Grande LIVING Magazine Early Summer 2024

ADVERTISER INDEX

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Elaine M. Earle, CPA

SALES & MARKETING

Julie Turetzky Director of Public Relations

John McGuire

Business Development Manager

PRODUCTION & DESIGN

Shannon Price

Art Director - Graphic Designer

Keith Dobie

Social Media Coordinator

Christian Kaschhimer

Digital Intern

EDITORIAL

Christia Gibbons

Senior Editor

Blake Herzog

Staff Writer

OPERATIONS

Bea Lueck

Vice President of Operations

COMMENTS AND IDEAS: editor@roxco.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS: info@roxco.com www.grande-living.com/copies

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: info@roxco.com www.grande-living.com/advertise

CORPORATE OFFICE: 1919 N. Trekell Rd., Suite C Casa Grande, AZ 85122 520-509-1000

CEO

Elaine M. Earle, CPA

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

Bea Lueck

Our tuition-free K - 8th grade, charter school offers engaging learning experiences that allow our scholars to soar.

The Grande Innovation Academy is committed to our scholars’ potential and achieving their academic ambitions. Our unique interactive learning environment offers a FabLab, SMALLab, electives, and a differentiated learning program for gifted scholars. For scholars needing flexibility, our Path to Potential online school offers 4th-8th grade scholars a fast-paced curriculum with the opportunity to still participate in school sports, clubs, and on-campus activities.

SMALLab with VR Online School Fab Lab with 3D Printing Tuition Free Full Day Kindergarten Gifted Program

Discover the possibilities available for your children! Now accepting applications.

From the Publisher Cool Summer Down with Food, Drink & Fun

Summer is no reason to slow down. Yes, the heat curbs our ability to run sprints in the middle of the day, but we don’t have to let it slow our brains and lives to a crawl

There are many ways to build a fun and festive summer in the desert that don’t involve leaving town, from going to the movies or a show to frequenting new and tried-andtrue restaurants or gravitating to the water, wherever you can find it.

Learn about all the things you’ll be able to enjoy during our sunniest days, starting with our list of nine cool, in all senses of the word, ways to have a good time in Pinal County. We also feature many other summer options, including farmers markets in Florence, Superior and Casa Grande and a recently opened food truck park in Casa Grande.

Don’t forget about Casa Grande Public Library’s Summer Reading program, which kicks off with a pool party at Palm Island Family Aquatic Park

Of course, these articles only scratch the surface, with many more diversions available for you and your loved ones. A new entry is the newly lighted #miniDunes six-hole

course at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa; opened in April and offering tee times up to 10 p.m.

And keep your eyes and ears open for news about the huge sunflower field in Maricopa, which will brighten our days when it blooms sometime in June or July, no matter how hot it gets.

Don’t forget to check out Pinal NOW! at the back of this issue and www.pinalnow.com (for additional listings) to find everything you need to know about special events through mid-August.

There’s much more to read in this issue from the local news updates in the Prescott Pioneer to the latest submissions from our columnists and our Home and Garden section. Our featured ROX Interview with Casa Grande Planning and Development Director Paul Tice walks readers through the approval process for new projects and developments in the quickly expanding city and the role water resources played in the writing of the current general plan.

It’s hard to believe the too-short summer school breaks will have wrapped up by the time our Late Summer issue hits the streets. Don’t let the season get away from you!

Elaine Earle

Elaine Earle Publisher, Grande LIVING magazine

VOICES of t he COMMUNITY

At Grande LIVING magazine, our slogan is “The Voice of the Community” because we believe the stories in our local region are best told by the people, companies, nonprofits and governments that comprise our community. Here are the “voices” who helped make this issue possible!

Angela Askey

Executive Director, Public Relations and Marketing, Central Arizona College

Craig McFarland Mayor, City of Casa Grande

Tiffanie Grady-Gillespie

Certified Physical Trainer, Certified Corporate Wellness Coach, WickedFiTT

Gigi McWhirter

Resident Animal Whisperer

City Councilwoman, Casa Grande

Tori Ward

Cruise and Resort Specialist, ROX Travel

See more Voices and full bios at www.grande-living.com/voices

Donna McBride

T he P inal Coun T y Press

ARIZONA CITY | CASA GRANDE | COOLIDGE | ELOY | FLORENCE | MARICOPA

Truss Factory Expected to Build 400 New Jobs in CG

FrameTec, a Camp Verdebased manufacturer of building components and framing services provider, plans to begin building a Casa Grande plant this summer that

will create up to 400 jobs when it’s completed in 2027.

The $150 million facility will be built on 30 acres at the northeast corner of Thornton Road and Ash Avenue and consist of two buildings housing separate plants, each covering 127,000 square feet — the first is scheduled to come online in 2026 and the second the following year.

This is more than twice the size of its first location in Camp Verde, which will open this fall.

FrameTec said in a press release the Casa Grande factory will “have the capacity to manufacture wooden roof/ floor trusses and interior/ exterior wall panels, and to distribute lumber and building materials that will support the completion of 6,000-7,000 tract homes per year.”

The company said it has patented an automated system to build components for singlefamily and multifamily homes, hotels or any other woodframed building in a way that greatly reduces lumber waste.

Randolph Gets Paved Streets, Sidewalks

The landscape of the historically Black community of Randolph, just south of Coolidge along AZ-287, was transformed this spring as streets were paved, sidewalks, fire hydrants and retention basins added and new water and gas lines installed throughout the unincorporated town.

The infrastructure of the century-old community, founded by agricultural workers prohibited by the laws of the day from living in Coolidge, has been completely overhauled to reduce dust and flooding issues for the approximately 200 people who live there today, as well as improve quality of life.

About half of the $5.8 million that went into the project came from Salt River Project (SRP), which reached a settlement last year with Randolph

residents who had opposed the expansion of its generating station just outside of the community.

SRP agreed to invest more than $23 million on projects to benefit residents including street paving, a community center, scholarships and home rehabilitation.

The SRP funding was doubled by grants obtained by the county. Scott White, a district manager for Pinal County Public Works, said SRP “reached out to us, said they’re going to put some money into Randolph so some of the funds are from SRP. At the same time we started reaching out to a designer to work on the project with SRP, we found out from our grants department manager Heather Patel that she had some grants she wanted to put in here, and at that

“Given our housing shortages in Arizona and across the United States, the building construction industry has not been able to keep up with demand and continues to fall behind,” CEO Kyle Brock said. “FrameTec is adding significant capacity and innovation to the building industry while providing homebuilders and general contractors with a ‘one stop shop’ as a turnkey framing provider.”

The facility will produce wooden roof and floor trusses and exterior and interior wall panels for up to 25 homes per day within a 200-mile radius through framing teams to address labor shortages.

Streets were repaired this spring in Randolph.

time we also found out about the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) grant.”

The project’s first phase was installing a new water main and hydrants and was funded by $1.3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act program. The $1.6 million Phase 2 added sidewalks, curbs, gutters and other drainage improvements funded by the federal Community Development Block Grant program. The remaining $2.6 million from SRP went into the street paving in Phase 3.

THE LATEST LOCAL NEWS | EARLY SUMMER 2024

Stories by Blake Herzog

Find more stories online at www.grande-living.com/category/cg-news

Pinal County Growth Continues to Accelerate

According to recently released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, Pinal County is holding onto its status as one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation, gaining more residents during 2023 than in the previous year.

The bureau’s analysis of net domestic migration, or the number of people moving into the county from somewhere else within the U.S. versus those moving out, found Pinal gained 17,473 residents, or the seventhhighest inflow in the U.S. This metric excludes other factors including births, deaths and immigration.

The highest net migration for 2023 was reported for Polk County, Florida, southwest of

Orlando, at 26,029. Los Angeles County in California reportedly had the highest negative net migration at 119,037.

Pinal County’s net migration for 2022 was 14,075, proving its drawing power is growing as larger employers like LG Energy Solutions and Procter & Gamble announce big plans that take advantage of its strategic location on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

The new total estimated population is 484,283 Maricopa County had the fourth-largest overall population increase in the nation at 30,238, falling from first place in 2022. It remains the nation’s fourth-largest county overall.

Pinal Public Defender Recognized for Service

Pinal County Public Defender Kate Milewski has been recognized by Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice (AACJ) for exemplifying special commitment and skill in her representation of clients in “small town Arizona.”

The statewide organization for criminal defense lawyers presented Milewski with its William Rothstein Achievement Award, given annually to a member practicing law in one of the state’s rural counties. She has been with the public defender’s office since 2013, after working as a county prosecutor for six years.

She oversees 15 attorneys, and her accomplishments at the office include implementing workload review and controls, starting mitigation and appellate units, and developing a training program.

She’s worked to ensure promotional opportunities for her attorneys and pay parity with the prosecutor’s office. She helped design the county’s new public defender’s building and empowered public defenders to stand up for their clients with passion, knowledge and integrity.

Milewski is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and is licensed in both Illinois and Arizona. She, her husband and two children have lived in Pinal County since 2006.

A growing housing development in the City of Maricopa.

Public Defender Kate Milewski

The Interview

Paul Tice

After Paul Tice graduated from the University of New York at New Paltz in 1978, he joined his parents at their new home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, while applying to either get a master’s in clinical psychology or go to law school. In the meantime, he took a job with the town to help write a long-range land planning document and fell into his true calling.

Two years later he’d become the planning director over a staff of four, and he completed a master’s in community development at the nearby University of Louisville soon after that. After several years leading the planning departments there and the neighboring community of Radcliff he moved to Colorado Springs in 1985 and held several positions in that city’s planning and development department over the next 22 years.

His early retirement didn’t stick for long, and he became

BUILDING A GRANDE CITY: CG Planning Director Paul Tice Turns Process into Community

Casa Grande’s planning and development director in 2010. Since then he’s led the city’s efforts to accommodate demand for new homes, stores, restaurants, factories and the other building blocks of a fast-growing community. He sat down recently with ROX Group’s John McGuire to talk about the process behind all those decisions.

Grande LIVING: Do you work for the mayor and council, or do you work underneath the city manager?

Paul Tice: As the planning and development director I’m a member of the executive leadership team and I report directly to the city manager, Larry Rains. So not a political appointment, I’m under the normal hiring system of city employees.

Grande LIVING: Do you have considerable interaction with the elected officials, though?

Paul Tice: Yes, all the time. Planning in every community becomes political at some level. When we’re processing various types of land use applications for changes of zoning or general plan amendments, all of those have to go to the city council for their final approval.

