The Chandler Arizonian - 5.16.2021 by Times Media Group

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From Uptown to Downtown, covering Chandler like the sun.

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

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This Week

Chandler photographer's mouthwatering food shots.

BUSINESS ....................

Robot becomes Chandler dentists' best friend.

GET OUT ..................... 32

Big-time ramen restaurant opens in downtown Chandler. NEWS ...........................................2 REAL ESTATE ........................... 18 COMMUNITY .........................21 BUSINESS ................................ 25 OPINION .................................28 SPORTS ...................................30 GET OUT .................................. 32 CLASSIFIEDS ........................... 35

May 16, 2021

CUSD trying to win back students it lost BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer

COMMUNITY............. 21

FREE | chandlernews.com

handler Unified School District is hoping a new marketing strategy will help attract enough new students to replace the 2,000 pupils that left the district during the pandemic. Since schools started closing down last spring, CUSD and most other school districts have been gradually seeing their enrollment decline as parents sought al-

ternative learning environments for their children. Even as schools started to reopen in October, district officials worried enough students had already left to make a major impact on Chandler Unified’s revenue and budget. CUSD is now promoting a message aimed at better positioning the district to compete against charter schools or homeschooling options. “We’re hoping to attract those students back to Chandler by focusing on the marketing of

Mesnard comes to Chandler entrepreneur couple’s rescue

(CUSD) and what makes Chandler a district of choice,” said Larry Rother, district’s executive director of educational services. CUSD has recently begun partnering with First Strategic, a Phoenix-based public relations firm, to launch a campaign aimed at local families with young children. Rother said CUSD has identified 3,200 families with preschool-aged children who could potentially enroll in the district.

see SCHOOLS page 15

Final salute

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

handler state Sen. J.D. Mesnard has come to the rescue of a local couple whose thriving business was flattened by the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. The Ducey Administration has long touted its “regulation rollback” strategy “to make Arizona the best state in the nation to open a new business or to expand an existing one.” But state liquor officials apparently never got the memo. They clobbered Bill and Lillian Buitenhuys of Chandler last fall – seven years after giving them permission to launch their flavor-extract operation. The department’s inexplicable change of heart forced the couple to shut down their home-grown business, AZ Bitters Lab. After reading an account of their woes in the SanTan Sun News, a sister publication of the Arizonan, Mesnard said his first reaction was, “Well,

see FLAVORING page 8

Chandler Police said a ﬁnal farewell to slain Officer Christopher Farrar during a May 8 funeral at Compass Christian Church that celebrated his life, devotion to duty and his Christian faith. For details, see page 10. (Special to the Arizonan)

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CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Chandler Unified reeling from 2nd teen’s death ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

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ne week after a Perry High School sophomore’s life ended by suicide, another local teenager has died from a possible drug overdose. Alex Taylor, a senior at Hamilton High School, died on May 9 – the day after a memorial service had been held for 16-year-old Zyon Anderson, who died by suicide the previous weekend. In a letter to the community, Hamilton’s administrators said they were “heartbroken” over Alex’s death and highlighted the student’s once-promising athletic talent. “He went from being a national-level competitive gymnast to struggling with mental illness and substance abuse,” the school’s letter stated. Hamilton High also urged families to consider Alex’s untimely death as a symptom of a broader, systemic problem plaguing the community. “We must continue to advocate for improved and easier access to mental health care and substance abuse prevention,” the letter added. Alex’s death comes as the Chandler Unified community is still reeling from Zyon’s May 2 death after a months-long struggle with depression that included several suicide attempts. That same weekend, a freshman girl at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale also took her life. Zyon’s death had a resounding impact on his classmates and teachers at Perry High, who memorialized the football player with tributes and a special ceremony outside Ryan Elementary School that ended with dozens of red balloons being released into the sky. Alex’s mother, Lindsay Taylor, is Perry High’s social worker and had been helping the school’s students mourn Zyon’s passing. A couple days before her own son’s death on May 9, Taylor penned a letter to Perry’s families detailing her sorrow over Zyon’s death and her personal frustrations with how mental illness is clinically treated in Arizona. “Being a part of the mental health care system and having to navigate it both on

Alex Taylor a professional level and with my own son,” Taylor wrote. “I, like many of you, are frustrated by it. I want you to know I see you. I hear you. I feel you.” She noted how Zyon’s death had sparked many meaningful conversations among Perry High’s student body about problems experienced by adolescents. His death also impacted students at Payne Middle School, which Zyon had attended. At one point, 60 students at one time had sought to find solace in Payne’s mindfulness room. Taylor promised Perry High’s families she would fight for a better health care system that’s better positioned to bring an end to the community’s “suicide epidemic.” “I continue to be determined to be part of the solution and advocate for a better, more affordable, easier to access system that allows for a variety of therapeutic services that fit the needs of each individual and family,” Taylor added. “The current options are limited, not the highest quality, unaffordable, and not user-friendly.” Zyon’s mother, Nailah Hendrickson, has also been outspoken about the difficulties her family experienced while trying to get help for her son’s illness. “This has been emotionally, financially, and mentally devastating,” Hendrickson said last month. “This caught us by surprise and it’s not something we had planned for.” Zyon “fought hard” to overcome his

see SUICIDE page 3

CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Proposed city budget emphasizes mental health needs The Chandler Arizonan is published every Sunday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout Chandler. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of The Chandler Arizonan, please visit www.ChandlerNews.com. CONTACT INFORMATION Main number 480-898-6500 | Advertising 480-898-5624 Circulation service 480-898-5641 Chandler Arizonan 1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway, Suite 219 Tempe, AZ 85282 Publisher Steve T. Strickbine Vice President Michael Hiatt ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Display Advertising 480-898-6309 Classifieds/Inside Sales Elaine Cota | 480-898-7926 | ecota@chandlernews.com TJ Higgins | 480-898-5902 | tjhiggins@chandlernews.com Advertising Office Manager Lori Dionisio | 480-898-6309 | ldionisio@chandlernews.com Director of National Advertising Zac Reynolds | 480-898-5603 | zac@chandlernews.com NEWS DEPARTMENT Executive Editor Paul Maryniak | 480-898-5647 | pmaryniak@chandlernews.com Managing Editor Wayne Schutsky | 480-898-6533 | wschutsky@chandlernews.com Staff Writers Kristine Cannon | 480-898-9657 | kcannon@chandlernews.com Photographers Pablo Robles | Probles@chandlernews.com Design Jay Banbury | jbanbury@chandlernews.com Production Coordinator Courtney Oldham | 480-898-5617 production@chandlernews.com Circulation Director Aaron Kolodny | 480-898-5641 | customercare@chandlernews.com The Chandler Arizonan is distributed by AZ Integrated Media, a circulation service company owned by Times Media Group. The public is permitted one copy per reader. For further information regarding the circulation of this publication or others in the Times Media Group family of publications, and for subscription information, please contact AZ Integrated Media at circ@ azintegratedmedia.com or 480-898-5641. For circulation services please contact Aaron Kolodny at aaron@azintegatedmedia.com.

BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer

handler’s proposed budget for the upcoming �iscal year could potentially dedicate more resources toward addressing the community’s mental health needs. Multiple department heads are hoping the Chandler City Council will authorize more funds to create new positions that emphasize serving residents who are struggling with emotional or mental problems. The Chandler Police Department is looking to create a full-time position that can be dedicated to coordinating the mental health and wellness of its staff. Police Chief Sean Duggan said this new position would develop programming designed to promote personal resiliency and peer support among the agency’s 334 sworn of�icers.

SUICIDE �� 2

depression, his mother noted, and the family put up an arduous battle to keep him from hurting himself. Hendrickson recalled how her son’s mood and demeanor had begun to change shortly after the pandemic began last March and schools closed. Zyon had begun to withdraw from his family, Hendrickson said, and lost interest in activities that used to bring him joy. Once Zyon starting harming himself, his mother knew something drastic had changed in her son’s behavior. “He never cut himself before,” Zyon’s mother said. “He was always a straight-A student with honors classes. He’s always been on the football team.” After a couple suicide attempts, Zyon underwent an extensive amount of therapy and counseling while his mother began to monitor his daily movements. The mother lamented over the lack of support she felt for her family during Zyon’s mental health crisis. Hendrickson looked for parent groups that could offer advice on how to handle her son’s illness, yet no one could tell where to �ind them. “It seems that Arizona is not really set up for the crisis that happened,” Hendrickson added. “It’s a retirement state and so the mental health care for adoles-

“We need to make an investment on our front end to keep our of�icers physically and emotionally healthy,” the chief said. The nature of policing has changed signi�icantly in recent years, the chief

Duggan said. One year after the city scaled back spending in anticipation of the pandemic’s economic impact, Chandler is now preparing to commit more funds

are just now fully realizing the deteriorating ef“fectWethat high stress, crime, and repeated trauma the toll it takes on our of�icers’ emotional well-being. ”

– Police Chief Sean Duggan

added, and there’s more awareness now of the psychological turmoil that comes with the job. “We are just now fully realizing the deteriorating effect that high stress, crime, and repeated trauma -- the toll it takes on our of�icers’ emotional well-being,”

cents is not really a robust system.” Since 2018, at least 45 East Valley teenagers have died by suicide. School districts and nonpro�its have been attempting to reverse the troubling trend by adding more on-campus resources and improving social-emotional education. Perry High’s senior football quarterback even appeared in a series of public service announcements last year, urging his classmates to seek help if they’re contemplating suicide. Experts say the mental health crisis that’s been affecting adolescents has only been exacerbated in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent national studies show depression diagnoses increased by 83 percent shortly after the pandemic began a in March 2020 and the rate of self-harm incidents among teens nearly doubled. notMYkid, a Scottsdale nonpro�it that aims to reduce teen suicide, has seen a spike in demand for counseling services throughout the pandemic from adolescents suffering from depression and drug addiction. “The shutdowns in response to COVID-19 created a lot of social disconnection that has ampli�ied the struggles many young people already face with regard to mental health challenges,” said Shane Watson, a spokesperson for notMYkid.

to creating new positions across various departments and ramping up its recruitment to �ill existing positions that are still vacant. “As the impacts of the COVID-19 pan-

�� MENTAL �� 16

A teen’s entire support system was interrupted by the pandemic, Watson added, and many have struggled to �ind alternative coping mechanisms for their anxiety. Bridget Pitts, one of Zyon’s classmates, hopes the teenager’s death might spur local schools to be more accepting of students struggling with depression and anxiety. “Chandler has a lot of different students struggling with different health issues,” Pitts said. “I just wish our schools would be more open to talking about mental health every day, rather than when something as horrible as this happens.” CUSD schools have been providing additional counseling services on campus for students struggling with the deaths of Zyon and Alex. Zyon’s family has recently found one positive outcome that’s resulted from the teenager’s sudden death. His organs have been donated for life-saving medical procedures to six individuals. Zyon’s heart has been given to a 15-year-old California girl, his lungs have been donated to a 61-year-old Arizona man, a kidney has been given to a 9-year-old Arizona girl, another kidney is going to a 57-year-old Arizona man, and sections of Zyon’s liver will be given to an 1-year-old baby boy in California and a 54-year-old Arizona man.

CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Dream of Chandler veterans memorial coming true

BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer

fter more than a decade of planning and development, the city is moving forward with constructing a veterans memorial at Oasis Park in south Chandler. Chandler City Council last month approved spending $3.5 million on the second phase of a memorial that pays tribute to residents who have served in the armed forces. The expenditure is expected to complete a project that has been in the works since 2008 and required years of fundraising by local veterans to get it off the ground. At one point, it wasn’t clear whether the memorial would ever come to fruition since the city had no money in its budget to build it. But city officials believe the recent commitment made by Council should result in the memorial’s completion by Veterans Day this November. “This has been a very important park for us and we’re excited to see this to completion,” said Mayor Kevin Hartke. The memorial’s design is intended to represent six core values: freedom, recognition, reflection, sacrifice, memories and families. Andy Bass, the city’s community services director, said various aspects of the memorial each hold a symbolic meaning that’s intended to correlate with one of the core values. For example, the memorial’s layout is configured to resemble the stars and stripes of an American flag. The configuration is a grid consisting of columns and cubes assembled in a pattern to make it appear as if the cubes in the middle are sinking into the ground. Bass said the different heights between the outer cubes and the inner cubes symbolically represents the sacrificial journey all soldiers go on during times of conflict. “This is meant to represent soldiers going off to war and then returning,” Bass said. Twenty-one of the grid’s cubes are fully submerged in the ground, which is meant to correlate with the military’s famous 21-gun salute. A giant star in the memorial’s center

The proposed veterans memorial at Oasis Park in Chandler, above, would be situated in the grayed area of Oasis Park in the map on the left. (City of Chandler)

is intended to represent the blue stars seen on service flags hung by the families of soldiers during wartime. The memorial’s design additionally offers an ample room for visitors to congregate and places for them to record their memories of friends and family who have served in the military. “The goal is to provide a space that would offer individuals and groups an opportunity for personal reflection,” Bass added. The city has made few changes to the designs that were originally drafted for the memorial several years ago. Bass said his department decided to make a prominent addition to the design by placing a F-86D fighter plane on display along the memorial’s south side. The old plane, which is currently parked near Chandler Boulevard and Delaware Street, will be refurbished before the city relocates it to Oasis Park. The plane was originally dedicated as a memorial for Williams Air Force Base, which was one of the nation’s most prominent training centers for pilots before it closed in 1993. The base has since been transformed into Phoenix-Mesa

Gateway Airport. Chandler’s designers have additionally changed some of the memorial’s lighting features by having a group of columns light up once the sun goes down. “It will be much more impactful during the evening,” Bass said. When the city first began making designs for Oasis Park in the mid-2000s, a section of land located near Lindsay and Chandler Heights roads was set aside as the memorial site. Shortly after a design was drafted, the state’s economy tanked due to the Great Recession and the project’s future was suddenly thwarted by a downturn in public financing. When it appeared that the city wouldn’t have the funds to start construction, veterans banded together to collect the money on their own. Councilman Matt Orlando, a retired colonel of the U.S. Air Force, partnered with local veterans groups and held fundraisers in order to keep the memorial project progressing toward completion. Orlando said they went around town asking various organizations and businesses for donations, which proved to be difficult given the economic climate at that time. “Unfortunately, we were just coming out of the recession,” Orlando recalled. “There wasn’t a lot of money out there.” They managed to raise $750,000 be-

fore the donations gradually stopped coming in. Despite the successful fundraising efforts, local veterans had to wait a few more years before phase one of the memorial’s construction was completed in 2016. And some of them didn’t live long enough to witness such a milestone. William Harper, a World War II veteran and Sun Lakes resident, had been one of the project’s biggest champions and continuously pushed the city to move ahead with the project. “I just don’t want this thing dragging on forever,” Harper told the East Valley Tribune in 2008. Harper, the recipient of two Purple Heart medals, passed away in 2013 at the age of 85. The loss of more and more war veterans has been a motivating factor that pushed Orlando to get the memorial built sooner rather than later. He worried that men and women who served during World War II might not still be around by the time the city finally finishes construction. “My argument was ‘Our veterans are dying -- we need to get this thing built,’” Orlando added. After Orlando got back on the council in 2019, he and some other members convinced city officials to move the project ahead in the city’s 10-year schedule for capital projects. The maneuver seemed to work and the city found the funding in its capital budget for the project’s $3.5-million price tag. Orlando said it’s exciting to finally see the project advance toward completion and he hopes local veterans will continue to be involved with the memorial once it’s finished. He’s recently asked city officials to consider letting veterans work as volunteers at the memorial by conducting tours and keeping up the site’s maintenance. Other city leaders have expressed appreciation for the city’s willingness to continue supporting the project and signaling to the community that Chandler cares about those who have served in the military. “It means a lot to veterans for so many different reasons,” said Councilman OD Harris, a U.S. Army veteran.

