QUEEN CREEK TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2, 2022

QC inks another big water deal to meet town needs

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

Queen Creek has taken the next step to ward its stated goal of achieving wa ter independence by agreeing to buy 500,000 acre-feet of water from a group of landowners and farmers in Maricopa and La Paz counties for $30-million.

The sellers are part of the Harquahala Valley Water Association in areas west of Phoenix.

“We have signed a contract to purchase

5,000 acre-feet of Harquahala water that would be over the next 100 years,” said Paul Gardner, town utilities director. “So that would be a total volume of 500,000 acre-feet.”

In an average year, an acre foot of water sup plies the needs of about 3.5 homes a year.

Queen Creek sits on a 100-year supply of underground water and this purchase of wa ter rights from Harquahala, much like a recent $21-million purchase from the GSC Farm in Cibola, helps protect that aquifer, according to Gardner.

“It’s one of the next steps,” Gardner said.

For Queen Creek, water independence would mean securing enough water from var ious sources that the town is are simply using the underground aquifer as a water storage system rather than for every day use.

Getting the water from Harquahala to Queen Creek is pretty simple, and will travel the Cen tral Arizona Project canal system to make the journey.

QC Chamber honors businesses, community leaders

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

TheQueen Creek Chamber of Commerce last week honored local businesses, ed ucators and volunteers during its 13th annual awards dinner Sept. 29.

Here’s the rundown on the honorees in each of the award categories.

Emerging Business of the Year:

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice

The Chamber said that all of the Emerging Business of the Year nominees have been open less than three years, provide excellence in customer service, innovative products or services, community volunteerism and/or demonstrate economic support of the Queen Creek area business community

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice won the award for “ex cellence in customer service,” and “providing

innovative products or services, community volunteerism and/or demonstrates economic support of the Queen Creek community.”

All About You Senior Resources and Queen Creek Botanical Gardens were also nominated.

Business of the Year: The Hampton Inn

The Hampton Inn was named winner Busi ness of the Year for meeting the criteria that includes: “has been in business more than three years, provides excellence in customer service, has experienced progressive sales and marketing growth, provides innovative products or services, community volunteer ism, and/or demonstrates economic support of the Queen Creek area business community.”

FatCats entertainment venue and Quick Quack Car Wash were finalists.

Cyndi Carlton, a music teacher at American Lead ership Academy Charter School, was named Edu cator of the Year by the Queen Creek Chamber. (Special to the Tribune)

Trunk or Treat sponsors make last pitch for help

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

TheTown of Queen Creek is making a final push for its annual Trunk or Treat event Oct. 15 downtown, so liciting candy donations and volunteers

“Trunk or Treat provides a unique way for families to enjoy an evening of Hallow een fun,” the town website says.

Children trick-or-treat by going from car trunk to car trunk on Trunk or Treat Street to get goodies at an event that will include carnival games, ax throwing, es cape rooms, food, vendors and other Hal loween attractions.

This is more than an event for kids to fill their baskets with coveted Halloween candy.

Now a decade old, Trunk or Treat has grown into a festival, a huge town happen ing with, live music and streets full of cos tumed kids and adults alike.

Before Queen Creek was as big as it is, there were long stretches of dark road be tween houses, often making it unsafe or just logistically difficult for kids to Trick or Treat door to door.

So the town started the Trunk or Treat festival so people had a central location to gather.

But the event has evolved over time.

“As the city grows, the event has grown to accommodate more engagement,” said Sharon Johnson, outreach and events di rector for Rock Point Church, one of the event’s sponsors.

“As a partner directing its resources and people to participate, I have always been incredibly grateful for the diligence in or ganization and clarity in communication that the team at Parks and Recreation (on behalf of the Town) demonstrate.”

Costumed attendees of a former Trunk or Treat event say in a video on the Town’s YouTube site that the excitement has grown along with the size of what has be come a “go-to” town festival.

“I like how it brings everybody out,” one person said. “It’s kind of nice to be able to do stuff in my hometown.”

It’s very family friendly,” said another. “It brings all the kids together. It’s very com munity driven.”

“Great time. There’s a lot of stuff to do. Lots of games. Food. Kid’s love it,” said a

dad dressed as Ma rio from the Mario and Luigi animated video game series. “Kids have a blast. By the time the night is over the kids are ready to go to bed.”

The candy is, of course, a big part of any Halloween event, but Queen Creek has a made an effort to create an environment that goes beyond the treats.

“Benjamin Franklin Charter School val ues families having the opportunity to have fun in a safe environment,” said Jen nifer Granillo, marketing director for Ben Franklin Charter School, another event sponsor.

“We love being able to support Queen Creek in celebrating family fun activities,” she added.

In addition to asking for candy dona tions, the town is also looking for volun teers for Trunk or Treat.

“The success of Town community events is largely dependent upon the support we

receive from our community volunteers,” the website reads. “There is much to be done and we need your help.”

Trunk or Treat will take place in Queen Creek Town Center on Ellsworth Road (Trunk or Treat Street) between Ocotillo and Rittenhouse roads on Oct. 15 from 5-9 pm.

A special pre-event ticket sale ends on Oct. 7.

Visit QueenCreekAZ.gov/RecRegistration for tickets and special offers on packages

To make donations: queencreekaz. gov/departments/parks-recreation/ special-events/trunk-or-treat

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Teacher of the Year: Cyndy Carlton

Cyndy Carlton was named 2022 Queen Creek Educator of the Year. Carlton is an elementary school music teacher who splits time among three American Lead ership Academy Charter School campuses in Queen Creek.

She teaches band, choir, and orches tra to 5th and 6th grade students. The nominator noted that Carlton includes on her email signature file “Dreams with her eyes open,” part of a quote by World War I Capt. Lawrence of Arabia which is attached to Carlton’s email signature file.

“This quote is permanently attached to my email signature as a reminder to my students to act on their dreams and make them reality,” Carlton says.

When Carlton started as a teacher at ALA, she dreamed of giving her music stu dents the experience of playing a real rock concert for the public in the middle of the ALA High School football field.

She arranged for her 5th and 6th grade music students to train with Mark Wood, one of the founders of the Trans-Siberi an Orchestra rock band. After countless hours of instruction, planning, practice and unimaginable logistics, the pandem ic locked down the world and the concert was canceled.

“Cyndy never gave up,” the nomination said. “She kept in contact with Mr. Wood. She kept teaching the students through the pandemic. There was uncertainty. How do you teach choir when we were told that public singing could spread the disease? How do you work with flutes and clarinets during a pandemic? Teachers all over the country scrambled to figure out these questions.

effort came to fruition on March 22.

“The students had an incredible time learning from professionals,” the Cham ber said. “In the end, they had an event that they will always remember. … Pyro technics, t-shirt cannons firing into the audience, professional lighting, incredible music, the works. Our football field was packed and overflowing with screaming fans. Cyndy pulled it off. Now, all of these students will forever know that hard work can work magic.”

“Mrs. Cluck is an incredibly passionate educator that deeply cares for all of her students,” said a peer who nominated her.

“As a member of the deaf community, she has built a successful ASL program that all students want to be part of.

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“Anyone else would have given up on the Mark Wood concert,” the nominator said. “But Cyndy never, never gave up. Hun dreds of hours became over a thousand. They practiced and practiced. She created backup plans and contingencies. The stu dents practiced for the concert relentless ly. They were inspired by her enthusiasm and vision. Students knew “Crazy Train”, “Viva la Vida”, “Thunderstruck” and other classics backwards and forwards.”

The concert grew to include junior high and high school students and created its own sense of inertia. People from across the ALA campuses were drawn in to par ticipate in one way or another. All of the

Carlton has also published a book on the power of music to change children’s lives for the better. “The Starfish Theory” is available on Amazon.

Kathi Cluck, also from American Lead ership Academy, and Kyle Spitler of Queen Creek High School were also nominated. Cluck teaches a unique class in Amer

Spitler became QCHS Theater Director in the 2014-2015 school year when “no body knew our name,” said a 2019 Queen Creek High School graduate who nominat ed Spitler. “We were a little theatre with no direction but after he came, the theatre program changed forever and every high school theatre company in Arizona knew who we were.

“We worked hard through numerous

ican Sign Language at ALA and Spitler is the theater teacher at QCHS.

Mark and Becky Leonard own the popular Jeremiah’s Italian Ice shop in Queen Creek, which was awarded the Queen Creek Chamber’s Emerging Business of the Year. (Facebook)

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hours of blood, sweat, and tears because we wanted to succeed and we wanted to do it for him. With his direction we knew we were unstoppable when it came to the atre and performing especially at compe tition. In the year of 2017, we swept the Theatre Arizona State competition taking home almost every award and being main stage, and because of him and our hard work we became ranked #1 in the state and #2 the following year.

“We went from nobodies to somebodies. I graduated in 2019 and throughout my years he taught me that it’s okay to be emo tional, how to work hard and to be a leader, and that with lows comes very great highs.”

Volunteer of the Year:

Jennifer Masse

Jennifer Masse was named 2022 Vol

WATER from page 1

The farmland where the aquifers sit is on the south side of Interstate 10 about 60 miles west of Phoenix and the CAP canal in on the north.

“The canal actually passes just adjacent to Harquahala,” Gardner said. “If you can imagine you have this canal to the north of the valley. There is a series of wells that al ready exist.

“And all they’re going to do is the wells will pump into a large pipe and it will go north about 7 miles to the canal. Then, it will take a hard tight and come down to Queen Creek.”

