MESA TRIBUNE NORTHEAST, MAY 8, 2022

Transform 17 update / P. 3

Voting mess awaits / P. 7

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

INSIDE

This Week

COMMUNITY.............1 3 Mesa native Oscar Mancinas has published his first book.

BUSINESS.............. 1 7 Mesa business captures owner's hippy spirit

Sunday, May 8, 2022

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

Amid drought, Facebook’s Mesa campus grows bigger

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

L

ess than a year ago, Mesa City Council approved a development and water agreement for a large data center with a mysterious Delaware-based company called Redale LLC. That company turned out to be Facebook.

Under its May 2021 development agreement with Mesa, Facebook would build a 1million-square-foot facility in a first phase, with the option to build another 2 million square feet in subsequent phases.

One of the conditions was Facebook, now Meta, had to get started within five years.

Less than a year later, it’s far outstripped that time frame: the first 1 million square feet are well underway, and Meta announced last week that it’s decided to use the rest of

see META page 2

Less than a year after getting Mesa City Council’s blessing, Facebook’s gigantic data campus is quickly becoming reality. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

Special events swamping Mesa city staffers SPORTS................ 2 2 Desert Ridge alum hits the big time with NFL draft COMMUNITY................................. 13 BUSINESS....................................... 17 OPINION......................................... 20 SPORTS........................................... 22 GET OUT......................................... 25 CLASSIFIED.................................... 27 Zone 1

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

A

fter two years of canceled fundraisers, festivals and footraces due to coronavirus, live gatherings are back in Mesa.

With a vengeance.

Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Director Andrea Moore told City Council the city is fielding five to 10 event applications per week. Mesa averaged one to three special events every weekend in 2021, including 22 city-sponsored events, 24 city-supported

gatherings and another 100 private events.

This year Mesa won a national award for one of these events, its Dia de Los Muertos celebration, from the National League of Cities.

But City Manager Chris Brady told city council at its May 2 discussion session and in a budget preview last month that special events have recently been taking up an inordinate amount of staff time and city resources since the waning of pandemic restrictions.

“We love special events – to a point,” he said.

The idea of reining in events was not met

with enthusiasm by council members, but they heard Brady out.

Events are “pulling staff in so many different directions, and it’s pulling us off of our core services that we do,” Brady said.

Some event planners, he added, “just expect us in a month’s time or six weeks to drop everything, and that’s very difficult. Sometimes there’s conflict.”

To help shepherd events through the permitting process, and reduce headaches for

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see EVENTS page 4

2

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

META from page 1

its option and build another 1.5 million square feet.

In a release, Meta said it plans three more “data halls” at its Elliot Road Tech Corridor campus, in addition to the two already under construction, for a total of 2.5 million square feet.

The expansion means the area south of Elliot Road will be a small village of up to 2,000 construction workers on site for the next four years, DPR Construction manager Joe Yeargan said.

As big as the expansion is, even when all five planned mega-buildings are completed, Facebook’s data campus will only take up the upper portion of the 390-acre parcel the company owns at Elliot and Ellsworth.

Much of the lower part of the site will still be available for expansion, though the company would have to go through Mesa’s development process again for additional phases.

Asked what the future might hold for the rest of the parcel, Meta spokeswoman Melanie Roe said more data centers were possible, adding, “all of our expansions are based on business need.”

Meta held a May 4 event at the site to announce the expansion, which was attended by officials from Meta, city officials, Salt River Project representatives and other partners – as well as many workers donning hard hats and vests.

Mayor John Giles told the crowd that “Mesa’s an incredible place to set up a shop” and praised Meta for locating in the city.

“They’ll create high quality jobs” and “companies will locate here because Meta is here,” he said.

The mood under the tent was jovial, but the issue of water loomed over the proceedings.

Just the day before, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that it would be taking extraordinary measures to protect the water levels in Lake Powell and other Colorado River reservoirs due to extended drought and a disappointing winter of precipitation in the Rockies, which feeds the river.

Many of the speakers celebrating Meta’s expansion touched on water conservation.

“We know water’s a concern and it’s something we take very seriously,” Meta Community Development David Williams told the crowd.

The Facebook company’s expansion means the area south of Elliot Road will be a small village of up to 2,000 construction workers on site for the next four years. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

Meta’s Mesa data centers will use significant amounts of water to cool its servers, and in announcing the expansion, Meta did not avoid the water issue, stating that its data centers will be 60% more water efficient than the industry average, and declaring that it is “committed to restoring more water than it will consume.”

As part of its water agreement with the city, Meta will purchase water credits and sign them over to the city of Mesa before hooking up to the municipal system.

But offsetting its water use is a lofty goal, and Meta did not have specifics yet

on how it would achieve it.

Because of the large scale of the planned data centers and the amount of energy its servers will consume – up to 450 megawatts, comparable to a medium city’s entire household use – the water demands to cool equipment are potentially large.

In a Sustainable Water Service agreement with the city, Meta and the city estimated the project at full build out of five buildings might use 1,400 acre feet of water per year. The maximum flow rates in the agreement suggest the scale of the

Asked what the future might hold for the rest of the parcel, Meta spokeswoman Melanie Roe said more data centers were possible, adding, “all of our expansions are based on business need.” (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

water needed, up to 4 million gallons of water per day.

A typical 18-hole golf course in Arizona uses between 500,000 and 1 million gallons of water per day.

Besides touting the efficiency of its facilities’ design, Meta also sought to head off questions about water by highlighting its donations to water conservation projects in Arizona, which could result in more water reaching the Valley.

Dan Stellar, the Arizona director of The Nature Conservancy, described a Metasupported irrigation improvement project outside Sedona that might increase water flows in Oak Creek – a tributary of the Verde River that is important for Valley water supplies.

Meta reported that three projects it is supporting could conserve 200 million gallons of water per year. This is a lot, but it represents a 50-day supply for the data centers at the maximum allowed flowage.

Last year, Vice Mayor Jenn Duff cast the lone vote against the development agreement on the grounds that the risk of adding such a large water user to the system was not outweighed by the number of permanent jobs created by the project.

Duff was at the Meta event with Mayor John Giles and three other council members. She told the Tribune before the speeches that she hoped the data centers would figure out a way to cool the centers without water.

Another theme of Wednesday’s events was jobs, both temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs. Facebook says the data centers will create 200 permanent jobs when the project is complete.

Visitors had an opportunity to view current construction, and there were plenty of workers attending to various tasks and driving around the huge parcel in side-by-sides.

At the site of Building 1, a crew worked below ground level in a labyrinth of concrete and tubing that will eventually house electrical wires and fiber cabling. Yeargan wanted the guests in attendance to appreciate how far down below the surface the crews were putting infrastructure in.

Nearby, two lofty cranes lifted metal girders into place to form the skeleton of the first building.

Yeargan said DPR was working hard to be a good neighbor while construction is underway and reduce truck traffic on El-

see META page 6

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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NEWS

Same project, new name for downtown site

3

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer

T

he Transform 17 downtown revitalization project has transformed its name: The project will now be known as Nexus.

“We shall not use ‘Site 17’ again,” Downtown Transformation Manager Jeff McVay told Mesa’s Planning and Zoning Board at its April 27 discussion session, referring to the original name of the site that later gave way to “Transform 17.”

Choosing a better name was one of Mesa City Council’s requests following a March review of the plan for 27 acres of vacant city-owned land just north of Main Street near Phoenix Marriott Mesa.

Lindsay Schube, a representative for the city’s development partner Miravista Holdings, told the planning board that “Nexus” was chosen to reflect the fact that the site is “so important in terms of the connectivity” of downtown.

P&Z’s first look at the project was an important step because the board will be influential in shaping the final plan for Nexus in the coming months, before a possible development agreement is signed in late August.

That’s because the city and Miravista decided that all the required zoning for the project should be in place before the two parties sign a development agreement.

The name appeared to be the biggest change in the plan since McVay and Schube presented it to council in March: it’s still a mixed-use development with ambitious goals for density, envisioning buildings as tall as six to eight stories.

The P&Z board’s feedback for Schube and McVay had two themes: reference the site’s history in the final design, and ensure that what is built doesn’t fall short of the plan presented.

On both points, McVay and Schube tried to reassure board members that they had the same goals. After the meeting, one board member, Tim Boyle, said he’ll be looking for more assurances when the project is considered this summer.

During the meeting, two of the board members emphasized that the city needed to be extra sensitive about listening to concerns of neighbors in the area due to the history of the site. In the 1990s, the city started buying up homes in the area,

City officials won’t call the long-empty 27 acres in the heart of downtown “Transform 17” as they work with a developer to finally make something of a site that’s been vacant for more than three decades. (Special to the Tribune) eventually resorting to eminent domain to shows us financial capacity to move forward,” McVay said. “We are very sensitive acquire all the properties.

The plan was to revitalize downtown about protecting ourselves.”

This was not enough assurance for with a ballyhooed water park, but the developer failed to secure financing, so that Boyle, who worried in the meeting that and several subsequent plans fell through. Nexus could end up like another recent “There’s still a lot of hurt in some of downtown revitalization project, Sycaour communities, particularly some of more Station, which was approved by our communities of color, about how council in August.

In that project, the city also worked with some of those properties were acquired,” Vice Chair Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo Miravista on a master plan for a group of said, suggesting a reference to its history parcels next to a light rail station with should be included in the final designs. multiple owners.

“As far as the acknowledgement, that is Boyle was part of a neighborhood group very important to us,” Schube said in re- that initially backed the Sycamore Station sponse. “We have talked to the ASU film project, but pulled its support when deschool about doing something … in terms velopers altered the plan originally preof kind of documentation of what we’re sented by Miravista. doing and also the nod to the past and He said he wanted guarantees the same how we got here.” wouldn’t happen to Nexus.

Miravista’s plan for Nexus divides the “A lot of these same promises were made parcel into separate development blocks, about townhouses, for sale units, mixed so the developer will only get a small por- use, shopping and grocery, and then in the tion of the property at a time. end it was two 200-apartment buildings,” That aspect of the plan appealed to the Boyle said, referencing Sycamore Station. board as a hedge against the plan going “They were doing all these same sorts of bust due to economic conditions or other things (as Nexus), and then what ended up happening are some low, cheap aparttwists of fate “The city will not sell a piece of land unsee TRANSFORM page 6 til the developer has permits in hand and

4

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

Downtown business owner feels event snarl pain

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

H

er event was approved by the City of Mesa until it wasn’t.

Nadeen Hathaway, a 37-year-old married mother of five owns Gift And Thrift gift located at 40 North Macdonald in downtown Mesa.

Since February, she had planned Market on Main sidewalk market event for May 7 but on May 2, she received a denial letter from the city for a special event license.

While she’s working “by the book” with the city for her event, she’s working to rewrite the rules for smaller events that take place in front of the downtown businesses daily.

“We need a process that is not as lengthy as the special-event process,” she said.

A similar, smaller event held regularly by Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea, & Gallery

EVENTS from page 1

city staff and outside groups, Parks and Rec proposed a significant investment in event management staff: creating a new special events office next fiscal year.

The work of coordinating and communicating with special event applicants is currently “absorbed by many departments across the city,” Moore said. “We’re trying to centralize that with this office.”

The new office would more than quadruple Mesa’s events staff, from two full-time employees to nine. These seven new employees account for the lion’s share of the 10 new employees the Parks and Rec department is requesting for next fiscal year.

Special events permits would still be issued by the business office, Moore said, but if the new office is approved in the next city budget – slated for a vote next month – the Parks and Rec office would take the lead once an event application is received.

While council members who commented on the proposal expressed satisfaction with creating an events office, the second part of the city’s plan to reform Mesa’s events process was met with greater caution.

Brady told Council that he wants the city to set new policies outlining when and how much support the city can offer event organizers.

In some cases, the city may ask outside

involved talks of warnings and citations from the city.