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Tempe Union seeing fewer students from outside the district BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

tudents living outside of Tempe Union High School District boundaries have been a significant driver for overall enrollment, but that’s starting to change. Demographer Rick Brammer of Applied Economics LLC last week gave the Tempe Union Governing Board a detailed look at student enrollment patterns. Much of his presentation looked at how the district’s current enrollment of about 13,493 is likely to be impacted by a relentlessly falling birth rate and the continuing increasing difficulty of finding affordable housing in the district for families with children. “School age population and in-district enrollment are likely to decrease steadily over the next 10 years, declining by about 770 students during the period,” his study concluded. “Many multifamily projects in the district are not targeted

to, or affordable for, families with children.” That means that the district likely will not see enrollment grow. “The single-family development is limited,” Brammer said. “Lots of the multifamily (development) that we get just generally doesn’t produce kids and because of that, I’m not looking for enrollment to crater in any sort of way but I just don’t see there’s any way you could possibly really increase either.” Over the years, Brammer noted, outof-district students have helped prop up Tempe Union’s total enrollment while an increasing number of families living within the district are sending their children either to a charter or private school or, to a lesser degree, other districts. Right now, he said, there are about 4,200 students within Tempe Union’s boundaries who are of high school age and who aren’t attending the district’s schools. “There’s always the possibility that you could get some of those back too

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and so it’s not solely driven by the demographics,” Brammer said. “We still have got to keep your eye on marketing and still keep reaching out and try to bring in the kids that are actually already out there.” Within the district, he added, there are 13 charter schools with a total enrollment of about 3,600 students and seven private schools serving a total 1,300 kids. Not all of those students live within Tempe Union boundaries. In looking at where out-of-district students come from, Brammer reported that the most, 1,308 live within Phoenix Union boundaries. Mesa Unified and Maricopa account for 463 and 433, respectively, and Chandler Unified another 268. Other districts represented considerably lower numbers of students attending Tempe Union schools. “We didn’t really get the impact of the freeway yet,” Brammer told the board, referring to the now nearly 18-monthold South Mountain Freeway.

“We got 31 students from the Tolleson Union High School District this year versus only 18, 16, 19 in prior years, so I do believe that is going to have an impact. Again, it’s something we’re going to have to monitor. We would be knowing more this year were it not for COVID.” But overall, attendance by students living in outside districts is falling – which Brammer attributed largely to improvements being made in those students’ home districts. “They are doing a little better job and trying to make a bigger effort of trying to hang on to their own students,” he said. Brammer’s study also showed that there is a lot of movement within the district and that many students living within a high school’s attendance area choose a different Tempe Union campus. “Significant differences exist between the number of students in each attendance area and the number at each school,” his study found. “Out-of-district

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

FLAVORING from page 1

that’s not right.” With the Legislature already kneedeep in voting on bills and trying to wrap up its 2021 session, Mesnard said he looked for a bill that he could amend – and found a solution in a bill that another Chandler lawmaker, Rep. Jeff Weninger, is sponsoring that updates various aspects of state liquor laws. Among the updates is a provision that allows bars and restaurants to take orders for and deliver cocktails, beer and wine. Weninger’s bill, already approved by the House, was awaiting a vote in the Senate. So, Mesnard offered an amendment that he said will allow the Buitenhuys to resume their business. The Senate approved the amendment and bill 22-8 on May 13. At the Arizonan's deadline it was awaiting final action in the House, which had to vote again on the measure because of Mesnard's amendment. Mesnard said he was relatively certain that the amended liquor bill would pass and be signed by the governor, stating he had worked over the Mother's Day weekend talking to legislative leaders and the governor to clarify some language in the amendment. Final passage and signing will bring a happy ending to the nightmare that had crushed the Buitenhuys' business. They had turned what started as just a little kitchen experimentation into the only business of its kind in Arizona – one that found a market across the country and as far away as Australia. Despite the business’ name, the Buitenhuys’ business license states they had been making flavor extracts that have a bitter taste. Though the beverage community euphemistically call such products cocktail bitters – which are spirits – their product labels stress they are extracts. The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau agrees that unlike true bitters, the Buitenhuys had been making flavor extracts rather than spirits. And for seven years, the Arizona liquor department felt that way too. But last October, the department without warning told the couple it changed its mind from a ruling it had made in 2013. It told the Buitenhuys their product actually was a spirit and that they would

Lillian and Bill Buitenhuys of Chandler hold bottles of their flavor extracts that they soon will be able to make again, thanks to Sen. J.D. Mesnard. (Pablo Robles/Staff Photographer) have to meet stringent requirements for becoming a spirits producer – including constructing a production facility that would pass state inspection as a distillery. It was a bitter blow – no pun intended – for Lillian, a Gilbert native who has a fulltime job as a business manager, and Bill, a native Bostonian who works in the defense industry. Chandler residents since 2007, they built a business that started simply from their epicurean appreciation of a good cocktail. “We started out as a hobby back in 2011” Bill explained. Though they both like wine-and-food pairings, Bill’s East Coast upbringing had him more inclined toward European rather than California wines. Hence, he said, “There weren’t a lot of wines here that we wanted to go with our food.” On the other hand, Bill was impressed with Valley bartenders’ inventive cocktails. “So, we would sit in a bar and watch these bartenders pull out little bottles of infusions or extracts to tweak the cocktails to go with our food and we found that fascinating,” he said. “These bartenders were just so creative that it gave us this thought to say, ‘You know, why can’t we try this at home and then we can tweak our cocktails to be what we would want them to be on our own,” he continued. “So, we started making these little infusions and bitter flavor extracts for ourselves.” The Buitenhuys worked in their kitch-

en, mixing a high-proof spirit with various dried fruits and herbs, depending on the flavor they wanted to create. All the flavors were bitter, which Bill said basically make a cocktail tastier – much like what salt does to food. “Bitterness does the same thing in that it balances out the sour and the sweet and acid, and kind of balances everything to make everything taste more harmonically,” Bill said. As time went by, they became so pleased with their concoctions that they took them to some bartenders and asked if they’d be interested in trying them. Soon word caught on and bartenders started calling the Buitenhuys because they were impressed with the couple’s creations. “There were enough people that talked to us that we said, ‘OK, maybe we can look at turning this into a small business,’” Bill said. Though neither has a background in mixology, Bill’s science background and Lillian’s business background blended perfectly with the couple’s love of kitchen experimentation. They soon realized they couldn’t meet the growing demand just working in their kitchen. They had to find commercial kitchen space, get special equipment – and then get the approval of county food inspectors to set up their production facility. They met with state liquor department officials to explain what they were doing and also cleared their products

with the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The state liquor department, Bill said, “told us, ‘you guys are exempt from liquor licensing because you’re producing flavor extracts.’” With Lillian’s mother helping out, they were off and running. When they weren’t working at their fulltime jobs, toying around with new extract ideas or making larger batches for sale, they were traveling to bars across the Valley and, eventually, Arizona, offering samples of their creations to bartenders. More than 600 bartenders in Arizona became customers as others in other states picked up on their product through their web store. Word of mouth from friends and bartenders even reached Down Under. Bartenders in New Zealand and Australia also started buying their extracts. “It kind of floored us every time that happened because here we were, this little company in Chandler that’s got this global reach,” Bill said. And the kicker: “We never advertised. We never spent a penny on advertising. We post on social media and we had a bunch of friends who have a lot of followers who posted on social media. But we never bought an ad.” Over the last eight years, the Buitenhuys have spent “tens of thousands of dollars” between all the trademark, licensing and other legal fees and the equipment they kept on upgrading. But that investment was paying off. “We were growing at about 20 percent a year,” he said. Then came the phone call from a state liquor department detective. “We went seven years without hearing from them at all and then this past fall we got a phone call from a detective and she said, ‘We have an issue with your product.’ I said, ‘We have written approval … that were exempt’ and she said, ‘Not anymore.’” Did she explain the change of heart? “Nope,” Bill replied. “We asked and we got crickets. They just said, ‘We need legislation to be this and the attorney general’s office supports this and this is what it is. You guys have 30 days to wrap up business or we’re sending a ceaseand-desist.’” Though the couple shut down the op-

see FLAVORING page 16

CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Aprende play starts streaming this week BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

t’s been a tough year for student thespians and their teacher-directors with pandemic protocols making it all impossible to hold live performances. But that didn’t stop Marisa Brady, theatre teacher and the Jaguar Players director at Aprende Middle School, or her 45 student actors and crew members. And starting May 21, people will be able to see the streamed version of their production, “So…This Happened,” – which just happens to be about the year that they and millions of other students have endured. With the help of theater students from Corona del Sol High School in creating the script, the Aprende students worked on the production since August. Filming started in the fall and unlike many kids’ productions over the past year that relied on Zoom, much of the Aprende production took place on the school stage.

Some of the Jaguar Players at Aprende Middle School in Chandler discussed the script in a Zoom meeting. (Special to the Arizonan) Filming started in October, Brady explained. “From mid-October through November, we were using our stage and following all of the district’s precautions,” she

said. “So everyone was more 'We were 6 feet apart from each other.' “The good thing is that we could use our big stage and just put two people and put two cameras and not worry

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about them being close to each other and we filmed about half of our scenes that way." Then Kyrene School Districts, like many, closed campuses for the rest of the year. That forced the Jaguars to film a few scenes virtually until they could resume on stage in February. Masks were not a problem because, Brady said, “the actual characters would have been wearing masks” in the scenes. As the school year began in August, Brady set about engaging the students. She asked them to write the events that events “were funny, were heartbreaking and everything in between. “The kids brainstormed a whole bunch of ideas and we narrowed those ideas down and tried to make sure that we were balancing it all because we didn’t want to make fun of anyone, especially while we were in the heart of the pandemic in August.

see PLAY page 16

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CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Left: The late Chandler Officer Christopher Farrar's portrait stood next to solemn wreaths at Compass Christian Church during his funeral last Saturday. Right: After the funeral, Chandler police officers and other law enforcement personnel gathered outside Compass Christian Church for a final salute to their fallen colleague, Officer Christopher Farrar. Several police departments also had helicopter flyovers during that time. (Special to Arizonan)

Chandler officer’s heart, faith remembered

BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer

lain Chandler Police Officer Christopher Farrar’s big heart, steadfast Christian faith and diligent service were recalled May 8 as he was laid to rest nine days after he was struck and killed by a cornered truck thief. Family, friends and scores of law enforcement officers gathered at Compass Christian Church to hear eulogies praising his devotion to his children and parents and his community service that saved four residents’ lives. “Chris had a passion for service most of his adult life prior to joining the Chandler Police Department in 2003,” Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan told mourners. “He worked as an emergency room technician at Chandler Regional hospital and before that, he worked at Banner hospital. But he also was a volunteer in the fire department. He worked in our Victim Services Unit helping crime, victims and survivors,” Duggan continued. “Chris had a very special calling and was drawn to the profession of policing as a career where he could serve full time helping others.” Officer Farrar, 50, died the evening of April 29 after he was struck by a fugitive’s stolen vehicle at the end of a chaotic car chase that began in Eloy and ended in Gilbert. Gilbert Officer Rico Aranda was se-

verely injured when he was struck by a parked car that had been hit by the stolen vehicle at San Tan Ford on Val Vista Drive near the Loop 202 Santan Freeway. During the funeral, former Chandler Police Chief Sherry Kiyler noted that Officer Farrar talked with his father every day. “Chris, you gave so much – to your family, to your community, to your profession, you cared about everything and you cared about everyone,” Kiyler said. Officer Ron Emary, one of Officer Farrar’s colleagues in the K9 Unit where he had recently been assigned, said, “Chris lived his life by just a very simple code: He honored God, he loved his family and he defended against evil.” “When you talk about family,” Emary said, “you can’t not include Chris’s church family, Chris loved his church family immensely and he developed a number of close friendships and relationships with members of the church. He was very active, attended small group Bible studies and things of that nature and volunteered with the security team here at the church.” At a special service May 1, one Chandler policeman remarked on the cruel irony that Officer Farrar had not been expected to work on the night of his death. Chandler Police Detective Tom Schuhrke said Officer Farrar, who had recently been assigned to the Chandler Police K9 United, was working a relief shift for an absent employee.