If you look at any council agenda, you’ll see that I or my staff typically have some items on every council agenda. We’re making presentations to council on development applications that have been submitted to us, reviewed internally to determine if the request complies with our various land development rules and then presented to either the planning commission, and/or council for the final approval or denial.

Grande LIVING: What does a city planning department do?

Paul Tice: So, city planning departments typically are

responsible for creating the general plan or the comprehensive plan that sets the guideline and the vision for where the community wants to go, at least for 10, 20, 30 years. Planning departments are often required to create land use regulations to implement that plan. Lastly, planning staff process development applications that involve individual requests for changes to one’s property, whether it’s a zone change or to subdivide it or to have a special use.

Planners spend a lot of time in processing land use applications, reviewing them for compliance with all the land use regulations, and then presenting them to the planning commission for a review and recommendation, and then often onto city council for their final decision.

Grande LIVING: Now, is the planning department responsible for the actual development and monitoring of the development of those approved plans? Or is that a different department in the city, like the building department?

Paul Tice: Generally the planning department would be responsible for inspecting completed developments to make sure the right amount of parking has been provided, the landscaping followed the plan, the building setbacks were correct, the building height was correct. All of that is typically done by the planning department in conjunction with the building department.

In Casa Grande, the planning and development department includes the building department as well as an engineering review team that reviews civil plans for horizontal construction — such as grading, drainage construction, street construction.

So the Casa Grande Planning and Development Department in an integrated department with all of those various disciplines, which works quite well because all of those disciplines really need to work together as developments are approved, constructed and occupied. We often refer to our office as the Development Center or a one-stop shop for development services.

Grande LIVING: And as director, that probably makes your day somewhat more interesting, reigning over all these different departments that all have to work together to have a nice city in the end, which is what the end goal really is, right?

Paul Tice: There’s never a dull moment in my life. My professional life, at least. Different problems come at me every day, from something small as a property has weeds and it’s looking ugly to Lucid needing to get their paint line going so they can start painting cars again to approving a new megamine in the community.

Grande LIVING: A lot of what we hear in the community is the citizenry somehow believes the city and the planning department or the planning commission are the people who choose and decide what projects come to the city at what location. Is that true? How is that process determined and how does the planning department help?

Paul Tice: That particular belief or criticism drives me nuts. I hear, “Why are you approving another car wash? Why are you approving another Mexican restaurant? Why don’t we have more grocery stores?” Planning, by and large, doesn’t control any of that. What we do is we zone an adequate amount of land in the community to meet the need for commercial businesses and services.

Whether or not someone builds a Whole Foods or a car wash on a properly commercially zoned site is not determined by the planning department or Planning Commission. If both uses are allowed in the commercial zoning district and the development proposal meets all of the planning regulations then they are allowed to construct the use. It’s the market that decides what’s going to be built in the community. The city planning department’s role is to have adequate property zoned for these uses, but we’re not at the level of deciding the specific use that someone can build as long as it’s properly zoned and constructed.

What we do is we make sure there’s adequate parking, it’s well landscaped, that the building architecture is good, that setbacks are right, the building doesn’t exceed the height limitations. We have regulatory control, but we don’t control the actual specific use.

The exception is industrial development. The city does engage in incentives for certain industrial users, and we will incentivize certain users and not others.

For example, we may incentivize industrial users that have a high wage for their employees, because one of our goals is to increase the average wage in the community. We avoid incentivizing industrial uses that use an excessive amount of water. We’ll consider giving incentives to industrial users that meet those objectives, which kind of drives which uses locate in Casa Grande.

Grande LIVING: And is the idea behind that hoping that by incentivizing the right and certain types of industrial users, the other commercial and residential amenities that the community needs will follow those better jobs with better income and better things that we need in the community?

The Interview

Paul Tice: Absolutely. Our General Plan includes a goal to drive growth through quality industrial development, quality new jobs. Casa Grande is not intended to be a bedroom community. Obviously we have a significant population of winter visitors or seasonal residents and we have retirees, but most of our growth is driven by creation of new jobs and in-migration of people taking those jobs.

Grande LIVING: Given your viewpoints regarding the public’s perception of how this process works, what do you feel the planning department’s role is in public outreach and education?

Paul Tice: We currently promote public education through our Leadership Academy program where we invite the public to come in and learn, not only about the planning program, but about the work of all the other city departments and how the city operates.

As to public outreach, we provide public notice of every new project being proposed through our development application review pipeline. So if someone submits an application to us to rezone or a major site plan to build a new apartment complex, a new commercial building, an industrial building, a new subdivision, we reach out and send notices to people within 300, 500, sometimes 1,000 feet of the site, providing them with information on the application that is under review, inviting them to contact us, review the plans and share with us any concerns they have, and educate them about how they can effectively interact with the program.

We provide public notices at least twice during most application reviews before we even get to the public hearing before planning commission or city council. We

publish ads in the paper and require development applicants to post a big yellow sign on the sites that you might’ve seen as well. The purpose is to let people be aware of what’s going on and invite them to participate in the process.

Grande LIVING: If you had more resources, would you like to dedicate more to the overall citizen understanding of the process? Do you wish you had some more ability to really reach out to all the citizenry, not just the specific project-affected people, so that they understood some of the concerns that you voiced earlier about “why are we getting another car wash”?

Paul Tice: Absolutely, John. And I think technology really is the answer to that level of additional communication. We have experimented with some online versions of posting information on every project that a planning review and every project that’s going through the building permit process. We want people, if they see a site being graded and they want to know what’s going on, to have a place they can go to get some information.

But that’s very technology-based, and we really didn’t have the

resources to successfully sustain that effort.

Hopefully in the very near future we’ll be able to once again launch something online that educates the public about all the projects going through our system and gives them the information they need and gives them the contact information they need to do a deeper dive if they are interested.

Grande LIVING: In the meantime, the big way information gets disseminated to the public is through social media groups of various types, Facebook, X, Nextdoor; there’s a myriad of them. People ask questions about what’s happening in the city, what’s being built, rather than going directly to the city. Do you think these social media groups are all good, all bad for getting the information out there?

Paul Tice: I’ve recently noticed a trend with social media whereby the public doesn’t engage with planning staff to express their concerns regarding a proposed development but rather just show up at a public hearing and try to stop developments from being approved. This trend is kind of disturbing, as a

Paul Tice in his office.

planner, I really believe that public input makes a better product. As we process applications, we want public input into our reviews to understand what public concerns are. Through my years of experience I’ve found that most public concerns can be addressed through redesigned projects.

We send all these postcards early on in the development application review process and try to reach out so that we can understand what public concerns there are. We solicit public input for these applications early on in the process, where we can actually make changes, influence changes to the design, mediate between the surrounding property owners and the applicant, and try to reach a consensus on what could work.

But what I find today is often we won’t hear any opposition to a project, even though we’re reaching out to all these stakeholders, until the public hearing where a number of people will show up in opposition, and we weren’t aware of it as staff. And we cannot negotiate changes to a plan during a public hearing. The public hearing stage is not a constructive point in the process to make changes and redesign to address the public’s concern.

What happens is it puts both the planning commission and the city council in a position of either having to approve the project or deny the project versus letting staff try to resolve those issues internally between the adjoining property owners and the applicant before we get to those hearings.

So that’s pretty frustrating, and I’m blaming social media for some of that.

Grande LIVING: Which kind of leads into my next question, which is how much input does the public really have? You hear the term NIMBY, “not in my backyard,” and when people do come to public meetings or even earlier in the process and are just completely against something whether it’s legitimate or valid concerns, whatever that process brings up, how much impact does the public actually have in the denial or approval of a project?

Paul Tice: Or in the revision of a project. So the public is a key player, the key stakeholder, in this process. You have the regulations and the city staff, you have the applicant and what they want to build, and we have the public. And we’re kind of all equal players. And so the public has an immense ability to influence a project.

My hope and desire is that the public input actually makes proposed developments better. A good, functional development review process allows the public to express whatever concerns they might have, and the design is revised to address those concerns, which I think in the end often makes projects better.

I embrace public input. I don’t embrace NIMBYism. I embrace constructive public input, not public input that’s based on bias and prejudice. Public input is important

The Interview

to evaluate and resolve use-to-use compatibility issues, because in the end that’s what planning is about — allowing a variety of land uses with the community but making sure they are compatible.

Grande LIVING: Let’s talk briefly about a couple of the big projects we’ve had in town, Lucid Motors, Kohler. These large-scale, hundreds or even thousands of job-creating projects, are they difficult for your planning staff?

Paul Tice: They are challenging. On the planning side we have adequate industrially zoned land that can accommodate them. We also have a lot of potential for adding industrially zoned land into our inventory. So that’s not a big issue. Roadway improvements to handle the additional traffic is a bit of a challenge for public works, but it’s kind of routine. It’s just money to build the new roads. Same thing with sewer infrastructure and water infrastructure, but it’s pretty routine.

But for the building department side, it’s a real challenge because what these new businesses want to do, because they have such a short time from the time of starting the project to wanting to get into production, is engage in what’s called designbuild, which is a different way of reviewing building plans.

Continued on page 56

Paul Tice with Jaclyn Sarnowski, Senior Planner - City of Casa Grande.

The Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Office’s first Southwest Taco Fest took place on Saturday, March 30 at our tree-lined, shady Dave White Park.

The month of March came in like a lamb and out like a lion this year — with a very windy day that provided a few challenges. Despite the wind, more than 2,000 hardy festivalgoers showed up, listened, lived it up and enjoyed our signature Casa Grande Love It! brand of fun, food, culture and music.

Chamber member Jason Castano of The Cleaning People emailed to say: “Several family members and friends joined us, and we had a great time. The music was excellent, and the food was fantastic. The family-friendly atmosphere was perfect.”

Past Chamber Board Chair and Casa Grande City Council member Matt Herman wrote a note to “tell you and all the staff and volunteers how great the Taco Fest was! Despite the obvious problems with the wind, everyone had a great time. I am so glad we were able to make the inaugural Taco Fest such a great event. SO many people were telling me they could not wait for next year!!!”

CASA GRANDE: FOOD, DRINK & FUN!

by Craig H. McFarland, Mayor, City of Casa Grande

We are already thinking of ways to make the Southwest Taco Fest even bigger next year and a celebration of authentic Southwestern food, music and culture for fun-lovers of all ages.