“Small businesses along the street shouldn’t have to do lengthy paperwork to have one or two people in front of them and some music on a regular basis,” Hathaway said.

For her event, Hathaway had to submit various forms that included a site map, list of vendors, letter of authorization from every business that a vendor would be in front of, she said.

“Nobody had ever in writing emailed me or even in-person addressed any issues I needed to change in order for the market to continue,” she said. “I had no evidence or information about any complaints.”

She said this was the first time she had received a denial letter and that left with no option but to appeal the decision.

She said she had filed and received a special event license for identical events on March 5 and April 9 that were ap-

proved without trouble.

Hathaway said she felt “targeted” because the event included “very artsy” vendors outside the “Mesa norm,” including LGBTQ and goth vendors.

A meeting was set up with Mesa Manager of Downtown Transformation Jeff McVay on May 3 and she said McVay apologized for the debacle.

It seemed as if her event got lumped into the complaints from three businesses that had concerns about the market and she ended up being a “casualty” because she was the only one with any paperwork that could be approached, she said.

“It was enlightening to me too because I wasn’t targeted,” she said.

Now, the event currently sits in suspension until corrections are made – including adding more portable restrooms and trash receptacles, providing 6-foot ADA clearance on sidewalks, and getting new letters of approval from

with other demands throughout the city?”

The prospect of charging organizations that have grown accustomed to a certain level of support through the years, or telling some organizations “no,” did not sit as easy with council members – many of whom attend special events and are on the receiving end of complaints when organizers run into roadblocks at the city level.

“This is a problem that we aspire to have Mesa City Manager Chris Brady’s suggestions for curbing city isn’t it?” Mayor John services to special events left City Council members uncomfort- Giles said during a disable because that would impact their constituents. (YouTube) cussion of reforming groups to pay for services or provide event policies last month. “I mean, to have a city that’s so active and so many venues their own.

“We get requests from the community and such a demand for events that we on a variety of different things that some- have to deal with that. It is a problem, but times just expect us to show up at no it’s a good problem, and I’m looking forcost to them,” Brady said. “We can’t just ward to having a generous policy.”

“We’ve created all this infrastructure for allocate our band shell or power supplies … without some level of staff being quality of life projects, (and) to the extent involved in delivering it. The question is, we can accommodate, we need to,” Giles well, when should we just do that for the continued.

District 1 Councilman Mark Freeman community and how does that compete

businesses.

Hathaway must address the issues, which she planned to do before Saturday, but the city warned her that she may receive a citation if staff cannot process her special event license before the scheduled event Saturday.

On March 21, she received an email from Vice Mayor Jenn Duff citing “easier and less expensive processes.”

“If they’re inside frontage and patio, it wouldn’t be necessary,” Duff told Hathaway in the email. “If they expand beyond to other business frontages, then yes, we need to look at all of these.”

Moving forward, Hathaway said she will encourage more communication for her own events and advocate for others who also feel “targeted.”

“I’m a minority woman in a very conservative city,” she said. “But the conservative city is also trying to revamp their reputation too.” ■

also expressed concern about pumping the breaks on providing services to events.

“Some of these events rely on city resources to provide them,” he said, “so I think we need to be careful on how we do it, and so we support our community.

Because sometimes (the city has) a tool in the toolbox that others don’t have, or even a third-party vendor.”

Brady told Council that during future discussions of event policies, he wanted to make clear how much some events were costing the city.

Council members might be surprised by the level of resources the city was expending.

“I do think it’s important that we’re very transparent about how much we’re allocating to some of these events and making sure the council is comfortable that we’re doing that,” Brady said.

Brady said that looking closely at event costs and setting policies might help the city to spread resources across the city more fairly.

“I want everybody to feel like they have the opportunity to have … the tools in the toolkit available,” Brady said. “It can’t just be to one or a few parts of the city.”

Policies will also be important, Brady said, because increasingly, multiple events

see EVENTS page 7

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NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

ASU’s ‘tree’ aims to reduce carbon dioxide’s effects

BY EMMA VANDENEINDE Cronkite News

W

ith carbon emissions steadily rising, Arizona State University engineers are pushing to slow its damaging effects by creating treelike metal structures that attract carbon dioxide like a magnet and hold it like a sponge.

A prototype of what’s trademarked as the MechanicalTree sits in a small lot next to ASU’s Biodesign Institute. A dark blue arch – known as a gantry – looms over what appears to be a 10-foot-tall beer keg.

But you won’t find suds inside.

“Inside of that drum right now is 150 discs,” said Travis Johnson, associate director of ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions. “On those discs is the sorbent that captures the CO2. So that’s where the magic happens.”

The magic his team is trying to create centers on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without requiring expensive materials or the assistance of energyintensive machines to blow wind through it.

META from page 2

liot Road. Vendors have set up essentially temporary hardware stores and equipment rental shops on-site, so workers can access materials without leaving the site.

DPR is also preparing all its concrete on location.

For Yeargan, one of the benefits of the

TRANSFORM from page 3

ment buildings.

Boyle, an architect, told the Tribune after the meeting that there’s financial incentive for developers to build three-story walk-up apartments in Mesa, because they’re much cheaper to build than taller projects, but in his view “you wouldn’t end up with a revitalized downtown” with apartment buildings alone.

“I think any sort of agreement that we have needs to have a minimum required height, so that we know that we’re getting buildings of a certain caliber,” Boyle suggested to the board.

McVay, who worked on the Sycamore Station project, said Sycamore Station and Nexus are apples to oranges, noting that

The project was researched by Klaus Lackner, director of ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, and commercialized by Carbon Collect Inc., a renewable energy manufacturer in Dublin. The tree is one of six projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to slow the effects of carbon dioxide in the environment.

ASU’s team received $2.5 million to build the device. The goal is to build three “tree farms” in the coming years to capture 1,000 tons of CO2 a day.

Carbon emissions, which are a major contributor to climate change, are rising.

see TREE page 8

A stainless steel drum sits below a blue gantry at Arizona State University in Tempe. The drum is filled with 150 sorbentfilled discs, which are pulled apart like an accordion to expose them to more air, says Travis Johnson, associate director of ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions.

(Emma VandenEinde/Cronkite News)

recently announced expansion is that it means craft workers can stay with a single site for many years. He said the Meta project would be a good place for recent grads in the trades to start out, because they could get “four years of continuous apprenticeship” at the site.

To underscore its investment in local employment, Meta also announced a

$50,000 gift to the Mesa College Promise fund, which provides Mesa high school grads two years of free tuition to Mesa Community College.

As he prepared to board the bus again after viewing the Building 1 site, Freeman shared his thoughts on the project and expansion.

“I’m excited about this,” he said. “One

of the guys said it creates a ‘tertiary technology ripple effect.’ I was impressed by that because wherever they’ve built these developments, it has changed a lot of the area for the better. Employment, economic development, housing and their support of education, and the commitment for water conservation is key to me.”■ the city did not own all of the parcels at Sycamore, and one of the owners decided not to sell.

“The city is not obligated to sell anything (at Nexus) unless the developer is performing,” McVay said. “There’s a significant different level of control that the city has” for Nexus.

“Board member Boyle, we are with you,” McVay continued, “and we are negotiating down those same paths so we do not have those same things happen, (and) we will get what you are seeing here.” ■ City Councilwoman Jenn Duff last year touted the possibilities of the big parcel once called Site 17, then Transform 17 and now Nexus. (Tribune file photo)

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

Ballot could offer voters 3 future voting approaches

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

A Mesa’s Dia de Los Muertos celebration won an award from the National League of Cities.

(Tribune file photo)

EVENTS from page 4

are requesting city assets like band shells on the same dates. Guidelines will help the city allocate limited resources.

“We understand there’s some his-

7

torical events in here,” Brady said, “but we’re going to have to look forward to making sure everybody understands what our commitment is going forward and making sure everybody’s comfortable with that.” ■

rizonans going to the polls this year could be faced with three vastly different and often-conflicting approaches for the conduct of future elections.

An initiative campaign to broaden access to the ballot reported it now is in line to have more than $1 million to gather the 237,645 signatures needed to put the question to voters. That includes $500,000 already donated by Living United for Change in Arizona, the group that convinced voters, twice, to hike the state’s minimum wage.

Laura Dent, spokeswoman for the coalition of groups coming up with the cash, known as Activate 48, says the campaign already has more than 60,000 signatures collected since launching in early February.

Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections has until July 7 to gather the rest on its propos-

al to do everything from automatic voter registration when people get a driver’s license to overturning some of the restrictions on early voting previously approved by the Republican-controlled measure.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers already have placed another vastly different one there which actually would impose new voter ID requirements.

That measure began as an initiative by the business-oriented Free Enterprise Club. But the action by the Republicancontrolled legislature saves it the effort and the cost of getting signatures by agreeing themselves to put it on the ballot.

And a third group that wants to curb early voting is hoping for the same favorable treatment of being able to bypass the signature requirements for an initiative.

Lee Miller, one of the Republican organizers of what is dubbed Easier to Vote, Harder to Cheat, said he has been unable

see VOTING page 11

8

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

TREE from page 6

The U.S. Energy Information Administration found that petroleum-related carbon emissions rose 8% in 2021, and they’re expected to rise 5% this year. That increase in carbon dioxide accounts for twothirds of the temperature increase in our climate, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This has scientists worried that the world isn’t adapting fast enough to meet this change. That point comes through in the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which also states that the heat caused by carbon emissions is killing crops, trees and fish – all of which help sustain the planet.

“The carbon problem in the atmosphere is proving to be a much more difficult problem than I think people expected it to be,” said Gary Dirks, chairman of Carbon Collect. “We’re quite literally not making progress at the rate we need to.”

Dirks said ASU’s trees are one step to help curb emissions.

“We need to stop emitting as fast as we can,” he said, “but in the event we overshoot, then we’re going to need something that can bring it back again.”

Johnson said the MechanicalTree is the next tool in the toolbox for climate researchers.

To capture carbon, the blue gantry expands the device like an accordion to expose its “leaves” so wind can blow across the CO2, grabbing sorbent, a porous material that looks a lot like moon sand.

“You can see the stainless steel drum there with the lid on top, that gets raised up by the winch up there, up in the air,” Johnson said. “The lid comes off and the discs are attached to it. So it comes up kind of like an accordion.”

When activated, the MechanicalTree stands open for 20 to 30 minutes to catch a breeze.

“Each one of those cutout wedges is filled with these bags of sorbent,” Johnson said. “You could see these really tiny beads here, and there’s going to be about 14,000 of these bags that fill that tree.”

The sorbent works like a magnet, holding the carbon dioxide like a sponge until the discs are lowered back down into the steel keg. Then, the carbon is stored underground or repurposed for such products as carbonated beverages.

“The goal is to make sure every little tiny bit of sorbent gets exposed to air ev-

Part of the disc structure sits inside the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University in Tempe. Each triangular wedge is filled with a sorbent that attracts and captures carbon dioxide from the air. (Emma VandenEinde/Cronkite News) ery time. That way, we’re maximizing the efficiency and the capacity of the system,” Johnson said.

One MechanicalTree is expected to collect roughly 187 pounds of carbon a day.

A normal tree only captures 48 pounds in

a year.

However, Dirks said one tree won’t solve the planet’s carbon problem.

“It will take millions of trees to make a difference,” he said. “Twelve trees will capture roughly a ton a day. The need for

intervention is on the scale of gigatons, meaning billion tons.”

Thirty-five million MechanicalTrees would be needed to begin reducing gigatons of carbon. A gigaton is the same mass as 200 million elephants – a large number that would take years to achieve.

But ASU’s rapid manufacturing could make that deadline more attainable.

“Think of car manufacturing,” Johnson said. “We can learn quickly because we’re making them so quickly, so we can inject that new learning into the production and learn quicker and get down the cost curve.”

And unlike other projects, this one doesn’t rely on anyone being present for the tree to operate.

