QUEEN CREEK TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 9, 2022

Apartment clash prompts developer to pull rezone bid

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

the 1940s.

Developer

Jason Barney had visions of creating a welcoming new residential area right across the street from the new and expanded Founder’s Park in Queen Creek, featuring a cluster of new townhomes.

“The housing would have been facing the park – kind of a ‘neighborhood-y’ vibe to it,” said Barney, part of the same family that has been farming and developing land here since

School district shares spotlight as mail ballots arrive

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

ueen Creek Unified School District shares part of the spotlight as early bal lots for the Nov. 8 General Election hit local early voters’ mailboxes later this week.

Two separate issues involving the district appear on the lengthy ballot, where the elec tion marquee includes a contest for the next governor of Arizona, all statewide offices, a U.S. Senate seat, local representatives to the Legislature and Congress and 10 propositions.

In the school district, three candidates are

for two seats

He also planned an apartment building and an assisted living facility that town offi cials said would add 662 new units to an area where it already had okayed 495 units.

But just a few hours after an early morning meeting of the Town Economic Development Commission last week, Barney withdrew his application to rezone roughly 36 acres at the corner of Ryan and Signal Butte roads from In dustrial to Neighborhood.

“I got a good enough read on the mindset

Ace in the hole

of the town on the politics of the town and they’re not ready to support that at this point.” Barney said.

“There’s plenty of concern in a lot of com munities about getting too much multi fami ly,” he said, citing a memo that the proposed project developer received from Sarah Clark, senior planner and project manager for the Town of Queen Creek.

“Staff is not supportive of the proposed den

the five-member

Todd Kisicki of Mesa, left, and Nic Feinstein of Queen Creek have opened a new attractionfor lovers of the hugely popular outdoor game cornhole by opening Hole 9 Yards, apparently the nation’s first indoor venue for the game. It took a long time coming for Kisicki, who with his wife has had a business for several years supplying cornhole equipment to organizers of festivals and other outdoor gatherings. Read the story on page 18.

Arizona College Paths to

sity of the proposed HDR (high density residential) and MDR (medium density residential) zoning requests,” Clark wrote in a memo to the project planning consul tant, Greg Davis of Iplan Consulting.

“The addition of the proposed 662 units plus the existing approved 495 apartment units to the north would make the densest residential area in the entire Town and in crease the density of this area beyond the vision of the Neighborhood Land Use Cat egory and beyond what can be supported by staff,” Clarke wrote.

Among the specifics that the Town wants Barney to address before making another run at multifamily housing on the site include:

• “The visual impact of large monolithic apartment structures should be min imized by creating a cluster of small buildings.”

• “The design of the townhome prod uct should be revised to better delin eate the units from one another.”

• “The use of landscaping as a design element is encouraged to reduce building mass. It appears additional landscaping is needed.”

Queen Creek developer Jason Barney pulled a rezoning request after town officials said they’re no longer in favor of apartment projects. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

• Staff recommends replacing the pro posed pastel paint colors to a more earth tone color.

• The bulk and massive appearance of large structures through the use of sloping varied rooflines, consisting of varying roof heights using variations

in the height, directions, and shapes of the roofline to visually break up a large structure.

• Varied building heights should be in corporated at the street.

• Additional elements are needed on the typical side elevation of the apart

ments to break up the expansive wall space.

• Outdoor stairwells should be better screened from view.

• Windows shall employ design details as appropriate to the architecture style. ... Staff recommends incorpo rating window theming across the elevations.

The memo went on to make various rec ommendations about landscaping and pe destrian accessibility, among other things, that could potentially improve the chanc es for the land to be rezoned and for Bar ney’s plan to go ahead in the future, which does not seem likely at this point, accord ing to Barney.

“The town is hearing too much con cern from the residents in the town who don’t feel comfortable moving forward with any new multi-family in this loca tion,” Barney said. “So, from our stand point, if we’re not going to get the sup port to do it, we just need to back off and go do industrial.

“There is always the option that if the town at some future date says they would like to see more multifamily here,

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BARNEYfrompage3

and this is still available we can circle back and reconsider that,” he added.

“But as of rightnow, wearegoing togo dolightindustrial.”

Revisiting multifamily housing on that land could be a possibility, but is not a highlylikelyone.

With Queen Creek‘s superheated growthandboomingjobseconomy,devel opers are looking for prime locations to startcommercialoperations.

For example, Queen Creek recently re zoned1,600acresofStateTrustLandnear bytoCommercial,andthereisanLGbattery plantfactoryonthedrawingboard,too.

More reason, Barney says, as to why he thinks it makes sense to increase the amount of multifamily housing on his nearbyparcelofland.

“The Town ultimately is going to need apartments to support the massive amountofemployment,”hesaid.

The Town has not said it will never support multifamily housing on the lo cation, but the memo from Clark makes clear that the time for that is not right now – at least not without major modifi cations to the proposal.

Brett Burningham, Queen Creek De velopment Services director, said in a statement that the Town is open to fur ther discussions in the future, but makes clear that the land will not be rezoned to Neighborhood.

“We understand the applicant withdrew their request for an amendment at this time, and look forward to working with them as they develop under the current land use category or pursue an amendment in the future,” Burningham said.

Barney has resigned himself to light in dustrial on that location, but still thinks that multifamily housing is the best thing for that area.

He said that there was no neighbor hood opposition to multifamily housing

at this location and that townhomes di rectly across from the upgraded Found er’s Park with its lakes, multi-genera tional center and ball fields would be preferable to the alternative.

“It’s probably more ideal to have peo ple living across the street from the park than having warehouses across the street from the park and the 18-wheeler truck traffic that’s going to come down there,” he said.

Barney says the resistance to apart ments now is reminiscent of the time in Queen Creek’s history when the town started to grow into a popular and vibrant suburb instead of outlying, rural ranch land and farms.

“People are passionate about their com munity,” Barney said. “The concern over multifamily they have is the same that they had when we started building hous es when everyone started coming here, when everyone wanted Queen Creek to be an acre and a horse.” 

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Despite reforms, county pounds still under fire

BY CECILIA CHAN Tribune Staff Writer

Bryan said there’s a night-and-day dif ference now that the behavioral team no longer exists.

Maricopa

County Animal Care and Control is facing a critical over load of dogs and is taking steps to alleviate the overcrowding.

But a petition circulating online con tends the county is not doing enough to protect the canines who are there.

The shelters in Phoenix and Mesa were housing a combined 855 animals in 755 kennels, which meant some dogs were sharing space in one kennel. MCACC also has added 50 temporary kennel spaces outside the West shelter facility in Phoe nix with evaporative coolers to make dogs as comfortable as possible.

“The two shelters have been at critical capacity for months,” said Kim Powell, shelter spokeswoman.

To address this, the county is waiving adoption fees on most animals, holding free adoption events through the rest of the year and increasing efforts to reunite owners with lost pets.

MCACC also has an Assistance Program, which helps owners with financial difficul ties keep their pets with subsidized shel ter fees, spay/neuter surgery, licensing, and rabies vaccinations. Since July 1, the program has helped return 149 animals to their owners and sterilized 102 animals.

“We cannot address this from within the shelter system alone,” said shelter Direc tor Michael Mendel. “We need support di rectly from the community where animal homelessness begins, which is why we do everything we can to partner with the community.”

But retired school teacher and animal advocate Lorena Bader is circulating a pe

tition on change.org demanding the coun ty change its practices at the two shelters.

Bader complains that MCACC fails to provide proper medical and behavior care to animals, harbors a hostile work envi ronment that has resulted in low morale and a high-turnover of staff.

Bader criticizes the county for ending the animal behavior team, pointing to a deadly consequence in June because of that action.

A veterinarian employed at the shelter for nine years was mauled by a dog “ex hibiting signs of extreme kennel deterio ration,” according to Bader.

“As a result of the attack, both the vet who was attacked and another vet re signed immediately,” Bader said. “One of the vets had previously emailed HR about her safety concerns following the dissolu

tion of the behavior team.”

The dog, Kronk, was taken to an office because “he was hyper-salivating, chasing his tail, and self-harming in his kennel,” ac cording to Bader.

Shelters are advised to use alternatives to traditional care housing such as a fos ter care, or office foster care for animals staying long term, according to the Associ ation of Shelter Veterinarians,

“Since this incident, we have adjusted our practices to ensure staff safety,” Pow ell said. “We are always trying to balance our desire to find good outcomes for all dogs with our public safety responsibility.”

Jennifer Bryan, founder and president of Alone No more Dog rescue, is another critic of the county shelter. The nonprofit, formed in 2020, pulls the dogs with be havioral issues off the county’s e-list.

“I’ve overloaded my entire rescue be cause they are not doing their job,” she said. “So right now, the dogs aren’t being worked with and they are being scheduled to be euthanized when it’s unnecessary.

“These dogs are scheduled to be eutha nized because there is no behavioral team any more. None of these dogs have the chance to be pulled out alive.”

According to Bryan, the owner-surren dered dogs on the kill list are actually the easiest to work with.

“If you put a dog in a shelter, it would be cowering in the corner scared of ran dom people because it’s lived with you their whole life,” she said. “Those types of dogs are not adjusting to their environ ment. Those are the ones scheduled to be euthanized.”

According to county data, owners sur rendered 589 dogs in 2021.

Fewer euthanizations

Bryan further claimed that no one is left in the shelter who knows how to assess the behavior of a dog.