In addition to the SW Taco Fest event, Casa Grande complements the festival with our very own Southwest Taco Trail. It is an unforgettable culinary adventure; indulge in the rich flavors and diverse taco creations found in Casa Grande’s local restaurants. From classic tacos to unique variations like taco pizza and choco tacos, this trail promises to tantalize your taste buds and celebrate the vibrant culinary culture of the city.

The Casa Grande Taco Trail is an ongoing experience, but don’t wait too long! Participants have until Sept. 2024 to complete the trail and become eligible for fabulous prizes.

Once you dined at any five restaurants, stop by or mail your passport to our visitor center to receive a T-shirt or $20 gift card. One prize per participant. Download the app — https:// experiencecasagrande.com/casagrande-southwest-taco-trail — and drop by the Chamber to pick up a Taco Trail Official Passport.

Taco Trail Official Passport 2024 Courtesy of CG Chamber of Commerce.

Roger Cline and the Peacemakers

Photo by Matt Herman

FOOD, DRINK & FUN

Meet the Heat: 10 Ways to Have Summer Fun

by Blake Herzog

In the Pinal County deserts, summers are often met with fear and loathing as we plot and live for our escape to the beach or mountains; some options for local entertainment evaporate for the season.

Yet the season is far from fun-free in these parts, with hardy and resourceful souls (that means all of us) able to face the furnace and find cool diversions to make us find the happiness we thought we said goodbye to sometime before Memorial Day.

Here are some of our best ideas:

1. Early morning hikes at Casa Grande Mountain and Picacho Peak — Early risers can take advantage of the slightly higher elevation and cooler breezes to build up their muscles and lung power and gaze at the jagged horizon and rolling desert floor. www.casagrandeaz. gov/254/About-Casa-Grande-Mountain-Trails or www. azstateparks.com/picacho

2. Fishing at Copper Sky and Pacana parks in Maricopa or Dave White Regional Park in Casa Grande — All three are regularly stocked through the statewide Community Fishing Program with trout, bluefish or catfish. Probably not a midday activity, but it can be great fun in the mornings and evenings. Fishing license and bag limit regulations apply. www.azgfd.com/fishing-2/where-tofish/community-fishing

3. Pinal Geology and Mineral Museum — Sharing space with the Coolidge Chamber of Commerce, this volunteer-run museum exhibits minerals, fossils, stones and meteorites and has interactive exhibits onsite as well as on its website. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays. pinalgeologymuseum.org

4. Food Truck Fridays at Casa Grande Neon Park — This roundup of up to a dozen or more food trucks and vendors with a live DJ continues to serve customers under the buzzing lights of this downtown park throughout the summer; powerful fans adding to their comfort. For details of each week’s events follow Food Truck Friday Casa Grande on Facebook.

A swimming hole in Aravaipa Canyon

5. Poolin’ around — Casa Grande, Maricopa, Coolidge, Eloy and Florence all maintain public pools; check the cities’ websites and social media pages for information.

6. Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch — The iconic roadside attraction at the base of Picacho Peak is open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May through October featuring a flock of the massive birds and tons of smaller critters, along with monster truck tours of the farm. www.roostercogburn.com

7. Throwback Family Fun (Casa Grande) — A lively hub for families and friends to hold parties, play arcade and carnival games, throw axes (ages 14 and up), enjoy the café’s food and take part in other activities like karaoke, gaming tournaments, “Axes and Art” and seasonal events. https://throwbackfun.com.

8. Bruzzi Vineyard Tasting Room (Superior) — You can head over to the mountainous eastern side of the county for somewhat cooler temperatures and

attractions like this tasting room housed in a historic downtown building featuring samples, bottle sales and high-quality local merchandise. Reservations are recommended. www.bruzzivineyard.com/superior

9. Boyce Thompson Arboretum (Superior) — The oldest botanical garden in Arizona showcases diverse flora and fauna from deserts locally and around the globe, along with guided hikes and tours, events, classes, evening walks and events tying in with the neighboring town. www.btarboretum.org

10. Hiking in Aravaipa Wilderness — If you’re looking to get into the backcountry there’s no prettier place to do it than Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness southeast of Winkelman. It’s a circuitous five-hour drive from Casa Grande, but you’re rewarded with a hike through a deep, shaded canyon on a trail that takes you through the year-round creek several times. Permits required. www.blm.gov/visit/aravaipacanyon-wilderness

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

The Pony Ranch

Casa Collective owners (from left) Shawna Hanks, Britt Adams and Doug Hanks

Casa Collective Creates Community with Food Trucks

Story and photos by Blake Herzog

Three friends who met in Portland, Oregon, the home of numerous food truck parks, have brought the concept to Casa Grande to create a place where foodies and families from all walks of life can gather.

The trio restored a century-old home on the National Register of Historic Places at 323 W. 8th St. (at the corner of Pinal Avenue and just north of Florence Boulevard) into Casa Collective, a tap house and wine bar with space to park food trucks and tables inside and outside where patrons can sit — sometimes all day.

“It’s kind of their hangout spot, which is what our hope was, that we would have a place which felt like the community’s spot where they could congregate, make friends or just relax and enjoy some cold beer, good food and just hang,” co-owner Britt Adams says. “It’s very chill.”

Customers also are free to take their meals home.

Sitting under a tall, refurbished sign, Casa Collective is open 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

A fleet of more than a dozen local food trucks rotates through up to six available spaces, some staying for days at a time and others popping in once a week or month. Cuisines run the gamut between Thai and Indian to Jamaican, Mexican and American, as well as ice cream and dessert trucks. Truck owners who want to join in can apply through the website, www.casacollectiveaz.com.

Oye Bash is the owner and chief cook of Thomm Yumm Thai, a truck based in the Casa Grande Mall parking lot before she moved it to Casa Collective when it opened Feb. 1. She

prepares pad thai, pad see ew, curries and other staples of her homeland’s cuisine, along with iced teas with or without boba.

The new location is working well for her: “We see our old customers, we have new customers, and they have variety here.”

The drink menu inside the historic house is always evolving, with craft beers mainly from the Southwest on tap, as well as glasses of white and red wines, ciders and plenty of nonalcoholic options.

“Literally, a family could come here and there’s something for everyone,” Adams says.

For updates on its selection of food trucks, drinks and activities follow CasaCollectiveAZ on Facebook or casa_collective_az on Instagram.

Casa Collective ribbon-cutting March 21, 2024

&

Farmers Markets Keep Summertime Fresh

Photos courtesy of Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce

Farmers markets keeping Pinal County’s agricultural heritage alive are booming throughout the desert, drawing neighbors and visitors together to shop for fresh produce, trade recipes, and forging stronger bonds throughout the community. Many of them continue to operate during the hot summer months, so we’re taking a look at what we have to choose from:

Florence Farmers Market

• Second and fourth Fridays of the month, 8 a.m. to noon

• McFarland State Historic Park, 24 W. Ruggles St.

This market organized by the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce has been going for almost four years, attracting shoppers with locally based vendors of everything from fruits and vegetables, plants, bread, jams and honey to jewelry, metallic yard art, kitchen towels and charcuterie boards. It’s held on and around the large, shaded porch of the county’s original courthouse at McFarland State Historic Park.

They’re a great opportunity for the sellers as well as the buyers, said Sherri Butler, special events director for the Chamber. “These are homebased businesses, so it gives them an outlet and sometimes they have their kids with them and they’re learning right alongside them. It’s not just about someone who’s selling a loaf of bread, it’s so much more than that,” she said.

Currently, an average of 18 vendors set up their tables at each event and about 150-300 shoppers attend, with crowds swelling with large special events. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension regularly brings educational exhibits on topics such as diet and exercise or gardening tips with plants to take home, and many other seasonal activities are offered.

The future is looking bright too, she added: “We’re getting some local growers that are coming about that have moved to Florence recently. I do have more people interested in planning and growing for the market, which is exciting.”

MORE SUMMER MARKETS

Casa Grande Farmers Market

• Third Saturday of the month, 7 to 10 a.m. (summer hours)

• First Presbyterian Church, 702 E. Cottonwood Lane

• $15 per basket of “rescued” produce trucked in from farmers, variety of vendors

• cgfarmersmarket.wixsite.com/ cgfarmersmarket

Superior Farm-to-Fantastic Farmers Market

• On monthly schedule for summer, check Facebook page for details

• Besich Park Food Court, 240 W. Main St.

• $15 per box of produce, varied venues

www.facebook.com/ groups/270713257662799

ECONOMY, FINANCE & BUSINESS

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a rule that redefines how Wage and Hour Division auditors will determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.

The rule went into effect March 11.

The standards are generally viewed as raising the presumption that a worker is an employee entitled to overtime, minimum wage and other Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) benefits.

Consequently, businesses that pay any workers as independent contractors bear a greater burden to show that the workers are not, in fact, employees covered by the FLSA.

The rule addresses six factors — some, in our view, very subjective — that provide an “economic realities test” intended to guide the analysis of a worker’s relationship with an employer:

Labor Department Rule Draws Sharper Distinction between Employees, Independent Contractors

by Tina Vannucci, Attorney, Fitzgibbons Law

• Worker’s opportunity for profit or loss in connection with work performed.

• Financial stake and nature of any resources a worker has invested in the work.

• Degree of permanence of the work relationship.

• Degree of control an employer has over the person’s work.

• Whether the work the person does is essential to the employer's business.

• Worker’s skill and initiative.

A government examiner can consider any of these factors and is free to introduce factors not listed.

If an employee is misclassified as an independent contractor, the liability for unpaid overtime, minimum wages and payroll taxes

could be imposed personally on owners and responsible employees.

For links to Labor Department online resources, visit www.fitzgibbonslaw.com/flsa.

Tina Vannucci

Apartments?

Zoning: City of Casa Grande B-2 Needed / other uses: Commercial, fast food, restaurants, retail?

All at or near; APS, AZ Water Co, SW Gas

Title and Escrow:

What Do They Do?

submitted by ROX Real Estate

The title company and escrow company may be the same company or it can be two or more companies working together.

An escrow company is an independent, neutral intermediary that manages the exchange of money for real property.

Whether you are the buyer, seller, lender or borrower, you want the assurance of knowing that no funds or real property will be exchanged until all the written contract instructions have been followed and the conditions met. All changes to the contract must be in writing and signed by all parties to indicate

agreement. The escrow office maintains confidentiality and keeps the funds and documents safe during the escrow. When all the terms and conditions of the contract are met, and all parties agree, the escrow officer will disburse funds and record the documents with the county recorder’s office.

