Who’s Shilling Whom?
Charles Spitzer’s letter to the editor (Scottsdale Republic 09/23/09), accusing Walmart proponents as shills for hidden agendas conveniently cloaks truths already evident to Cave Creek citizens: the world’s largest retailer does not hide its multi-million dollar contributions to community projects worldwide, including those made to the non-profit Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival and other town events. They contributed over $11 million throughout our state just last year.
Shame on you Mr. Spitzer. The wife of the Councilman to whom you allude disparagingly, has worked tirelessly for five years alongside other volunteers to make the Film and Arts Festival a source of community pride and artistic success. The key word is “volunteer,” meaning without compensation. What volunteer work have you contributed to your community, Mr. Spitzer?
You righteously indict those who support Walmart as spreading fear, then conclude your letter with a “sky is falling” warning to citizens that their property could be next-up for commercial rezoning. Yet you fail to mention that on the same night that Council approved Walmart’s request, they denied two other applications for general plan amendment/ rezonings of residential to commercial.
Shame Mr. Spitzer. Shame.
Carole Perry | Cave Creek
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To the Silent Majority of Cave Creek voters and residents
We need to hear your voices and YES votes with regard to the changes in the Town General Plan and the rezoning of 20+ acres from residential to commercial.
If you read the article in the AZ Republic on Sept. 19, 2009 by Republic Columnist Laurie Roberts, another non-resident of Cave Creek and friend of some of the local activists who are not necessarily Cave Creek residents either, you will see she offered her own personal opinions and she played the sympathy card. This sympathy card does not have any bearing on land use.
Also, you need to personally verify that the information that is being spouted by P.R.I.Z.E correct and not opinions as there are ASSUMPTIONS, PERCEIVED FACTS, and then the REAL FACTS as many people tell you only what they want you to hear.
For example, the recent anti Walmart mailer by P.R.I.Z.E. stated:
[1] “Having a Walmart will not reduce the water rate increase.” Has anyone said or implied that having a Walmart will reduce water rates?
[2] “The White Paper, The Town’s Newly-Adopted Economic Model, Recommends Walmart AND a Property Tax.” As a voter of Cave Creek you need to get a copy of the white paper and see if it recommends a property tax and also ask the Town Clerk if the town adopted the White Paper in any form.
[3] “A 24-Hour Walmart In The Cave Creek/Olsen Road Neighborhood Will Create One Million Additional Cars per Year.” Will Walmart really add 1,000,000 additional vehicles per year? By who’s Traffic Engineering Report. That’s about 100,000 more per month or 25,000 per week.
[4] “A 24-Hour Walmart In The Cave Creek/Olsen Road Neighborhood Will Create 24-Hour Semi-Truck Deliveries.” Has Walmart actually stated that there will be around the clock semi-truck deliveries?
Your decisions, when you vote should be based on truth, health, safety, welfare and needs of all Cave Creek residents and of the Town of Cave Creek itself.
SO CITIZENS, MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE REAL FACTS before voting.
I encourage you to vote YES on PROPOSITIONS 400 and 401.
All your votes are important to the Town of Cave Creek, so please register and also get out to vote. You can vote early at Cave Creek Town Hall, or by mail-in ballot or in person on Nov. 3, 2009 at the Town Hall.
T. J. Bryda | A concerned Cave Creek resident and voter
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Let’s do the ‘Taste’ again
Cave Creek Town Manager Usama Abujbarah is a man of many talents. Now to be added to his resume is the organization of a successful and flawlessly executed Taste of Cave Creek event.
Kudos to Usama and thanks to the following who made “The Taste” a Let’s-do-it-Again event: the 22 businesses that participated, showcasing Cave Creek cuisine at its best, the 26 sponsors’ financial support, the Cave Creek Merchants Chamber, Town Staff for pre-event support and on-site clean-up, the Town Marshall and County law enforcement, the many volunteers, the bands whose music kept the evening lively, the fashion show participants that added a touch of elegance and suave, the Film and Arts exhibits and last but not least, the several thousand people who showed up to make the night an over-the-top community event.
Yes, let’s do the Taste of Cave Creek again.
Vincent Francia | Mayor, Cave Creek
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CAVE CREEK – small town, BIG appetite – a thank you!
