February 19, 2014 • Vol. 12, No.14
• Anthem
• Black Canyon City
Postal Patron Cave Creek
• Carefree
• Cave Creek
ECRWSS Carrier Route PreSorted Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 371 Cave Creek, AZ
• Desert Hills
• New River
• North Phoenix
• Tramonto
Candidate Recurring odor complaints stir response forum today in Anthem Eric Quade Editor
The Parkside Community Association announced the names last week of candidates running for three open seats on the Parkside Board of Directors and one open Parkside seat on the Anthem Community Council. Subsequently, the public has been invited to a “Meet the Candidates Night” on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Anthem Civic Building. Michael Gregoire, B.J. McIlnay, Teresa Oorin, Vonalee See, Brett Wilden and incumbent Tom Woodward are running for three open seats on the Parkside Board of Directors. The persons elected will serve 2-year terms. Tim Fyke is running unopposed for the available Parkside ACC seat. If re-elected he will serve a 3-year term. A second ACC seat is also open— that one for the Anthem Country Club Community Association. Roger Willis is running unopposed and is expected to claim the seat currently held by Ray Norris. Norris, who served a 3-year term, opted to not run again. In addition to Parkside, other boards are also holding elections for their separate HOAs. ACCCA has three open seats and Village at Anthem Condominium Council of Co-owners has one open seat. The three ACCA seats have seven candidates vying for
Eric Quade photo
Out of sight, mind — But not out of a nose’s reach, recurring odors have been reported in parts of Anthem. A solution has yet to be agreed upon.
Occasional foul odors wafting through Anthem have been known to cause complaints in the community, but a renewed effort to tackle the cause appears to be in action. Although odor complaints in Anthem have been becoming less frequent lately, Dave Wilson of the Daisy Mountain Fire Department said that the HAZMAT team has responded to these reports numerous times. The team has never found a valid threat to public health on these calls, however. Rebecca Stenholm, public affairs director at EPCOR, said that recent complaints pointing an accusing finger at the company’s water treatment facility in Anthem were similarly off base. “We have a lot of perception that the plant is causing the odor, and that is not the case,” she said. “There were recently some complaints brought to Maricopa County and [Arizona Department of Environmental Quality] … Those reports have all been looked at, and there is nothing coming from the plant. They have confirmed it is not the plant.” Instead, EPCOR employees investigating the complaints said that they tracked down the culprit to be private wastewater lines that feed into their system. As a result, the
Gas leak affects hundreds of homes in Desert Hills area Eric Quade Editor
CANDIDATES continued on page 18
Inside: Bluhm........................4 Events.......................6 Art...............................9 Movie Review.......10 Editorial.............. 20 Services................. 21 Crossword......... 24 Classifieds.......... 25
company is asking local businesses to be extra diligent in their grease trap maintenance and reviewing options to help their neighbors mitigate future odor issues. Jeff Stuck, director of operations at EPCOR, said that his crew popped open a manhole near Daisy Mountain Drive and Gavilan Peak Parkway and used a camera to investigate what was happening below the surface. What they found was some sag in a private line that was allowing sewage to pool up, rather than flow down the gravity-fed line like it should. EPCOR officials said that they were able to temporarily fix the odor problem by flushing the line with extra water, but the company is currently in talks with businesses in the area to come up with a more long term solution. Stuck said that replacing the private line would take only a few days but the bigger hurdle is coming up with the money to fund the project. But alleviating the problem for some businesses could be even more involved. Both Wilson and Stenholm confirmed that some Anthem businesses reporting odor problems suffer from engineering problems, such as building walls holding in sewer gases and air conditioning units circulating the trapped, foul air.
Eric Quade photos
Leak site — A gas leak Friday morning temporarily closed down roads near 7th Street and Joy Ranch Road.
A gas leak triggered by construction on the southeast corner of Joy Ranch Road and 7th Street in Desert Hills Friday morning left about 300 homes without natural gas service while crews brought the situation under control. Dave Wilson with the Daisy Mountain Fire Department said that firefighters responded to the scene at about 10:30 a.m. following the report of a ruptured gas line. Firefighters could not stop the leak themselves, so Southwest Gas was called in. Despite the ruptured gas line threat, Wilson said that there were no subsequent explosions or injuries incurred. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office helped manage traffic, while repairs were completed. A call to Southwest Gas requesting more details about the incident was not returned in time for publication.