Thank you Carefree!
Dear Citizens and friends of Carefree,
On Election Day, by a two to one margin, the citizens of Carefree made it clear they wanted to keep 2 year terms for both mayor and council. By doing so you also preserved Term Limits which you approved in 2011. While I am no longer a resident of Carefree, I still care and support your decision. Thank You!
Looking ahead I realize that Carefree still faces some difficult economic times and decisions. Whether you are a resident or a seasonal visitor, you can and do make a difference. Let town leadership know what you want Carefree to be like in the future. That is for you to decide, not 7 people dictating that future to you. It is time for the council to focus on the people, not their own pet projects. This council needs to concentrate on infrastructure such as real road improvements, and support workable economic development instead of pushing plans to build larger and unnecessary new council chambers. Logic alone dictates that this type of project does nothing to improve the town's economic future and will never produce $1 of income.
I have always had complete confidence in the residents of Carefree and trusted their common sense. You just need to share that knowledge with the council. As I have always known, not all of you can attend council meetings, which is why I began my email newsletter, CAREFREE MATTERS. My thanks to both Jim Van Allen and John Traynor who have agreed to update you on what is happening in Carefree. Coming soon, their e-newsletter 'Carefree's Future Matters' will keep you in the loop. If you don’t receive it, please contact them. You have my sincere regards and good wishes. Carefree has always been special. Let’s keep it that way.
Bob Coady
Former Carefree Councilman
Passionate about Carefree
Many citizens from this Country have DIED for the FREEDOM to talk to their fellow citizens and argue with their Government if they feel it is going down the wrong path. I will NOT apologize for feeling that presenting a petition was the ONLY way I was going to be taken seriously by others who were leading us down a path of no return (figuratively and literally).
I joined Town Council to help plan and initiate Economic Development for the Town Center, which has steadily been declining. Please understand, the petition I authored recently was not meant as an “attack” on any individual, but rather was a demonstration of ‘non-support’ of a business decision to add on to the Town Hall with new Council Chambers, meeting rooms for non-profits and a building for the local Desert Foothills Theater – projects I do not believe bring any return on investment.
IN MY OPINION ... it appears some have come down to trying to pit the residents against the merchants ... and it’s all poppycock. For God’s sake, we ALL love Carefree!
Compared to an ASU Museum of Art & Design, consisting of six schools offering gallery and engineering exhibits, educational programming, music, film and theater, plus exhibits from cooperating major universities around the country (and perhaps even from other countries!), I believe there is no contest – the ASU satellite will be as attractive to “residents” and “visitors” as it is to the “merchants.”
Stay tuned ... more on the ASU proposal soon!
D. Melissa Price
Carefree Council Member
Email: [email protected]
Your editorial – November 4 election
How do you do it? Week after week, coming up with great editorials has got to be one hell of a job.
On most levels this election cycle has been a very positive one. Let’s hope that the newly elected Republican majority can act responsibly and keep conservative principals in mind as they settle in. Perhaps they can coach some closet moderate Democrats to start acting responsibly as well. It will be safer for them to walk about without Harry the Terrible flogging them!
I honestly believe that as long as there are publications like Sonoran News, with staff and editorial management like you, we still have a fighting chance – at least in Arizona.
Take good care and thanks again for your ongoing support.
John Traynor
Carefree
The wisdom of Carefree voters
Enthusiastic congratulations to the voters in Carefree who demonstrated great wisdom to defeat Carefree Propositions 488 and 489. The promoters of these two council-extension proposals never did provide any sort of reason as to why the town suddenly and so urgently needed to change the existing time a council person serves before another election.
Voters clearly saw through the silly, juvenile and obtuse arguments by the mayor’s publicist, i.e., Carefree [Selective] Truth newsletter, to promote these propositions. (Perhaps voters also noticed that the only folks openly supporting the propositions were existing or former town council members.)
Looking ahead, Carefree voters must remain alert for the coming deluge of misinformation that will emanate from the mayor’s publicist (aka, Carefree [Selective] Truth newsletter) advocating support for projects like a monument to the mayor, construction of a building to house the Desert Foothills Theater, and concessions to a building contractor that would encourage construction of luxury townhomes and high-end retail shops.
In the first instance, I am describing the alleged “need” for a new 5,000+ sq. ft. town hall and council meeting chambers. Much disinformation has already been put forth regarding this foolish, senseless project, including some bizarre math employed by the Carefree [Selective] Truth newsletter that states that the mortgage on a new building will have the same annual payment cost as that now incurred by the rental of the current council chambers. This declaration resembles the sort of comments made by one of the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) architects who stated that voters would be too stupid to understand the provisions and requirements of the law.
For example, the current annual rent for the council chambers is stated as $50,000. Assuming a new building mortgage of about $1.2-million (80 percent of the projected building cost of $1.5-million – a low-end estimate) and a commercial rate of 4.5 percent, the annualized mortgage payment would be about $73,000 (30-year amortization). And this is before taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, landscape care, etc. This also assumes that the town makes a down payment of $300,000.