“People are coming in and applying for jobs whether they have experience or not,” Bryan said. “And there’s no one up at the top that is qualified to train these people.”

She pointed to the dogs her nonprofit rescued from euthanasia.

“I have people who are new that are able to take them out,” she said. “Why is that? Why can’t their staff not work with them? Yet, we give them a little time and they are perfect.”

When asked for the numbers for dogs euthanized for behavioral issues when the behavioral team was in place com pared with after when the group was dis banded, Powell responded, “Our save rate has been over 95% for the entire time.”

According to the most recent data, the shelter’s August save rate was 95.76%. Of the 1,628 pets that entered the shel ter, 954 were adopted, 279 transferred to partner organizations and 171 returned to owners that month.

For August, the 2022 year-to-date save rate was 95.96%, the county said.

Overall, the number of dogs euthanized in the county shelter is a marked improve ment from 2016, when 4,211 dogs were euthanized. In 2021, 537 were euthanized.

“That in itself is a good number but it doesn’t tell the story behind the scene,” Bader said. “They use that number to ba sically cover for everything else – you’re warehousing dogs that go crazy because they are stuck in cages days on end.”

And, Bryan claimed the county’s high save rate is due to the efforts of her non profit and about 10 other rescues.

“My rescue and other rescues if you look at our numbers have exponentially in creased because there are so many more dogs scheduled to be euthanized,” Bryan said. “And we are doing our best to save them all.”

According to the county, the shelter in 2021 transferred 2,624 animals to part ner organizations, 3,634 in 2020 and 5,494 in 2019.

Year over year the county shelter’s save rate has been the same but “moving for ward their save rate is going to be dras tically different” because the nonprofit rescues are all full, Bryan predicted.

John Doherty, who’s been fighting for reforms at the shelter since Rodrigo Silva was the director, agreed that the nonprof its are doing all the heavy lifting.

“If not for the rescue units, those dogs would be put down constantly,” said Doherty, who started the Vets for Pets pro gram.

Doherty, who said he is persona non grata at the county shelter but still has contacts there, insisted that botched sur geries are still going on.

He claimed that a dog recently bled out in a kennel after the sutures came undone. Bader also in her petition provided exam ples of dogs that died after their surgical

procedures, including one who “internally bled out after surgery.”

“These claims are false,” Powell said. “Animals are receiving proper medical care from trained vets.”

County insists staffing is OK

The county also responded to criticism that the shelter is woefully understaffed and therefore unable to provide for all the care the animals need.

Powell said three veterinarians and nine veterinarian technicians are currently on staff. The county has job postings for a chief

veterinarian and a veterinarian, she said.

“There is a current job posting to attract additional staff,” she said. “Our shelter is not unique in this way. Many, if not all, lo cal animal rescue organizations are strug gling to find and hire veterinarians.”

Powell added that the department has worked with the Board of Supervisors to in crease pay rates and with Human Resourc es to target veterinary schools to recruit more people to work in the county shelters.

“It is challenging, but our results for the past eight months tell the story,” Powell said. “We are finding positive outcomes for

more than 95% of animals. This is despite the number of animals and lack of medical history when they enter the shelter.”

Powell noted that there are over 160 employees on staff, most of whom work with animals in some context.

And, there are a total of 405 volunteers at MCACC, she said.

A 2015 report by a county ad hoc task force recommended at the time the hir ing of six more veterinarians and six vet erinary technicians to supplement the then-current staffing of five veterinarians and 14 vet techs. The report, however, pointed to industry standards of 13 vets and 45 vet techs for an operation the size of the county’s.

Other recommendations included mea sures to improve the overall medical treat ment to animals and the quality of behav ioral assessments such as providing more education and instituting an in-kennel enrichment program to help offset behav ioral deterioration from being in a shelter environment, which was in progress, ac cording to the report.

Some of the recommendations were not implemented because they were not prac tical financially or from a staffing stand point, Powell said.

But “many of the task force’s recom mendations were implemented success fully,” she said. “That’s how we were able to improve our live release rate from less than 70% to the current live release rate of 95%-plus.”

Hostile work environment

The shelter has trouble retaining em ployees, said detractors, attributing that partly to a hostile work environment.

“There are not enough people who want to work in that environment,” Bryan said. “It’s hostile. They feel upper management is disrespectful to them.

“So they work for other shelters and rescues and everyone keeps abandoning Maricopa County. They ran out volunteers and ran out staff members and I know that personally because people come to us and want to work with us.”

The fiscal year 2021 county data showed a 61% turnover rate for animal control officers, 67% for shelter technicians and 31% for animal health technicians.

Notes from shelter employee exit inter views in late 2021 included comments of feeling unappreciated, a stressful environ

Nonprofit rescues are trying to help the county alleviate crowding. Rescues also help when they can to provide other services. For example, Gilbert-based Friends For Life Rescue held a chip-a-thon last weekend, during which Infinity Hill brought Kohana, who was scanned for chips by Tina Sexton. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

Volunteer Sarah Loman hands out treats to Hawkeye, an American Bulldog/Great Dane mix, at the Maricopa County West Valley Animal Care Center in Phoenix. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

ment and burnout.

Powell said she can’t speak to the man agement under the previous director.

“People leave jobs for many reasons,” Powell said. “Despite our increase in pay, some organizations pay more. Workers have many options for their skills in the current environment.”

She also discounted claims of a toxic work environment.

“We don’t agree with that assessment,” she said. “Some former staff members do not like that our leadership team now holds every staff member accountable, in cluding for disparaging remarks made on social media.

“Current leadership has an open-door policy to talk with staff. Additionally, staff members are also recognized for their hard work in emails and during the morn ing meeting.”

Bader said she started the petition to bring awareness to the public and insisted that county superiors have turned a deaf ear to the issue.

County slams critic

County spokesman Fields Moseley said

that over the past five years, Bader has had multiple meetings, phone calls and a significant volume of written correspon dence with high-level county officials.

Moseley painted Bader as a fired volun teer determined on revenge, filing over 250 records requests since 2020 as a part

of that effort.

“The points raised by Ms. Bader on change.org are not new,” he said. “During these years, her ideas and opinions about Animal Care and Control have not evolved, and the discussions have not been produc tive for the County or its residents.

“The correspondence increased after she was dismissed as a volunteer in Au gust 2019 for trying to disrupt Animal Care operations and denigrating employ ees on a social media platform.”

He said Bader filed a notice of claim in December 2019 with the intent to sue for $300,000 but that never materialized.

He also said that supervisors continual ly support improvements at Animal Care and Control and in August approved $1.4 million to help the organization connect pet owners with other services that might prevent them from surrendering their dog or cat for financial reasons.

“Animal Care and Control has a difficult mission to treat and care for hundreds of dogs and cats on any given day while mak ing every attempt to adopt those animals into loving homes,” Moseley said.

Due to the current overcrowding, MCACC is asking the public to exhaust ev

ery option before making an appointment to bring stray animals to its shelters.

It has been proven that the quickest owned pet reunions begin with in-neigh borhood methods such as posted paper flyers and local social media pages, ac cording to shelter officials.

The county also recommends the fol lowing:

• Take found stray animal to a local vet erinarian for microchip scanning. If the pet is chipped this will begin the reunion process.

• Add the pet to MCACC’s Lost & Found interactive pet map at https://www. maricopa.gov/162/Lost-Found-Pet.

• If the pet is not chipped, call 602-506PETS to make a stray surrender ap pointment.

• For those who want to help in person, consider volunteering to work directly within the shelter with dedicated shel ter teams.maricopa.gov/294/Volunteer.

• If people have capacity in their homes to foster shelter animals, reach out to a reputable animal welfare organi zation or to the MCACC atmaricopa. gov/296/Foster.

• Donate to any local animal welfare or ganization that provides free or low cost spay/neuter, microchipping, and licensing activities to stop this issue where it starts.

New shelter offers hope

A big help for the overcrowding will be the new East Shelter currently under construction at Baseline Road and Lewis Drive in Mesa.

The Board of Supervisors in May 2021 voted to spend $36 million to build the shelter, expected to open in early 2024.

The new facility boasts 51,000 square feet of gross interior conditioned space with 369 kennels for dogs and 63 for cats, according to Powell.

The current East Valley shelter is 29,555 square feet while the West shelter is 62,350 square feet, she said.

What to do with the current east shelter when the new one opens hasn’t been de termined yet, according to Powell. 

QC teen’s apparent drug overdose death probed

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

Queen Creek Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the apparent drug-overdose death of a 16-year-old boy at a local charter school.

Two other students were hospitalized the night of Oct. 3 in connection with the same incident. According to a statement from the Town, all three were students at Canyon State Academy, a school for at-risk students. Queen Police would not confirm details of the death.

“That’s still under investigation,” Chief Randy Brice told the Tribune. “So, I can’t release any of that yet.”

Brice also would not comment on whether the Queen Creek Police, just more than half a year old, is responding to more drug overdose calls or whether overdose calls as a whole are up in the town.

Such an upward trend would mirror similar trends state- and nationwide.

The school’s website says Canyon State “offers at-risk young men a least-restric tive, staff-secure program to ensure pub lic safety while promoting a normalized high school experience for its students.

Canyon State has served this population for over a decade working with a dedi cated, veteran management team. Serv ing this population is our core competen cy – and our passion.”

Police have not released details other than a statement the day after the stu dent’s death. It said:

“QCPD and QCFMD responded to Can yon State Academy for reports of students having a medical emergency (initial call came in at approximately 10:40 p.m.). Three students were transported and un fortunately one died at the hospital.

