West Valley View - November 2, 2016

Page 1

 LITCHFIELD ART FEST KICKING OFF SATURDAY, PAGE 5

westvalleyview.com — the newspaper of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park & Tolleson, AZ 50¢ Wednesday, November 2, 2016 (623) 535-8439

INSIDE Have a news tip? Send it to news1@westvalleyview.com

BACK TO SCHOOL West Valley teacher returns to classroom after brain tumor keeps her out for a year — Page 11.

View photo by Ray Thomas

BUCKEYE CITY COUNCILMAN CRAIG HEUSTIS attends a meeting of about 100 city residents Sunday at the Buckeye Aquatics Center. The residents gathered to protest their water bills, which they feel they’re being overcharged on.

Residents protest water bills Buckeye group goes to battle with City Hall over charges of hundreds of dollars by Glenn Gullickson staff writer

CLASS ACT Millennium High School putting on The Foreigner — Page 12.

DAILY UPDATES! News Updates and fresh Classified ads posted Monday - Friday at 4:30 p.m. online at www.westvalleyview.com Volume 31, No. 30 32 Pages 1 Section Circulation: 77,869 INDEX Classifieds .................... 28 Editorials & Letters .......... 6 Obituaries ...................... 25 Sports ........................... 14 Briefcase ....................... 10 9 Days a Week............... 23 Recycle this paper

Buckeye residents who say they’ve been billed for an ocean of water they claim they didn’t use are taking their fight to City Hall. Armed with recent water bills from the city, about 100 people who said they’ve been overcharged — some by hundreds of dollars a month — gathered Sunday to share their stories and plot a strategy for an escalating protest.

“We all know we haven’t used this much water. If we had … Buckeye would be under water,” said Jeff Hancock, one of the leaders of the protest. Hancock said his bill jumped from $129 to more than $400 a month. Then, after he turned off his landscaping irrigation, he said he got a bill for more than $600. Hancock and others said the city attributed the billing spikes to leaks or water theft.

After Hancock hired a plumber who found no leaks, he told his story to TV news, which caused others to step forward with similar problems. The group planned to attend the Buckeye City Council meeting on Tuesday, where Hancock said they would demand the termination of Dave Nigh, the city’s director of water resources, (See Protest on Page 5)

Arizona voters face long ballot Federal, state, county, local officials will be elected Nov. 8 by Glenn Gullickson staff writer

The campaign to select the next U.S. president has dominated the national news for months, but West Valley voters also face decision time for state, county and local races on a long ballot that will elect officeholders and decide policy. Election Day is Nov. 8, with polls open in Maricopa County from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Federal, state, county ballots • Federal races top the ballot with the contest for president between Democrat Hillary Clinton

and Republican Donald Trump. Also on the ballot is Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat, with incumbent Sen. John McCain, a Republican, facing a challenge from U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. All seats in the U.S. House are also to be elected. • State offices include all 30 members of the Arizona Senate and 60 members of the Arizona House to be elected for two-year terms. Five candidates are vying for three seats on the Corporation Commission, a board that regulates utilities doing business in the state. • Propositions on the ballot deal with whether to legalize the use of recreational marijuana (Prop 205) and if the state’s minimum wage should be increased (Prop 206). • County offices include the hotly contested race between longtime Sheriff Joe Arpaio and challenger Paul Penzone. Also on the ballot are contests for county recorder, attorney, school superintendent, assessor and treasurer. County

Supervisors Clint Hickman in District 4 and Steve Gallardo in District 5 are unopposed in their bids for four-year terms. • Other races include selecting Maricopa County Community College District board members and retention votes for Superior Court judges.

Local ballots Candidates will be elected in runoff elections for offices that weren’t decided in the August election. • Avondale voters will select between incumbent Mayor Kenneth Weise, who failed to get the majority necessary for election by a slim margin in August, and Vice Mayor Stephanie Karlin. • Buckeye voters will elect a council member in District 1 between Tony Youngker and Kathryn Baillie. (See Ballot on Page 5)


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.