Of course, the town could reduce the annualized mortgage payment to equal the current rent payment, but that would require dipping into the town’s reserves to the tune of about $700,000 for a hefty down payment. Why would voters want to support this sort of wasteful spending when there is clearly no need? Is it a project for a lasting legacy, or memorial, as tribute to the current mayor? Do voters in Carefree really want this?
I will offer more rebuttals to the nonsense spewed by the few supporters of this proposal, and to other proposed projects, in future letters to this publication.
Freddy Bentine-Brown
Carefree
Lease extension
Recently the issue of extending the lease for the Council Chambers created somewhat of a heated exchange between members. Melissa said she had talked to Ray Klemp and he agreed that the former Court side of the premises could be "negotiated" for a sub lease. The Mayor and the Town Administrator strongly disagreed.
The Mayor’s pet project of building a new structure next to Town Hall is at risk if the present lease is extended.
On Saturday, after enjoying the pancake breakfast, I had the occasion to talk with Ray, while he was working on the new business he is about to open. Ray said the following:
"Melissa is right. That is what I said. I also told the Mayor the same thing. I am a business man and ready to negotiate any plan that works for both parties."
Now who would you be likely to believe, Melissa, Ray Klemp, and me or the Mayor??
You, our elected Council members, must put a stop to this ongoing issue of "part-truths, half-truths, and outright false information" you are given about this pet project. The Stakeholders don't want it, the citizens are not in support of it, and even some of the Mayor’s close advisers are opposed.
Demand an agenda item to vote up or down on this issue and instead use your energy to help fill up the empty store fronts and create a good environment for our shoppers on Easy Street.
I encourage you to go visit with Ray yourself.
Jim Van Allen
Carefree
Council’s budget leaves Cave Creek dangerous
Every year we experience rains and flash floods in Arizona and every year Arizona municipalities have to do a certain amount of road maintenance and repair as a result of regular wear and tear. It does not take a software package to tell us that the lane lines along Cave Creek Road are practically non-existent and is a safety issue. It does not take any software to tell us that Spur Cross Road as a one-lane road is not tenable and is not safe.
I understand the Cave Creek council cut the budget and now do not have money to repair Spur Cross and return it to a two-lane road. Great planning! Rather than spend money on road and safety issues, it seems they would prefer to keep the money in a legal defense fund. In addition to their current legal issues, they will have soon more litigation if Spur Cross is not repaired.
Spur Cross has become especially hazardous. Rarely do folks obey the stop signs on each end of the wash and it seems the Sheriff’s department has taken notice as they were out there monitoring last Friday night. I personally almost became a victim of this situation. I was heading north on Spur Cross, I stopped at the sign and proceeded. Half way across the wash, a large commercial panel truck came barreling through the stop sign heading south, forcing me off the road as he squeezed by in order to avoid side swiping me. A lawsuit waiting to happen.
Council should worry about prevention and safety and allocate their legal defense fund to the roadway budget instead. Even better, some council members should discontinue their illegal, inappropriate conduct which has caused litigation in the first place.
Donna LaMar
Cave Creek
Tourette's
Politics in America have gotten so bizarre, as strange as any SciFi film and as scary as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it matters little if it is local, state or national. It gives me Tourette's!
With ISIS closing in on Bagdad, Ebola has claimed its first U.S. victim in Dallas, our southern border hemorrhages waves of illegal aliens, Islamic, lone wolf, terrorism has visited us in Oklahoma and New York; common-sense and the welfare of the American people are nowhere in evidence. *#^%!
Jim Jones sensed, then feared he was losing the faithful and ordered up a little Kool-aid party. But B.O. doesn't appear to recognize that Leon Panetta, Jimmy Carter and the NY Times (Kool-aid drinkers all) are turning up their noses, even chief taste tester Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is discovering that the Kool-aid is now unsweetened. Obama refuses to secure the border, restrict travel from Ebola-land or acknowledge a terrorist act for what it is. *#^%!
The insanity is not exclusive to the federal government; in Arizona we had a gubernatorial candidate who believes abortions for 14 year-olds without parental permission is a good idea, Socialist switch-hitter Kyrsten Sinema will return to congress, half of the Cave Creek town council is up for recall and we don't even know where the Vice Mayor lives. *#^%!
The state of California has closed her borders to West Africans, but not illegal Mexican felons, even those who murder police officers. Minnesota, the Loon state, reelects Al Franken to the U.S. Senate. *#^%!
Even after an historic mid-term win by the Republicans, Obama remains an arrogant, condescending ideologue. The wimpy victors, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, vow to work together in bi-partisan harmony with the back stabbers who they were elected to dominate. *#^%!
With only two short years to resurrect the nation and select a Presidential candidate to face Hillary (ugh), the Republicans have no agenda, no real leader and, in most cases, no guts. *#^%!
God help us.
Randy Edwards
Cave Creek
Impeach or not to Impeach, is that the question?
Any presidential impeachment process depends solely on whether or not Barack Hussein Obama decides to act on amnesty on his own as he has threatened. If he willfully opts to create a constitutional crisis by acting as though he has dictatorial power and decides by decree to write a new immigration policy there may be no other choice but impeachment.