It was something Officer Farrar often did because it was his nature to serve the department whenever help was needed. “He didn’t have to be there that night,” Schuhrke noted. Attendees at the May 1 memorial recalled Officer Farrar’s willingness to volunteer for church activities or to offer his mentorship to aspiring police officers. He was always full of energy, Schuhrke said, and seemed to embody the eagerness of a manic cartoon character. “He was like Speedy Gonzales,” Schuhrke said. “There were no slow speeds for him. A 100-miles-an-hour all the time.” “It’s a big loss for our department,” Schuhrke added. “It’s a big loss for our community.” Officer Kyle Liggitt credited Officer Farrar with making him a better police officer by always offering helpful advice and support. Officer Farrar was quick to share his policing experiences, Liggitt said, or take a moment to check in with a rookie officer who had just joined the force. “He had just this ability to find newer, younger officers and to just give them wisdom and to make them better officers,” Liggitt added. Everyone in the department has spent the last few days asking lots of “what if” questions, Liggitt said, and contemplating whether Officer Farrar’s life could have been saved if different steps were

taken on the night of the incident. “All of us at this department are hurting,” the officer said. “But we also know that, unfortunately, this is part of our job.” The group of mourners included members of law enforcement from various agencies, church leaders, and elected officials who wanted to publicly express their support for the officer’s family. Chandler Vice Mayor Mark Stewart tried to hold back tears as he emotionally conveyed his sympathy for everyone who will miss Farrar. “We know Chris is a hero and his name needs to be celebrated,” Stewart said. “He is a true hero.” Friends described Officer Farrar as having an endearing curiosity for spirituality and would often lean on his faith to get through the grueling work of a police officer. Pastor Brian Jobe said Officer Farrar’s sudden death has struck a “brutal blow” on his church community and offered the services of his church’s counselors to mourners who may be struggling with their grief. Compass Church additionally set up a memorial in their courtyard that allowed mourners to drop off flowers or to write notes to the fallen officer. A fundraising effort has been launched for Officer Farrar’s family by The 100 Club, which helps the families of officers killed in the line of duty. It can be reached at 100club.org/donate.

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Arrest report describes harrowing encounter BY CECILIA CHAN Staff Writer

Tolleson man accused of ramming a stolen car into a group of officers, killing Chandler Officer Christopher Farrar and severely injuring a Gilbert officer, remains in jail on a $3-million cash bail. Jonathon J. Altland, Jr., 25, faces a firstdegree murder charge of Chandler Officer Christopher Farrar, 50. A preliminary hearing was set for May 10. Gilbert Officer Rico Aranda suffered head injuries during the April 29 violent confrontation but was showing signs of improvement, according to Gilbert Police. “We are encouraged by Gilbert Police Officer Rico Aranda’s recovery progress,” Gilbert Police said May 3. “We are happy to report that he is responding well to treatment and we expect him to be transferred within a couple days out of ICU and into neurological treatment and recovery.”

Jonathon J. Altland Jr. Altland worked for FPS Civil LLC, according to police documents. Very little detail about Altland was included in the

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drove onto the runway, police said. He left the airport and drove the wrong way on surface streets and then on the Loop 202 Santan Freeway as Chandler and Gilbert police, Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers and PCSO gave chase. Gilbert Police were alerted to the pursuit at 10:35 p.m. Altland then crashed his vehicle on the northern embankment of the 202 west of Val Vista Drive and fled on foot. He entered the maintenance area of the San Tan Ford dealership at the Motorplex Loop and was confronted by a janitorial staff. Two custodians observed Altland with a handgun. Police said Altland threatened the dealership manager, “stating he had a gun and would shoot him,” police said. The manager followed Altland out to a vehicle bay area and Altland told him to turn off the lights. The manager responded he could not do so and fled from the service bay. Meanwhile law enforcement had surrounded the building. Altland stole a vehicle and crashed through a closed bay door. “The suspect sped out of the service bay area, veering and accelerating directly towards one group of officers who feared for their lives and discharged their firearms,” the police documents read. “The suspect did not stop and continued fleeing through the parking lot and drove directly toward” Farrar, fatally striking him. Altland continued what police called “an intentional attack,” driving toward other officers in the parking lot, who fired their weapons at him. Altland next struck another officer and then slammed his car into a parked vehicle, directly injuring Aranda who was near it, police said. Police reported six people in total were injured by the suspect, including the dealership manager. According to Gilbert Police, Pinal County deputies were expected to submit charges related to its involvement with the initial traffic stop and attempted murder of an officer and Chandler Police will be submitting charges related to the suspect entering the airport. 

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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CITY NEWS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

CUSD building ‘sally-ports’ at elementary schools ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

handler Unified School District is planning to spend nearly $1.5 million on boosting security measures at 10 elementary schools. Concord General Contracting and Chasse Building Team have been awarded contracts to construct “sally-port” entrances at the Andersen, Auxier, Basha, Carlson, Fulton, Haley, Hull, Humphrey, Patterson, and Riggs elementary campuses. A sally-port is a type of security infrastructure most often associated with prisons. But district officials say the upcoming renovations don’t mean Chandler schools are getting barbed-wire fences or metal detectors. “That is not what we are building,” said Associate Superintendent Frank Fletcher.

ENROLL from page 6

is still the largest attendance area by student count, but that may change.” The study showed that 70.8 percent of

“We are building a central point of access.” Fletcher described sally-ports as a holding area in the school’s front lobby where visitors would be required to wait before receiving authorization to enter the campus. The sally-ports are intended to improve how a school’s security personnel will check visitors in and out throughout the day. Redesigning the schools to incorporate a sally-port layout will typically involve renovating and repurposing existing classroom or office space. The proliferation of school shootings across the country in recent years has been pushing districts like CUSD to boost security measures by installing more cameras and redesigning entryways. Not long after 20 children were killed all Tempe Union students are enrolled in the high school for their attendance area – meaning that nearly a third go to another district high school farther from their homes.

during a mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, school districts in the surrounding area immediately began investing in building sallyport areas. The name “sally-port” is a broad term that can have many different types of designs or uses. Its origins date back to medieval times when castles were built with special entryways where troops could safely hide from enemy fire. Sally-ports are perhaps most commonly used in prisons to safely move inmates from one secured location to another. But this type of security measure has also been seen in jewelry stores, where a gated system is used to restrict the entrances and exits of suspicious customers. CUSD has spent the last few years The study showed that 85.2 percent of Desert Vista High School’s enrollment comprises students who lived within its attendance boundaries while only 51.2 percent of Mountain Pointe’s en-

spending capital dollars on more security features at schools across the district. More than $2 million was spent last October on installing six additional cameras at each of nearly all of Chandler’s elementary schools. In 2011, the district used some bond money to provide each campus with a 12-camera surveillance system. Last year, Weinberg Gifted Academy received a number of renovations that included a sally-port entrance for a construction cost of about $1.1 million. The recent sally-ports will be funded with money CUSD earned through a $290-million bond initiative voters passed in 2019. The district promised voters that a significant portion of the bond money would be spent on making schools safer. rollment comprises students within its attendance area. Corona del Sol and McClintock high schools had percentages of students in its attendance areas that were close to that of Desert Vista.

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

SCHOOLS from page 1

If the district can attract these younger students in the early years of their education, Rother said they’ll be more likely to stay in CUSD all the way through high school. In addition to sending these families mailers with information about CUSD, the district is executing some strategies to get their attention online and through social media. “We’re looking at ways to really hone in and target our families and provide them information,” Rother said. One of those strategies includes using geographical data to find out when parents are physically passing by a CUSD campus and then sending them alerts, reminding them about the district’s programs. “When families are around our buildings geographically, (they’ll) see one of those pop-up ads or targeted advertisements,” Rother said. CUSD has been attempting to spread a message that communicates its mission to educate the “whole child,” meaning a focus that values social-emotional intelligence as much as academics. Whether or not that messaging rings true will probably vary depending on the audience who hears it. The district has often been regularly criticized this past year for making decisions during the pandemic that some parents viewed as not being in the best interest of students. Many parents have repeatedly urged district officials to “put students first” above all other stakeholders regarding controversial subjects involving mask mandates or school closures. Interim Superintendent Frank Nar-

ducci has recently said that moving forward, the district’s mission and strategic plans will attempt to reflect and reiterate a student-focused message. Online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are where CUSD has been directing its “whole-child” mes-

one of the Chandler Unified’s biggest priorities because it is the district’s biggest revenue generator. “If they don’t come, the money doesn’t flow in,” she noted. The enrollment issue will likely remain a dominant topic even after the

certainly need to get the good word out “We about what we’re doing in our schools. ”

– Larry Rother

saging by publishing plenty of positive, uplifting news items about the district. The district’s Facebook page currently racks up about 10,000 impressions on a weekly basis. CUSD is hoping its partnership with First Strategic will generate up to 10 million impressions throughout the community. On a daily basis, CUSD is posting pictures of notable students and celebrating their academic achievements -- in the hopes that it might garner the attention of some families considering enrolling in the district. “We certainly need to get the good word out about what we’re doing in our schools,” Rother added. Districts all over Arizona are having to be more creative with its marketing efforts as they attempt to return to the pre-pandemic enrollment numbers they had been operating under. According to the Arizona Department of Education, more than 38,500 students have disappeared from the state’s classrooms during the pandemic. Preschoolers and kindergartners have accounted for nearly 42 percent of the enrollment loss throughout Arizona. CUSD Chief Financial Officer Lana Berry said student enrollment has become

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pandemic ends, Berry added, since national birth rates have been declining in recent years and Chandler is getting closer to running out of land to develop into new housing. Not only is CUSD concerned about attracting enough new students, but it’s worried about preventing the pupils it already has from dropping out. Recent data suggests absenteeism rates have increased throughout CUSD during the pandemic and students are completing fewer credits than in previous years. In a normal year, CUSD may have about 8 percent of its students categorized

as experiencing “chronic absenteeism,” meaning they have missed at least 10 percent of their total instructional time. But the ongoing pandemic has caused Chandler’s absenteeism rate to jump to 15.6 percent, according to Amber Stouard, the district’s research director. It’s important to keep absenteeism rates low, she explained, because chronic absenteeism is often an early indicator of students on the verge of dropping out. “We don’t want students to drop out,” Stouard said. “We know if they’re engaged in school, we’ll continue to have them come to class and we can lower our dropout rate.” The district is blaming the pandemic for a declining rate in the number of credits students are finishing in a semester. According to CUSD data, about 84 percent of the district’s ninth graders earned at least 5.5 credits during the current school year. In 2020, the district’s completion rate was 92 percent. CUSD is hoping students who fell behind academically during the pandemic may be able to catch up during summer school and get back on track by the next school year.

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FLAVORING from page 8

eration, Bill asked the state liquor department how it was going to regulate their product even if they did apply for approval as a distillery. They wanted to know if the state would issue, as federal regulators do, a “certificate of label approval” – something that follows after a manufacturer submits their recipe and labeling for approval. The problem is that because federal regulators consider what the Buitenhuys only a flavor extract, they don’t issue certificates of label approval, usually called COLAs.

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

“We’ve asked the state if they will require a COLA on bitter flavor extracts and we haven’t gotten an answer,” Bill said. “So, there was no sense in us applying to be a distiller when they can’t tell us the rules.” Bill said state regulators indicated at one point that they were concerned “about underaged people buying our product and they just want to control that. “But we asked them how are they going to regulate the hundreds of producers from outside Arizona that sell the same product direct to Arizona residents by mail without any age verification and they have not answered that question.”

The SanTan Sun News asked the liquor department for comment but its chief spokesman did not return the call. Lillian was discouraged by the state’s attitude. She recalled all the trial and error involved in mixing ingredients, testing them in drinks and doing that many times to come up with the perfect flavor extract. “There’s a lot of thought, a lot of process that goes into this,” she said. “It’s really a labor of love and the effort that the two of us and my mom put into any bottle … we do that because we really support the community and want people to have good experiences.

“People also use our products for cooking and baking and other applications like with any flavor extract,” Lillian said. “So, we want people using it, to really enjoy it.” The couple had been reluctant to hire a lawyer. They could not be reached for immediate comment on Mesnard's bill. “We respect that Arizona can make their own liquor laws,” Bill said. “They have a right to do that. "What they don’t have a right to do is target a business and they don’t have the right to not explain how they are going to regulate an entire industry and that’s what we’re pushing for.”

PLAY from page 9

incidents that occurred during the COVID-19 global nightmare. Brady said she’s proud of the kids – especially since eighth graders will have some good memories of their last year in the Jaguars while sixth graders didn’t have to wait till the next school year to start working on their acting chops. The streaming service is no rinky dink platform but one that many theatrical companies are using. And, just like renting a movie or some performance, people buy a ticket that’s good for as many

viewings as they want in a 48-hour period. It will be available May 21-28 and tickets are $20. Go to ShowTix4U.com/events/SoThisHappened Here are the students who are participating: Kennedy Allen, Caroline Alperin, Jessica Amberg, Lily Baker, Ella Broadway, Amelia Dalton, Layla Davila, Anika Erickson, Jaden Franklin, Lexie Goyette; Also, Summer Hertel, Henry Hunsaker, Lauren Malone, Briana McCullagh, Molly Plenn, Sarah Quillan, Isley Seabrooke,

Ellie Staab, Addison Stewart, Kesenia Torres, Alli Tucker, Logan Wells, Caitlyn Wendell, Oliver Whittington, Colin Willey, Christopher Williams, Grace Wombacher; Also, Aubriana Allen, Morgan Berrett, Isabelle Brown, Mason Burd, Aidan Calabretti, Keilynne Calica McCreary, Isabella Dayal, Charlotte Gould, Kaidence Greer, Soren Knudson Krantz, Lauren Mahoney, Isabella Malik, Reese Powers, Charles Quillan, Gabe Robinson, Jeremy Steinberg, Marleigh Wagner, Ella Wohl and Jackson Wolfmeyer.

