My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | NOVEMBER 4, 2015
CCUSD • Motorcycles • More
CCUSD
The huge expenditures Cave Creek Unified School District is making to pick your pocket are to cover up the fact Superintendent Debbi Burdick and her subordinate school board screwed up by thinking the loophole of creating charter schools wouldn’t be closed. So she and her cohorts are claiming they want to give teachers more money and reduce class sizes. They have claimed that before and it never happened. I wonder how many voters realized that overrides are for seven years and are only reduced by one third in the 6th and 7th years? CCUSD won’t tell you that except maybe in the fine print.
The administration is so sly and slippery that with them it is all about your money in their pockets. They are really great examples for students, aren’t they?
Interestingly the PAC funding their drive won’t have to report how much money they raised and exactly who donated the money until the Saturday before Tuesday’s election.
Motorcycles
I subscribe to the sagging Arizona Republic mainly for the TV guide, which like everything else is inaccurate.
I noticed a headline which read, “Biketoberfest rides into Cave Creek.” After propaganda for the Roadhouse and Mark Bradshaw, the last three paragraphs are interesting. The parentheticals are mine.
“The town tolerates the roar of bikes well (no we don’t) though some residents have complained of traffic delays during bike week because of road restrictions.” (Closures of the roads are the problem.)
“Cave Creek Councilman Ernie Bunch said biker events benefit a town that relies on sales tax dollars spent in the bars and restaurants. (Maybe, but without a forensic audit tax benefits may be much lower than expected.)
“I think we get a bump up when those folks come through. (Read above) It’s a nice ride to a town with a welcoming atmosphere, (not true) Bunch said.
There are always going to be some emotions involved when that many bikes show up. But it is a neat community and 90 percent of the people are in favor of it. (Absolutely false!)
In a discussion with others Bunch claims he was misquoted. The question is why did the Republic single him out to question on the bike subject? Did Roadhouse sources single him out because he was one of two who voted in their favor when they were caught building a patio on town property without a permit?
Furthermore when motorcycles arrive by the thousands with overwhelming and deliberate noise, he is in his Phoenix office. Anyone (like us) in an office in the town core might as well go on vacation.
90 percent in favor of motorcycles? Hardly, but Bunch may be relying on a fellow councilman’s experience where he asked the question and got that result about road closures on his blog. Later the councilman found a Roadhouse web page that urged readers to vote yes into his blog. A similar survey conducted by professional John Hoeppner, founder and owner of NameQuest, revealed the truth that Creekers generally hate the road closures and everything else about the biker invasion.
But there is more. Some months ago the town entered into an agreement with the Roadhouse about the height of parking lot lights and reactivation of the expired sign (water tank) monument permit. The agreement is signed by Mayor Vincent Francia, Jim O’Toole and Mark Bradshaw.
The problem is, according to two Cave Creek officers, the water tank is completely on town property without any mention of that fact in the agreement. So serious liability issues endangering the town exist, thanks to omitting the fact the sign is on town property.
Now, did Town Manager Peter Jankowski pull one over on the council to get their vote? Is that what prompted O’Toole to say he thought Jankowski had approved the patio and trespass? Investigation is needed now and their resolution needs to be voided by council and the water tank removed from the town’s property.
It is Resolution R2015-25.
More
I am accused by the dark side that council votes at my pleasure. How I wish that were true. But I have been in Cave Creek for 25 years and have ideas about what needs to be done so I will not listen to the bird brains.
Now that the town has hired Steve Betts to aid their ideas about preserving 4,000 acres of annexed land belonging to the state land department it is time to focus on Harmony Hallow. Harmony Hallow is thirty acres nestled on the south side of Spur Cross Ranch. It is situated on both sides of the Creek.
Artists Melissa Paxton and Richard Mocco lived there for years. Paxton’s T-shirts are still in vogue celebrating a cougar head that was used to promote the purchase of Spur Cross Ranch. All of that helped the overwhelming vote to tax ourselves to complete the purchase started by the state and county.
It would be a lack of faith not to buy the Harmony Hollow property after the expensive Spur Cross purchase.
I have been told the price is about 1.5 million, a real steal. Heirs want it to be owned by the town and will even carry paper.
Go for it Cave Creek!
