Ducey and Trump / P. 9
School sports in fall / P. 18
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ...................... 10 State lays out school reopening guidelines
COMMUNITY ......... 13 Sisters celebrate vino.
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Giles on reelection: a chance to make Mesa better BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
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fter his resounding re-election to his second and last full four-year term, Mayor John Giles cherishes the lengthy 10-year opportunity voters have given him to make his hometown better. That decade results from an extra two years from the last half of the second term for former Mayor Scott Smith, who resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for governor and was replaced by Alex Finter until the next election. Ten years is a long time, Giles said – Long enough to see projects he started come to
Rescued!
fruition, such as the asu@mesacity city center and two closely-related spinoffs – a plaza and an incubation studio in the city’s vacant former Information Technology building. Long enough, also, to see a �ledgling Mesa Promise scholarship program at Mesa Community College contribute to a larger pool of Mesa college graduates who might work in the high technology jobs that the city envisions will be generated by the ASU-anchored Innovation District. With four more years from a lopsided win Aug. 4 over constitutionalist Verl Farnworth – 56,910-28,118 in unof�icial results, a 6733 percent margin – Giles might even see the
city’s long-dormant Site 17 redevelopment project downtown become an important asset. In District One, Vice Mayor Mark Freeman, a close Giles ally, won an equally lopsided victory over former mayoral candidate Danny Ray, 9,447-4,258, a 69-31 percent margin. Giles scored a secondary victory of sorts in District 2, even though he wasn’t on the ballot, when his hand-picked candidate, political novice Julie Spilsbury, coasted to a comfortable victory over Jeremy Whittaker, Giles’ unof�icial nemesis, 7,959-6,398, a 55-45 percent
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Pandemic fuels fears of more child pool drownings BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
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BUSINESS ............. 14 Experts discuss local housing, offices, retail
OPINION .............. 17 No apologies here. COMMUNITY ............................... 13 BUSINESS ..................................... 14 OPINION ....................................... 17 SPORTS ........................................ 18 PUZZLES ...................................... 19 CLASSIFIED ................................. 20 Zone 1
Three weeks ago, Andrew and Pamela Anderson asked The Mesa Tribune for help. Raising their four grand children, ages 5-10, they were living in a squalid motel and facing homelessness. We turned to the city - and officials came to their rescue. For the story, see page 3. (Special to the Tribune)
ire�ighters and water safety advocates fear the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to a troubling spike in pediatric drownings in the East Valley and Maricopa County by introducing more distractions into an already dangerous scenario. The pandemic closed schools in March, hampering efforts by the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona to drive home an annually repeated safety campaign to watch children with undivided attention around water. While most drowning prevention events were cancelled, parents found themselves dealing with the new distraction of working from home, juggling time on laptops with the need to watch their children and avoid potentially fatal trips to a backyard pool. “As soon as COVID hit and we saw that more kids were staying home, we knew our numbers were going up,’’ said Tracey Fejt, trauma outreach injury prevention coordinator for Banner Cardon Children’s Hospital in Mesa. “The distraction is huge. They are trying to work,’’ Fejt said. Mesa has recorded three pediatric drownings this year, compared with two a year ago. The city has recorded 17 water-related incidents, with 10 of them involving pediatric children less than
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