MENTAL from page 3

ing budget would be an additional clerk at Chandler Municipal Court that would specialize in handling mental health cases. Acting City Court Magistrate Alicia Skupin said this new position would work with other departments to reduce recidivism among defendants who may be homeless or have an untreated mental condition. More than a decade ago, City Court lost seven clerk positions during the Great Recession and the court had to adapt its operations with a limited workforce. Skupin said it may be time now to add another clerk position, especially one that can work with law enforcement and social workers to track complex cases involving mental health. “The resources that we’re asking for, not only is for the court,” Skupin said, “but is for the greater good of the city.”

The additional clerk would cost Chandler about $76,600. The city’s Neighborhood Resources Department is hoping to receive $89,500 to create a new supervisory position for Chandler’s housing navigators. The department has a number of staff members who connect vulnerable residents with social services that can help them avoid becoming homeless. Neighborhood Services Director Leah Powell said the creation a supervisory position would be “vital” to help coordinate navigators and organize resources. During the pandemic, the city partnered with some other municipalities throughout the Valley to offer free hotel rooms to residents on the verge of losing their housing. Navigators have been instrumental in connecting residents to the hotel program,

Powell noted, resulting in 80 percent of participants finding permanent housing. “It is doing wonders for our population who is experiencing homelessness,” Powell said. “We want to be able to beef up that navigation and keep it as an ongoing component in our community.” Powell’s department additionally wants $95,000 in one-time funding for a temporary navigator position that would be tasked with developing a pilot program related to mental health. Powell said she’d like to hire a navigator who can exclusively partner with city police to focus on residents struggling with psychological problems. “We want to be a tool for the police department and to help them,” she added. Council is expected to adopt its 20212022 budget during a meeting on May 27.

“We didn’t want to like make fun and belittle people who you know have lost family members. We wanted to kind of tell the story in a truthful way while poking fun at some but also respecting everybody’s stories.” Brady, who is in her eighth year at Kyrene, said the format is like the TV show “Saturday Night Live” in that there’s a cold open followed by a series of self-contained skits that reflect the horrors and some of the humorous

demic anticipated in the prior year were not realized,” a city memo states, “many of the programs and projects removed in the prior year were added in the proposed budget.” Chandler’s 2020-2021 budget only added two new job positions to the General Fund – one of which was mostly offset through funding paid by the Chandler Unified School District. This year, the city is considering adding at least nine new positions to the city’s payroll as well as several more jobs that would be funded through federal funding recently allocated by Congress. The proposed budget currently adds about $9 million in new expenditures to the city’s General Fund. One of the new positions in the pend-

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

From Uptown to Downtown, we cover Chandler like the sun

Little to cheer about on home price front BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor

major Valley real estate tracker last week reported that new data show 13 of 17 cities in the Phoenix Metro area – including Chandler – “moving in favor of buyers.” But homebuyers likely won’t find much to cheer about in the Cromford Report’s latest findings. That’s because prices are so high and inventory so little changed that it will seem like same-old, same-old in the market: prices are red-hot and pickings are slim. “We must remember that these are declines from extreme heights and the situation is not going to feel much different in the real world,” Cromford said. “It is only the mathematics that detects the slight cooling in the market,” it said. “This does NOT look like a bubble bursting and it is actually a healthy sign that the market cools a little while prices rise.” Nevertheless, Cromford also predicts that things are slowly starting to change, noting “prices are rising at an unsustainable pace.” “We now have supply increasing and demand falling,” it said. “This will gradually release some of the steam from the over-heating engine and the market can trend back towards normality.” If they don’t he said, “we would see the median sale price rise to $514,000 by the end of the year.” But it adds, “I doubt that will happen.” Cromford has developed what it calls the Cromford Market Index that uses a variety of data to indicate whether the housing market in various Valley communities is tilting toward buyers or sellers. Anything over 100 is considered tipping toward sellers and anything below 100 favoring buyers. For more than a year, the index rating for individual cities has been well over 200 and in recent months has been as high as 900 in some communities. Chandler, for example,

Among homes in Chandler that sold in the past month were the 3,070-square-foot home, left, on W. Erie Street that sold for $650,000 and the 4,164-square-foot home in Fulton Ranch that closed at $1.23 million. The first home was built in 1995 and the other in 2010. (Special to the Arizonan) recently fell from 606 to 556 – still well above a buyer-friendly index rating. Cromford cautioned that its index “is designed to be the earliest of leading indicators and other indicators (listing success rate, percent of list price, days inventory, etc.) do not have to follow suit. “If all indicators begin to drop like dominos, then we need to worry. At the moment, this is not the case. Nobody should be expecting prices to reverse direction just because the CMI takes a breather. In fact, we are expecting price rises to remain very strong for a long time yet.” Indeed, it said that in any community showing 200 or more on the Cromford index, bidding wars for homes can be expected. Meanwhile, it also noted that homebuilders are approaching the low inventory with a vengeance and that March “was a monster month for single-family building permits.” Pinal and Maricopa counties issued a combined total of 3,536 permits in March, the highest monthly total since June 2006, Cromford said, noting that also “was the month in which prices last hit their peak before tumbling.” Permits issued in March 2021 were up by 39 percent over March 2020, prompting Cromford to observe: “Clearly developers are doing what they can to compensate for the derisory amount of re-sale single-family homes

available to buyers. It is fair to assume that we will see a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in the supply of new homes across Greater Phoenix over the next 12 months. “This could alleviate some of the pressure on re-sale listings and allow them to start to grow again. We certainly would not expect to stay at the current low level of re-sale forever. If they did, prices will reach levels that are unaffordable to the majority of buyers, which would eventually slacken demand and cause supply to rise anyway.” The surge in permits – which is expected to continue – has Cromford predicting a “slow and steady effect, rather than a sudden flooding of the market.” He noted that for every new home sold, it generally means a re-sale goes on the market. Of course, that assumes the seller will be giving up the old home for a new home and not joining the equally hot rental market either as a landlord for long-term tenants or vacation renters. Years of under-building has caught up with the U.S. Now, the country has a serious shortage of homes—as many as 4 million, according to Freddie Mac—to meet the demand from buyers. Realtor.com noted, “Millennials hit the point in life where buying a home becomes very attractive, and the pandemic has caused people to rethink their living situations. All of which is to say that

demand in this market is organic, according to economists and not fueled by risky lending practices.” It said builders are having enough trouble keeping up with demand – partly because of disruption in supply lines for crucial supplies, such as lumber and appliances – which also is driving up prices. Realtor.com also foresees “some headwinds for the market.” “While mortgage rates have fallen in April thus far, if they begin to rise again in the future that could constrain buyers’ interest in pricier new homes,” it said. “Supply is the biggest limiting factor in home sales. There is a 2.1 month’s supply of existing homes at the current sales rate, which is up from an all-time low of 1.9 months last December,” Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial. “But the rise from the low is not because there are more homes for sale, it is because the sales pace slowed.” Meanwhile, the S&P CoreLogic CaseShiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, last week released national and regional data showing prices in February were 12 percent higher nationwide than they were in February 2020. “Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in February,” it said. “Phoenix led the way with a 17.4 percent year-over-year price increase.”

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

19 REAL ESTATE

HOAs can run rampant collecting debts BY PATRICK MACQUEEN Guest Writer

that may create liability. These include making threatening or false accusations to the person owing the debt; representing that the nonpayment may result in arrest and/or the seizure of property; placing telephone calls or sending communication without properly identifying oneself or the creditor; publicizing the owner’s debt to third parties; and communicating directly with a consumer who is represented by

an attorney. In addition to avoiding these activities, the FDCPA requires the debt collector to provide certain information within five days of their initial communication to the consumer. This communication must clearly include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor who is owed the debt, and the contact information for whom to contact to discuss the debt and make

e were recently contacted by several owners in an HOA because their names appeared on a public “collection” list. Specifically, a local HOA, through its management company, “posted” a list of homeowners with delinquent HOA obligations on the HOA’s public website. These homeowners wondered whether the HOA (and/or its management company) had any legal basis to make the list public. Oftentimes, an HOA or its managers take it upon themselves to collect delinquent amounts from owners that have failed to pay HOA assessments. And, oftentimes, these HOAs and managers violate the detailed federal laws governing debt collection. The primary law governing HOA collection activities is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the “FDCPA”), which was created to protect consumers from unfair practices from debt collectors. Consumers are generally defined as any natural person obligated to pay any debt which arose out of a transaction where the services were primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. Individual owners and their HOA assessments fit within this definition. A “debt collector” is anyone who regularly collects or attempts to collect a debt owed to another, whether directly or indirectly. The FDCPA is only applicable to those collecting debt owed to someone else. Therefore, it usually does not generally apply to the HOA itself in the HOA’s efforts to collect what may be owed. That said, once an HOA management company, or other third party, attempts to collect on behalf of the HOA, this may trigger the FDCPA. The FDCPA is very strict in its application, meaning that liability for an offending party is easy to identify and there is not a lot of “wiggle room” to argue that the FDCPA is inapplicable. Liability includes actual damages, statutory fines, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and even punitive awards. There is a list of common prohibitions

payment. There must also be language in written communications setting out the consumer’s rights, including their right to request written verification of the debt and dispute its validity. In short, if your HOA, the HOA’s management company, or any third party attempting to collect HOA debt, is attempting to collect past due assessments, these parties must do so very carefully. Ultimately, the HOA and its management company mentioned in the initial paragraph of this article settled out of court to avoid the full extent of the penalties imposed by the FDCPA, which was the only good move on the management company’s part. If you have additional questions about your HOA, or you are an HOA board or member, or have other real estate related questions, you can contact me. Ahwatukee lawyer Patrick MacQueen is cofounder of MacQueen & Gottlieb, the state’s leading real estate firm. Reach him at patrick@mandglawgroup.com or call 602-533-2840.

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Farah Eltohamy

21 COMMUNITY

Sara Donaldson

Ayesha Ahsan

Rayven Cannon

on their post-graduate plans – which include fighting injustice and protecting the environment. Of the overall student total, nearly 12,200 were undergraduates and more than 5,500 were graduate students. Nearly 6,900 students graduated with honors, the most ever for an individual class and a 5 percent increase over last

spring. “We are incredibly proud of what our Sun Devils have accomplished during the past year of all-encompassing changes and challenges wrought by the pandemic,” said Melissa Werner, executive director of the Office of University Events and Protocol and the Office of University Ceremonies.

Fueled by passions to help their community, Cannon, Eltohamy, Ahsan, and Donaldson say they will utilize the knowledge and experiences they gained from ASU to make differences within architecture, journalism, sociology and conservation professions.

4 Chandler students earn ASU degrees BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE Staff Writer

our Chandler natives were among the approximately 18,000 Arizona State University students who received degrees May 4. Rayven Cannon, Farah Eltohamy, Ayesha Ahsan and Sara Donaldson reflected

see GRADS page 22

Chandler photographer focuses on beauty of food BY SRIANTHI PERERA Contributor

eepika Haldankar loves to capture the natural beauty in raw food. The lusciousness of the pomegranate and red cherry, the dark mystery of black grapes, the earthiness of mushrooms: these qualities come alive with help from her creative eye. “If you look closely, every food has its own innate beauty,” the Chandler foodand-product photographer said. “Fresh produce, for instance, has its own nature-given texture and colors. I like to capture these in my work.” For Haldankar, who also focuses her lens at baked goods, beverages, cooked dishes, cosmetics and other products,

Left: Deepika Haldankar. Right: Deepika Haldankar creates a scene to convey the visual stories in her images. (Photos courtesy of Deepika Haldankar.) the medium is a way of self-expression. As for products, “my main goal is to bring out the beauty of the product and the story it is conveying in a simple, yet

bold form,” she said. “What a brand is telling through the image to the audience should be clear at just one glance.” Haldankar’s skills haven’t gone unnoticed.

A recent member of the Gilbert Visual Art League, she won second place in photography for her depiction of a fruit bowl in this year’s juried fine art show. Her work has been published in Green Living magazine, among others, and used to market everything from a skincare brand to a dessert shop. The secret to food and product photography, Haldankar said, is about “creating a story out of nothing.” She considers the item and its color, mood, seasonality, light and surroundings, and uses props and material to create the scene. “You build on an idea and keep working on it till a final image is created,” she said. “I absolutely love the process.”

see PHOTOGRAPHER page 22

COMMUNITY

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

GRADS from page 21

they wanted to see from The Design School administration. This letter became the foundation for Design Justice, an initiative Cannon co-founded. Cannon ultimately says she wants the voices of underrepresented students heard within ASU’s architecture community and beyond. Eltohamy hopes to improve Muslim representation in the news. Eltohamy said she learned the importance of community storytelling when the president of a mosque told her, “You are one of the only people who is actually talking to me and asking me about this mosque and telling the stories of the people here.” He added that the only time reporters ever approach him is “to condemn some random terrorist attack in some other country as opposed to actually getting to know the community.” This experience inspired Eltohamy to use her passion for social justice and voice as a journalist to amplify the voices of those underrepresented. “Journalists from other marginalized backgrounds, in general, have never really been able to break into this field and tell the stories of their communities fairly and accurately,” Eltohamy said. “So that’s something that I really wanted to help fix, and the only way you can really fix that is by having more Muslim journalists in this field who can tell the stories of the Muslim community as it is.” Eltohamy was awarded an ASU Leadership Scholarship and completed her undergraduate degree from the Walter Cronkite

School of Journalism and Mass Communication in three years, using the fourth year to earn her master’s degree through Cronkite’s 3+1 program. She was named an Outstanding Undergraduate Student at the Cronkite School convocation. Eltohamy says that she is currently finishing an internship at NPR then will work for the Texas Tribune as their Washington reporting fellow. Helping the environment Since graduating, Ahsan and Donaldson have put themselves on a path to bettering the community and environment. After Ahsan realized that she didn’t want to go into the medical field, but knew that she still wanted to help people, she decided to study sociology as it fulfilled her interest in learning about the science behind inequality and had a humanized approach she was seeking, she said. “My experiences as a woman of color and a first generation American fueled me to learn about the issues of inequity,” Ahsan said. “I was surprised to learn about how prevalent many issues are and how they’re not as distant as we make them out to be,” Ahsan said. “Racism, food insecurity and education inequity are among the myriad issues prevalent in our own neighborhoods.” Ahsan was accepted into the Leadership Scholarship Program and Barrett, The Honors College then graduated with dual degrees in sociology and economics. In pursuit of a public interest law profession, Ahsan will be starting a law degree program in the fall.

