise and keep the show moving forward,” said director Christian Graca.

“What’s so hilarious about the play is watching this troupe of woebegone actors persevere with their very serious murder mystery, even when literally everything goes wrong.”

London Foushee, a 15-year-old Mesa resident, plays the stagehand whose job is to keep things moving smoothly – though her efforts have the opposite effect.

“Anything that is supposed to go wrong with this show, I get to help

make it happen,” she said.

Allie Weid, 14, also of Mesa, plays Sandra in the Mishap cast. Fittingly, she experiences an outsize share of mishaps.

“Sandra plays Florence Colleymore, Charles Haversham’s fiancée, in the murder mystery, but the whole time she is really having an affair with his brother,” said Allie.

“Sandra gets injured and knocked out throughout the show, though none of her accidents have anything to do with the affair.”

Sandra isn’t the only one who gets hurt. “The Play that Goes Wrong” is full of physical comedy – like pratfalls, fist fights and falling props – and boasts a set that is second to none.

“The set is its own character in this production,” said Graca. “Built by Jorge Forero and Joe Woodward, it was created expressly to malfunction, upping the comedic value because if the set goes wrong, everything else goes wrong.”

The cast can’t wait to open the curtain – as long as they can keep from

laughing.

“The hardest part of this show is probably keeping a straight face,” said 15-year-old McKenna Henry of Mesa, who plays Taylor, the sound booth tech who ends up onstage.

“The lines are so funny that it’s really hard not to laugh when things go wrong,” McKenna added.

Like Taylor, Shayla Forero’s character, Annie, is meant to work behind the scenes, but she, too, ends up in the show.

“Annie is the stage manager who ends up having to go onstage,” said the 14-year-old, an eighth-grade student at ASU Preparatory Academy in Mesa. “She has a huge character arc and ends up finding out she was born to act and would kill for the role – literally.”

As the saying goes, comedy is harder than drama, but Graca knows her performers have what it takes.

“These actors were off-book after only a couple of weeks of rehearsal,” she said. “That means they’ve spent the last month developing their characters, adding nuances, perfecting

their line delivery and playing off each other.

We have run all of the scenes in this show dozens of times, but I laugh so hard I cry at every single rehearsal.”

The play is presented by arrangement with Dramatists Play Service under license from Mischief Worldwide Ltd. The Mischief Production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” was originally produced on the West End Stage by Kenny Wax & Stage Presence and on Broadway by Kevin McCollum, J.J. Abrams, Kenny Wax & Stage Presence.

If You Go...

“The Play that Goes Wrong: High School Edition”

Where: Limelight Performing Arts’ Artspace Theatre, 511 W. Guadalupe Road, Gilbert.

When: Feb. 24-March 5. The run includes both matinee and evening performances.

Cost: $15 at ll-pa.org. Group discounts are available.

Volunteers sought for foster care review board

TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

The Foster Care Review Board, a program within the Dependent Children’s Services Division of the Arizona Supreme Court, is seeking volunteers.

Statewide, the FCRB has about 108 boards and a little over 500 volunteer positions that advocate on behalf of children in Arizona’s foster care system.

In Maricopa County – including Ahwatukee, Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek, Mesa and Scottsdale – the FCRB facilitates 56 boards that each have five people appointed by presiding judge of Juvenile Court.

“We have an urgent need to fill vacancies in this county,” a spokeswoman said. Volunteers commit to meeting one weekday a month to review the cases of children who are in out-of-home care. The meetings are completed via video conference. The board makes recommendations to the Juvenile Court and interested parties involved in the case. Currently, boards in Maricopa County are reviewing the cases of about 5,200

children. Volunteers receive training.

In preparation for a board meeting, volunteers receive court documents and other case materials via a secured website about 10 days before the meeting. Board members prepare questions to clarify and gather information.

Interested parties for each case can appear before the board and speak about their concerns, successes, wants and needs and the board members are allowed to ask questions. A program specialist prepares a written report with the board’s recommendations and statements by the interested parties.

Volunteers must be at least 21 and pass a fingerprint background check. Apply at AZFCRB.org or 602-452-3400. You can also email RPTFCRB@courts. az.gov to request an application.

Another way to get involved is a program with similar requirements called Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), in which volunteers are appointed by the Court to advocate for a specific child with whom they are paired. To learn more about becoming a CASA volunteer: AZCASAVolunteer.org.

New EV business enhances STEM learning

BY KEN SAIN Managing Editor

It’s not a secret that the jobs of the future are going to require a heavy dose of science, technology, engineering and math education.

“We have to keep producing more career technical education, more STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM,” Chris Camacho, the executive director of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, told Chandler City Council in January. “That is critical for our state’s competitive position.”

A new after-school business has opened up to help.

iCode held its grand opening in Chandler on Feb. 4, with other schools planned in Gilbert, Scottsdale and Goodyear.

iCode started in 2015 and began offering franchises in 2018. Five years later, it has about 70 locations and the Chandler school is the first in Arizona.

“It’s meant to supplement, not take the place of, the regular school,” said Misty Ellis, who owns both the Chan-

dler and Gilbert locations with her husband, Daniel.

“What we provide here is something

that most schools don’t provide. It’s education, but really with the technology. We do a huge focus on soft skills.”

Misty, whose husband works in cybersecurity, said they wanted to own their own business and started shopping around for franchise opportunities.

“When he saw the iCode curriculum, he was like, ‘This is it. This is what I want to do,’” she said.

That curriculum is the main drawing card.

The school hires college students who are finishing up their STEM degrees as instructors. Ellis said her instructors have said they wish they would have had an iCode school when they were young.

The couple hopes to open up their Gilbert school by the end of February with a grand opening there likely happening in March.

see ICODE page 24

Mesa doc not surprised by city’s skin health rating

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

Anew study calls Mesa one of the worst cities in the United States for skin health – and a Mesa dermatologist isn’t surprised by the rating.

The study by indoor air quality website HouseFresh.com looked at 328 cities across the country gave its score based on three categories: local levels of hard water, ultraviolent light and air pollution. The lower the score got a worse rating for skin health.

Nearby Scottsdale ranked as the nation’s worst and Mesa took fourth place0.

In total, six cities in Arizona made the list, including Phoenix at 5, Tempe at 9, Yuma at 15, and Nogales at 16.

Mesa dermatologist Dr. Mike Nunez – who completed three years of medical residency at Duke University, and now works for Skin Care Specialists at 1810 South Crismon Road in East Mesa – said that in his own experience, Arizona has more dangerous conditions for skin than other states.

“Even people that are really good with sun protection tend to get more sun damage here than I’ve seen even in North Carolina,” Nunez said. “There’s no such thing as a good tan, you know: all sun has potential to

cause skin cancer.”

Obviously, the desert sun shines brightest in Arizona, exposing residents to high levels of UV light all year round, but Mesa also scores poorly for air pollution levels too, according to the study.

The dangers to skin health also lie inside the home, as the study found Arizona has some of the hardest water in the country. Moreover, the study said, residents spend more time in air-conditioning – which can dry out the skin.

Nunez said the solution to maintaining proper skin health involve two broad categories of topical sun

protection: mineral-based and chemical-based.