“We rely on the wind to blow across our sorbent as opposed to the other companies that are doing this all have big giant blowers or they blow the air,” Johnson said. “So we’re trying to avoid that cost.”

The effects of the Mechanical Trees won’t really be seen for five to seven years – the construction takes time, and the project’s future hinges on more investments and federal grants.

But for Johnson, the creation of these trees is personal.

“I’ve got four little kids and I want to be able to tell them I’ve tried to stop some of the bad consequences you’re having to deal with,” he said.

For now, the MechanicalTree team is collecting data on their model in Tempe.

It plans to load the tree with sorbent and start collecting CO2 in the next couple months.

If successful, there might be more of these mechanical trees across the nation in the next few years. ■

GOT NEWS? Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-898-5647 or pmaryniak@ timespublications.com

Travis Johnson, associate director of ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, holds a bag of sorbent inside a lab at the Biodesign Institute in Tempe on March 15, 2022. This material looks a lot like moon sand, but it actually attracts carbon like a magnet and soaks it up like a sponge. Each MechanicalTree will use 14,000 bags of sorbent. (Emma VandenEinde/

Cronkite News)

9

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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NEWS

Legislature OKs $400M for I-10 widening

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

R

elief may finally be on the way for Chandler motorists who get snarled in traffic in the corridor between the state’s two largest cities.

The state House on Monday gave final approval to spending $400 million to widen an approximately 25 mile stretch of Interstate 10 between Queen Creek Road on the edge of Chandler to State Route 287 outside of Casa Grande to three lanes in each direction. That matches what already exists on either side of the segment.

The Senate already has given its blessing and Gov. Doug Ducey, who asked for the funding in his State of the State speech, sign it on Wednesday.

Doug Nick, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said that $400 million won’t complete the job. But he said that commitment will qualify Arizona to apply for a share of the $5 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that is set aside for highway improvement projects. That could add another $300 million.

And Nick said the agency already has $260 million set aside to get the work started, bringing the entire project cost to about $1 billion.

That start, which could begin as early as 2023, will be on the pair of quarter-mile two-lane bridges over the Gila River. From there, he said, construction will start in 2024 to the north and south until the entire stretch is upgraded to three lanes.

Anticipated completion is set for 2026.

Nick said that $1 billion figure was crafted to account for inflation. He acknowledged, though, that the current unusually high increase in year-to-year costs for everything could complicate matters if it does not abate.

The state has been widening sections of the interstate, which stretches from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, for years. But the last section has been an issue.

Rep. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, who sponsored the $400 million appropriation, said some of that had to do with the fact that the stretch runs through the Gila River Indian Community.

“Their opposition mainly stemmed from they felt like they didn’t have a seat at the table originally when (the highway) was

al lifespan of 50 to 75 years, ADOT states.

“Since being constructed, they have been impacted twice by major flood events in the Gila River," the agency states.

“In 1983, flood waters washed over I-10, resulting in the closure of I-10 for several weeks for roadway and bridge repairs. It is estimated that the 1983 event’s river flow was three times greater than the flow for which the bridges were designed," it explains.

“Ten years later, another flood event resulted in flood waters rising within inches of the bridge girders, Widening the stretch of I-10 between Casa Grande and Ahwatu- causing concern that kee has been delayed by a rift between the Gila River Indian Com- floating debris could munity and state government that only recently has been bridged damage the bridge as a result of GRIC Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis. (ADOT) structures and force placed through the reservation," he said. another closure of I-10. In 1994, ADOT “And they hadn’t felt like an equal partner made modifications along and within throughout that process." the river near the bridges to help protect Shope said that has changed with the par- them from future flooding events." ticipation of GRIC Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis.

ADOT says that though it “has continuOn its website, ADOT said it is working ously repaired, reinforced and maintained with the Gila River Indian Community to the bridge structures since they were define the recommended bridge layout built, “as a bridge ages, the routine mainand estimated costs to replace the I-10 tenance becomes progressively more exbridges over the Gila River. ADOT states pensive. Recent inspections indicate that it has allocated $83 million for the bridge expensive deck and foundation repairs are replacement project in Fiscal Year 2023, necessary in the near future if the existing adding, “The funding amount is contingent bridges are to remain in place." on market conditions and final design."

It also said the two recent flooding “Once an agreement with the Gila River events, one for which covered the highIndian Community is finalized, ADOT is way, indicate that “the more cost-effective, committed to identifying and pursuing long-term solution may be to design and all possible funding options, including construct new bridges utilizing current defederal funding options, for improving sign standards and methods, enabling the the I-10 bridges over the Gila River," the bridges to withstand larger flood events. agency website states, adding that it must “This is especially critical, as another complete engineering and environmental- major flood event along the Gila River impact studies before it can be eligible for forcing an I-10 closure would significantly federal aid. impact the region’s mobility and emerThe I-10 bridges over the Gila River gency response times, and would have a were constructed in 1964 with a function- noticeable, negative impact on the local

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

and state economy," it says. “Newly designed bridges could also include wider shoulders, which would improve safety for everyone who travels over them.

“As the region continues to grow, the reliability, safety and structural integrity of the bridges over the Gila River are increasingly critical to travelers."

Despite the lopsided votes – 27-1 in the Senate and 55-1 in the House–- not everyone is convinced it’s a good idea to take money from the same pot that is used to fund the rest of state government.

The generally established practice involves ADOT borrowing money for projects, pledging future gasoline tax revenues and vehicle registration fees and leaving the dollars collected from state income, sales and other taxes untouched. Tapping the general fund for $400 million jump starts this specific project without affecting other road construction and repair priorities.

Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, cast the lone dissenting vote in the Senate.

It starts, she said, with the process.

She said that if the state has a fixed amount of money to spend in the general fund, then all priorities should be considered and compete for those funds at the same time. Ugenti-Rita said there should not be special carve outs.

Beyond that, she said there may be better ways of spending that much money.

“I want $400 million in tax cuts," UgentiRita said.

Shope acknowledged that this plan to use general fund tax collection dollars to put in a third lane in each direction is a departure from the normal process of borrowing money for new construction.

But he said this isn’t just any old road project.

“The Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce survey did a survey of residents,’’ Shope said. “And, of those who were gainfully employed, around 60% of them traveled to Phoenix for work."

That, he, said, is far different than a project like widening I-17 north of Anthem.

“That’s a lot of recreational traffic," Shope said. “This is a lot of commerce traffic just trying to do their daily jobs."

And he said that I-10 becomes the only east-west highway that is pretty much

see WIDEN page 11

NEWS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

VOTING from page 7

to hire the necessary paid circulators to get people to sign petitions to qualify the measure for the 2022 ballot.

So now Miller is hoping that GOP lawmakers do for him and his allies what they did for the Free Enterprise Club: put the issue on the November ballot without the need to gather signatures showing public support.

Theoretically speaking, all three could be approved in November. And if there are conflicting provisions, the measure that gets more votes would become law.

But what ultimately will be at play is whether Arizonans believe that the existing voting laws – including new restrictions that Republicans are enacting this year – are too lax or too restrictive.

The most comprehensive of these proposals is the initiative being pushed by Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections.

It would restore the “permanent early voting list" that lawmakers eliminated in 2021, ensuring that people who want can continue to get early ballots even if they do not use them for several years.

It also would require counting early ballots that are postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day – existing law says they have to be received by that deadline – and add to

WIDEN from page 10

guaranteed to be open and snow-free all winter, though Shope acknowledged there are stretches in Cochise County that do sometimes get snow.

Support was bipartisan.

“The I-10 is a vital artery that supports our entire state economy," said House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, D-Laveen.

“All kinds of commerce, agriculture, manufacturing, dry goods, even state legislators from Tucson all rely on the I-10 to connect our state’s two largest metropolitan areas," Bolding continued. “But one part of this artery there is a choke point that impacts safety and needs our investment and out attention."

He acknowledged there are a lot of priorities and demands for state funds, particular for education.

“But we also know infrastructure is where out attention is needed."

Ducey press aide C.J. Karamargin said the presence of I-10 and one where traffic flows easily is critical to the state’s economy.

“We have businesses, large companies,

the kinds of documents that those going to the polls could present to show their identification.

Then there’s the provision that says people are signed up to vote when they get a driver’s license unless they specifically opt out. It would repeal the 2016 law that makes it a crime for individuals to take someone else’s early ballots to a polling place.

And it would spell out that a signature on an early ballot envelope is sufficient to have the votes inside of it counted.

That directly conflicts with what’s been dubbed the Arizona for Voter ID Act, the one that GOP lawmakers agreed to put on the ballot for the Free Enterprise Club.

It seeks to spell out that those who use early ballots provide information beyond their signature on the early ballot envelopes.

That includes an affidavit with the voter’s date of birth and the number from one of several acceptable forms of identification. These include a driver’s license, a state-issued non-operating license, the last four digits of the person’s Social Security number, or a unique number issued by the secretary of state to those who lack the other types of ID. But it would leave it up to counties to decide whether that information would

have to be provided on a separate document that voters would need to remember to put into the envelope.

A similar requirement enacted in Texas reportedly resulted in thousands of votes not being counted.

The Arizona for Voter ID Act also would affect those who go to the polls on election day.

It would bar anyone from voting who does not provide an acceptable photo ID. Gone would be an alternate option of bringing in two different documents without a photo that contain the person’s name and address, like a utility bill, vehicle registration certificate or property tax statement.

The Easier to Vote, Harder to Cheat proposal that lobbyist Lee Miller and other Republicans hope to get lawmakers to put on the ballot takes a somewhat different approach to early ballots.

It would continue to permit voters to provide only their signature on the envelopes. But it would prohibit people from dropping off such an early ballot at a voting center after 7 p.m. on the Friday before election day.

There still would be an option for those who want to bring their early ballots to a polling place on Election Day. But they could not simply drop it off, as is the case

first big rig trucks off the line last month, chose Coolidge because of freeway access.

Rep. Richard Andrade, D-Glendale, also voted for the plan. But he told colleagues they should keep in mind there are other priorities.

“We also have many Arizona roads and highways that need to be improved,’’ he said. And Andrade said he is counting on lawmakers making further investments as the full budget is negotiated. ■

GOT NEWS? Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-898-5647 or pmaryniak@ timespublications.com

ADOT says, “The Gila River is eroding material away from the shallow bridge foundations” beneath a critical stretch of I-10. “While this is not an immediate concern, this could become a serious problem if we do nothing,” the agency says on its website. (ADOT. manufacturing companies that are choosing Arizona because of our proximity to

interstate highways,’’ he said. For example, he said Nikola Motor Co. which rolled its

11

now, but instead would be required to stand in line and provide the same kind of voter ID as those who were standing in line to vote that day.

It also seeks to require that ballots be scanned and the images placed online for public viewing as well as mandates county officials to set up a system so those who cast early ballots can be sure their votes were counted.

And it says anyone who needs to "cure"a ballot where election officials question whether the signature matches would have only through 7 p.m. on Election Day. Current law gives them up to five day to resolve the issue, which sometimes can be done through a phone call, and ensure their vote is counted.

The initiative proposal by Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections actually deals with more than the voting process.

If approved, it would provide more cash for candidates who choose to run with public funds.

Conversely, it would scale back the limits on donations by private individuals and political action committees who now can give up to $6,250 to candidates every election cycle to no more than $2,500 to those running for statewide office and $1,000 for legislative, city, town or county offices. ■

12

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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Mesa Girl Scout’s wheelchair device earns big award

BY JUSTIN LIGGIN Tribune Contributor

O

ne day while selling Girl Scout Cookies in front of a grocery store, Mesa Girl Scout Ariella Hirsch noticed a veteran in a wheelchair go by her booth carrying a plastic bag in his mouth with groceries inside.

“I know I would not want to have to resort to using my mouth to carry groceries, especially ones as heavy as milk. So I started to think, there has to be a better way to do this, to carry bags, groceries, and things,” said Ariella.