A title company is a specialty insurance company that insures the property is free and clear of title defects. Depending on whether the transaction is cash or financed there will be one title policy issued for the owner and if financed, a second policy written to provide the lender additional coverage.

Prior to issuing the policy, effective with the close of escrow, the title company will do perform an extensive title search and examination. If a defect is found, the examiner will work with the seller to resolve the issue. Some of the common title defects include liens including mechanics’ liens, back taxes, claims related to homeowner divorce and remarriage and death of an owner.

Title insurance is a single premium policy, issued once at close of escrow. The premium is collected as part of the transaction. If you refinance the loan at a later date, a new title insurance policy is issued.

Janalynn Johnson photo

Janalynn Johnson photo

Melissa Altamirano photo

Blushing Cactus Photography photo

Blushing Cactus Photography photo

Melissa Altamirano photo

Melissa Altamirano photo

Become a Volunteer Reading Tutor

submitted by Achieve Pinal

The AARP Foundation Achieve Pinal reading program needs your help. This volunteer-based tutoring program helps children become better readers. They are seeking volunteers aged 45+. Virtual tutors can be located anywhere in the country. Take a look at all they do.

• AARP Experience Corps Pinal-Casa Grande utilizes proven methods to give second- and third-grade students individual attention teachers are unable to give.

• The program utilizes trained volunteers aged 45 and older.

• Students receive one hour of tutoring weekly, online or in person.

• Tutoring leads to greater student confidence and participation in class.

• Volunteers realize social, emotional, and general health benefits from the program.

◊ 98% of tutors polled reported increased sense of purpose.

◊ 85% felt that their lives had been improved.

Strong Student Progress in 22-23

Seventy-three percent of program students progressed an entire grade level in their reading in the 2022-23 school year! They also improved on last year’s score, which was 68%. Nationally for AARP programs 62% of students advance ½ grade level. So, they are over twice as effective as the national AARP average! They attribute this progress to the hard work of their tutors who devoted 4,900 hours this year. They are dedicated, innovative, and hardworking.

Total Students Served

Over three years this program has served 426 students. The one-onone sessions that these students enjoyed gave them the gift of enhanced reading skills. This gift will improve their lives and give them the opportunity to, in the near future, fill the terrific jobs that are being created in Pinal County. Keep in mind that 3rd graders are only 9 years away from entering the workforce.

Goals

The goal is to offer this program to every school district in Pinal County. When they have done that, they will have created a template that can be used throughout Arizona, and possibly replicated in other parts of the Country.

For more information contact the staff by phone 520.836.6868 or email: pinalcountyaz@apexcorps.org.

Improve a Child’s Future... Become a Tutor!

We are seeking volunteers aged 45+ to help children become better readers at local elementary schools including: Apache Junction, Arizona City, Casa Grande, Coolidge, Eloy, Stanfield, San Tan Valley, and Maricopa! No prior experience required. AARP training will be provided to help you become a skilled tutor. Visit achievepinal.org or email pinalcountyaz@apexcorps.org for more information.

Is it Asthma or is it Allergies?

by Jacob Umscheid, MD, Chair of Pediatrics, Sun Life Health

This can be a tricky question, as both are results of a similar mechanism: an overactive immune response.

Typically, our immune system responds to insults like viruses, bacteria and fungi to protect our body from significant harm. In some cases, someone may have an overactive immune system, where instead of attacking the dangerous insults that can harm us, our immune system attacks routine particles all around us that mean us no harm — pet dander, pollen, dust, etc.

This response causes symptoms depending on the location of insult. If aimed at your eyes you can get itchy and tearful eyes. If in the nose, you can get a runny nose, nasal congestion and post-nasal drip.

If you are breathing in these particles, you can get an itchy mouth, a cough and wheezing. In fact, any part of the body that comes into contact with these insults in a person with an overreactive immune system can result in disease processes — such as allergic rhinitis, eczema, food intolerance and even asthma.

In asthma, an overactive immune response results in hyperreactivity along the bronchi (the tubes of the airway), which can result in inflammation and spasms of the airway. When this occurs, you can develop a chronic cough, wheezing, inability to keep up with others, and in severe cases shortness of breath.

Asthma and allergies are frequently found hand in hand and can be mistaken for one or the other. It is

important to be able to identify any triggers that may result in activating an overactive immune system.

Some triggers are easier to identify and avoid such as pet dander, dust mites and secondhand smoke exposure whereas some are more challenging to eliminate such as tree and grass pollens.

Thankfully therapies exist that can help calm down an overactive immune system and with the right evaluation can significantly improve one’s quality of life.

If you are uncertain, schedule an evaluation for your child at our Pediatric Asthma Clinic, catering to children younger than 19. Contact 520.836.5036 to book your appointment now.

You Health, Happiness & Education

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Getting Healthy as a Couple

by Tiffanie Grady-Gillespie, Certified Physical Trainer, Certified Corporate Wellness Coach, WickedFiTT

Losing weight is difficult, and if someone feels alone during the process, even the smallest progress may seem impossible. If a couple goes through the journey together, though, they can create healthier habits and strengthen their relationship.

Supporting each other is key. Couples who try to lose weight together have better results than those who do it alone.

So how do we make this a recipe for success and not a total disaster?

First and foremost, keep it positive. Instead of focusing on the pounds lost, focus on the eating and activity habits you want to change together.

If you want to compare, consider using behaviors and habits to gauge how you’re doing. Notice what your partner is doing well, and use that to learn how you can improve.

One of the best ways we can support our partners is to be good partners ourselves. Be careful not to create stressful situations (arguments,

etc.), that could lead to emotional eating. This is so important. Losing weight is tough.

If a couple jumps into deprivation mode and creates a rigid and strict plan, it will probably not stick. Plan healthy dates, make it fun, dancing, maybe a hike and a picnic.

Don’t forget to have each other’s back, because there will be plenty of difficult moments. The most powerful tool is that you are in this together. This journey can bring you even closer.

And whatever you do, don't leave your partner behind. If they begin to falter, find a way to encourage them.

Be kind, and give each other some grace. Start and end each day with a little compliment, “Looking good!” or “Great job!” goes a long way.

In the end, you are each working toward the same goal, which is to lose weight and become a happier, healthier couple. Reward your efforts by planning a celebration for your hard work!

Fight the Blight!

by Donna McBride, City Councilwoman, Casa Grande

Blight is a serious problem across the country, including Casa Grande. It is marked by deteriorating and abandoned homes and buildings; vacant lots with trash, high weeds and grass; and abandoned and vandalized cars.

I know all those weeds we see around town is driving us all crazy!

The City of Casa Grande has three code enforcement officers who handled over 2,300 cases this past year. The good news is that 64% of our residents complied and took care of the issue on their own.

For those that don’t, the city has a Clean It and Lien It program and has invested $100,000 a year for the past six years to fight blight. Blight can cause loss of property value, increased crime and reduced quality of life for our community. One thing is clear, city staff can’t do it alone.

Our community recently jumped into action to fight the blight. Businesses, civic groups, youth organizations and citizens joined forces during the Keep Casa Grande Clean & Beautiful Campaign Adopt-A-Street program at the end of March.

Arizona Public Service provided trash bags. Student groups cleaned up around their campus. Hospital staff tackled Florence Boulevard. Families cleaned up the streets of our historic downtown area.

Community engagement is vital.

Meet Kim and Michael Harper. Originally from Michigan, this amazing couple came out west to enjoy our weather. But they were not impressed with the litter lingering around town. Instead of just complaining about it, they jumped into action, starting a campaign called Clean Up Casa Grande.

They took to social media and created a Facebook page and currently have nearly 150 members. They encourage people to pick up trash; to adopt a street.

They lead by example, often taking their daily walks with the goal of filling up a trash bag. They encourage people to post pictures of their filled trash bags.

While the City of Casa Grande creates opportunities for our community to get rid of waste and combat blight, it is the day-today efforts of people like Kim and Michael that is just as important. They have energized others to be part of something bigger.

So, take their challenge, grab a bag, take that walk around your neighborhood and fight the blight!

Contact Casa Grande Adopt a Street at 520.421.8630 or email cgplanning@casagrandeaz.gov. Find Clean Up Casa Grande on Facebook. https://www.facebook. com/groups/cleanupcasagrande

Kim and Michael Harper

Donna and her husband Mike

Adventure Begins at your Library!

by Julie Andersen, Outreach Librarian Vista Grande Library, City of Casa Grande

Summer Reading is right around the corner at your Casa Grande Public Library! We have been planning for months to bring the kids, teens and even the adults of our community a quality reading program that encourages reading along with fun, free weekly programs.

Summer Reading has become a summer-time staple for many families in Casa Grande. They look forward to the schedule of events, the challenge of reading goals and earning prizes for their efforts.

The program officially kicks off June 3 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Palm Island Family Aquatic Park with a fun pool party, free to families when they sign up for the reading program.

Kids, teens and adults can register now online, with pick up of their reading logs and BINGO cards starting the week of May 28. We also will have registration on site at both libraries and the pool.

Some of the kids’ events planned are regular storytimes, crafts, gaming, Lego Club, cooking classes, hands on nature activities, movies and scavenger hunts.

Teens can look forward to STEM activities, Anime Filmathons, Dungeons and Dragon campaigns, Uno games, babysitting courses, a Music and Mocktails program and Paint Nights.

Throughout the program kids and teens are encouraged to read at least 20 minutes a day and can gather weekly prizes at either library when they reach their goals. Prizes range from an assortment of Jibbitz, coupons for local restaurants and venues, and raffle tickets to enter to win gift cards for the teens.

Adults will find our regular programming continuing through summer such as our

technology classes, Inklings Writers Group, Literati, Craftastic! and Cookies and Coloring.

We even have a fun activity for the adults in the form of a Reading BINGO card for a chance to win a gift basket.

So, join us for the fun of Summer Reading by registering here https://bit.ly/cgsrp2024.

Vista Grande Public Library

1556 N. Arizola Rd. Casa Grande, AZ 85122

Casa Grande Main Library

449 N. Drylake St. Casa Grande, AZ 85122

CAC Receives Grants to Improve Water Conservation

by Angela Askey, Executive Director Public Relations and Marketing Photos courtesy of Central Arizona College

Central Arizona College recently was awarded two water conservation grants from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona.

The first grant of $183,286 is for the purchase and installation of HydroFLOW devices, and the second grant totaling $141,124 will assist the college in placing artificial turf on the softball field.