There it will be stored in a series of large retention basins and even tually percolate into the ground and mingle with Queen Creek’s

unteer of the Year for her tireless work in the community organizing Queen Creek’s popular SXS Christmas lights parade, which, according to organizers, is hoping to draw as many as 1,000 cars this year, all decked out in holiday lights.

That’s in addition to the huge light show and other events that happen at the SXS festival.

“Jennifer Masse has helped organize the event for the past three years,” the nomi nation. “During COVID, she brought much needed smiles during this time.”

The Chamber said, “Last year she raised over $15,000 for care packages for mili tary members.” She has also organized a now famous jeep brigade that makes its way through the parade each year.

Joe Kolnick and Dawn Oliphant were also nominated.

Kolnick has been owner of Cold Stone Creamery in Queen Creek for 16 years and

100-year aquifer.

Despite the race for water inde pendence in Arizona and the mea sures communities are taking to achieve it, there are restrictions in place to maintain law and order.

But there haven’t always been.

Arizona has a long history of peo ple battling over water, but now it’s lobbyists in suits doing the nego tiations in courts and legislatures instead of weathered ranchers and farmers taking matters into their own hands on the riverbanks.

As cities sprawled and unbridled growth continued, communities did what they had to do to prove that they had a 100-year water supply prior to development, which the state mandated in 1980.

“The politics of cities going into rural Arizona and buying farmland

was nominated for Volunteer of the Year for his support of non-profits in town.

Oliphant, a town council member, was nominated for her volunteer hours spent as Queen Creek High School PTO president.

Kolnick is known for his work at House of Refuge, a transitional housing and sup port service for people who are homeless, which is how the person who nominated Kolnick knows him.

“Joe is the epitome of a community vol unteer,” the person said. “He did volunteer training at the Barney Family Sports Com plex for six years, and has volunteered with the QC Parks and Rec Dept. He also has volunteered and supported over 16 music programs in more than 20 elemen tary schools and seven high schools.

“Joe has a heart for community, loves Queen Creek, and loves to serve others. He does fundraisers for non-profits, men toring, donating goods, volunteering, and

and pointing to that and saying to the government and to the people ‘that’s our 100-year water supply, it’s over there, so we can build to day’ – that became an untenable political situation back in the late 80’s all the way up until it was re solved,” said Stan Barnes, a former state lawmaker-turned lobbyist who represents the Harquahala Valley Water Association.

It was resolved, sort of, in 1991 when Barnes authored legislation that prohibited the transfer of rural

see WATER page 7

The area bordered in orange rep resents the aquifer in La Paz and far west Maricopa counties that will help feed Queen Creek’s water needs. (Town of Queen Creek)

supporting his community in different ways. He truly is an example that many can learn from. We as a community are so appreciative of Joe!”

In addition to her PTO work, Oliphant was also recognized by the person who nominated her for additional time that she spent involved at the schools.

“She was incredible this year in both boys’ soccer and volleyball- she took over and helped do senior night so all the senior moms could be with their boys (for volley ball),” the nominating person said. “She’s amazing!” 

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groundwater to urban locations. It made exceptions for three large aquifers, Har quahala being the most prominent.

“These three basins are the only ones that you can pump groundwater out of and transport to another location,” Gard ner said. “Those basins were set aside in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s as places to store CAP water when it was plentiful. Then at a later date that water could then be recovered and used downstream from those basins.”

Those downstream locations include the Phoenix metro area and Pinal and Pima counties.

“So, the day has finally come when the demand for water by the growing geog raphies of Arizona, like Queen Creek is there, and the economics are such that it makes sense for a growing town that needs water security to meet some of their security needs with groundwater that is currently being used to grow al falfa or probably cotton in the Harquaha la Valley and use it where it’s got a higher and better use. And that’s in metropoli tan Phoenix,” Barnes said.

The other loophole in the 1991 law states that the water from Harquahala must be used only for “local purposes.”

But it does not define exactly what that means. Whether the law was intended to provide for the needs of urban sprawl is unclear, but it was likely aimed at keeping California at bay.

“I think the local use idea was to head off someone moving that water out of state or doing something with that water that wasn’t related to Arizona,” said Barnes.

“It was contemplated that the growth ar eas of Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties would someday need water that existed in Harquahala Valley. It was purposeful that the water that was being used in Harqua hala would be used for supporting the ur banization in the growth areas of Arizona.”

Critics have for decades opposed the idea of buying rural groundwater and transporting it to thriving metro areas.

“I’m really disappointed,” said state Rep. Regina Cobb, R-La Paz County, fol lowing Queen Creek’s recent purchase of water rights from GSC Farm in Cibola. “I feel like the state has abandoned the riv er communities.”

Cobb and others have vocally opposed urban-rural groundwater transfers, say ing they set a bad precedent and that they

are transferring wealth to more populous areas. They have made their case to the state legislature and the governor.

“We should be looking more at conser vation and living within our means and not basically allowing massive ground water pumping in some area to feed more development in another area,” Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter told the Legislature last year, urg

ing lawmakers to address critical water issues in Arizona.

City officials and other supporters of transferring rural water to growing urban areas point to Arizona history as evidence that the idea is nothing new.

“Arizona has always moved water to where the people are. They’ve never moved people to where the water is,” Gardner said.

“Where people want to locate that’s where they’ve always moved water,” he said. “That’s why you have Salt River Proj ect. That’s why you have Lake Mead and Lake Powell. We haven’t moved people to the rivers. We’ve actually moved the rivers to where people want to live.”

Right now, about 72% of Arizona’s wa ter is used for agricultural purposes, ac cording to the state Department of Natu ral Resources.

As people continue to move to Arizona and places such as Queen Creek continue to experience rapid double-digit popula tion growth, their water usage will switch from water intensive agricultural use to housing, which will demand less water.

Queen Creek has the option to buy an other half million acre-feet of water from the Harquahala Valley in the future, de pending on how much the Arizona De partment of Water Resources says is actu ally in the aquifer. Estimates range as high as 7–8 million acre feet that they could broker over the next 100-years.

“That has to be determined first. Of that, if you would think of it, we are buying a sleeve of water of a half million acre-feet,” Gardner said. “We could own one million acre-feet of water out of Harquahala. It will depend on what the department comes back and says can be removed.”

There is infrastructure work to be done and government contracts to be signed following the Department of Water Re sources determination of how much wa ter is actually in the aquifer.

But the contract between Queen Creek and the Harquahala Valley Water Asso ciation is inked and, following the other paperwork, the first drops of water from this deal are likely to reach Queen Creek sometime in early 2024.

Gardner has said that the town remains aggressive in diversifying its portfolio and will continue to look for other sources of water, dutifully protecting its 100-year un derground supply.

Between the Harquahala and GSC Farm water purchases, Queen Creek has com mitted more than $51-million to doing just that in the last two weeks alone.

Queen Creek Utilities Director Paul Gardner said the deal with the Harquahala Valley Water Association is “one of the next steps” toward ensuring an adequate supply of water. (YouTube)

This map outlines the area where members of the Harquahala Valley Water Association live. (Town of Queen Creek)

County pound poster dog’s death suggests problems

BY CECILIA CHAN Tribune Staff Writer

Rookie was the face of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control’s part in a national campaign early this year as it tried to ease overcrowding at its Phoenix and Mesa shelters.

Described as “a giant pup who loves to run zoomies in the yard and play outside, but what he really loves is getting atten tion,” the 3-year-old Rottweiler-mix was photographed smiling as his head was be ing scratched.

Four days after the Bissell Pet Foun dation’s national Empty the Shelters campaign ended on May 15, Rookie was euthanized.

His mental health had declined after an administrative reorganization that dis banded the county shelter system’s be havioral team.

“Basically, it’s stressful at the shelter,” said Kim Schulze, the shelters’ former county behavior and training team man ager. “Lots of dogs don’t do well and start to deteriorate.”

Whether Rookie’s death could have been prevented had the county not ended the team is debatable.

But animal advocates said its disman tling was a bad idea.

That and other alleged conditions have prompted a petition calling for reform at the shelter.

Behavior team dismantled

The county hired Schulze in June 2017 after she had been volunteering there since 2014. She took a substantial pay cut to oversee a team of seven assessing cats and dogs coming into the two shelters in Phoenix and in Mesa and keeping them mentally and physically healthy during their stay.

“Maricopa County takes in an extremely large number of animals and needs behav ioral support to make those decisions as to which dogs can be safely placed, which can be safely cared for (and) which dogs can make certain improvements,” Schulze said.

“When the behavioral team started, we started to do enrichment, giving treats in the kennels, starting to do playgroups and working with animals that needed extra help to be adoptable.”

Schulze and her team were reassigned

under a new structure instituted last No vember by Assistant County Manager Val erie Beckett, then serving as interim ani mal care director.

“She changed my position to training manager,” Schulze said. “So instead of as sessing the behavior of animals, I was training staff. She said she wanted every one to be a shelter expert.”

Forbidden from performing assess ments on some of the more challenging animals, Schulze felt her hands were tied and resigned in May. She now works for the Seattle Humane Society.

County officials defended the restruc turing.

“It’s important to us to have staff mem

bers who understand behavioral issues in our pets,” said Kim Powell, spokeswoman for Animal Care and Control in an email. “In fact, our goal is to have more of them.

“But the behavioral team as a whole did not have a formal training protocol and lacked data to identify if it was help ful intervention in its present state, so we re-structured.”

