March 5, 2014 • Vol. 12, No.16
• Anthem
• Black Canyon City
Cave Creek school board OKs new busses
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
‘Cowboy Action Shooting’ spectacle draws crowds
Eric Quade Editor
At their Feb. 25 meeting, the governing board for the Cave Creek Unified School District approved moving forward with a lease/purchase agreement that would add nine new busses to the district’s aging fleet. K e nt Fr i s o n , a s s o c i a t e superintendent of operations and finance at CCUSD, said the district runs 34 busses each day on regular routes, plus there are 10 spare busses. “The last new bus purchase was made in 2005-2006 with money from the bond that was passed in the year 2000,” he said. “We have not been successful in another bond since the year 2000 and had no availability of capital for assets that are $140,000 each.” The lease/purchase agreement would stretch out the payments for nine new busses over 7 years at an interest rate of approximately 2.95 percent. Annual payments would be about $206,000 and come from the district’s unrestricted fund, according to the associate superintendent. During public comments, Gene Reuther approached the board and asked its members to consider upping the ante by instead acquiring at least 10 new busses. He said it was necessary due to the age and condition of the fleet.
BUSSES
continued on page 3
Inside: Bluhm........................4 Business...................5 Art............................ 10 Events........................17 Editorial.............. 20 Services................. 21 Crossword......... 24 Classifieds.......... 25
Eric Quade photo
Extreme target practice — With pieces of popped red balloons peppering the ground, participants in the mounted shooting competition Friday at the Ben Avery Shooting Range were largely on target. Riders wielded pistols, rifles and shotguns and switched weapons midcourse with apparent ease.
ACC endorses Merrill Gardens project Anthem boy Eric Quade Editor
Anthem Community Council’s board of directors met Feb. 26 and gave its blessing for a senior housing development proposal to advance. Merrill Gardens, a Seattle-based company, is looking to build a facility at the intersection of Daisy Mountain Drive and Meridian Drive that would include about 120 homes for the elderly. Holly Matson, president of the ACC’s board, said that the board’s objective that evening was to decide whether it would endorse the project. If so, then the proposal would be forwarded to Pulte for further consideration. At last week’s meeting, ACC’s financial officer Doug Greenstein said that public reaction to the proposal has been largely positive. “We’ve received, I believe, just under 100 responses from the community so far on this pro-
posal,” he said. “There were 14 of those responses in the nay, and the balance were in the positive.” Director Tim Fyke said that he has warmed up to the proposal since first hearing about it. “I was not thrilled with Merrill Gardens just from the concept of such a large institution, but after seeing the resident input … it’s been overwhelming,” he said. “Negative input we received had a lot to do with traffic, and … anything else already zoned to go in there, such as a school, would have created a great deal more traffic than what we anticipate Merrill Gardens doing.” In response to a public comment about the amount of community input sought, Director Robert Linder said that the number of open meetings on the issue— rather than the ACC pushing it through months ago—showed how openly the Merrill Gardens proposal is being handled. Community Executive Officer
Jenna Kollings noted that there will be a few rounds of approvals needed to ultimately make Merrill Gardens a reality. First is the land use question, since the property in question was originally slated for a church and school. Second, Pulte/Del Webb design restrictions and Maricopa County regulations would have to play out. A motion endorsing the Merrill Gardens project and seek i ng f u r t her approva ls carried unanimously. In other ACC board news: The board also approved a request to increase the budget for Anthem’s signature event for its 15th anniversary: a New Year’s Eve celebration. The event, featuring an ice skating rink, was originally working with a $20,000 budget. Citing difficulty in securing sponsors without enough money to fund the main event first, the allocation was upped to $30,000.
pulled from pool, dies
A 2-year-old boy died on the evening of Feb. 27 after being found in an Anthem home’s swimming pool. Authorities reported that the toddler had apparently been in the pool of a residence, located just northeast of Anthem Crossroads, approximately 5 minutes before the boy’s mother found him and began to perform CPR. Emergency response personnel also tried to revive the 2-year-old when they arrived on scene but were unsuccessful. The child was transported via ambulance to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office reported that the incident appeared to be accidental but it was still investigating.