Up to $4 million for bike lanes, etc.?
The MAG Transportation Study is holding its last public meeting on Wednesday, September 10 at 6 p.m. As many of you already know the study has been considering how Cave Creek and Carefree might spend up to Four Million Dollars to significantly alter the main thoroughfare streets in the two towns. The main focus seems to have been to create Bike Lanes, and other items. Part of the public comments by town council members has also focused on Bikes as a way to jump start or add to the goal of Economic Development ... I guess thinking the bikers would spend some money in our towns … to offset the huge investment being considered. Keep in mind these are people who rest for a few minutes, fill their water bottles and use restrooms.
Little has been offered as to how bad the disruption to vehicle traffic would be or how much of our center islands and landscaping would be destroyed to accommodate the bike lanes. At the last public meeting I asked for the source the planners used for their traffic counts. They replied they "used averages" from their files. I suggested they use the real numbers we have, which were triple theirs. I asked if they were aware of the fact some of the present streets have NO SHOULDERS AT ALL. Example ... Cave Creek Road at Scopa Street. Also, I asked if they were aware of the Carefree portions of Cave Creek Rd. and Tom Darlington that are flooded every time it rains … due to the slopes next to them.
I asked how much Carefree would be expected to pay if the total was as much as FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. I was told federal and state funds would be expected to pay up to 70 percent of the total costs. That would mean the two towns would have to come up with something like $1,200,000. Of the funds already spent Cave Creek paid 65 percent and Carefree paid 35 percent (allocation based on mileage affected in each town I guess).
Do the residents of Carefree want to dip into our reserves for a total of up to $420,000 so bikers from Scottsdale, Phoenix and other towns can have their own bike lane? Are there a number of bikers in our town that will use them? Is there any Economic Development to be gained that would show any return on this investment? My estimate is that on a busy "bike day" maybe 2 dozen bikes pass thru Carefree. By the same token up to 12,000 cars a day pass through the intersection of Cave Creek Rd. at Tom Darlington. Do the math and you will determine there is no real need to do this.
I have gone to the Shell station (Tom Darlington and Cave Creek Rd.) many times and I asked them what impact the bikers had on their income. They laughed in my face. They said the bikers stop there to fill up their water bottles for free, and use the rest room. Someone said they might come back to our town later to spend money – key word is MIGHT.
Along with other questionable ideas on how to reduce our precious cash reserves this idea just makes no sense at all. The portion of the cost the feds and state would pay is not 'tooth fairy' money. It is cash from us TAXPAYERS. Scottsdale has refused for years to do any improvements on their portion of Carefree Highway or any of the other areas south of us that have no bike lanes. Why would we want to jump ahead when they refuse to??
If you want your voice heard on this important matter come to the next meeting Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. in the Carefree Council chambers (in the Post Office). Hope to see you there.
Jim Van Allen
A Carefree Conservative
Thank you, Scottsdale City Council!
At the last City Council meeting you took steps to preserve the history and the availability of Youth Theater in Scottsdale.
A little history: In 1952 the Scottsdale Community Players was incorporated as a not for profit corporation. In 1964 The City granted a 25-year lease, with a 25-year renewal for property on which a theater was to be constructed and in 1967 the City of Scottsdale issued a use permit for Scottsdale Community Players to privately construct the Stagebrush Theater in its present location at 2nd Street and Goldwater. In 1971 an addition was added to the theater.
For more than 30 years, at The Stagebrush Theater, Greasepaint Youth Theater has operated as a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization, supported only by ticket sales, school break classes, summer camps, individual donors, business sponsors and grants from foundations and organizations that support the arts. Over this time thousands of aspiring actors, actresses and stagehands performed and learned about the arts, everyone was invited to audition, there was never a cost to families to perform in shows and as needs are identified, partial and full scholarships were awarded to children who wished to attend classes and camps but could pay the fee. The children learned, performed and learned about the challenges in life. Many went on to college, some with scholarships, and many are in the industry today.
Greasepaint Theater, Scottsdale Community Players and the Stagebrush Theater were in danger of disappearing from the arts scene in Scottsdale this year. They were operating on a month-to- month lease with the City. But the shows went on and on and the performers continued to learn about the industry from professional Directors, Musical Directors and Greasepaint's Artistic Director.
The City just granted a renewal of the lease for the theater thru 2024 with two 5-year extensions. There are some conditions such as required upgrades and repairs ($) to the old theater but this is just another challenge. We must raise the funds for these requirements over the next 90 days. For the youth of Scottsdale, the show MUST go on.
Our vision is to provide an alternative to the reduction in the performing arts funding in the Scottsdale School Districts. The Arts are an important aspect for infusing creativity in the lives our youth. This is a long-term plan, as it will require hiring of staff, construction of classrooms, and a small theater. Classes in performing arts will be during the day for some, after school for others and at school locations where possible.
This wonderful future program is now on sounder footing and when the money is raised to complete the upgrades and repairs Greasepaint can step into its next vision!