Donaldson aims to use what she learned at ASU to help protect the environment. From her courses and experience in the Central Arizona Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, Donaldson says she learned about the relationship between organisms and how they interact with the environment. She was also taught environmental ethics. “Learning about all the diverse species and plant life changed the way I saw a typical landscape,” Donaldson said. “I began to see how living things connect to each other and how they contribute to the value of biodiversity.” Donaldson always knew that she wanted to pursue a degree in science and majored in conservation biology and ecology at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences along with a minor in dance from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Donaldson received the ASU Alumni Association Medallion Scholarship all four years as well as the New American University Scholarship. Because her passion lies in protecting wildlife and the environment, Donaldson will be working toward her master’s degree in plant biology in conservation from ASU. After finishing her degree, Donaldson says she hopes to work at the Desert Botanical Garden. “Surround yourself with subjects that interest you and classes that spark passion,” Donaldson advises new students. “Be brave, take chances and participate in new things.”

PHOTOGRAPHER from page 21

Her daughter didn’t like the bland, storebought baby food, so she created her own recipes using fresh produce added with herbs and spices for aroma and flavor. “As my daughter grew, so did my blog. Now, I share family-friendly recipes with a focus on seasonal produce and incorporating herbs and spices into everyday cooking,” she said. The food leans western but she has carefully incorporated south Asian and Indian food. The recipes are detailed and easy to follow. “Even if there’s any Indian influence, there are very mild spices used; they’re not too much, for the American taste,” she added. An example is the recipe for asparagus lentil puree, introduced as a hearty, healthy meal for a little one during spring because the vegetable is seasonal. (easyb-

abymeals.com/asparagus-lentil-puree) The puree may be turned into a soup for the whole family by adding stock. To further complement her line of work, she is also writing a cookbook featuring her signature family-friendly recipes. It will highlight seasonal produce and the use of herbs and spices, all in easy-to-make recipes in the comfort of the home kitchen. The blog, which she continues to this day and has been featured in Yahoo Lifestyle, Buzzfeed, Reader’s Digest and others, kept her busy and led her to food photography. “It was a whole new area for me to explore, and I started enjoying it thoroughly,” she recalled. “I loved capturing the food with its details. Developing new recipes and taking pictures was something I did for the next few years.” In 2017, she took advanced courses in

photography to study elements of composition, lighting and other topics. She mentored under professional photographers, but is essentially self-taught. “These added sets of skills opened up a new area of professional photography,” she said. “I decided this was the time for a brand-new career. At the beginning of 2019, I applied for all the permits necessary to work in the U.S. and my career as a photographer got established.” Like any other skill, Haldankar finds it needs constant development. “I feel it’s like a muscle; the more you work on it, the better you get at it,” she said. “Learning and practicing photography is an ongoing process. It is a way to know your work and yourself better.” Information: deepikahaldankar.com and easybabymeals.com.

Fighting for representation Cannon and Eltohamy want to see more women like them in their field to increase diversity and representation within the architecture and journalism industry, respectively. After earning a BS in business administration finance from Lyon College, Cannon learned of ASU’s three-year master of architecture program and has now earned her master’s degree in architecture. She plans to get a job in architectural science and technology. Cannon initially didn’t realize how underrepresented women are in the field. Only 22 percent of licensed architects are women, according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. About 9 percent are non-white and less than 1 percent are Black women. These facts motivated Cannon to work harder. “I’m a first-generation college student. I’m Black. I’m Native American. And I’m white,” Cannon said. “Going into this profession, I did not know that the numbers were very low and that the numbers were stacked against me. Knowing that and knowing that I’m very competitive, I want to win. And I want everybody around me to win.” Cannon and her peers met with the alumni of The Design School and surveyed students to brainstorm ways to ensure that students’ voices were heard, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. The group outlined 14 action items

When Haldankar first came to the United States from India with her husband about a decade ago, she had a master’s degree in social sciences. A career in photography was not in the picture. However, she had always wanted to be an artist. Circumstances, such as the birth of her daughter, led her to stay home. The young mother resolved to counter boredom and frustration by being resourceful to spend time satisfactorily. Photography became a perfect means to channel her inner artist, she said. It all began in 2014, when Haldankar began a food blog, easybabymeals.com, to share the recipes she made for her daughter when she began eating her first solids. She also included other family-friendly recipes.

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Today, HECM loans are simply an effective way for homeowners 62 and older to get the extra cash they need to enjoy retirement. Although today’s HECM loans have been improved to provide even greater financial protection for homeowners, there are still many misconceptions. For example, a lot of people mistakenly believe the home must be paid off in full in order to qualify for a HECM loan, which is not the case. In fact, one key advantage of a HECM is that the proceeds will first be used to pay off any existing liens on the property, which frees up cash flow, a huge blessing for seniors living on a fixed income. Unfortunately, many senior homeowners who might be better off with a HECM loan don’t even bother to get more

bills or helping other family members. Some people simply need the extra cash for everyday expenses while others are now using it as a safety net for financial emergencies. If you’re a homeowner age 62 or older, you owe it to yourself to learn more so that you can make the best decision - for your financial future.

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information because of rumors they’ve heard. In fact, a recent survey by American Advisors Group (AAG), the nation’s number one HECM lender, found that over 98% of their clients are satisfied with their loans. While these special loans are not for everyone, they can be a real lifesaver for senior homeowners - especially in times like these. The cash from a HECM loan can be used for almost any purpose. Other common uses include making home improvements, paying off medical

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Reverse mortgage loan terms include occupying the home as your primary residence, maintaining the home, paying property taxes and homeowners insurance. Although these costs may be substantial, AAG does not establish an escrow account for these payments. However, a set-aside account can be set up for taxes and insurance, and in some cases may be required. Not all interest on a reverse mortgage is tax-deductible and to the extent that it is, such deduction is not available until the loan is partially or fully repaid. AAG charges an origination fee, mortgage insurance premium (where required by HUD), closing costs and servicing fees, rolled into the balance of the loan. AAG charges interest on the balance, which grows over time. When the last borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse dies, sells the home, permanently moves out, or fails to comply with the loan terms, the loan becomes due and payable (and the property may become subject to foreclosure). When this happens, some or all of the equity in the property no longer belongs to the borrowers, who may need to sell the home or otherwise repay the loan balance. V2020.12.22 These materials are not from HUD or FHA and were not approved by HUD or a government agency.

NMLS# 9392 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). American Advisors Group (AAG) is headquartered at 18200 Von Karman Ave, Suite 300, Irvine CA 92612. Licensed in 49 states. Please go to www.aag.com/legal-information for full state license information.

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

25 BUSINESS

Chandler dentists are robotic world-beaters BY KEVIN PIREHOUR Arizonan Contributor

obots might not be taking over the world, but they’re proving to be useful assistants in the dental

field. With the use of the Yomi dental system, the first FDA cleared robot-assisted dental surgery system, Dr. LisaMarie Sarhangian and Dr. Leslie Fish combined have completed over 750 robotic dental implants in their Chandler office. There are only about 50 Yomi dental systems installed in dental clinics throughout the world and their office is the only clinic in Arizona to use the system. To date, the two have completed more dental implants with the robotic assis-

Chandler dental surgeons Dr. Leslie Fish and LisaMarie Sarhangian have completed more robotic implant surgeries than any in the world. (Kevin Pirehour/Contributor)

tant than any other dental surgeons in the world. “We didn’t go into it looking to be a leader, we went into it just looking to give our patients access to the best technology that we could,” Sarhangian said. “And I think keeping our eyes on doing that for every patient that’s before us, has led us to do the numbers that we’ve done.” Yomi, developed by Neocis, is a computerized dental navigational system that offers surgeons precise physical guidance based on a pre-planned drilling route based on the patient’s CAT scans. The robotic arm limits the surgeon’s free-hand mobility while directing a sur-

see ROBOT page 27

Chandler strip mall turning into food mecca ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

major Asian supermarket chain based in California with 51 locations in eight other states has picked a renovated Chandler strip mall for its entry into Arizona. 99 Ranch is anchoring the former Anderson Fiesta Shopping Center at 1760 W. Chandler Blvd., which was purchased by NewQuest Properties in October 2019 with an eye toward converting it into a foreign food mecca. 99 Ranch Market, also known as Tawa Supermarket, was established in 1984 by Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant who felt there was a cultural gap in the typical American supermarket. “Our company slogan, ‘For 100, we try harder’ demonstrates our commitment to always provide the best products and services to the communities we serve,” it states on its website. “Ranch Market represents freshness and symbolizes our

99 Ranch, an Asian supermarket will anchor the remodeled strip mall at 1760 W. Chandler Blvd., which owner NewQuest Properties is making a food lover's mecca. (Courtesy of NewQuest Properties)

promise to deliver the freshest products.” NewQuest’s Asia-Pacific Retail Group

also has landed Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, Meet Fresh and Uncle Lee’s Kitchen for

the 117,565-square-foot plaza and has pre-leased 87 percent of Class A retail – a 52 percent gain since it bought the mall. “There are a lot of West Coast restaurateurs and retailers looking to expand to Arizona. Until now, they hadn’t found the right opportunity or product,” said Naoyuki Kondo, leasing specialist in NewQuest’s Asia-Pacific Retail Group. NewQuest said it has invested about $10 million into the shopping center’s makeover, including the addition of welldesigned outdoor gathering spaces for the post-COVID era, new facades, lighting and signage. 99 Ranch will open in late May, backfilling a 44,442-sf former Basha’s store. Kura Revolving Sushi Bar and Uncle Lee’s Kitchen have leased 3,311 square feet and 1,466 square feet, respectively. Meet Fresh has roped off 2,400 square feet. All three will open later this year.

see RANCH page 26

BUSINESS

RANCH from page 25

David Uhles of Western Retail Advisors represented Kura’s while the other two leases resulted from direct negotiations with NewQuest’s specialized leasing group. Chandler Ranch also will be home to the second Ramen Hood in the state, which will occupy another 2,791 square feet. “The redesigned Chandler Ranch is emerging as an epicurean collection of Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean and American cuisines,” a spokeswoman said, noting some restaurants were longtime tenants when NewQuest acquired the 14.5-acre property.

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

“We envision Chandler Ranch will be a culinary destination that people will gravitate towards to experience a fun food adventure,” said Heather Nguyen, development partner of NewQuest Properties and leader of the Asia-Pacific Retail Group. NewQuest is modeling Chandler Ranch after three Asian-focused retail projects in its portfolio – Carrollton Town Center and Frisco Ranch in North Texas and Katy Grand in west Houston. “Market studies show Chandler, often deemed the Silicon Valley of Arizona, was a strong candidate for the firm’s niche concept because it boasts the highest Asian growth in the state,” a spokeswoman said.

“We’ve had to educate potential tenants about the strong Asian growth. They didn’t always consider Arizona to be their next market,” Kondo added. “Chandler Ranch is changing their minds.” Key to success of the NewQuest concept is the concentration of established international restaurants and retail brands and rising stars from Pan-Asia and California that Nguyen’s team has been courting for several years. Categories include authentic cuisines, high-end bakeries, dessert shops and specialty stores. “As with what we did in Texas, we are curating a tenant mix to create a diverse

dining destination by recruiting certain brands for Chandler Ranch,” Nguyen said. “We hope to offer a destination where there is something that will appeal to everyone.” NewQuest Properties was founded in 2001. The privately owned, full-service commercial real estate firm specializes in development, land brokerage, leasing, tenant representation, investment sales and property management services. Headquartered in Houston, NewQuest owns a portfolio of more than 60 retail and mixed-use projects valued at $2.2 billion and provides leasing services for more than 12 million square feet of commercial space throughout the U.S.