“The individual who passed away is a 16 YO male. QCPD is investigating this as a possible overdose; the investigation is ongoing.”

A statement released by Canyon State the day after the student’s death said: “We are deeply saddened a student passed away last night at a local hospital after ingesting an unknown substance. As a precautionary measure, roommates were taken to the hospital on a non-emergency basis and medically cleared.

“While the incident is under investiga tion, early sources suggest the substanc

Drug overdose deaths nationwide have been steadily increasing at an alarming rate, federal officials say. (CDC)

es were supplied by the deceased youth’s family,” the school’s statement said.

“The presence of illegal drugs within the community continues to be a threat for all youth, and any drug-related loss of life is tragic.”

The school had no further comment and would not confirm some media reports that said the student appeared to have gotten drugs from a family member.

The Centers for Disease Control and pre vention reports that drug overdose deaths are up nationwide to a record 98,331 be tween April 2020 and April 2021. The in crease in Arizona is equally alarming. Up 27.8%, the CDC reports that 2,743 people died of drug overdoses in Arizona.

“Fentanyl is the most common sub stance found in opioid overdose deaths in Arizona – teens as young as 14 years old have overdosed and died,” says the Arizo na Criminal Justice Commission in a sec tion of its website dedicated to educating people about overdose deaths.

The prevalence of the synthetic opi ate fentanyl is up dramatically in recent years. Fentanyl is thought to be between 50 and 100 times more powerful than heroin and is being sold as a counterfeit to Percocet, heroin and methamphet amine, the CDC says.

It is also being passed off by drug deal

ers as Xanax and other prescription medications.

“This is especially dangerous because people are often unaware that fentanyl has been added,” says the ACJC website.

“The high potency of fentanyl greatly in creases risk of overdose, especially if a person who uses drugs is unaware that a powder or pill contains it.”

According to its website, Canyon State is operated by Rite of Passage, a Neva da-based provider of evidence-based therapeutic and educational programs for youth. 

GOT NEWS?

Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-

erning board – incumbents President Ken Brague and Samantha Davis and new comer James Knox.

Voters also must decide whether to support the school district’s $198-mil lion bond measure that would fund new schools and improve existing ones and help pay for everything from classroom supplies and computer software to at tracting teachers, families and bus drivers.

And the bond election and board race have become intertwined somewhat, as the incumbents and the newcomer clash over the need for the bond money.

Over the next five years, the bond mon ey, if approved, would help pay for two new elementary schools, expansions, ren ovations and upgrades to athletics facili ties at existing schools, the completion of Eastmark High and major renovations to Queen Creek high school.

It also would help fund the addition of classrooms and sports fields at Crismon High, security upgrades district-wide, bet ter fine arts facilities and more buses.

“Truth be told, the growth of our town and our school district is outpacing the buildings that we have right now,” said Jennifer Johnston, chief financial officer for the Queen Creek Unified School District.

“We have seen extensive growth in our student enrollment and we are working to maximize the facility space that we have.”

Should voters approve the bond, the new governing board will ultimately de cide exactly how the money is spent.

“This bond is crucial for the Queen Creek Unified School District,” said Davis, running for her second term on the board. “QCUSD is the fastest growing district in the state.

“We are in hyper-growth and need this bond to pass to be able to keep up with the growth. We have multiple elemen tary schools with 1,000+ students. All three of our high schools are approach ing or past capacity.”

Knox, a former legislator in Montana, opposes the bond measure.

“I have many concerns with going to the taxpayers requesting additional funding when a state-mandated funding model ex ists,” Knox said. “And within Queen Creek, land for school development is donated by developers.”

That is no longer as true as it once was.

Land for some elementary schools has been donated but that has never been the

case for junior high or high schools, ac cording to former school teacher and land developer Jason Barney.

“Where land would have been donated, that has already happened,” Barney said, who has donated land for three elementa ry schools himself.

“Not all elementary sites are donated. The junior high sites and the high school sites are never donated,” Barney said.

“The district always has to go out and buy those, and then even once they have the land, whether it was donated or bought, the district still has to fund the vertical construction of that. It is plausible that there are not a whole lot more sites in the pipeline to be donated.”

Knox is also critical of Arizona’s open enrollment rules that allow students who don’t live in a school district to attend school there if they receive a boundary exception. Knox offers that as another rea son that he is opposed to the bond.

“Several parents have expressed to me that there seems to be an excessive num ber of out of district students that have been allowed to attend their children’s school, to the point that the school is over crowded,” Knox said. “Those out-of-dis trict students’ parents are not paying into bonds to build schools.”

Brague argues that the board has been prudent with taxpayer money and dis agrees with Knox.

“The school board has proven to be good stewards of the tax dollars,” Brague said. “They have reduced the tax rate over the last 5 years. Each project has finished on-time and on budget. It is necessary for Queen Creek.”

Student enrollment has increased 148% in the last decade and doubled in just the last seven years. Demographers predict close to another 7,000 kids in the coming 10 years; There are 1,400 new students district-wide this year alone.

“The hyper-growth that we have seen and that is expected demands that we build more schools. The board is commit ted to keep the tax rate level so as to not burden our fellow citizens,” Brague said. “We need the school bond like we need police, firemen, and roads.”

Queen Creek Unified School District has added a new school building in each of the past five years, racing to keep pace with the break-neck growth rate.

Two dozen portable classrooms will be part of the solution, at least temporarily, at a cost of $5.5 million, also in the bond

Important dates for the General Election

Oct. 11:

Last day to register. Go to elections.maricopa.gov.

Oct. 12:

Mail ballots go out.

Oct. 28:

Last day to request a mail ballot.

Nov. 1:

Last day to mail your ballot.

Nov. 4:

Last day to vote at an early voting location.

Nov. 8:

Polls open 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

Information: elections.maricopa.gov, votingmatters.org.

request before voters this fall.

“We are approaching capacity rapidly at many of our school sites,” Johnston said. “We would love to build permanent class room space but those funds just aren’t there right now. These portables would just get us to 2025.”

The strain on resources doesn’t end within the school walls, either. QCUSD has 22 school buses, all of which are on the road every day, leaving no down time for maintenance or for a spare bus in the event of a breakdown.

The district is having to rent or lease buses just to be able to get students to and from school on a daily basis – “which is not really manageable for a district, like if the A/C breaks or something goes down,” said Amber Stouard, QCUSD Chief Operating Officer.

“Not only is our enrollment increasing but our ridership is increasing,” she ex plained. “Kids are choosing to ride the bus.”

Like a lot of Arizona’s school districts, QCUSD also needs people to drive them, too, she noted.

Security upgrades would include the ad dition of cameras at elementary schools and on school buses. A complete “rede sign” of the 2,300 student Queen Creek High School, the district’s oldest building, is also on the wish list. That would include changing the school’s traffic patterns at the beginning and end of the day.

“Which will alleviate the queuing that’s occurring on Ocotillo road and get that traffic on our campus so that we can get them off that main road … really just try ing to get them through,” Stouard said.

The bond measure also calls for media center renovations, an outdoor dining and turf area, a new gym and multi-purpose space, stadium renovations, including a new track, a synthetic turf football field and upgrades to the grandstand.

The baseball and softball fields would be upgraded and all of the new sports fa cilities would be equipped with new LED lighting. There are also plans to update vocational and technical facilities such as adding commercial kitchens and renovat ing agricultural facilities.

This is the second time in as many elec tions that QCUSD has gone to voters to ask for bond approval. The district proposed a $296-million measure that was defeated in the last election.

This further supports my concerns that the board tends to write many checks spending tax dollars,” Knox said, “thinking they can just go to the taxpayer and ask them for more.”

According to QCUSD Superintendent Dr. Perry Berry, the schools are facing an uphill battle in this bond vote, too. He noted during a recent Chamber of Com merce event that polling numbers are not looking good for the bond and also pointed out that voter registration rates in Queen Creek are among the lowest in Maricopa county. Yet, there is hope among supporters.

“Queen Creek School District is really doing a better job of educating the public,” said local business law attorney Matthew Harrison, who supports the bond, at a re

Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce event. “I think the tax impact was too much the last set of elections whereas this is more practical, taking into account the current economic situation.”

In addition to asking taxpayers to ap prove the $198-million bond project, the district has a request before the School Facilities and Oversight Board for two additional K-6 schools, which would be ready for students in 2027 and 2028. That $40-million if approved, would be added to the bond funding to help offset the cost to taxpayers.

“The QCUSD has done a phenomenal job at securing money from the state schools facility oversight board,”Davis said. “However, Arizona is still funded 48th in the nation when it comes to ed ucation. It is imperative that we support schools and kids.”

Right now, the gym and fine arts facili ties are prime examples of the need for more space, according to school district administrators. They are in such high de mand that students are scheduled well into the evening to be sure that they get their allotted practice time.

“In the district we like to call this the best problem,” said Jessica Bautista, QCUSD di rector of marketing and public relations. Bautista says she looks at new housing developments materializing almost over night in Queen Creek and instantly envi sions a family who will need schools for their children.

“I’m confident that we have great lead

KEN BRAGUE JAMES KNOX

ership in our school district,” Bautista said. “All of these elements come togeth er to help us stay ahead of the curve. It is a challenge, but it is the best challenge a school district can have.”

School administrators and employees are forbidden from taking a position on any publicly funded measure, such as this bond, but QCUSD has put a link on its web

page to make it easier for residents to reg ister to vote. 