After witnessing this, Ariella set off to create a device that offers more independence to chair users – a project that earned her the most prestigious honor in Girl Scouts, a Gold Award.

The Helping Hand is a patent-pending, “do it yourself” device made from PVC pipes that attach to the handles of a manual wheelchair, freeing up both hands so

Mesa Girl Scout Ariella Hirsch won the coveted Gold Award for inventing a device from PVC pipes that helps wheelchair-bound people carry bags and other small items.

(Justin Loggin/Tribune Contributor)

used, Ariella created demonstration videos for her website (helpinghand4vets. com) and a downloadable PDF document with instructions for creating the device on your own.

“This is meant to be an easy, affordable and efficient project that anyone can easily create. All the parts can be purchased for under $20 at any home improvement store and each one can be customized for any manual wheelchair with the handles in the back,” said Ariella.

With over 800 views on her website from around the world and 300 downloads of her instructions and counting, in addition to reaching thousands on Facebook and receiving feedback from users and professionals, Ariella’s Gold Award project has made an undeniable impact on the community and provided a solution to a communitywide problem.

“The feedback I have received has been

an individual can move their chair while being able to carry and more easily access

their possessions.

To demonstrate how Helping Hand is

at ASU, Mancinas works as a writing tutor at Gateway Community College.

He said he’s sold chapbooks – often selfpublished pamphlets – of his poetry but only now is he getting a full appreciation for the process of publishing with his first major fictional work.

“You don’t realize there are entire teams and communities that make it possible,” he said.

Mancinas was born in Mesa but comes from Rarámuri ancestry in the Mexican State of Chihuahua, an indigenous group famous for their long-distance running.

It’s this ancestry that he draws from for the pride in his roots and serves as a parttime labor organizer for United Campus Workers of Arizona Local 7065.

Nonetheless, he’s still a millennial who takes great pride in Mesa, especially his

Mesa native and Arizona State University doctoral student Oscar Mancinas’ first book won a regional award. (Josh Ortega/Tribune Writer)

Mesa native wins award with his first book

BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer

T

hough his neighborhood came out of struggle, Mesa native Oscar Mancinas focuses on what comes with the next generation.

Oscar Mancinas, a PhD student at the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, recently received the 2022 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association.

It’s the first major work published by the 32-year-old author. Titled “To Live and Die in El Valle,” it is a collection of 13 short stories about various characters that grow up in a fictional version of the Salt River Valley.

“I’d like to think the book is about creating a sense of belonging,” he said.

When he isn’t spending long hours finishing his doctorate in Latino and Indigenous Literary Work in the 20th century

see MACINAS page 14

see SCOUT page 14

14

COMMUNITY

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

MACINAS from page 13

Volunteer honored Mesa resident Katie Vietri is the winner of this year’s Desert Financial Credit Union Volunteer Captain of the Year Award.

Vietri volunteered 152 hours in 2021 – the equivalent of nearly an entire month of full-time work. Vietri has a passion for the United Food Bank and Keep Tempe Beautiful. She consistently led monthly volunteer projects at both sites and frequently went above and beyond to make sure events ran smoothly and had coverage. She often used her vacation days to volunteer in the community. Desert Financial Credit Union encourages its employees to volunteer, and in 2021, employees volunteered more than 12,000 hours, both in person and virtually. The Volunteer Captain of the Year receives a trophy, bag of local and sustainable gifts, $200 gift card, and the opportunity to select a charity for Desert Financial to donate $1,000. Vietri has chosen Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona to receive the donation in her name.

(Special to the Tribune)

SCOUT from page 13

heartfelt gratitude from Veterans, children, and caregivers. Many in the occupational therapy field have accessed my project and shared it with their communities,” said Ariella.

On the road to completing her project and becoming a nationally recognized Girl Scout Gold Awardee, Ariella learned a number of important lessons about herself, her capabilities, and the communities that she serves.

“I learned that Veterans are a tight supportive family, just like Girl Scouts in their camaraderie,” said Ariella. “I learned that I can make a real difference in the lives of others and that it takes a team. I also learned that my world is not just my classmates, but the adults who share the planet with me, and that we are more connected than I ever imagined.”

A Girl Scout for 12 years, Ariella’s participation in Girl Scouts has provided her with lifelong experiences, friends, and more.

“Girl Scouts has always been my rock.

My best friends have been with me since first grade,” said Ariella. “When I moved to a new state and school at the beginning of my sophomore year, I immediately sought out a new Girl Scout troop.”

As a recipient of the Gold Award for her Helping Hand project, Ariella has cemented herself in her community and the world as a changemaker and innovator for her ability to discover solutions and truly make a difference.

Ariella is currently a junior at Arizona State University Polytechnic Preparatory in Mesa and is taking multiple courses at colleges across Mesa.

After finishing her high school and university programs, Ariella plans to earn

her undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in engineering and later attend film school at the University of Southern California to become a filmmaker, writer, and producer.

“I want to mix my love of science and writing. I have already completed my first science fiction novel and have finished the first act of my first science fiction screenplay,” said Ariella.

Ariella’s journey to the Gold Award was not easy, but in the end, it has provided her and many others a new outlook on life.

“As I look back at this journey, I see how much I have grown,” said Ariella. “To see the world as so big, and yet so small. To see how we are all connected, and that even a child can have the attention of adults when they are making the world a better place. I did it. I’ve become a Girl Scout Gold Awardee!” ■

neighborhood: the Washington-Escobedo Heritage Neighborhood.

“It feels dope to rep the hometown,” he said.

The book centers around 13 different stories of young Latino characters ranging in age from 11 to 30 and capturing life growing up in the late '90s to mid 2000s.

He said the most notable event in the Fall of 2001 including the September 11th attacks and the Diamondbacks winning the World Series, along with some other facts about the time.

“Very few of the characters have cell phones,” he said.

Mancinas said he doesn’t take from his own life experiences but from a common thread that most Mexican-Americans experience living in the United States – born, naturalized or undocumented.

“It’s about navigating that struggle and to have something to give to the community and be a part of the community,” he explained.

Some of his favorite authors include James Baldwin, Stella Pope Duarte, and Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert.”

He said the biggest challenges came with balancing what feels necessary with over-indulging, as well as to avoid perpetuating any damaging depictions or misrepresented stereotypes.

“I don’t want to just define us by what we don’t have,” he said.

That derives from his upbring in Washington-Escobedo, a neighborhood born out of segregation but whose residents overcome regardless of the circumstances.

“It hasn’t always been easy but we found ways to make it work,” he said. ■

GOT NEWS? Contact pmaryniak@ timespublications.com

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Obituaries 480-898-6465 • obits@timespublications.com Deadline: Wednesday by 5pm for Sunday

Patricia Mary Kunz

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Patricia was born May 18, 1940, in Cleveland, OH and attended St. Mary's Academy. She married and raised 3 sons in Simi Valley, CA. Later in life, she relocated to Mariposa, CA, where she worked as a loan officer for a local Bank of America branch. Patricia enjoyed making arts & crafts, and singing in the local choir every chance she got.

A divorce after more than 40 years of marriage brought Patricia to Sacramento, CA where she began a new chapter of her life close to her oldest son, Ray and his wife, Jeanie. In her twilight years, Patricia moved to Arizona to enjoy the warm weather. Patricia is also a 20+ year breast cancer survivor.

Patricia is preceded in death by her parents, Vincent and Mable; and ex-husband, Roger. Patricia is survived by her 3 sons, Raymond, Ronald, and Richard; along with her sister Mary and brother Michael Sr. Visitation will be held at 11:00 am Saturday, May 21, 2022 at Superstition Cremation and Funeral Service at 398 E Old West Hwy, Apache Junction, AZ 85119 with a service following. Pat asked that in-lieu of flowers, donations be made to either the Alzheimers Disease Research Foundation dba Cure Alzheimer's Fund, or the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

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THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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BUSINESS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

17

SEND YOUR BUSINESS NEWS TO PMARYNIAK@ TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM TheMesaTribune.com

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Mesa home prices rose 55% over two years, data show

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor

T

he average sale price of a single-family house in Mesa has increased 55% in two years and while home prices likely will continue to rise, mortgage rates and an apparent cooling in demand may spell trouble ahead for sellers, a leading Valley housing analyst said last week.

Mesa was not alone in seeing such a staggering increase in average sale prices among 17 Valley cities that the Cromford Report routinely monitors: 12 of the 17 cities saw the average sale price jump by at least 60% between the 17th week of 2020 and the 17th week of 2022. The average sale price of a Mesa home in that period rose from $353,810 to $547,196, according to the report.

Valley-wide, the Cromford Report reported that over the past six weeks, “active listing counts are rising very strongly” – up more than 32% in a month – and

This 6,149-square-foot house on East Grandview Street in Mesa, which also includes a 799-square-foot guest house, recently sold for just over $2 million. Built in 1986, the two-story, six-bedroom, 6 ½-bath house boasts a wrought-iron staircase, upgraded kitchen and fireplaces in the family room and master bedroom, among other amenities. (Special to the Tribune)

nix metro housing market shows rents are starting to fall slightly, available rental units are increasing and nervous landlords are starting to offer deals to attract tenants.

Over the last few weeks, the Cromford Report has been identifying data that prompted it to state on April 22: “Almost everybody is saying rents are going up.

Not in Phoenix, they’re not. With rents going down and mortgage rates and home purchase prices going up, the argument for buying over renting is starting to look significantly weaker.”

In the housing market, Cromford Report said rising mortgage interest rates and rising prices are discouraging potential new buyers from entering the market, citing a 6% decline in listings under contract in April.

“Closed sales are also down more than 9% from April 2021,” it said. “Demand is weak and getting weaker.

called it “one of the most dramatic shifts in direction we have ever seen.”

“If this trend continues for several months the market dynamics will change

significantly,” it said.

Cromford Report also called out media reports of a continuing surge in rent, saying the most recent data from the Phoe-

Valenta described Boretsky as a “hippy gypsy and very free spirited.” Bohemian clothing, along accessories, jewelry, candles, oils and teas, and local artisan items, fill the cozy store.

“We would go around Mill Avenue and have our hair braided, and go to vegan restaurants, which weren’t popular yet, to have hummus and tea,” she recalled about time with her mom. “It was a blast. That’s my memory of the things we used to do back in the ’70s. Having the tea and the scents in the store has a lot to do with that.”

Opening What’s Up Buttercup? was bittersweet, she said through tears. Boretsky would have loved it.

“She would be manning the front and I would be the one in back taking care of all the details,” she said. “I’m more of a detail person. She loved people and merchandise.

“People would look for her when she

Carina Valenta is keeping her mom’s spirit alive with her Northeast store, What’s Up Buttercup? (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

see HOUSING page 18

What’s Up Buttercup? reflects mom’s hippy style

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI Tribune Staff Writer

W

hen Carina Valenta was young, she and her mother enjoyed teatime at home and restaurants. They discussed their future, which included owning a retail store.

Her mom died, but Valenta is keeping her spirit alive with the Northeast Mesa boutique What’s Up Buttercup? At McKellips and Recker roads, What’s Up Buttercup? is a few doors down from Mozzie Fox, the salon owned by her sister, Laurie DeBusk.

“My mom (Rosemary Boretsky) would take me out to tea, and it was so much fun,” Valenta said. “I would ask, ‘Do I have to use my pinky now?’ It was really funny.

A lot of what I have in here has to do with my mom. I’m honoring her.

“Tea is important to me – tea and the fun, bright colors. I have that in here because I know she would really enjoy them.”

see BUTTERCUP page 18

18

BUSINESS

HOUSING from page 17

“The overall effect is a major cooling event, turning a hot housing market into one that still favors sellers (for now) but is looking increasingly dangerous with each passing day. It only favors sellers because the supply is still very low compared with a normal market. But if supply continues to increase, as looks very likely at this point, we could quickly find ourselves with as many sellers as buyers.

