The Mesa Tribune - Zone 1 - 2.13.2022

Arizona bets $120M?/ P. 14

Very beery Mesa / P. 36

Sunday, February 13, 2022

FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

VOTE NOW Housing crisis threatens us all, economist warns

BY CECILIA CHAN Tribune Staff Writer

M

esa and the rest of the Phoenix Metro area must build their way out of the current housing deficit or face economic catastrophe down the road, a noted Valley economist is warning local officials.

The housing shortage is just not dire in Arizona but throughout the country, economist Elliott Pollack told Gilbert Town Council as

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part of a presentation he is giving to a wide group of municipal bodies in the Valley, with Mesa scheduled soon.

“Affordability is falling but it’s about to plummet,” Pollack said. “There’s virtually no vacancy or available units. Supply has not kept paced with demand and our success as a community in attracting jobs and people has not been matched by a sufficient increase in the housing supply for those new employees and a continued shortage of housing is going

to drive up costs and threaten economic development efforts.

“Virtually nobody is going to get a free pass on not having to deal with this.”

Pollack belongs to Home Arizona, a group comprising former politicians and industry insiders that is trying to get the word out on the supply-demand crisis confronting the region.

The group analyzed housing in 11 Valley

see HOUSING page 4

Mesa native makes history with Oscar nomination

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

BUSINESS .............

21

Kids put a bounce in their step at Mesa playland.

SPORTS ............... 32 Outrage over Mountain View coach's ouster.

COMMUNITY ................................ 17 BUSINESS ...................................... 21 OPINION ....................................... 28 SPORTS........................................... 32 GET OUT ....................................... 36 CLASSIFIED .................................. 41 Zone

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P

erhaps it was a foreshadowing of things to come for Troy Kotsur that the Mesa hospital where he was born was eventually razed and replaced by a movie theater.

Regardless, last Monday, Feb. 7, Kotsur made both local and international history with his nomination for an Academy Award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role category.

He not only is the first deaf actor nominated for an Oscar but also is the first Mesa native ever to make the semifinal round for the film industry’s most coveted award.

Kotsur, 53, also is in the running for a Screen Actors Guild best actor award later this month for his performance in the movie “CODA” (an acronym for “Child of Deaf Adults”).

The movie – which Apple Studios bought last month for a record $25 million – centers around a 17-yearold daughter of deaf parents who is torn between helping to keep their fishing business afloat and pursuing her dream of becoming a singer.

The teen’s mother is portrayed

by Marlee Matlin, the first actress to win an Oscar for her portrayal in the 1986 movie “Children of a Lesser God.” “I feel like I’ve been chasing this dream for so long,” Kotsur told the Tribune through interpreter Justin Maurer.

He had been on Facetime from his Los Angeles home with his wife DeAnne and daughter Kyra when he got word of the nomination. And last Thursday, they and a group of other friends and relatives greeted him jubilantly at Phoenix Sky Har- Troy Kotsur last week made local and world history: He is the first deaf actor to be nominated for an Oscar and he also is the first Mesa nasee KOTSUR page 10 tive ever in the running for an Academy Award. (Special to the Tribune)

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

The Mesa Tribune is published every Sunday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout the East Valley.

Times Media Group: 1990 W. Broadway Road Tempe, AZ 85282

CONTACT INFORMATION Main number: 480-898-6500 | Advertising: 480-898-5624 Circulation service: 480-898-5641

Publisher: Steve T. Strickbine Vice President: Michael Hiatt ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Senior Account Sales: Ryan Brown | 480-898-6482 | rbrown@timespublications.com Local Advertising Sales: Chris Ross | 480-898-5649 | cross@timespublications.com Classifieds/Inside Sales: Elaine Cota | 480-898-7926 | ecota@evtrib.com TJ Higgins | 480-898-5902 | tjhiggins@evtrib.com Director of National Advertising: Zac Reynolds | 480-898-5603 | zac@evtrib.com NEWS DEPARTMENT Executive Editor: Paul Maryniak | 480-898-5647 pmaryniak@timespublications.com Staff Writers: : Dana Hawman-Trumbull | 480-898-6466 dhawman@timespublications.com Josh Ortega | 480-898-615 | jortega@timespublications.com Sports Editor: Zach Alvira | 480-898-5630 | zalvira@timespublications.com Get Out Editor: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski | 480-641-4518 christina@timespublications.com Photographer: David Minton | dminton@timespublications.com Designer: Ruth Carlton | rcarlton@timespublications.com Production Coordinator: Courtney Oldham | 480-898-5617 production@timespublications.com Circulation Director: Aaron Kolodny | 480-898-5641 | customercare@evtrib.com The Mesa Tribune is distributed by AZ Integrated Media, a circulation service company owned by Times Media Group. The public is permitted one copy per reader. For further information regarding the circulation of this publication or others in the Times Media Group family of publications, please contact AZ Integrated Media at circ@azintegratedmedia.com or 480-898-5641. For circulation services please contact Aaron Kolodny at aaron@azintegatedmedia.com.

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NEWS

MPS worries as spending cap deadline nears

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BY DANA TRUMBULL Tribune Staff Writer

W

ith the clock ticking down to a deadline of March 1, the Mesa Public Schools governing board took advantage of their regular meeting last week to discuss why it’s so important for the Legislature to doff the antiquated spending cap.

But earlier on Feb. 8, House Speaker Rusty Bowers of Mesa told Capitol Media Services it may not be easy for legislators to ignore the cap – which would trigger the need for Arizona school districts to cut $1.2 billion collectively from their budgets, with Mesa Public Schools accounting for a $73.8 million reduction.

“What I think a lot of folks don’t understand is that this is money that was budgeted and that we have planned to use to educate our children here at Mesa Public Schools,” board member Marcie Hutchinson said.

“We’ve come a long way,” she added.

“You might remember the 20% by 2020 teacher pay increase, early literacy efforts, the $20 million dollars for school resource officers and counselors. We have been trying in Arizona to make sure that our public education is fully funded.

“This is an artificial limit that is going to hinder that progress. This is our future.

And we would certainly appreciate the citizens contacting your legislators. It’s important that the limit be scrapped.”

Hours before the board meeting, state Superintendent of Public Schools Kathy Hoffman made similar observations, telling lawmakers, “If schools close because they are not authorized to spend money already sitting in their bank accounts, the blame will lie with you, not our public schools.”

Bowers said lawmakers fear that if they agree to ignore the cap this year, they effectively will set a precedent that could be used against them in the still-ongoing litigation of whether a 3.5% income tax surcharge on the wealthy approved by voters in 2020 would be allowed to take effect.

see SPENDING page 8

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NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

HOUSING from page 1

municipalities –including Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Scottsdale – and came up with a series of alarming statistics.

“The first decade of this century, we overbuilt in both single-family homes and apartments,” Pollack said. “The second decade of this century we way underbuilt and we are now at a situation where the vacancy rates for both single-family housing and for apartments are as low as they have ever been.”

For the first decade, the Greater Phoenix area saw 487,000 new housing units while that number fell to 240,000 units in the second decade of this century.

At the same time, 880,000 new residents will be moving here this decade.

“Phoenix employment is growing rapidly not only as we re-employ people who were laid off during the pandemic but all the economic development agencies in the Valley have done an extremely good job and there are lot of very large manufacturers and home offices and the number of companies relocating here is essentially greater than I’ve ever seen,” Pollack said.

“So, employment growth is going to be high and that’s going to bring a lot of new employees. Population growth will be just under 20 percent but that is close to 90,000 new people a year.”

And, demographically the largest adult cohort worldwide is millennials, 27-32 years old, who are now in their prime home-buying age, Pollack said.

“On top of that there is a lot of other pent-up demand,” Pollack said. “Oddly enough there are more people living with mommy and daddy who are 18-29 – literally more than any other time than the end

Economist Elliott Pollack and his team analyzed 11 Valley cities' average home prices and rents to show what groups of employees could afford in 2020 and 2021. Fewer groups could afford those average prices last year and Pollack said it will be worse this year. (Courtesy Elliott

D. Pollack)

of the Great Depression in 1940.

“Sooner or later their parents are going to kick them out of the house and they are going to have to basically create their own housing unit. That is even more demand on top of everything else.”

The housing supply can’t keep up with the demand.

“You are down to about a 23-day supply,” Pollack said. “If any of you have friends or kids who are out buying a house, you know what it’s like. That is down from a 70-day supply normally.”

Total population in the Valley is expected to bring 880,000 new residents this decade.

(Courtesy Elliott D. Pollack & Company)

And, if buyers are looking for a house priced $350,000 and lower, there’s only a 10-day supply, according to Pollack.

“In addition, you know most homebuilders, when they build a subdivision have homes that people can move into right away,” he said. “Well, 18 months ago there were 1,600 of those. You are now down to 500 of those, so there is essentially very little supply.”

He said shrinking affordability threatens to price once-secure wage earners priced out of homes and apartments.

“They’ll buy less expensive smaller homes,” Pollack said. “At some point, they will have to stay in rental units and that keeps on going down. And then people on the bottom really have nowhere to go and that’s going to be a big issue.”

He pointed out that in 2015, 73% of the families in the Phoenix area could afford a median-priced home. Today, that affordability has dropped to 51% and “it’s going to be somewhere at 45% by the

see HOUSING page 6

The current shortage in homes and rental units is shrinking the availability of housing. This chart shows what home prices and rent would be if the shortage could be addressed and what they are likely to become if it is not. (Courtesy Elliott D. Pollack & Company)

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

HOUSING from page 4

end of this year.”

That assumes average mortgage interest rates won’t rise above 3.5%. Affordability will shrink further still if the rate increases to 4%, Pollack said.

He said based on data crunched out to 2025, less than 30% of people would be able to afford a median-price home.

“That is something that Phoenix has never faced before because it has always been an affordable market relative to our competition,” he said. “Housing prices since 2000 has gone up roughly 188% in Phoenix.”

For those renting, the apartment inventory also is low and becoming less affordable.

“If you want to basically dig your way out of the hole, a shortage, to get vacancy rate in apartments back to the historic norm you need an additional 15,000 apartments on top of what you need for your annual population flows,” Pollack said.

“So, you’ll need probably about 16,000 apartment units for the next five years to get things back to normal.”

Right now, there will probably be about 14,000 new apartment units opening this year, he said.

“There’s more than that in the pipeline but we don’t have the labor to build them,” he added. “So, we’re behind the eight ball.

We are not getting to the point we need to be at.”

Area rents have shot up 29.5% over last year and single-family resales increased by 28.5%, according to Pollack.

A person will need to earn $72,680 a year to afford a median-priced apartment rental by the end of 2025, Pollack predicted.

“If you keep on getting these rapid rate increases because of the supply-demand imbalance, you are going to need $90,000,” he said. “It’s going to be a real problem.”

And that leads to the question of where will the people needed to run a community live – nurses, cops, firefighters, teachers, chefs, the guy who works for Circle K, according to Pollack.

He presented a chart that showed none of those groups of workers could even afford to buy a home in Gilbert in 2020 and those on a nursing or police salary could only afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in town while firefighters, highschool teachers and chefs can only afford a one-bedroom apartment.

The others such as middle-school and elementary-school teachers, construction

This chart shows the continuing gap between the number of apartments needed in the Valley and the number that are or are projected to be available. (Courtesy Elliott D. Pollack & Company) workers and retail workers could afford neither in Gilbert.

Move forward a year to 2021 and the picture is bleaker: only nurses and police officers able to afford to rent a two-bedroom and all the others priced out of living in Gilbert.

“Your essential workers along with people coming in earning those salaries in other jobs and private-sector jobs are just going to have difficulties,” he said. “And this is a reality you are going to have to face over the next several years.”

Pollack emphasized that in the current shortage, all types of housing in all price levels and all income levels are needed.

“We are at the bottom of the norm of af-

fordability at the moment,” Pollack said.

“We’re about to fall off a cliff in terms of affordability. It becomes very difficult especially as interest rates go up.

“There is not a group that is being spared difficulty right now. Obviously, it hurts worst at the bottom because you have fewer and fewer choices.”

If housing stock remains low, Pollack said municipalities can expect to see families doubling up, millennials and Gen Z generations trying to live with their parents or face homelessness.

“And, it’s a very bad economic-development picture because affordable housing is one of the things that’s always made us a draw,” Pollack said. “There’s going to be upward pressure on wages and city budgets and slower growth for the economy as a whole – which means less real-income growth and that’s what bothers me most.”

He reiterated what municipalities such as Gilbert could do to address the problem – build more housing units of all types across all ranges of income.

“Normally you’d need 20,000 to 25,000 forsale units and about 15,000 rental units, you’d need another 2,000 to 25,000 new home inventory and Valley economist Elliott D. Pollack spoke to Gilbert Town Coun- you need some replacecil about the Valley’s housing crisis and is slated to make simi- ments,” he said. “But, balar presentations to other municipal councils over the coming sically we have to build months. (YouTube) in total to get out of

this thing over the next five years almost 42,000 housing units a year that’s total housing units.”

He said meeting that need is made more difficult with labor shortages and supply chain issues.

“I know the Gilbert team makes every effort as shorthanded as they are to work with our developers and have encouraged higher density in commercial areas,” Mayor Brigette Peterson said. “And we allow for accessory dwelling units and other factors.”

She added that the Town a few years ago created a new zoning category called multifamily high to allow for additional height and density for multifamily projects.

“We have seen multifamily developments coming to our community with about 5,000 multifamily units planned that are not yet developed,” she said.

Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes asked how to frame the issue to residents in the community who don’t believe that it’s an issue.