GOT NEWS?

Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-898-5647 or pmaryniak@ timeslocalmedia.com

amount based on possible monthly or quarterly amounts.

amount

not carry over to the next quarter or the following year. All Cigna products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation. The Cigna name, logos, and other Cigna marks are owned by Cigna Intellectual Property, Inc. Benefits, features and/or devices vary by plan/service area. Limitations, exclusions, and restrictions may apply. Contact the plan for more information. This information is not a complete description of benefits, which vary by individual plan. You must live in the plan’s service area. Call 1-888-284-0268 (TTY 711) for more information. Cigna is contracted with Medicare for PDP plans, HMO and PPO plans in select states, and with select State Medicaid programs. Enrollment in Cigna depends on contract

SAMANTHA DAVIS

Ashley Furniture spends $2.7M for land near new Costco

TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

Ashley Furniture recently paid $2.7 million for 3.4 acres on a retail development near the new Cost co at Ellsworth and Queen Creek roads in Queen Creek.

According to data by Valley real estate tracker vizzda.com. Ashley Real Estate LLC, a subsidiary of Ashley Furniture In dustries, bought the land from Vestar Queen Creek Crossing LLC and is propos ing a 45,000-square-foot retail building on the site as part of a proposed development of 138,782 square feet of retail space.

That retail space would include two ma jor buildings, two shop buildings and four pad buildings on 13 acres. Three of the four pads apparently are envisioned as drive-thru restaurants, vizzda reported.

The other large retail space on the site will be a Hobby Lobby on the overall 32acre development called Queen Creek Crossing.

While town documents show both the Costco site and Queen Creek Crossing as separate areas, the sites are connected and “will operate as one project.”

“Vestar and Costco specifically negoti ated parking requirements for the Vestar parcel separate from city required code,” a

Ashley Furniture paid $2.7 million for the 3.4 acres shaded in pink, which is located near the new Costco and a planned Hobby Lobby at Ellsworth and Queen Creek roads. (vizzda.com)

staff report states.

The town already has approved the site plan and preliminary plat for Vestar’s Queen Creek Crossing Retail Center, which will provide 546 parking spaces instead of the normally required 668 spaces.

“It’s really designed to function as one site with customers intermingling be

tween the two,” Senior Planner Evan Balmer said at a Planning Commission meeting in June.

Vestar has developed other sites in the Valley including the Queen Creek Mar ketplace.

“As previously mentioned, the subject site is adjacent to, and shares a parking

field with, the recently approved Costco that is currently under construction,” the staff report continues, adding:

“The approved site plan for Costco shows a total of 801 parking stalls. Based on the size of the Costco, 465 stalls would be required, which results in an excess of 336 parking stalls. While the Costco site is being developed separately from the sub ject property, there will be cross-access agreements in place between the two de velopments and they will essentially func tion as one site.”

It also notes that developer Vestar “has extensive experience in developing similar projects both in Queen Creek as well as nationally and have found that 4 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet provides sufficient parking for develop ments of this size.”

The Ellsworth Road side of the site will have a 6’-wide side walk and 4’-wide multi-use path while 6’-wide sidewalks will be placed along the center’s Fulton parkway and 206th Place sides, according to the staff report.

The Costco site was approved in 2021 and this new site must still go to Town Council for final approval, but it brings the total area of the shopping center to 1.4 million square feet. 

Republicans fight each other over election rules

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

ters in the 2022 primary had no Republi can poll workers at all.

because of the lack of efforts.

won the 2020 election.

R

epublicans are suing other Repub licans in Maricopa County over what’s required under state elec tion laws and rules.

The Arizona Republican Party and the Republican National Committee contend in new legal papers that the county is not complying with requirements to have in spectors from both political parties at polling places.

Similar requirements exist, the lawsuit says, for the boards that oversee pro cessing of early ballots, vote adjudication boards and the boards that oversee opera tions at county election headquarters.

What that resulted in, attorneys for the national party charge, is the county hiring 857 Democratic poll workers but only 712 Republicans. And 11 county voting cen

The party wants Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley to issue orders to ensure that the county has more GOP poll workers for the upcoming general election. And they want to be sure those poll workers come from lists created by the Republican Party.

In a joint statement, supervisor Chair man Bill Gates and Stephen Richer, the county recorder, called the lawsuit a “po litical stunt.’’

“We contact everyone on the list the parties provide us,’’ the two officials said. “The idea that a Republican recorder and four Republican board members would try to keep Republicans out of elections is absurd.”

There was no denial by the county of the claim that some polling places came up short of Republican watchers. But the county Elections Department said it’s not

“Unfortunately, not all are willing or able to serve,’’ the agency said. And then there’s the problem of election workers quitting at the last minute.

In those cases, according to the Elections Department, it follows the state Election Procedures Manual to ensure that election boards “still have a diversity of parties and affiliations.’’

Megan Gilbertson, spokeswoman for the County Recorder’s Office, pointed out that the legal requirement for diverse election boards does not necessarily mean each major party gets someone at every site.

“Bipartisan could mean a Republican and an independent, a Democrat and a Libertarian,’’ she said.

The lawsuit comes amid increasing hos tility between the state party, whose top official, Kelli Ward, has backed the base less claim that Donald Trump actually

The new lawsuit contains no claims about the 2020 vote. Instead, it picks up on the theme that Maricopa County is conducting its elections this year in ways that violate state laws, action that the par ty lawyers say “inevitably breeds distrust and doubts among the electorate.’’

Lawyers for the GOP contend there is no reason the county cannot find qualified Republicans to serve as election workers because there are more than 830,000 reg istered party adherents.

But they said the county has established “onerous hours requirements’’ and created “unduly inhospitable working conditions’’ and then used that to say why they can’t find enough people who, while paid a nom inal amount, essentially are volunteers.

Gilbertson acknowledged there are re

Mammoth apartment-home complex eyed in SE Gilbert

BY CECILIA CHAN Tribune Staff Writer

Aproposal to build 851 apartment units, 238 duplexes and sin gle-family homes and 104,670 square feet of retail at the northwest cor ner of Power and Williams Field roads will need more work if it wants approval from the town.

The master-planned Bella Storia project is proposed on 79.71 agricultural acres in Maricopa County but an application for annexation into the Town of Gilbert is be ing processed.

“When you look at the residential area, my concern is on the deviations especially in the single story (residential) where you go from 15- to 10-foot depth separations,” said Commissioner Charles Johnson at the Oct. 5 study session.

“It seems like the developer is packing as many units in as possible and I call that love your neighbor whether you like him or not,” he continued. “I know that it’s economically good for the developer but I really don’t think it’s sound planning in terms of separations of units to create a better quality of life especially in this sin gle-family area.”

The developers The New Home Compa ny, and Davis Development, a multi-fam ily builder, are seeking a minor General Plan Amendment and rezone on the land owned by the Di Bella Family.

The developers also are seeking over a dozen deviations, including for building height, open space and building separation.

Planner Keith Newman said staff was not in support of a number of the re quested deviations, including reducing the building setbacks for the commercial buildings and reducing the amount of pri vate and common open space for one of the two proposed apartment complexes.

He added that staff supported the re quest to reduce the separation between the attached single-family units to 10 feet from the required 15 feet.

“It’s something we have supported with a lot of developments,” he said. “I think we would be OK with that deviation.”

Newman also said that staff was highly concerned with the design of the commer cial portion of the project.

“We feel that it doesn’t meet the char acter that we are trying to create in the

Santan Character area as there are a lot of drive-thrus along Williams Field Road and Power Road,” he said. “It looks like a typi cal, traditional, suburban shopping center and not something that kind of complies with or meets the vision of what we want to create in the Gateway Character Area.”

He said that for the east side of the pro posed shopping center, staff would like to see buildings a bit closer to the streets, the drive-thru lanes hidden more and maybe larger buildings with pedestrian access out to the streets.

Newman said staff also had some con cern with pedestrian accessibility, not ing, however, that “some of their draw ings and exhibits don’t do it justice yet as to what they are proposing as far as sidewalk connections.”

He said staff was working with the ap plicant to ensure that residential units along the roadways have direct pedestri an access to the street and that there are direct sidewalk connections from the resi dential areas to the proposed commercial development.

Newman said a virtual neighborhood

meeting held in January was attended by two property owners who voiced minimal comments and who “seemed highly in fa vor of the project.”

Commissioner Anthony Bianchi said the General Plan amendment request seemed minor and reasonable but it would take a lot of convincing for him to support the re zone given the sheer volume of requested deviations.

Commissioner Lesley Davis said she agreed with Newman’s concern regarding pedestrian connectivity and she wanted to see a pedestrian connection from the residential units to the amenity area for the apartment complex proposed at the southwest corner of the property.

And with all the deviations requested, maintaining the required open space was important, which she said she was not yet seeing with the proposal.

Commission William Fay said he had no particular concern with the general com mercial proposal but that the parcels for the attached single-family homes and for the apartments in the southwest corner seemed “packed in.”

He said if they were really drilling down into the deviations that night, it would be a “hard sell” for him to support the at tached single-family project as proposed.

Commissioner Brian Andersen said he agreed with staff’s stance on the devia tions and suggested that the angled park ing for one of the drives in the commercial portion be at 90 degrees.

Chairman Jan Simon noted the large amount of parking lots in the project and asked if it was meeting the town’s open space requirement.

Newman said only the two apartment complexes fell short of the requirement –the complex in the northeast corner was .8% short while the one in the southwest corner was 8%.

