Furor over project
Mesa cops probed
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Sunday, September 5. 2021
9/11: ‘I knew I would know people there’
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BY TOM SCANLON Tribune Managing Editor
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BUSINESS .................. 22 2 Mesa restaurants bring new flavors, cuisine.
tudents in Jim McNamara’s Fire Science classes at the East Valley Institute of Technology main campus in Mesa learn, according to the program website, “basic �ire science fundamentals and technical rescue.” McNamara was part of one of the largest, most complex, technical rescue efforts in American history: the 9/11 attacks response. On Sept. 11, 2001, McNamara was at his Long Island home, getting ready for a doctor’s appointment.
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Fire Science students at EVIT learn from someone who worked on one of America’s greatest disasters: Jim McNamara, part of the technical response team at the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001. Now living here, McNamara will be part of Mesa’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. (Pablo Robles/Staff photographer)
Mesa cracking down on massage parlors – again BY TOM SCANLON Tribune Managing Editor
SPORTS ......................28 Red Mountain assistant coach ready for battle. COMMUNITY ............................... 20 BUSINESS ..................................... 22 OPINION .. ..................................... 25 SPORTS ........................................ 28 PUZZLES ...................................... 33 CLASSIFIED ................................. 33 Zone
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Signs like this are common in strip malls in Mesa. In 2011, a Gilbert Town Council member called Mesa a “petri dish” for illicit massage parlor activities. (Tribune file photo)
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en years ago, according to a Tribune story, the Mesa Police Department and City Council worked together in “drafting a new ordinance that would boost regulation on massage businesses to discourage establishments from operating as fronts for prostitution and other illicit activity.” “There’s no doubt that in Mesa, we have something that’s out of balance,” then-Mayor Scott Smith said in fall 2011. Last week, City Council and the police revisited the issue, �irst at a study session, then in the discussion of “a new Chapter 12 entitled
Massage and Bodywork Establishment Operations governing the licensing of massage establishments and bodywork establishments.” The new ordinance “is scheduled for a vote at the next meeting Sept. 13,” said city spokesman Kevin Christopher. If approved, it would take effect 30 days later. Assistant Police Chief Lee Rankin stressed the new wording was needed to keep up with similar ordinances in neighboring cities. His presentation in a study session listed the number of “illicit massage businesses” in nearby cities, with Phoenix having 44, Chandler 21, Tempe 12, Gilbert 13 and Scottsdale, 27.
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