“How would you explain it in a way that makes them want to care and I say it like that because the other side of the coin is people have a motivation to protect the values of their home,” Yentes said. “And so they see kind of the ability to close as…a good thing.”

Housing developments and especially apartment projects in town often attract opponents who complain about density, traffic and potential impact to their property values.

It’s a difficult situation because those people who are anti growth make a lot of noise, Pollack responded.

“The question is are there people on the other end who don’t make noise who will now start to make noise to help you understand that most people don’t want their city to have reduced levels of real income,” he said.

“They want jobs, they want places for their kids to live and you are not going to get any of that unless you do some things that maybe in a perfect world you would not do but the world is not prefect.

"The reality is not everybody is up here in income and even those people are going to be living down here because it’s so expensive for a house that they used to afford and if you wait for the trouble to occur, if you wait for the homelessness, if you wait for companies not locating here because housing was too expensive that time it’s too late. Take a look at California.”■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

State Senate poised to expand school voucher program

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

R

epublican lawmakers took the first steps last week to approve what would be the largest-ever increase in who can get a voucher of state funds to attend private and parochial schools.

On a party-line 5-3 vote, members of the Senate Education Committee agreed to vastly expand a program first created a decade ago as providing opportunities for students with special needs.

Since that time lawmakers have expanded that to include children of active duty military, children in foster care, residents of Indian reservations, and students attending schools rated D and F. About 10,000 students now get these vouchers, formally known as “empowerment scholarship accounts.’’

SB 1657, crafted by Sen. Paul Boyer, RGlendale, would make vouchers available to all children of veterans and full-time

SPENDING from page 3

The Supreme Court last year rejected arguments that the estimated $827 million that Proposition 208 would raise automatically is exempt from the aggregate constitutional limit on how much the state can spend overall on education. But the justices sent the case back to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah to determine if there still is a legal way for the funds to be used. Hannah gave no indication of when he might rule.

Bowers said there may be some merit to getting rid of the cap, something that would solve the immediate problem.

“But if that’s their view, and we do it, that just reinforces their side of the argument,’’ Bowers said. And he said there’s a big difference between the state hitting the expenditure limit – the issue immediately facing lawmakers – and whether the state’s most wealthy can be forced to pay a new tax for education.

But Roopali Desai, attorney for Invest in Arizona, the group that put Prop 208 on the ballot, said the question before Hannah is what might be raised and spent in the 2022-2023 school year. What’s facing lawmakers right now, she said, is whether schools can spend the money they already have this school year.

Without the waiver, which could be ac-

Mesa state Sen. Tyler Pace compared public schools’ need for money to the computer game Tetris, saying, “You can never win.”

(Pace for AZ Senate Campaign)

health professionals who provide direct health care. Even broader, it would say any

student living in the boundaries of a Title I school – those serving a large percentage of low-income children – also would qualify, regardless of their own financial status.

An analysis of a similar proposal by Boyer last year by legislative budget analysts concluded it would make more than 830,000 of the 1.1 million students now in public schools eligible for the state vouchers.

But Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, said even that figure is misleading.

She pointed out SB 1657 also would make vouchers available to any student in a school district that is seeking state funds for a new building based on enrollment growth.

And all students in any district that spends more in local revenues than the tuition and fees charged Arizona residents at public universities – about $11,000 a year – also would qualify for a voucher.

Boyer said he thinks most of those students will stay put where they are, regardless of voucher availability. He puts the number of additional vouchers SB 1657

House Speaker Rusty Bowers of Mesa said lifting the spending cap is a complicated matter.

(Capitol Media Services)

complished with a two-thirds vote of the legislature, school districts would lose 16% of their annual budget.

Currently, Arizona remains 49th in perstudent spending nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The cut would reduce spending by more than $1,000 per student.

Scott Thompson, MPS assistant superintendent for business and support services, said that in 1978, California voters passed a restriction on the amount of property tax that could be assessed by school districts.

Arizona considered a similar limitation, but compromised by creating the Aggregate Expenditure Limit, limiting public expenditures for education on a formulary basis starting in 1980.

“At that time, they never thought that this limitation would ever be reached,” he said.

“So, while there is constitutional language in it, there was not really the anticipation of all the things that could or would go into effect if the limitation was reached.”

But in 2000, that limit was met, and the

would create at only about 25,000.

The vouchers provide about $7,000 to eligible parents, more for students with special needs or learning disabilities. These funds can be used not only for private and parochial school tuition but also costs of home schooling and “microschools.’’

Much of the debate surrounded whether lawmakers should be putting more money into the public-school system rather than diverting cash to provide alternatives.

Boyer said, though, it’s unfair to tell students who are not getting their needs met now in public schools that they have to wait until some yet-to-be-determined additional cash is provided.

Drew Anderson, pastor of Legacy Christian Center Church in South Phoenix, said the financial aspects of kids trapped in public schools must be put in perspective, stating, “Here we are in 2022 and we have school districts that don’t want to let those

see VOUCHERS page 15

Legislature voted to override it.

Shortly after that, voters approved Proposition 301 to fund performance pay and teacher compensation focused on the classroom. Funds collected were exempt from the spending cap, with verbiage included specifically referring to the “voterinitiated ballot.”

When it was ready to expire, lawmakers voted to continue the tax but it lost its spending cap exemption because it wasn’t approved by voters.

“Those dollars coming in from prop 301 are the number one issue driving the districts to the aggregate limit,” explained Thompson.

The next change driving the current crisis traces to 2016-17, when Arizona changed the way school funding was calculated. Previously, the formula was based on the number of students enrolled in a district during the previous school year As of 2016-17, however, the calculation has been based on enrollment during the first 100 days of the current year.

“That leaves us with a much more volatile situation,” said Thompson – especially in a year when enrollment has undergone radical swings due to the pandemic.

In 2020-21, enrollment in public schools throughout the state was drastically re-

see SPENDING page 15

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

KOTSUR from page 1

bor International Airport.

Among the crowd was his brother Brian, a retired deputy chief of the Mesa Fire & Medical Department.

Brian said his brother had worked his whole life to get to this point and that it is an honor to be his brother, knowing what he’s been through and the commitment he’s made to his career.

“If you have a passion for something, keep working for it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what limitations you have.”

Troy’s daughter has watched him act her entire life and said he’s been working hard to get to the point where he is a so close to receiving the highest award given in his profession..

“We’re just really proud of him,” Kyra said. “He’s really getting his big break and it’s just one of the best feelings ever.”

Troy Kotsur recalled how he once watched Matlin’s performance in “Children of a Lesser God” with his friends and told them back then that he would act with her one day.

He said his friends laughed and called it impossible.

“Now I can tell my old friends: 'hey, who’s laughing now?'”

“I feel like turning to the camera and saying ‘hello, look at me now, I’m working with her. Oh, excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work.’”

Kotsur said he met Matlin from time to time during his early years of acting on stage in Los Angeles, where he eventually went to live, and that her Oscar gave him hope.

He had graduated from Westwood High School that same year and went on to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., but dropped out when he got a job with the National Theater of the Deaf.

He moved to Los Angeles’ Deaf West Theater, where he met his wife, DeAnne Bray, star of the show “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye.” The couple became parents when Kyra was born in 2005.

“I want the deaf community to feel hope and that there’s no one who can

Troy Kotsur was greeted by his wife DeAnne and daughter Kyra at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday. (Josh Ortega/Tribune Staff) take their dreams away, and it’s up to you to make them happen,” said Kotsur, who started acting at age 12 at the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf but didn’t make it on stage until he transferred to Westwood High.

His first movie was the 2016 family

drama “Wild Prairie Rose.” He plays opposite Tara Samuel, who falls in love with his small-town deaf character James Hansen.

His newfound fame from “CODA” is a culmination of hard work and patience as he played smaller roles in big-name

In “CODA,” Mesa Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin play deaf parents to a teen who can hear.

Matlin is the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award. (Special to the Tribune)

TV shows such as “CSI: New York,” “Criminal Minds” and “Scrubs.”

He said many of his roles have come via networking with the right people from past productions.

Such was the case with the director of “Wild Prairie Rose,” Deborah LaVine, whom he worked with on stage in “Streetcar Named Desire” and “True West.”

“If you’re an actor, it’s really great to have a network because if they like working with you, and if you’re responsible and committed, they’ll ask you again to work with you.”

Kotsur doesn’t limit his talents to just in front of the camera, as he has experience directing movies as well.

His first big break behind the camera came when he directed the 2013 dramedy “No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie” – the story of a deaf actor who plays a superhero on TV and must look beyond his show role to inspire a deaf boy to believe in himself.

As the first deaf actor to be nominated for a SAG Award – which he called “like getting a Ph.D.” because those only actors and actresses make the nominations – Kotsur told the Hollywood Reporter, “I’m so glad that they recognized me – not because I’m deaf but because I’m a talented actor.”

He recalled watching the premier of “CODA” at the Phoenix Film Festival last year and told Hollywood Reporter, “I saw several deaf people in the audience, and I saw hearing people in the audience – it was a very mixed crowd. I saw everyone, at the same time, have a reaction, whether they were laughing or whether they were having an emotional moment. It’s not often I’ve seen that.

“When I grew up with my hearing family members watching a film in the theater, the hearing people would react and laugh first, but as a deaf audience member, I would miss what was said, and [my family] would then have to explain it to me.”

While Kotsur has taken the long road to Hollywood, he still holds true to his Mesa roots and calls the city “home base.”

“I really miss my hometown. Go Suns.” ■

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Fred Arnett named new East Mesa JP

TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

T

he Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Fred Arnett the new Justice of the Peace for the East Mesa Justice Precinct.

Fred Arnett comes to the job with plenty of experience, having worked at 14 different justice courts.

“Fred Arnett’s extensive experience assisting the public in criminal and civil matters make him a natural fit for this office,”

said District 2 Supervisor Thomas Galvin, whose district includes the East Mesa Judicial Precinct. “His reputation for managing high-priority assignments will help ensure efficiency to our court system’s workflow.”

Arnett is a seasoned, performance-driven judicial officer with more than 20 years of experience with Maricopa County Justice Courts. Previously, Arnett served as Justice of the Peace for West Mesa and wants to continue serving the people of Mesa.

Arnett replaces Judge Keith Russell, who retired last December. Since Russell was a Republican, state law required the board to appoint another Republican to fill his position until the next election. The appointee is also required to be a registered Arizona voter who lives within the precinct.

Arnett will fulfill the remainder of the current term, which runs through the end of December 2022 and will have to seek a four-year term this November if he wants to stick around. ■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

JUSTICE FRED ARNETT

Dobson Library closes for major renovation

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

Once it reopens, the 35-year-old Dobson Ranch Library will have an updated look. (City of

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or the first time since its opening in 1987, the Dobson Ranch Library has closed for 30 days and undergo major renovations.

The library renovations are funded by $1.5 million from the Parks and Culture Bonds approved by Mesa voters in 2018.

City officials said the library is expected to reopen in March, but construction won’t

be completed until August.

“We hope it’s always a busy spot,” Anna Mathews said.

Mathews has worked with the city since January 2018 and witnessed the project from its inception.

“It’s kind of nice to be a part of it all the way through the process,” she said.

When construction is complete, the library will add 1,600 square feet to the li-

see DOBSON page 14

13

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Faith leaders want Super Bowl moved from Arizona

BY JEREMIAH SOSA Cronkite News

F

aith leaders from around the country are calling for the NFL to move the 2023 Super Bowl out of Arizona, citing several bills they characterize as voter suppression.

“We all would love for Arizona to see that kind of revenue, to bring that many people here to invest in our state, but I think there are times where you can’t remain silent, and this is the time where money has to not supersede morality,” said the Rev. Dontá McGilvery, pastor of Outreach and Justice at First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix.

“We have to show that money cannot be more important than people,” McGilvery said. “And right now, the most important thing is voting rights and how our government is restricting that.”

The Rev. Stephen A. Green, Chair of Faith for Black Lives in New York, created a petition addressed to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calling for Super Bowl LVII to be moved from Arizona, which is scheduled for Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale. It now has over 200 signatures from faith leaders, including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., and Bishop William Barber II. “As the NFL has recently considered relocating Super Bowl LVII because of COVID-19, we, as faith leaders, ask you to consider relocating Super Bowl LVII from Arizona because of another disease: the disease of racism, and particularly, its symptom of voter suppression,” the petition said.

The bills in question include SB 1003 would limit the amount of time voters have to fix a signature on a mail-in ballot, and SB 1485, which would remove voters from the Permanent Early Voting List of people who automatically receive mail-in ballots if they failed to vote in consecutive election cycles.

Of the 200-plus signatures from faith leaders, 36 live in Arizona. One is the Rev. Aubrey L. Barnwell, a pastor at First New Life Church in Phoenix.

“The reason I signed (the petition) was because of the persistence we have to go through to actually get visibility and to realize how critical it is for those of us who are in leadership, specifically faith and the connection between voting rights and

The last time the Super Bowl landed in Arizona was 2015 and Phoenix rolled out the red carpet. (Cronkite file photo by Aimee Cash) people having access to the polls,” Barnwell said.

However, Barnwell, along with the other faith leaders in Arizona who signed the petition, have seen a major pushback from those who want to keep the Super Bowl in Arizona, in large part due to the significant economic impact that the event would provide to the Phoenix metropolitan area.

During the 2015 Super Bowl, which was held in Glendale, the greater Phoenix area saw a $719 million economic impact, according to a study from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.

That was up over $200 million from the $500 million the area saw during the 2008 Super Bowl.