“We’re fairly confident to get them to meet that but the parcel in the southwest corner is more of a struggle,” Newman said. “We had a meeting with the appli cant last week and are hopeful they will get close to 40% or meet it completely.”

Simon said he would like to see some

The developer of the proposed Bella Storia project, which would bring 851 apartments and 238 homes to Williams Field and Power roads, may run into some resistance by Gilbert officials. (Town of Gilbert)

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quirements for many of the jobs that could deter some from agreeing to serve. But she said these cannot simply be waived.

“Each position has a certain amount of time that is needed, from the number of hours in the day to the number of weeks required,’’ she said, adding state law says anyone working at a voting location on Election Day cannot leave.

She acknowledged the hours are long.

Check-in, Gilbertson said, is 5:30 a.m., a half hour before the polls open.

“They don’t leave until the last voter gets to cast their ballot, break down the voting location, and bring the memory cards and ballots back to the Elections Department,’’ she said.

Gilbertson said other election positions have different requirements, like picking up heavy boxes or being able to sit at a ta ble for long periods of time.

The increasingly hostile situation over election issues has shown up in other –and less legal – ways: threats against those involved in the process.

Most recently, the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday arrested an Iowa man accused of sending threatening communi

cations Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman. According to the indictment, Mark Rissi left a voicemail last year threat ening to hang Hickman.

“This wasn’t protected speech,’’ Hickman said in response to the indictment. “This was a serious threat to me and my family.’’

The incident, he said, is not an aberra tion, saying he and other supervisors re ceived numerous threats during the past two years, as has Richer.

“And worst of all, county elections staff doing their job honorably are getting calls and emails threatening violence, calling them traitors,’’ Hickman said. “It’s despicable.’’

Rissi is separately charged with leaving a phone message with Attorney General Mark Brnovich, also last year, saying that he knows the 2020 election was fraud ulent and that he is aware of images of “conspirators’’ deleting election fraud data from the county’s computer system.

“Do your job ... or you will hang with those (expletive) in the end,’’ was the message. “We will see to it. Torches and pitchforks.’’

Brnovich said he was glad the Department of Justice is taking such threats seriously.

on some of the concerns.

work done to address that and that he shared his fellow commissioners’ con cerns with the requested deviations.

“I feel it’s pretty rich on what they are requesting and I personally have an issue with the apartment in the southwest cor ner,” he said.

Simon said the complex looked like an “institution” and that the developer needs to do more work to address the concern with pedestrian connectivity.

As proposed, the commercial develop ment would be on 16.6 acres on the arte rial corner with anticipated tenants like specialty grocers, shops and restaurants.

For the multi-family component, three-story buildings are proposed for the two separate apartment complexes with one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from approximately 680 to 1,500 square feet.

We are extremely busy, so we are unavailable, please leave a voice message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Medical

E Baseline Rd., Suite 119

As displayed in figure 1 above, the nerves are surrounded by diseased, withered blood vessels. A lack of sufficient nutrients means the nerves

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AZ, 85206

Newman anticipated the project coming back for formal review by the Commission sometime in the first quarter of next year as the proposal was early in review and staff was still working with the applicant

The single-family attached and de tached portion is proposed on 30 acres at the north end of the development. The 238 lots would consist of cluster homes, alley duplexes and detached homes with floor plans ranging from 1,300 to 2,554 square feet.

QC multi-faith food drive yields bounty for needy

BY MARK MORAN Staff Writer

Volunteers

welcomed a semi-trailer truck packed with 40,000 pounds of food during the annual multifaith Father Mcgivney’s Food Donation Drive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Queen Creek last week.

The truck was loaded in Salt Lake City, Utah, at what is known as a “bishop storehouse” and then driven to Queen Creek. Bishop storehouses, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ charity efforts, are used to store and distribute food across the country to areas most in need.

“A lot of the inflationary pressure has been contributing to the need and they have been going through the food fast er,” said Gregg Murset, president of the Queen Creek Central Stake for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Queen Creek

“The food bank called and said is there any way we can get another semi load of food from you guys to bolster our supply,” he said. “So that’s what we arranged.”

Father Mcgivney’s Food Donation is typically an annual event. The church has already donated one semi-trailer load full of food this year but record de mand has pushed the food pantry’s need higher.

“I love seeing members of different faiths working together to help those in need in our community,” said Town Council member elect Bryan McClure, one of the organizers, and spokesman for the Queen Creek stake.

“With the rising costs, it seems like folks are feeding their mortgage or rent first, their gas tank second and they are running short on food and so with the additional demand, it’s good that we were able to secure this donation and help out.”

Volunteers were busy unloading food do nations at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Queen Creek. (Mark Moran/Tri bune Staff)

Demand has been historically high at food banks around the Valley this year and, like other food banks, donations at

Father McGivney’s are not keeping up with the number of people coming when the food pantry is open to the public ev ery Monday morning.

“The line has gotten longer and they have been running out,” said McClure.

With Phoenix Metro listed as the met ropolitan area experiencing the highest inflation rate in the country, the number of people in need is not slowing down. Valley-wide, it remains at an all-time high.

At St. Mary’s Food Bank, for example, demand in September was higher than it was in August, which itself was an all-time record, and had never happened before.

“We served more than 1,000 families at our busiest location,” said Jerry Brown, spokesman for St. Mary’s. “Twice in the month of September. That was the first time in our history.”

“People are lining up earlier and earli er,” McClure said of the Father McGivney

100+ Women Who Care supports community clinics

BY ANGELA SIMS Guest Writer

Approximately 11 percent of the total population of Arizona were uninsured in 2020, according to statista.com.

The U.S. Department of Health and Hu man Services notes, “Uninsured adults are less likely to receive preventive services for chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease; and children without health insurance cover age are less likely to receive appropriate treatment for conditions like asthma or critical preventive services such as dental care, immunizations, and well-child visits.”

Sonoran University’s Sage Foundation for Health (formerly SCNM Sage Founda tion) exists for the sole purpose of provid ing healthcare to underserved family and

children in Maricopa County.

The Sage Foundation provides funding to six community clinics in Maricopa County.

The clinics are staffed by licensed phy sicians and third- and fourth-year medi cal students from Sonoran University of Health Sciences, a fully accredited univer sity in Tempe that offers degree programs in naturopathic medicine and nutrition.

At the community clinics, physicians and students treat chronic and acute health con ditions using both conventional and alter native medicine, such as clinical nutrition, supplements, botanical medicine, acupunc ture, and homeopathy, at little to no cost.

Sonoran University’s Sage Foundation steps up and fills the need for medical care when families who cannot afford health insurance may otherwise not receive it.

Celebrating a check presentation by 100+ Women Who Care to Sonoran University’s Sage Foundation for Health are, from left: Katherine Katz, Kayte Nettles, Danica Cullins, Paul Mittman, Kim Tarnopolski, and Crissy Haidos. (Courtesy 100+ Women Who Care)

Food Pantry. “Everyone who comes through gets something but they are run ning out part way through the line and that didn’t used to happen.

It’s a lot more than it was in previous months because of the squeeze that fam ilies are feeling right now. We’re hope fully going to be able to alleviate some of that need,” McClure said.

The Father McGivney Food Bank was founded in 2008 by Robert Varela, who remains the director, and has served more than 40,000 families a year in the church and surrounding communities for a total of between 175 and 200 fami lies every day until recently.

“I’d say in the past six months we’re doing almost 300 now,” Varela said.

Varela credits Father Craig Friedly, a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe, with devoting countless hours to making sure the food bank runs smoothly.

This semi-truck full of food is not meant to be distributed all at once. Rath er, it is made up of non-perishable goods that can be given away over time, and be used to bolster the supplies on hand, helping them go further.

“It’s a big help,” said Varela. “A little bit of everything. Pasta, peanut butter, flour.

It’s a nice, little chunk of food that we utilize. This we can go ahead and store it and take a little each week as we need it.”

Varela said even though the demand has been high, the food bank has been largely under the radar because they don’t really promote it. Still, people are finding them in droves. The food bank has also become a popular place to en courage volunteers to become involved in their community.

“I’ve lived in Queen Creek for 22 years now,” Musert said. “It’s an amazing thing to see the growth and the need explode at the same time, unfortunately, in some regards, but what a great thing for Queen Creek residents to rally around and help people out.” 

To help or find help

Our Lady of Guadalupe Food Pantry

Address: 20615 E. Ocotillo Rd., Queen Creek.

Hours: 8-10 a.m. Mondays

Patients include families in impover ished school districts, domestic violence survivors, women and children experienc ing homelessness, those living with HIV/ AIDS, and others recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Students and physicians from Sonoran University provide nearly 9,000 patients visits each year for both primary care and specialized patient visits.

The students who cover these shifts get a unique opportunity to provide treat ment and gain skills and experience in a community healthcare setting, working with a diverse patient population.

They help their patients to restore their health, and to improve self-care through daily diet, exercise, and stress reduction treatment plans.

The life-changing, life-saving work the Sage Foundation provides is made possible thanks to generous support from the com munity.

Last month, the East Valley members of 100+ Women Who Care Valley of the Sun donated $10,050 to the Sage Foundation.

100+ Women Who Care comprises women who meet quarterly to learn about

local charities and choose one charity to receive a donation of $100 from each of the members.

By pooling their money together, 100+ Women Who Care can make significant donations to Valley charities, making a no ticeable impact for the nonprofit recipient each quarter.