“The market does not turn on a dime, but it can certainly change dramatically over a handful of months, as it did between August and November 2005,” it added, suggesting “we are now entering a very different phase of the market cycle.”

But discouraged buyers won’t see prices falling any time soon, it added, noting that the per-square-foot price average jumped 4.1% in April.

“But this reflects the huge imbalance between supply and demand that existed two months ago,” it said. “That imbalance is much smaller today and is shrinking noticeably with every passing day. We are entering a much more uncertain period and great caution is advisable.

“The mid-range market between April 2021 and April 2022 has been largely driven by enthusiastic investors. If their enthusiasm dissipates and turns to fear we could see far more rapid change than we have become used to.”

Cromford Report noted late last month that inventory of for-sale homes is rising while the number of closings is trending

BUTTERCUP from page 17

worked in retail. Even when she was semiretired, she was still a hippy gypsy. She always said she had a gypsy spirit.”

Even the moniker reflects Boretsky’s loves. When Valenta was struggling to come up with a name, she turned to DeBusk.

“I have a bit of my brother (Kenny Flanagan) with the music I bring in,” she said.

“It’s happy, upbeat music. In talking to my sister, she said, ‘You’ll know it when you know it. It’ll come to you.’

“I work at a hospital and when I was walking around the corner to go into the breakroom, I said to one of my coworkers, ‘What’s Up Buttercup?’ She thought it was so sweet. I went to text my sister and she had just texted me, ‘You should name it What’s Up Buttercup?’ I knew that was it. I knew mom was watching

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

ments,” it stated.

“At the moment the number of homes for sale remains very far below normal, but we have seen before how it can increase sharply if more sellers emerge just as demand is declining.”

Stating that the sellers market is slowly deteriorating in 17 major Valley municipalities, the Cromford Report said that between mid-March and mid-April, Cromford Report noted, “We have seen a 34% increase in the number of new rental listings added to ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service) compared with the same four weeks in 2021.

It added there has also been a 20% increase in the number of rental homes available in the Valley over the past four weeks.

Cromford Report is not (This chart by the Cromford Report compares home sale saying rents are heading price averages in 17 Valley municipalities between week 17 of 2020 and that of 2022. (Cromford Report) back to pre-pandemic levels – a scenario no housing exdownward. pert anywhere is saying is on the horizon.

“April is supposed to be one of the best But what it means, it said, is “renters of months for the market, but new contract single-family detached homes are seeing signings are significantly lower than last far more choice than they did last year and year. This means active listings are stay- we are starting to see homes advertised ing active longer and inventory is start- with ‘the first month’s rent is free.’ Rental ing to build in most (but not all) seg- supply is particularly strong in Gilbert.

over us, seeing what we were doing.

When things get tough, she was always the one who lifted us up.”

In her own way, Valenta is doing the same. The idea for What’s Up Buttercup? was derived during the pandemic.

“It was a very dark time for a lot of people,” she said. “I wanted to bring a sense of community here, to have a happy place to go to and hang out for a little bit. We have something for everyone.” ■

“This appears to be a significant turnaround in the rental market and it does not seem to have been recognized by the media outlets, who are mostly still referring to rising rents. That is so 2021.”

Meanwhile, for those trying to buy or sell a house, the data is mixed but leaving no one much to necessarily cheer about, according to the data supplied by the Cromford Report and various other sources.

The Cromford Report has developed an index for 17 Valley cities that measures how far each is tilted toward either sellers or buyers, with 100 indicating a balanced market. While indices in all 17 submarkets were pointed downward last week, the lowest threshold was 210 in Buckeye whole the highest was 537 in Avondale. Mesa was at 411. That means all the markets are still weighted heavily toward sellers.

In a report April 30, it looks at monthly average sale prices in the 17 Valley submarkets it monitors for the 17th week of 2020 and compared it to that of this year.

The average percentage different between the old average price and the current one was at least 50% in all but three of the 17 communities: Tempe, 48%; Sun City, 46% and Fountain Hills, 34%.

But don’t feel sorry for Fountain Hills: it posted the fourth highest average sales price in the Valley with $922,843 – behind only the three communities with sevenfigure average home sale prices: Paradise Valley, $4.35 million; Scottsdale, $1.46 million; and Cave Creek, $1.15 million. ■

If You Go...

What: What’s Up Buttercup Where: 6008 E. McKellips Road, Suite 4, Mesa Hours: Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday Info: 480-743-5781 • hibuttercup.com Instagram: whatsupbuttercupaz info@hibuttercup.com

At What’s Up Buttercup Bohemian clothing, along accessories, jewelry, candles, oils and teas, and local artisan items, fill the cozy store. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

19

20

OPINION

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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Lost in Adel’s death is a recognition of her humanity

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist

S

he served as Maricopa County Attorney for 900 days, the first woman to hold the office.

But Allister Adel was more than that.

Dead too soon at age 45, Adel was many things that rarely mattered during her time in the public eye. She was a daughter, a wife and a mother of two grade-school boys. She loved her dogs, and the Rotary Club. She was a loyal friend to those who knew her.

Adel also dwelled in the world of politics, though. For many people, especially those who opposed her brand of conservative Republican politics, that meant she was worse than human detritus.

Adel was a villain, a punching bag, a piñata. The way politics is practiced today, it is never enough simply to disagree with those we oppose. Instead, we must

smash them to bits.

This is true of both sides, red and blue, Dem and GOP. Nowadays, to talk politics is mostly to spew hate. Even if it means attacking a person at their most vulnerable points and grinding them to dust.

With Adel, who I counted as a friend, it is no secret that she struggled with alcohol. I am not here to suggest that the media, which covered her foibles in office with urgency, was wrong to do so. To hold public office is to be in the spotlight, and rightly so. Adel was accused of too many absences, of failing to maintain her sobriety, of not being the top prosecutor our county needs. She denied the charges, but still they kept coming. Until on March 21, she stepped down.

Five weeks later she was dead, having suffered what her family described as “health complications.”

Across the cesspool that is social media wafted a sense of glee from noxious bastards and bots.

From Twitter moron @Peterson_JFrank: “I believe in karma big time… This bitch got what she deserved… I will piss on her grave if I ever have the chance….”

From @Shannonagain2: “AA had no problem *legally* destroying lives. no guilt, here. She was a menace. Corrupt. As are most attorneys. AND POLITICIANS.” From @SRunningcloud: “She was a wicked woman. Her acts of racism reached the level of genocide. She’s burning in Hell.

No doubt. That’s how much bad karma she has to work out. Eternal fire of hell is what Allister Adel has earned from her time on Earth.”

This vomitus spew was not reserved merely for Adel’s death. As she struggled publicly through rehab and with the responsibilities of her position, her every move drew not just stories, but hot takes, name calling and a sense of joy that peaked with each sign of struggle.

This is our mentality now: It isn’t enough to campaign for those we support;

we must loathe the opponent, demonize them, root for a failure of their policies and – even better – their heart.

Ironically, I first met Adel a decade ago, when we both spent time helping Mesa business Wil Cardon run for the U.S. Senate against Jeff Flake. Wil, a sensitive soul, spent millions of his own wealth on that campaign, only to get trounced when outside interests spent many more millions on attack ads.

Ridiculed for losing, Wil wandered through a campaign for Secretary of State two years later. Three years later, his depression finally got to him. Wil died by suicide at age 45.

As politics has turned to bloodsport, we seem to have forgotten that the names of the ballot are actual human beings. They love, hurt, bleed, struggle, die.

I will miss Allister as I have missed Wil. I will feel forevermore like the price they paid to serve us was extracted from them in the days they never got to live. ■

party lines to achieve common-sense public policy.

If only.

In Washington, the truly accurate definition of “bipartisan” is quite different.

The “Dissembling Dictionary of ‘Swampspeak’” defines it as “Republicans caving into Democrats and their media cheerleaders to enact policies at odds with GOP promises.”

And that was the purpose of the late April meeting among a quartet belonging to the “World’s Most Exclusive Club.”

For the Democrats, it involved Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration. For the Republicans, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas was joined by Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Because three of the four will not face voters again until 2026, they are essen-

tially immune from current political pressure. Padilla will try to win a full six -year term this fall. Given California’s transformation from “Golden State” into “Third World wannabe,” the freshman Senator probably considers his role in formalizing this “final amnesty” will not only guarantee his place in history, but keep him in the Senate for as long as he wishes to remain.

“Final amnesty” is exactly the goal here, but the two Republicans who are part of this group are rationalizing that their involvement will somehow bring “improvements” to any final legislative product.

Instead, they’ll end up with a couple of crumbs. And the United States will end up as a nation profoundly changed.

While it’s true that the Senate declined to take up an earlier House passed-bill, that stalled legislation provides clues about what a final product may include: “temporary” legal status for some il-

legal border crossers and measures to “streamline” legal immigrant processing.

Tillis doggedly clings to the Chamber of Commerce vision of an unfettered flow of foreign workers, depressing wages for Americans and shifting healthcare costs for those new workers onto taxpayers, and claims with a straight face that his “bipartisan efforts” will actually help the country.

“This is the time to maybe set politics aside a little bit and get good policy in place so we can do our part to lessen the burden that people are feeling here in the country,” Tillis said. North Carolina’s junior senator is mistaken to believe that his newfound allies across the aisle will ever “set politics aside.”

Democrats want cheap votes; Republicans like Tillis want cheap labor.

But with 60 votes needed to pass such

Senate Republicans betray values for cheap labor

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

T

.S. Eliot made the celebrated observation that “April is the cruelest month” in his critically acclaimed poem, “The Wasteland,” published in 1922. A century later, a small group of U.S. Senators gathered late in that cruel month to formulate a cruel fate for our nation.

Under the banner of “bipartisanship,” these senators have proclaimed that they are “practical problem solvers.” In reality, they will create an even larger problem: delivering amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens who have flooded into our country…and who continue to cross our porous southern border with the complete cooperation of the Biden Administration.

You might think “bipartisan” means Republicans and Democrats working across

see HAYWORTH page 21

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

Please do your part to ‘stamp out hunger’

BY JERRY BROWN Tribune Guest Writer

F

or the past 30 years across America – and nearly a half century in Arizona – United States Postal Service letter carriers have used the second Saturday in May to give back to their communities: Using their mail trucks to conduct the largest single-day food drive in the world.

But for the past two years, as with so many things in our day-to-day lives, Stamp Out Hunger was put on hold due to the pandemic. More than 140 million pounds of food that annually gave food banks around the United States a head start into the summer months, disappeared. The impact was felt everywhere.

The good news? Stamp Out Hunger is back for 2022. And here’s where you come in.

To participate, please leave a bag of nonperishable food at your mailbox on Saturday May 14 before your mail normally arrives. Your letter carrier will do the rest, taking the food back to the post office where food bank trucks will be waiting for your donation. They will put

HAYWORTH from page 20

a bill, who are the 10 Republicans we can expect to see vote “aye?”

Let’s begin with the three most likely to abandon their party: Romney of Utah, Murkowski of Alaska, and Collins of Maine. Then come the Republican retirees looking to line up lobbying work as “former senators”: Shelby of Alabama, Blunt of Missouri, Burr of North Carolina, Portman of Ohio, and Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Look for the GOP Leadership to provide a couple of votes—Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Leader Mitch McConnell (RKY)—and Voila! Ten Republican votes for amnesty, with Thom Tillis to spare!

Expect John Cornyn to abandon the bill at some point; his Texas constituents will set him straight…but conceivably five more GOP’ers could vote yes.

In that fashion, Republicans will again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the Senate, and richly deserve the dubious distinction of “The Stupid Party.”

Sorry if that sounds cruel. ■

a thank you card into the mailbox to let you know your food is on the way to a family in need.

With inflation sending food, gas and rent prices soaring and families teetering on the brink of disaster over the edge, St. Mary’s and food banks around the state of Arizona are asking you to help make a difference.

United Food Bank, St. Vincent de Paul, Desert Mission Food Bank and a host of smaller food banks and pantries will also benefit from your generosity.