Schulze disputed Powell’s assessment of her team.

“The behavior team had protocols for training behavior staff,” she said. “There were three levels within the behavior team …Each level had different duties within their job description that aligned with their level of animal behavior experi

ence, knowledge, and skills.

“On-the-job training consisted of daily interactions with animals with opportuni ties for feedback and shadowing with more skilled and knowledgeable handlers.”

Schulze said that learning about animal behavior is an ongoing process and that the county shelter needs positions dedi cated to animal behavior.

Shelter associates can’t be expected to become experts in behavior because they don’t have time during their work day of watering, feeding and cleaning to dedi cate to the learning process and they may not have the skills or desire to learn more about animal behavior, Schulze said.

And, she questioned how the county was recruiting staff with behavior expe rience when “behavior” isn’t in any of the job postings.

Lorena Bader, vice president of the non profit Four Paws and Friends, believes had Schulze and her team been in place, Rook ie would have had a fighting chance.

“If the team was in place, (Rookie) would be getting out every day or every other day,” Bader said. “If he was deteri orating, they would have done more to make sure he stayed healthy until he got out of the shelter.”

Petition seeks changes

Bader is circulating a petition drive on change.org demanding the county Board of Supervisors and administration “pro vide proper medical and behavioral care for the animals in their charge.” As of Sept. 28, it had garnered 22,012 signatures.

Arizona law provides for the creation of county shelters and requires that any impounded animal be given “proper and humane care and maintenance.” Other than that, there doesn’t appear to be any oversight of shelter operations.

Bader, a retired Corona del Sol High School chemistry and physics teacher, de tailed a number of what she called “shelter failings,” and backed as many as she could with department records she obtained through public records requests.

She said she’s contacted veterinarians who left the county but they were fearful of possible retribution from their former employer.

Bader’s complaints also included that

Rookie, a 3-year-old Rottweiler-mix, was the Maricopa County’s poster dog for a nationwide campaign to ease shelter overcrowding. But four days after the campaign ended, the dog was euthanized. (Special to the Tribune)

Appeals Court upholds governor’s jobless pay cut

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

Gov. Doug Ducey broke no laws when he unilaterally cut off the extra $300 a week the unemployed in Arizona were getting last year, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.

Judge David Weinzweig acknowledged that Congress in 2020 agreed to supple ment the state benefits that was available to workers displaced by COVID. And Gov. Doug Ducey directed the state Depart ment of Economic Security to join.

But Weinzweig, writing for the unani mous three-judge panel, said the gover nor was entitled to withdraw from the program early even though it left what the attorney for those challenging the action said were about 100,000 people who had their benefits cut back to the state max imum of $240 a week, the second lowest in the nation.

The judge rejected arguments that state law required Ducey to pursue the maxi mum benefits available, saying that’s not how the law is worded.

The court did not address the fact that Ducey, in halting the extra payments on July 10, 2021 – 58 days before the feder al program actually ended – made it clear he was hoping that lower jobless benefits would help certain Arizona employers, particularly in the restaurant and hospi tality industry, find the workers that they needed.

Central to the legal fight is the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. Approved by Congress in March 2020, it initially provided an extra $600 a week on top of state benefits.

Arizona agreed to accept that money.

The amount was later cut to $300.

Attorneys for Unemployed Workers United and several individuals who lost their jobs due to the pandemic charged that the legislature essentially required Ducey to go along.

They cited state statutes which require the Department of Economic Security, which administers the unemployment fund, to “take such action as may be neces sary to secure to this state and its citizens all advantage available under provisions of the social security act that related to unemployment compensation.’’

Paul Gattone, one of the lawyers, said

there were about 100,000 Arizonans still collecting benefits who should also have been getting the extra $300 for the past eight weeks. That comes out to $2,400 per individual, money he said the state should go back to the feds to secure.

Only thing is, Weinzweig said, is the new benefits were not created under the social security act, making that state mandate inapplicable. And the judge said federal law specifically allowed states to with draw with 30 days notice.

Ducey, in making the announcement in May said the move was justified, citing the shortage of people willing to work.

The governor, however, attached a car rot to the plan.

He said anyone who was collecting ben efits would get a one-time $2,000 bonus if they take a full-time job by Sept. 6. And the state also offered some child-care as sistance and even a semester of commu nity college tuition for those who go back to work.

“In Arizona, we’re going to use feder al money to encourage people to work ... instead of paying people not to work,’’ Ducey said in a video announcement of his decision.

In making the announcement in May, Ducey press aide C.J. Karamargin said there were plenty of jobs out there and little reason for people to be collecting benefits. More to the point, he said that

restaurants and hotels are struggling to find workers.

“The hospitality industry in Arizona, a critical part of our economy, was perhaps

the hardest hit sector,’’ Karamargin said.

“They cannot find enough workers for the jobs they have to fill,’’ he continued. “And this plan is aimed at helping them fill those positions.’’

But Karamargin said that problem ex tends to other sectors of the economy where employers are having trouble find ing workers.

Inherent in that is the governor’s belief that there are those for whom the total benefits – the $240 a week maximum paid by the state plus the extra $300 – provid ed a disincentive to get out and find a job. That total came out to $13.50 an hour, be fore taxes are deducted.

By contrast, the state’s minimum wage at the time was $12.15 an hour; restau rants can pay $3 an hour less if the tips that servers get bring them up to the minimum.

Since that time the minimum wage has risen to $12.80; it is going to $13.85 in Janu ary. Lawmakers also boosted the maximum jobless benefit to $320 a week, but lowered to 24 weeks from 26 the maximum number of weeks someone can collect.

CUSD board bristles at new state mandates

BY KEN SAIN Tribune Staff Writer

Areluctant Governing Board of the Chandler Unified School District voted to comply with state law at its Sept. 28 meeting, agreeing to change policies to fit what one member called a political agenda.

A majority of board members made it clear they were not happy about it.

“I just want to take a moment to explain why I voted yes,” Lara Bruner said. “We took an oath of office, where we said we would support the U.S. Constitution and the laws of Arizona. But it is truly dis heartening that some of our representa tives and our legislature have decided to increase their control from the top over decisions that should be made in our local communities.”

She was not alone.

“It’s amazing how people just say (they) believe in local control until they can tell everybody else how to live,” Jason Olive said.

“I’m very disappointed in the Legis lature, and its efforts to micromanage school districts and force their political beliefs on the district,” Joel Wirth said. “I think it’s wrong and inappropriate.”

All three voted to approve the changes mandated by the state on a host of contro versial issues. The harshest words came from board member Lindsay Love, who cast the sole vote against their adoption.

“These policy revisions are rooted in transphobia, homophobia, racism, and a general disregard for the mental health and wellness of our students,” Love said after her no vote.

“Some of these policy revisions and adoptions would create an environment in which our LGBTQ students could poten tially be outed to their parents and com munity members before they are ready and could create situations that put their physical, mental and emotional health and safety at risk.”

Love added, “While I understand that district policies are often determined by the state Legislature, at some point we

have to take a stand in school boards and defend our kids. When we simply ignore and stay quiet about obvious contradic tions between our stated values and our votes and actions, why should a parent or voter trust us? They shouldn’t because it’s plainly hypocritical.”

The elected officials were not the only ones to express displeasure at the chang es state lawmakers forced them to make.

“These statutes that come back from leg islation are law and districts have to work with policies to be able to make sure the laws are followed,” Superintendent Frank Narducci said. “We don’t have choices on those pieces.

“We’re not in agreement with all the laws, and we will make sure that all stu dents – all students – are protected all the time. All students means all. … I’ve been in education for 40 years and just haven’t seen this type of activity. It’s al most harnessing the energy we have in a school district.”

Here is a summary of the policy changes the Governing Board approved that were mandated by the state:

• The one getting the most attention is a law that requires districts to sepa rate sports into boys, girls, coed or mixed and assign athletes to those teams based on their biological sex. It also allows students and their parents the right to sue if they are harmed by a school knowingly violating that.

• Schools are prohibited from referring students to, or using any sexually ex plicit material except allowed in sex education classes. There is an exemp tion for material that has serious edu cational value.

• Parents may request and view any records that relate to their children. They also have a right to know what books their child has checked out of the library. And parents have the right to sue the district if any of their pa rental rights have been violated.

Love said this is the one that may force school officials to out LGBTQ students to their parents, pointing out some parents would have negative reaction to the news, including possibly kicking them out of their homes.

• Schools cannot insist on students get ting vaccinated against COVID-19 or

any of its variants to attend classes.

The law barring mandated shots to protect against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus has been on the books since 2007 but the Legislature this year added a ban on mandating COVID-19 vaccines.

At the time of its passage, Arizona joined 23 other states in banning HPV shots on grounds it encouraged students to engage in sexual activity. By 2018, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 43 million teens and young adults had con tracted some form of HPV, which can cause everything from genital warts to cancers.

• Districts cannot require young stu dents to wear a mask without paren tal consent.

• Parents can sue the district if they usurp the rights of parents in the up bringing, education, health care or mental health of their children. This is primarily directed at the teaching on controversial sensitive issues.

• The district must add a 9/11 educa tion day, where it gives age-appropri ate lessons about the terrorist attacks in 2001.

• Outside contractors who work as school psychologists no longer need to be licensed if their work is in the educational institution setting.

• Both parents of current and prospec tive students have the right to visit a school and tour the campus or moni tor a classroom.

• Increases the number of questions students must answer correctly on a civics test to graduate from 60 to 70.

