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April 30, 2014 • Vol. 12, No.24
Postal Patron Cave Creek
ECRWSS Carrier Route PreSorted Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 371 Cave Creek, AZ
r pe pa ! s ew nty y N Cou l ek a ee p W rico t a es rg h M La ort e N Th in
E R F
• Anthem
• Black Canyon City
Learn about desert edibles, medicinals in Cave Creek
T he D e s e r t Aw a r e ne s s Committee of FCF will hold two special walk and talk events at Desert Awareness Park on May 10 and May 13. Each will begin at 8 a.m. and end at 10 a.m. For its May 10 Desert Harvest Walk and Talk, committee members’ presentations will focus on gathering and preparing desert edibles. The May 13 session will be about gathering and preparing desert medicinals. The Desert Harvest Walk a nd Ta l k i s pa r t of t he edible and medicinal desert series offered by the Desert Aw a r e ne s s o r g a n i z a t io n , which provides programs for all fourth grades, stewardship for Desert Awareness Park and communitywide programs on sustainable desert living. A $3 donation is appreciated. Participants are asked to gather at the Desert Heritage Center, which is located across the wash from the first parking lot at the intersection of Cave Creek and Vermeersch roads. There is handicapped parking available on the far side of the wash. Call the FCF office at 480-4881090 for more information.
Inside: Sports........................2 Bluhm........................6 Movie Review..... 11 China Trip........... 13 Editorial.............. 16 Services................. 17 Crossword......... 20 Classifieds.......... 21
• Carefree
• Cave Creek
• Desert Hills
• New River
• North Phoenix
• Tramonto
Hundreds attend Anthem’s ‘Relay For Life’
Eric Quade photo
First steps — Cancer survivors, Relay team members and others crammed onto a softball field Saturday for Anthem’s “Relay For Life,” an annual event held in communities across the country that celebrates cancer survivors and their supporters. After introducing themselves individually at a nearby stage, cancer survivors then kicked off the overnight walk-a-thon by taking the first lap en masse.
Creek New Anthem park hinges on EPCOR Cave OKs sales tax Eric Quade Editor
Anthem residents attending the Anthem Community Council’s April 23 board of directors meeting were told that plans for the proposed Opportunity Way Park are still in motion and might be ready for a formal vote next month. A crucial step in the park creation process involves crafting an agreement between ACC and the owner of one property that lies right in the middle of what would become Opportunity Way Park—EPCOR. According to ACC’s Neal Shearer, EPCOR is open to the park concept, but the private water company also wants to make sure that its assets would remain protected. In particular, some infrastructure for EPCOR’s water recharge facility lies above ground at the site, while more still is buried about 10 feet under what would become a recreational area frequented by the public. Shearer said that a “draft li-
cense agreement” was currently under negotiation. The document would spell out some of the conditions on which EPCOR would agree to have the new park situated on its property, including: • EPCOR reviews and approves planned park improvements • AC C p ay s f o r p a r k improvements • ACC assumes liability for damages • EPCOR would have to give ACC 3 months to resolve any issues that might come up. After that, EPCOR could proceed with terminating the agreement with another 6 months notice if the company’s operations were “materially adversely affected” by the park The term of the license agreement would be 30 years if approved as is. According to a design rendering presented at last week’s meeting, Opportunity Way Park could feature two, grass-covered multiuse fields, a basketball court, playground, restrooms, on-site
parking and more. Preliminary cost figures estimate a $1.8 million price tag for the park’s design and construction with another $180,000 per year projected to operate it. In other ACC news: Board directors gave a green light to St. Rose Catholic Church plans to establish a St. Vincent de Paul food pantry at the church’s Anthem location. The food pantry facility would be built next to St. Rose’s administration building and would serve the communities of Anthem, New River and Desert Hills on a nondenominational basis, according to organizers. Board directors also helped move forward the proposed Merrill Gardens senior living development project by approving two related bookkeeping items. Community Executive Officer Jenna Kollings said that the next step involves ACC and Merrill Gardens
ACC
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repurposing Tara Alatorre
At its regular meeting last week, Cave Creek Town Council unanimously agreed to use excess sales tax funds appropriated for maintaining the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area to acquire open land. The council also supported easing the permitting process for building fences and approving rezoning requests. The second reading of ordinance 02014-01, which authorizes the council to move excess sales tax funds to the general fund with a stipulation that half of the excess funds go towards “acquiring open space lands,” was met with some opposition from residents. “The fact that there is an attempt to grab back that money is the kind of unanticipated consequence we tried to prevent,” said
COUNCIL
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