A star is born / P. 25
Returning to life / P. 10
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Sunday, October 18, 2020
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Mesa eyes building regional recycling plant
INSIDE
This Week
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
NEWS ......................... 3 Mesa Public Schools faces $20M problem.
M
esa will resume its suspended recycling program later this month while pursuing a potential long-term solution through construction of an East Valley regional recycling center estimated to cost $30 million-$38 million. Mesa residents are being asked to “retrain” themselves after a six-month recycling hiatus by being careful to put the right kinds of garage into blue and green barrels when pickup
History lesson
beings Oct. 26. While the regional center would free the city from the risk of price increases, cancelation of contracts and even uncertainty over whether the material actually get recycled, it also would require regional cooperation along with the high price tag. Of�icials said Gilbert has expressed interest in joining the effort, though Mesa has months of negotiations with the town and other municipalities before it can determine whether the plan is feasible and affordable. Mesa does not generate enough recyclable
COMMUNITY ....... 16 Four Mesa schools get big honor.
material to make such a facility pay off, so it would need other municipalities’ beer and soda cans, plastic bottles and other items to make the project worthwhile. Mesa City Council has not made a commitment to build a regional facility, but it tentatively backed the concept and asked Scott Bouchie, environmental management and sustainability director, to pursue the plan further and report back in six months. Bouchie’s report, which is based on consul-
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E. Mesa plan for townhomes riles neighbors BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
BUSINESS .............. 19 City workforce group aims for diversity. COMMUNITY ............................... 16 BUSINESS ..................................... 19 OPINION ....................................... 22 SPORTS .........................................25 PUZZLES ...................................... 27 CLASSIFIED ................................. 29 Zone
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Mesa Mayor John Giles on Oct. 8 inspected the new exhibits at the Mesa Historical Museum during a celebration to mark the venue's reopening after the pandemic-driven shutdown the last six months. To read about what the museum has in store for visitors, see page 4. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Writer)
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or decades, residents of a unique deadend street in East Mesa enjoyed a quiet life living on large ranch style lots. They haven’t minded AT Still University being located next door and a state maintenance yard at the end of Recker Road where they live. But now they are concerned that a proposed townhouse development, called Zen on Recker, will damage their pastoral atmosphere, creating more traf�ic congestion and
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