Mineral-based sun protection should contain zinc oxide or titanium oxide that acts as a physical barrier to UV rays, Nunez said.

He also recommends using a minimum of SPF 30 sunscreen on the body and SPF 50 on the face, because even running errands can attract enough sun to cause damage.

In the past decade, Nunez said, experts have changed the recommendations for the ideal amount of sun exposure” “They’ve looked into that,

Huy Tao teaches a lesson about simple machines at iCode, where kids can learn STEM skills like coding, programming drones and robotics, and digital arts. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

and you really only need about five minutes a day,” he said.

Nunez said moisturizer is also vital to your skin’s health but that people should use one that doesn’t have a lot of fragrances because those can irritate the skin over time.

“If Vaseline wasn’t so greasy and uncomfortable, I’d say if you lather it up in Vaseline. That’d be the best moisturizer,” Nunez said.

Nunez said he personally uses a moisturizer with an SPF 30 sun protection for simplicity sake.

“I don’t really like putting a bunch of stuff on myself,” Nunez said. “I shower, put it on and I’m out the door.”

For those looking for a preventive approach to skin spots and getting staying ahead of melanoma, Nunez said it’s as easy as ABCDE. A is for asymmetrical, B is for (irregular) borders, C is for coloration, D is for diameter (no bigger than a pencil eraser), and E is for evolution and how it changes over time.

“It’s a lot for people to remember, so I usually tell people, ‘the ugly duckling’ is my simplified model, which is a spot that looks different

than the other spots on your body,” Nunez said.

According to the same HouseFresh study the places that are kindest to skin can be found in Maine, which had the top three skin-healthiest cities in the country and five on the top 10 list.

Dr. Mike Nunez

iCode offers programs for students from kindergarten through senior year of high school, separating the programs by using the martial arts belt system. A white belt is for robotics; yellow, app development; orange, web development; red, game development; green for drones, blue for networking and black for cloud computing.

The key to making this succeed, Ellis said, is that the students have to want to learn. So iCode makes the programs fun so they look forward to coming to class.

“This makes it fun, it makes it engaging,” Ellis said. “And the kids have a great time. We really focus on soft skills problem solving. They are always learning how to give presentations and to share what they’re learning. So they’re not just sitting in front of a computer, they’re learning how to write code.”

iCode has a number of options. Most regular classes meet for two

hours once a week though there also is an option with two one-hour classes. In addition, it provides special camps during the summer and breaks in the usual school-year schedule.

Ellis said they would also like to partner with local schools, running an event at their campus at no charge to give parents a chance to know about their program and see what the program offers.

She said so far, they’ve had more luck partnering with charter schools than they have with public school districts.

The most popular hub at iCode, Ellis said, is the gaming hub. She and her husband choose games specifically for the education value, such as Minecraft and Roblox.

“We don’t just set a kid in

front of Minecraft and say, ‘oh, have fun,’” she explained. “We teach them how to modify it, how to do mods, how to change different things in the game.

“Then we can teach them how to create their own games. So just it’s a really great supplement to what they would get at school.”

Ellis said the goal of the program is to give students a solid STEM foundation by making learning fun.

“They really work hard to make it engaging, because we don’t want any kid coming in and sitting here and just being like, ‘Oh, I hate this, like, my dad’s making me do this, because he’s a computer science guy,’” she said.

“We want it to be fun, and very hands on. So, you know, we added a lot of hands-on activities.”

Students at iCode progress through different color-coded knowledge and skill levels similar to a martial arts program.

(David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Raquel Welch was a modest kind of sexy

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist

The news caught my eye late on a mid-February morning: Actress

Raquel Welch had died at the age of 82. If you are an adult of a certain age – and especially a male– you surely can close your eyes and conjure visions of Raquel, who was to Hollywood sex symbols what John Adams was to presidents – second in line.

In Welch’s case, behind only Marilyn Monroe when it came to earning headlines not for her acting talent, but for the way she looked. This isn’t to say Welch was untalented – she won a Golden Globe for her role in “The Three Musketeers” – but more to give credit to her beauty, which was otherworldly.

It’s considered politically incorrect to comment on female attributes in the 21st century, but there is no way to think about Welch without acknowledging the

obvious. As a beauty, she had few peers.

In 1998, when Playboy magazine made a list of the 100 sexiest female stars of the 20th century, Welch placed third, behind Monroe and Jayne Mansfield and ahead of Greta Garbo.

Me, I think Raquel got robbed by the judges. Not merely because I had a teenage crush on her, but also because Welch accomplished something precious few sex symbols have ever done: She went her entire movie career, from her first role as a call girl in 1964’s “A House Is Not A Home,” to her last movie, 2017’s “How To Be A Latin Lover,” without ever once appearing nude in a movie.

“I’ve definitely used my body and sex appeal to advantage in my work, but always within limits,” Welch once said. “I reserve some things for my private life, and they are not for sale.”

Nowadays we live in a time when nudity is never more than a click away, and OnlyFans, webcam shows and YouPorn

have made cashing in on being naked the easiest side hustle imaginable.

By contrast, Welch embodied a sense of mystery and a sense of decorum that died many, many years before she did.

Now? Selling and sending nudes has become little more than a hobby for the masses. We are urged to be thankful for this newfound liberation, but somehow Raquel Welch managed to strike a balance between feminine power – think of her in that famous deerskin bikini from the poster for “One Million Years B.C.” –and feminine modesty.

Even when Welch finally appeared in Playboy in 1979, she stripped down only as far as a red bikini. My father kept that issue hidden on the top shelf of his closet, a hiding spot I will confess to visiting on many occasions.

Speaking of fathers, Welch said her dad was another reason she never appeared nude.

“I am my father’s daughter and that’s

just not the way you behave,” she said. “You don’t do that if you are a certain kind of a woman and that’s the kind of woman I was raised to be.”

As legend would have it, Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner summoned Welch to his mansion after the photo shoot to complain.

As Welch recalled the meeting: “I said, ‘What’s the problem Hugh?’ and he said, ‘Well there’s no t–s and there’s no a–’. I said, ‘Isn’t that the deal we made?’ He said, ‘Yes, but it’s boring.’”

It seems quaint now, the notion that modesty ever existed and that it was once possible to be sexy – in fact the sexiest woman on Earth – and to keep certain assets and certain images to yourself.

Somehow, Raquel Welch managed to shock without being shocking, to be sexy without being lewd. In 2023, the age of the Kardashians and Pornhub, that seems like a trick we may never glimpse again.

Homeland Security’s border policies not so secure

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

Before Tinseltown’s glitterati descended on the Valley of the Sun for Super Bowl 57, an inhabitant of “Hollywood for the cosmetically challenged” preceded them. One of Washington, D.C.’s “celebrated public servants” stood before a multitude of microphones and cameras five days before the big game. And talk about an acting job!

To hear Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas hold forth, you would have thought that a motion picture portrayal akin to Pat O’Brien as Knute Rockne – or a performance recalling

that old made-for-TV movie with Ernest Borgnine as Vince Lombardi –was in production.

What has made Joe Biden’s selection of Mayorkas unbearable for many residents of this border state is his unflagging effort to erase the international boundary that supposedly exists along our southern state line.