This is familiar territory for Arizonans.

In 1993, Arizona was set to be the home of Super Bowl XXVII, an event that was estimated to generate between $200 million to $250 million in economic revenue for the state.

However, after Arizona voters failed to approve a 1990 proposition that would have made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state paid holiday, the NFL and its commissioner at the time, Paul Tagliabue, decided to move the game from Tempe to Pasadena, California.

A spokesperson for Gov. Doug Ducey released a statement that said, “The benefits, both direct and indirect, for businesses large and small are tremendous. It’s an opportunity to put Arizona on full display

across the country. It is unfathomable why anyone would want to deny Arizona these benefits and this opportunity. … To call on the NFL to not bring the Super Bowl to Arizona over a bill that may not get out of

committee is beyond belief.”

In 2021, Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star game out of Atlanta and moved it to Denver due to what some said was a restrictive voting law against people of color in Georgia.

That decision was inspiration for Green when he was creating his petition.

“It definitely inspired it in understanding that sporting teams and sporting corporations have a role to play in protecting our democracy,” he said. “Major League Baseball’s move to suddenly move the AllStar game from Georgia I think suggests that it is possible to move the Super Bowl game from Arizona.”

When asked if he expects the NFL to respond to the petition, Green said, “We do.

You know, we will continue to escalate our ask, and our movement until they do.”

Part of Green’s plan to escalate his movement is to hold a rally called “I Love Democracy” on Feb. 14 in Glendale.

“We will hold a press conference in a rally to prove how serious we are about this effort to move the Super Bowl from Arizona,” Green said. ■

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NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

SuperBowl bets in Arizona could top $120M

BY GABE SWARTZ Cronkite News

S

hortly after the final seconds ticked off the clock at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to wrap up the NFL’s conference championship weekend, wagering on today’s Super Bowl LVI matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals opened for bettors across the country.

The nearly endless opportunities for wagering on the big game are now available for the first time, at least legally, to Arizona gamblers.

The Rams are a 4.5-point favorite on most sports gambling platforms, and the over-under (predicted combined score) for the game is 48.5 points.

However, depending on the platform, bettors can also choose from proposition – or “prop” – bets that range from the time it will take country music star Mickey Guyton to sing the national anthem to the color of the sports drink that will be dumped on the winning coach’s head.

With Arizona’s quick growth in sports betting playing a role, one expert said it

could be a historic Super Bowl for sports bookmaking operations. PlayUSA, a media service that provides updates and analysis on the sports gambling landscape across the nation, projects that as much as $1 billion in bets could be placed on the game.

“The market as a whole has grown really tremendously throughout 2021,” said Eric Ramsey, market analyst lead for PlayUSA. While Las Vegas’ hold on the market helps Nevada lead the way in projected handle, Arizona is quickly becoming a player.

PlayUSA’s projections rank Arizona sixth in projected wagers among the 30 states with some form of legal sports betting, trailing only Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania. BetArizona.com estimated that $80-120 million in bets could be placed on the Super Bowl in the state.

“I think people in Arizona got their feet wet. They dipped their toes in at the beginning of the season,” said C.J. Pierre, lead writer for PlayAZ.com.

Legalized sports gambling began in Arizona on Sept. 9, opening day of the 2021 NFL season.

“They’ve had a chance to get used to all the sports betting apps, get used to the retail sportsbooks and now with the Super Bowl on the horizon – I think they are primed and ready to get in on Super Bowl betting action,” Pierre said.

Nevada’s lack of mobile betting – something Ramsey expects to change in the near future – is also opening a window of opportunity for growth in Arizona, where he believes the overall sports gambling experience is more enjoyable than in Nevada for now.

“As we look across any state, the No. 1 indicator of success is the availability of online betting,” Ramsey said. “Just having online betting means that a state will produce about 10 times as much revenue as a state that only has in-person betting.”

When the Super Bowl returns to Glendale next year, Super Bowl LVII will become the first championship game played by the league in a state that offers legal wagering.

And the Cardinals were to become the third consecutive home team to host and play in the game, Pierra said, “I think it will be the perfect storm to really establish

where sports betting is in Arizona.”

“The Cardinals were the most bet-on NFL team here in the state,” he said. “To have a team play in their home stadium while that state has legal sports betting, I can’t even fathom how much betting we would see.”

The addition of unconventional prop bets through some sportsbooks and apps has only increased interest in Super Bowl betting, but Ramsey warns fans to be wary of such wagers.

“If you’re looking to make money from a sportsbook, you’re probably best keeping it simple and betting on the game itself,” Ramsey said. “Generally speaking, they’ll go as far as regulators will allow them to. If you let an operator offer a market on something, they will try to offer that for sure.”

“Always make sure that you only bet what you’re willing to afford to lose. Betting is a recreational activity,” Pierre said.

“How much money would you spend on a night out with your girlfriend or wife?

That’s the kind of mindset that people who are new to sports betting should really take on.” ■

printing and more.

Musical performers will celebrate music-making, and food will be available at and near the event, including the Elote Man food truck, nearby restaurants, and Novel Ice Cream and The Organic Bean Café just north of the festival site.

Except for some special workshop programs offered throughout the day at HeatSync Labs, a hacker space at 108 W. Main St., a half block west of the festival site, all activities are outdoors. Booths will be spaced further apart than usual to enable people to distance from others more easily.

Musical performances will be provided from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. by youth engaged

in programs at Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center in Mesa, including some of the award winners from the organization’s annual Proof Is In The Pudding music competition.

The Arizona Museum of Natural History and i.d.e.a. Museum will offer half-off admission fees that day. i.d.e.a. Museum’s special exhibition is Imagine, Design, Build, which enables makers young and old to immerse themselves in architecture and the art of building. Arizona Museum of Natural History, known as “the dinosaur museum,” also features anthropology, geology and more.

The eighth annual festival is easily

reachable from the Center Street or Country Club stops on Valley Metro Light Rail, and there is plenty of free parking nearby.

The “maker” movement is booming in the U.S., with large events held annually in New York, the Bay Area, and numerous other major metropolitan areas.

“Southwest Maker Fest celebrates makers, innovation and creativity, and builds upon the growing do-it-yourself movement and a thirst for active experiences,” a city spokesman said.

Organizers have developed SWMF to build on our state’s strength as a fertile location for new ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. ■

Maker Fest next Saturday in downtown Mesa TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

T

he eighth annual Southwest Maker Fest will bring a variety of exhibitors to downtown Mesa next Saturday.

The free festival, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 19, will largely occur along Macdonald Street north of Main Street, where visitors can explore art, science and technology, sustainability and fun hands-on learning, from Lego creations to casting fossils to 3D printing.

Exhibitors will include a wide variety of creative activities, including fiber arts, virtual reality demos, glass flameworking, tear-apart electronics, painting, t-shirt

DOBSON from page 12

brary footprint primarily for the branch’s own THINKspot makerspace that the other library locations offer.

To utilize certain equipment, patrons will have to pass online training quizzes on how to use the equipment, sign a liability waiver, and agree to the library’s

guidelines.

But the good news is patrons can complete these steps at a different library and then utilize the equipment available at the Dobson Ranch location.

Some of the equipment patrons of the Dobson Ranch location have to look forward to include a 3D printer, sewing machines, and a studio with lighting equip-

ment and a green screen for special effects.

Mathews said the space may be slightly smaller than the other THINKspot locations but it will offer the same space for community innovation and networking.

“There will be things in that room that will speak to people in different ways,” she said.

The library was originally built in 1987 and the façade has remained the same

since the initial construction.

The renovated façade will offer greater visibility and convenience for library users, according to the city’s website.

Mathews said the final decision for the design was approved by the city, but the library and the public had some say in it as well.

“We had a lot to say in what it was going to look like.” ■

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

VOUCHERS from page 8

Black bodies go because there’s money attached to those Black bodies.’’

Anderson brushed aside questions about the lack of accountability in the use of these public funds as there is no requirement for students in these programs to take the same achievement tests as students in public schools. He said the only thing that counts is that students are graduating from high school and, for many, getting the opportunity to go on to college.

Ron Johnson who lobbies on behalf of the state’s three Catholic bishops, also spoke in support, speaking of the 23 Catholic schools in the Tucson diocese and 35 in the Phoenix diocese. “This will help many more children attend the school that best addresses their needs,’’ he said.

Jim Swanson, CEO of the Kitchell Corp., did not dispute that some students are not getting the education they need in public schools. But he said that putting more dollars into vouchers is not the answer.

“I’m a firm believer in funding the 93% of our students, of our kids, that go to public education,’’ Kitchell said.

“So instead of taking money out of our public education system, why not, as Sen. Marsh suggested, invest where the real problem is, and that is poverty?’’ he continued, citing links between students who come from low-income homes and academic achievement. And Kitchell said that could be accomplished by giving schools

SPENDING from page 8

duced due to COVID. In 2021-22, Thompson noted, “Over half [the students we lost] have returned, which is very exciting. But what has happened is that last year’s counts have created a smaller amount per formula for the aggregate limit. And then this year’s count is pushing us to a larger budget, which is now exceeding the limit.”

“It’s very important to note that no taxes would change because of this,” he said.

If the Legislature fails to act prior to March 1, MPS governing board clerk Dr. Joe O’Reilly pointed out that the district has some money from other sources that could possibly be used.

“Unfortunately, $74 million, even with a lot of our other resources, would be difficult to try to backfill,” Thompson said.

“Do I think we could, without federal dollars, get to $74 million?” he continued.

more money based on the number of poor students they have The idea of more funding drew questions from Sen. Rick Gray, R-Sun City. He said that Utah students do better academically and with fewer dollars. And Gray suggested to Kitchell that he needs to think more like the businessman he is.

Kitchell said he can’t tell lawmakers how much it would take to properly fund public schools.

“But I do know we have 2,000 vacant teaching positions,’’ he said, with people not wanting to become teachers and others leaving the classroom. “So that tells me you’re not giving people a job they want.’’

That question of how much publicschool funding is enough also bothered Sen. Tyler Pace, R-Mesa, comparing it to the computer game of Tetris where colored blocks keep coming.

“You can never win,’’ he said, saying that whatever lawmakers allocate is never enough. Pace said that vouchers, while not for everyone, can and should be used “prudently.’’

Beth Lewis, co-founder of Save Our Schools Arizona, said lawmakers were ignoring what Arizonans want.

She cited 2017 legislation that could have made all students eligible for voucher programs. But when her organization referred it to the ballot in 2018 it was rejected by a margin of nearly 2-1.

The measure now needs approval of the full Senate. ■

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. We would definitely spend every dime of everything we could. But we want to keep the schools open. We want to be operating in any way, shape, or form we can, so we’ll keep looking at those possibilities.”

“We need to be innovative and creative as we talk about other programs with keeping the schools open,” reiterated O’Reilly. “And if that means we have to meet extra criteria to spend the money; if the day after the schools close, we open schools that allow students to regain their lost learning and it just happens to look like what they’re doing now, so be it.

“We are blessed with how much money we’ve got. We have options other [districts] don’t. But I totally agree that this is a political legislative issue that really needs to be addressed there, and we shouldn’t be playing games with this.”

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this report. ■

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Mesa woman helps feed hungry local children

BY NICHOLAS JOHNSEN Cronkite News

J

oan Leafman spent much of her life as a medical researcher – teaching in a doctoral program, presenting studies at conferences and publishing research.

“But there comes a point in your life,” she said, “where you don’t want to talk – you want to do.”

For Leafman, that moment came when her daughter, Corbin Leafman, 30, died of breast cancer. Corbin taught kindergarten at Title 1 schools, working with children from low-income families, and she made it her mission to ensure that no child went hungry.

“She very specifically asked to be remembered by how she lived, and not why she died,” Leafman said of her daughter.

Inspired by Corbin’s resolve, Leafman founded Corbin’s Legacy in 2015 to help reduce food and medical insecurity

among underserved schoolchildren. The Mesa organization runs such programs as Food for Thought, delivering meals to kids in classrooms, and Weekend Food Warriors, which send backpacks of food home with children and parents on Fridays.

In July 2020, Corbin’s Legacy delivered its two-millionth meal to a family in need.

But providing meals isn’t the only way the charity aims to help children. In partnership with A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, Corbin’s Legacy opened the Simon Clinic at Emerson Elementary School in Mesa to provide health care to children right on school grounds.

The clinic, named for Dr. Harvey Simon, a public health pediatrician and professor at A.T. Still, provides physical exams, eye checks and dental screening to about 25 students daily, Mondays through Thursdays.

see SIMON page 18

Joan Leafman was inspired by her daughter, Corbin, left, to launch a foundation to help underserved children. Corbin Leafman, a teacher, died of breast cancer at age 30 (Courtesy

of Joan Leafman)

Gilbert man motivated for Arizona AIDS Walk TRIBUNE STAFF REPORT

S

ince Lorenzo Garza of Gilbert participated in his first AIDS Walk nearly 20 years ago in San Antonio. So much has changed, both for him and for society’s acceptance and understanding of the impact of HIV and AIDS. What hasn’t changed, and what continues to motivate him in his inaugural Arizona AIDS Walk & 5K Fun Run on Saturday, Feb. 19, at Tempe Beach Park is the memory of his brother David.

“My brother died of AIDS in 1989 at the height of the pandemic and he’s who I think about,” Garza said. “He died a week before is 23rd birthday. I was a 17-yearold junior in high school and it had a significant impact.”

Not just in the heartbreaking loss of his brother, but in coming to grips with a fact in his life that so many young men and women still battle with.