CAC will purchase five HydroFLOW devices to be installed on the cooling towers that are a part of the centralized air conditioning systems at each of the college’s campuses. These water treatment mechanisms are designed to reduce water usage by decreasing limescale and biofilm buildup inside the chillers, health exchanges, pipes and cooling towers.

Through a sine wave signal, the equipment helps to stop scale forming in the circulating water column of the cooling towers meaning the system no longer must be flushed out frequently to remove scale. It is anticipated that this infrastructure efficiency upgrade will save approximately 10 million gallons of water annually. Additional chemical and energy savings will be realized with coolers running more efficiently.

CAC’s match for the project is $47,041.50.

The second water conservation grant will enable CAC Facilities to replace the natural turf at the Signal Peak Campus softball field with artificial turf. One significant advantage of artificial turf is its

minimal water requirements compared to natural grass, making it an effective water conservation solution, especially in droughtprone areas.

The softball field is 27,000 square feet and is used by CAC’s women’s softball team for practices and games. By installing turf, it is estimated annual savings will be 4.59 acre-feet or 1.5 million gallons of water.

CAC will contribute a match of $45,821.68 to complete the project.

Each of these grants allows CAC to reduce water consumption and proceed with water conservation activities as outlined in the college’s sustainability plan.

Water tower at the Signal Peak Campus.

Young Activity Center and Gym at the Signal Peak Campus.

PHOTO

Aging Gracefully

by Gigi McWhirter

“Dogs have several traits in common with humans, including the aging process,” says Gina Adepoju, owner of Dog Authority and www.dogauthority.com.

She has been a dog behaviorist/ dog trainer since 1998. Gina also volunteers her time training and working with organizations that help rescue dogs find permanent and loving homes.

Before adopting a dog learn about breed specific attributes and traits along with the various stages of life and behaviors that can occur as a dog ages. Like humans, a dog’s mind and body will change as they grow older.

Puppy is the first stage of life. Ideally, a puppy should not leave its mother before it is 8 weeks old.

Gina says, “Puppy behavior is where it all starts. Experiences a puppy has early on can shape a puppy’s behavior for life — including fears like thunderstorms, fireworks, children and other dogs. At this stage of life, they are like sponges and should learn most of their life lessons.

“Training sessions can take place several times throughout the day, with each session lasting no more than 10 minutes because of their short attention spans.”

A puppy day consists of eating, sleeping, playing and learning.

Puppy teenager starts at about

6 months and lasts until about 2 years old — and just like human kids, this is the phase when they start to test their boundaries. They are extremely capable of learning and should be stimulated both physically and mentally to encourage positive behavior.

This also is the age when most dogs are rehomed or sent to shelters because owners get frustrated, and instead of seeking out a trainer for guidance or reaching out to breed specific groups for support, they make the decision to get rid of the dog.

Young adult is the sweet era that starts after 2 years and continues to about 5 years of age. By now, the dog understands its role in the family, has learned manners and how to be a “good dog.” They still have a nice amount of energy, love your companionship and look forward to learning.

Mature is the next phase that happens between 5 to 8 years. Their bodies may start to show signs of aging, but their minds are still active. They still love learning and making you happy.

Senior stage is the winter of life, but this doesn’t stop them enjoying learning/mental exercise. Because their bodies age like ours, they, too, can develop hearing loss,

changes in vision, painful joints, sleep more, etc. They can become cranky, especially to little kids and snap at them or anything else that startles them. They can also become gentler and more loving.

Just a reminder, love has no age.

Happy Tails to you!

The Ocotillo Lights Up the Desert

by Lisa Manifold, Grande Living Reader

by Lisa Manifold

The Spanish translation of ocotillo — pronounced oh-kuh-TEE-yoh — is “little torch.” It’s also referred to as: buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob’s staff, vine cactus, and is a flowering spiny shrub.

Many think the ocotillo is a cactus, but it’s not. They are a semi-succulent desert plant in the fourguieria family.

The plant is indigenous to the Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Colorado deserts from southeastern California to western Texas and south into Mexico with a life span of 60 to 100 years.

The ocotillo stem’s (near the base of the plant) divide into several slender, wide-spreading, spiny branches, extending upward 8 to 20 or more feet. Most of the time the stems are leafless but, when the plant receives enough moisture, small 2-inch oval leaves grow from the stems

In spring and summer red-orange tubular flowers in 6- to 10-inch-long clusters accompany the leaves at the end of the stem. The leaves will remain on the plant until the soil dries out, then they’ll fall off to conserve the plant’s moisture and reduce evaporative loss.

The now “leafless” ocotillo will rely on the chlorophyll in their stems for photosynthesis to survive.

In southern Arizona, the blooming of the ocotillo’s orange-red flowers coincides with the hummingbird’s northern migration, which helps to pollinate the plants.

The pollen attaches to the hummingbird’s beak and feathers as the bird gets nectar from the flowers. It is then transported by the hummingbird as it flies from flower to flower. This helps to create ocotillo seeds. Carpenter bees and other birds: Hooded-Orioles, Lucy’s Warblers, Verdins, House finches, etc., also help to disperse pollen by collecting nectar and/or insects from the flowers.

Photos

Transitional Kitchens Strike Balance between Styles, Rooms

by Blake Herzog

You may have heard the term “transitional style” come up while reading about interior decorating trends and puzzled over what it means.

Think of furniture, appliances and design choices that straddle the lines between traditional and modern or contemporary approaches.

Transitional style works especially well for open-concept kitchens and floor plans because it makes it easier to tie it into patterns and themes seen elsewhere in the house. It calls for a reduction of clutter, so you’ll want to make sure you have adequate storage capacity

Consider:

Color scheme — Choose neutral color palettes such as creams, whites, grays or beiges as the foundation of your kitchen. These colors provide a versatile backdrop that can be accented with bolder hues or natural elements like wood. Blacks or deep blues offer a complementary contrast.

Appliances — Stainless steel is the finish most associated with transitional kitchens, but whites or beiges work, or it could even be where you slot black elements if you’re trying to work those in.

Cabinetry — Look for shaker-style cabinets with clean lines and simple hardware. You can choose wood cabinets stained in rich tones like cherry or maple for a traditional look or go for painted cabinets in neutral colors for contemporary.

Countertops — Select durable, timeless and low-maintenance materials like quartz, granite or slate.

Backsplash — Incorporate a backsplash that adds visual interest without overwhelming the space. Subway or mosaic tiles in neutral tones are popular. You can experiment

with geometric patterns or textured tiles for a modern twist.

Flooring — Choose hardwood flooring or wood-plank tile for a warm feel. Lighter wood tones brighten up the space; darker hues add richness.

Lighting — Install a mix of ambient, task and accent lighting. Pendant lights above the island or sink area can add a touch of elegance, while recessed lighting provides illumination throughout.

Fixtures — Select faucets, cabinets or drawer hardware that strike a balance

between traditional and contemporary. Brushed nickel or matte black faucets and hardware can complement classic and modern elements.

Details — Pay attention to the finer details such as moldings, trim work and architectural elements. Keep these touches subtle, without a lot of fussy ornamentation.

Personalization — Finally, don’t forget to add your personal touch. Whether it’s displaying artwork, incorporating decorative accents or adding pops of color through accessories, infusing your personality into the space will make it feel truly yours.

Modern Light Fixtures Bring the Future Forward

by Blake Herzog

Bringing the right amount of light to a room can be tricky, but today’s LED bulbs, high-tech controls and intriguing styles make it much easier — and a lot more fun!

What brings modern light fixtures together is their efficient use of today’s lighting technology with intriguing shapes or patterns to illuminate your home.

SPUTNIK OR GLASS BURST STYLES

Inspired by the space race and fascination with the stars, these updated chandeliers feature spheres of light at the end of black or gold rods to recreate the spark of innovation and burst of new technology that make satellites and space travel a reality.

They set an exciting tone for the room.

LED LIGHT RODS

These can be found as a single stylish rod suspended over a kitchen

for task lighting or mounted on the ceiling in bunches to bring a futuristic vibe to a living or game room. Their versatility makes them easy to customize to your taste and tasks.

PENDANT SHADES AND LANTERNS

The ideal marriage of form and function, these put task lighting on task to also fill the room with a warm glow that invites family and guests to gather and gab. These look great hung alone or in sets of two or three.

WALL SCONCES

These don’t have to be frilled and scalloped to be installed in a home to provide additional task or accent lighting. Think clean lines and colors other than gold, and you’ve got a thoroughly modern light source.

RECESSED LIGHTING

These are not showy fixtures for the most part but sunken into the ceiling so as not to take up airspace and make the room feel smaller.

Such lighting has several variations, including ones that push the bulb up into the ceiling (baffle trim), flush with or slightly below the ceiling (open trim) and in housings that can be angled to change the light’s direction (eyeball trim).

FLUSH MOUNTS

When you crave the drama of a chandelier overhead but just don’t have the ceiling height for it, you can always go with a flush mount lamp with modern angles. If you’re tired of the flush-mount dome lights in your home, you can always swap them out for an artsy statement piece.

FLOOR, TABLE AND DESK LAMPS

Don’t forget about these workhorses of the lighting world. Plugging gives you more freedom to play with styles and shapes.

Make Sure Everyone Has your (House) Number

Street address numbers are one of those important things many homeowners don’t often think about; they’ve usually been in the same location since the house was built, and many cities, towns and HOAs regulate their placement to one degree or another.

But if your numerals are just too faded, worn or otherwise not very visible to visitors, delivery drivers or first responders, you may want to consider where the replacement should go.

Consider:

Visibility from the street

Ensure that the location you choose provides good visibility from the street for anyone approaching your home. Consider the distance from the street, the size of your numbers and any potential obstructions like trees or bushes.

Visibility from the sidewalk/driveway

House numbers should ideally be placed at eye level, about 4 to 6 feet above the ground. In some cases it may be wise to go higher for better visibility from the road, but 8 feet or so should be the upper limit.

Lighting If possible, place your house numbers in a well-lighted area. This can include near outdoor lighting fixtures, porch lights or streetlights. Illuminated numbers are much easier to read at night.

Proximity to front door

Many homeowners choose to place their house numbers near the front door or entryway. This is a common and convenient location for visitors and can contribute to the overall aesthetics of your home.

Garage or driveway

If your home is set back from the street, consider placing house numbers on or near the garage door or a sign at the driveway entrance. This is especially helpful for homes with long driveways.