It even led Arizona’s 5th District congressman, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, to file articles of impeachment against him six days prior to his latest visit.

“Every day Secretary Mayorkas remains in office America becomes less safe,” said Biggs.

Perhaps to prove that our nation is the “land of second chances”—not to

mention third, fourth, and fifth opportunities for chronically criminal border crossers—Mayorkas played the part of “Mr. Enforcement” when he addressed the press.

Of the efforts to secure Glendale’s State Farm Stadium, Mayorkas said, “We screen everything that comes into this stadium…not just the people, but the food, the concessions… we screen everything!”

The media passed along this headline: “Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas says there is no credible threat against Super Bowl in Arizona.”

Of course, the same cannot be written about the border—if we can still truly call it a border.

It seems the worldview of Sec. May -

orkas and others of his ilk was reflected in the graffiti scrawled across a wall meant for messages instead of security: “Borders are scars upon the Earth!”

Nope.

Borders are reasonable and rational lines of geopolitical demarcation between and among nation-states for their mutual security and sovereignty.

As President Reagan put it, “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

Sadly, that basic truth is willfully ignored by Mayorkas.

How else to explain his failure to

recognize that if the same screening in place at State Farm Stadium for the Super Bowl—as well as the military and law enforcement personnel needed to conduct it—were likewise present along our southern border, it would likely result in a similar outcome: no credible threat.

Instead, Mayorkas is similar to a muttering motivational speaker— insisting to himself and the rest of us—that this crisis is a “threatening opportunity.”

We need to take Mayorkas literally. That’s why that when he testifies on Capitol Hill, he repeatedly says, “Things are going according to plan.”

And it’s also the reason he discounts the obvious threats to embrace “opportunity.”

Nothing matters more to Mayorkas than a mass amnesty that would make millions of illegal aliens into instant American citizens.

Biggs points out that the Secretary’s “policies have incentivized

more than five million illegal aliens to show up at our southern border— an all-time figure.”

But as gratifying as the impeachment of Mayorkas would be, the sad fact is that the Democrat-controlled Senate would not vote to convict and remove him from office.

That’s why the best course for the House would be to pull on the purse strings and reduce funding to both the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.

If the operating budgets of both those entities were reduced by 25 percent each and reallocated for genuine border enforcement during the appropriations process, it would prompt positive results.

Of course “enforcing that enforcement” would have to come through aggressive and constant oversight.

Otherwise, Mayorkas would seek mere cosmetic changes to maintain the ugly truth of a wide-open border that imperils the security of every law-abiding American.

And it’s not a game.

Short-term rental owners must weigh a variety of issues

BY ELIZABETH HALE Tribune Guest Writer

While the idea of making some easy money by making a home available for short-term rentals is great in theory, several variables make the process quite complex and demanding — and any mistakes can be costly.

Before taking on a new passive income endeavor, it is critical for Arizonans to get up to speed on the tax, time and budget constraints surrounding short-term rentals to minimize liability and stress.

Although VRBO and Airbnb are taxed differently, here are some general considerations to keep in mind.

It’s a common misconception is that every property can be a shortterm rental that lends itself to mas-

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sive tax savings. In reality, there are four categories for short-term rental tax deduction: pass-through, real estate deprecation, business expenses and home office expenses. All of them lay out specific parameters to qualify for deductions. Most importantly, to qualify for short-term rental tax deduction, you must meet all IRS eligibility requirements.

• The IRS limits the number of days owners can stay in the home and still deduct expenses; if they exceed this limit, they may not be able to apply deductions.

• Owners need to be careful with their furnishing budget, as only up to 20% of these expenses are taxdeductible.

• If there is a W-2 income involved,

see RENT page 29

a CPA can ensure that all other deduction options from deferred compensation and stocks to mitigate employment-related tax liability are applied.

• If owners intend to shelter W-2 income with Schedule C losses, the IRS has rules about that too that will limit the ability to claim deductions.

• Subleasing should be avoided, if possible, as it comes with even greater liability risks given there is no ownership of property involved. Additionally, to limit your investment income, your tax professional can help you explore long-term rentals and utilize tax-now, tax-later, taxnever investments.

Once it’s determined that a shortterm rental can be profitable, then day-to-day management comes into play. Owning a rental property requires significant time and effort that many full-time professionals won’t have time for, which makes other investments – including investing in stock – a better option.

It’s important to note that most short-term rentals are filled at least 70% of the time, which means owners need to stay engaged in the booking process and be responsive to residents. They will also need to handle all finances and accounting (or hire a trusted CPA firm to do so) and carefully track profit to ensure your efforts are worthwhile.

There are also new regulations emerging around short-term rentals. Recently, the City of Scottsdale implemented new regulations for shortterm rentals that went into effect Jan. 8, 2023, and other municipalities may soon follow suit. Owners should be prepared to jump through several licensing and insurance hoops before

they can legally start renting. While it seems most short-term rentals seem to be a very profitable venture, there’s a good chance that owners will actually be investing for a year or two before they see any profit. In addition to furnishing costs ranging from $7,000 to $20,000, most hosts spend the following on monthly expenses:

• Mortgage: $2,000 - $3,000

• HOA: $100 - $200

• Insurance: $100 - $200

• Utilities & Internet: $300 (Arizona average)

• Overhead: $700 - $2,000

• Maintenance: 1% of property’s annual value

• Management Service (Optional): 10%-40% of income

These costs can stack up quickly, but there are still several ways owners can maximize their profit:

• Own, don’t lease: Lock in that mortgage rate to avoid yearly rent hikes

• Offer alternative rates during peak seasons

• Remarket to travel nurses and similar professions

• Use a self-service management software

• Be strategic in deciding whether “extra” amenities and furnishes will actually increase value

• Encourage renters to be mindful of energy use

While renting out your home can be costly and time-consuming, it may also pay dividends over time.

The team at eeCPA provides unconventional entrepreneurs with the guidance they need to kickstart their short-term rental success stories.

Elizabeth Hale has helped entrepreneurs, investors, family offices and commercial real estate developers pinpoint new and creative avenues for growth while mitigating risk. eecpa.com.

Nike, NFL grant AIA $100K for girls’ flag football

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

The growth of girls’ flag football as an official sanctioned sport in Arizona high schools has been monumental.

What was once a club sport was fast tracked to sanctioned status, which opens the door for more schools to participate and the ability to crown a true state champion at the end of the 2023 fall season — when it kicks off for the first time.

The Arizona Cardinals took notice of efforts from districts like Chandler and Mesa to grow the sport, awarding CUSD $10,000 last year for equipment.

But perhaps the biggest show of support for the sport in Arizona came Friday, Feb. 10 during the NFL Stakeholders Breakfast in downtown Phoenix two days before Super Bowl LVII. It was there AIA Executive Director David Hines was presented a check for $100,000 as part of the girls’ flag football product grant from Nike.

“It’s just absolutely fantastic,” Hines said. “To work with the NFL, the Cardinals, Nike and their support of girls’ flag football. They’re really invested in this, and we’re invested in this, too. It’s really going to create opportunities.”

The grant comes at a time where schools are mulling options of how to field teams in the fall.