• Schools must set aside one to two minutes each day for a moment of silence. Teachers cannot direct the students on what to mediate on. Stu dents should consult with their par ents on how best to use that time.

• Districts are modifying eligibility for waivers that allow a student to at tend a school in another district than where he lives if there are logistical reasons (distance, transportation, etc.) why they cannot go to a school in their district.

• Hazing is now a Class 1 misdemean or. If the victim dies, then it becomes a Class 4 felony. The major change is the definition of hazing.

MCACC harbored a hostile work environ ment, had low staffing and morale and a high-turnover of staff.

Bader said she volunteered at the shel ter from 2016-19 until she was fired for sharing a photo of temperatures topping 100 degrees in the shelter. She still keeps in contact with some volunteers there.

“The kennels are not always cleaned because there’s not enough staff,” Bader said. “It’s not like they never get cleaned but they’re so short-staffed they’ve start ed not to do deep cleaning. They just started spot cleaning, which is not OK when you have infectious disease in the shelter and have distemper.”

She also said that dogs “don’t get out of their kennels for weeks at a time,” which leads to behavioral problems.

“If they’re lucky they get out once every five days for a walk or yard time. If they get sick, they sit in their kennel for two weeks with kennel cough. Some dogs in the medical wing are in there one month and not getting out.”

Rookie’s sad end

County records show Rookie came into the shelter Jan. 24 as a stray and was con sidered “friendly but skittish, allows all handling.” He was vaccinated, neutered and microchipped in anticipation of adoption.

Rookie’s behavioral assessments on Jan. 25 and Jan 29 stated that he was a friendly dog who “thinks he’s a lap dog and wants lots of attention” and that he might be house-broken.

A Feb. 3 assessment, however, began noting he was nervous and agitated and did not want to re-enter his kennel.

A Feb. 26 evaluation reported Rookie fought with a dog in a neighboring kennel and on March 9, he was “barking, growl

ing, snapping teeth, lunging at other dogs.”

On March 12 the records showed that Rookie was “very stressed, pupils dilated and red eyes, panting.”

“Dog is deteriorating in kennel and stressed out,” a memo stated. “Needs outlet.”

In the shelter’s paperwork, it was re ported that a plea was sent out on Feb. 26 and again on March 3 asking fosters to help Rookie.

By May 11, Rookie’s behavior was up dated to “urgent.”

“Dog is stressed out and over-aroused in kennel, barking, jumping, panting, kennel fighting,” the memo said. “Dog is unable to

fully settle with handlers in yard. Needs outlet. May be at risk of euthanasia on May 18 or sooner if warranted.”

Rookie’s records also show he wasn’t walked daily. In February, he had four walks but then because he was being treated for kennel cough, he was caged for 14 days until the antibiotics were finished, Bader explained.

But the pattern repeated itself with four walks in March, four in April and three in May.

Stimulation keeps dogs healthy

Experts say that shelter dogs need daily

physical and emotional stimulation to deal with the stresses of kennel life and that exercise in general helps dogs avoid bore dom, which leads to destructive behavior.

And, according to Guidelines for Stan dards of Care in Animal Shelters released by the Association of Shelter Veterinar ians, “Dogs must be provided with daily opportunities for activity outside of their runs for aerobic exercise (and) for longterm shelter stays, appropriate levels of additional enrichment must be provided on a daily basis.”

Powell said, “Unfortunately, we some times have over 800 dogs in our care at the two MCACC shelters and not every dog can get out for a walk every day, which is why we desperately need volunteers to help our staff with cleaning kennels, daily enrichment and, of course, walks.

“Staff cannot get to every dog in addition to their other duties,” she said.

Powell added, “Our current director has been one of MCACC’s longest serving vol unteers and he has seen volunteer engage ment wax and wane over the years. We really need more volunteers to sign up for walks to help us get the hundreds of dogs out for walks every day.”

She also denied Bader’s claim that in-kennel enrichment is sporadic.

Bader said while the Arizona Humane Society gives five different types of en richment daily to animals for their senses – eat, smell, feel, hear and see – that’s not the case at the county shelter.

“At the most at MCACC, they get one of those and it’s often someone walks through the kennels and sprays lavender or goes through and blows bubbles or gives milk bones,” she said.

Powell said Bader’s claim isn’t true.

“Animals receive enrichment every day,

The county used this poster during a nationwide campaign to spur adoptions by waiving fees. Rookie, the dog in the poster, was euthanized four days after the campaign ended in May. (Special to the Tribune)

New-home buyers can sue builders over defects, court rules

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

and equally aware of the risks and terms.

weighs enforcement.’’

Buyers

of new homes are entitled to sue builders for hidden defects for up to eight years -- even if they have signed contracts waiving that right, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a ruling with wide implications, the justices said that the common law “im plied warranty of workmanship and hab itability’’ recognizes the fact that home buyers are not experts in all the things that are required in constructing a house.

“A homebuyer must ... rely heavily on the builder-vendor’s knowledge of con struction quality, as builders are skilled in the profession, modern construction is complex and regulated by many gov ernment codes,’’ wrote Justice Ann Scott Timmer. “And homebuyers are gener ally not skilled or knowledgeable in construction, plumbing, or electrical re quirements and practices.’’

She acknowledged that, in general, peo ple are legally entitled to sign contracts defining the responsibilities of each. That presumes both parties are “sophisticated’’

But in cases of new homes, Timmer said, there is an “inequality in bargaining pow er’’ between the builder and the buyer.

“The implied warranty was created in recognition of this disparity, and undoubt edly reflects the homebuyers’ reasonable expectations that a newly constructed home would be properly designed and built,’’ she wrote.

Wednesday’s ruling was not unanimous. Justice Kathryn King said it runs afoul of the state’s public policy favoring freedom to contract.

And King, joined by Justice Clint Bolick, pointed out that right of implied habitabil ity exists nowhere in state law. Instead, she noted, it was created by a 1979 ruling of the State Court of Appeals.

Timmer said that’s irrelevant, noting subsequent state laws have implicitly af firmed that decision.

“The freedom to contact has long been considered a paramount public policy un der common law that courts do not lightly infringe,’’ Timmer wrote. “But courts will refuse to enforce a contract term ... when an identifiable public policy clearly out

That public policy, she said, goes back to 1979 when the state Court of Appeals eliminated what she described as the “buy er beware’’ philosophy of new home pur chases, replacing it with the implied war ranty of workmanship and habitability.

“The warranty is limited to latent de fects that are undiscoverable by a rea sonable pre-purchase inspection and ser vice to protect innocent purchasers and hold home builders accountable for their work,’’ Timmer said.

On the other side of the issue, the justice said, is “diminished interest’’ in enforcing waivers of the implied warranty like the one at issue here.

“Modern homebuilding frequently oc curs in large-scale developments, leaving the buyer to either purchase the home under terms directed by the builder-ven dor or forego the purchase altogether,’’ Timmer said. And in this case, she said, Zambrano signed the purchase agreement and accepted the warranty terms “with no variation to the preprinted terms in either document, without representation, and without any negotiation about warranties,

suggesting she was in a take-it-or-leave-it situation.’’

Also weighing in favor of the implied warranty, Timmer said, are the “multiple ways’’ it protects buyers.

“Warranting that a home was built using minimum standards of good workman ship conforms to a homebuyer’s reason able expectations,’’ she said. And Timmer said it “discourages the unscrupulous flyby-night operator and purveyor of shod dy work who might otherwise blight our communities.’’

Timmer acknowledged that an unhappy purchaser can file a complaint against a builder’s license with the Registrar of Con tractors and potentially get money from a recovery fund. But she said this is no substitute for enforcing the implied war rant, noting recovery fund payments are capped at $30,000 and do not reimburse for other consequential damages.

And there’s something else.

Timmer pointed out those who buy old er homes have an opportunity to deter mine how it has “withstood the passage of time,’’ something not available to new home buyers. 

SHELTER from page 11

including Kongs, food-feeder puzzles, scent enrichment, rawhides, sometimes even music,” Powell said. “There is an en richment board outside of the first door to the left of the volunteer hallway for specif ics.”

Kongs are enrichment toys filled with treats that help relieve a dog’s stress and boredom.

Bader shared a Sept. 12 email from Di rector Michael Mendel, where he stated he was pausing all public group walks and public enrichment stuffing events, effec tive Sept. 16.

“The two organizations, Four Paws and Friends and Hope Whispers, have been told that we may not fill Kongs, pass out enrichment or to conduct public dog walks,” Bader said. “Four Paws does the walks at the West shelter weekly and Hope Whispers does them at the East shelter. We typically get 60-100 dogs out for a 20-30-minute walk. It is often the only time they get out for a week.”

Four Paws also have been buying and stuffing Kongs for the shelter for a year.

Mendel said while the shelter appreci ated the help from volunteers, there were “several incidents that prevent these ac tivities from continuing at this time.”

Examples he gave of “safety-related” incidents included participants wearing inappropriate and unsafe clothing such as shorts for dog walking and displaying

unsafe behaviors such as putting their fac es close to the faces of unfamiliar dogs for pictures during the walks.

Mendel added that there also have been some recent social media postings of “potential vandalism threats towards staff and/or property,” which he acknowl edged wasn’t coming from Four Paws and

Friends volunteers.

The shelter director also cited an inci dent when a group of volunteers over stuffed Kongs, which he said “can cause many dogs to lose interest in enrichment activity.”