Gilbert Resident Lorenzo Garza, left, finds motivation for next Saturday’s Arizona AIDS Walk in the fact that his older brother, David, died of the disease. (Special to The Tribune) “I’m a gay male and his death pushed me deeper into the closet because I was

afraid of what my potential fate would be because of that,” he said.

Garza pushed through that closet door just before turning 30. That door is now permanently closed.

“I just knew I wasn’t being myself,” he said. “I was at a point where I needed to be my authentic true self, whatever that meant, whatever the consequences.”

The first hurdle was telling his parents.

“I was so terrified of that, but once they knew and once they came to terms with it, I moved forward.”

That forward motion will serve him well as he negotiates the 5K run at this year’s event. Proceeds from the 2022 AIDS Walk & 5K Fun Run will directly benefit Aunt Rita’s Foundation’s 14 partner agencies providing critical HIV services including testing, treatment, behavioral health, housing and prevention, among others.

Garza carries an even stronger connection this year as his employer, Carvana, is

see AIDS page 18

18

COMMUNITY

SIMON from page 17

Simon said the classroom-turned-clinic allows children to receive consistent, episodic care.

“I suggested to Dr. Leafman that we do something on-site at the school, because that’s where the children are,” he said. “I believe very strongly that coming to the schools and coming to where the children are is the best way of reaching them.”

Open-access, community-based health care is a service that Simon has worked toward since his first days in medicine.

During his pediatric residency at a maternal and child health center in the Bronx in New York City, Simon spent much of his time out in the communities that he cared for, speaking with teachers and meeting patients where they were.

“Providing care like that is a very different experience for everyone,” he said. “It’s fun for the doctors, but it’s wonderful for the patients. When they’re more comfortable, you have a much more relaxed interaction with them.”

Simon said providing community-embedded care is an objective of A.T. Still University, which partners with Corbin’s Legacy to staff the Emerson Elementary clinic.

Medical school professors recruit their students to receive hands-on experience.

“We like to give them responsibility,”

AIDS from page 17

a major sponsor. Garza, 49, is Carvana’s senior manager for vendor relationships.

“I could not be prouder that our company is participating,” he said. “We want people to know that Carvana cares about everyone, including those impacted by HIV and AIDS.” Even with the progress in preventing and addressing HIV, Garza said, “I don’t want people to forget that this is a moment in history to continue to fight until

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Medicine. She’s also an assistant professor and family practice physician assistant.

To Kiselyk, the Simon Clinic offers students a break from classroom lectures and the chance to get some real-world experience.

“It’s just a great opportunity, as the professor helping facilitate these students, seeing their growth, seeing them do physicals and exams, and helping bridge that gap of access to health care.

It’s very important,” she said.

Hispanics represented 53% of Emerson’s 814 students in the 2020-2021 school year. Nationally, Latinos have generally increased health risks and less access to health care.

The Brookings InstituJoan Leafman founded Corbin’s Legacy in 2015 to help tion in September 2020 reduce food and medical insecurity among underserved found that Latinos are at a schoolchildren in Mesa. (Mingson Lau/Cronkite News) 66% greater risk of develophe said. “It’s very fulfilling to see the ing Type 2 diabetes, and once diagnosed, next generation of medical providers they have worse outcomes than non-Hiscoming along.” panic white individuals.

Those recruitment efforts are led by AnThe same report indicates that Latinos gie Kiselyk, director of physician assistant have less access to health care, and 1 in 4 admissions at the School of Osteopathic have no health insurance. The COVID-19 HIV is cured. I’m so happy that it is no longer a death sentence for many people.

“Looking back at videos, documentaries and pictures, it was a terrible time.

Today, it’s a different story. I know many people living with HIV and I stay involved because knowledge is power and people need to know.”

AIDS Walk Arizona and 5K Fun Run is the largest gathering in Arizona to support people living with HIV and raise community awareness. The AIDS Walk registration tent and the vendor village open

at 1 p.m. The walk and run will start at 3 p.m. Information and registration forms can be found at aidswalkaz.org.

Co-chairs are Regina Gazelle Wells, who overcame serious struggles with substance abuse to become a committed trans activist and advocate for trans individuals affected by homelessness, substance abuse and HIV, and Elijah Palles, whose drag stage name is Eddie Broadway. He is Mr. Trans USA 2020.

Registration fees are $20 for students, $35 for individual walkers, $35 for virtual

pandemic has made things that much harder: About 37% of Latinos have had someone in their household lose employer-provided health insurance benefits due to the economic downturn that began in March 2020.

The Simon Clinic is attempting to address these disparities through a policy of not turning anyone away. If patients need further medical treatment, the clinic refers them to Adelante Healthcare, a community health center with locations across Maricopa County that offers affordable payment options and discounts depending on income.

Student health is a priority of Emerson Elementary Principal Christel Arbogast, who recognized a need for screening services. “We wanted them to have the opportunity to visit a doctor, even when they were healthy, to get some baseline data,” she said.

Arbogast said the clinic has even helped with attendance rates. Screening for such conditions as asthma or eczema, and connecting students with treatment, can increase their overall comfort in the learning environment.

It’s that tangible change that motivates Leafman to continue her work.

“I feed children, and I make sure that we take care of them medically,” she said.

“It’s not complicated. You just do it. ■

walkers and $45 for runners. Fees include an AIDS Walk shirt and sponsor swag.

Registration for PAWS for the Cause for walkers bringing their dogs, is $10 and includes a PAWS for the Cause bandana.

KIDS for the Cause (12 and under) can participate for free, but registration is required and they must be accompanied by an adult. Registration includes and AIDS Walk shirt and Kids for the Cause swag from the AIDS Walk vendor village.

Information on Aunt Rita’s Foundation: auntritas.org. ■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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Schnepf Farms home developer has eye on the future

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor

R

ichard Felker keeps one eye on the ground and the other on the future.

If that seems like an exaggeration, consider his track record.

From managing and owning two family businesses in Milwaukee in the 1970s – one that sold furniture and the other that ran coin-operated washers and dryers – Felker started signing up university dormitories and apartment buildings for the latter.

“I would call on apartment developers to get them to sign a lease with me put my laundry equipment into their buildings,” he recalled. “And that led me to say to myself, ‘Well, why don’t I try and get involved in real estate? So I became an entrepreneur who said, ‘well, let’s build a couple of buildings and see how it goes.’”

How it went is this: Felker sits atop The Empire Group, a Scottsdale company that over 40 years has accumulated more than $1.5 billion in assets and built a legacy of commercial, single family and multifamily residential and industrial development.

Now, he is riding the wave of a multibillion trend that experts say will radically change the single-family housing landscape forever.

Empire’s announcement in December that it will build 144 single-family rental homes on 14 acres of Schnepf Farms – the celebrated Queen Creek agrotainment venue best known for its peach festivals and annual October Pumpkin and Chili Party – was just the latest in a series of build-to-rent communities Empire has on the drawing board, already is building or has finished.

The company’s first was the Village at Harvard, a nearly fully occupied 184-home community in Goodyear. Then there’s the 208-home Village at Olive Marketplace in Glendale that’s 65% leased and 50% occupied. A 194-home community is rising at Camelback Road and 107th Street, as is a 180-home development in Avondale along with the 272-home Village at Paseo de Le Luces in Tolleson.

The Village at Schnepf Farms is the company’s seventh in the Valley and one of 21

see FELKER page 22

Developer Richard Felker has a firm footing in a growing trend in new-home construction: building houses not to sell them but to rent them.

(Courtesy of Empire Group)

Mesa trampoline park hopping with fun

BY DANA TRUMBULL Tribune Staff Writer

Nikki Schachtel and Rob Genet own Krazy Air Trampoline Park in Mesa. (David Minton/

Tribune Staff Photographer)

T

he only thing “up in the air” at Krazy Air Trampoline Park is kids.

And with 28,000 square feet filled wall-to-wall with trampolines, foam pits, aerial silks, jousting, slam dunk basketball, dodge ball, a ninja course and more at the park, 4310 E. McDowell Road, Mesa, the kids will stay there for hours.

Even the floors between sections are spongy soft, so wherever a child lands between jumps, it will be kid-friendly.

Perhaps the best part about the park,

though, is that, while their kids play, parents have the option to hang out in the comfortable lobby chatting with friends, playing on their phone, or getting some work done online using the free wi-fi.

They can head to the “as quiet as it gets here” area to relax in massage chairs, or they can tap into their inner child and jump with the kids. They can even go run errands or indulge in a date-night dinner, while the young-at-heart staff at Krazy Air watch and play games with the kids.

Every jumper must have a waiver on

see KRAZY AIR page 26

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

22

FELKER from page 21

projects in a market area stretching from Casa Grande to Prescott.

And it’s hardly the last as Felker eyes not only further expansion of build-torent single-family homes in Arizona but in other states by the end of 2022.

That expansion is extending a footprint that Felker began making in the Phoenix region not long after he came to the Valley for a vacation in the 1970s.

By the 1980s, he had become “the land guy” to homebuilder Geoffrey Edmonds and Associates and together, “We built $700 million or $800 million worth of homes in Gainey Ranch and Scottsdale Ranch,” Felker said.

Over time, Empire has become just that – an empire of almost every conceivable kind of development you can imagine, even including self-storage facilities.

“I try to be on the cutting edge of something new,” he said, crediting the company’s growth as well to his two partners, Geoffrey Jacobs and Randy Grudzinski.

That cutting edge includes several highrise apartment buildings that helped to reinvent downtown Phoenix in much the same way that Marquette University reinvented downtown Milwaukee more than two decades ago, Felker said.

“I had seen what Marquette University did to downtown Milwaukee over a 20year period and it just blossomed because of the university,” said Felker, who added to that blossom a 27-story apartment building overlooking Lake Michigan.

“With ASU and the bio stuff downtown,” he said, “I just figured it was going to be the same kind of thing happening here.

And so, we went ahead and we took a bunch of risks to do those couple of downtown projects.”

He added that Jacobs “was really responsible for seeing the high-rise opportunity in downtown Phoenix.”

Felker stressed that kind of risk-taking isn’t just a matter of having that rare vision that builders possess. And it explains why he’s jumped into the build-to-rent market with both feet.

“It does come kind of naturally and intuitively. But it’s all based on data that you gain with being around in this industry for a long time. In the downturn, we bought houses and rented them. In this market and in many other markets, we’re just trying to stay ahead and this asset class of these single-family build-to-rent homes

their 60s, their 70s.

Our first project had three or four 80-yearo l d s and two 90-yearold people.

It appeals to everybody because there’s nobody living next to you, nobody living above you or below you. It’s your own space.

Empire Group’s The Village at Schnepf Farms will offer 144 rental homes on 14 acres And you h a v e of the iconic Queen Creek farm known for its agrotainment. (Tribune file photo) a little back yard.” just appeals to everyone.

And it comes maintenance-free as the “If you look at our rental base of people who move into this kind of product, they’re people who move into one of those buildin their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, their 50s, to-rent homes simply call the on-site

Besides rental homes, Empire Group also has built hi-rise apartment buildings, including the 312-unit, 19-story Phoenix building called The Stewart, located on the former site of the Stewart Motor Company, which was built in the 1940’s as Phoenix’s original Studebaker dealership. (Special to the Tribune)

maintenance crew if there’s a problem – no different from calling the custodian in an apartment building.

Florida-based housing economist Brad Hunter said build-to-rent not only appeals to consumers who desire a “lock-andleave” lifestyle in their home base but also to investors.

“Investors seeking yield are having difficulty finding enough built homes to buy,” Hunter says on his website. “So, they are shifting more attention to ‘ground-up’ development of brand-new rental homes.”

He told the Wall Street Journal last June that by the end of 2022, investors already will have ponied up $40 billion in that trend.

His analysis of eight markets across the country showed that the Phoenix area is possibly ground zero for that growth, with 3,920 build-to-rent houses completed in 2020 and another 4,259 coming on board last year. The next biggest isn’t that close: In Dallas/Fort Worth, Hunter reported, 2,580 rental homes were built in 2020 and 2,906 last year.

In a five-year production forecast, Hunter predicts that even as the number of new BTR houses hits 180,000 units nationally by 2025, “overall demand for rental homes still exceeds production.”

Hunter believes that the number of buildto-rent houses will account for 12 percent of all new houses by 2024. Taylor Morrison, the nation’s fifth-largest homebuilder, says that percentage eventually could reach half of all new single-family homes.

And the commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop notes, “The rapidly growing BFR market will continue expanding as more residents prefer to rent single-family homes with yards and upscale amenities on a long-term basis.”

Empire approaches the construction of its build-for-rent communities with the same care and attention to detail and a traditional homebuilder would bring to the table.

With the Queen Creek development, for example, owners Mark and Carrie Schnepf “kind of interviewed” Felker about his vision before signing a deal with Empire, recalling how they told him, “’We don’t want something that doesn’t look good’” because of their popular and widely-visited agrotainment attractions.

“We actually did some charrettes and spent a lot of time with Mark and his wife on coming up with what the architecture

see FELKER page 26

BUSINESS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

23

Chandler woman gives birth to her retail dream

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor

E

rin Dragoo made it out of school before COVID-19 hit.

With a degree from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the Chandler woman had her sights set on a career in web design and social media studies.

But she also helped out at her motherin-law’s 4-year-old Ocotillo boutique called Judy Wear.

That experience gave her the retailer bug – and that itch blossomed last week into the grand opening of her own store, Lunch Money at 2430 S. Gilbert Road, Chandler.