The last official season for girls’ flag football as a club sports — which it has operated as for years — kicks off in March. In the fall, however, more teams will participate, and a state tournament will take place to crown a state champion.

But a new sport means new costs. The grant, however, will offset some of that. Hines said as many as 33 schools will have the opportunity to use the money to purchase 25 uniforms.

“We are going to have 33 schools be able to pick their colors, design it for 25 kids, which is absolutely terrific,” Hines said. “We’ll try to take care of as many schools as we can.”

Chandler schools, having been the pioneers of the girls’ flag football movement, are already equipped with uniforms. The district also provided AllStar jerseys for the girls during a special game last August in which Cardinals linebacker Markus Golden helped coach.

The Mesa district also reaped some benefits from the Cardinals support. Riczer Desvaristes, the manager of youth and high school football for the Cardinals, was on hand during the Mesa city Tournament along with his team to help crown the champion. Other schools like Xavier and some in the Tempe Union district have already established a girls’ flag football team on campus.

Hamilton coach Matt Stone hopes the

money will provide opportunities to girls at schools that don’t have the same resources as others. His goal from day one was to give every athlete in Arizona an opportunity to play.

“This is the green light the rest of the state needed to know that this is a serious movement,” Stone said. “This is not a club sport anymore. Our projected numbers in the years to come are substantial. I think any school that was on the fence, this can help tip them over toward playing next fall.”

Like Stone, Casteel coach Rae Black aims to provide opportunities for girls at her school and beyond to play flag football.

She’s been one of the leading voices ahead of the charge, promoting the sport around the state. She was in attendance when Nike gifted the money to Hines and the AIA. Soon after, she went up and personally thanked Nike’s Matt James.

“It just goes to show how serious Nike is actually taking it,” Black said. “They’re the ones reaching out and wanting to make friends with us. I think that’s awesome for people to support young women’s dream as part as playing football for your school.”

The growth of girls’ flag football has been beneficial for all athletes involved. Thanks to Desvaristes and the Cardinals, Jesus Arzaga’s Mountain View team was granted the opportunity to attend NFL Honors, the league’s annual awards show, as well the NFL Experience during Super Bowl week at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Arzaga, who also coaches the Toro baseball team, hopes the money from Nike can be used for more than just uniforms for schools in need. He hopes the support will also draw in coaches.

“Maybe get some interest from coaches and girls to want to do it a little more,” Arzaga said. “I think the toughest part of being in the fall, or even the spring, is getting coaches involved. Hopefully that money intrigues some of the coaches, gets some girls out and continues to help schools that need it to continue the growth of girls’ flag football.”

Mesa schools currently await the start of the first-ever season as a sanctioned sport for girls’ flag football in the fall. Chandler, meanwhile, along with other districts, will play a spring season beginning in March.

It’ll be a dry run of sorts for the real thing, with the AIA providing officials for games. But the excitement level has never been higher.

“We knew there was a lot of support but the amount of engagement of our schools with kids wanting to get involved and kids wanting to get involved, really fast-tracked it,” Hines said. “What I look forward to down the line is we add a new division or conferences as we move forward and continue to build.”

From left: Casteel coach Rae Black, AIA Executive Director David Hines, Hamilton coach Matt Stone and Mountain View coach Jesus Arzaga (not pictured) were three of the state’s flag football coaches in attendance during a breakfast Friday, Feb. 10 where Nike and the NFL presented the AIA with a $100,000 grant for girls’ flag football. (Courtesy Riczer Desvaristes)

Arizona’s Community Colleges present

These Community College Students are selected for their academic achievement, leadership and service to the community. All receive scholarships from Arizona’s community colleges, as well as Arizona Board of Regents tuition waivers for any Arizona public university. Students are eliglible for selection to the All-USA Academic Team. For information, contact the local chapter of Phi Theta Kappa national honorary society at any Arizona community college. Presented as a public service by the

A more robust Spring Baseball season beckons this year

BY KEN SAIN GetOut Staff Writer

There were times in the past three years when Huss Brewing Company considered getting out of the Spring Training business.

“We did have some hearts-to-hearts about it,” said Chip Mulala, the director of operations for the company, which sells its local craft beers at seven of the 10 Cactus League stadiums.

The past three years have hurt businesses and frustrated baseball fans who like to visit Arizona in March for the nice weather and Spring Training games.

First, the COVID pandemic forced an end to nearly all sports in mid-March 2020, abruptly ending a strong Cactus League season. In 2021, stadiums had to deploy social distancing, limiting capacity to 50%. Plus, they started late and had fewer games.

COVID was not a problem last year, but Major League Baseball’s labor dis-

pute was. The owners locked players out until they reached a new collective bargaining agreement, forcing a late start and fewer Spring Training games.

In 2019, there were 220 Spring Training games played in Arizona, drawing 7,900 fans per game. The number of games dropped to 143 in 2020, hit 208 with the limited capacity in 2021 and bottomed out at 135 last year.

The impact those three years had on the state’s tourism and the industries that support it is still being felt.

“It made something abundantly clear,” said Steve Chucri, the president/ CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association. “Spring training is crucial to a lot of restaurants.”

The Cactus League schedule begins on Feb. 24, and for the first time since 2019, a full slate of games awaits with no capacity restrictions.

“In 2023, we are looking forward to a ‘normal’ season,” said Bridget Bins-

see BASEBALL page 36

Papago Brewing ready for spring ball fans

BY JOSH ORTEGA GetOut Staff Writer

With Spring Training just around the corner, Huss Brewing Co. is ready for thirsty fans at its new Papago Brewing Company taproom at Mesa Riverview – realizing a dream of owners Jeff and Leah Huss.

The taproom, occupying the former home of The Brass Tap at 1033 N. Dobson Road, is inside a standalone 2,100-square-foot, 104-seat taproom and restaurant that will pour an everchanging selection of 60 craft draft beers, plus packaged beers to-go.

Its opening earlier this month coincided with Huss’ refresh of the Papago brand. Leah Huss spent 14 years as co-owner of the original Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale and helped pioneer the local craft beer scene, including the creation of Papago’s signature beer, Papago Orange Blossom.

Leah and her husband Jeff Huss made the new taproom a personal passion project and said she long dreamed of reintroducing the Papago Brewing experience to the East Valley – not with a rehash or a replica of the old taproom, but a brand-new iteration.

“I really wanted to envision what Pa-

pago Brewing would look like in 2023,” Leah said. “So, we’ll still have elements of a traditional European-style beer pub and vintage furnishings, yet very fresh and forward-looking.”

Beside freshly crafted brews spanning the entire Huss family of beers, the new taproom will also feature local beers from Arizona, along with small-batch and experimental beers. It includes past favorites such as Elsie’s Milk Stout and Hopago IPA, all paired with a compact menu of premium bar bites like the sausage and pretzel board as well as 12” pizzas, paninis, sandwiches and salads.

Most important, Leah said they’re

excited to build on the solid craft beer foundation built by Brass Tap owners Jesse and Jason Rowe.

“They’ve been great stewards of the Mesa craft beer scene, and we’re excited to introduce Huss and Papago to the neighborhood,” she said.

The quiet locale at Mesa Riverview runs contrary to what’s happening for the rest of their locations – especially their taproom inside the Phoenix Convention Center.