He added that the shelter had to throw out over 300 Kongs donated by Four Paws because they were “too full, uneaten, and unable to be fully cleaned for reuse.”

“We have recently looked into purchas ing additional Kongs and the pricing went up, so we were waiting,” Mendel said, add ing that the group can help in other ways such as joining the volunteer program, becoming fosters or buying prepackaged items such as dog biscuits, hot dogs and bully sticks.

Rookie’s death caused such an uproar on social media that Mendel, who was hired in March to oversee Maricopa Coun ty Animal Care and Control, responded.

Mendel in his post noted MCACC at the time had approximately 695 animals, stressing the county’s capacity for care. He said the shelters were seeing more and

Small dogs fill kennel crates at the Maricopa County West Valley Animal Care Center in Phoe nix. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

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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. County officials say they need more volunteers at that shelter and their other one in Mesa. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

SHELTER from page 12

more people surrendering their pets be cause of homelessness.

“We are seeing more animals with in creasing dangerous behaviors, especially in the East Shelter,” Mendel wrote May 23.

“While MCACC’s intention is to save every animal that comes into our care, I must weigh the safety risk to staff, volunteers, and the public.

“Dogs that receive deadlines are those struggling in the shelter environment and deteriorating.”

He said Rookie received a seven-day deadline and was up for adoption on the shelter’s portal.

“His deadline passed,” Mendel said. “No one came to rescue.”

The last evaluation on May 15 for Rook ie said he was walking well on a leash,

took his treats gently, jumped up to solicit attention from his handler and had no is sues on returning to his kennel.

He was euthanized four days later at 2:29 p.m.

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Spending cap looms again over school districts

BY J GRABER Tribune Staff Writer

While school districts in Gilbert and throughout Arizona are worried they will have to grap ple again with a voter-imposed cap on their spending next spring, it will be up to the next Legislature to do something about it.

The Aggregate Expenditure Limit caps what school districts around the state can spend in a year to a 1980-level plus 10% adjusted for inflation.

The limit was given a one-year hiatus by the state Legislature in the 11th hour ear lier this year, but it is still in place without waivers. That means Arizona’s schools won’t be able to spend much of the $1 billion budget increase lawmakers gave them this year, school officials say.

“If the Legislature doesn’t take action before March 1 of 2023, our district, as will every other public district that’s not a charter district, will have to amend their budget to reduce the budget by the amount we are over on a percentage ba sis,” Scottsdale Unified Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel told his governing board last month.

Noting that meant a potential $28 mil lion budget hit, Menzel said Gov. Doug Du cey is not quite living up to the promises he made last year when the state budget was passed.

Ducey vowed to hold a special session of the Legislature to address the aggregate expenditure limit, but that has not yet happened.

“We still don’t have one promised,” Men zel said. “Some reports are that the Gov ernor has said there are three conditions which were not necessarily the case at the time of the handshake agreement before.

“That would be it – 1. it has to happen, so some sense of urgency (by lawmakers), 2. that we have support from the House and Senate leaders (to pass a waiver) and

3. that you can confirm that it will pass – with a two-thirds vote. That means 40 representatives and 20 senators.”

There have also been reports that Ducey was waiting until the lawsuit surrounding Prop 208, the Invest in Education Act, was finished, Menzel said.

But the Supreme Court ruled last month that the act, which adds a 3.5% tax on all income over $250,000 (or $500,00 for joint filers), is likely unconstitutional, though it left it up to the trial court to de termine that.

“That has happened so that’s no longer an issue,” Menzel said. “Some others have raised new questions about whether or not the referendum on ESA (Empower ment School Accounts) gets on the ballot because signatures have been collected, whether that was a deal breaker … there are a lot of moving parts and pieces here and some of it is political in nature.”

ESAs are $7,000 vouchers given by the state to students who do not want to at tend traditional public schools. The Save

our Schools coalition opposed ESA but it remains unclear if it collected enough pe tition signatures for a 2024 referendum on the measure.

“While the governor encouraged us to spend the money when he made his bud get statement, signed it, talked about the historic increase in public education, it was a $1 billion historic increase and that this should be spent on classroom teach ers,” Menzel said. “That all could go away in a heartbeat if action isn’t taken.”

C.J. Karamargin, a spokesman for Du cey’s office, said the governor is waiting for an assurance that a waiver of the ex penditure limit would pass in the Leg islature before calling a special session. “We have seen no indication there are the votes.”

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, report that outgoing House Majority Lead er Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa) said would be no special session and that the issue would be dealt with in January.

“I think part of the reason is that the

going

votes aren’t there,” Kavanagh said. “I’m speculating but a lot of members were ex tremely upset with the Save Our Schools” effort to kill or at least postpone imple mentation of the universal school voucher program.

Kavanaugh noted that in the past he’s voted to waive the expenditure limit, “but like a lot of (legislators), I have concerns that the education community is refusing to take this back to the ballot to have the cap either raised or eliminated.

“They have enough money to send the vouchers to the ballot but the important spending cap, they don’t want to deal with. Some people speculate that’s be cause polls have shown that voters would not eliminate this cap.

“This cap was passed by the voters and it did give the Legislature the power to waive it but not every year, I mean, not every time,” Kavanagh said. “This has to be dealt with by the voters. A lot of legislators are concerned about continually overriding the will of the voters … when the education people don’t want to go back and have it settled by the people who created it.”

School boards across the state are gunshy about spending the extra money in this year’s budget until they get the ex penditure limit waiver, said Christopher Kotterman, director of governmental re lations for the Arizona School Boards As sociation.

“They understood (the agreement for a special legislative session) to mean be fore the next Legislature comes in,” Kot terman said.

“Obviously that hasn’t happened yet and school districts are anxious about this because they got a significant in crease in their budgets, which they are grateful for,” Kotterman added, “but some of them feel they can’t fully commit the money until they are sure the Legislature is going to override the expenditure limit because they don’t want to have to cut it after the fact.”

in

State Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Scottsdale, said he and many of his colleagues haven’t dealt with the spending cap because they’re angry that so many local school officials fought the universal school voucher program. (Tribune file photo)

Holocaust survivor’s past enthralls QC students

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

DirkVan Leenan was two when sol diers showed up at his tiny house in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1942.

“I thought those soldiers were magnif icent,” Van Leenan said. “I looked up to them. I thought, ‘Beautiful! Uniforms and a gun!’ That’s exciting for a little boy.”

Dirk instantly thought of the 20 Jews hiding under the clapboard porch of the house and reacted with the same sense of innocence and excitement that any 2-yearold boy might,

“I thought they were doing a game of hide and seek,” Van Leenan recalled on Sept. 23 for a group Queen Creek Junior High students at an assembly at Crismon High School.

“They were searching the house and I thought ‘you know, I know where the peo ple are so I can help them a little bit.’ And my mother saw that I was going to do that.”

Van Leenan’s mother – the wife of the prominent Nazi resistance movement leader Cornelius Van Leenan - quickly in tervened.

“She grabbed me and took me to anoth er room and said ‘never tell the soldiers where our friends are,’” Van Leenan, now 82, said. “Because they’re going to take them. So, I learned at an early age that the Jewish people were hunted down by the Nazis and taken away to concentra tion camps.”

Van Leenan tells his moving and per sonal story across the Valley every chance he gets feeling it’s important to keep the message alive lest it be forgotten.

The students were held rapt by his sto ries of suffering and perseverance.

“I could never imagine in a million years,” said seventh-grader Jaxson Bales. “I would be so scared. I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Many of the students lined up after Van Leenan’s half hour speech to hug him, thank him or to simply shake his hand.

“I’ve heard people talk about it,” said Jaxson. “I’ve never really talked about it with anyone in my other classes. I thought it was really interesting.”

Among Van Leenan’s earliest memories is a family of four fellow Jews who lived on his street in The Hague.

He was fond of the two little girls who were close to his age and they were play mates until a truck showed up one day and Dirk watched as those armed soldiers he once revered pushed their parents into the back of the truck.

“And then my two girlfriends came out crying,” Van Leenan said. “The soldiers grabbed them by the arm and threw them

on the truck like a sack of potatoes. They were put on a train to a concentration camp and finally killed. That’s nasty.”

Van Leenan said the alliances that neigh bors built to protect each other and oth er members of the resistance wore thin when the Nazis began using tactics to turn people against each other.

As the German occupation wore on, it became more difficult to tell who was part of the resistance and pretenders.

“There is another group of people and those are the people that collaborate with the enemy,” he said. “They call them trai tors and in Holland there were a lot of trai tors. And the reason was because there

was no food.

“Can you imagine having nothing to eat for three days, let alone two weeks?” Van Leenan said.

There was no food because the Germans had taken it from nearby farms and facto ries and sent it to fuel soldiers.

Van Leenan says he and his family sur vived on boiled sugar beets and the card board-like patties and syrup they pro duced just to have something to chew on.

Desperate for anything to eat, neighbors and friends started to turn in other mem bers of the resistance in exchange for food.

Dirk Van Leenan, a Holocaust survivor, told his chilling tale of life under the Nazis to a group of enrapt Queen Creek Junior High students during an assembly Sept. 23. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

Dirk’s father was eventually captured by Nazi soldiers while hiding in a bin of cattle manure. His father was taken to a city jail and tortured for five days. Soldiers then came for the family, and loaded them onto a train with at least 200 other people.