The store reflects a certain nostalgia that Dragoo has to the 1990s. Though born in 1990, she explained, “Fanny packs, baby tees, butterfly clips, oversized scrunchies, chokers, printed leggings – it just brings back some nostalgia for me.”

Hence, she said her “entire store is curated” with an inventory that “took me three months of heavy research and online shopping.”

“It’s carefully selected to ensure that everything goes together, that everything is fun, that nothing is basic or ordinary,” Dragoo explained, stating that she also looks for handmade items to sell because “they make the most unique gifts for both the people we love and ourselves.”

So, Lunch Money brims with a variety of handmade wares: clay and resin earrings and hair clips, concrete phone holders, photo holders and soap dishes, hand-mixed confetti packets, candles, hand-painted blankets, sage bundles and incense burners, resin bottle openers and wine glass holders, dried flower arrangements, wood flowers and wall hangings, paper maché bowls and animal head wall hangings “and some really cool art prints.”

“I will say that I’m very picky,” Dragoo said. “I’ve had a few artists approach me about carrying their product and I’ve turned them down because it doesn’t go with the Lunch Money vibe. Of course, I also carry bigger brands like ban.do and Erin Condren because I have always loved their products, and I never dreamed that I would be able to sell them.”

There are also tarot cards, funny greeting cards, planners and “so many cute gift items.”

Erin Dragoo last week cut the ribbon at the grand opening of her new Chandler store, called Lunch Money.

(David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

Dragoo’s playful approach – reflected even in her grand opening last week, when she cut a ribbon with giant pink scissors – also extends to the way she decorated Lunch Money: wild black-and-white floor tile, bright green walls and a flower wall for selfies.

A Tucson native who has lived in Chandler for more than 10 years, Dragoo makes no secret of how working in Judy Wear at

950 E. Riggs Road for more than three years only deepened her desire to run her own shop.

“I began by helping her build her logo and brand identity,” she recalled. “Then I created her website and became her social media girl, posting every day for three years. But somewhere in there, I decided that I wanted to be a bigger part of her shop, so I also became the jewelry buyer.

Erin Dragoo decorated and stocked her new store, called Lunch Money, in an eclectic way that to some degree reflects her nostalgia for the 1990s. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

And I found that I loved doing that, more than I loved building websites and creating social media content.

“I loved creating the displays and finding different ways to show off our product. I would find myself going to Judy Wear Boutique after hours just to change everything up. It was my play time, my happy place.”

After working there so long, she said, “I was just starting to feel a little unfulfilled.”

“I wanted something that resembled me, something all my own. My close friend, Alisa Moreno, sent me the Instagram page for a tiny little shop in San Diego called Simon Limon, owned by Alexandra Scarlett Perez Demma, and I just fell in love. I was inspired. I wanted my own Simon Limon.

So I just decided to go for it.”

As for the store’s name, that also is somewhat nostalgic for Dragoo.

“When I was in high school, my mom would give me $20 at the beginning of each week for lunch and expect that it would last until Friday,” she explained. “I never did use that money to buy lunch. Instead, I would take it to the mall and spend it on little knick knacks and clothes. That brought me so much more joy than eating lunch ever did. So, my store sells everything that I would want to spend my lunch money on. It’s a compilation of everything that I love.”

Now that she has opened, Dragoo has an interesting take on competition.

“I’m not nervous about competing with the big chain stores,” she said. “I love the big chain stores. I think that just being a small business is a competitive edge in itself. I have found that more people want to support local businesses than chain stores as long as they provide the right product and excellent customer service. And I know that I have both of those going for me.

“I’m also confident in the uniqueness of my products, like the handmade earrings and other goodies — you won’t see that at Target or any of the department stores.

Also, Lunch Money is an experience. It’s almost sensory overload. It’s an absolute joy to come into my store; it’s more than just shopping. …Everything is bright and fun. Customers will always see me when they walk in and we’ll get to know each other, making it a much more intimate shopping experience.”

Information: lunchmoneyaz.com, 480622-4220.

24

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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BUSINESS

KRAZY AIR from page 21

file, complete with contact information, so if parents are needed, staff can quickly reach them.

When Krazy Air opened in December 2014, owners Rob and Melissa Genet were new to the business.

“We’ve got four kids and we had taken them to a couple different trampoline parks,” Rob explained. “And I just kind of started looking around and I thought, I can do this better.”

The Genets, who owned a commercial cleaning business at the time, did some research and “decided to go out on a limb.”

They never imagined that limb would branch into 10 locations within the next seven years, with each location pulling in roughly $1 million annually.

Krazy Air is the original and the only one bearing that name. The rest operate as Elevate Trampoline Parks. Three of the parks are in Queen Creek, Goodyear and Tucson, Arizona. The remaining locations are in New Mexico, Iowa and Illinois.

“We really enjoy the business,” said Rob. “But it’s not like we’re actively looking to expand.” If an opportunity to build presents itself and it makes sense to put a park there, he said they will do it. “We’re opportunistic, you know. But we’re not

FELKER from page 22

looks like, what the fencing looks like around the outside, and what the landscaping looks like,” Felker recalled, “because they were very concerned about what was being built next to their family treasure.”

Now, Felker said, “we’re going to be really proud of that one as it comes out of the ground and finishes.”

He said the community will “have a little bit of that farm feel to it.”

“It’s going to be a little different from the rest of ours,” Felker continued, “because that’s how the Schnepfs felt comfortable selling it to somebody who’s going to develop it.”

He anticipates it will take about eight

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

like, ‘oh, we need to go build more parks.’

We’ve lived and learned and gotten better through trial and error along the way. It’s been fun.”

He insisted that the secret to their success is finding, hiring and empowering the right people. “We compensate them well and try to tie our managers to the bottom line. We want them to take ownership in the company.”

Nikki Schachtel, the manager at Krazy Air, agreed. She said that she can take any idea to the Genets and know that they will be supportive.

In turn, she passes the same attitude on to her employees, training them on employability skills, but also requesting their input on how to do things and encouraging them to offer their own ideas and solutions.

“If it doesn’t work, we’ll just go back to the other way tomorrow,” Schachtel said.

She knows that encouraging her team to be creative and validating their ideas helps them to grow both independently and as a team. “For me, that’s the best part. The better they work as a team, the better the experience for anybody that comes here.”

Even though the Genets now have nearly 400 employees company-wide, they still consider themselves to be a “mom and pop” company.

months to lay the community’s infrastructure and that “I’m thinking we’re going to start leasing probably 18 to 20 months from now.”

Peering into the future with the same vision that has guided the growth of Empire for four decades, Felker said the only thing that could stop new build-to-rent housing in the immediate vicinity of Phoenix is a shortage of land.

“It’s a kind of a new asset class but it is so well accepted by every age demographic,” he said of build-to-rent. “It does require more land. So, the more urban the city becomes, the less you’re going to see that this type of thing. But we are going to be in other markets as well.”

“Places like Casa Grande are going to be the recipient of a lot more rental construc-

“We want to keep that feel. I want any of my managers – really, any of our employees – to be able to call me anytime. I don’t want to lose that feel,” Rob said.

Genet said the one thing he definitely will not do – “no matter how many times I’m asked” – is add an arcade in the park, explaining, “This is someplace kids can come and burn some energy and do something real.”

About 900 kids every week burn energy at Krazy Air. Memberships drive activity during the week, with Krazy Kids attracting toddlers, ages 18 months to 6 years, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (two hours max) Monday through Friday. After-school memberships bring in the school-age kids in from 3-6 p.m. (90 minutes max) Monday through Friday.

Homeschool memberships are also popular. On Monday-Thursday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., homeschool students, ages 5-17, can jump, eat lunch at the in-house café, then do their schoolwork in the lobby, using the free wi-fi.

On Saturdays, from 8-10 p.m., teens and parents only have the place to themselves.

“On teen nights, we turn off all the lights and have black lights and disco balls, so everybody glows in the dark,” Nikki explained. “It’s a safe, controlled spot where a lot of groups hang out.”

tion,” he said. “Once you go into the San Tan Valley, we’ve got two or three developments that are going to be in those areas.

So yes, it is expanding.”

And his biggest worry has nothing to do with the availability of water but that for the average household, “costs keep escalating.”

“In the Phoenix market, we’ve been really low for a long time in terms of the percentage of our income that people can spend on housing. It’s been 25%, 26%, 27%. In San Francisco and other California places, people are spending 43% or 45% of their income and we are gradually bumping up against that.”

He estimates that people in the Phoenix area are spending at least 31% or 32% of their annual income on housing and that

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Also popular with teens are the monthly Lock-Ins. On the last Friday of every month, nearly 100 teenagers show up to be locked in the building from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. “We feed them pizza and drinks and just play games all night,” said Nikki.

Saturdays are also big days for birthday parties, held in the party room.

On the weekly “Thankful Thursdays,” jumpers can bring in a donation for the featured charity to support the local community and receive more than half off the price for two hours of jumping. For February, Krazy Air is hosting a baby supply drive to benefit Sunshine Acres.

With so many people coming through the trampoline parks, Rob emphasized that cleanliness is really important to them. Having previously been in the cleaning business, the Genets take sanitation very seriously.

“It’s a big deal – especially in the current environment,” he said.

“We’re all about customer service,” Nikki added. “Everything’s really directed toward making sure everybody has the best possible time, whether it’s customers or staff. I want everybody to want to come back and have those moments with their family that are just genuinely loving and fun.”

Information: krazyair.com. ■

with soaring appreciation in non-rental single-family homes and 15 percent annual increases in rent, places farther away from Phoenix will become far more favorable to homebuyers and renters.

As a result, what might be broadly considered the Phoenix metro area will be not much different from how people view Los Angeles.

And Empire gives every indication that it will continue to be a major player in that expanding megalopolis, especially with build-to-rent.

“I’ve been around, obviously, a long time and done a lot of different things,” Felker said. “But we’ve gone very deep in this space…It takes a lot for me to get excited, and I’m very excited about this space and what we’re doing in it.” ■

SEND YOUR BUSINESS NEWS TO PMARYNIAK@ TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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OPINION

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Share Your Thoughts:

Send your letters on local issues to: pmaryniak@timespublications.com TheMesaTribune.com

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Anchovies on pizza? Only in weird Arizona

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist

H

aving made it this far in life without landing on Death Row, I feel confident a lethal injection won’t be my fate. With that said, I have my last meal all picked out: A large pepperoni pizza from any restaurant not named Domino’s or Papa John’s.

What I’m saying is, I am a certified pizza lover, a man who can hardly go a week without a slice or three. While I did not partake on Feb. 9th to mark National Pizza Day, I certainly will on Super Bowl Sunday, the busiest day of the year for pizza shops, ahead of New Year’s Eve and Halloween.

Unless, of course, I am served an abomination like pizza topped with anchovies. Which, according to the food blog “How to Cook Recipes” is the most popular pizza topping in Arizona, at least according to rankings by Google

search throughout 2021.

Yep, anchovies. Ahead of pepperoni, extra cheese, sausage and pineapple in the state’s Top Five.

People, must everything in this state be weird all the time? I’ve lived here 25 years and I love the place. But every time I speak to someone from out of state, it’s always, “What’s wrong with Arizona? Did the desert heat fry your brains?”

I’m sure you get it, too. “Joe Arpaio this, fraudulent election audit that. What’s up with you guys and _______.” Insert Gov. Jan Brewer wagging her finger in Barack Obama’s face or Arizona leading America in COVID-19 infection rates.

I would suggest there’s something in the water here, but given the drought, we barely have any water left.

Now we’ve desecrated pizza. Though, to be fair, anchovies were also the most searched-for pizza topping in New Mexico as well. Just what we’ve always dreamed of: being associated with the home of Ro-

swell in a national list.

Slice, the country’s leading app for independent pizzerias, put together their own study of the most popular pizza styles in the nation. Arizona apparently prefers Sicilian pizza, which I can get behind. As for popular toppings, Slice broke it down nationally: Pepperoni (of course) ranked first, appearing on 37 percent of pizzas.

The rest of the Top 10 in order: mushrooms, extra cheese, sausage, onions, bacon, black olives, green peppers, Italian sausage and meatballs.

Anchovies didn’t even get a participation ribbon. In an effort to disprove this halfassed accusation – and potentially win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism – I spent a solid two hours Googling pizza topping rankings in various fashions. A rival ranking list, assembled by the health and wellness experts at YorkTest, arrived at a different answer, again using Google searches.

Drum roll, please.

They say Arizona’s favorite pizza topping

is … pesto. Which is only marginally better than anchovies. And again, it’s weird.

Though arguably not as weird as putting fruit on pizza, you pineapple people.

Pizza was not meant to be topped by fish or things that grow on trees or fungus or anything that’s green, if you really want to get down to it.

As a pizza purist, I just crave your standard cheese pie topped with something sold in the meat aisle. I’m not even a huge fan of the frou frou fancy pizza sold at places like Pizzeria Bianco or Pomo, though I’ll dabble in a pinch. Please just give me a few slices from Nello’s or Spinato’s, NYPD Pizza or Lou Malnati’s.

Frankly, I’ve always subscribed to the idea that there’s really no such thing as bad pizza – until I contemplated my fellow Arizonans all fighting for the last slice of something topped with anchovies.

They say “pizza is life.” You serve me a slice with anchovies and Death Row may not be entirely out of the question. ■

warned.

Sure enough, Joe Biden is buying bigger and bigger problems for our nation and our future.

Among the outrageous examples of “your tax dollars at work” comes this gem: the funding of the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts.

Courtesy of Senate Democrats and Vice President Harris, who cast the deciding vote, the American Rescue Plan features a “harm reduction” grant program.