Brewmaster Jeff Huss – a diehard Chicago Cubs fan – looks forward to the next month-and-a-half when Cubs see

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March 3, 2023

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Footprint Arena

March, 4, 2023

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Dessert Diamond Arena

March 5, 2023

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Pet palaces on the block at special auction

BY ALEX GALLAGHER GetOut Staff Writer

For the ninth consecutive year, Facings of America will switch its prized products with some of the swankiest pet palaces around.

The Scottsdale business – which boasts some of finest tile, stone and architectural features in the world – is hosting an auction of uniquely designed dog and cat houses to benefit the Arizona Animal Welfare League.

The nonprofit is state’s oldest and largest no-kill shelter and houses over 4,000 pets while funding low-cost vaccine clinics, rural rescue efforts and a community vet clinic.

“Animals really touch everyone’s hearts and here’s just something about the love an animal can bring you that I think a lot of people can relate with,” said Facings of America spokeswoman Carrie Hamblin, calling the league “an amazing partner with us” that has helped make the dog house auction its biggest fundraiser of the year.

The Arizona Animal Welfare League nearly a decade ago was one of three nonprofits that Facings was considering partnering with.

Eventually, Facings proposed recruiting designers to build state-of-the-art pet palaces that could be auctioned off to benefit the nonprofit.

“We work with the top talent as far as designers, architects and builders in the Valley. Some of them we’ve been working with for decades,” said Hamblin.

“We asked them if they wanted to build these pet houses and they spent their own money, got their sponsorships to build the houses and recruited their friends in the industry.”

Among the 15 participating builders is Phoenix-based designer Sherwood Wang who is returning for his second year and will be the lone solo designer in the showcase.

“The AAWL was a big part of it since it’s such a well-run organization and I know

they do a lot of important work in the community for these dogs and cats,” Wang said. “It’s always a really good time seeing everyone in the community come together.”

Wang decided to differentiate himself from the pack by creating a home for cats.

“This year, we decided to focus on cats, which is kind of an area where hopefully we’ll be in front of the few cat houses over there,” Wang said.

Not only will his design stand out because of its use, but Wang also created three levels in the home for the animals to explore.

Wang hopes to win the best in show and fetch a steep price tag. The nonprofit’s goal is $60,000 as it continues to navigate its way through inflation.

“We always need the support of our community as a nonprofit since we rely directly on our generous supporters for that funding,” said Arizona Animal Welfare League spokeswoman Kimberly Vermillion. “We don’t receive any government funding, so any support that we can get makes it possible for us to do our lifesaving work.”

In addition to auctioning off swanky pet palaces, the Design for Dogs event will also feature live music, food trucks and the Arizona Animal Welfare League will have anisee AUCTION page 36

For the ninth year, Facings of America has partnered with the Arizona Animal Welfare League to auction off some of the swankiest pet chateaus at its annual Design for Dogs event hosted at the Facings of America Showroom on Friday, Feb. 24. (Special to GetOut)

fans will fill nearby Sloan Park as part for Spring Training.

Starting on Feb. 25, Papago will open for lunch at 11 a.m. and offer free shuttle from Papago Brewing Co. to Sloan Park for those attending Cubs Spring Training games.

MaLeea Cole-Briggs, Mesa Riverview property manager, said called the taproom a welcome addition to the center coming at an opportune time.

“The opening of Papago Brewing Co. couldn’t have been better timed,” ColeBriggs said in a statement. “The pub’s wide selection of craft beers and oldworld ambiance will provide a comfortable gathering space that we are sure our guests, including the area’s top sports fans and tourists, will heartily embrace.”

Leah and Jeff Huss have 35 years of combined experience in the brewing industry. Jeff, a former head brewer for BJ’s Brewing in Chandler, attended the Siebel Institute in Chicago and the Doemens Academy in Munich, Germany.

Huss Brewing Co. opened in 2013 with taprooms inside the Tempe brewery.

In 2016, Huss acquired the Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale, creating the newly formed Huss Family of Beers and transforming Huss into the third largest brewer in the state.

Although the Scottsdale taproom eventually closed, Leah and Jeff Huss made sure Papago’s pioneering spirit lived on, purchasing Papago Brewing Company in 2016 and expanding the product line to include Papago Cherry Blossom and the brand-new Papago Blueberry Wheat beers.

And now approaching nearly two decades of existence in the Arizona marketplace, Huss has taken the iconic brand to the next level with newly designed cans.

“This refreshing and iconic brand is almost 18 years old, so we wanted to give it a bright and fresh new feel,” Leah Huss said. “The new cans really showcase the oranges and refreshing nature that has made Papago Orange Blossom one of Arizona’s favorite beers for almost 2 decades.”

Natural Gas Safety

leave doors open.

From a safe place, call 911 and Southwest Gas at 877-860-6020, day or night, whether you’re a customer or n ot. A Southwest Gas representative will be there as soon as possible.

Don’t smoke or use matches or lighters.

• Don’t turn on or off electrical switches, thermostats, or appliance controls; or do anything that could cause a spark.

Don’t start or stop an engine, or use automated (garage) doors.

Huss Brewing Company owners Jeff and Leah Huss are revivingthe Papago Brewing Company taproom in time for Spring Training season. (File photo)

BASEBALL from page 32

bacher, executive director of the Cactus League. “Combine that with an upswing in tourism and I’m optimistic we will see much higher attendance. Everywhere I go, people tell me how excited they are to get back out to the ballpark.”

There are 15 Major League Baseball teams that train in the Valley, playing their games at 10 stadiums. Five ballparks are home to two teams.

Most of the stadiums are supported by local charity groups, such as the Thunderbirds in Scottsdale and the HoHoKams in Mesa, that raise money and then spread it around to local charities. The charities’ ability to do that has been hurt during the past three seasons.

Binsbacher said before 2020, the Cactus League generated $644 million annually for the local economy. In 2020, that dropped to $363.3 million. The league does not have the numbers for the past two years yet.

One Scottsdale based-business, Bella Palazzo Collections, rents out private

homes. Owner-operator Margie Van Zee said MLB’s labor issue last year was the hardest on her business.

Many of the people renting some of the 80 homes in her collection are ballplayers.

“We had to have a cancellation clause in our contract so that if MLB continued to obstruct the ballplayers, then they could get out of it,” Van Zee said, adding that it forced her to be more flexible.

Ironically, the pandemic’s onset in 2020 led to an increase in business.

“2020 was the best year we’ve ever had, even during the pandemic,” she said. “What happened was nobody wanted to go back to their hometown. They were already here for spring training, COVID happened. A lot of them would have to go back to their cold weather climates and areas that were still shut down.

“So, a lot of the ballplayers just said we’re extending, many of them extended and stayed till the beginning of the year.”

Mulala said Huss Brewing Company

VOTE NOW!

decided to stay in the Spring Training business. In fact, they just opened a new location – Papago Brewing Company, close to Sloan Park in Mesa where the Chicago Cubs play.

“We actually have it set up that we’re going to have a shuttle that is going to be taking people to the games on game day for most games that start at one o’clock,” he said.