Keto bakery finds a real home in Chandler ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

eah Huarte and her classically trained French chef husband Inaki finally have their own kitchen. The owners of Keto Kitchen Confections just had their grand opening of their store at 961 W. Ray Road in Chandler and they couldn’t be happier. That’s because since they opened in 2019, the Huartes have been baking out of a commercial kitchen and were having customers pick up their orders there. “I cringe when I think about it now,” Leah said. “If you’ve ever been in a commercial kitchen, you know they are not really what you want a customer to experience.” Besides, with a ketogenic menu that includes bagels, zucchini ravioli, giant cheese danishes, lemon pound cakes, cupcakes, caramel-chocolate pecan turtles, tiramisu, crème brulée and raspberry linzer bars and a lot more, they need some room to move. Thanks to Realtor Michael Pollack, they now have their store and their kitchen under one roof. “We are super excited to finally have our own kitchen,” Leah said. Good thing, too, because Keto Kitchen Confections has been a pandemic anomaly. Business soared during lockdown and is continuing to grow at breakneck speed, Leah said. “We actually saw our business grow – mostly because our business model is a little different,” she explained. “We’ve always operated primarily on pre-orders

Leah Huarte and her classically trained French chef husband Inaki are happy to be in a brick-and-mortar store with their own kitchen. (Facebook) placed on our website and picked up at our shop. While we always have some items available for purchase during our pickup windows, we mostly bake to order. “This keeps our waste low which is critical with our pricier ingredients,” she added. Leah also noted that a lot of their success has to do with her husband. “No one is really doing what we’re do-

ing or at least at the level we are doing it,” she said. “Sure, there are a couple places that sell keto items at farmer’s markets or sugar eater bakeries that attempt to make keto items, but my husband is a classically trained French chef.” Leah has been keto for seven years and has lost 100 pounds – and keeping it off. “So we have both the skill and the experience at making sugar-free taste

good,” she said. “We also have an amazing cake decorator that has allowed us to elevate our offerings even more. We have so many customers that are not necessarily keto, but are trying to keep their sugar consumption low for health reasons.” The ketogenic diet, commonly shortened to “keto,” is a low-carb, high-fat diet – putting one’s body in a state of ketosis, when the body can efficiently burn fat for energy instead of stored carbs. While there are several styles of the diet – including standard, cyclical, targeted and high protein – they all share the same goal: to provide immediate weight loss, offer extended solution to burn fat efficiently and lower risk factors for diseases such as diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s. Though highly effective, the diet can be difficult to stick to if done improperly. A majority of beginners fall victim to “Keto Flu” while their body is adapting to the new source of energy. “Most people give up on the diet at that point. But the thing is they just don’t know how to get their body the energy it needs to sustain itself properly,” said Leah. “And that’s sort of where we step in and take the reins for you.” “We’ve absolutely loved what we’ve heard from customers. We give you all the nutritional information and macros so if you’re counting that you can stay on track,” said Leah. Information: Keto Kitchen Confections is on Facebook, or go to chandlerketobakery.com or call 480-630-4651.

27 BUSINESS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

ROBOT from page 25

geon’s drill location and depth to plant the metal implant post into a patient’s jawbone. That nearly eliminates the possibility of drill errors. Atop the implant sits a connector, known as an abutment, connected to the replacement tooth, which makes up the entirety of what is generally called a dental implant. “I’ve been doing this a long time and can I do it on my own, sure. But I’m human,” Fish said. “Between my surgical skills and the robotic assistance, we’re more accurate. It’s impossible for a human to be a drill press.” Dental implants have a high success rate – only about 5 to 10-percent of dental implants fail, an outcome likely the result if the implant does not bond with the jawbone or factors such as microbial infections, according to a Clinical Implant Dentistry and Related Research study. “There’s some amount of error anytime a human’s drilling,” Sarahagian said. “But if we’ve already pre-planned the implant to a certain location to avoid

Dentistry works in “ fractions of a millimeter,

for a human being repeatedly to be able to keep that precision is nearly impossible. So I do think whether it will be a decade from now, I think dentistry will be robotics.

”

– Dr. Leslie Fish

those anatomical structures and it’s locking us into that replant position and greatly helps us avoid those anatomical structures.” Robotics, such as da Vinci for laparoscopic surgery in the abdomen or pelvis, are becoming increasingly more common in surgical practices, and Fish said Yomi is the first step for dentistry. “Dentistry works in fractions of a milli-

meter,” Fish said. “For a human being repeatedly to be able to keep that precision is nearly impossible. So I do think whether

it will be a decade from now, I think dentistry will be robotics.” Information: fishandsarhangian.com.

come is to wait until age 70, when you get the maximum possible. However, Motley Fool finds that about 60 percent of retired workers take their SS prior to reaching age 65 and only about 10 percent begin taking SS between the ages of 67-70. Only 3 percent wait until age 70 and many take it at age 62, the earliest one is eligible. Taking SS at age 70 instead of 62 could be a $1 million decision: From 2017-2019, I gave two seminars each year for federal employees on “How to Understand Your Federal Retirement Benefits.” I did a composite of three single women: a nurse, nurse practitioner, and pharmacist. If they took SS at age 62, it would be $22,344 per year versus $43,680 at age 70. The difference is $21,336. For most of the last 12 years, one could only earn about 2 percent in a 10year US Treasury bond. One would need to save $1,066,800 times 2 percent to equal $21,336 of annual income. What’s easier: waiting eight years to take SS or saving an extra $1,066,800

from age 62 to 70? In retirement, folks live on monthly cash flow, which is usually more important than the total one’s saved. Example: if you deposit $3 million in a bank that pays 0.1 percent interest, one would only have $3,000 of annual interest income. Case study of single female federal employee, who will turn age 66 in a month: She earned $60,000 annually and had worked for the federal government for 36 years. She had talked to the local SS Administration office, who stressed that she should take SS when she turned 66. She would get about $24,000 annually. I advised her to wait until age 70 and she would get 32 percent more, or $31,680. This is $7,680 more annually. If she retired from federal employment at 66, the Federal Employee Retirement System annuity would give her 36 years (1.1 percent of every year of service) times $60,000 salary = $23,760. Her total annual retirement income would be $23,760 federal retirement + $24,000 SS = $47,760. However, she thinks she has a good chance of getting a big promotion to

$100,000 per year. If she works four more years, now her FERS benefit is 40 years (1.1 percent) times $100,000 = $44,000. Her retirement income is drastically increased to $44,000 + $31,680 in SS = $75,680 versus $47,760 without following my advice. That’s $27,920 more annual retirement income! Conclusion: knowing the rules of SS and your employer pension can yield much more retirement income for your bucket list dreams. Free live seminars and lunch: • Saturday, June 12 at The Old Spaghetti Factory, 3155 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, at 10:45 a.m.; • Sunday June 6 at The Hyatt Place 3535 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, at 10:30 a.m. Topic: “Double Your Social Security & Other Retirement Income and Pay No Tax!” RSVP: 480-706-0177 or harold_ wong@hotmail.com. Dr. Harold Wong earned his Ph.D. in economics at University of California/ Berkeley and has appeared on over 400 TV/radio programs.

The Yomi dental system helps Dr. Leslie Fish and LisaMarie Sarhangian reduce the chance for human error in implant surgeries. (Kevin Pirehour/Contributor)

Knowing Social Security rules is important start BY HAROLD WONG Contributor

any decades ago, future retirement income was based on “the 3-legged stool:” Social Security, pensions and whatever you saved. In 2021, virtually no one in the private sector has an old-fashioned pension that pays you a guaranteed lifetime income. Today, only government employees (with rare exceptions) get a pension today. In 2020, the average annual Social Security (SS) benefit was $18,024 for an individual and $30,372 for a married couple. About 40.2 percent of Americans age 60 and up rely solely on Social Security for retirement income. According to Secure Retirement Institute research, SS makes up 37 percent of retirees’ total income. SS retirement income is based on only two factors: the highest 35 years of wages (or net profits from one’s own business) that you paid into SS, inflation adjusted; and when you take your SS. The easiest way to increase your SS in-

OPINION

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Opinion

Chandler is prepared for Colorado River shortage BY COUNCILMAN RENÉ LOPEZ Guest Writer

recent report from the United States Bureau of Reclamation details a potential water supply shortage from the Colorado River. Thanks to Arizona’s priority system and our diverse water portfolio, Chandler’s municipal supplies will not be reduced in early shortage. The Colorado River represents less than half of Arizona’s collective supply, with additional sources including the Salt River Project, reclaimed water and

groundwater. Chandler has invested in our infrastructure, water supplies, underground water storage and conservation programs for many years knowing that our Colorado River supplies could be cut. Chandler participates in regional water planning as an active member of the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, of which I am a board member, and regularly meets with the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Central Arizona Project, Salt River Project and individual cities to discuss water supply, water sustainability and water management issues. In 2010, Chandler received its state-

approved 100-year Assured Water Supply by demonstrating to the Arizona Department of Water Resources that the City had suf�icient renewable supplies and infrastructure to meet existing and future demands for the next 100 years. The designation of Assured Water Supply covers Chandler’s whole service area. New subdivisions and businesses that are within Chandler’s water service area are automatically deemed to have a proven Assured Water Supply. Water conservation has been a major focus of our long-term water management plan. Chandler’s Water Conservation Program was established in 1990 with the goal of instilling a water con-

Adam Lowe, MD, FACG

servation ethic and permanently reducing water use. Today we continue to implement innovative programs and practices that will help us sustain our water supply. You can learn more about these programs, tips and tricks online at chandleraz.gov/water. Access to a safe and secure water supply is a top priority of Council’s, and as an active AMWUA Board Member, I will continue to advocate on Chandler’s behalf to deliver that. Please feel free to reach out to me directly with any waterrelated concerns at rene.lopez@chandleraz.gov. The author is a member of Chandler City Council.

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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SPORTS

Sports

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Hamilton’s Selvidge among top prospects in MLB draft BY CONNOR MORMAN Cronkite News

wo of the most highly regarded high school baseball prospects in the Valley continue to showcase why they might be top picks in this year’s MLB Draft. Desert Mountain infielder Wes Kath and Hamilton pitcher Brock Selvidge are both ranked one and two, respectively, in Prep Baseball Report Arizona’s Class of 2021 Player Rankings, updated on April 9. The Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft is scheduled to begin July 11. Although no longer the number one overall prospect according to Prep Baseball Report Arizona, Hamilton pitcher Brock Selvidge is still highly ranked as the No. 2 overall prospect in the state and the LSU commit is continuing to perform at a high level. The senior was named the Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year in 2019-2020 despite COVID-19 canceling the remainder of the season but has returned to top form this season, continuing to hit the ball to all parts of the field, driving in baserunners while pitching deep into games. His coach Mike Woods said they have talked about staying grounded amidst all the buzz and attention. “We try to keep it about the present,” Woods said. “If you’re doing your job every day, you show up and just try to be the best teammate and best ballplayer you can be and let your talent speak for itself. But if you get caught up in all the noise and get caught up with if you had a bad day, how that might affect your draft status, that’s a recipe for disaster.” The 6-3, 205-pound left-hander is the No. 1 pitcher in the state of Arizona, according to Prep Baseball Report, and a Second-Team Preseason All-American by Baseball America. “He’s a talented young man,” Woods

game of baseball.” Earlier this year, Kath was named a first-team high school All-American by Baseball America along with middle infielders Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, widely projected to be top 10 draft picks this summer. Handling all the national recognition and anticipation for a high schooler can be daunting but Dyer believes Kath has been composed throughout the entire process. “He’s handled it as well as you could ever imagine a 17- or 18-year-old kid being put into a situation Wes Kath, an Arizona State commit, is hitting over .500 with 10 home runs, which leads the state. where day in and day out, (Photo courtesy MLB.com) 15 to 30 guys behind the stands are critiquing evsaid. “He’s a good worker so whether he most out of his pure stuff. ery move you make,” Dyer said. “I’m cergoes to the college route or the pro route, “There’s more competition for Seltainly proud of him. he will play at the next level. There’s no vidge at his position in this year’s class “If I’m ever asked why I would draft doubt. He’s been working toward his than Kath has to deal with, but he still Wes in the top round, it would not be begoal for an awful long time. He’s put a lot has the talent and upside to go at some cause of the first five tools. It would be of time in. point in the top five rounds.” because of that sixth intangible tool, his “It just depends on where he goes in Kath, an Arizona State commit, is hitmakeup and his ability to handle chalthe draft and everything else but there’s ting the cover off the baseball this spring. lenging situations.” no doubt he’ll be playing baseball after He is hitting over .500 with 10 home Baseball America national writer Carhigh school and I think he’ll do just fine runs, which leads the state. The 6-3, los Collazo says Kath is one of the better and I think he will do well.” 200-pound shortstop is viewed as a fivethird basemen in this year’s class, given Collazo says this year’s crop of left- tool player and has increased his draft that it’s a weaker year for corner infieldhanded high school pitchers is deep but stock with every game and performance ers but that he very well could be a topthat Selvidge has the athleticism and this season and scouts have rallied to at70 pick coming off the board. stuff needed to succeed and be a high tend any Desert Mountain games they “He’s an impressive power hitter who draft pick in July. can to see the sweet-swinging senior. could wind up with 60-grade power at “(Selvidge) stands out with a strong His coach Ryan Dyer believes that while the big league level and be an average frame that should be able to handle a Kath is above average at all five tools, his or above-average pure hitter,” Collazo professional starting role, and a fastball sixth tool is what separates him. said. “If those offensive tools are legit, and slider that progressed last summer,” “What’s most special about Wes is that his bat should carry him no matter what Collazo said. “Selvidge is athletic and intangible tool, the sixth tool that you defensive position he winds up sticking has shown a good changeup in the past hear about. That’s his make up,” Dyer at. Given the lack of impact bats in this as well, giving him a three-pitch mix that said. “He’s such a special person in the year’s class, it wouldn’t be surprising if a could have plenty of teams interested, fact that he’s mature beyond his years. team liked him enough to pop him in the but he will still need to refine his control He’s humble. He works hard but he also top two rounds.” and command moving forward to get the has a great perspective on life and on the

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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Celebrated ramen restaurant opens downtown ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

signature California-based ramen restaurant chain has opened its first Arizona location in downtown Chandler. JINYA Ramen Bar, a contemporary Japanese franchise restaurant concept, opened recently in New Square, where DC Steakhouse and The Stillery are neighboring tenants. JINYA in Chandler, owned by Realtor Daradee Olson, is the 41st location of a concept started in 2010 by Tomo Takahashi, the son of a restaurateur in Japan. His father had owned an Isakaya-style restaurant named Jinya, where he focused on delicious food at reasonable prices that’s accessible to all.