Mailbox or mailbox post

Another option is to attach house numbers to your mailbox or the post that supports it. This is particularly useful if your mailbox is near the road.

Consistency with neighbors

Take a look at your neighbors’ homes to see where they have placed their house numbers. Consistency in placement can be helpful for visitors. However, you can still choose a location that suits your home’s characteristics

You Home & Garden

What ROX and What Sux?

What Sux in Upholstery? Bouclé

This nubby, uneven cotton or wool fabric is on the outs mainly because it’s been so overused over the past couple of years, its ubiquity turning into a curse.

But that’s not the only reason you should look elsewhere. People love texture in fabric and that’s fine, but the pilled-up look of bouclé in many cases resembles an old towel being thrown on to protect the actual upholstery from pets. Claws, by the way, are this supposedly durable fabric’s kryptonite.

What ROX? Twill

This classic diagonal weave is more widely used in apparel but has lots of advantages as an upholstery fabric. Its timeless look and feel provides plenty of texture with a polish that outshines the shabby non-chicness of bouclé.

As long as the material has a tight weave, it’ll be quite stain-resistant and water-resistant, easy to clean and able to withstand abuse from animals as well as people, though no fabric is completely pet-proof. It’s got enough going for it to be virtually trend-proof!

Real Estate Market Statistics

Arizona City, Casa Grande, Coolidge, Eloy, Maricopa and Stanfield

The Interview

Typically, a standard building review is the applicant’s architect will do the full design for the building and our city building plans examiner will review it for compliance with building code, and once we confirm that the building design meets the various building codes we issue the building permit and our building inspectors inspect the construction to confirm it is built per the approved plan.

In design-build, the concept is that there is not enough time to design the whole building before starting construction. So a portion of the building gets designed, let’s say the shell, and we’re going to permit that and the contractor is going to start building the shell while we figure out what’s going to go inside. And so you’re doing it a bit on the fly, and sometimes you don’t have the opportunity to make sure everything is working together perfectly from a building and fire system kind of approach. There are lots of revisions on the fly.

And so the new Lucid building, for example, instead of one or two or three building permits, I believe they had something like 50 building permits for that one building for various aspects of the construction. So now my staff has to manage 50 permits versus two or three that we might have back with more traditional building practices.

Grande LIVING: And that, I imagine, takes lots of staff time and resources away from other things you wish you could spend some time on.

Paul Tice: It does. In our shop, we have one building inspector who mostly focuses on most of the industrial buildings. It’s also a challenge for our fire inspector and our fire department because we try to provide inspections with nextday service. We have to do a lot of inspection prioritization, move things around. People have to be flexible in our work group. But everyone’s been able to handle this.

continued from page 15

Grande LIVING: What is a project or program or something that you’ve done you’re most proud of?

Paul Tice: For right now I’m most proud of the completion of our 2030 General Plan. I was the project manager for that, my staff and I wrote many of the plan elements. A consultant assisted us with part of it.

I’m proud because it took a totally different approach to planning in Casa Grande. We wanted to take a very realistic look at how much water we had to support new development. In the past that hadn’t occurred to any great degree. Prior planning was kind of done in a vacuum separated from the water resource issue. Obviously we live in the desert, water’s a sacred and limited commodity.

So our last general plan had a build-out scenario of a city of 500,000 to 750,000 people. There’s no way we have enough water to support a city of half a million people in Casa Grande. So our new plan took a very realistic look at the water resource and then determined how much development we could support with the known resources we have. And that’s about a city of 150,000 to maybe 200,000 people. So we’re going to double our size over the next 30 or so years.

The beauty of that was it also told us we don’t have to sprawl development, we can infill. Casa Grande has a lot of land area. It’s over 100 square miles, of which only about 30 square miles are built. Around the city you can see these large tracts of land that have development all around them that are vacant.

The new plan focuses on trying to build on those tracts of land interior to the city versus on the fringe, which happens to be very

City of Casa Grande GIS Zoning Map

cost-effective for the city to provide services to. And good solid planning, good solid fiscal management.

I’m looking forward to hopefully the adoption of our Florence Boulevard design concept. I’m anticipating some positive changes in the Florence Boulevard corridor in terms of landscaping and artwork and multimodal kind of transportation improvements.

Grande LIVING: On the general plan, I think I can say you were proud of the public involvement during that process. I think you told me that’s one of the most publicly engaged projects the city has ever done.

Paul Tice: Oh, absolutely. We had a great steering committee, we had a technical advisory group, we had a lot of public input, a lot of public support. And in Arizona, which is the only state I’m aware of that this occurs, the public has to ratify the general plan. In Casa Grande’s case, we had an over 80% positive vote on public ratification of the plan, which shows me that the public was really buying into the vision and in the direction of growth for this community.

Grande LIVING: Are there any other larger projects or things you still want to accomplish before you decide it’s time to go fishing forever?

Paul Tice: My list is actually quite long. But I’m going to just talk quickly about two things. The first is to really make our review process more efficient, to make it take less time and fewer resources while still accomplishing all the public engagement things we want to accomplish and the thorough reviews.

The state Legislature recently passed a bill that allows communities to push some of the development reviews currently being done by

boards and commissions and councils to the staff level and allow staff to make those decision on an administrative level. We’re going to look at doing that where we can within our zoning code, allowing more staff-level decisions, but still preserving appeal rights if the applicant or the public is not happy with the decision, they could appeal to planning commission or council and get a review of the staff decision.

The other thing is we’re continuing to try to figure out what we can do from a regulatory standpoint to facilitate more affordable or attainable housing.

One of the things we’re working on right now is changing the code to allow accessory dwelling units. They could be cottages in the backyard of a home or it could actually be a smaller living unit attached to the home itself. A lot of times those are known as multigenerational homes, where there’s a main living area and a smaller separate living area that’s actually attached to the home.

But we’re going to try to broaden that out communitywide. So most of our single-family lots in many of our neighborhoods could actually become two-family lots with the cottage or the smaller accessory dwelling unit that’s attached.

We continue to look at tiny homes and other things that might work on our smaller infill lots. And we have a lot of little infill lots in our older neighborhoods that have all the water and sewer infrastructure, but aren’t big enough to accommodate the standard single-family home. So we’re going to be looking at some alternative housing types.

Grande LIVING: Last thing here, anything we missed that you want to make sure our readers are aware of?

Paul Tice: I’ll say this. One of the things we hear people talking about are all the new apartment complexes being built in Casa Grande and some of the newbuild-to-rent projects. First off, Casa Grande is clearly a community in change, primarily, in my opinion, due to the jobs we’re creating and the in-migration changing the demographics of our residents, which we need to provide new and alternative housing choices for.

But people have to keep in perspective that we have not built a new apartment building in Casa Grande since, the last phase of Tierra Pointe was built, I think in 2012, 2013. So we’ve been 12 years without any apartment construction. Clearly there was pent-up demand.

We did permit a lot of apartment units in 2023 in Casa Grande, almost 1,000, which is clearly a huge increase from what we’ve done historically. And we haven’t permitted any in 2024, because the ones under construction now, they’re not going to be completed till probably the end of 2024, and they’re going to take some time to fill up.

So my crystal ball is we’re not going to be seeing a lot of additional apartment construction over the next 18 months or 24 months. But a certain percentage of our population needs and wants apartments, a certain percentage needs and wants the build-to rent bungalows, the cottages that you might see being built, and a certain percentage want standard single-family homes. So we need to provide all of that housing stock for our community and make sure we’re building it appropriately in the right locations.

Fun TRAVEL, DINING & ENTERTAINMENT

Lyon DeliversMarvelous Mix

by Tori Ward, Cruise and Resort Specialist, ROX TraveL

by Tori Ward

Recently we decided to make a repeat trip to Burgundy with our BFF traveling buddy, Rhonda, and included a four-day side trip to Lyon, France.

It seemed to fit all the items on our punch list. A city of historical significance with diversity, some mystery or sense of humor, and great food. Something European, but not pretentious. Lyon did not disappoint.

Our hotel was far enough away from old town Lyon to allow quiet evenings, but close enough to transportation and essential resources just a few blocks from the river.

The treasure of our neighborhood, though, was a wonderful Turkish restaurant whose alluring aromas tempted us. The incomprehensible menu didn’t discourage us. In spite of the fact that the waiter couldn’t

understand a thing we said and we couldn’t understand him, we were able to order tender and crispy grilled chicken whose flavors we will never duplicate at home. It was served with small puddles of brightly colored, spicy relishes, olives and golden potatoes. We had plans that would include a traditional meal the following day, but this dinner offered some of the diversity we were craving.

A visit to Lyon included a trip to the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica on the top of Fourvière. While not the oldest church in Lyon, it is very ornate and her presence dominates the city. We spent a respectful few minutes inside and couldn’t avoid the temptation to take photographs of the glittering interior.

Directly down the hill from the basilica we were amazed at the remains of the Roman Amphitheater. Parts date back

Photos

Traditional bouchon lunch

Norte-Dame de Fourvière

Fun Travel, Dining & Entertainment

to 15 BC; it was built to seat 10,000 people. Lyon was a strategically important city for the Roman Empire as two important rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, crossed there making the city useful for passage to the Mediterranean.

Because of its important trade location, silk weaving was introduced to Lyon in 1466. The impact of the silk workers not only had a positive economic impact, the “traboules” hidden covered passageways the skilled craftspeople used to transport textiles between shops and ships to avoid the elements, also played an important role for the safe passage of messages and people for the French Resistance during WWII.

As we strolled through Old Town, I grabbed Rhonda when a small exterior door opened revealing one of the hidden passageways. I felt like I’d discovered Narnia.

While admiring my giant cherry earrings, bought in a boutique

where Carmen Miranda could have plucked the fruit from her hat for jewelry, we snapped a few pictures in front of one of the multistoried frescos for which Lyon is famous — the Fresque des Lyonnais Célébres where images of 30 famous Lyon natives have been immortalized on the exterior walls.

Rhonda had done her homework and selected an accredited bouchon, one of only a few restaurants that have earned that designation in Lyon. To achieve the seal the restaurant must achieve several standards. The menu must contain traditional Lyonnaise fare using fresh ingredients hosted in a friendly atmosphere. At Les Fines Gueules we ate a wonderful lunch of salad Lyonnaise lavishly seasoned with salty lardons, escargots ladled with parsley butter and delicate pike quenelles finished with bubbly crab bisque. Service was warm and kind and helped “seal” the perfect ending to an excellent afternoon in Lyon.