While the past three years have been difficult, right now is a great time to be in the restaurant business. In addition to Spring Training, the Super Bowl and Waste Management Phoenix Open were also in town.

All those events brought a lot of tourists.

Chucri expects to see between a 20to-25% increase in sales just because of the Super Bowl.

“The restaurant economy, for all of our hopes and desires this February and March, is going to be very, very much needed,” Chucri said. “[We’ll] really get a huge boost when it comes to these these big events coming to the state, especially Spring Training.”

AUCTION from page 34

mals on site available for adoption.

Because of this, Hamblin hopes to witness another successful event and see record sales of the homes.

“I hope we have more attendees than last year. We had about 600 people last year and we’re hoping for at least 650 to 700 people,” Hamblin said. “I would also love to see the dog houses go for as much as we can because the designers and builders work so hard and invest so much time and money in building them. That’s really what I would love to see.”

If You Go...

Design for Dogs Event to Benefit

Homeless Animals

When: 5 p.m. Friday, February 24

Where: Facings of America Showroom 16421 N. 90th Street, Scottsdale

Cost: $55 per general admission ticket or $100 for two.

Info: designfordogs.org/

Our reader poll is designed to let YOU tell us about your favorite people, places, shops, restaurants and things to do in Mesa.

With JAN D’ATRI GetOut Contributor

No Bundts about it, this cake has a storied history

Passion, romance or chocolate. Which did you prefer for Valentine’s Day?

It’s not that we don’t love love. But dang it if chocolate doesn’t steal the ol’ heart, right?

So even though Valentine’s Day 2023 has come and gone, this iconic dessert will do the trick any time love is in the air. It actually put the Bundt Cake on the culinary map.

Sudoku

It was 1966 at the 17th annual Pillsbury Bake Off Content. She wasn’t even the first-place winner, but Ella Rita Helfrich set the world on molten chocolate fire with her second place winning Tunnel of Fudge Cake. Up until Ella pulled her cake out of the oven, the Nordic Ware company was not having great success with their unusual invention, the Bundt Pan. In fact, they were about to discontinue the line due to lack of sales.

What a difference one day and one cake can make!

The recipe was such a smash hit nationwide, that the company had to make 30 thousand pans a day just to keep up with the demand! So this fudgy cake is not just a lavish, chocolately gooey-centered yummy work of art, but it was actually responsible for the whole Bundt Pan craze!

Ingredients:

For the cake

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups butter, softened

6 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups chopped walnuts

For the glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 TBSP milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour

The cake itself proved just as popular as the pan. But then Pillsbury discontinued the crucial ingredient to the cake’s success, Double Dutch Frosting Mix. Angry fans of the cake deluged the company with complaints, prompting Pillsbury to adapt the recipe, replacing the frosting mix with cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar.

Ella won $5,000 for her creation, but its unique mysterious chocolate tunnel, brownie-like consistency and silken chocolate topping makes is worth a million bucks which, incidentally, is what the winner takes home today! So, again, let me ask you. Passion, romance or chocolate? Read on

a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Gradually blend in 2 cups confectioners’ sugar. Beat in the flour and 3/4 cup cocoa powder. Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Important! Let cool in pan for 1 hour, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Make the glaze. In a small bowl, combine 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Stir in milk, a tablespoon at a time, until desired drizzling consistency is achieved. Spoon over cake.

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EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 19, 2023

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To Advertise Call: 480-898-6500 or email Class@TimesLocalMedia.com

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant for the following:

PECOS AND SOSSAMAN ROAD COMBINED MATERIALS RECYCLING FACILITY AND TRANSFER STATION PROJECT NO. CP1146

The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant to provide design services for the Joint Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) and Transfer Station Project. All qualified firms that are interested in providing these services are invited to submit their Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) in accordance with the requirements detailed in the Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

The following is a summary of the project. The required tasks will be reviewed with the selected Design Consultant and defined to meet the needs of the project as part of the contract scoping. The City of Mesa and Town of Gilbert are proposing a joint MRF located at the northwest corner of Sossaman Road and Pecos Road. The selected consultant will review the prior study, analysis, and reporting information from the City of Mesa and Town of Gilbert. This review should consider the shared goals of the agencies as well as future growth and programming. Based on these reviews and discussions with both agencies, the consultant will prepare preliminary drawings, cost estimates, etc. to further define the proposed facility.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on February 23, 2023 at 1:00 pm via Microsoft Teams. At this meeting, City staff will discuss the scope of work and general contract issues and respond to questions from the attendees. Attendance at the pre-submittal conference is not mandatory and all interested firms may submit a Statement of Qualifications whether or not they attend the conference. All interested firms are encouraged to attend the Pre-Submittal Conference since City staff will not be available for meetings or to respond to individual inquiries regarding the project scope outside of this conference. In addition, there will not be meeting minutes or any other information published from the Pre-Submittal Conference.

Contact with City Employees. All firms interested in this project (including the firm’s employees, representatives, agents, lobbyists, attorneys, and subconsultants) will refrain, under penalty of disqualification, from direct or indirect contact for the purpose of influencing the selection or creating bias in the selection process with any person who may play a part in the selection process. This policy is intended to create a level playing field for all potential firms, to assure that contract decisions are made in public, and to protect the integrity of the selection process. All contact on this selection process should be addressed to the authorized representative identified below RFQ Lists. This RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/architectural-engineering-design-opportunities.

The Statement of Qualifications shall include a one-page cover letter, plus a maximum of 10 pages to address the SOQ evaluation criteria (excluding resumes but including an organization chart with key personnel and their affiliation). Resumes for each team member shall be limited to a maximum length of two pages and should be attached as an appendix to the SOQ. Minimum font size shall be 10pt. Please provide one (1) electronic copy in an unencrypted PDF format to Entingeering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov by March 9, 2023 at 2:00 pm. The City reserves the right to accept or reject any and all Statements of Qualifications. The City is an equal opportunity employer.

Firms who wish to do business with the City of Mesa must be registered and activated in the City of Mesa Vendor Self Service (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service).

Questions. Questions pertaining to the Consultant selection process or contract issues should be directed to Tracy Gumeringer of the Engineering Department at tracy.gumeringer@mesaaz.gov.

BETH HUNING City Engineer

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant for the following:

McKELLIPS ROAD RELIEF SEWER PROJECT NO. CP0619NS12

The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant to provide design services for the McKellips Road Relief Sewer Project. All qualified firms that are interested in providing these services are invited to submit their Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) in accordance with the requirements detailed in the Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

The following is a summary of the project. This project scope includes design and hydraulic analysis of relief sewer. The sewer will begin at the intersection of McKellips Road and Gilbert Road and extend to an existing manhole at the intersection of Stapley Drive and Brown Road. In addition, the project will include the design of a smaller relief sewer extension down Harris Drive, that will connect to the new relief sewer on McKellips Road. Additionally, the project includes the replacement of an existing manhole located in the intersection of McKellips Road and Gilbert Road with a new sewer diversion structure and other associated work. Please note that the project will take place on arterial streets with multiple utilities and other active CIP projects. The consultant will need to locate and coordinate multiple non-city and city utilities, including expanding fiber lines. Utility relocation is likely and should be anticipated.