Maedell Dixon

JINYA Chandler owner Daradee Olson, third from left, is flanked by her team. It includes, from left: Lori Eitel, Paul Norris, Daradee Olson, Jordan Ruiz, Stephanie Daniels and Cody Tolbert. (Debby Wolvos/Special to SanTan Sun News)

Wanting to revive his father’s dream, Takahashi opened his first JINYA in Tokyo in 2000, naming the restaurant for a Samurai soldier who was close to the community. When he came to the U.S. Takahashi decided that traditional taste and flavor of ramen wasn’t possible – unless he made it himself. So, he opened his first restaurant in Los Angeles. Takahashi has been called one of the nation’s most influential restaurateurs. Olson was inspired to bring a JINYA to Chandler after stumbling upon the concept while vacationing in Utah. She lived in Taiwan for six years, which allowed her the opportunity to visit 42 countries

see RAMEN page 33

Connie Cockrell

Harold Dixon

Betty Webb

episodes since the first season in September 2020,” said Fagen. “We have enjoyed talking with so many different artists, authors and creatives, and hope we have connected them with art patrons. “We will continue to promote fine art and fine artists on our social media pages at Art Online AZ.” In Episode 15, which launched last week, multi-media artist Asi Panoutso-

poulou of Chandler shows her one-of-akind polymer clay jewelry and discusses the transition from a hobby to a business. Born and raised in Greece, she discovered the medium while on a trip there, and says “polymer clay became a passion and a way of expressing myself.” The show also features mystery author Betty Webb of Scottsdale, who has published 17 books in two different series.

Webb, a former journalist, talks about how stories she covered in her newspaper career became themes for her novels. Webb is also a popular writing instructor, a former syndicated book reviewer, and a member of National Federation of Press Women, The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime.

AZ Creates! Wrapping up successful first season ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

Chandler artist is among the four guests scheduled in May for the final episodes of AZ Creates!, the YouTube web series television show highlighting artists and authors, produced and hosted by Chandler resident Laurie Fagen. “We are so proud to have produced 16

see AZ CREATES page 33

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

GET OUT 33

RAMEN from page 32

throughout Southeast Asia. “She grew very passionate about Asian culture and cuisine, and after returning to Arizona, she longed for an authentic bowl of ramen,” a spokeswoman said. According to Olson, “After eating at JINYA for the first time, I knew this was the style of ramen I had been searching for in the United States. When I returned home, I immediately began the process of bringing a JINYA Ramen Bar to the Valley.” Olson is so passionate about the concept she has plans to open four more locations in the Valley over the next four years. JINYA is known for meticulously prepared ramen broths that are slow simmered for 20 hours only in impurity-free Fuji water. The noodles are homemade. The concept has consistently drawn raves from the Los Angeles Times for its ramen, featured in 12 signature creations that include JINYA Tonkotsu black, spicy chicken ramen, and spicy creamy vegan ramen. The restaurant boasts six signature broths made from whole pork bones, chicken and vegetables “with just the right amounts of bonito, dashi, miso, kombu and other classic Japanese ingredients.” The result is a rich, thick full-flavored broth. The handmade noodles undergo a special aging process before they are cooked and served, a spokeswoman said. JINYA serves 12 signature chicken, pork, shrimp or vegetable-based ramen creations, which can be completely customizable from a selection of more than 25 add-ons such as chicken chasu, kikurage, spicy bean sprouts, green onion

AZ CREATES from page 32

In Episode 16, which premieres May 27, the Creative Connection artists are actors Harold and Maedell Dixon of Tucson. Husband and wife, both have performed off Broadway, where Harold also directed. They’ve worked in theatre, television and films, and both are longtime Actors Equity members. Also on that program is author Connie Cockrell of Payson, who has written 20 books, is in five anthologies and pub-

Customers dine in an elegantly designed 3,000-square-foot space in New Square in downtown Chandler. (Debby Wolvos) and thin noodles. The Sprouting Up Ramen features pork and chicken broth, pork chashu, kikurage, spicy bean sprouts, green onion, half seasoned egg, crispy Brussels sprouts, black pepper, ginger, and thick noodles. Shrimp wonton ramen is “a simple but tasty creation of pork and shrimp broth, shrimp and chicken wontons, green onion and kikurage with thick noodles,” the spokeswoman said. The menu also features a variety of starters, including salads and small plates. Salmon poke mini tacos are served in a crispy wonton shell, topped with cilantro. The JINYA Bun is a sweet and savory small bite of slow braised pork chashu, cucumber and baby mixed greens, nestled inside a steamed bun with JINYA’s original bun sauce and mayonnaise. A crispy chicken appetizer features

lished online. Following a 20-year Air Force career, she writes in many genres, and will be discussing her cozy mystery series. In the program’s regular arts events segments, called “Something to Look Forward To,” co-host and graphic designer Cathy Beard of Clemente Ranch will highlight in-person and virtual art happenings from around the state. The featured nonprofits for Episode 15 are the Arizona and Tucson Polymer Clay Guilds. On Episode 16, the Arizona Professional Women nonprofit will be highlighted.

juicy, garlic-pepper fried chicken thighs, served with baby mixed greens and JINYA’s house ponzu sauce. A Japanese street snack, Takoyaki is battered octopus balls, served atop egg tartar and drizzled with mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, green onion and smoked bonito flakes. For those who want to skip the ramen, JINYA offers several rice bowls, as well as rotating chef’s selections. The California Poke Bowl is loaded with salmon, spicy tuna, shrimp, seaweed salad, masago, avocado and cilantro. Tokyo Curry Rice showcases a Tokyo-style curry with ground chicken. The current quarterly chef’s specials, available through the end of May include Tonkotsu Curry Tsukemen (dipping noodles) and ground pork Lettuce Wraps. JINYA Ramen Bar offers a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan-friendly dishes. For example, the Brussels

The programs all close with a “Creative Quote of the Day.” AZ Creates! has been half-hour video web series to highlight artists, writers, dancers, musicians, film, theatre and TV creatives, and other artistic people in Arizona. Fagen, an artist and crime fiction novel writer, designed the program to connect art patrons with artists, and to work on a positive project during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fagen is resuming her work on “Bleeder,” book three in her mystery series. Her son Devon Hancock, an audio and video

Sprouts Tempura are crispy Brussels sprouts, sprinkled with white truffle oil. A Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen is a base of vegetable broth with tofu, onion, green onion, kikurage, crispy onion, garlic chips, garlic oil, chili oil, sesame seeds, and thick noodles. The Vegan Rice Bowl features plantbased “meat”, crispy chickpeas, kale, pickled red cabbage, crispy garlic, roasted pine nuts, and vegan curry ranch dressing. In the Vegan Bun, a plantbased steamed bun is stuffed with a pea protein patty, guacamole, cucumber and vegan mayonnaise. JINYA also showcases a full bar menu of local craft and Japanese beer, wine, and sake. Aside from Japanese sake, JINYA Chandler carries the only awarded sake made outside of Japanese, Arizona Sake, which is produced in Holbrook. For guests who really want to explore the world of fermented rice wine, Olson, as well as General Manager, Stephanie Daniels are certified sake sommeliers. JINYA’s cocktail menu includes drinks like Lycheetini with Jinro Soju, lychee syrup, and fresh lychee or the Suntory Toki High Ball, served from a special machine that results in a drink that is ice cold, super fizzy and smooth. A machine dispenses the whiskey and soda at ultracold temperatures to keep the ice from diluting the drink, and a high-powered carbonation tap pumps out five times the carbonation of regular soda water. The nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant seats 60 guests indoors, which includes ramen bar seating with direct views of the kitchen action, as well as a long community table for gatherings. The outdoor patio space seats 42. Information: 480-758-5198 or jinyaramenbar.com/locations/chandler. content creator, is editor of the program and composed original music for it as well. All episodes are available on the AZ Creates! YouTube channel on demand, along with other video content. Sponsors for the show are Sibley’s West, an Arizona and Chandler Gift Shop and Times Media. Subscribe to the AZ Creates channel on Youtube.com at youtube/c/AZCreatesShow, visit the Art Online AZ Facebook and Instagram pages or email AZCreates.ArtOnlineAZ@gmail.com for details.

GET OUT

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Mills Modern Social takes over old pool hall BY ANNIKA TOMLIN GetOut Staff Writer

our years ago, Jason Chance and his pro pool player friend, Scott Frost, opened a pool hall off Mill Avenue and Broadway Road and dubbed it Freezers. Just before the pandemic, Chance thought it was time for a change. So, he founded Mills Modern Social. “We were like, ‘Something isn’t working,’” said Chance, who lives in Des Moines. “It’s a nice place but just not nice enough to really draw people in and to really make money. So, we changed the whole concept.” They renamed it Mills Modern Social and brought Justin Jereb on board. He formerly ran Sandbar and then CB Live, both of which are in Desert Ridge Marketplace. He rolls his 20 years of experience into his general manager position at Mills Modern Social. “Before Mills Modern Social, it was Freezers and primarily a pool hall with 32 pool tables,” Jereb said. “We wanted to reinvent it and make it more of a cool place. The only thing that is from the

Mills Modern Social has replaced a shabby pool hall with a contemporary elegance in Tempe. (Special to GetOut) original venue is the (pool) tables.” When COVID-19 hit the Valley last year, Chance and his co-owner/brother, Greg, remodeled and rebranded it. “(At Freezers), when you walk in, there would be a pool table 8 feet from the entrance,” Chance said. “I’m not trying to intimidate people.

“People were like, ‘Do I really want to be here? If I’m not playing pool, I feel like I am bothering the people playing pool.’ Now you can walk in and go to the bar, you can sit (at a range of locations) …The pool tables before owned the whole place, now they don’t and that’s on purpose.” Construction on the 60,000-square-

feet space began in August to turn the strictly pool hall into a multigame venue with a new menu, an arcade and darts, and an updated outdoor layout. “It wasn’t like a crazy demo, but it was a lot,” Jereb said. “The people who were here before will walk in and (give a look) like it is a whole different world.” Jereb calls the revamped menu “more of an elevated gastropub with burgers, sandwiches, flatbreads,” in lieu of pool hall snack food. Jereb is adding more entrees, including salmon, ahi and chicken. Unlike its predecessor, Mills Modern Social even has a full wine list. “Right now, the menu that they had before is completely erased,” Jereb said. “We didn’t keep anything from the original. “The grilled pesto chicken sandwich ($12) — it’s phenomenal. The executive chef (Rey-jen Stanya) and I wanted to do a Cuban ($12) because we know that a lot of places don’t have Cubans.” Those two dishes are the fastest-selling entrees. The wings even have a new spin. “Our wings are kind of different, too,

see MILLS page 35

Mogollon brings ‘universal language’ to the stage BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GetOut Editor

uane Moore said he feels he hasn’t worked a day in his life. Moore loves everything about the music business — and has since he co-founded Mogollon in 1979. “I love it so much,” Moore said. “I enjoy the people and the music. I love music. I really haven’t done anything else. There’s work involved just like anything else.” Named after Moore’s residence at the Mogollon Rim, the band is a high-energy four piece that plays rock and, specifically, old country. “I don’t like the stuff that’s out,” Moore said. “We play from Waylon to Willie to Hank Williams to Johnny Cash to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Pink Floyd. We play all the good classic rock.

Mogollon is, from left, Bryan Kuban, Jon Kinsey, Duane Moore and Guy Koplitz. (Courtesy of Mogollon)

“I play fiddle on stage, too. That works out well for a lot of cool Alabama songs.” Music is “huge” for Moore, who is joined in the band by guitarist Guy Koplitz of Chandler; bassist/producer Bryan Kuban of Scottsdale; and drummer Jon Kinsey of Mesa. If Moore feels depressed, everything lifts when he picks up his guitar, strums a few chords and writes a song. “It comes full circle,” he said. “It’s the universal language.” That language is shared at gigs like those in Anthem on May 14, Murphy Park in Glendale on May 21, and We-KoPa Casino on June 18 and July 16. “Sharing is an amazing thing,” Moore said. “I don’t use an iPad for the lyrics. If I need to look at the lyrics when I’m on stage, I don’t want to sing it. I don’t believe I’m getting the points across.

see MOGOLLON page 35

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

MILLS from page 34

because we don’t fry them,” he said. “We bake them and then we grill them, and they come right off the bone.” Following his queue at Sandbar, Jereb will launch Taco Tuesdays. The brunch menu will resemble his at CB Live. “We just wanted to get the ball rolling (first),” Jereb said. Mills Modern Social opened on February 17, without a grand opening due to COVID-19 restrictions.

MOGOLLON from page 34

“The mechanics should be secondary so I can feel what I’m singing. I think people feel that more than they understand that. We’re in the business of selling emotions. It’s a very emotionally driven industry and that’s what we do. It’s cool when people come up and say, ‘I just had the time of my life’ or ‘My wife and I have been married x number of years. We met at your concert.” When the audience is involved, Moore said, it creates an energy, the synergy that’s “pretty powerful.” “It’s not performer-audience,” he said. “The audience is part of us. It’s cool when you reach at pinnacle. It’s just crazy cool, getting out into the audience with my fiddle and running around. We just like to have fun with them. They love it.” Music has helped Moore through tough times. His brother and sister passed away at 31 and 43, respectively, of complications of neurofibromatosis, a rare, inherited disorder that results in benign tumors of the nerves and other parts of the body.

If you go to Mogollon

“I’m not having a G.O. that way,” Jereb said. He’s hoping to still have his “G.O.” when the COVID-19 restrictions lift. Meanwhile, they’re trying to find their flow, he said. “We’re trying to just have a cool place and dope vibe in Tempe,” he said. “We want to actually have a nice place to come and sit and not feel like you’re on Mill. It’s very comfortable. We want people to come in and stay for a couple hours.” Information: millsmodernsocial.com

“I hope to retire from music one day and move back to my roots,” he said. “My best friends—my brother and sister— are interred there. “They died pretty young, but everybody has a sad story. I’m a mountain boy. I moved down here because it was a good, central location.” The COVID-19 pandemic has been productive for Moore. He took the time to reinvent himself and retool his approach to the music side of music. “I’m doing extremely well by myself,” he said. “I’ve never played so many single gigs. Not everybody was out of work. Our industry was beat up. Restaurants, musicians and bands were beat up bad. “Anytime I get on stage, I thank my audience profusely. Over the years, I’ve been playing a lot of great places all over the world. I’ve taken my music to exotic places. All those years prior to COVID, I took music for granted. You don’t know what you have until it’s taken away from you. Now I drink every moment like water. I absorb it. I tell the audience that story and I thank each and every one of them.”