Information will be shared soon on a Capital Campaign to upgrade the buildings electrical and HVAC systems as well as beautify the exterior of our building! If you'd like to help, visit www.greasepaint.org and join our VIP club or contact Maureen Dias at 480-949-7529!
Scottsdale Community Players and Greasepaint Youth Theater
Voice your opinion on Scottsdale upzoning cases
This is just a reminder that the public meetings on the various up-zoning cases are starting this week, with an open house and initial Planning Commission meetings on the four major General Plan amendments, all of which are in the northern part of the city. The city notice for these meetings is below. There are links for more information on each in the message and I have previously send information out on the three of them in, or impacting, the Troon area.
No decisions or recommendations will be made at either meeting; they both are strictly for staff and the Planning Commission to get input from the public, so they are your opportunity to voice your opinion on these cases and to have that opinion put into the public record for each case.
As such they are important to attend and let them know how you feel or what your concerns are with each one. Note that the rezoning of the 462 acres out by the preserve is not one of the cases that will be covered, though it is related to the move of Greasewood Flats to the same area (5-GP-2014).
I hope you will have the chance to attend one or both meetings and let staff know how you feel about these major changes in land use in your area.
On the election, you probably know by now that the three chamber candidates (Milhaven, Robbins, and Petersen) got through as well as three citizen friendly candidates (Kathy Littlefield, David Smith, and Cindy Hill). We hope you will support the three citizen friendly candidates who made it to the November election, in any way you can, including with your vote. There is a lot of money behind the three chamber candidates, including over $90,000 in dark money (not traceable to the source) from the Scottsdale Strong organization, donated to the Scottsdale United PAC that is not only supporting all three chamber candidates, but running a negative campaign against Kathy Littlefield.
Howard Meyers
Scottsdale
City hosts open house to gather input on Major General Plan Amendments
The public is invited to an open house to review and comment on four proposed 2014 Major General Plan Amendment cases. The open house will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, in the Copper Ridge School cafeteria, 10101 E. Thompson Peak Parkway. The cases include:
• Pinnacle Peak Patio (2-GP-2014): Request to change the land use designation from Commercial to Suburban Neighborhoods on roughly 11 acres north of the Jomax Road and Pinnacle Peak Parkway intersection.
• El Regalo (3-GP-2014): Request to change the land use designation from Commercial to Suburban Neighborhoods on roughly 6 acres north of the northeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Westland Drive.
• Cavalliere Flat (4-GP)2014): Request to change the land use designation from Commercial and Rural Neighborhoods to Rural Neighborhoods and Suburban Neighborhoods on roughly 46 acres on the southeast corner of Alma School Parkway and Pinnacle Vista Drive.
• Greasewood Flat (5-GP-2014): Request to change the land use designation from Rural Neighborhoods and Natural Open Space to Cultural/Institutional and Public Use on about a 10-acre site on the northwest corner of the East Mariposa Grande Drive and 134th Street alignments.
Thanks Reg
I would like to publicly thank Councilman Reg Monachino for writing his Letter to the Editor in all public forums thanking me for my service to Cave Creek the town I have called home for 45 years.
I made a decision to resign my term recently from our Cave Creek Planning Commission based on some personal medical issues but also as I start a new direction after retiring from my longtime employer, Rural/Metro Corporation. I left at the end of February this year with deep sadness but for medical reasons. I have worked for and loved working for Rural/Metro as a Firefighter and Senior Member of the Management Team beginning in 1979 while attending the University of Arizona and then becoming a full time Firefighter/Paramedic at our long time station at Cave Creek Road and Tom Darlington Drive.
I was and will always be proud of serving my communities of Cave Creek, Carefree and all areas of the region we covered in that capacity for many years. These years were very rewarding even though there were very stressful times rendering fire and medical services to my neighbors and close friends during the most trying and troubling times in their lives. I rendered services to close friends who did not survive and sometimes I would respond to fight fires that destroyed citizens’ homes or businesses. Although hard on me personally, I didn’t show that because these were my friends and I owed them comfort during very hard times in their lives.
I also had many rewarding times as I used my medical training by delivering a few children who are now our future and watching and treating critically injured friends who recovered and returned to very successful lives. When I left Rural/Metro I was very proud of my service with my longtime employer and will always thank them for allowing me to enjoy each day I spent with the company. They treated me very well and I felt I worked for a very professional well trained company of fire and emergency services workers. I am honored to have had a long and successful employment. I have never considered or wished I had gone in a different direction.
It meant a lot that Reg would take the time to thank me publicly and I respect him for the time we shared together working on the Cave Creek Planning Commission. Even in times we may have been on opposite sides he showed me respect and after reading his letter I believe he respected me. I have no regrets but true pride for the time I spent as a Planning Commissioner as I was able to voice my thoughts while giving my input on future directions. I feel as a citizen we owe it to our town to be involved and not sit back and complain or be disappointed if we never give direct input to the community. Anyone who sits back and doesn't voice either positive or negative feedback really can't expect to complain if they didn't take personal time to serve our beloved Town of Cave Creek.