Project Deliverables Include but are not Limited to: Hydraulic Analysis Report, Preliminary Layout, 30%, 60%, 90%, and Final Sealed Construction Documents, Technical Specifications, Utility Conflict Resolution Matrix, Project Cost Estimates, Construction Services (Submittal Review, RFI Response, etc.). The required tasks will be reviewed with the selected Design Consultant and defined to meet the needs of the project as part of the contract scoping.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on February 23, 2023 at 9:00 am via Microsoft Teams. At this meeting, City staff will discuss the scope of work, general contract requirements and respond to questions from the attendees. The video conference Pre-Submittal Conference is not mandatory, and all interested firms may submit a Statement of Qualifications whether or not they attend the conference. All interested firms are encouraged to attend the Pre-Submittal Conference since City staff will not be available for meetings or to respond to individual inquiries regarding the project scope outside of this conference. In addition, there will not be meeting minutes, or any other information published from the Pre-Submittal Conference.

Contact with City Employees. All firms interested in this project (including the firm’s employees, representatives, agents, lobbyists, attorneys, and subconsultants) will refrain, under penalty of disqualification, from direct or indirect contact for the purpose of influencing the selection or creating bias in the selection process with any person who may play a part in the selection process. This policy is intended to create a level playing field for all potential firms, to assure that contract decisions are made in public, and to protect the integrity of the selection process. All contact on this selection process should be addressed to the authorized representative identified below RFQ Lists. This RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/architectural-engineering-design-opportunities.

The Statement of Qualifications shall include a one-page cover letter that contains current company/firm contact information including a valid phone number and email address, plus a maximum of 10 pages to address the SOQ evaluation criteria (excluding PPVF’s and resumes but including an organization chart with key personnel and their affiliation). Resumes for each team member shall be limited to a maximum length of two pages and should be attached as an appendix to the SOQ. Minimum font size shall be 10pt. Please provide one (1) electronic copy in an unencrypted PDF format to Engineering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov by 2:00 pm on March 9, 2023. The City reserves the right to accept or reject any and all Statements of Qualifications. The City is an equal opportunity employer.

Firms who wish to do business with the City of Mesa must be registered and activated in the City of Mesa Vendor Self Service (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service).

Questions. Questions pertaining to the Consultant selection process or contract issues should be directed to Tracy Gumeringer of the Engineering Department at tracy.gumeringer@mesaaz.gov.

BETH HUNNING City Engineer

ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk

ATTEST:

Holly Moseley City Clerk

CITY OF MESA PUBLIC NOTICE

The Mesa City Council will hold a public hearing concerning the following ordinances at the February 27, 2023, City Council meeting beginning at 5:45 p.m. in the Mesa City Council Chambers, 57 East First Street.

1. ZON22-00916 “Boomerang Headquarters” (District 2) Within the 2500 to 2600 blocks of East Southern Avenue (north side). Located west of Lindsay Road on the north side of Southern Avenue (1± acre). Rezone from Single Residence-43 (RS-43) to Office Commercial with a Bonus Intensity Zone Overlay (OC-BIZ) and Site Plan Review. This request will allow for an office development. Dane Astle, EDIFICE Architecture, applicant; Boomerang Southern, LLC, Boomerang Capital Partners, owner.

2. ZON22-00977 "Mountain Bridge Parcel 16"(District 5) Within the 9000 to 9200 blocks of East McKellips Road (south side) and within the 1800 to 2000 blocks of North Ellsworth

Road (west side). Located south of McKellips Road and west of Ellsworth Road (4± acres).

Rezone from Neighborhood Commercial with a Planned Area Development Overlay (NC-PAD) to Single Residence-9 with a Bonus Intensity Overlay (RS-9-BIZ). This request will allow for the development of a single residence subdivision. Pew and Lake PLC, applicant; Phoenix Land Division LLC, owner.

Dated at Mesa, Arizona, this 19th day of February 2023.

Holly Moseley, City Clerk

Published in the Mesa Tribune, Feb 19, 2023

PUBLIC NOTICE - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FROM QUALIFIED CONTRACTORS FOR PAD PREP, EXCAVATION, AND CUT AND GRADE

PROJECT NAME / REFERENCE NO.: 1800317-E Don Carlos Ave. Pad Prep, Excavation, and Cut and Grade

DATE OF ISSUANCE: February 12, 2023

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona (HFHCAZ) is requesting proposals in the form of lump-sum, sealed bids, from qualified contractors. Project site is 0.83 acres comprised of

CITY OF MESA

Public Comment Period

(February 20 – March 6, 2023)

Date of Publication: February 19, 2023

PUBLIC NOTICE

City of Mesa HOME Investment Partnerships Program-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) Funds, Section 3205 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Public Law 117-2 Public Hearing

HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) Allocation Plan

The City of Mesa was awarded $5,605,694 in HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) funds as a onetime allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In accordance with the federal regulations, 24 CFR, Part 91, the City of Mesa (City) is required by HUD to prepare and submit a HOME-ARP Allocation Plan to receive HOME-ARP funds.

The HOME-ARP Allocation Plan is a strategic plan identifying the needs and gaps of service to assist individuals or households who are experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, and other vulnerable populations, by providing affordable housing, rental assistance, supportive services, and non-congregate shelter, to reduce homelessness and increase housing stability. The HOME-ARP Allocation Plan defines the categories of use of federal HOME-ARP grant funds to address these needs.

A draft version of the City’s HOME-ARP Allocation Plan will be available for review and comment during a 15-day public comment period. This document is available for public review at the Housing and Community Development office, 200 S. Center Street, Bldg. 1, Mesa, Arizona, 85210 or on our website Plans, Amendments & Reports | City of Mesa (mesaaz.gov)

A public hearing will be held on March 6, 2023, starting at 5:45 p.m. at a City Council Meeting: Upper-Level City Council Chambers, 57 E. First Street, Mesa, Arizona 85201.

Notice of Public Comment Period

A public comment period regarding the FY 2021/2022 proposed HOME ARP Allocation Plan will begin on Monday, February 20, 2023, and end on Monday, March 6, 2023. All written comments received no later than March 6, 2023, will be considered.

Written comments may be sent to: Michelle Albanese, City of Mesa, P.O. Box 1466, Mesa, AZ 85211-1466. You may also contact her at (480) 644-4546, or via e-mail at Michelle.Albanese@mesaaz.gov for further information.

The City of Mesa is committed to making its public meetings accessible. For accommodations, translation, or additional information, please contact the City of Mesa Community Services at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at (480) 644-3661; or e-mail: Marcella.Magallanez-Snow@mesaaz.gov; or AZRelay 7-1-1 for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Si necesita información en español por favor de llamar al 480-644-2767.

Michelle Albanese, Housing & Community Development Director (February 19, 2023, The Mesa Tribune.)

6 Single-Family lots in Tempe, Arizona. Civil infrastructure work includes pad prep, excavation, cut and grade of retention basin, and fill of existing hole.

PROJECT LOCATION: Tempe, Arizona 85281

BID DOCUMENTATION: Bid documentation will be available via email. Send requests for information to kristen@habitatcaz.org no later than February 22nd, 2023.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTAL: Sealed bids must be delivered to Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona’s Corporate Office located at 2830 W Glendale Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85051, no later than 2:00 p.m. on March 2nd, 2023. The public bid opening will begin at 2:01 p.m. Habitat reserves the right to reject any or all bids and to withhold the award for any reason Habitat determines.