Tori's Tips

As needed, make sure to buy OTC medicines and toiletries by early evening. Few shops are opened late and we could find no pharmacy opened on Sunday.

Early morning is the best time to visit the basilica and ruins in the Fourvière area. In Old Town, the streets are narrow and very crowded in the afternoon, and they close early.

Because there are fewer than 30 bouchons in Lyon if you want to dine in one, reservations are strongly advised.

Lyon is the gastronomic capital of the world, so if you don’t have a reservation for a bouchon, don’t worry; there are more than 4,000 restaurants in the city.

Public transportation is plentiful and inexpensive with the same tickets used on trams, metros, busses and the funicular that operates up and down the Fourviére.

Scan for more information or to book your next trip with ROX Travel.

Lyon Roman amphitheater

Now ! EVENTS & ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

May 15th

Open 5D Saddle Series

Charles Whitlow Rodeo ArenaFlorence

6:30 PM

The saddle series will have events on May 15, 22 and 29. Buckles will be awarded for 5D Open, 4D Youth and 2D Rookie Series winners. Exhibitions from 4:00-6:00 PM.

602.432.4382

www.racebrds.com

May 16th

Learn about Arizona's Geology

Pinal Geology & Mineral MuseumCoolidge

Wednesday to Saturday 11:00 AM4:00 PM

Museum exhibits include fossils from all over the world, gems, minerals and children's activities. Check the website for information about the Pinal County Gem and Mineral Society meetings and presentations. The museum is located at 351 N. Arizona Blvd. in Coolidge. Free admission. The museum will switch to summer hours from June 1-Sept. 1 and will be open on Fridays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. 520.723.3009

www.pinalgeologymuseum.org

May 17th

Chris Young at Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino

Harrah's Ak-Chin Hotel and Casino - Maricopa

8:00 PM

The Harrah's Ak-Chin Hotel and Casino in Maricopa presents special events and concerts. Tickets for the Chris Young concert are available through Ticketmaster. There is live music at The Lounge every weekend. See website for schedule.

480.802.5000 www.caesars.com/harrahs-akchin/shows

May 18th

Casa Grande Farmers Market

702 E. Cottonwood Lane - Casa Grande 7:00 AM

Held on the 3rd Saturday of each month at the First Presbyterian Church/PCSO Pinal County parking lot. Cost is $15 for a box of farmer-direct produce. Cash only. Market hours are 7:00 AM until produce is sold out. The market also has over 25 vendors. See Facebook page to confirm market details. Get early access by purchasing a ticket in advance.

www.casagrandefarmersmarket.com

Eloy Farmers Market

Eloy Chamber of Commerce Parking

Lot - Eloy

8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Drive-thru market at the Eloy Chamber of Commerce parking lot. Come and get 70 lbs. of produce for $16. Location is 515 N. Main St. See Facebook page for updates and prepayment link.

520.466.3411

www.eloychamber.com

Maricopa Master Gardeners at the Maricopa Agriculture Center Maricopa Agricultural Center (MAC) 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Maricopa Master Gardeners

gardening workshops are held at the University of Arizona Maricopa Agriculture Center Multipurpose Room. May 18 —Preparing the Garden for the Heat; June 15 — Growing Bananas; July 20 — Growing Beautiful Rose Blooms in the Desert; August 17 Bulbs Galore!. Each session includes "Ask a Master Gardener." Located at 37860 W. Smith Enke Rd. in Maricopa. 520.374.6263

www.facebook.com/MaricopaAzMasterGardeners

Race Night at Central Arizona Raceway

Central Arizona Raceway

Casa Grande

7:00 PM

The track is located at 512 S. Eleven Mile Corner in Casa Grande. Classes will include Non-Wing 360 Sprints, Pure Stocks, Mini Late Models, Hobby Stocks and Seniors Springs. Check website for race day information.

602.292.7607

www.thecentralarizonaraceway.com

May 19th

Motorcycle Swap Meet & Bikes

Pinal Fairgrounds & Event CenterCasa Grande

8:00 AM - 1:30 PM

Arizona's largest motorcycle swap meet. All parts and all brands welcome. Features rare parts, new & used, accessories and antique. Admission $5 for adults. Have a bike for sale? Bring it down. Food and refreshments available. See Facebook page for info on seller spaces. 520.723.7881

www.facebook.com/p/ Arizonas-largest-motorcycle-swap-meet-100064228593088/

May 21st

Explore Gila River Indian Community History and Culture

Huhugam Heritage Center - Chandler 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Open Tue.-Fri., 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Free admission. This modern cultural center highlights the ancestral, historic and current cultures of the Gila River Indian Community. The gallery features items from the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of Natural History, Yale Peabody Museum, Pueblo Grande Museum, Gila River Indian Community members and HHC collections. Tours are available. Located at 21359 South Maricopa Rd. in Chandler. 520.796.3500 www.grichhc.org

May 23rd

Pinal NOW - Live Music & Entertainment Guide

Pinal County

The Pinal NOW Live Music & Entertainment listing is a weekly guide to local nightlife and community events. It covers karaoke, live music, concerts, comedy, live theater and major events happening around Pinal County. New listings are posted every Thursday on the Pinal NOW online calendar, and a weekly newsletter is available. www.pinalnow.com/events

May 24th

Visit the Ostrich Ranch

Rooster Cogburn Ostrich RanchPicacho

8:00 AM - 2:00 PM

The Ostrich Ranch has an amazing variety of animals that visitors can watch and feed, including stingrays, goats, miniature donkeys, fallow deer, tortoises and lots of ostriches! Located by Picacho Peak State Park, just off I-10. Open Friday-Monday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM from May 1 through Sept. 30. 520.466.3658

www.roostercogburn.com

Food Truck Friday - Casa Grande Historic Downtown Casa GrandeCasa Grande 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Food Truck Friday takes place every week at the Neon Sign Park in downtown Casa Grande. Organized by Churrolicious. Check the Facebook page for updates.

520.836.8744

www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=61551795766831

May 25th

Florence Farmers Market

McFarland State Historic ParkFlorence 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

The market is held on the porch at McFarland State Park in Historic Florence on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. Produce from local farmers, farm fresh eggs, meat, cheese, bread, sweets, coffee & tea, seasonings and many other locally made artisan products.

520.868.9433

www.florenceazchamber.com

Uptown Farm & Artisan Market

Crossroads Church - Casa Grande 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Open on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Crossroads Church parking lot, 2024 E. Florence Blvd. in Casa Grande. Farm, artisan and foodie market. Produce, baked goods, wellness booths, food trucks and more. www.facebook.com/profile.

php?id=100092038989061

May 25th

2024 Maricopa Memorial Day 5K

Copper Sky Regional Park - Maricopa

6:30 AM - 8:30 AM

Join us for the Maricopa Memorial Day 5k!

Run or walk our spectator-friendly course at Copper Sky Recreation Center. Participants will receive a custom finishers' medal and event shirt. Award ceremony to follow the event. Profits will benefit the Veterans In Need Project. Sign up at.

www.runsignup.com/Race/AZ/Maricopa/ MaricopaMemorialDay5K

May 25th

Events at Ak-Chin Circle Entertainment Center

Ak-Chin Circle Entertainment CenterMaricopa

The Entertainment Center offers movies, bowling, laser tag, an arcade, parties, live music in the Luxe Lounge and special events. See the Ak-Chin Circle website and Facebook page for upcoming events.

520.568.3456

www.ak-chincircle.com

Learn to SkyDive - Ground School & Advanced Training Skydive Arizona - Eloy

Learn to skydive at the largest jump zone in the world! Skydive Arizona is located in Eloy. Ground school training is offered monthly. See website for training details and to register. Skydive Arizona also has upcoming events and courses for experienced skydivers, including AXIS B License training and night jumps. Tandem skydiving is also available.

520.466.3753

www.skydiveaz.com

May 27th

McFarland State Historic Park Museum & Visitor Center

McFarland State Historic Park - Florence 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

McFarland State Historic Park and Florence Visitor Center hours are Mon. through Sat., 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, May through Sept. Park entrance fee is $5 and free for ages 18 and under. Visit the AZ State Parks website to plan your visit and to see the list of upcoming talks and lectures at the park.

520.868.5216

www.azstateparks.com/mcfarland

May 27th

Community Recreation Center Programs and Classes

Community Recreation Center Casa Grande

Open Mon.-Fri. from 5:15 AM to 9:00 PM. Saturday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Facilities include a fitness center, gym, indoor walking/jogging track, community meeting space and more. The CRC offers a variety of group fitness and sports activities and classes. See website for the group fitness and gymnasium schedules.

520.421.8600

www.casagrandeaz.gov/crc

May 29th

Maricopa Community Theatre presents: "Heathers - The Musical" Leading Edge Academy - Maricopa 7:00 PM

Performances on May 29-31 at 7:00 PM, June 1 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM at Leading Edge Academy in Maricopa. Located at 18700 N. Porter Rd. The show is a high-energy black comedy and involves mature subject matter. See website for ticket information. www.maricopacommunitytheatre.org

May 30th

Visit the Casa Grande Ruins Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - Coolidge 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is open 7 days a week, including the monument, museum exhibits, movie theater, monument bookstore, and picnic area. Free admission. See website for special events. Located at 1100 W. Ruins Drive in Coolidge.

520.723.3172

www.nps.gov/cagr

June 1st

Visit the Arboretum

Boyce Thompson ArboretumSuperior 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Discover Arizona's first and oldest botanical garden, situated on 343 acres of scenic upland desert with nearly 5 miles of trails. See website for ticket info, tours and special events. Located 4 miles west of Superior on Hwy 60. Hours for June through August: Open 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM Wed. through Mon., closed on Tue. 520.689.2723

www.btarboretum.org

First Saturday at the Pinal County Historical Museum - Family Day

Pinal County Historical MuseumFlorence

11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Be part of the story with us on our Family Day! On the first Saturday of the month we waive all admission fees thanks to our sponsors to provide local families with an affordable opportunity to engage with local history. We offer rotating activities for children, including scavenger hunts, backyard bingo, story time, desert animals, and more! Located at 715 S. Main St. in Florence. Museum hours are Tue.-Sat. 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

520.868.4382

www.pinalcountyhistoricalmuseum.org

June 1st

Live Theater: "Dragons or Dropouts"

BlackBox Foundation Theatre

Casa Grande

2:00 PM

A "mega nerd" comedy! This teen production takes place at the BlackBox Theatre in Casa Grande from June 1-9. Tickets available online. The theater is located at 407 N. Sacaton St. in Casa Grande.

