December 5, 2021 | www.santansun.com
Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Data center ‘torture’ for Chandler neighborhood BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Chandler resident Karthic Thallikar says he chooses his words very carefully, so he pleaded with a reporter not to water down his remarks. Living next to the CyrusOne data center in south Chandler is torture, he said. He and Jennifer Goehring are two residents of the Clemente Ranch subdivision that is across Dobson Road from the data center. Goehring agreed with her neighbor on the use of the word ‘torture’ to describe the constant noise coming from the data center. There are two sources for the noise. The data center has a large number of generators to act as backups in case of an outage and they need to checked
and maintained. But the noise they hear most often comes from the chilling units that keep the computer servers from overheating. “It’s really bad when they run the generators, for maintenance or whatever,” Goehring said. “It sounds like a dump truck.” “What is more disturbing has been, from 2015 Karthic Thallikar stands in Chuparosa Parkin Chandler in front of onwards, is this the Cyrus One data center that neighbors describe as creating an constant chill and unbearable amount of noise. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) hum, because they
run 24/7,” said Karthic Thallikar, another resident of Clemente Ranch. They are concerned about the noise levels because another data center is about to open in the same area. CyrusOne officials say they are, and have always been, in full compliance with the city’s ordinances. Still, they said they want to be a good neighbor so they added vinyl blankets to all chillers in 2017 as a way to dampen the noise. In tests before and after, they found the blankets reduced the noise be about 10 decibels. “CyrusOne has never been in violation of any noise ordinances and has, in an effort to be a good neighbor, provided extensive solutions to help alleviate disruption, and, of note, is the See
NOISE on page 10
Death penalty sought in Chandler passport office Chandler officer’s slaying a popular destination BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
The Maricopa County Attorney’s office plans to pursue the death penalty against the man accused of killing a Chandler police officer. Jonathon Altland of Tolleson faces 32 charges for the events that took place on April 29 that resulted in the death of 50-year-old Chandler Police Officer Christopher Farrar and severe injuries for Gilbert Police Officer Rico Aranda, who remains on restricted duty. County officials are citing prior convictions as one of the aggravating factors for seeking the death penalty – including vehicle theft and fleeing police. Another aggravating factor is the victim was a peace officer and the suspect either knew, or should have known, he was one performing his official duties. Prosecutors say the 25-year-old Altland led police on a chase that started in Eloy and ended at a Gilbert car dealership the night of April 29. In addition to the charge of first-degree murder, he faces 20 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful flight from law enforcement, endangerment, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree burglary and four counts of disorderly conduct. According to court records, Pinal County sheriff ’s deputies attempted to stop Altland for speeding near Eloy in the spring. They soon learned the yellow truck he was driving had been reported stolen. Altland was headed north on State Route 87 toward Chandler. He began
A Los Angeles couple recently traveled to Chandler, spending the night at a local hotel and enjoying some of the city’s better restaurants. Nothing unusual about that, tourism is a major industry in Arizona. However, the reason they came is a bit unique. They wanted to visit the Chandler City Clerk’s office to get a passport. “We’ve had people come in as far as Oregon,” said Erica Barba, the program administrator for Chandler’s passport program. She said they’re starting to see a lot more people from California making the trek. In fact, Barba said about 70 percent of the people applying for a passport in that office live outside Chandler. There’s one reason why the city is a destination: They are one of the few sites that can accept an application and that have available appointments. “When all the facilities opened again after the pandemic, everyone had a hard time getting an appointment,” Barba said. “We got down a really good system, so we had open appointments
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Jonathon Altland
and they would come here.” Why does Chandler have open appointments when almost no other office does? “A lot has to do with the Council allowing us to add a couple of employees to be able to do this,” said City Clerk Dana DeLong. “We only ever had two passport agents assigned as a permanent employees, but allowing us to have two more is giving us the opportunity to take on more appointments.” The city started accepting passport applications in 1994 and currently processes about 60 to 70 applications a day. DeLong said they’ve handled more than 200,000 applications since they started 27 years ago. The city manager approved hiring two more employees to process passport applications in July because of a huge backlog caused by the pandemic. They were hired through existing funds for temporary workers in the City Clerk’s office. However, that money ran out, so the City Council Nov. 4 approved paying those two employees through the end of the fiscal year next June 30.
F E AT U R E STO R I E S Ocotillo artists display their work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .COMMUNITY . . . . . .Page 3 Chandler's OD Harris helping teens. . . . . . . . . . . . . .COMMUNITY . . . . . Page 18 Chandler sisters star in 'Nutcracker'. . . . . . . . . . . . . .NEIGHBORS. . . . . . Page 36 Chandler's all-star holiday line-up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ARTS. . . . . . . . . . . Page 40
Christopher Farrar
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PASSPORTS on page 14 More Community . . . 1-26 Business . . . . . . 27-31 Sports . . . . . . . 32-34 Opinion . . . . . . . . 35 Neighbors . . . 36-39 Arts . . . . . . . . . 40-42 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Directory . . . . 44-45 Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