Of course, it comes with a cheap price – at least by Washington standards: “Only” $30 million. As it stands now, that dough will be divvied up into $400 thousand chunks and sent to local governments as well as selected “nonprofit organizations.”

The goal? To make drug use safer for addicts.

How will that be accomplished? In part, through the purchase of “smoking kits and supplies” for addicts. The all-knowing, all-

caring, sensitive bureaucratic souls at the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee this beneficence.

An HHS official confirmed this “forwardthinking action” to the “Washington Free Beacon,” explaining that the smoking kits will include those precious, specially made pipes for users to smoke crystal meth, crack cocaine, or “any illicit substance.”

But faced with a strong and immediate backlash from media reports concerning the inclusion of crack pipes, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued an “11th hour revision.”

A press release stated that “no federal funding will be used…to put pipes in safe smoking kits.”

So the “safe smoking kits” remain…addicts will just have to furnish their own crack pipes. Got it!

But Ol’ Joe and his gang didn’t limit the giveaway-by-grants to just smoking kits.

Other items to be distributed included

fentanyl strips, syringes, and condoms!

And…with a bureaucratic bow to the American Rescue Plan, also detailed Ol’ Joe and his gang don’t limit the giveawayby-grants to just smoking kits. Other items to be distributed include fentanyl strips, syringes, and condoms.

Also detailed among the items for which your tax dollars can be spent are “disease screenings” and vaccinations. Remember, this was enacted during the COVID-centric days of “crisis,” and as we’ve collectively learned, the Left never lets a “crisis go to waste.”

Undergirding this entire exercise is a wrongheaded idea that government should shoulder the responsibility of making drug use more secure and “healthier.”

To the extent government is involved, its resources should be focused on the prevention of drug abuse.

Fed program would foster drug abuse, addiction

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

O

ne century, one decade, and one year separate us from the birth of Ronald Reagan. With each passing day, especially in these troubling times, we are reminded of Reagan’s basic goodness and yes, greatness.

Derided by the Manhattan elites and the Georgetown Cocktail Set as a “simpleton,” Reagan’s genius was his ability to simplify the seemingly complex.

“If you want less of something, tax it,” Reagan said, succinctly explaining the rationale for tax cuts. History recalls that the reduction of tax rates led to the expansion of economic opportunity during the Reagan Era. But our 40th President also understood the absurdity of the big talking, big spending, big government Left. “If you want more of something, subsidize it,” Reagan

see HAYWORTH page 30

OPINION

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Frustrated jobs seekers ask: What Great Resignation?

Smart, educated, rule follower, team player, law-abiding citizen. These are just a few characteristics that describe your average working-class people in today’s world. We have worked to finish the traditional K-12 education level, and some of us have even gone steps further to obtain undergraduate/graduate college level degrees.

Yet, many of us find ourselves struggling to move forward in both the corporate and non-corporate job markets.

What is the problem? For candidates who look perfect on paper and possess all or most of the needed requirements for sought out job positions…. why are we being passed over? Why are we not even getting called for job interview meetings?

Thousands of people are applying to online jobsite listings every day, yet most of

us are receiving rejection notifications or we are just being ignored by the company management altogether. Again, WHY? Do companies really have jobs to offer?

Do companies have real intentions to hire people who are searching for work? Or is this just a carrot dangling game played by corporate higher-ups to entice the frustrated working classman?

Students in the traditional K-12 educational system are consistently taught to follow rules, study hard, and to make good choices. Learning to respect authority is imperative. Building social skills and learning how to cope with both victories and disappointments are critical skills that are needed to navigate through everyday life.

By the time students reach the final two years of high school, career choices and/ or higher-level education choices are on the horizon. At this point students have

been groomed and advised that the “Real World” is awaiting them with life changing events and responsibilities.

Learning to write résumés, filling out job applications, attending job fairs, learning to network with other people… all in hopes of one final goal: Getting hired. Yet, even after taking all or most of the necessary steps for job seeking, many of us feel let down and disappointed because we are overlooked and ignored by the companies’ hiring management.

Why are companies only interested in who candidates know? And how are people ever going to have an opportunity to work if the hiring manager is only interested in hiring people that they know?

Whatever happened to fact checking the information on the job applications/ résumés: speaking with references listed on the job applications, verifying with the listed education facilities for confirmation

that the candidates attended/completed the curriculum, completing standard criminal background checks to ensure that candidates are legally qualified and eligible to work?

The question of “how?” remains in the minds of the frustrated job-seeking candidates. How are we supposed to move upward in life? How are we supposed to advance economically? How are we supposed to grow and contribute to society?

How are we supposed to improve ourselves and our own living situations if we can’t even get hired? For candidates who look “perfect on paper,” candidates who have “pounded the payment,”candidates who have submitted “countless” job applications online, and candidates who literally have nothing else to offer the jobsearch market: what more do companies want from us?

- Laynie Timaya Barnes

Share Your Thoughts: Send your letters on local issues to: pmaryniak@timespublications.com

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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It’s bad enough that the Biden Bunch disregards this simple concept, but compounding the error is the curious moral and political “accounting” that accompanies it. By abandoning “equality” in favor of “equity,” the Left confers special status on an underclass and a commitment to expanding that underclass.

Here’s the perverse rationale at work: these grants are prioritized for “underserved communities.”

While the late actor and comedian Robin

Williams joked that “cocaine is God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much money,” can anyone seriously believe that expanding access to drugs and drug paraphernalia in “underserved communities” does anything but increase the number of drug abusers in those communities?

Compassionate? No, it’s “confused compassion” at best – and more likely, counterfeit.

Subsidizing drug abuse and all that comes with it – violent crime, homelessness, and death – is no way to serve “underserved communities.” ■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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SPORTS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

TheMesaTribune.com @EVTNow /EVTNow

Mesa coach’s ousting causes uproar

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

G

ary Ernst is an icon in Arizona high school basketball.

He is the state’s all-time winningest coach and beloved by the Mountain View High School community for his 38 years of service and three state titles from 2005-07. In 2019, he became the first-ever coach to reach 900 career wins in a double-overtime win over rival Mesa.

So, when news broke Friday, Feb. 4 that Ernst would not be retained by the school after this season, it caused an uproar not only from Mountain View faithful, but those around the entire state as well.

“He’s the G.O.A.T, he’s the greatest,” Mesa basketball coach Scott Stansberry said. “Everyone is chasing him. He’s so classy and the way he carries himself, we all want to be where he’s at with that many wins and that many championships.

“I wish he could go out on his own terms, it’s unfortunate. He means a lot to me, to Mesa and to high school basketball.”

Mountain View faced Mesa in the final

Mountain View head basketball coach Gary Ernst, who has led the Toros for 38 years and is the all-time winningest coach in the state, was informed by school administration this would be his final season coaching. As a result, the entire basketball community rallied behind him to show their support and displeasure with the school’s decision. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff) game of the regular season. The Toros, who are currently 12-6 and No. 16 in the Arizona Interscholastic Association 6A boys basketball rankings, were primed to

play in the play-in tournament Friday.

Ernst has led the Toros to the postseason every year dating back to the 2001-02 season, the start of the MaxPreps era. Last

year as the No. 15 seed, Mountain View upset second-ranked Mesa in the first round of the playoffs. Many have questioned the reason for the school wanting to move on from Ernst given the success he has had leading the basketball program.

Mountain View Principal Mike Oliver, who was hired in 2021, did not go into detail as to why the school decided it was time to move on from Ernst. He did, however, thank him for his time with the program.

“Coach Gary Ernst has served the Mountain View community relentlessly for 38 years and has influenced legions of young people,” Oliver said in a statement to The Tribune. “We honor and recognize his commitment to excellence. We plan to build on the incredible legacy that he has developed as we transition into a new era of Toro basketball and with a new yet to be named head coach.

“We wish him well with all his future endeavors. His place in the Mountain View community has been sealed and he will be forever welcomed through the

see ERNST page 33

Westwood leads in Mesa in unified sports

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

W

hen Brady Pond was hired as the athletic director at Westwood High School, he recognized an opportunity to build the school’s Unified sports programs.

He set out to accomplish his goal, meeting with district leadership and the Special Olympics to provide opportunities for special education students at Westwood.

The program started small but in two short years has grown to a level where Westwood can now field competitive Unified sports teams and compete in the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

Now, others in the district are following his lead for the greater good of special

needs students in Mesa Public Schools.

“I felt like it was a need, sort of a campus culture change,” Pond said. “There were a lot of groups, not for better or worse, just some kids doing their own thing. This is a way to push toward more inclusion. We can talk about including others but this way we are putting our money where our

see

UNIFIED page 33

Westwood, which has been at the forefront of developing Unified sports programs in the Mesa district, recently held a basketball jamboree for athletes from Westwood, Mountain View and Red Mountain. Brady Pond, the athletic director at Westwood, said the kids felt like super stars. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff)

SPORTS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

ERNST from page 32

threshold into the Campus of Champions.”

The decision was met with backlash.

Coaches, parents and some longtime media members took to social media to express their displeasure with the situation.

A petition started by Ernst’s son, Jason, on Saturday has reached nearly 4,000 signatures as of Monday.

“Coach Ernst has earned the right to coach the last few years of his career and to go out on his terms,” Jason wrote on the petition. “He has dedicated his life to MV basketball and this community.

“He has built a program with neighborhood kids in which all high schools should emulate. If we can get Coach Ernst to retain his position as coach, then everyone wins especially our youth.”

Tuesday against Mesa, Ernst was honored before the start of the game by Mesa Principal Kirk Thomas. He introduced former Mesa coach and current Northern Arizona University head men’s coach Shane Burcar as the master of ceremonies. Burcar brought out all the Mesa coaches Ernst faced during his time at Mountain View.

Stories were told, hugs were shared and a standing ovation for Ernst from the over-capacity crowd made for an emotional moment. Several fans on both sides, media members and administrators from other schools wore red in support of Ernst – a theme across the high school basketball landscape this past week.

UNIFIED from page 32

mouth is and figuring out a way to connect the community.”

Pond spent his first year at Westwood becoming accustomed to the culture and the inclusion of special education students. Coming from Centennial High School in the Peoria Unified School District, he saw it thrive and knew he could accomplish the same at Westwood.

At the time, Westwood was slim with opportunities.

The school ended up hosting the Unified state badminton qualifiers despite not having a team. Pond invited all the special education classrooms at Westwood to watch and bring some excitement. Both the teachers and kids immediately bought in to the idea.

In his second year, Pond set up a Unified physical education class where athletes could practice during the day and

Ernst was honored before Mountain View’s game against rival Mesa Tuesday, Feb. 8. He was presented a plaque from former Mesa and current Northern Arizona University coach Shane Burcas. Ernst received a standing ovation from the over-capacity crowd, who he waved to and thanked from the court. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff) Perry coach Sam Duane Jr. and Gilbert coach Jay Caserio started a movement among more than 30 coaches to wear red in support of Ernst. Desert Ridge coach Greg Ream, whose team played Perry Monday, also wore red. Caserio wore red Monday night and was in attendance for the rivalry game between Mountain View and Mesa on Tuesday.

Lucas Ramirez, the head boys basketball coach at Saguaro, wore red to work with his team off for the night. Mountain Pointe

not worry about transportation. They also established a badminton, basketball and track team. It grew from there.

“We had so much interest we had to add another class session,” Pond said. “We are sitting at around 70 kids total between the two classes that are now a part of it. We hope to keep growing it from there.”

Seeing how successful Westwood’s program had become, Pond implored district leadership to help establish other programs at neighboring schools. He sought the help from new district Athletic Director Tommy Eubanks, who obliged and began assisting with the implementation of the Unified program at other schools.

Pond and representatives from the Special Olympics of Arizona began visiting each district school to pitch the idea. All of them agreed and have started programs.

“It’s been a really awesome thing to

see

UNIFIED page 34

coach Kaimarr Price took to social media to express his displeasure with Mountain View’s decision. Price said coaches like Ernst deserve a celebration and proper send off.

“You have to give credit to Jay Caserio, he got the text thread going and I threw in the shirt thing and they ran with it. Jay deserves a lot of credit for this,” Duane said. “I think it’s the best way to honor so many young coaches. Gary means the world to me and he’s a special coach to a

33

lot of us.

“Watching him, competing against him, trying to beat Gary was the standard. If you beat Gary when you were a young coach, you’re getting better. He deserves some type of thank you.”

Ernst was inundated with fans of all ages shaking his hand following his team’s game against Mesa. He impacted the lives of those who he never spoke to directly for many years. His eight state championships as a whole rank among the most for coaches, and his win total may never be beaten.

He said Tuesday the support from other coaches, fans and teams was overwhelming. It made for an emotional game and night that was won by Mesa in the final minutes.

“It makes me feel so good,” Ernst said. “It really makes me realize the 38 years I’ve had at Mountain View we’ve impacted a lot of people. I’m proud to be associated with Mountain View High School.”

Brigg Wolfe, a junior guard at Mountain View said he cherished his time with Ernst. While his team unfortunately didn’t get the win over their rivals, they still had an opportunity to play one more home game with their coach Friday in the playin game for the playoffs.

Wolfe said playing for him was an experience he won’t soon forget.

“He’s a legend, he’s the most winningest coach,” Wolfe said. “Just to be able to learn from him was something amazing.” ■

Kids at the basketball jamboree were cheered on by their peers and Westwood’s AIA and Unified spirit lines. They were all introduced by the PA announcer and played a few games and had the opportunity to compete against other schools in friendly competition.

