My View
BY STEVE LAMAR | AUGUST 20, 2014
Hot town ... summer in Cave Creek
During this critical time, we must clearly understand what is really happening, be prepared to explain and discuss our positions on issues of importance and vote our conscience. To that end, I am sharing with you this excellent piece by Steve LaMar. ~ Don Sorchych
Over the last couple long hot dry months I have caught myself humming the old Loving Spoonful song; ‘ hot town Summer in the City back of my neck getting burned and gritty.....’. It is the dog days of summer, but today has been a cloudy rainy day after a big down pour last night. The desert all around is swelling up and perfuming the air with the ancient scent of wet creosote. Working out in the rain all morning lifts the spirit, and reminds me why I put down roots in the Cave Creek foothills twenty eight years ago.
The rain is a good omen.
Sadly though, the rain has done nothing to perk up the sagging plastic billboards haunting our streets. They were pitched by Trenk and his minions Durkin, Monachino, and Spitzer as another great step toward making Cave Creek the tourist trap they have dreamed up for us. But like most everything they dream up for us, it ain’t for us, and it turns out ugly and useless. The billboards don’t work even if you want the town to be a tacky tourist trap. The local businesses aren’t buying up more plastic banners. They have their own plastered everywhere. Phoenix car dealers would buy them, but that doesn’t help the town at all. So the town buys banners promoting nothing and a couple of Trenk slate supporters make a little money off of us.
Meanwhile, us regular citizens who aren’t making a buck in the tourist trade know we are in our town if we happen to notice a shiny tin horse in the ditch, or the blue plastic billboards connected to rusty poles with aluminum industrial fasteners. The really nice monument donated to the town by a generous Eagle Scout is now made superfluous so Trenk, Monachino and the boys can have a photo op in the ditch along Cave Creek Road.
Some things even a good rain won’t help. We have suffered Mayor Francia, Trenk and the boys spending thousands of dollars of our money for political ads published under the town newsletter The Cave Creek Coyote, dreamed up by Trenk’s buddy Rodney Glassman, while our trails go unmaintained and our open space abandoned. I ride out along Spur Cross on our trail system in the early mornings. They are so overgrown with dangerous overhanging limbs in places you have to duck and dive to keep from being blinded. But then why would this Trenk ruled council, and our obsequious Mayor think we need our trails maintained when they can buy new hats, pretend to be cowboys at town hall meetings, follow TC Thorstenson and his buffalo around, and have pretend shootouts. Remember ... they took credit for the best Wild West Days in Cave Creek history. But we just learned that the greatest Wild West Days didn’t make any money, the special events crowd need an even bigger donation of our tax dollars just to stay afloat. So when you get down to it, even the tacky self serving antics which seem to draw our town council like flies to sh**, aren’t working. It would be interesting to do an audit of the costs and expenses that caused Wild West Days to be a financial loser. But hey, who’s counting ... you can bet no one at town hall.
The first order of business for Rodney Glassman, long time friend of Adam Trenk, after working secretly with Trenk, Monachino, Durkin, and Spitzer to secure his position as interim town manager, was to refuse to advertise town business in Sonoran News as political retaliation for opposing the Trenk slate. The question many have asked is why Mayor Francia has not sponsored an agenda item reversing this Trenk slate/Glassman policy. Sonoran News is a local business. It has the largest readership by far. The mayor writes letters to the editor in Sonoran News. So why would the Mayor allow this political revenge to continue? The citizens need to know what is going on at town hall. Doesn’t Mayor Francia think that trumps the Trenk slate’s desire to retaliate against a critic?
Yes, some things even a good rain won’t help. But what has been rejuvenated in these summer days with sidewalks hotter than a match head is the recall petition drive. Like the rain that refreshes our Sonoran Foothills, the recall will refresh and cleanse town hall and bring back service and commitment to our community. Durkin, Monachino and Spitzer, using Trenk’s admitted criminal conduct, escaped the November recall election, but they will not escape the spring election. Your continued support for the recall movement is a testament to your love for this town and your demand that those who serve as elected officials work for the overall best interests of the town rather than themselves and a handful of their supporters. You will prevail.
