Help for non-pro�its / P. 15
Glamorous gun shop / P. 17
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
THEMESATRIBUNE.COM
NEWS .......................... 3 Mesa considers fireworks curbs.
SPORTS .................. 28 Desert Ridge lands new football coach. COMMUNITY ............................... 15 BUSINESS ..................................... 20 HEALTH & WELLNESS ................ 21 OPINION ....................................... 27 SPORTS ........................................ 28 PUZZLES ...................................... 30 CLASSIFIED ................................. 32 Zone 1
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Major vaccine effort brings new hope for Mesa schools BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
H
opes that Mesa Public Schools can keep classrooms open got a shot in the arm last week – literally. Through what Superintendent Dr. Andi Fourlis called “relentless conversations,” the district scored 4,000 doses of the P�izer COVID-19 vaccine for employees and hundreds began Jan. 20 rolling up their sleeves for the shots with the help of the Mesa Fire & Medical Department and school nurses. Moreover, Fourlis and the Arizona School Administrators Association is working with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health to use Mesa High and Skyline High as distribution centers for the vaccine for all educations in parochial, charter and private schools in Mesa. The rollout of vaccinations for all interested MPS teachers and staff began on Wednesday at Westwood High School, continued the next day at Mountain View and was to continue
Friday through next Wednesday at the four other MPS high schools. “We know that we have a community where two-thirds of our families want their kids to be in inperson learning and we know that that takes a really strong set of mitigation strategies and the pinnacle of those strategies is Redbird Elementary music teacher Tina Mahoney rolled up her sleeve last the vaccine,” Four- Wednesday as nurse Tina Mahoney administers a COVID-19 vaccine. (Pablo lis told the Tribune. Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer) Fourlis said that her initial conversation that a majority of them wanted the shots. with state Department of Health Services DiBut Fourlis wasn’t satis�ied with stopping rector Dr. Cara Christ focused on teachers. there. The district had surveyed teachers about ��� VACCINES ���� 4 their willingness to get vaccinated and found
Federal relic getting new purpose in Mesa BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
W
hen the old Mesa post of�ice opened more than 83 years ago downtown amid the depths of the Depression, it was a sign that a remote desert outpost had arrived as a growing city. Because the city had 6,000 residents, the federal government deemed Mesa worthy of its �irst post of�ice – and �irst federal building
– rather than a contract station inside a general store or a drug store, explained longtime Mesa historic preservationist Vic Linoff. Now the mothballed building is getting a new lease on life as an 8,000-square foot meeting space that can be divided into two rooms and used for community events, wedding receptions and other events. Back in the 1937, the postal project had been considered important enough that Postmaster James A. Farley, an in�luential con�i-
dant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, showed up for the dedication. “Just imagine a city of 6,000 getting a post of�ice. It was kind of unheard of. To get recognized by the feds, I think it raised the spirits of the city,’’ Linoff said. “It serves as a big accomplishment for the city.’’ As time went by, the aging building was bypassed, just like downtown in general during
��� POSTAL ���� 14
(408) 906-8396