“It was so tight that I was standing there and I could not even move my hands,” Van Leenan said. “It took four days and four nights of standing in that cattle car together with people. No toilet. No water. No food. Not enough oxygen because of so many people. And when we arrived, we arrived in a camp called Bergen-Belsen.”

At the time, Bergen-Belsen was the last concentration camp still open and held at least 60,000 captured Jews.

“And everywhere we saw mountains of dead bodies,” Van Leenan said. “The faces I will never forget. Sometimes I wake up at night and see those faces.”

The family miraculously survived the conditions in Bergen-Belsen and was eventually liberated in April 1945.

According to the Wiener Holocaust Li brary website, “In the immediate after math of the liberation, over 500 people died each day as a result of the extremely poor sanitation and widespread disease…

In total, over 50,000 people died at Ber gen-Belsen throughout its existence.”

The Queen Creek School District has made a conscious effort to invite Van Leenan and other people who have

been part of significant historical events to tell their first-hand stories in person to students.

“I don’t want these stories in classrooms to just be that – to be stories,” said Fern Otero, Queen Creek School Dis trict’s instructional coach for social stud ies, adding:

“It happened. It was real and I feel like the more that we can expose our students to the reality of it, it becomes less of a sto ry and more of actual events that we need to be aware of.”

Otero worked with the Phoenix Holo caust Association to find Van Leenan and set up his presentation to the students. The association has as its mission to “pro mote awareness of the Holocaust and con tinue to repair the world.”

Van Leenan has authored three books about surviving life as a Jew in the 1940s and his time in the concentration camp.

“I am one of the few people that is still alive. Most Holocaust survivors are no more,” Van Leenan said. “There are trag ic things, but there are also very uplifting things of people helping people.” 

Know anything interesting going on in Queen Creek? Send your news to pmaryniak@timeslocalmedia.com

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Queen Creek Junior High students were moved by Dirk Van Leenan’s stories about the Nazi occupation and his internment in a German concentration camp where thousands of Jews died. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

QC woman’s love of goats leads to a business

BY MELODY BIRKETT Tribune Contributor

MichelleHays raised goats as a kid in 4-H and has been in love with them ever since.

When she got married, her husband bought her two Nigerian dwarf goats but Michelle had to sell them when he joined the Navy.

After that, the couple traveled but when they were ready to settle down, Hays said, “I told my husband I’d like to get a farm again and have goats because I love them so much.”

Within two months after buying prop erty in Queen Creek, eight years ago, Hays said her husband bought her two goats.

“I tell everybody if he had known what I was going to turn it into, I don’t know if he would have bought me the first two because I have about 60 Nigerian dwarf goats at this point,” said Hays, owner of Bella Luna Goat Farm.

“I basically have turned it into a hobby farm. I love having them. I love milking them.”

Babies are bottle-fed.

“These guys are built for milk so they’re leaner, they’re smaller,” explained Hays. “You’re not going to get a ton of meat off of them. So, we just sell them for dairy. Most of the boys sell as pets because they’re small. And then the girls I sell go to people that want milk eventually.”

Hays is milking 18 of her goats. The rest are either dry or pregnant.

Currently, she has 50 females and 10 males.

Maintaining the farm involves more than feeding and milking the animals as she also has to clean the stalls and wash the milk machine. So, Hays gets a hand with feeding and milking the goats from her three children.

“Generally, I take my time and make sure everybody’s healthy, do a welfare check, check to see if anybody needs their hoofs trimmed that day and rinse out water

buckets,” said Hays.

“They’re really an easy-going type of an animal. They have their pasture and grass so they have food all day. I do give them hay, as well, because that helps their milk production in addition to the grass. I also like to have auto waters so it lessens the workload.”

The farm isn’t a public one so there’s no admission.

“If people want to come to pet the goats, we let them,” Hays said. “It’s something I do for me and for my family.

“I drink the milk,” she continued. “I sell the babies. I make goat milk soap and sell that. And then we sell the milk, as well. According to Arizona law, you can’t sell goat milk for human consumption but you can sell it for craft use or for animal consumption.”

Customers can purchase soap on Hays’ Facebook page or they can stop by her home and pick out what they want.

The male goats sell for $150 and the females are sold as registered dairy goats and start at $450 and go over

$1,000, depending on the awards their moms have earned.

“We do monthly milk testing on all my milkers,” said Hays. “And it goes into a huge database and you can tell how much milk each goat milks, their butterfat, how much protein is in the milk.”

The information is tallied up at the end of the year for the average amount of milk each goat produces.

“So, that delegates how much their babies sell for,” Hays explained. “A goat that milks a lot is going to eat the same as a goat that does not milk a lot. If you want milk, you want a goat that’s going to make a lot. You could get a goat that milks a cup a day or a goat that milks a gallon a day.

“And that’s mostly a genetic thing. The idea is to keep breeding up to get the goats to milk a lot so you can get more milk with fewer goats.”

Hays said feed costs skyrocketed this year with an average bale of hay selling for $20. One bale feeds all of her goats each day. Minerals cost $50 a month and Hayes spends $200 monthly on grain.

For those with only two goats, a bale of hay should last two weeks, according to Hays.

Selling baby goats, the milk and soap nets Hays enough money to feed them.

“I don’t make a ton of money,” said Hays. “I’m not getting rich, but it pays for itself. I love to do it. I don’t do it because I have to, because it’s my job. I do it because I love it. I love to sit and watch them. They’re just so fun. It’s such a passion.”

Zoning does not permit goats to live in homes in a subdivision. Hays said you must have at least a 1/2 acre.

“I think goats are absolutely fantastic,” Hays said. “They are so smart and fun ny and super intelligent animals. People don’t give enough credit for what they are. I compare them more to dogs than oth er livestock animals. Some act like dogs.

visit QueenCreekTribune.com

Michelle Hays started Bela Luna Goat Farm in Queen Creek partly out of a fondness for the animal that she developed as a kid. (Special to the Tribune)

They’ll follow you around and run with the dogs. And they’re just really neat and fun to watch.

“And you get the milk out of them which is so good for you – so much bet ter than cow’s milk, so much easier to di gest. It’s good for people who are lactose intolerant.”

She also enjoys teaching others how to raise goats and watching people fall in love with them.

“People get a couple of cute little ba bies, not knowing what they’re doing, and they’re absolutely loving them and coming back for another one and anoth er one and another one,” said Hays.

“They’re just a really cool animal and make the greatest pets. And with the crazy population explosion we’ve had over the last year, I’ve had a lot of new people coming to me and basically saying, ‘We’ve never had goats before but we always wanted them. We finally got property.’

“Helping them get set up with their first two goats is so fun for me because I know they’re going to love it. People that have never had goats just think they’re cute be

Hays said she’d compare goats to dogs than to other barnyard animals because of their loving nature. (Special to the Tribune)

cause everybody loves goats.” 4343 E. Hash Knife Draw Road, Queen

Cheney shows true colors with appearance here

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

You, your neigh bors, heck…even

Aunt Mavis and Uncle Travis… know all about the “strange bedfellows” that pop ulate politics.

But it’s not the bedfellows who warrant watching…it’s the bedbugs.

Political bedbugs find their fulfillment in efforts aimed at “campaign infestation,” hoping to first deprive their targeted can didates of sleep, and eventually, of votes.

A caterpillar becomes a butterfly through metamorphosis; a political bed bug undergoes a process that is complete ly reversed, metaphorically speaking.

Once a political “high-flyer,” often due to very generous financial backing or a fa mous family name (or both), the reclusive

creature is soon attracted to the neon sign of Washington’s so-called “smart set.”

Willing to trade principles for promi nence, the previously promising public servant begins to echo the outlook of elites, forgetting the promises made and the pri orities expressed by the folks “back home.”

It becomes quite problematic if “back home” isn’t really back home…if the lu minary in question is much more com fortable living amidst the bright lights of the big city and all the attendant hubbub, instead of the quieter, simpler ways of the remote “residence.”

True residents of the aforementioned “residence” eventually respond harshly and justly.

Simply stated, they find their voices through their votes.

ZAP!

The people speak and the one-time high-flyer is brought low.

The fall is a long one, and the landing rough, though not fatal.

But rather than being humbled and chastened, the soon-to-be former office holder wallows in self-pity, dependent on the accolades of the elites, who are happy to utter them loudly, if insincerely.

After all, there’s an ulterior motive afoot… one for which the now-vanquished, earth bound, and publicly embarrassed “public servant” is uniquely equipped…if “handled” in a clever, faux compassionate manner.

Revenge.

And that promised vengeance is found through (you guessed it) voting.

Only now, the newly-created political bedbug advocates voting for candidates anointed by the elites…candidates who will quickly disassociate with the newly motivated “pest” once the masterful ma nipulation is complete and any envisioned electoral advantage is realized or rejected.

Though she lost the GOP nomination for her seat in Congress, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) is the obvious nominee for “Political Bedbug of the Year.”

Egged on by the elites and her “new best friends” on the Left, Liz has gone…well, “buggy.”

Her displeasure—some might say de rangement—concerning Donald Trump remains unabated.

But for some reason, she now wants to insert herself into the race for governor here in Arizona.

Featured as the “closing keynote” at the “‘Texas Tribune’ Festival” Sept. 24, Liz lashed out at Kari Lake.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake is not elected,” said the soon-to-be ex-Congresswoman.

Liz even said she would come to our

ADOT driving test changes evoke fond memories

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist

summer after I turned 17, my fa ther took me to a middle school parking lot and attempted to teach me how to drive a car. This did not go well, mostly because we were operating at cross purposes.

