My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Bike paths
I am receiving more phone calls, emails and visits about the present road closures than any other local issue. Every single person is angry – asking what the hell the town is allowing and why. My understanding is we can thank MAG and its know-it-all members. Yes, the town voted 7-0 for these bicycle paths. Why? It was presumably someone else’s money (meaning ours). In Cave Creek they will obliterate parts of our median to add bicycle paths. Although critics complained about what they called lack of median upkeep, others view it as an attractive view of desert plants rather than acres of signs. But now bicycles are more important than historical views of Cave Creek. Remember as an automobile owner your fuel is taxed to provide for roads and road repair.
Bicycle owners only pay sales tax so they get a free ride on transportation, unlike cars, trucks and motorcycles. But a bigger and more frequent complaint is the belief that bicyclists hog the road even when there is a bike path, never stop for stop signs and if from out of town, just pass through without creating sales tax.
And, of course, no one appreciates slow traffic caused by the construction of the bike paths and, eventually, the bicyclists themselves Clearly bicyclists need a public relations firm to defend themselves. Return of the “legend” - A dark side publication has appeared in some mailboxes and all dark siders are praised. In their second propaganda issue they called Lester (W) Rechlin a legend. Really? Lester and his pal Roberta were hard workers for the local chamber and helped the chamber a lot. During that time Lester told me an interesting story. He said he was in trouble with the town and he hired local Attorney Bernie Buffenstein for advice. Buffenstein allegedly said he could never win the case against him so his only hope was to get elected to town council and with town access find the records and destroy them. Rechlin claimed he did as advised.
At a later time we were having a chamber meeting in the bowling alley, which is now a restaurant. Rechlin was carrying on about something and chamber President Bart Krasson said. “Shut up, Lester.” Both he and Roberta jumped up and said something to the effect that we would be sorry for insulting Lester. In a later meeting at the Buffalo Chip Lester and I nearly came to blows and Town Manager Usama Abujbarah got between us. Usama and I went outside and as we were talking Roberta walked up and spit in my face. What an ugly experience!
An MCSO squad car cruised up and I asked the deputy if the spitter had broken the law. The deputy cited her and the town hired a pro tem judge to hear the case. The judge asked me what I thought the sentence should be. I said the death penalty would be appropriate. But the judge put her on probation, I believe it was for a year, and established the distance she had to say away from me.
Still angry with the Krassons, Rechlin sat across the road when Ron Krasson was remodeling what is now the Hideaway and Rechlin visited town hall almost daily with complaints. Finally he was denied access to town hall. Lester and Roberta had a white tent program called Magic Bird, which now sponsors Carefree events.
One year they had four events which had not been permitted by the town of Cave Creek. The town estimated they collected $45,000 in taxes. However, the Town Attorney said that since the town had not permitted them they couldn’t collect the monies. Hello? At a council meeting a few years ago Rechlin was sitting in the back of the room, verbally sounding off. He walked up to Abujbarah’s back, put his hands on his shoulders, said something in his ear and left. Abujbarah in a short time followed “the legend.”
Within a few minutes the double doors leading to the council chambers burst open with a maniacal Rechlin screaming he had been assaulted, that he was an old man with a heart condition. Somewhere I have a picture of the legend’s frightened face and when I find it I will print it. The town investigated. No charges were filed against Abujbarah.
Over the last several years, rather than paying for advertising, Magic Bird was promoting their Carefree events by papering the Cave Creek post office windows with large colored ads. Cave Creek Postmaster Ron Rodriguez said their actions are illegal and he would remove any future transgressions.
Legend indeed!