This donation will help offset the high costs of lab tests, medical supplies, pharmacy items, and other necessary supplies to keep the community clinics running and ensure they can provide high quality healthcare to thousands of patients each year.

“The donation will go towards providing free care for underserved populations in Maricopa County. We are incredibly grate ful for the support 100+ Women Who Care has shown us,” said Kayte Nettles, director of development at the Sage Foundation.

100+ Women Who Care Valley of the Sun will hold their next quarterly giving circle in the East Valley at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Audi Gilbert. Members and guests are wel come. Visit 100wwcvalleyofthesun.org for more information and to register.

More information on the Sage Foun dation’s community clinics: sage.so noran.edu.

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QC man opens first indoor cornhole venue

BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA Tribune Contributor

Twoweeks may not sound like a long time, but when Gilbert’s Hole 9 Yards owners had plans in place for a festive grand opening on Sept. 16, supply-chain issues delayed the permit ting process.

That scuttled a weekend when Amer ican Cornhole League pros from around the country planned to join local aficiona dos of the game for a celebration.

More delays ensued, but the big day finally arrived Sept. 30, when Dr. Todd Kisicki of Mesa and Queen Creek resident Nic Feinstein opened the 20,000-squarefoot venue at 868 N. Gilbert Road, where players have 26 lanes to play or watch others while sipping a beer and grabbing a burger from Hole 9 Yards’ full kitchen and bar.

“We are excited that we are finally open after all the planning and prepa rations that have gone into the project,” Kisicki said.

Kisicki has been an enthusiastic fan of the sport, which began as an elevated form of the old bean bag tossing game and has elevated into a sport that could one day be an Olympics event.

As the owner of KB Kornhole Games, a cornhole-centric business that hosted hundreds of events throughout the Valley since its inception in 2015, Kisicki is well known throughout the state as he’s host ed the Arizona State Cornhole Champion ships since 2016. Feinstein is an ACL-sanc tioned pro who is a leader in the sport.

Last year’s state championships at Mesa’s Bell Bank Park was organized by Kisicki and became the largest state championship cornhole event in the na tion with an estimated 410 players, ages 8 to 80, competed in 15 different divisions.

Now national director for the American Cornhole League, Kisicki didn’t start out aiming to be one of cornhole’s most en thusiastic advocates.

He earned his doctorate at Arizona State University in education technology and taught there until he left to focus solely on his burgeoning KB Kornhole Games busi ness with his wife of 16 years, Erin.

This summer, he often was jetting around the country and around the world, hosting cornhole tournaments in Europe, Canada, as well as South Caroli na and California and overseeing more

than 300 ACL directors nationwide.

He and Feinstein hatched their idea for Hole 9 Yards (H9Y) in 2019 and their concept picked up momentum during the early days of the pandemic.

By the time they opened, they not only had added a bar and full-service restaurant to their plan but also a retail section where people can buy cornhole gear and equipment.

They’re convinced they’re tapping into an activity that seems to have unlimited potential and will be making Hole 9 Yards available for league play at all skill levels, private gatherings and open-lane rentals.

When he and his wife sponsored their first commercial cornhole event on April 11, 2015, they figured their business would be strictly a part-time, weekend gig.

“I had no idea KB Kornhole Games would ever evolve to where it is today,” Kisicki said.

“While it was initially meant to be some thing we could do as a family, I quickly realized that starting and running a busi ness required a lot of effort and sacrifice and not everyone was in a place in their lives to dedicate the time that was needed to make it successful,” he said.

“So I ran with it, slowly growing it to a point to where it was consuming a lot of my extra time and eventually taking some of my concentration away from my fulltime job.”

In December 2016, he recalled, “I decid ed to gamble on myself and jump all into the business, leaving the industry that I had spent the first 15 years of my adult life behind.”

Erin Kisicki left her full-time career as a director of training in behavioral health services, on Sept. 2 so both husband and wife can focus efforts on growing Hole 9 Yards, the national and international busi ness of cornhole, and their daughter, Kora.

“Erin started the KB Kornhole business with me in 2015 but with her full-time job,

Tony Rodriguez and Clinton Timmons toss bags at Hole 9 Yards, a new indoor cornhole venue in Gilbert. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

CORNHOLE from page 18

she wasn’t active in the day-to-day opera tions though she helped me run the events for the first two years,” explained Kisicki.

“After a while, her job, plus having a tod dler, and then me dragging her to events every weekend, took its toll and she stepped back from KB so that we didn’t have to ship our daughter off to family ev ery weekend.”

“Our daughter, Kora, is now 8 and wants me to give her a job at Hole 9 Yards,” he chuckled.

Kisicki partnered with Nic Feinstein of Queen Creek to lead the design, oversee the renovations and handle the business’s social media and marketing. Feinstein will help spread the word of cornhole, H9Y and industry news affecting Arizona.

“I never really needed to market with KB Kornhole Games with most of my events com ing from referrals, but now with a large venue and most time slots to fill, Nic fills a void with his strong skill set that gives us a dedicated social media and marketing plan to attract new people to the sport,” said Kisicki.

Cornhole League, international expan sion is Kisicki’s focal point. A goal of that expansion is prepping the way as a future sport in the Olympics.

If that seems a reach, consider skate boarding, surfing, sport climbing and now breakdancing – all Olympic compet itive events.

It takes some doing to be included, said Kisicki.

“To be considered for involvement in the Olympics, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents.

To see that cornhole is established in other countries is a major task for Kisicki.

“One of my roles with the American Cornhole League is international devel opment, and work ing with cornhole leaders in other countries to de velop competitive cornhole in their countries,” he said.

Cornhole is a universal sport that anyone can play. The wonderful part of the sport is that you can have young children, women, men and seniors all playing in the same event with no competitive advantage.

“My role with the ACL is to help develop the com petitive side of the sport in these countries. There’s also the WCO –

Players heave bags at Hole 9 Yards, a new indoor cornhole venue opened by a pair of the sport’s devotees, Dr. Todd Kisicki of Mesa and Nic Feinstein of Queen Creek. (David Minton/ Tribune Staff Photographer)

Kisicki, currently a board member with the nonprofit WCO.

“Cornhole is a universal sport that any one can play,” said Kisicki. “The wonder ful part of the sport is that you can have young children, women, men and seniors all playing in the same event with no com petitive advantage.”

tournaments, Kisicki cleaves to the tagline he originated in 2015 for KB Kornhole: “Bringing people together, one kornhole at a time.”

As national director for the American

the World Cornhole Organization – and they’re the ones who are responsible for getting the sport to the Olympics,” said

Televising cornhole has already proved a successful draw. ESPN and their related channels began broadcasting cornhole tournaments in 2017, and in early Sep tember, CBS covered an ACL Pro Shootout Tournament during prime time.

Even with the success of competitive

He said he’s seen newcomers come to give the sport a try-out, then contin ue coming to events as they make new friends and become a part of a community of enthusiasts.

The H9Y owners hope the 26 lanes at their H9Y Gilbert venue will expand that community with people of all ages and skill levels.

Information: Hole9Yards.com. 

Veep’s post-hurricane remarks create a storm

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

There’s no confusing a haboob with a hurricane.

While Arizonans can attest that the howling wind and desert dust from a haboob may present genuine hazards, the recent travails of Floridians remind us that hurricanes can become life altering.

Hurricane Ian unleashed its fury upon Southwest Florida, bringing tragic loss of life, almost unbelievable damage to homes and roads, and other awful, awesome ex amples of nature’s power.

There was also ample evidence that the hurricane season intersects with the polit ical calendar.

Vice President Kamala Harris, fresh

from a faux pas abroad where she mis takenly lauded a longtime American alli ance with “the Republic of North Korea,” proved equally maladroit when she re turned home and advocated race-based relief in Ian’s aftermath.

Appearing at a forum sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, the nation’s “Number Two” emphasized equity as job one, even in the wake of a killer storm.

“It is our lowest income communities and communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” Harris said.

“And so we have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, and understanding that not ev

eryone starts out at the same place. And if we want people to be in an equal place, sometimes we have to take into account those disparities.”

Got that?

“Equity” is not synonymous with “equal ity.” Instead, it is based on retribution and redistribution.

While America’s historic civil rights movement advocated for equality of op portunity, today’s woke elites envision the role of government as enforcing uniformi ty of outcomes. Equity is the blunt tool of social justice warriors intent on exacting a price in the here-and-now from those they deem “historically advantaged.”

In 2020, that translated into riots in major American cities, which Harris de scribed as “mostly peaceful protests.” In 2022, it would translate into selective re lief in spite of widespread suffering if Har

ris had her way.

Unsurprisingly, a self-appointed “prae torian guard” from the partisan press quickly intervened to try to protect the vice president from her own statement.

So-called “fact checkers” blamed extenu ating circumstances—a long, multilayered question and an even longer response from Harris—before falling back on the three favorite words of all post-quote re visionists: “out of context.”

Despite the empathy and action from “advocacy journalists” eager to jump to Kamala’s defense, it became abundantly clear to the Biden White House that the subject had to be changed – and quickly.

Whatever the shortcomings of the Biden Bunch—and they are legion—Ol’Joe and his handlers saw the obvious course of ac

Spare me the food snob, eatery chains just fine

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist

Of all the many sorts of snobbery that exist in the world today, surely the most an noying is dining snobbery. You, too, have that one friend, I imagine – the Certified Restaurant Adventurer©.