(Dave Minton/Tribune Staff)

34

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

UNIFIED from page 33

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witness and see,” Eubanks said. “Westwood was the beacon school for this program, and we’ve taken that model and now every school has one. Maybe not to the same scale, but we expect it to just continue to grow.”

Red Mountain began hosting a modified P. E. class with both general and special education students about seven years ago.

Steve Selby, a Unified P. E. teacher, basketball coach and cross country and track & field coach for general ed students, was presented the opportunity in his second year at Red Mountain to be a part of it and he immediately accepted.

This year, he said, is the first year Red Mountain has officially jumped into the Unified sports scene. But with how well the modified class worked, starting the sports programs was a no-brainer.

“It worked so well for athletics, and everyone involved,” Selby said. “It was like a perfect storm of everything coming together. This year, it’s really taken off.”

Selby had to request a co-teacher for the Unified P. E. class because of how much the program has grown. There are 25 general education students who take part in the class as buddies alongside 2530 special education students. Selby said eight to 10 of those special education students also compete in basketball with 12 buddies.

Selby believes his team is still a year away from competing in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Unified competition like Westwood, but they have taken part in basketball showcases with other schools.

One was recently held at Westwood between its program and those from Red Mountain and Mountain View. Westwood’s spirit line and Unified spirit line cheered for athletes as they were intro-

Have an interesting sports story?

Contact Zach Alvira at zalvira@ timespublications.com and follow him on Twitter @ZachAlvira.

duced by the public address announcer.

Students filed in and out of the gym to cheer on their peers.

Pond said it made the athletes feel like super stars. Selby said it was a special moment for everyone involved and that’s only scratching the surface of the good it brings to the athletes and their families.

“What kid doesn’t love to compete in front of their peers and have a cheering squad?” Selby said. “It was awesome. We’re thankful for the Unified partners, the buddies. The athletes just had an absolute blast and the parents have been super supportive and appreciative of the program.

“The kids just absolutely love it, man.

They’re nuts about sports, and they love it.”

The Unified program at Mesa, Skyline and Dobson have also seen exponential growth in the last few years. Other districts have also followed suit as well, creating more and more programs to compete in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Unified division.

Many schools have added other sports such as football, providing even more opportunities for special education students and others to become more involved.

Pond is proud of the work he’s been able to accomplish at Westwood and what he’s been able to do to assist other schools. But he is far from taking all the credit.

To him, seeing the smiles on the faces of athletes and their buddies who compete alongside them is rewarding enough.

“I think it’s great,” Pond said. “At the end of the day, if we can say we’ve done our part and we can give as many opportunities for as many kids as we can, that’s the payoff. I don’t really care if my legacy is state champions or any of that stuff.

“If we can say we taught kids how to be kind to each other and we taught kids to include kids with various disabilities and levels of ability then to me, that’s the biggest win for us.” ■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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GET OUT

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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Beer fest an endless keg of samples and fun

BY ALLISON BROWN GetOut Contributor

F

rom lagers to IPAs to seltzers, there’s a lot of beer to try at the Arizona Strong Beer Festival.

Complete beginners and connoisseurs will find what they’re looking for, whether it’s a starting place or a new go-to ale. The festival will boast 300 to 450 samples.

The festival returns for its 21st year on Saturday, Feb.19, after a pandemic break.

Rob Fullmer, executive director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, who sponsors and produces the event, said the Arizona Strong Beer Festival is coming back strong and he, vendors and customers are excited to get back to it.

“We can’t wait to get back to beer fests,” Fullmer said. “It’s been a long two years for everyone and we are thrilled to be hosting the Arizona Strong Beer Festival at a new, state of the art location.”

Tickets to the festival start at $60 and can be purchased online. A ticket includes 30 tasting tickets and a commemorative glass.

The festival spans 24 acres of the Mesa’s new Bell Bank Park, the largest sports complex in North America. Part of it will be transformed into a miniature city of breweries and other vendors to make up the state’s most comprehensive beer festival. There will also be live music, games and food trucks.

The festival got its name for promoting beers 8.5% and above, with a strong alcohol content. However, now that the beer industry and technology have advanced, Fullmer said there are ways to get a bolder flavor without having to add more alcohol.

Now, they keep the name and characterize it as beers “strong in flavor, strong in character and strong in tradition.”

According to Fullmer, the Arizona Strong Beer Festival started with 25 vendors in a parking lot and has now grown to have as many as 10,000 people attend.

“I think it’s one of the most fun beer festivals,” said Nicholas Rana, owner of State

The Arizona Strong Beer Festival and Bell Bank Park in Mesa promises to be a fun time for fans of the sudsy beverage. (Special to GetOut) Wren House Brewing Company, said it has been part of the festival since it opened in 2015. Pool wants to show off its new barrel-aged projects they have been working on. Strong Beer Festival allows his staff to see what’s trending or what drinkers seek.

Fullmer said beer and breweries have a way of bringing people together. Breweries often serve as a comfortable, laid back third space for people to gather. He said it’s different than a coffee shop or restaurant in that it’s more acceptable to walk up to a stranger and strike up a friendly conversation, whether it’s asking what they’re drinking or where the best pizza place is nearby.

With about 60% of the vendors being from within Arizona – and Rana said instead of a feeling of competition between the breweries –it’s more of a feeling of community and togethGuests at the beer fest will have plenty of labels to choose erness. from. (Special to GetOut) Laura Hansen, owner

48 Brewery, who will attend the festival for the sixth year. “It is the Strong Beer Fest, so a lot of people get pretty intoxicated, and it’s definitely one of the busiest festivals. It’s about as central as can be in Arizona, so you get to see people from all over the state that go to it. You get to meet everybody, it’s good advertising and it’s just a fun festival to be at.”

Because it is the premier beer event in the state, the festival will host product and brand launches. Drew Pool, co-founder of

of Saddle Mountain Brewing Company, said her company has been involved for the past seven years and, while it’s fun to be recognized, the best part is the people.

“We’ve won a few different metals over the years for different beers, which is always a fun thing, but the most enjoyable part is honestly the people, both the other breweries and the customer base,” Hansen said. “Getting to talk to them about craft beer and just enjoying a lovely sunny afternoon with some outstanding craft beers.”

In the spirit of community, Fullmer said the event is family friendly, and patrons even have picnics there. For those who don’t really like beer, there will also be mead, cider, seltzers and nonalcoholic drinks available. Those under 21 or serving as a designated driver are still welcome to enter the festival for a reduced cost but will not be permitted to drink.

When it comes to the 30 tasting tickets, Fullmer said there are a couple different strategies to maximize the experience without ending up with a killer headache the next day.

“Do what everyone else is not doing,” he suggests. “I don’t stand in the lines, but I do ask people why they’re standing in line to understand what’s there. Definitely hydrate and take opportunities to check out the food trucks.”

Guests wanting to analyze the differences in the breweries to find a favorite should stick with one category, like sours, to better compare and contrast. Most likely, there will be brewers there who can discuss their particular version.

The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild represents nearly 100 operating breweries, breweries in the planning state, craft beer bars and distributors across Arizona. Fullmer said Arizona breweries have won world class medals and competed in some of the most prestigious competitions in the world.

He said people frequently ask him when Arizona will catch up to other states leading the beer industry, but said maybe the state won’t “catch up,” it will just do something different and be unique. ■

GET OUT

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

Native American Festival slated near AJ GETOUT STAFF

S

uperstition Mountain Museum near Apache Junction will host a two-day Native American Arts Festival next weekend.

The event, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 19-20 will include two stages featuring dance, storytellers, artisans showcasing their unique creations and musicians playing native flute and acoustic guitar.

Featured performers are the worldfamous Yellow Bird Apache Hoop Dancers who will perform on both days.

Tony Duncan of Yellow Bird Dancers is the 2021 World Hoop Champion and has delighted audi- Native American dancers will be entertaining crowds during the Naences internation- tive American Festival in Apache Junction next weekend. (Special to GetOut) ally for several years.

Also performing as will be Color Guards kicking off events on storytellers will be Violet and Ken Duncan both days. of Yellow Bird Productions, among a numThis event is a family-friendly and eduber of dance groups. cational event offering tremendous phoNumerous traditional and contempo- tographic and shopping opportunities. rary tribal-registered Native American Admission fee is $5 per person with kids artisans will be at the festival, showcasing under 10 admitted free. their work in a Master Craftsman space.

They will visit with attendees and provide Superstition Mountain Museum is loinsights associated with their art. cated at 4087 E Apache Trail (SR 88) just Special guests include Miss Indian Ari- east of Apache Junction. Information: zona and Miss Indian USA. Also appearing superstitionmountainmuseum.org. ■

performances events dining things to do

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King Crossword ACROSS 1 “Keep it down!”

4 Tax pro 7 Whizzes (by) 12 Horse chow 13 Owned 14 Emanations 15 Shred 16 Pennsylvania city 18 Guitar’s kin 19 Symbol of freshness 20 Lancaster or Reynolds 22 “Blue Bloods” airer 23 Fly high 27 Flamenco cheer 29 Oliver Twist, for one 31 French composer Gabriel 34 Hilo hello 35 Snowman’s nose 37 Links org.

38 Prop for Dr. House 39 Devilish laugh 41 Body powder 45 “I’m with you!”

47 Meadow 48 Pennsylvania city 52 Conditions 53 Boredom 54 Kimono sash 55 Packed away 56 “The Dapper Don” 57 Fixed 58 Snake’s sound

With JAN D’ATRI GetOut Contributor

I 36 37 40 42 43 44

Biblical pronoun “Friends” role Community spirit Fake name Some jabs Attorney’s load

45 46 48 49 50 51

Roman 1052 Skip Plead Rock’s Brian Potent stick Shack

Sudoku

DOWN 1 Bush 2 Japanese verse 3 High-strung 4 Sudan neighbor 5 Royal home 6 Extemporize 7 Madcap 8 “Shoo!”

9 Acapulco gold 10 Gullet 11 Capitol Hill VIP 17 Old U.S. gas brand 21 Baseball manager Joe 23 Pie-in-the-face sound 24 Discoverer’s call 25 Satisfied sigh 26 Genetic letters 28 Summer sign 30 Cleaning cloth 31 TV watchdog org.

32 Small battery 33 Coffee vessel

PUZZLES ANSWERS on page 40

This poor man’s bread from Italy is a winner

f you were one of those enterprising folks that got caught up in the sourdough bread making frenzy during quarantine, you realize by now that the process isn’t exactly a piece of cake. (That requires another type of flour.)

Sourdough bread making days, at least at my house, start early in the morning with hydrating the flour. That is followed by a technique called “autolyze,” which begins the gluten bonding process. Then, it’s the hours-long method of letting the dough rise, punching it down, letting it rise again, punching it down and letting it rise a third time.

Finally, it’s incorporating the add-ins (like kalamata olives or rosemary) and shaping the bread for the oven. I haven’t even talked about the commitment of keeping, feeding and caring for the bread starter for years to come. My Amish Friendship Bread Starter, which I have kept alive for 14 years now, requires daily love and a babysitter when I’m on vacation.

So let’s talk about another type of bread that’s

much easier to make: Focaccia. What started as a poor man’s bread in Italy has become a classic Italian sandwich or dipping bread and an American favorite!

Focaccia is about as close to full-proof as any homemade bread can be, and it’s wonderful for a panini sandwich as well as dunking it in good extra-virgin olive oil.

This is the recipe for the homemade focaccia bread we served at my restaurants for years. ■

Foccacia Bread Rounds (Makes 8 rounds) Ingredients: I package (or 1 tablespoon) active dry yeast 1 cup lukewarm water 2 teaspoons sugar ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided 1 teaspoon white truffle oil, optional

3-½ cups white flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 heaping teaspoon garlic powder 1 small yellow or red onion, diced and sautéed 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stems removed Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Place the warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Let yeast soften and bubbles form, about 10 minutes. In standing mixer with a bread paddle, combine yeast mixture, ¼ cup olive oil, flour and salt, mixing until dough forms a ball, about 5 minutes. (Dough should be elastic and smooth.) Place dough in bowl coated with olive oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about an hour.

Punch down and divide the dough into 8 equal size portions, about 3 inches in diameter.

Cover with cloth and let the dough rise for about 30 minutes.

Sauté onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft.

Set aside. When dough has risen, place rounds on two sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Poke the top with the tips of your fingers to make deep indentations. Brush with remainder of olive oil and white truffle oil. Top with onions, garlic powder, salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. ■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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Obituaries

Lynnette Pepera Alberts Riutta Dunn

Lynnette Pepera Alberts Riutta Dunn reOn January 13th in turned to her heavenly Tucson, Pandora Rodrighome on January 31 st, uez passed away unex2022. She was born in pectedly with her loving Kalamazoo, MI and is canine "Puppy Love" be- survived by her daughter Cindy Clifton side her. and son in law David, her grandsons Pandora was born in Jonathan (Oceana) Clifton and Will Missouri but settled in Arizona. She was (Desi) Bueti, her brothers Michael (Sue) the 8th of 10 children by Joann and Wil- Pepera and Charlie (Karen) Pepera, and bur Van Dine.Creatively gifted, Pandora her sister Roberta Perry. She is prohad a passion for writing & shared it with ceeded in death by her husbands Bill, her children during bedtime stories about John, and Tom as well as her parents the Adventures of the Rodriguez's. These Joseph and Billy F. Walton Marvel Pepera. Services were stories are her grandchildren's legacy.

Bill Walton, 68, of Rose Gilbert,Methodist Arizona, passed held at Velda Church, Pandora had a generous heart, and pen- away unexpectedly on aFebruary 3rd.toBill was Mesa.