WHEN: 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 21 WHERE: Murphy Park, Downtown Glendale COST: Free admission INFO: visitglendale.com/events WHEN: 9 p.m. Friday, June 18, and Friday, July 16 WHERE: We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort’s WKP Sports and Entertainment, 10438 WeKoPa Way, Fort McDowell COST: Free admission INFO: wekopacasinoresort.com or mogollonband.com

Employment

Obituaries Roberta Work 91, of Scottsdale, Arizona passed away on April 21, 2021. Survived by husband Fred, daughter and son in law Deborah and Hank Luedy, step daughter and son in law Sandra and Charles Brunk, step children Rick Work and Jeanette Rogers, 24 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. A native Arizonian, Bert was born in Phoenix and lived in Scottsdale most of her life. She worked for the Scottsdale School District for over 32 years. Roberta enjoyed a second home in Prescott, Arizona, spending time with family and golf. She will be remembered as a loving wife, a beloved mother and treasured grandmother. The funeral will be held at The Franciscan Renewal Center at The Casa (5802 E. Lincoln Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253) on May 21, 2021 starting at 10:30am. Donations can be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (alzfdn.org). Sign the Guestbook at: obituaries.EastValleyTribune.com

H E A D STO N E S

Employment General HVAC Technician Experienced, licensed HVAC technician. Immediate start. Must have own tools and an insurable drivers license. Competitive wages. Email resumes to aandacooling @msn.com

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CLASS@TIMESPUBLICATIONS.COM

Groundskeeper (2 positions) - Job ID 314932 CHANDLER-GILBERT COMMUNITY COLLEGE Full time $14.42 - $19.05/per hour, DOE To review entire posting and apply, go to https://jobs.maricopa.edu and search with 314932 Automation Engineer, Vending Machine Services sought by Carvana, LLC in Tempe, AZ. Working on our one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art, car vending machines. Telecommuting is permitted for this role. Requires travel to various unanticipated client locations for up to 20% of the time. Apply @ www.jobpostingtoday.com #79153. Deployed Services is hiring Security Guards in Tucson, AZ! This is a great opportunity to join a fantastic culture and growing organization! We’re offering a $200 signing bonus and will pay for your AZ security license and uniform. Our Security Guards are paid $18.59 an hour and are eligible for annual leave, paid sick leave, 401K, and training. Visit DeployedServices.com/Careers to learn more and apply!

IMMEDIATE OPENINGS MAAX Spas is hiring Full Time

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

The Chandler Arizonan

1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway #219 • Tempe, AZ 85282 480.898.6465 class@timespublications.com

Deadlines

Classifieds: Thursday 11am for Sunday Life Events: Thursday 10am for Sunday

The Place “To Find” Everything You Need | ChandlerNews.com Employment General Renesas Electronics America, in Tempe, AZ is in need of: Anlg Engr (job#VJ0409) Perf des, sim, & lyt of indus-leadng hi-perf timng prdcts. Refer to job#. Apply: us-hr-staffing@dm.renesas.com Self Development Academy is seeking an Elementary Teacher, Minimum Requirements: Bachelor's Degree in Education + 5 Year experience and Arizona State Certification. Please mail Resumes to HR, 1709 N Greenfield Rd. Mesa, AZ 85205. Senior Cloud Application Developer, Business Applications, Carvana, LLC in Tempe, AZ. Serve as a cloud subject matter expert on both functional and technical analysis of Oracle Cloud platform (SaaS/PaaS). Telecommuting permitted. Apply @ www.jobpostingtoday.com #23438.

Announcements Lessons/ Tutoring Enhance your Education! I tutor 1st-8th grade. Subjects are English, Reading, Writing, and Art. My expertise • Professionalism, Patience, Creativity My qualifications; • GCU Graduate, 7 years of teaching experience I can do zoom, my home or meet at local library 602-334-9270/ karlachester@yahoo.com

Employment General

EARN EXTRA INCOME!

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Earn up to $400 per week. All routes are 7 days a week.

Work just 2-3 hours a day between 12:00AM – 6:00AM. Routes available now in your area (East Valley, West Valley, North Phoenix). Current Arizona driver's license, insurance and access to a vehicle are required. Visit deliveryopportunities.gannett.com or call 602-444-4243. Job Type: Contract Pay: Up to $400.00 per week. ***MUST INCLUDE HOME ZIP CODE AND PHONE NUMBER WHEN APPLYING.***

Merch

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37 CLASSIFIEDS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Carpet Cleaning

Garage/Doors

Electrical Services

CARPET & UPHOLSTERY STEAM CLEANING

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Not a licensed contractor

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GLASS, MIRRORS, SHOWER DOORS

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ACTION CONTRACTING INC. SPECIALIZING IN

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Home Improvement

Landscape/ Maintenance

HOME REMODELING REPAIRS & CUSTOM INTERIOR PAINTING Move a wall; turn a door into a window. From small jobs and repairs to room additions, I do it all. Precision interior painting, carpentry, drywall, tile, windows, doors, skylights, electrical, fans, plumbing and more. All trades done by hands-on General Contractor. Friendly, artistic, intelligent, honest and affordable. 40 years' experience. Call Ron Wolfgang Pleas text or leave message Cell 602-628-9653 Wolfgang Construction Inc. Licensed & Bonded ROC 124934

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Not a licensed contractor

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the Spot for ALL•Your Handyman Needs! ✔ Painting Painting Flooring • Electrical If It’s Broken, We Can Marks Fix It! “No Job Too • Same Day Service • On-Site Repairs • Servicing All Major Brands • Quality Guaranteed

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Small Man!” Decks • Tile • More! ✔ Kitchens rk Since 1999 Wo y alit Qu e, abl ord Aff ✔ Bathrooms BSMALLMAN@Q.COM 2010, 2011 9 199 ce rk Sin 2012, “No 2013, Job Too Affordable, Quality Wo And More! 2010, 2011 Small Man!” 2014 Call Bruce at 602.670.7038 Licensed & Insured 2012, 2013, 2014 Ahwatukee Resident/ References/ Insured/ Not a Licensed Contractor 1999 Since Ahwatukee Resident / References Affordable, Quality Work 2010, 2011 2012, 2013, Ahwatukee Resident/ References/ Insured/ Not a Licensed Contractor Insured / Not aCall Licensed Contractor 2014 Bruce at 602.670.7038

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• Old Paint & Chems. • Yard Waste • Concrete Slab • Remodeling Debris • Old Tires

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Concrete & Masonry

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YOU’LL LIKE US - THE BEST!

LLC

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GENERAL CONTRACTOR / HANDYMAN SERVICES

Home Improvement

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520.508.1420

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Owner Does All Work, All Honey-Do Lists

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Landscape/Maintenance

General Contracting, Inc.

All Remodeling, Additions, Kitchen, Bath, Patio Covers, Garage, Sheds, Windows, Doors, Drywall & Roofing Repairs, Painting, All Plumbing, Electrical, Concrete, Block, Stucco, Stack Stone, All Flooring, Wood, Tile, Carpet, Welding, Gates, Fences, All Repairs.

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CLASSIFIEDS

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Landscape/Maintenance

Window Cleaning

Rooﬁng

Plumbing

Insured/Bonded Free Estimates

ALL Pro

T R E E

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THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

Notice of Public Scoping for an Environmental Assessment for Hunt Highway Improvement Project – Phase 5 The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pima Agency and the Gila River Indian Community (Community) are releasing this notice in support of an environmental assessment for the proposed Hunt Highway Improvement Project – Phase 5 (project) in District One of the Community. The project would include roadway improvements along portions of Hunt Highway and Arizona Farms Road. The project proponent, Pinal County Public Works Department, has submitted a right-of-way (ROW) application to the BIA for roadway improvements on Hunt Highway and Arizona Farms Road, which would constitute the final phase of the Hunt Highway Improvement Project. Primary project components would include acquiring approximately 19 acres of new permanent roadway ROW, realigning the western terminus of the existing Arizona Farms Road, widening approximately 4,200 feet of existing Hunt Highway to match the newly reconstructed roadway dimensions both north and south of the project area, and installing a new light-controlled intersection at Hunt Highway and the realigned Arizona Farms Road. Project construction is anticipated to begin in January 2022 to January 2023 and will be completed in approximately 8 months. No traffic detours would be required. Traffic delays would be short-term and temporary. The grant of easement for ROW, if approved by BIA, would formalize the alignments for both Hunt Highway and Arizona Farms Road within the Community. The purpose of the project is for Pinal County to complete the final phase of their planned improvements along the Hunt Highway corridor, through the widening of the existing Hunt Highway alignment and the realignment of Arizona Farms Road. Hunt Highway both north and south of the project area have been improved and widened to four lanes; however, the older roadway within the project area is only two lanes. The lane reduction in the project area presents a potential safety concern for existing vehicle traffic on Hunt Highway. The project would widen Hunt Highway through the project area to match the new roadway and lane configurations to both the north and south. Additionally, the Hunt Highway and Arizona Farms Road intersection currently presents line-of-sight safety concerns for drivers on Arizona Farms Road. The project would realign this traffic intersection and replace the stop-controlled intersection with a traffic light to improve traffic flow and safety. As part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal agencies are required to consider the potential social and environmental impacts of proposed actions. This letter serves as the BIA’s invitation for comments, concerns, or suggestions regarding the proposed action. All comments received become part of the public record associated with this proposed action. Accordingly, your comments (including your name and address) will be available for review by any person that wishes to view the record. At your request, we will withhold your contact information to the extent allowed by the Freedom of Information Act. Please submit comments to: Cecilia Baker, Superintendent Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pima Agency P.O. Box 8 Sacaton, Arizona 85147 Telephone: (520) 562-3326 Email: Cecilia.Baker@bia.gov Published: East Valley Tribune May 9, 16, 23, 30, 2021 / 37928

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Public Notices

Public Notices Application to U.S. EPA for the Salt River PimaMaricopa Indian Community to Administer Federal Clean Water Act Programs

TO: Xavier Martinez, M.D. 2323 E. Flower #124-B Phoenix, AZ 85016 The State Medical Board of Ohio 30 E. Broad Street, 3rd Floor Columbus, OH 43215-6127 In the Matter of: Xavier Martinez, M.D. Case No. 21-CRF-0045 On March 11, 2021, the State Medical Board of Ohio mailed a Notice of Opportunity for Hearing to Xavier Martinez, M.D. via certified mail, return receipt requested, at his last known address of record, 2323 E. Flower #124-B, Phoenix, AZ 85016. The Notice was returned to the Board from the postal service marked “return to sender, not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward.” The notice states that the State Medical Board of Ohio intends to consider disciplinary action against Dr. Martinez’s license to practice medicine and surgery in Ohio based on the Arizona Medical Board’s order which revoked his license in that state. The Arizona order was based upon his plea agreement to an amended charge of Attempted Sexual Abuse. In addition, the State Medical Board of Ohio found that Dr. Martinez was impaired and diverted medicines for patient use. Dr. Martinez is entitled to a hearing in this matter if such hearing is requested within thirty (30) days of the last date of publication of this notice. Dr. Martinez may appear at such hearing in person, by his attorney, or by such other representative permitted to practice before this agency, or he may present his position, arguments or contentions in writing. At the hearing, Dr. Martinez may present evidence and examine witnesses appearing for or against him. Please contact the undersigned to ascertain the last date of publication. Any questions or correspondence should be addressed to: Jackie Moore Case Control Office 30 E. Broad Street, 3rd Floor Columbus, OH 43215-6127 Jackie.Moore@med.ohio.gov Published: East Valley Tribune, May 16, 23, 30, 2021 / 38484

EPA is inviting comments from “all appropriate governmental entities” (AGE) on Salt River PimaMaricopa Indian Community’s (the Tribe’s) application for “treatment in a similar manner as a State” under Section 518 of the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) to administer Water Quality Standards and Certification Programs on their Reservation (located in Maricopa County, Arizona). “AGE” are states, tribes and federal agencies located contiguous to the Reservation. EPA Region IX is requesting AGEs, other tribes, cities, counties and individuals with information or comments relevant to the Tribe’s assertion of authority to regulate surface water quality within the Reservation to provide it directly to EPA Region IX’s program contact, Kelli Williams, via email at williams.kelli.m@epa.gov. Commenters without access to email may call Kelli Williams at 415-9723434 to make other arrangements. Approval of the Tribe’s application would not establish a program or set water quality standards, but would authorize the Tribe to adopt, review, and revise standards for subsequent EPA approval under CWA Section 303(c), and to certify that discharges comply with those standards under CWA Section 401 for all surface waters within the Reservation. Comments must be received within 30 days of this notice. Published: East Valley Tribune, May 16, 2021 / 37763

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Word Cross: The DIY Project Manager Across: 1. Devices usually held in the hand to perform a DIY task 3. Brush a coat of this on your house 6. Keeps sheets of paper together and acts as a strong writing surface 8. Some people are afraid of walking under one of these. 9. A straight edged item for measuring

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Down: 2. A tool with a flat, slotted or star tip at the head 3. You’re like _____ in my hands. 4. Small metal spikes used to connect things, or from which to hang things 5. Used for hitting things, usually 4. Down 7. Electric or cordless, makes holes or removes things out of the hole

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ANSWERS - Across: 1. Tools, 3. Paint, 6. Clipboard, 8. Ladder, 9. Ruler Down: 2. Screwdriver, 3. Putty, 4. Nails, 5. Hammer, 7. Drill

Public Notices

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | MAY 16, 2021

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© Copyright 2021 Blandford Homes, LLC. No offer to sell or lease may be made prior to issuance of Final Arizona Subdivision Public Report. Offer, terms, and availability subject to change without prior notice. Renderings are artist’s conceptions and remain subject to modification without notice.

The Chandler Arizonian - 5.16.2021

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