Sometimes, everything falls into place and the world conspires to make things right. That's how it seemed at this year’s Taste of Cave Creek. The weather was fine, the music was jumpin', the food was excellent, the models were pretty, lines were short and the Town of Cave Creek seemed to shine. The 2009 Taste of Cave Creek was the best party Cave Creek has thrown in a long, long time! It was spectacular.
We could call it fate or luck, but we'd be kidding ourselves. It took a tremendous amount of work and dedication, especially on the part of town staff, volunteers, restaurants, shops, citizens and so on. This is a thank you note to all of you who attended and made it feel perfect, friendly and fun. We were proud to serve you. To Usama … Big Thanks. Huge Thanks. To Barbara and Carrie and Marshal Stein … we don't know for sure, but we suspect you carried a lion’s share of the work and preparation for weeks leading up to and including the big day. To Stagecoach Village … There’s no end to the thank you! The grounds were beautiful and your help was invaluable. To Lance Headlee … The artwork was amazing. To the sponsors … APS, Waste Management, Rural Metro Ambulance, Tri-Rentals, Southface Solar Electric, Paddy O’ Furniture, Harris Private, Bank, Parkway Bank, Miller Lite, Miller Coors, Southwest Gas, Elrod Fencing, Sam’s Barber Shop, Crescent Crown Distributing, Five Rivers, Fat Tuesday, Cruz Tequila, Republic National Distributing, RSC, Walmart, Bekham, Alliance Beverage, Blue Bell, US Food Service, DWS, and Blue Moon. We could not have done it without you. Many thanks! To the volunteers ... Cactus Shadows High School, the Soroptimists, Cave Creek Boy Scout Troop 603, Cave Creek Sonoran Arts League, Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival. Because of you, the evening felt effortless. Admission was a breeze, garbage was cleaned and runners ran to and fro tying up loose ends. THANK you so much. You always make our community feel like a community. Thank you to Instant Karma Boutique, Pink Cadillac, Cave Creek Cowboy Company, Glory Bees. To the sound crew and Tall Paul and the bands … thank you so much! AND – It wouldn’t have been Taste of Cave Creek without our fantastic restaurants.
Apologies if we’ve missed anyone. You'll get yours in the good karma coming your way for the all you do. What an evening! What a TOWN! THANK YOU all so much.
Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce
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Why we have secret ballots
How many Republicans and Libertarians will suffer pangs of conscience when they vote for Walmart Nov. 3 and realize that their votes also contribute to Big Government? Maybe that’s why we have secret ballots.
Jack Grenard | Cave Creek
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For lack of a better argument
For lack of a better argument, I suppose, the anti-Walmart group says that the current actions to amend the General Plan and rezone vacant land in the commercial corridor owned by Walmart is a precedent or the first domino that falls spelling the doom of Cave Creek. Here is the spiel; “If you let ‘them’ get away with this, ‘they’ will rezone every corner and vacant piece of land in Cave Creek to commercial.” You have to love the fear generated by the vague ‘them’ and ‘they’.
I doubt it and here is why. For years, Cave Creek relied heavily on revenues generated by growth and construction. That is why I believe few residents or elected officials were really upset when Home Depot bailed out of Cave Creek essentially saying that life is too short to deal with such foolishness when Phoenix was right across the street – Cave Creek had the revenue it needed. Similarly, Lowe’s opted for Carefree because of Home Depot’s experience in Cave Creek, Carefree was desperately trying to attract them, Cave Creek didn’t pursue them as it still had significant development revenues.
Here we are again, with the same responsibilities and aspirations for our (larger) Town, but without the revenues from growth and construction. We all know where Walmart is going to locate, what its revenues will do for the Town, the convenience it will provide, that it will not compete with local businesses and that it will not be replicated on every corner or vacant piece of land. Seems to me that if you don’t want Walmart then you are willing to hold open the door to whatever growth and construction you can get and are far more vulnerable to actions necessary to accommodate any development on every corner and vacant piece of land. This approach could very well attract commercial growth that will compete with local businesses in the Town Core.
Think about it. The precedent or domino argument is a loser. I will vote to support Walmart in November and I urge fellow residents to vote “Yes” for Walmart too.
Rob Papineau | Cave Creek
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Argument for voting No
In the years 2004-2005 a lot of new residential construction took place in the Cave Creek area. Those properties are now at their full-assessed value starting this year.
An example: A secondary full cash value property of $875,000 is taxed at $118.56 (for overrides) this year versus just $51.12 last year … A big windfall for the school district.