BID CONTACT: Kristen Folsom, 602-232-1082, kristen@habitatcaz.org

Published in East Valley Tribune Feb 12, 19, 2023 STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA COUNTY OF BROWN CIRCUIT COURT FIFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF JOY DENISE WIEDEBUSH

Deceased, 06PRO23-000007

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE OF INFORMAL PROBATE AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE

Notice is hereby given that on February 1, 2023, Kent Steven Marquardt, whose address is 2314 Crystal Avenue SE, Aberdeen, SD 57401, was appointed as Personal Representative of the estate of JOY DENISE WIEDEBUSH.

Creditors of decedent must file their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or their claims may be barred.

Claims may be filed with the Personal Representa tive or may be filed with the Clerk of Courts and a copy of the claim mailed to the Personal Representa tive.

Dated this 6th day of February, 2023.

Kent Steven Marquardt 2314 Crystal Avenue SE Aberdeen, SD 57401 605-377-3052

Marla Zastrow Brown County Clerk of Courts 100 1st Avenue SE Aberdeen, SD 57401 (605) 626-2451

Christopher A. Haar Attorney at Law PO Box 1181 Aberdeen, SD 57402 605-228-7552 chrishaarlaw@gmail.com

Published in East Valley Tribune Feb 19, 26, Mar 5, 2023

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

In the Matter of the Estate of CAROL J. WALKER NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed as the Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against the estate are required to present their claims within four (4) months after the date of the first publication of this Notice or the claims will be forever barred. Claims must be presented by delivering or mailing a written statement of the claim to undersigned

Personal Representative at Sharona Joseph, 2322 S. Rogers #35 Mesa, AZ 85202

Published in East Valley Tribune Feb 5, 12, 19, 2023

Case Number JS21167

NOTICE OF HEARING

ON PETITITION

FOR TERMINATION OF PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP

SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA IN MARICOPA COUNTY

Juvenile Department

PARENT/GUARDIAN NAMES(S)

Dominica Nicole Cordova

John Doe

In the Matter of Minor(s): Adrian Eulalio Cornal-Bernitez

This is an important notice from the court. Read it carefully.

A petition about termination of parent-child relationship has been filed with the court, and a hearing has been scheduled related to your child(ren). Your rights may be affected by the proceedings. You have a right to to appear as a party in the proceeding. If you fail to participate in the court proceedings, the court may deem that you have waived your legal rights and admitted to the allegations made in the petition. Hearings may go forward in your absence and may result in the termination of your parental rights. Judicial Officer: Christopher Whitten

Hearing Date/Time: March 10, 2023 at 9:30 am

Hearing Type: Severance

Publication/Evidentiary Hearing

Location: Old Courthouse, 125 W. Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85003

Court Connect Hearing:

Video: http://tinyurl.com/judgewitten

Dial-in Information: + 917-781-4590

Dial-in Access Code: 591 182 803#

Private Dial-in Information: for privacy purposes, you can block your phone number by dialing *67

Published in East Valley Tribune Jan 29, Feb 5, 12, 19, 2023

ARTICLES OF ORGANIZATION HAVE BEEN FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION FOR I Name: FULLMER LLC DBA T.A.C.T. EAST VALLEY

II The address of the registered office is: 35575 N. THURBER RD. QUEEN CREEK, AZ 85142 The name of the Statutory Agent is: STEVEN TODD FULLMER III Management of the Limited Liability Company is vested in a manager or managers. The names of each person who is a manager and each member who owns a twenty percent or greater interest in the capital or profits of the limited liability company are: MEMBER/MANAGERS/ORGANIZERS: Name and address for each. STEVEN TODD FULLMER, DENISE LUPO FULLMER, 35575 N. THURBER RD QUEEN CREEK, AZ 85142

Published in East Valley Tribune Feb 5, 12, 19, 2023

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

In the Matter of the Estate of Daniel Dean Richard

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Thomas Arndt has been appointed as the Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against the estate are required to present their claims within four (4) months after the date of the first publication of this Notice or the claims will be forever barred. Claims must be presented by delivering or mailing a written statement of the claim to Thomas Arndt, Personal Representative of Daniel Dean Richard, 2606 N Yucca ST, Chandler, AZ 85224

Published in East Valley Tribune Feb 19, 26, Mar 5, 2023

In accordance with Sec. 106 of the Programmatic Agreement, AT&T plans a NEW 85' MONOPALM AND ANTENNAS at 5910 E. MCDOWELL ROAD MESA, AZ 85215. Please direct comments to Gavin L. at 818-898-4866 regarding site AZL01762. 2/19, 2/26/23 CNS-3669740# EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE

EMPLOYMENT-GENERAL

CPA Global North America, LLC d/b/a Clarivate seeks Senior Software Engineer in Chandler, AZ to work on modification, enhancement, dev, & debugging of SW requirements 100% telecommuting permitted in the US Apply at jobpostingtoday com

Ref: 84838

EMPLOYMENT-GENERAL

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Senior Solution Specialist in Gilbert, AZ and various unanticipated Deloitte office locations and client sites nationally to drive software testing and implementation services to help companies unlock the value of big technology investments big technology investments, ranging from requirements to architecture, design to development, testing to deployment, and beyond as discrete services or comprehensive solutions in the insurance, financial services, healthcare, state and local government, telecom, and retail industries. 15% travel required nationally. Telecommuting permitted. To apply visit apply.deloitte.com. Enter XBAL23FC0123GIL7677 in “Search jobs” field. EOE, including disability/ veterans.

EMPLOYMENT-GENERAL

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Senior Solution Specialist in Gilbert, Arizona & various unanticipated Deloitte office locations & client sites nationally to Drive software development and implementation services to help companies unlock the value of big technology investments, ranging from requirements to architecture, design to development, testing to deployment, and beyond as discrete services or comprehensive solutions 15% travel required nationally. Telecommuting permitted. To apply visit apply deloitte com Enter XBAL23FC0223GIL4459 in “Search jobs” field EOE, including disability/veterans

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A STRATFORD – NOW SELLING

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From the low $700’s • 480-895-2800

B PALMA BRISA – In Ahwatukee Foothills CLOSEOUT

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From the $800’s • 480-641-1800

C BELMONT AT SOMERSET – Prime Gilbert Location SOLD OUT

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480-750-3000

D MONTELUNA – Brand New Gated Community in the Foothills of Northeast Mesa NOW SELLING

McKellips Rd just east of the Red Mountain 202 Fwy

From the $700’s • 480-750-3000

E RESERVE AT RED ROCK – NOW SELLING

New Upscale Resort Community In the Foothills of Northeast Mesa with Stunning View of Red Mountain

Vintage Collection • From the low $700’s • 480-641-1800

Craftsman Collection • From the high $800’s • 480-988-2400

Artisan Collection • From the $900’s • 480-641-1800

F TALINN AT DESERT RIDGE – NOW SELLING

Spectacular gated community in Desert Ridge • 480-733-9000

BlandfordHomes.com