She was blessing everyone to Bill and Eloise Walton, Sr. chant for living life in the fast lane. She is bornshe met, and nobody was a stranger. survived by her children Melanie, Paul, & After leaving the Air Force, Bill graduated Savannah, 8 siblings, and 8 grandchildren. for Ohio Institute Billy F. Walton of Technology andJr. went on August 8, 1963 - January 13, 2022 to become an engineer for Rockwell Bill Walton, 68, of Gilbert, Arizona, International.

In 1990 Bill moved toonGilbert, passed away unexpectedly February Deadline for obituaries is Wednesday Arizona, where he met the love of his life, 3rd. Bill was born to Bill and Eloise at 5pm for Sunday. All obituaries will Joanne Meyers Walton, and worked for Intel be approved by our staff prior to being andWalton, Gilbert Jr. Sr. High. activated. Be aware there may be early After leaving the Air deadlines around holidays.

In his time, Billfrom Force, Billspare graduated loved to playof video Call 480-898-6465 Mon-Fri 8:30-5 Ohio Institute Technogames, talking politics, if you have questions. logy and went onto become listening to music, Visit: obituaries.EastValleyTribune.com an especially engineerrock for &Rockwell roll, 1990 moved to GilandInternational. wood-workings.InBill had Bill a fierce passion for bert, his family, faith he in met God,theand Arizona,hiswhere lovehisof his country. life,Joanne Meyers Walton, and worked Bill was predeceased by his Father, Bill Sr., for Intel and Gilbert Jr. High. In his spare brother, Fred Allen. Bill leaves behind mother, time,hisBill loved to of play video daughter games, talk Eloise, wife, Joanne 29 years, politics, listen to music, especially rock & Yvonne (Patrick) Wilson, sons William (Mary) Shepard, Matthew Romario, William and roll, and wood-workings.

Patrick, Allee,for Brandon, BillHis hadgrandchildren, a fierce passion his family, Michael, April and Liam. his faith in God, and his country. Bill was hishonoring father, Bill Bill will Sr.; be brothApredeceased celebration ofbylife EVERLASTING MONUMENT Co. held er,atFred 1 PMAllen. on March 27th, 2022 at Faith Church, 11530 E. Queen Creek Rd, his Bill leaves behind mother, Eloise, “Memories cut in Stone” Family Chandler, 85286.of The wife, AZ Joanne 29 family years;requests daughter, donations in lieu of floralWilson; tributes tosons, be sent to • MONUMENTS Yvonne (Patrick) William Faith Family Church in Bill's memory.

(Mary)Sign Shepard, Matthew Romario, Willi• GRANITE & BRONZE the Guestbook at: am and Patrick; grandchildren: Allee, obituaries.EastValleyTribune.com • CEMETERY LETTERING Brandon, Michael, April and Liam.

• CUSTOM DESIGNS A celebration of life honoring Bill will beheld at 1 PM on March 27th, 2022 at FaithFamily Church, 11530 E. Queen 75 W. Baseline Rd. Ste. A-8 Creek Rd, Chandler, AZ 85286. The famGilbert, AZ 85233 ily requests donations in lieu of floral tribwww.everlastingmonumentco.com utes to be sent toFaith Family Church in Bill's memory. info@everlastingmonument.phxcoxmail.com Sign the Guestbook at: Make your choice Everlasting obituaries.EastValleyTribune.com

Pandora Rodriguez

H E A D STO N E S

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Life Events

Employ

Employment General

Employment General

ment

AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC, an Amazon.com company - Tempe, Arizona: Data Engineer II: Design, develop, implement, test, document, & operate large-scale, high-volume, high-performance data structures for business intelligence analytics.

(AMZ6128). Multiple job openings. Apply online: www.amazon.jobs – search by AMZ6128. EOE.

Employment General Holly & Piper 2022 As the years go by you would think it would be hard to come up with things to say for all these ads, but it's not. I'm just as much in love with you Holly, my gorgeous wife & best friend as the day we met.

Piper, I can't believe you are 15 already! I am so proud of the choices you are making as you grow into an amazing, beautiful young lady.

You both continue to make me the happiest husband & father there is. My relationships with you both are unmatched and my greatest gifts from God. I love u!

Dad

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Do you have print media/digital advertising selling experience? We may be looking for you! The position is in Tempe (Broadway curve area) includes lots of outbound calls selling advertising all over Phoenix Metro and even Tucson!

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Do you learn quickly, like to stay organized, multi-task, are you familiar with Gmail, Google Docs/ Sheets/Voice, Word, Excel, internet browsing and other software programs?

This is a full time job with benefits. 8:30-5pm Mon-Fri. If you think you are the missing puzzle piece, please apply!

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Send resume with over letter to Elaine

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Certified Nurse Assistant CNA One on One Patient Care Full-time and Part-time hours available $18.00 per hour - Private duty caregiver Benefits at 30+ hrs/week $500 Sign on Bonus To learn more and Apply go to cnscares.com/careers/ EOE

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For more information or to RSVP (not required), please contact:

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NOW HIRING Peter Piper Pizza

Location: McDowell and Miller Road We are now hiring Full Time / Part Time, Team Members for Day, Evenings and Night positions.

Apply at: 7607 E. McDowell Road Scottsdale, Az. 85257 (480) 947-9901 Located between Hayden Road and Scottsdale Road on the southwest corner of Miller Road.

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Senior Solution Specialist in Gilbert, AZ & various unanticipated Deloitte office locations & client sites nationally to drive software development & implementation services to address manufacturing, financial, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain, & other business needs, utilizing SAP products. 15% travel required nationally.

Telecommuting permitted. To apply visit apply.deloitte.com. Enter XBAL22FC0122GIL8201 in “Search jobs” field. EOE, including disability/veterans.

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Senior Solution Specialist in Gilbert, AZ & various unanticipated Deloitte office locations & client sites nationally to drive Oracle software advisory & implementation services to help companies unlock the value of big technology investments as discrete services or comprehensive solutions in the Insurance, Financial Services, Healthcare, State & Local Government, Telecommunications, & Retail industries.

15% travel required nationally. Telecommuting permitted. To apply visit apply.deloitte.com. Enter XBAL22FC0122GIL786 in “Search jobs” field.

EOE, including disability/veterans.

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Senior Solution Specialist in Gilbert, AZ & various unanticipated Deloitte office locations & client sites nationally to drive software testing 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 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 XBAL22FC0122GIL7390 in “Search jobs” field. EOE, including disability/veterans.

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Stolen dog 1/29/22 Cross roads n Alma School rd and w Galveston st Chandler AZ Stolen out of the front yard around 2pm.

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Auctions & Estate Sales 3 SISTERS ESTATE SALES LET US SELL THE CONTENTS OF YOUR HOME 19 YRS EXPERIENCE IMPECCABLE REFERENCES LOCATED IN MESA 763-443-0519 ALSO DO PRICING FOR YOUR SALES

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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Public Notices

Public Notices

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

CITY OF MESA PUBLIC NOTICE The Mesa City Council will hold a public hearing concerning the following ordinances at the February 28, 2022 City Council meeting beginning at 5:45 p.m. in the Mesa City Council Chambers, 57 East First Street.

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant for the following: PUBLIC SAFETY CAMPUS MICROGRID PROJECT NO. CP1032 The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Consultant to provide design services for the Public Safety Campus Microgrid 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 microgrid is intended to provide electrical power backup to the City of Mesa Public Safety campus (“PD Campus”) in downtown Mesa, Arizona, and to provide power export capabilities to the City of Mesa electrical distribution grid.

The microgrid will consist of natural gas generators to generate three (3) to four (4) megawatts (MW) in nominal capacity serving the PD Campus under an electrical grid outage and provide power export applications to the City’s 12.47 kilovolt (kV) grid. To facilitate power distribution and control of the microgrid, the system will include the design and specification of new switchgear, breakers, transformers, generators, relays, protection, sensors, batteries, controls, load banks, foundations, uninterruptable power system (UPS), communications, and other associated work.

The microgrid will require integration with the City of Mesa’s existing SCADA system, commercial building loads and designed upgrades to existing protection and communication systems to achieve safe, reliable electric distribution and microgrid system operations.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on February 23, 2022 at 8:00am through Microsoft Teams. If you would like to participate, please send an email to Stephanie Gishey at stephanie.gishey@mesaaz.gov to receive the invite. At this meeting, the project team, including City staff will discuss the scope of work, general contract requirements and respond to questions from the attendees. The video conference PreSubmittal Conference is not mandatory. All interested firms may submit a Statement of Qualifications whether they attend the conference or not. 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 outside of this Pre-Submittal conference. In addition, meeting minutes or any other information will not be posted 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 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 of the Statement of Qualifications in an unencrypted PDF format to Engineering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov by March 3, 2022 by 2:00pm. 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 Stephanie Gishey of the Engineering Department at Stephanie.Gishey@mesaaz.gov.

BETH HUNING City Engineer

ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk Published in The Mesa Tribune February 13, 20th, 2022 / 44600

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1. ZON21-00595 (District 6) Within the 4400 to 4700 blocks of South Ellsworth Road (west side) and within the 8700 to 9200 blocks of East Warner Road (south side). Located south of Warner Road and west of Ellsworth Road (165.7± acres). Rezone from Light Industrial with a Planned Area Development overlay (LI-PAD) and Limited Commercial with a Planned Area Development overlay (LC-PAD) to Light Industrial with a Planned Area Development overlay (LI-PAD) and Limited Commercial with a Planned Area Development overlay (LC-PAD) and Site Plan Review. This request will allow for a mixed-use development including commercial, office and industrial uses. Sean Lake on behalf of Pew & Lake PLC, applicant; Scannell Properties, owner.

2. ZON21-00393 (District 6) Within the 3200 blocks of South Hawes Road (west side), within the 3200 to 3500 blocks of the South 82nd Street alignment (both sides), and within the 3200 to 3500 blocks of South 80th Street (east side). Located north of Elliot Road on the west side of Hawes Road (81.17± acres).

Rezone from Multiple Residence 5 with a Planned Area Development Overlay (RM-5-PAD) to RM5-PAD-PAD, Single Residence 6 with a Planned Area Development Overlay (RS-6-PAD) to RS-6PAD-PAD, and Small Lot Single Residence 2.5 with a Planned Area Development Overlay (RSL2.5-PAD) to RSL-2.5-PAD-PAD. This request will accommodate the development of a single residence subdivision. Christina Shaw, Hilgartwilson, LLC, applicant; John and Brenda Van Otterloo Family Trust, owner.

3. ZON21-01025 (District 5) Within the 2100 block of North Power Road (east side). Located north of McKellips Road on the east side of Power Road (2.3± acres). Rezone from Residential 35 (RS-35) to Limited Commercial (LC). This request will establish commercial zoning for future development. Benjamin Tate, Withey Morris, applicant; Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center Inc., owner.

4. ZON21-00831 (District 6) Within the 2800 block of South Signal Butte Road (west side). Located south of Guadalupe Road on the west side of Signal Butte Road (1± acres). Site Plan Modification. This request will allow for the development of a restaurant with a drive thru. Tina Heinbach, Garrett Development Corporation Dated at Mesa, Arizona, this 13 th day of February 2022.

Holly Moseley, City Clerk Published in the East Valley Tribune Feb 13, 2022 / 44568

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

47

Public Notices

Public Notices

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified firm or team to act as the Job Order Contractor for the following: GENERAL UTILITY CONSTRUCTION JOB ORDER CONTRACT PROJECT NO. JOC-U22 The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Contractor to provide Job Order General Utility Construction Services. 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 Utility Job Order Contract to provide General underground utility construction services for minor and major projects, maintenance, repairs, re-construction and alteration services to City facilities.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on February 16, 2022 at 9:00 am through Microsoft Teams. Parties interested in attending should request an invitation from Stephanie Gishey at stephanie.gishey@mesaaz.gov. 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, 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. The RFQ is available on the City’s website at https://www.mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/construction-manager-at-risk-and-job-ordercontracting-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 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 of the Statement of Qualifications in an unencrypted PDF format to Engineering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov

by February 24, 2022 at 2 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 in the City of Mesa Vendor Self Se rvice (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service). Questions. Questions pertaining to the Job Order selection process or contract issues should be directed to Stephanie Gishey of the Engineering Department at stephanie.gishey@mesaaz.gov.

ATTEST: DeeAnn Mickelsen City Clerk Published in : The Mesa Tribune February 6, 13, 2022 / 44483

BETH HUNING City Engineer

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking a qualified firm or team to act as the Construction Manager at Risk for the following: SOUTHEAST MESA LIBRARY PROJECT NO. CP0428 The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) to provide Pre-Construction Services assistance and complete Construction Services as the CMAR for the Southeast Mesa Library 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).

This project will consist of the construction of a new library, located in Southeast Mesa.

The City may include other miscellaneous improvements at the Site, as needed.

The estimated construction cost is $13,200,000. The City anticipates completing construction in Summer 2024.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on February 22, 2022 at 8 am through Microsoft Teams. If you would like to participate, please send an email to Donna Horn at donna.horn@mesaaz.gov to receive the invitation. 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. The RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/construction-manager-at-risk-and-job-order-contracting-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 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 pm on March 10, 2022. 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 in the City of Mesa Vendor Self Service (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service).

Questions. Questions pertaining to the Construction Manager at Risk selection process or contract issues should be directed to Donna Horn of the Engineering Department at donna.horn@mesaaz.gov.

ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk

Published in : The Mesa Tribune February 13, 20, 2022 / 44560

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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