Ask The CRA© how his/her/their weekend was and the conversation turns into a Travel Channel monologue about the joys of eating fried calf testicles off a food truck in a Maryvale back alley.

My eyes glaze over during such tales –and not in a honey-glazed epicurean way – before I say something like, “That’s just nuts,” and wander off.

I’m an adventurous eater. I like steak, medium rare. I love cheesesteaks, cheeseburgers, cheese fries, pizza, and caffeinated beverages ordered without substituting Italian numbers for sizes.

Hold the cheese on the coffee, thanks. But only there.

In sum, I have always believed myself to be a typical American eater. Meaning I am not a gastronomic explorer, nor am I a big chain restaurant purveyor.

However, I don’t look down my nose at people who think Olive Garden is the best Italian food known to man. By the same token, I’m tired of hearing about Pizzeria Bianco and how it’s worth camping out for a week for a slice of Sonny Boy pizza, because, oh Lord, the soppressata is to die for!

Salami is salami, people. They do a nice pepperoni pie at Pizza Hut, too. And they have 6,600 locations in the United States, which means less waiting.

That’s what chain restaurants are for: People who see meals not as opportu nities for reverie and humble bragging about their palate, but as fuel for the body and a chance to chat with loved

ones, friends and colleagues.

Dining snobs will scoff, but there’s a reason that chain restaurants continue to be popular. They’re not the devil, or even Red Devil Pizza, with three loca tions in the Valley and one in Pinetop.

Chains are thriving, and regular people must like them, because chain restau rants comprise the majority of dining options in the U.S., according to recent data from two scholars at Georgia Tech University’s Friendly Cities Lab.

Dr. Clio Andris and Ph.D. candidate Xiaofan Liang compiled statistics on more than 700,000 restaurants nation wide, including nearly 400 chains of 50 locations or more. The most prolific restaurant in the study? Subway, with more than 24,000 locations in the U.S.

Restaurants with only one location comprised about 44 percent of the study, or about 310,000 locations total.

Liang told the Washington Post, “the

foodscape is very political,” meaning the study’s big takeaway was that, “Places with a high percentage of Trump voters have a higher percentage of chains. We didn’t expect it.”

Yawn. Sounds like food snobbery to me.

My big takeaway is that Arizona is not the fast food capital of America, as many Valley food snobs would have you be lieve.

The most franchise-y state in the na tion? Kentucky, where 46 percent of restaurant options have 50 or more loca tions. Arizona ranked 21st, with chains comprising 35% of restaurant offerings – as compared to Vermont, the least fran chise-y state, where only 13 percent of restaurants had 50 or more locations.

As for metro Phoenix, it ranked 204th among more than 380 metropolitan ar eas, with chains comprising about 37 percent of restaurant options. So we’re

tion: visit the hurricane-ravaged portions of Florida, meet with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and pledge that the Federal Gov ernment would help everyone adversely affected by Ian—period.

As the flood waters began to recede, so did the controversy concerning “eq uity.” The sight of Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis standing in the sunshine, shar

ing a common concern and a common goal—proved once again that some times, good policy can make for good politics – especially when it involves po tential political opponents.

But don’t be deceived.

Even without the forecast of a haboob here in Arizona or another hur ricane in Florida, the outlook will again turn stormy.

After all, Election Day is Nov. 8. 

not New York City, with 18 percent chains, nor are we Aniston, Alabama, with 57 percent chains.

We’re right in between, not unlike the beef patty in a Cold Beer & Cheese

burgers All American Burger. CB&C has 12 Arizona locations, by the way, which makes them something of a local chain. Regardless, they don’t serve pig cheeks, rattlesnake bites or other food snob fare, so I can’t recommend the place highly enough.

How to get a letter published

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Arizona gaining reputation for high school football players

BY NIKASH NATH Cronkite News

California,

Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Texas are known for their Fri day Night Lights, their fanatical football cultures, their mainlines to pres tigious football powerhouses. Arizona, by contrast, has often gone under the radar when it comes to producing top collegiate and professional football talent.

That is rapidly changing. Arizona has five high school football recruits in the Top247 rankings, tying with three other states for the 10th spot in the country.

The players listed are tight end Duce Robinson (Pinnacle), cornerback Cole Martin (Basha), offensive lineman Caleb Lomu (Highland), tight end Jackson Bow ers (Mesa Mountain View) and offensive lineman Elijah Paige (Pinnacle).

A huge reason for Arizona high school football’s rise on the national stage is because of the outstanding coaching, ac cording to Pinnacle coach Dana Zupke.

“I would put our coaches in Arizona up against anybody in the country, and I mean that,” Zupke said. “You see how we do against out-of-state teams and we are right there with them.”

“It really starts with the fact that we had a lot of people that moved here,”

Zupke said. “I’ve been coaching out here for 30 years and just the population ex plosion alone has made a huge difference in the level of talent and what it was 30 years ago or 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, is just the fact that Arizona is a place where people move to.”

From 1990 through 2020, Arizona has gained roughly 3,486,274 people, accord ing to the U.S. Census Bureau. Arizona has also had a 34.8% population growth since 1990, which ranks second in the country behind Alaska and Nevada.

“In 2005, I went and watched high school football in Arizona and it just wasn’t very good. They had one school, Hamilton, that was far and above more dominant than anyone,” Chandler coach Rick Garrison said. “I started working at Chandler in 2010, and I would say from 2010 until now it has jumped leaps and bounds (because of) really good coaches. (It’s) a very offensive-minded state with lots of players that go onto Division 1 foot ball and college football and the NFL that have their roots in Arizona.”

Feeder programs throughout Arizo na have also added to the state’s foot ball success, due to the familiarity and cohesiveness these programs teach their athletes.

The relatively new addition of feed

er programs – a pipeline of schools that enable graduates to move onto specific colleges or programs – have become a worldwide trend with many high schools taking notice.

“Thirty years ago there was no such thing as a feeder school. The closest thing we had was the Mesa schools (that) had junior high football where everyone else was relying on Pop Warner football,” Zup ke said. “I think in the early 2000s, you are starting to see very intentional feeder programs, meaning schools that recognize that if you have a feeder program it’s a way to attract and retain kids.”

Despite the sustained success feeder programs have provided high school foot ball programs, not everyone relies on them.

“I don’t have feeder teams, I don’t deal with anyone in the youth football pro gram,” Garrison said. “Maybe others do, but we don’t.”

The Chandler Wolves are an Arizona powerhouse, winning five consecutive Open Division and 6A championships from 2015-20. The Wolves have pro duced a remarkable 11 players who have made NFL rosters, ranking Chandler sec ond among Arizona high schools behind South Mountain, which has produced 13 NFL players.

“We have a culture that is based on

competition, a culture that is based on family, and our kids aren’t afraid to com pete and our parents allow their kids to come here and compete,” Garrison said. “People that want to put their kids in a culture that provides growth both phys ically, technically in the football world and helping the community, I think we do a pretty good job of that.”

There are currently 27 active players in the NFL who attended Arizona high schools. Chandler leads the way with Chicago Bears wide receiver N’Keal Har ry, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan and Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Hamilcar Rashed Jr. Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark An drews, a product of Desert Mountain, and Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Christain Kirk, who attended Saguaro, are two of the top active NFL players to come out of Arizona. And cornerback By ron Murphy, another Saguaro product, is quickly emerging as a shut-down de fender in his third season with the Arizo na Cardinals.

With the extensive talent Arizona has and continues to produce, the Grand Canyon State is fast becoming home to top-tier high school programs that con tinue to churn out major college and pro football prospects.

The Queen Creek Bulldogs are contributing to the state’s reputation for high school football on the national stage. (QCUSD)

Documentary looks at Tempe band from the 1990s

BY VINCENT ARRIETA GetOut Contributor

Unlessyou were there at the time, one might not realize how exciting it was to be a music lover in Tempe in the 90s.

From the breakthrough of the Meat Puppets with their career-altering ap pearance on Nirvana’s Unplugged spe cial to Gin Blossoms’ jangle-pop bril liance, the national spotlight was shining brightly on the Valley’s musical riches.

One of the acts primed for breakout success has gone largely unnoticed – the Pistoleros.

Now, the band fronted by brothers Lawrence and Mark Zubia is finally get ting its due with a documentary chron icling the band’s extraordinary story called Pistoleros: Death, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll directed by Steven B. Esparza.

Filled with interviews from members of the band along with members of the Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, and other Tempe musical mainstays, the documen tary smartly focuses not specifically on

the band’s rise and instead chronicles the tumultuous relationship between brothers Lawrence and Mark, and how that relationship both made – and nearly broke – the band.

Opera gives insight into wounded soldiers’ lives

BY BRIDGETTE REDMAN GetOut Contributor

WhenTess Altiveros was debat ing whether to take on a new project at the Seattle Opera, the conductor, Michael Sakir, told her, “This opera will change your life.”

She took the job — performing as the central character in a new opera, “The Falling and the Rising,” roles which she and Sakir will reprise for the Arizona Op era Friday, October 14, to Sunday, Octo ber 16, in Phoenix and Saturday, October 22, to Sunday, October 23, in Tucson.

“I will never forget him saying that and it did change my life,” Altiveros said. “It changed my perspective. It changed my understanding and made me sit up and pay attention to the fact that I had my own prejudices that I needed to deal with.

“Mostly, it enabled a path for dialogue with a group of people that I have never been able to sit across the table with and certainly not make art with. It changed my view on myself as a citizen and my view on this world.”