Without Stamp Out Hunger drives in 2020 and 2021, St. Mary’s lost nearly one

million pounds of food at a critical time of the year. Kids who receive breakfast and lunch in school are now home for the summer, adding to costs for families at a time when food prices have skyrocketed.

This drive has a special place in the heart of St. Mary’s and letter carriers in Arizona. In the early 70s, a group of letter carriers in West Phoenix and Glendale decided to give up their Sunday and asked people to leave food on their doorsteps on Mother’s Day. They used

OPINION

their own vehicles and family members to collect the donations for St. Mary’s, a tradition that continued until the USPS took Stamp Out Hunger national in 1990.

Your role is so simple, yet so important.

You may see a reminder card and a plastic bag in your mailbox this week.

You can use that bag for your donation if you wish but any bag of any size will do. This is a great time to clean out your pantry for the spring or the garage if you stocked up on canned food during COVID. This is a simple way to help people in need without leaving your driveway!

We have all been through so much in the past two years. But what has stayed strong is the compassion we have for our fellow man and the desire to give back to those who need a helping hand. Please remember Stamp Out Hunger on Saturday May 14 and thank your letter carrier for all their hard work that day.

Jerry Brown is a spokesman for St. Mary’s Food Bank . ■

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Desert Ridge alum ready for NFL career

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

D

J Davidson was built for the National Football League.

At 6-foot-3, 327 pounds, the former Desert Ridge Jaguar and Arizona State Sun Devil knew his sophomore year of college he had a chance to make a career out of the game he fell back in love with as a freshman in high school. He improved his work ethic and his on-field performance hoping to impress NFL scouts.

His draft grade from experts projected him to be picked during the later rounds, but he was eager and ready for any opportunity that came his way. On Saturday, in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, it finally came as

he was picked No. 147 overall by the New York Giants.

“I think the number one thing when it comes to the whole experience, I always thank God for the opportunity itself,” Davidson said. “I really just want to inspire the people in that community. Whether they go to Desert Ridge or Skyline or Highland or all of Arizona.

“The opportunity of a lifetime is right in front of them the same as anyone else. I want to inspire others, inspire younger kids to really chase after their dreams.”

Davidson’s first experience with tackle football came in a local Pop Warner league. He played for a few months before deciding it wasn’t for him.

But as a freshman at Desert Ridge, he dabbled with the sport

again. This time, he fell in love.

As a junior he was elevated to the varsity roster to play offensive and defensive line for the Jaguars. At that point he was already well over 6-feet tall and 300 pounds. It didn’t take long for him to become a standout player and one of the most dominant big men in the state.

In 12 games he accounted for 57 total tackles as a junior, 26 of those were solo. He also had

see DAVIDSON page 23

Arizona State defensive lineman DJ Davidson, a Desert Ridge alum, is ready to take the next step in his football career as he was drafted in the fourth round by the New York Giants on Saturday, April 30.

(Courtesy Robert Kline and CactusRanch.com)

Mountain View’s upgrades setting it apart

BY AARON HEALY Tribune Contributing Writer

M

ountain View High school was established in 1976, making it the third public high school to open in Mesa, Arizona.

In 2018, the school proposed a project to upgrade the academic and athletic facilities.

Construction began spring of 2021 that included renovations to the football and baseball fields.

In addition, a new sand volleyball court was constructed along with reconditioning of the tennis courts this year.

The proposed budget was approximately $35 million, but Assistant Principal, Danielle Fuchs, explains why the deal grew to nearly $55 million.

“The biggest challenge that we have navigated in this process is all the increase in costs, that’s an economic issue,” Fuchs said.

Not only has Mountain View had to deal with rising material costs, but also delays

The upgrades done to Mountain View’s campus over the course of the last year have helped set the school apart from others in the Mesa district and others across the East Valley and state. It includes a full-sized artificial turf practice field that can be utilized by multiple programs. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff) in obtaining equipment.

“When we order all of the equipment that we need for a project, the wait time

for some of these things is debilitating, so rather than it coming in a month, like it usually does, there is 20-week wait times,”

Fuchs said.

These setbacks have affected some of the projects that they are still working on.

They have completed the upgrades to the football facility bringing in brand new turf on the main playing field, as well as cleaning and new paint on the bleachers.

After the plans were approved for updating the football stadium, Mountain View hired a new football coach, Joe Germaine. Germaine and the Toros enjoyed playing on new turf fields this past season.

He believes Mountain View has something pretty cool that not too many other high schools possess.

“Something that separates us from some of the other schools is we also have a full sized turfed practice field,” Germaine said.

The future is bright for the Toros football team having been granted new stadium upgrades, not to mention a new scoreboard.

see UPGRADES page 23

SPORTS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

DAVIDSON from page 22

four total sacks, the second-most on the team that year. His production carried over as a senior where he accounted for 19.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. He, along with standout defensive end Jalen Harris, were a dominant force up front for the Jaguars.

They helped lead Desert Ridge to the 2015 state title game against Centennial.

Despite a loss, the run helped cap off a stellar career for Davidson. One that he cherishes to this day.

“It’s gone by quick,” Davidson said. “The four years in high school, the five years at ASU. I think looking back on it, it’s really special because it’s your dream. When I started playing high school, it was a dream and something I had fun with and something I loved to compete at every day. It’s now something I want to make a career of every day.”

Davidson went on to Arizona State where he became a run-stuffing nose tackle. His frame, along with his quickness and strength, wreaked havoc at times for opposing offensive lines.

He elected to stay at ASU for a fifth

UPGRADES from page 22

“Our principal secured a brand new scoreboard for our football field, and that has not broken ground yet, but it’s actually going to be the biggest scoreboard in the state,” Germaine said.

On the future agenda for the Toros is a plan to build a football team meeting room.

All of the renovations to Mountain View’s athletic facilities are what Germaine believes the community takes pride in.

“Mountain View is a place that has a lot of support and has some amazing families and kids that live in the area,” Germaine said. “Mountain View is a school that has a lot of tradition and success over the years and so a lot of people take pride in that and support that.”

The construction did cause the football team some challenges. It moved them from their regular practice field to fields at adjacent junior high schools.

“As soon as last year ended, that’s when they really began the full court press on getting everything completed and it took the whole summer,” Germaine said. “During that time we were not able to use any of our football facilities, so any practice we had we actually practiced at our junior highs.”

The football program was not the only

season where he had arguably one of his best outings for a team that was in contention for the PAC-12 South title most of the season. He had 57 total tackles, 6.5 of those for a loss.

Much like his time at Desert Ridge, he cherished his career with the Sun Devils.

It helped him grow as a football player, a teammate and a husband to his wife.

He played alongside the likes of Highland alum Tyler Johnson and Chandler alum Chase Lucas. Lucas was picked in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions.

Johnson signed as an undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens.

There are many other former Arizona high school stars that ended up on an NFL roster, including those who Davidson played against in high school. Perry quarterback Brock Purdy was drafted in the seventh round as Mr. Irrelevant to the San Francisco 49ers. Many others signed after the draft.

Davidson the talent that has come before him and that will come after him is a testament to the players that often go overlooked in Arizona.

“I think it puts Arizona on the map and that there is talent here,” Davidson said.

“There’s kids with mad talent here that just need an opportunity, need a chance to see something bigger than themselves. It’s a state where there is a bunch of talent with teams that are hungry, teams that are driven, kids that want to get to that next level.

“For us to be the foundation for future kids even though we’ve had a foundation set from those before us, is really cool.”

Davidson spent Thursday and Friday watching the draft at home.

Saturday, he gathered with his family at a local clubhouse with a three-television setup. He was expecting to be glued to the TV all day, but his name was called earlier than expected.

All he had wanted was an opportunity to go to the next level. Now, he can say he’s fulfilled that dream. But the work is far from over.

“All glory to God,” Davidson wrote on social media after he was drafted. “He works in ways He can only see! Walk by faith not by sight! The opportunity of a lifetime He has given my family and I! Thank you, Giants for believing in me!

Time to work. ■

Davidson spent the day with his family huddled around the television waiting for his name to be called. He didn’t have to wait long as he was taken at No. 147 overall and now begins his NFL career.

(Courtesy Robert Kline and CactusRanch.com)

Mountain View’s football stadium was the first to be outfitted with a new turf field. It was finished before the start of the 2021 season last fall. Now, plans are in place to install a new scoreboard to the field along with other miscellaneous projects across the entire school that will be finished by 2023. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff) area that received upgrades in the athletic department. Athletic Director Joe Goodman shared some of the other upgrades for the school.

“The track team has added new throwing spaces with permanent lines on that practice field,” Goodman said. “Our baseball field had a major releveling project on the infield. Our baseball boosters sponsored a project that converted a hitting area into a turfed hitting area.”

23

Mountain View has produced many topnotch athletes. While the athletic department is a big part of Mountain View as a whole, there are also academic upgrades that Mountain View is accomplishing.

“We’re making statements that everything we do is going to be at the next level,” Oliver said. “We’re serious about it. Learning is going to look different, you’ll be able to choose a career path.”

“The career path that we’re starting to

flesh out is global engagement, but we’re going to have multiple career paths, not just one or two. It’ll be like college,” Oliver added.

Oliver explained whatever students want to do, whether it be a police officer, a forensic scientist, a lawyer or an elected official, all of their classes will be focused on the desired career path that they choose.

Mountain View will seek community members that want to be a part of something special to be on campus, mentoring kids towards their specific career interests.

An example of a student’s opportunity to focus on a specific career path is: if a student wants to be a police officer, they will major in global engagement at Mountain View.

“The commander of the Mesa police said, ‘Hey, we’ll give kids actual cold cases that have never been solved right here in Mesa, crimes that have taken place that went cold,’” Oliver said. “There’s a group of kids somewhere back east that actually solved a cold case.”

Mountain View is coming up with innovative ways in engaging students to take the lead in their own education. Several of the projects are still underway.

Mountain View hopes to have renovations and upgrades completed by February 2023. ■

24

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GetOutAZ @GetOutAZ

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Big Apple comedian bringing personal humor to EV all platforms.

He said he landed the Gilbert gig by reaching out to JP’s Comedy Club.

“As an up and coming comedian I personally reach out to comedy clubs to book work,” he said. “Hopefully one day an agent/manager can do all this for me so I can just sit back, relax, focus on writing jokes, play with my cat, and finally watch some TV shows and baseball.”

He’s no stranger to Arizona, having done casino shows in the Camp Verde and Mesa areas. “While I was in the state I also stopped by Phoenix and did a show at a video game store/bar that was fun,” he said.

Though he’s been performing professionally for seven years, he said, “I actually did my very first set in the 7th grade but did not do another set until college.”

Camacho and other comedians are still recovering from the pandemic’s impact.

“It was very tough during the pandemic, not just financially but mentally because I had done stand-up every single

day for six years prior to the lockdown,” Camacho said.

“It was almost like I was in rehab. I coped by doing Zoom comedy shows- which were awful, taking trips to states that were more open and able to do comedy shows, and also by building my social media following.

“Getting into TikTok, Instagram, and all those apps really helped me still be creative and also make some money. I also took up some freelance writing gigs to help stay afloat. I got fired from all of them – I’m unable to write for other people, sadly.”

Camacho said that besides rapping about his personal life, “I just find inconsistencies in the world while making sure the crowd is laughing every 10-15 seconds.

“I rarely talk politics- if I do it’s silly. I like to do crowd work, too. I don’t make fun of people or roast anyone. I like to have conversations and make subtle jokes throughout. When people come to my show I really want them to feel like they just hung out with a good friend, cracked open a few beers, and talked some smack. “ ■

life. Breault says her company’s mission is to present the public with safe recreational opportunities like these.

Each weekend is themed. Upcoming events include The Rocking Rodeo Roundup, 42nd Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, May 14; Bag It for Bucks: Take Pride in America from Saturday, July 2, to Monday, July 4; and 22nd annual Mardi Gras Magic on Saturday, August 20.