I thank the previous members of our town staff and current staff for the professional and caring way they served us as citizens. I also thank previous members of our town council and present council members for being willing to serve our community in a position that pays nothing and requires many hours of commitment to hopefully make decisions that represent all members of our town and not just certain group.
I thank my family which is all the citizens of the Town of Cave Creek and appreciate their trust in allowing me to serve as it was an honor I never will regret.
I wish all citizens the best and again thank Councilman Monachino for his very nice comments. I wish him and all members of our community nothing but the best as we all try to advance while improving the future for the next generation and all future generations.
May all in our town work together to resolve issues versus constant fighting that in my opinion solves nothing. We have a world right now fraught with many dangerous issues and I think our community needs to join and resolve them together as we have much more to worry about outside our borders that need attention than things locally we can and should fix together.
My best wishes,
John G. Ford
Proud Citizen of Cave Creek
A liberal paradise
A liberal paradise would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive health care, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities and only law enforcement has guns. And believe it or not, such a place does, indeed, exist. It's called prison.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Reply to Robert Romano
Robert Romano ("The dependency state grows to 175 million") accurately describes what the USA has become: the USSA, where the new political class of Entitlementarians* carries the vote.
J-P. A. Maldonado
Prescott Valley
*Term created by USBP Chief Ronald Colburn
Foreign policy of procrastination
When President Obama was questioned about countering the Islamic terrorists (ISIS) in Syria, his response was "We don’t have a strategy yet," and this exemplifies the status of our foreign policy. The Obama Administrations has deferred our foreign policy decisions to other countries who defer back to the U.S. It is a policy of procrastination based on hopes and dreams the world problems will fade away or be solved by foreign good guys in shining armor.
The results of our diplomatic pullback, our military cuts, and decreased readiness have allowed the Russians to take the Crimea, North Korea to threaten South Korea, China to flex its military might in the Western Pacific, Iran to develop nuclear weapons and Islamic terrorists to establish a territory in Iraq and Syria for launching attacks in the Middle East and the world.
We cannot rely on other countries to take the lead in a dangerous world. As an example, since 2008 European governments have relinquished any leadership role by paying $165 million in ransom to Islamic terrorists for the release of European citizens. To deter and defeat aggression in the world, the U.S. has to provide global leadership in our foreign policy strategies and decisions.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire
The consortium of evil
During the past five or more decades we have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of Progressivism. The degradation of our society and our country, which began slowly and stealthily, has gone into overdrive with such torrents of speed it's nearly impossible to track.
Unfortunately, in that battle the good has been swallowed up by the bad and the ugly. The sins of slothfulness, racism, disharmony, and envy have been fed and nurtured by an evil. Both the Democratic Party and the American media embody and foment that evil. They have become that which they have purveyed. EVIL!
The Democratic Party and the main stream media, the Consortium of Evil, for many years now, have formed a malevolent team which has used people as fodder, hardships as tools and racism as a wedge. Their goal? Power, money and control. This, the most malicious form of greed, borders on treason.
These weeks just passed, America and the world has been embroiled in what is not the first example of treachery fabricated, fueled and ignited by the Consortium, but it might well be some of the most vile activity of their villainous history.
Ferguson! The mayhem, the destruction of property, the deaths, and the detrimental propagation of an ethnicity have all been intentionally fabricated. The Democrats, ever mindful of never allowing a crisis to go to waste nor missing an opportunity to create one, consorted with the media which needs to slither in muck in order to sell newspapers and advertisements for TV, turned what should have been a one night local news story into a nightmare.
All of this should hang like a chain of Scarlet Letters around their collective necks. The decimation of a community and the visual viciousness it has encompassed has been transmitted around the world. All of it, needless.
Within 20 minutes, the police, the news media and community leaders knew or were quite certain what occurred in that street that night. A man, a policeman, not the Police Force, not an armed band of black hating paramilitary personnel, but a man fearing for his life, shot and killed a 6' 4" 300 pound perpetrator who was aggressively approaching him after having attacked him just moments before.
But because the Consortium of Evil desperately needed yet another 24/7 news story and the Party was facing monumental losses in the upcoming elections, they chose to report, not what they knew had happened, but what the criminal associate of the slain aggressor told them. The after effects be damned.
There of course will be no end to this repulsive activity. It goes unpunished. Why? Well over the last decades referenced above, the media and the Democratic Party were transformed into the Consortium of Evil as Democratic voters and viewers of the media remained complacent and apathetic as the organizations of their fathers were infested, day by day, year by year, with Progressive slime willing to stand by and watch people die, property be destroyed and America damaged for their own benefit.
Our Founding Fathers, as brilliant and prescient as they were, could not have foreseen what has been wrought upon the Republic they fought and died for.
Are the American people waking up to the destructiveness of the Consortium of Evil? There are signs they are. This November, the midterm elections will be an indication, a barometer as to the direction we are headed. There is a chance we can stop this. But alas, there seems to be not much hope.
Patriots, we shall see.
Dwight Kehoe
TPATH
