Singer's Mesa roots / P. 11
Sports budgets tighten / P. 15
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Sunday, August 23, 2020
EVIT students happily return to classrooms
INSIDE
This Week
Mesa board split on return to classes .............. See story on page 3 BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
NEWS ......................... 6 Mesa water park cries foul.
NEWS ......................... 7 Ducey won't intfere with school reopening decisions..
N
o one could argue that the �irst day of school at Mesa’s East Valley Institute of Technology was normal – that is not possible during a pandemic. Precautions, such as wearing masks and socially distancing, are the bedrock of EVIT’s plan to strike a delicate balance between a student’s right to learn and protecting staff and students from COVID-19. But, if nothing else, a return to auto shop, welding and culinary classes last week marked a return to a normal routine for students while helping them prepare for the workplace with marketable skills. “It will get easy to get lulled into this idea
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BUSINESS ............. 13 East Mesa getting a second steel mill.
COMING NEXT WEEK
COMMUNITY ............................... 11 BUSINESS ..................................... 13 SPORTS ........................................ 15 PUZZLES ...................................... 18 CLASSIFIED ................................. 18 Zone
1
Students are back in classrooms at the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa but the hallways cast an eerie sight as students are required to observe social distancing and walk in one direction single-file. This same scenario likely will be playing out in all schools once kids are allowed to return to campuses. (Patrick Jervis Jr./Courtesy of EVIT)
Water, water everywhere – at least in the EV BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
T
he water system that has quenched the East Valley’s thirst through more than a century of droughts and �loods is well positioned to deal with the coming effects of climate change, according to a new federal study. The study by the Bureau of Reclamation found that the Salt River Project watershed is far more resilient than the much larger Colorado River system that also supplies some of the East Valley’s water. In fact, according to SRP water managers, the system appears to be better situated now than it was 40 years ago – despite explosive growth and development that changes the
face of the region almost daily. The data offer assurance that despite a “mega-drought” that has af�licted the Southwest for the past quarter-century, homes and businesses within the SRP service area won’t go dry anytime soon. That service area is huge. It covers 387 square miles stretching from the northwest Valley through Phoenix and into the Southeast Valley. SRP is a major supplier for Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale, although those cities draw from other sources as well. SRP water comes our way from northern and eastern Arizona via the Salt and Verde rivers. Four dams on the Salt – including the granddaddy, Roosevelt Dam – and two on the Verde create reservoirs that can be tapped
any time you need to make an ice cube. The dams also serve as a �lood-protection system. The rivers drain a watershed of some 12,500 square miles stretching from northwest of Flagstaff to near Springerville, then southward almost to Mesa. By comparison, the Colorado River watershed is huge – some 246,000 square miles. And while it might seem the bigger watershed would be more robust, the Bureau of Reclamation study found the opposite is true. That bureau, by the way, oversees waterconservation projects in the American West and actually owns the dams that SRP operates. “The big takeaway from that long report
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