You cannot permit this egomaniac or any future president of our country to willfully ignore and thereby crush the U.S. Constitution and its provision for Separation of Power. A president is elected to first and foremost represent the legal citizens of The United States and to support and defend the Constitution. There is no provision for any president to ignore the U.S. Constitution or existing law (which he has done) or to act as a dictator by rewriting laws himself.
In his first term Barack Obama and the Democrats had control over the House of Representatives, the Senate and the support of the people. Why did he not act at that time? His choosing not to act was a political decision. He knew that Americans would not support a broad amnesty without the border being secured first. That meant he needed the cover of having Republicans aboard to share the blame and take on the ire of legal citizens because he knew that an Amnesty Bill was not acceptable unless the border was sealed first.
This is a crisis of Obamas own making; he owns it 100 percent. He created it by acting on his political instincts instead of what was best for the nation.
This nation should never bend to the demands of an egomaniac looking to act in a dictatorial manner. You can't shiver and shake over any future "bogeymen" hiding under your bed. This administration is in a downward death spiral with bad news and worse news coming from every corner just about every day with a lot more around the corner.
If Obama opts to use his threat and acts on his own, Congress with the support of "We the People," need to do what is right, We Impeach Him.
We can't be wrong by doing what is legal, what is right and what is constitutionally correct.
Tom Carbone
Cave Creek
Israeli/Palestinian peace impossible
J Street, a national organization, promotes a peace agenda for the Israelis and Palestinians. It believes a final status agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians embodying a two state solution will guarantee peace in the region, but this is sheer naïve folly.
Any agreement between Israel and the Arabs will be torn up by the Arabs when they believe they can conquer Israel. Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda ISIS and other Islamic terrorist organizations will continue to promote attacks against Israel. All of the Arab/Persian countries in the Middle East either overtly or covertly support conflict with Israel or at the very least, condone or tacitly approve military confrontation with Israel.
It is all about religion in the Middle East, and the Muslims hate the Jews of Israel. Furthermore, they are jealous of the successes of Israel, and the Arabs are woefully inept in all disciplines. Israel is a democratic country with a highly developed society, while the Arab countries, many of whom are dictatorships and theocracies, exemplify underachieving societies.
Israel must have top notch intelligence services and a strong military, be alert to potential Arab attacks, and not allow development of a Palestinian territory which can threaten Israel.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire
We wish our best
Thanksgiving made its American debut in 1621, an impromptu gathering of recently arrived Pilgrims and native Wampanoag. However, it was not until 200 years later that Thanksgiving was elevated to national holiday status by President Lincoln during the Civil War in 1863. Although Thursday was the marker day and November the month, the Thursday holiday bounced around within the month until finally settling on the fourth Thursday.
Cave Creek has much for which to be thankful. How many communities can say they wake up to the visual splendor and wonder of what we do every day? No resident tires of aviary, daybreak song diversity, the wilder, larger prowl-animals or the breathtaking sunrises/sets and planetarium-like night skies.
And that’s just our natural blessings. Cave Creek also has an enviable lifestyle. Rural may be as a dated as a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover, but it’s alive, thriving and current in Cave Creek. Who didn’t want to be a cowboy/girl when they were a kid? Our horses buck and whinny, our cowboys are real, authentic and when they speak, they do so with a Made in USA drawl. The community has been a haven for artists and musicians since its founding in 1860. The town inspired then and does so now.
This community we call home is unique. We celebrate it. We share it. And on Thanksgiving Day we are grateful.
On behalf of the Town Council and staff we wish the best to our citizens and to our neighbors in nearby communities during this Thanksgiving season.
Mayor Vincent Francia
Cave Creek
GOP must use Gruber revelations to dismantle ObamaCare
ForAmerica President David Bozell released the following statement on the opportunity presented to Republicans by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber's comments on the "stupidity" of American voters:
If the new Republican majority funds ObamaCare now, they're banking on the 'stupidity of the American' voter just as much as Mr. Gruber and the Democrats.
Make no mistake: Jonathan Gruber was the Democrats' go-to guy on ObamaCare. The MIT professor 'with impeccable credentials' was trotted out by Democrats many times during ObamaCare's creation. Try as it might, the White House will not be successful in distancing itself from him.
The new GOP majority is constitutionally mandated to be stewards of taxpayer funds, a concept completely lost on Democrats. With Gruber's true thoughts on ObamaCare finally exposed, how could the GOP entertain funding a program that was written in secret, built on a lie, whose passage was dependent upon – by admission of its creator– "the stupidity of the American voter" and which has failed miserably?
GOP leadership should be playing the Gruber clip on a loop inside the walls of the Capitol building and deliver for the American people what the American people have demanded of them: the complete and total dismantling of ObamaCare.
If the new Republican majority funds ObamaCare now, they're banking on the "stupidity of the American" voter just as much as Mr. Gruber and the Democrats.
David Bozell,
President, ForAmerica
P.S. ObamaCare must be repealed!