520.532.2337

www.blackboxcg.org

Pinal County Libraries - June Events

Pinal County Library District

Library branches in the Pinal County Library District host a variety of events and activities. Find events at your local library by visiting the library district website and selecting your library branch.

520.509.3555

https://pcld.libnet.info/events

June 4th

Rotary Club of Casa Grande

Ochoa's Restauran Casa Grande 12:00 PM

The Rotary Club of Casa Grande meets on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 12:00 PM at Ochoa's restaurant, located at 512 E. Cottonwood Ln. Visit the website or Facebook page for information on becoming a member. www.facebook.com/CGRotary www.casagranderotary.org

June 5th

Activities for Seniors

Dorothy Powell Senior Center

Casa Grande

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

The Dorothy Powell Senior Center provides residents the opportunity to experience recreational, cultural and educational programming in a friendly atmosphere. It's open Monday-Friday for individuals 50 years of age or older. Activities include health and fitness, dance, pool, cards, walking club, bingo, art and more. The monthly activity calendar is posted on the City of Casa Grande website. 520.421.8760

June 6th

Hope International Food PantryFood Box Distribution Day

Hope International Food PantryCoolidge

6:00 AM - 8:00 AM

Food box distribution days: Thu. 6/6, Thu. 6/20, Thu. 7/4 and Thu. 7/18.

Please arrive early and bring ID. See Facebook page for food distribution days, including seniors-only on June 13 and July 11. Located at 1280 N. Arizona Blvd in Coolidge. Senior boxes are for ages 60 and up. Volunteers are welcome. See website for more information. Please make a donation if you are able!

520.233.6699

www.hopeinternationalfoodpantry.org

June 7th

Learn about Arizona's Geology

Pinal Geology & Mineral MuseumCoolidge

10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Museum exhibits include fossils from all over the world, gems, minerals and children's activities. The next Pinal County Gem and Mineral Society meeting will be on June 19. The museum is located at 351 N. Arizona Blvd. in Coolidge. Free admission. The museum switches to summer hours from May 31-Sept. 1 and will be open on Fridays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. 520.723.3009

www.pinalgeologymuseum.org

June 6th

Check out our online events calendar at www.pinalnow.com for more events.

www.casagrandeaz.gov/247/Senior-Citizen-Services

Stargazing at Picacho Peak Picacho Peak State Park8:30 PM - Take a grand look at the beautiful stars above! In this 45-minute program a park ranger will help you learn about some of the constellations in our night skies, their stories and how they may have been used long ago. We will even have a telescope set up to look at the planets and other space objects. Bring a blanket and your curiosity!

480.982.4485

www.azstateparks.com

June 8th

Florence Farmers Market - June McFarland State Historic ParkFlorence 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Markets will be held on June 8 and June 22 on the porch at McFarland State Park in Historic Florence. Markets take place on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. Produce from local farmers, farm fresh eggs, meat, cheese, bread, sweets, coffee & tea, seasonings and many other locally made artisan products. 520.868.9433 www.florenceazchamber.com

Open Mic Night - Casa Grande Museum of Casa Grande - Heritage Hall - Casa Grande 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Second Saturday of every month. All-ages open mic music and arts showcase. Open to all creative artists, including singers/songwriters, spoken word, poetry, dance and comedy. Doors open for sign-up at 5:30 PM. Open mic starts at 6:00 PM. Free admission — donations welcome and appreciated. Presented by the Yoga Recovery & Healing Arts Project. 520.532.2337 www.cgopenmic.com

June 11th

Eloy Lions Club Meeting

Eloys Lions Club House - Eloy 7:00 PM

The Eloy Lions Club meets at the Lions Club House, located at 107 E. 5th Street. Meetings are held on Tuesdays at 7:00 PM. www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/eloy

June 15th

Casa Grande Farmers Market

702 E. Cottonwood Lane - Casa Grande 7:00 AM

Held on the 3rd Saturday of each month at the First Presbyterian Church/PCSO Pinal County parking lot. Cost is $15 for a box of farmer-direct produce. Cash only. Market hours are 7:00 AM until produce is sold out. The market also has over 25 vendors. See Facebook page to confirm market details. Contact the market if you are interested in volunteering. www.casagrandefarmersmarket.com

June 13th

Newcomers and Neighbors of Casa Grande - Monthly Meet & Greet

Central Event Hall - Casa Grande 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM

The Newcomers and Neighbors Club of Casa Grande is a great place to meet new friends. Activity and interest groups meet regularly and all-club events are held several times throughout the year. Upcoming Meet & Greet orientation meetings will be held at 5:30 PM on June 13 and July 11 at 408 N. Sacaton Street. See website for details. www.cgnnc.com/calendar

June 15th

Eloy Farmers Market

Eloy Chamber of Commerce Parking Lot - Eloy 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Drive-thru market at the Eloy Chamber of Commerce parking lot. Come and get 70 lbs. of produce for $16. Location is 515 N. Main St. See Facebook page for updates and prepayment link. 520.466.3411

www.eloychamber.com

June 15th

Biosphere 2 Tours

University of Arizona Biosphere 2 - Oracle 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Biosphere 2 is a world-famous research facility operated by the University of Arizona and located near Oracle. The Biosphere 2 Experience allows visitors to tour the interior of the facility. This fascinating, family-friendly experience is guided by a mobile app. Download the tour app prior to arrival. Tickets must be purchased online. Open daily from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 520.621.4800 www.biosphere2.org

June 18th

Explore Gila River Indian Community History and Culture

Huhugam Heritage Center - Chandler Open Tue.-Fri. 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Free admission. This modern cultural center highlights the ancestral, historic and current cultures of the Gila River Indian Community. The gallery features items from the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of Natural History, Yale Peabody Museum, Pueblo Grande Museum, Gila River Indian Community members and HHC collections. Tours are available. Located at 21359 South Maricopa Rd. in Chandler. 520.796.3500 www.grichhc.org

June 27th

Visit the Casa Grande Ruins Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - Coolidge 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is open 7 days a week, including the monument, museum exhibits, movie theater, monument bookstore, and picnic area. Free admission. See website for special events. Located at 1100 W. Ruins Drive in Coolidge.

520.723.3172 www.nps.gov/cagr

June 27th

Pinal NOW - Live Music & Entertainment Guide

Pinal County

The Pinal NOW Live Music & Entertainment listing is a weekly guide to local nightlife and community events. It covers karaoke, live music, concerts, comedy, live theater and major events happening around Pinal County. New listings are posted every Thursday on the Pinal NOW online calendar, and a weekly newsletter is available. www.pinalnow.com/events

June 28th

Visit the Ostrich Ranch

Rooster Cogburn Ostrich RanchPicacho

8:00 AM - 2:00 PM

The Ostrich Ranch has an amazing variety of animals that visitors can watch and feed, including stingrays, goats, miniature donkeys, fallow deer, tortoises and lots of ostriches! Located by Picacho Peak State Park, just off I-10. Open Friday-Monday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM from May 1 through Sept. 30. 520.466.3658 www.roostercogburn.com

Food Truck Friday - Casa Grande

Historic Downtown Casa Grande

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Food Truck Friday takes place every week at the Neon Sign Park in downtown Casa Grande. Organized by Churrolicious. Check the Facebook page for updates. 520.836.8744

www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=61551795766831

June 29th

Uptown Farm & Artisan Market

Crossroads Church

Casa Grande

9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Open on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Crossroads Church parking lot, 2024 E. Florence Blvd. in Casa Grande. Farm, artisan and foodie market. Produce, baked goods, wellness booths, food trucks and more. www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=100092038989061

July 1st

Pinal County Libraries - July Events

Pinal County Library District Library branches in the Pinal County Library District host a variety of events and activities. Find events at your local library by visiting the library district website and selecting your library branch. 520.509.3555 https://pcld.libnet.info/events

July 4th

4th of July Fireworks & Celebrations

Pinal County

Visit the Grande LIVING Facebook page and the Pinal NOW online calendar for information on Independence Day celebrations happening in Casa Grande, Florence, Maricopa, Eloy and Coolidge. www.pinalnow.com/events

July 8th

Community Recreation Center

Programs and Classes

Community Recreation Center

Casa Grande

Open Monday-Friday from 5:15 AM to 9:00 PM. Saturday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Facilities include a fitness center, gym, indoor walking/jogging track, community meeting space and more. The CRC offers a variety of group fitness and sports activities and classes. See website for the group fitness and gymnasium schedules. 520.421.8600 www.casagrandeaz.gov/crc

July 12th

Learn about Arizona's Geology Pinal Geology & Mineral MuseumCoolidge 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Museum exhibits include fossils from all over the world, gems, minerals and children's activities. The next meeting of the Pinal County Gem and Mineral Society will be on July 17. The museum is located at 351 N. Arizona Blvd. in Coolidge. Free admission. The museum switches to summer hours from May 31-Sept. 1 and will be open on Fridays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. 520.723.3009

www.pinalgeologymuseum.org

July 13th

Florence Farmers Market - July McFarland State Historic ParkFlorence 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Markets will be held on July 13 and July 27 on the porch at McFarland State Park in Historic Florence. Markets take place on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. Produce from local farmers, farm fresh eggs, meat, cheese, bread, sweets, coffee & tea, seasonings and many other locally made artisan products.

520.868.9433 www.florenceazchamber.com

Open Mic Night - Casa Grande Museum of Casa Grande - Heritage Hall - Casa Grande 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Second Saturday of every month. All-ages open mic music and arts showcase. Open to all creative artists, including singers/songwriters, spoken word, poetry, dance, and comedy. Doors open for sign-up at 5:30 PM. Open mic starts at 6:00 PM. Free admission — donations welcome and appreciated. Presented by the Yoga Recovery & Healing Arts Project. 520.532.2337

www.cgopenmic.com

Free Rental Evaluation

Thinking of renting your home? We have a consistently high occupancy rate and we are successful at finding tenants quickly. Contact ROX Real Estate today for a FREE consultation.

No Set Up Fees

Monthly Management Fee Only

On Collected Rents

No Hidden Fees

No Mark-up On Vendor Bills

Discounted Monthly Management Fees For 3 Or More Properties

Marketing Tenant Screening

Lease Execution

Rent Payments

Rent Collections

Evictions

Accounting

Regular Inspections

Emergency Calls

Coordinating Maintenance & Much More