The documentary is scheduled to have its premiere with a sold-out screening on Oct. 18 at the AMC Centerpoint theater in Tempe with more screenings to follow. The film will then be available to rent on

Vimeo the same day and is scheduled to arrive on DVD and streaming platforms in early November.

Whereas many rockumentaries these days either glorify the story of bands whose trajectories are similar or simply repackage information widely known about a certain artist, Esparza and pro ducers Henry Eshelman and Jeff Freun dlich focus on the “madness” that comes when two artistic minds bound by blood are tested by drug addiction, codepen dency and mental illness.

Make no mistake, though. The Pistole ros story is a triumphant one, albeit with a twist of sadness.

While it is difficult to discuss and write about the documentary without spoiling its fragile narrative, the man ner in which the brothers’ respective battles with themselves and one another is quite an enlightening one – especially Lawrence’s.

“The music is almost a gateway to fall ing in love with the story of these two

The Pistoleros were primed for breakout success in the 90s and a key component of the Valley’s music scene then. (Special to GetOut)

“The Falling and the Rising” is a five-person opera based on the true stories of American military service members and veterans who have been wounded in the line of duty. (Ziggy Mack/Opera Memphis)

brothers,” Freundlich said. “If you listen to the lyrics in the in the songs, you re alize whether it’s consciously or sub consciously, these guys are often singing about their firsthand experiences, quite frankly, with each other.

“Obviously, we don’t want spoilers, but, you know, love wins, right?”

In addition to highlighting the Zubia brothers’ literal brotherhood, the doc umentary spotlights the brotherhood between many of the other bands in the Tempe music scene.

One particularly heartfelt and bitter sweet stretch of the documentary de picts the Zubias and other talking about the late Gin Blossoms guitarist Doug Hopkins, whose death had a profound impact on not only his own band’s career trajectory, but on the Zubia brothers’ own struggles with mental health.

“Think about like the Haight-Ashbury scene in the 60s,” Freundlich says. “You had Janis Joplin living with the Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Ser vice living the same house, right? The Live Nudes’ [precursors to the Pistole ros] house was where all of these bands

would party when they were done with their gigs.

“That’s the magic that happens when all these creative people are coming to gether. They’re not competing with each other, but they’re trying to lift each other up and look what happened.”

That sense of camaraderie runs throughout the documentary, from the Zubia brothers themselves to their con nection with their Mexican American roots via playing in mariachi groups with their father as children.

“The brothers are Mexican American, our director is Mexican American, and

our picture editor is Mexican American,” Freundlich says. “The story that Mark and Lawrence tell about playing in a ma riachi band with their father and then realizing that those chords worked for Van Morrison and The Doors, the Rolling Stones – our editor said ‘that is the ex perience of so many Mexican-American kids and teenagers that are embracing the culture of their family historical ly and then also assimilating fully into American culture.’

“For every Mexican-American kid or musician – that is going to resonate with them greatly.” 

“The Falling and the Rising” is a five-person opera based on the true stories of American military service members and veterans who have been wounded in the line of duty.

Conceived of by Army Staff Sgt. Ben Hilget, who was an opera singer before he enlisted, it took shape when he, Zach Redler and Jerre Dye visited the Wal ter Reed Medical Center to interview wounded soldiers.

“The Falling and the Rising” breaks ground in its goals and its staging. Projec tions play an important role in the produc tion. It is filled with humor – there are tra ditional opera singing deliveries of such lines as “You’d better get your ass in gear.”

Hilget said the opera aptly captures the sacrifices that modern service members make. He said he and the other opera cre ators were immediately floored by the stories that they heard when they started interviewing people at Walter Reed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard, to date, more powerful stories of resilience and strength,” Hilget said.

One of the first interviewees was a specialist who had been in a coma after being thrown from a Humvee. He dreamt a life that he didn’t have and even six months after he woke up, he was still try ing to figure out what was real and what was not.

“He gained the power of speech back through music therapy – he actually learned to sing before he could speak,” Hilget said. “He spoke with a profound wisdom for someone of his age and still in the middle of trauma.”

They spoke to so many people in a three-day period that he said they could have written 10 operas.

Dennis Whitehead Darling had just

finished serving as the inaugural Mc Cleave Fellow in Directing at Opera Mem phis, a fellowship designed to fostering the careers of directors of color, when he went to see Opera Memphis’ production of the opera.

“It’s quite beautiful and poignant and painful and emotional and rich with beautiful themes of sacrifice and pain,” Darling said.

He is now directing the Arizona Opera production. As someone who contem plated going into the military and whose father, uncle, brother and stepsister all served, this opera touches on his ties.

He said he feels people get a better un derstanding of what it takes to serve in the military and the sacrifice, duty and honor involved.

“There are no live scenes of people be ing shot at, but it does deal with injury and that sort of falling that the soldier goes through emotionally and physical

ly,” Darling said.

“Then it’s about this wonderful tri umph of the rising of how they somehow find this miraculous strength to over come any sort of emotional or physical pain. It honors their sacrifice.”

Altiveros said the music and score are designed to attract civilians and soldiers. She describes it as accessible and melodic.

“It’s meant to help us appreciate and acknowledge the sacrifices that are made, the good parts and the bad parts about enlisting and the hardships of it,” Altiveros said.

While not traditionally a subject of op era, the stories of sacrifice and injury translate well to the art form, Altiveros said.

“The stakes are so high — there is a risk of life and death and injury and things like that, but real human relationships are affected and in a very large way,” Altiveros said.

“Anytime you can tell that story of hu

man relationships on stage, it lends itself to opera. Opera can heighten that sense of emotion.”

She recently spoke with art producers who were concerned about whether this opera would be too heavy and traumat ic for audiences who are stressed in a post-pandemic world. She was eager to allay those fears.

“It’s not that this does not address (traumatic) topics – the whole premise essentially is when a female soldier is hit in a roadside bombing, and they put her in a medically-induced coma. The en tirety of the rest of the opera is her wan dering through her subconscious and coming across these different soldiers’ stories,” Altiveros said.

“That is the background for these sto ries to happen, but it’s meant to leave you feeling uplifted. It’s not a downer.”

Altiveros said she cries in almost every single rehearsal because she is so moved by the stories, and she is certain the au dience will be moved too.

“But it’s not meant to traumatize,” Alti veros said. “It’s meant to leave you feel ing really hopeful about and grateful for the work that our soldiers are doing. It’s not meant to take you to a really, really dark place and then leave you there. I want to make sure people know that.” 

If You Go...

What: The Arizona Opera’s “The Falling and the Rising” by Zach Redler, libretto by Jerre Dye

Where: Herberger Theater, 222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix.

When: Various times Oct. 14-16

“The Falling and the Rising” is a five-person opera based on the true stories of American military service members and veterans who have been wounded in the line of duty. (Ziggy Mack/Opera Memphis)

Coast: ee website for details

Info: azopera.org

With JAN D’ATRI

GetOut Columnist

Blood Mary Shrimp Appetizer a worthy addition to your party menu

Sincetransitioning to a new career as a cooking instructor at Sweet Basil Culinary Center, my recipe repertoire has expanded considerably.

I have the advantage of working with three tal ented chefs who bring decades of experience to the table, and I’m always the one asking them to share their tips, tricks and prized recipes. Once in a while, I sneak a peek into their classes and if I’m lucky, I get to sample some of what was being taught in class that day.

That brings me this dish. I absolutely went nuts over it! I loved absolutely everything about it; the simplicity of the recipe, the flavors and the reaction from folks when they bite into it. This Bloody Mary Shrimp Appetizer is the perfect addition to your holiday parties or any gathering. You won’t find a single person who doesn’t love it.

I wanted to share it with you now so you have perhaps a new dish for this year’s get-togethers!

By the way! Sweet Basil Culinary Center has moved to the La Mirada Shopping Center at the Northeast

• Ingredients For the tart shells:

• 24 wonton wrappers

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• For the shrimp:

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

• 24 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

• 1 ½ cups celery ( 3-4 ribs), sliced thin

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.Place wonton wrappers on a work surface and brush one side of each with melted butter.

Place one wrapper, butter side up, into each of the 24 mini muffin cups, pressing lightly. Place the muffin pans in the preheated oven and bake for 5-7 minutes or until just golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Remove the tart shells from the pan.

3. Prepare the shrimp: Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add 1 table spoon salt and the Old Bay seasoning. Add the shrimp. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Let

Corner of Pinnacle Peak and Pima Road, Scottsdale. Come visit soon and let’s get cooking together!

• 1 cup scallions, sliced thinly

• For the sauce:

• ½ cup ketchup

• ¼ cup vodka

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

the shrimp stand in the hot water until cooked through ( the shrimp will be pink) about 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and cool to room temperature.

4. Cut the shrimp into thirds and transfer to a large bowl with the celery and scallions.

5. Make the sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the ketchup, vodka, lemon juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce.

6. Just before serving, stir the sauce into the shrimp mixture. Spoon 3 shrimp pieces with the vegetables and sauce into each wonton cup ( about a tablespoon per cup) and arrange on a platter.

Makes 24 wonton cup appetizers. 

DENTAL

Two Day Hiring Event

When: Friday, Oct. 14; 9am - 2pm

Oct. 15; 9am - 1pm

Where: CMC Steel Arizona

E Germann Rd.

AZ 85212

CMC Steel Arizona has proudly been making the steel that builds America since 2009.

Come tour our facility and learn about our openings and potentially receive an on-thespot offer! At CMC, we offer great benefits and provide all necessary training and certifications.