I wanted to drive fast. My dad wanted me not to crash his beloved Toyota Tercel.

Voices were raised. Feelings were bruised. The car may have brushed a traffic barrier. Thus, my driving lessons quickly came to an end – until my moth er took over.

Which was how I learned to drive on my mom’s ancient 1972 Ford Pinto with a 4-speed stick shift, a mushy clutch and 150,000 miles on it.

We practiced two nights a week, work ing up to the big encore: parallel parking,

which my mother simulated for me with some five-gallon paint cans and a couple of stolen traffic pylons.

TheChances are good the local school park ing lot still has splashes of latex semigloss from my many suboptimal tries at parallel parking. There was a rhythm to it that eluded me, a sense of space and objects my eyes and hands couldn’t nail.

Especially with my mom screaming over the screech of grinding gears.

Still, when the big day came and I had the Motor Vehicles examiner in the car, I wedged that Pinto into a parking space well enough to earn my driver’s license.

This immediately surpassed winning the eighth grade spelling bee as my life’s biggest accomplishment to that point.

And it’s why I was a bit nostalgic this week when I saw that the Arizona De partment of Transportation has changed the state’s road test so it no longer re quires new drivers to parallel park as a

condition of earning a license.

I get it: Parallel parking is one of those skills, like knowing how to drive a stick or how to start a fire, that has been lost to time and modern convenience.

ADOT did add a few wrinkles to the test that I appreciate, like requiring each would-be driver to locate the ve hicle’s registration and insurance card among the old napkins in the glove com partment.

There’s also a brief vehicle inspection to make sure the turn signals work –though I’ve rarely seen an Arizona driver use that particular feature – and a safety test to prove the applicant can find the hazard lights and emergency brake –again, not Arizona specialties.

Only then will the road test begin. “This portion of the test will now take ap proximately 15-20 minutes to cover the five to eight miles that better reflects a typical commute,” ADOT’s press release

explained.

Their prep materials indicate that screwing up following distance during the test is a 10-point violation, while hit ting the curb gets you four points. Score 21 points or more and you fail.

The test apparently doesn’t include points for tweezing your eyebrows while driving, using an electric razor while on the freeway, or dislodging a 500-degree venti Starbucks from your lap because you stopped short to avoid running a red light – all things I’ve witnessed during my 27 years driving in Arizona.

Okay, fine. It was my coffee. And yes, my thighs healed nicely after a month and three tubes of Neosporin. Thanks for asking.

My relationship with my parents healed eventually, too. Parallel parking and driving stick were teenage rites of

HAYWORTH from page 20

state and campaign for the Democrats.

If that was supposed to be a threat, it failed miserably.

When informed of Rep. Cheney’s com ments, the Arizona GOP nominee was ju bilant.

Lake exclaimed, “I think she just gave me the biggest, best gift ever!”

Don’t look for the Dems to invite Liz Cheney here…and don’t expect Aunt Ma vis or Uncle Travis to vote for Katie Hobbs, either.

They’re behind Kari Lake, but they don’t think Liz Cheney is a political bedbug.

They call Liz by another name: RINO

from page 20

passage we muddled through together, along with learning to tie a Windsor knot and how to balance a checkbook.

Now it’s 2022. I only wear ties to funer als and Quicken handles my checking ac count. But I did parallel park downtown last week without clipping a car or end ing up four feet from the curb. My mom would have been proud – right after she stopped screaming.

QC volleyball poised for success, playoff run

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

Last year’s run to the quarterfinals for the Queen Creek volleyball program gave players confidence and showed they could contend with some of the best in the state.

They were young, yet talented. And all but four seniors returned ready to repli cate that success and do more in the 2022 season. While the team already returned several key components to last year’s team, it also reloaded with talented freshmen.

Many of them are still learning who each other are off the court, as the season is still just a few weeks old. But what is starting to take shape is the support they all have for one another on the court, no matter what role they have on the team.

“Everybody in the group expects each other’s roles,” Queen Creek coach Eric Crismon said. “This is a group that has a goal and whatever role they have to do to fulfill that goal, everybody is down for it. I think that’s pretty unique.”

Crismon’s first season leading the Queen Creek volleyball program was 2012. Since then, she has seen the program move up from the 4A Conference and into the 6A, where they are now.

The Bulldogs are faced with a challeng ing region every year, frequently playing the likes of Corona del Sol, Desert Vista and Highland, some of the top teams in the conference. But this year, a new chal lenge presents itself with Gilbert making the move up from 5A where it was one of the top teams in 2021.

Crismon recognized the challenge that her team faces, especially when under sized compared to some of the other teams in the region.

“My kids know it’s going to be a grind,” Crismon said. “Pre-season is tough and fun, then we get into the drags of Septem ber and playing region (games), stuff like that. But they know all bets are off when it comes to the playoffs. They know they can

make a run.”

Sophie Drollinger was one of the top contributors last year during the Bulldogs’ run to the quarterfinals. As a junior, she was third on the team with 165 kills and had 41 aces, the second-most on the team.

She was one of the upperclassmen that contributed the most alongside some of the seniors. She was also next in line to take over as one of the leaders, a role that

she has come to enjoy this season.

Drollinger learned from her older sis ter, Jaden, who graduated in 2021. Jaden had to help navigate the program through the fall COVID season, where masks were required, games were canceled, and all teams played a condensed schedule. But that senior class, especially Jaden, helped the younger girls through it.

Their ability to lead by example both on and off the floor helped Drollinger to become the leader she is now. She helped lead the team through summer workouts and is confident in her team’s ability to be successful this year.

“Especially during the summer, we all worked so hard at practice every single week,” Drollinger said. “I think our com munication, being supportive and being there for each other no matter what, that’s what is going to help us win.

“I think there’s always hardships. But we’re going to win some games.”

The impact Drollinger has made on the team doesn’t go unnoticed. In fact, she may not even realize how much she means to her teammates and the coaching staff.

Crismon credited her for doing whatever it takes for the team to be successful. Even if it meant playing more back line this sea son to open the door for freshman Madi

syn Crnjac to start up front. Drollinger has never complained. In fact, Crnjac is one of the players she has taken under her wing.

She’s also made an impact on other players.

Blaykli Bobic, a junior BYU commit at outside hitter, brought Drollinger to tears when describing how she is as a senior leader. Bobic built a special relationship with Drollinger’s older sister, and it has since carried over. The two are frequently together, and their inseparable bond has started to spread to other girls on the team.

“(Drollinger) I can say is by far, if not one of my best friends, my best friend,” Bobic said. “Even when we are all frustrated, she’s so uplifting. It means a lot that I’ve had Sophie on this team with me.

“(As a group) we’re really close. We hang out off the court, too. We’re all just so close and we know everything about ev eryone, our weaknesses, and strengths. To all of us, winning is everything. We will all do whatever it takes to win.”

Queen Creek’s only two power-point losses this season have come against Per ry and Corona del Sol.

Crismon said, while it was only one loss, it was disappointing to the team. They have a checklist of goals they want to accom plish this season. That list includes every opponent they have on their schedule. So far, Perry and Corona del Sol are the only ones they haven’t been able to cross off.

But they know there is plenty of season ahead. And their ultimate goal is to win a region championship and state title in November. Crismon said her team is still needing improvement for that to happen, but every girl is bought in.

“I think they are starting to see that it doesn’t really matter what we look like right now or what games we win right now,” Crismon said. “What matters is how we are in the end. I think we have to get a lot better.

“I think it’s going to take our upperclass men stepping up and knowing when the game is on the line, they have to execute.” 

One of Queen Creek’s key contributors last season was Sophie Drollinger. Now a senior, she has started to take the lead for her team. She feels the team is a close-knit group that can have success once again in the postseason. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff)

Queen Creek’s volleyball team, led by coach Erica Crismon, returned most of its key contrib utors from last year’s team that made a run to the quarterfinals. Now, they’ve reloaded with young talent to join the veterans and are poised for another run. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff)

Queen Creek teams honor sports reporter lost to COVID

SPORTS BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

Andy Luberda loved nothing more than his wife, Kelly, and son, Kade. If he had to choose a close second, it would be high school football in the Queen Creek area and further into the southeast Valley. It’s where he and Kelly made names for themselves as top-notch reporters who always put the interests of the players and coaches in the area first. It’s also the com munity that embraced him and adored the coverage they provided.

His death in 2020 from COVID-19 sent shockwaves throughout the high school football community. It hit especially hard in Queen Creek, where he covered the Bulldogs and American Leadership Acad emy - Queen Creek heavily.

So, when the two teams met for the first time ever Friday, Sept. 23, both programs knew they had to make it special. It was the type of game Andy would’ve enjoyed, one filled with hard-hitting action. In the end, it was the Bulldogs who held off a fu rious second-half rally by the Patriots 2717 in the first-ever Andy Luberda Classic.

“I think it’s the utmost respect,” said Kade Luberda, Andy’s son who was pres ent for the game. “I’m extremely grateful. It’s not expected and that’s what means the most to me. They’re doing this for him and it’s the highest honor, in my opinion, they could do for him. I’m happy to be here.”

Kade was presented with a Queen Creek jersey signed by all the players and coach es before the game. ALA gave him a helmet also signed by players and coaches. It was the precursor for an emotional game that was dominated by strong defensive play from both sides.

It was shortly after the football season had ended in 2020 that Andy fell ill with COVID. At the time, he was living in an apartment, as he was preparing to make the move to Kentucky with Kade and Kelly, who were already there.