Salt River tubing offers a refreshing, fun escape from The company operates in the Lower Arizona’s blistering summer heat. (Special to GetOut) Salt River Recreational Area of Tonto National Forest, 7 minutes from the He was vacationing in Arizona in 1980 Loop 202 East on North Power Road. when he was inspired to start a Salt River Dubbed the national forest’s “mini–Grand tour company. He sought to obtain a perCanyon,” the area is home to wild horses and mit to operate under the USDA Forest Serblue herons that frequent the river. vice in Tonto National Forest. The followSalt River Tubing was launched by own- ing summer, Salt River Tubing was up and er and CEO Henri Breault, whose family running for the public. founded the first U.S. tubing company in Today, the company maintains a fleet Wisconsin in 1941. of more than 30 buses and thousands

of tubes, helping floaters venture out on “floating beach blasts” during Arizona’s hottest months and promoting the protection and conservation of the forest’s natural resources.

“We just want our public to come back.

There is a recreational paradise out there,” Breault says.

“Help us keep it clean and beautiful, have a great time, but do it responsibly. If you all come out and enjoy us with happy faces, we are certainly going to enhance that joy on the river.” ■

GETOUT STAFF

A

Big Apple comedian who specializes in “very personal and punchy” riffs is coming to the East Valley for a series of shows.

James Camacho, who performed standup and appeared in TV shows/movies for over seven years, will be appearing in five shows at JP’s Comedy Club, 860 E. Warner Road, Gilbert, May 12-14. Showtimes are 7 p.m. May 12 and May 13 and 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. May 14. Tickets start at $19. Visit www.JPscomedyclub.com or www.JamesCamacho.com for tickets.

Camacho has been featured on Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, the TV shows “FBI” and “Kevin Can Wait” on CBS, the movie “Before I Go” and the Jay-Z music video “I Got the Keys” with DJ Khaled.

In a time of political turmoil and social unrest, he approaches comedy in a friendly and conversational manner with rapidfire punchlines that underscore a boyish charm as he details his mixed heritage of

JAMES CAMACHO

having a Chinese mom and a Puerto Rican dad, along with his general personal and dating life.

Camacho has a current viral TikTok video with 15 million views and counting, YouTube and Instagram videos with 4+ million views, and over 145K fans on

Salt River tubing returns for the summer

BY SUMMER AGUIRRE GETOUT Contributor

W

ith summer fast approaching, Salt River Tubing & Recreation has returned to take floaters on adventures throughout the season.

Since 1981, the family-owned company has provided tube rental and shuttle bus transportation to Salt River adventurers.

“We are celebrating our 42nd anniversary this summer,” says Lynda Breault, vice president of Salt River Tubing.

“We’re so excited. We think it’s going to be a phenomenal summer. We have hired almost our maximum number of employees needed so we are very, very blessed.

Our buses are ready to roll, and our tubes are ready to rock on the Salt River rapids.”

Open since April 30, Salt River Tubing offers a lazy way to spend a weekend along the river’s cool waters with views of wild-

If You Go...

Who: Salt River Tubing Where: 9200 N. Bush Highway, Mesa When: Open through Sunday, Sept. 25 Cost: $21 per person, plus tax, includes tube rental, shuttle bus ride and parking Info: 480.984.3305, saltrivertubing.com

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

26

King Crossword ACROSS 1 Knock 4 “The Thin Man” dog 8 Tabloid writing 12 Post-op area 13 Pace 14 Alike (Fr.) 15 Sushi fish 17 “Hi, sailor!”

18 “Burnt” crayon color 19 Melody 21 Ordinal suffix 22 Game fish 26 Looks intently 29 Chaps 30 Man-mouse link 31 Has bills 32 -- de deux 33 Mythical birds 34 Capote nickname 35 Stable diet?

36 Hill of “Moneyball” 37 Raw bar mollusk 39 Impose 40 Ms. Thurman 41 Tristan’s love 45 Tibia’s place 48 Saltwater fish 50 Mata -51 Hotel chain 52 Hot tub 53 Rhyming tributes 54 Lake bird 55 Fixed

With JAN D’ATRI GetOut Contributor

C 33 35 36 38 39 42

Copter blade Skirt edge Singer Timberlake North African capital Steinway product Privation

43 44 45 46 47 49

Hoodwink Coup d’ -HBO rival Possessed Hot temper Comic Philips

Sudoku

DOWN 1 Eyeglass frames 2 Antioxidant berry 3 Brownish purple 4 Reps 5 Jazzy Vaughan 6 Dead heat 7 Country stores?

8 June birthstone 9 “This tastes awful!”

10 Asian language 11 Layer 16 Leg joints 20 Author Fleming 23 Earth orbiter 24 Killer whale 25 “One-L lama” poet 26 Attend 27 Wrong 28 Jupiter counterpart 29 Spring month 32 Sunshade

PUZZLES ANSWERS on page 27

Chocolate pecan ‘cigars’ satisfy your sweet cravings

elebrations like Cinco de Mayo come and go, but certain specialties that make up a delicious fiesta could – and should – be enjoyed all year long. A perfect example; chocolate pecan “cigars.”

They are so simple to make and just the right little “something something” when you’re having a chocolate craving or you want to surprise you dinner guests with a unique twist on dessert!

With southwestern grocery stores so plentiful in Arizona, it’s easy to pick up the most important ingredient: corn husks. The next things you’ll need are delicious, decadent white and dark chocolate and some pecans.

You’ll caramelize the pecans, chop them up, stir them into the melted chocolates and then spoon the chocolate into the corn husks. Then you wrap them up like little edible gifts and tie a corn husk bow around them. I originally made these for special occasions but now I keep a container of them in my frig to satisfy my sweet tooth. Some southwestern traditions are just too good to make only once a year. ■ melting wafers 2 cups whole pecans 1/3 cup brown or white sugar 1/3 cup water ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients: • 12 tamale corn husks • 12 ounces white chocolate or white melting wafers • 12 ounces dark chocolate coating or

• • • •

Directions: Cover a sheet pan with parchment or waxed paper.

Place corn husks in large pot with hot water. Place a plate over the husks to keep them submerged. Let the husks soften at least 5 minutes.

While husks are softening, make the sugared pecans.

In a small pot over high heat, add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir until sugar dissolves. Boil until mixture comes to a syrupy consistency, about 3-4 minutes. Add the pecans, and stir until the liquid cooks off and the nuts are completely coated. Spoon the nuts onto the prepared sheet pan, separating them so they don’t clump.

In a small sauce pan or microwave, melt the white chocolate coating and spoon into a bowl. In another

sauce pan or microwave, melt the dark chocolate coating and spoon into a bowl. (If using a microwave melt at 30 second intervals so chocolate won’t seize up.) Add half of the chopped pecans to the white chocolate and half to the dark chocolate.

Remove softened husks, dry with paper towels and tear them into 2 inch strips.

With a spoon spread 2-3 teaspoons of white chocolate/pecan mixture down one side of the husk then carefully and tightly roll the husks into cigars, wiping off any chocolate that might seep out of the husk. Repeat the process with the dark chocolate. Tie a thin strip of corn husk around the cigar.

Place the chocolate cigars on the parchment covered baking sheet. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes to harden. Unwrap the corn husk and enjoy. Makes 24 cigars.■

THE MESA TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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PayPal, Inc. has the following positions available in Scottsdale AZ.: MTS 2, Systems Administrator (Req#:18-6059): Act as the Tech.

Duty Ofc. (TDO) who is resp. for Site Incident Mgmt. Req’s: MS (or equiv.) +1yr. exp. Or BS (or equiv.) +5yrs. exp. Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship. To apply, please send your resume with references, specifying Req.# by email to: paypaljobs@paypal.com; or by mail: ATTN: HR, Cube 10.3.561, PayPal, Inc. HQ, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131. EOE, including disability/vets.

Food Preparation Worker: Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed etc. No Exp. Rqr’d. Send resume to Zugoi Sushi Corporation: 6813 E. MAIN ST, MESA, AZ 85027

Food Preparation Worker: Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed etc. No Exp. Rqr’d. Send resume to Restaurant Zushi Company: 6727 E. McDowell Rd., #110, Mesa, AZ 85215

HUMAC, Inc has openings for the following positions in Phoenix, AZ and/or client sites throughout the US. Must be willing to travel/relocate. IT Engineer reqs US Masters/equiv or bachelors + 5 yrs exp to design/dev/test systems/apps using Java/J2EE/HTML/CSS/Unix/Windows. IT Analyst reqs US Bachelors/equiv (3 or 4 yr degree) to test/maintain/monitor systems/programs using SQL/Oracle/Java/Hadoop/Unix. Send resume to jobs@humacinc.com with ref # 2022-19 for IT Eng; 2022-21 for IT Analyst & ref this ad

Deloitte Consulting LLP seeks a Consulting, Solution Architect in Gilbert, AZ & various unanticipated Deloitte office locations & client sites nationally to manage information technology projects including development and implementation, ranging from requirements to architecture, design to development, testing to deployment, and beyond as discrete services or comprehensive solutions. 15% travel required nationally. Telecommuting permitted. To apply visit apply.deloitte.com. Enter XBAL22FC0422GIL7239 in "Search jobs" field.

EOE, including disability/veterans.

PayPal, Inc. has the following positions available in Chandler AZ.: Risk & Platforms Project Manager (Req#: 2113023): lead & manage the coordinated mgmt. of lge., complex projects over a finite period to ensure deliv. of these commitments Req’s: MS (or equiv.) +3yrs. exp. Or BS (or equiv.) +5yrs. exp. Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship. To apply, please send your resume with references, specifying Req.# by email to: paypaljobs@paypal.com; or by mail: ATTN: HR, Cube 10.3.561, PayPal, Inc. HQ, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131. EOE, including disability/vets.

Cleaning Specialists Needed Valleywide!

• Full/Part time • Must pass background check • Willing to work around your schedule • Must be authorized to work in the U.S. • OT in some areas • Must bring two forms of Identification • Permanent positions for E-verify purposes • Pay $13.50 +

Applications are being accepted Monday-Friday 9am-3:30pm Apply at: 8930 N. 78th Ave., Peoria, AZ 85345

Call: 623-937-0000

THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

35

Ahwatukee Chandler Gilbert Glendale Mesa North Valley Peoria Phoenix SanTan Scottsdale Queen Creek West Valley

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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Roofing

Notice of Hearing

PHILLIPS

SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA MARICOPA COUNTY Case Number JG512290 ORDER and NOTICE OF HEARING In the Matter of Guardianship of: Rhianna Mahan (07/06/2006), Xavier Trammell (12/22/2012), Amarilon Trammel (11/19/2016) The Court has reviewed the PETITION FOR APPOINTMENT OF GUARDIAN OF A MINOR. Based upon the Court's review, IT IS ORDERED SETTING A HEARING. NOTIFICATION: You must give a copy of this PETITION AND THIS ORDER to all interested persons. You need to mail or deliver the copies. You do not need to give formal notice by personal service. For information about notice or consent requirements contact Community Services Unit at (602) 506-4308 or seek legal counsel. HEARING DATE AND TIME: May 24, 2022 at 9:15 AM HEARING PLACE: Online via Microsoft Teams at https://tinyurl.com/CommissionerGialketsis (This is the Court's preferred method of participation) Check your email fro a message sent by the Court that includes a direct link to enter our virtual courtroom, otherwise type the above link in the browser of your computer/device to join. You can also dial in using your phon +1 (917) 781-4590 Access Code: 248-804 623# Please Note: Long distance fees may apply if dialing by phone. For privacy purposes, you can block your phone number by dialing *67. HEARING OFFICER: COMMISIONER GIALKETSIS REPSONSE: You can file a written response to the petition. File your original written response with the court, mail a copy of the original response to the petitioner(s), and provide a copy of your response4 to the Judge/Commissioner named above at least 5 business days before the hearing. Or, you can appear in person at the hearing. You must appear at the hearing only if you wish to object to the petition. [X] IT IS ORDERED Appointing a guardan Ad Litem to investigate and report to the Court. Petitioner(s) must either file the following documents with the Clerk of the Court prior to the hearing or present them to the court at the hearing. [X] Petitioner's Unite States or State issued identification (required for all Petitioners) [X] Birth Certification for each child (required for each child listed on the petition) [X] Publication if Father/Mother whereabouts unknown. Signed this 22nd Day of April, 2022 /s/ Commissioner Cynthia Gialketsis. Published: East Valley Tribune, May 8, Foothills Focus, May 11, 18,2022 / 46580

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

38

Public Notices

CITY OF MESA, ARIZONA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Mesa is seeking qualified Consultants for the following: WELL IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT NO. CP0642WE01 / CP0642WI03 / CP0836WE09 through CP0836WE12 / CP0642WE02 and WE04 / CP0648CL01 through CP0648CL05 The City of Mesa is seeking qualified consulting firms or teams to provide complete design services for several Well Improvements projects. 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 City may select more than one firm or team for these projects.