CCUSD jumped the gun and should have waited until 2011 before going back to the voters in an attempt to extend its over-budget spending.
Keith Peirce | Cave Creek area property owner
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The hard truth
Cave Creek Road was a wash-crossed two-lane and Carefree Highway was washboarded gravel in the early ‘seventies, when you could leave the last traffic light behind at Bell Road and feel the tensions of the Valley evaporate just about when you were passing Dixileta.
Nowadays, Dixileta is somewhere under Tatum Ranch, and Cave Creek’s only major intersection keeps being crept up upon by commercial development, thanks to our friendly neighbors from the south … and east, and west. It’s foolish to hope that anyone will fill that vortex with more single-family residences, and naïve to imagine that Walmart, if thwarted by the referendum, would slink meekly west without shifting to the Phoenix side of Carefree Highway … just like Home Depot.
In a perfect world, our little town would be adequately supported by cowboy bars and art galleries unaffected by the season or economic downturns, but the hard truth is that we need a “rainmaker,” a steady income-producer, for the pursuit of our open-space visions and preserving the lifestyle of the majority of our town folk. Looking forward to my Golden Years as a Walmart “greeter,” I’m having to vote YES on 400 and 401.
Judy Darbyshire | Cave Creek
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Comments anyone?
The CCUSD continues to circumvent the law. A year ago I raised a complaint about their illegal electioneering. As a result, they signed a consent decree. Yet they are at it again.
Despite the 10-12 million dollars already received for K-3, there is no visible sign of improvement. More money does not automatically create better academic results. Same ratio of teachers and almost the same academic results. I cannot recall a single election where they did not ask for more, more and more. Enough already!
Rich Bail | Cave Creek
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Obama Olympics
I am outraged that the President finds it more important to lobby for his special interests than to take time to secure the safety and lives of our brave troops who are at war against a real threat and enemy to the U.S. To think that at this crucial time when we need a Commander in Chief we taxpayers instead are having to fund the President and his wife to wine, dine and schmooze in Copenhagen in order to try and secure the Olympics for his bankrupt Chicago!!?? We taxpayers better not be footing the bill for this disastrous monstrosity if Chicago becomes the host city.
I'm truly sickened by his actions and it has nothing to do with race. Pres. Obama is proving once again his loyalities and paybacks to his Chicago politics over and above the concerns and safety of our Nation.
Susan Trogan | Scottsdale
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Welcoming Walmart
I am not a member of the Cave Creek Community so I am unable to vote yes or no when it comes to YES on 400 and 401, but what I can say is that we are long-time residents of north Scottsdale and would welcome the option of having a Walmart within easy driving distance.
My family has been in the Valley for a long time. Our parents, Anne and George Seitts owned a working guest ranch at Pinnacle Peak and Pima Roads when it was county and mostly cattle grazing. The Rustlers Rest bar was a known watering hole there in those years. Convenience and protecting open spaces was a big deal then and it still is today at the local level. We trekked to places like Harold's Corral with character-owners like Harold and Ruth Gavigan, and Reata Pass and Greasewood Flats with the late-great owner Doc Cavalliere and his family. Newcomers were usually welcomed with open arms; and if you came with a new business venture that provided goods and services you were embraced warmly if honest and able to prove yourself. Today, as then, that's what people in the area should do with Walmart which as a public company has obvious obligations to the communities in which it serves, as well as a right to operate in a profitable manner. No different than it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.
In terms of business and service, I have found over the last few years Walmart to be a solid community outreach partner. For example, in cooperation the City of Phoenix and the food marketing industry the company supported the "Plastic Bag Coalition," a voluntary program where government and industry has worked together to lead the way in offering recyclable bags at the retail level. No question a pro-consumer, wise use of resources idea.
Voting YES on 400 and 401 is a choice issue in a free society. Progress is good so Vote YES on 400 and 401.
George Seitts | Scottsdale
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CCUSD’s greed
Considering where we live, I believe our schools should be in top physical shape. If you have been over to the schools lately, they are dirty and poor looking. Kids sit at community tables and not at individual desk because of a lack of funding. Every year I'm asked to bring additional supplies to school because of the lack of funding.
Your editorial suggests that there's plenty of money. So I ask you, where’s the money the school district’s not using? If you know where it is, how much isn't being used? Are you able to put some pressure on these decision makers to have them apply the money where the school personnel say they need it?
Mike Maloney | Cave Creek
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