After a few days went by with no con tact, they sent police in for a welfare check. That’s when Andy was found suffering from severe symptoms of the virus. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Kade said there were times his father appeared to be getting better. Then, he would take a turn. He never lost faith. He knew his dad was a fighter. But on Dec. 29,

2020, after he was placed on a ventilator, Andy passed.

“It was super hard,” Kade said. “It was definitely very tough. I had high expecta tions that he was going to be OK because he went up, but things never came all the way back up. I know he’s a strong man and he did everything he could. That gives me peace of mind. But outside of that, it was tough.”

His death rocked the entire high school football community. It hit especially hard in the Schureman household.

Travis, the head coach of the Queen Creek football program, never went a morning without speaking to Andy. They celebrated holidays together, they would have long conversations about football, family and life.

Andy became family.

“I have a lot of love for Andy and their family,” Schureman said. “I still have his number saved in my favorites. I look at it all the time. Andy, I could call him at 2 in the morning or 5 in the morning and he would pick up and just listen, talk to me.

“I’m just grateful for him and his friend ship and what it meant.”

Andy brought recognition to the far southeast Valley. He brought coverage to schools and players that didn’t often re ceive the same attention as schools closer to Phoenix.

Those schools adored him for that.

ALA Queen Creek coach Ty Detmer met Andy once, right before he took over the head job. In that one meeting, while brief, Detmer realized the passion Andy had for schools in Queen Creek and Pinal Coun ty. So, when Schureman approached him about hosting the first-ever Andy Luberda Classic in the first meeting between the schools, he immediately accepted.

Despite the loss, he knows there was a bigger meaning to the matchup between the two schools.

“I think (Andy) would’ve loved it,” Det mer said. “It was a great hard-fought game for the East Valley.”

Kade now lives back in Arizona. His mom still resides in Kentucky.

There isn’t a day that goes by the two don’t think about Andy. He was Kade’s best friend, his mentor.

He’s thankful to both Queen Creek and ALA for the game. He’s also thankful he was able to attend, where he was met with hugs from both sides and fellow media members. He stood on the Queen Creek sideline all game, and at times drifted to the north end zone — his father’s favorite spot to watch the game.

It was a special night that reminded him of a special human being. He knew as he stood there and watched the action on the field, his dad was right there with him.

Andy Luberda passed away due to compli cation with COVID-19 in December 2020. His death shocked the entire Arizona high school football community. Best known for his web site, County Line Preps, Andy quickly became the face of Queen Creek and other Pinal County football programs for his coverage. (Andy Silvas/Tribune Contributor)

“He’s been here. I think he’s on the side line right now,” Kade said. “He’s here for sure, I have no doubt in my mind.” 

Have an interesting sports story?

Contact Zach Alvira at zalvira@timeslocalmedia.com and follow him on Twitter @ZachAlvira.

Kade Luberda, “middle,” was presented with a signed jersey from Queen Creek and helmet from American Leadership Academy – Queen Creek before the two teams faced off Friday, Sept. 23. It was the first-ever meeting between the two schools, and they dubbed it the Andy Luberda Classic in honor of Kade’s father, a sports reporter that brought attention to the far southeast Valley. (Andy Silvas/Tribune Contributor)

OdySea Aquarium re-launches animal encounters

BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer

Guests at OdySea Aquarium who have been waiting to have an encounter with penguins or a sloth, feed sting rays or take a behind-the-scenes tour can finally rejoice.

OdySea Aquarium re-launched these programs, though the tours and encoun ters will only be available on weekends and select weekdays for the time being to allow the animals to re-acclimate to hu man interactions after not having any for over two years.

“It’s something that a lot of people were looking forward to when we had them, pre-COVID and I think that based on the response that we’ve already gotten, it’s pretty clear that people enjoyed that op portunity to be able to get up close and personal with some of the different an imals here,” said Josh Jarnagin, OdySea Aquarium senior animal care specialist.

Despite the high demand for animal encounters, the aquarium is only offer ing encounters on weekends and will offer two time slots for groups of eight to 10 people to interact with a sloth or a waddle of penguins.

The creatures have not interacted with strangers for two years because of pan demic-related restrictions.

“Because we just brought them back online, this is kind of to gauge the interest from our guests, but also to make sure that we approximate (the interest) for the ani mals,” Jarnagin said.

“The animals are always our number one concern and so we want to make sure that we ease them back into that operation of potentially going seven days a week.”

As another precaution, each interaction will begin with a brief seminar where guests will learn fun facts about the ani mals and receive instructions on how to pet the animals.

“One of the first things we always teach people is how to touch them, where to

touch them and when to stop touching them,” Jarnagin said.

“Most people, for whatever reason, have an instinct to go for the face or the head to touch and that’s probably the worst place you want to touch any animal because that’s where their teeth are, that’s where their eyes are and it’s startling to most an imals. So, we always touch our animals on the backside of their body usually going

away from their head.”

In addition to educating guests about the animals, specialists use these inter actions as an opportunity to drive home OdySea Aquariums’ conservation efforts.

“In all of our educational programming, we do have conservation messaging that goes along with it,” Jarnagin said.

“With our sloth program and our pen guin program, we talk specifically about

certain threats that those animals face and we give guests opportunities on things that you do when you go home or things that you can take away with you like web sites or brands to shop from that also pro mote that same goal of conservation.”

Jarnagin also admits that once guests get an up-close and personal experience with these creatures spurs a newfound love for the creatures.

“The opportunity to have that up-close interaction gives guests a better appreci ation and understanding of the animals,” he said. “Plus, guests get to learn from the animal care specialists themselves as they get to learn from the people who take care of those animals daily and ask them ques tions, so it kind of gives us that up-close educational opportunity.”

Not only is the encounter informative for guests, but Jarnagin also says it can be an emotional experience.

“Sometimes we get people who cry be cause it’s an emotional experience for them to be able to see some of these ani mals that they see in pictures or movies or read about but never have the opportuni ty to meet.”

These exclusive interactions are not the only thing to return to OdySea Aquarium as guests can once again feed the sting rays or take an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour to see how food is prepared for the animals and get a rare look at the top of OdySea’s 450,000-gallon shark habitat.

Tickets are selling fast for all experi ences.

If You Go...

What: OdySea Aquarium animal encounters and tours

Where: OdySea Aquarium

When: Weekends and select weekdays. See website for times.

Cost: Sloth and penguin encounters are $64.95 each, behind the scenes shark tour is $9.95. Admission is not included in these prices.

Info: odyseaaquarium.com

OdySea Aquarium senior animal care specialist Josh Jarnagin is excited to allow guests to encoun ter animals like Barny the sloth after a two-year pause on animal encounters. (Orlando Pelagio/ Tribune Contributor)

OdySea Aquarium senior animal care specialist Josh Jarnagin is excited to allow guests to encoun ter animals like Barny the sloth after a two-year pause on animal encounters. (Orlando Pelagio/ Tribune Contributor)

With JAN D’ATRI

GetOut Columnist

History debates aside, this apple tart wins any argument

JOB SEEKERS

480-898-6465

Getting Started in Trades

Not everyone is cut out for college. In fact, many people forego a formal education to enter careers in the trades.

Job opportunities in the trades are wide and varied. Many people become skilled at trades in high school, where they learn the basics of auto repair and woodworking. Some enter apprenticeships directly after graduating, while others attend trade or technical schools for advanced training.

Either way, trades offer a rewarding, indemand and profitable career for many interested in working with theirs hands and possess the aptitude to diagnose and repair complicated machinery in fields such as heating and air conditioning, welding, masonry and more.

Here are some popular trades and the training required to being your career.

ELECTRICIANS

High school graduates and those with a GED can enter training at a technical school for electricians. These diploma programs provide training in the fundamentals of an electrical trade and enables students to become proficient in areas such as areas as electrical wiring and programmable logic controllers used in residential, commercial and industrial applications. After completing four semesters of training, new electricians enter the workforce through an apprenticeship as they work toward their license, which is required by many states.

PLUMBERS

Like electricians, plumbing technicians first attend at least two semesters of training at a technical school before beginning an apprenticeship and earning a license. Modern plumbers have the opportunity to work at a variety of job sites and install or repair new technologies, such as tankless water heaters, WiFi leak detectors and smart appliances. This trade skill is extremely valuable and sees constant job demand.

CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

This relatively new, rapidly expanding trade directly taps into the fast-paced digital world, creating and installing the systems homes and businesses have com to rely upon. Smartenabled and security systems are examples of fields that form the digital footprint of many modern workplaces and homes. In high-demand, technologists in this field are trained for 2-3 years and obtain a certificate before working on-site and completing a paid apprenticeship.

VETERANS IN TRANSITION

Many people enter the armed forces to take advantage of military benefits, such as funding for a college education, while also performing their duties around the world after attending vocational training for a particular field. After completing their service, veterans with valuable trade skills can often enter the workforce directly or take advantage of veterans benefits that provide them further training to adapt military occupations to a civilian career.

No matter what trade you pursue, the training you receive can almost guarantee a life-long position, many with substantial pay that sometimes reaches into six figures. And even if you never pursue a trade professionally, the skills you learn can be applied in your everyday life, as well as a fulfilling hobby. 

When: Friday, Oct. 14; 9am - 2pm Saturday, Oct. 15; 9am - 1pm

Where: CMC Steel Arizona 11444 E Germann Rd. Mesa, 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.