Projects CP0642WE01 and CP0642WI03 are schedule to begin first and Statements of Qualifications should be based on these projects.

The proposed improvements are as follows: • CP0642WE01: This project will include the design of four wells with separate drawings for each site. Design may include pump selection, motor sizing, chlorine disinfection systems, acoustic enclosures, site grading, process controls, associated piping, grading, electrical work, site fencing, and demo of existing well site. These well sites include City Well 9, Desert Well 7, Desert Well 18, and Falcon Field 2.

• CP0642WI03: This project will include chlorine and electrical system improvements to seven existing wells in the Desert Well (DW) service zone (Desert Well 3, Desert Well 9, Desert Well 12, Desert Well 13, Desert Well 14, Desert Well 15 and Desert Well 16) that may include the following: • Existing motor to be upgraded from 480V to 4160V. Electrical upgrade may require new motors and transformers.

• Horizontal design of fiber optic conduit and duct bank may be required.

If fiber optic is available, the existing ethernet switch, Remote Telemetry Units, and Programmable Logic Controllers shall be designed to be replaced.

Public Notices

• Evaluate each site whether a chorine scrubber or Chlortanier would be best suited at each site and design the appropriate upgrades.

project scope outside of this conference. In addition, there will not be meeting minutes or any other information published from the Pre-Submittal Conference.

• Security cameras and intrusion alarms shall be designed to be installed at each site.

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.

• Other miscellaneous upgrades such as design of pumps and design of Remote Telemetry Unit.

Additional planned projects include the following: • CP0648CL01 through CP0648CL05: Well collection lines and related improvements for Desert Wells 24 through 27.

Design of well collection lines that may include associated piping, connections, valves, and cathodic protection.

• CP0836WE09 through CP0836WE12: Well equipping design for Desert Well 24 through 27 and City Well 13 and 16. Design may include pump and motor, chlorination treatment, acoustic enclosures, site grading, process controls, associated piping, grading, electrical work, site fencing, and demo of existing well site.

• City may add additional scope as needed.

The scope could include the design of well equipping and well collection mains with separate drawings for each site. Design may include pump and motor, chlorination treatment, acoustic enclosures, site grading, process controls, associated piping, grading, electrical work, site fencing, and demo of existing well site. Design of well collection lines that may include associated piping, connections, valves, and cathodic protection.

• The Well Improvements projects have been grouped and described as several packages of multiple sites, including collection lines. The City may pursue them as such or change the grouping of sites.

Additional sites may be added.

• City may include other miscellaneous improvements, as needed.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on May 17, 2022, at 8 am through Microsoft Teams. At this meeting, City staff will discuss the scope of work and general contract issues and respond to questions from the attendees.

Attendance at the pre-submittal conference is not mandatory and all interested firms may submit a Statement of Qualifications whether or not they attend the conference.

An invitation can be requested from Donna Horn (donna.horn@mesaaz.gov). 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

RFQ Lists. This RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/ engineering/architectural-engineering-design-opportunities.

The Statement of Qualifications shall include a one-page cover letter, plus a maximum of 10 pages to address the SOQ evaluation criteria (excluding resumes but including an organization chart with key personnel and their affiliation). Resumes for each team member shall be limited to a maximum length of two pages and should be attached as an appendix to the SOQ. Minimum font size shall be 10pt. Please provide one (1) electronic copy in an unencrypted PDF format to Engineering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov of the Statement of Qualifications by 2 pm on June 2, 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 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 Donna Horn of the Engineering Department at donna.horn@ mesaaz.gov.

BETH HUNING City Engineer ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk Published: East Valley Tribune, May 1, 8, 2022 / 46271

CITY OF MESA PUBLIC NOTICE The Mesa City Council will hold a public hearing concerning the following ordinances at the May 16, 2022, City Council meeting beginning at 5:45 p.m. in the Mesa City Council Chambers, 57 East First Street.

1. ZON21-00940 (District 2) Within the 3100 block of East Southern Avenue (south side) and the 1200 block of South 32nd Street (west side). Located east of Lindsay Road on the south side of Southern Avenue (2.4± acres). Rezone from Single Residence 9 (RS-9) to Multiple Residence 3 with a Planned Area Development overlay (RM-3-PAD) and Site Plan Review. This request will allow for a multiple residence development.

2. ZON21-01126 (District 6) Within the 3200 to 3400 blocks of South Signal Butte Road (west side). Located north of Elliot Road on the west side of Signal Butte Road (65.8± acres). Rezone from Agricultural (AG) to Light Industrial with a Planned Area Development overlay (LI-PAD) and Site Plan Review. This request will allow for an industrial development. Noel Griemsmann, Snell & Wilmer, LLP, applicant; Signal Butte Mesa Holdings, LLC, owner.

3. Amending Article VI, Section 609 of the Mesa City Charter related to certain requirements for City procurements, subject to the approval of the amendment by the qualified electors of the City of Mesa. (Citywide) 4. Amending Article II, Section 205(D) of the Mesa City Charter to allow a meet and confer process and memorandum of understanding with sworn public safety employee organizations on behalf of certain sworn public safety employees concerning wages and other forms of direct monetary compensation, hours, non-health related benefits, and working conditions not covered under state or federal laws or city personnel rules, subject to the approval of the amendment by the qualified electors of the City of Mesa. (Citywide) Dated at Mesa, Arizona, this 8th day of May 2022.

Holly Moseley, City Clerk Published in the East Valley Tribune May 8, 2022 / 46xxx

THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

39

Public Notices

Public Notices

CITY OF MESA MESA, ARIZONA

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

LINDSAY RESERVOIR COVER REPLACEMENT PROJECT

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

PROJECT NO. CP0831RS04 ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

SIGNAL BUTTE PARK PHASE 2 PROJECT NO. CP0707

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that sealed bids will be received until Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. All sealed bids will be received electronically at EngineeringBids@mesaaz.gov Bids must be submitted as an unencrypted PDF attachment with a maximum size limit of 20MB. Any bid received after the time specified will be returned without any consideration.

This contract shall be for furnishing all labor, materials, transportation and services for the construction and/or installation of the following work: Removal and Replacement of the Aluminum Cover on the 10 million gallon fresh water tank approximately 77,400 square feet. Removal and replacement of the primary steel structure below the cover. Some existing electrical infrastructure will need to be removed and reinstalled. Concrete walls and liners to be protected in place.

The Engineer’s Estimate range is $4,500,000 to $5,000,000.

For all technical, contract, bid-related, or other questions, please contact Stephanie Gishey at stephanie.gishey@mesaaz.gov.

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 above.

Contractors desiring to submit proposals may purchase sets of the Bid Documents from ARC Document Solutions, LLC, at https://order.e-arc.com/arcEOC/PWELL_Main.asp?mem=29. Click on “Go” for the Public Planroom to access plans. NOTE: In order to be placed on the Plan Holders List and to receive notifications and updates regarding this bid (such as addenda) during the bidding period, an order must be placed. The cost of each Bid Set will be no more than $27.00, which is non-refundable. Partial bid packages are not sold. You can view documents on-line (at no cost), order Bid Sets, and access the Plan Holders List on the website at the address listed above. Please verify print lead time prior to arriving for pick-up. For a list of locations nearest you, go to www.e-arc.com.

One set of the Contract Documents is also available for viewing at the City of Mesa’s Engineering Department at 20 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ. Please call 480-644-2251 prior to arriving to ensure that the documents are available for viewing.

In order for the City to consider alternate products in the bidding process, please follow Arizona Revised Statutes §34.104c.

If a pre-bid review of the site has been scheduled, details can be referenced in Project Specific Provision Section #3, titled “Pre-Bid Review of Site.”

Work shall be completed within 300 consecutive calendar days, beginning with the day following the starting date specified in the Notice to Proceed.

Bids must be submitted on the Proposal Form provided and be accompanied by the Bid Bond for not less than ten percent (10%) of the total bid, payable to the City of Mesa, Arizona, or a certified or cashier's check. PERSONAL OR INDIVIDUAL SURETY BONDS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE. The successful bidder will be required to execute the standard form of contract for construction within ten (10) days after formal award of contract. In addition, the successful bidder must be registered in the City of Mesa Vendor Self-Service (VSS) System (http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/vendor-self-service).

The successful bidder, simultaneously with the execution of the Contract, will be required to furnish a Payment Bond in the amount equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price, a Performance Bond in an amount equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price, and the most recent ACORD® Certificate of Liability Insurance form with additional insured endorsements.

The right is hereby reserved to accept or reject any or all bids or parts thereto, to waive any informalities in any proposal and reject the bids of any persons who have been delinquent or unfaithful to any contract with the City of Mesa.

ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk Published East Valley Tribune, May 1, 8, 2022 / 46374

BETH HUNING City Engineer

The City of Mesa is seeking a qualified consulting firm or team to provide complete design services for the Signal Butte Park Phase 2 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 proposed improvements are as follows: This project will consist of the design and construction of new park site amenities at Signal Butte Park as proposed in the 2018 General Obligation Bond Program. Phase II is approximately 46 acres. The improvements will occur primarily at the north side of Siphon Draw Wash. The park improvements will include a parking lot, ramadas, restroom, trail system, bmx bike trails, and a bridge constructed over Siphon Draw Wash to connect Phase II to Phase I. The City of Mesa may include other miscellaneous improvements at the Site, as needed.

The consulting firm or team may also assist with public meetings, City Council meetings, Citizen Advisory/Committee meetings, Design Review Board meetings, and other coordination efforts.

A Pre-Submittal Conference will be held on May 25, 2022, at 2 pm through Microsoft Teams. At this meeting, City staff will discuss the scope of work and general contract issues and respond to questions from the attendees. Attendance at the pre-submittal conference is not mandatory and all interested firms may submit a Statement of Qualifications whether or not they attend the conference. An invitation can be requested from Donna Horn (donna.horn@mesaaz.gov). 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 authorize d representative identified below.

RFQ Lists. This RFQ is available on the City’s website at http://mesaaz.gov/business/engineering/architecturalengineering-design-opportunities.

The Statement of Qualifications shall include a one-page cover letter, plus a maximum of 10 pages to address the SOQ evaluation criteria (excluding resumes but including an organization chart with key personnel and their affiliation). Resumes for each team member shall be limited to a maximum length of two pages and should be attached as an appendix to the SOQ. Minimum font size shall be 10pt. Please provide one (1) electronic copy in an unencrypted PDF format to Engineering-RFQ@mesaaz.gov of the Statement of Qualifications by 2 pm on June 9, 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 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 Donna Horn of the Engineering Depa rtment at donna.horn@mesaaz.gov.

ATTEST: Holly Moseley City Clerk Published: East Valley Tribune, May 8, 15, 2022 / 46509

BETH HUNING City Engineer

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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MAY 8, 2022

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