Golden Corridor Living Magazine

ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • MARICOPA

“THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY”

SUMMER 2016

MEDICAL HEALTH &

WELLNESSI S S U E

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6 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION6 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION6 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION

Features:

Contents Summer 2016

THE MEDICAL EDITION

City Council Candidate Roundup 40

The Interview: Craig McFarland 16

Medical, Health & Wellness Special Section

64

ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • MARICOPA

“THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY”

SUMMER 2016

MEDICAL HEALTH &

WELLNESSI S S U E

Craig McFarland

The Interview:

10DAY TRIPS from

The Golden Corridor

Economy & Local Business

Health, Wealth& Education

Travel, Dining& Entertainment

Health Communities: We All

Play a Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Let Us Pray? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Make It Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Come on In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Introducing: Out & About . . . .48

Remembering to Forget . . . . . .50

God, What is Poor? Part 4 . . . . 54

CG School Named to

State’s Top 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

10 Day Trips From

Golden Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Summer BBQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Creative Writing Contest . . . . .98

Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Dr. Ramon Mourelo and the da Vinci® Surgical System

Story on page 65Photography by Bea Lueck

7SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING 7THE MEDICAL EDITION

OUR WEATHER AND ELECTIONS HEAT UP

Letter from the Editor

We are almost at the halfway point in the year. This issue is our Medical, Health &

Wellness edition. For the first time, our cover features a local physician, Dr. Ramon Mourelo, and was shot in one of the operating rooms at Banner Casa Grande Regional Medical Center. You can read more about that adventure on page 81.

While the first day of summer isn’t until June 20th, here in the central desert of Arizona – let’s just call it sum-mer! Temperatures are now hitting the official 100-degree mark and climbing. Our spring respite is over!

That means a bunch of bullet point advice:

• Pack your cold weather clothes – it’s time to go as minimal as your work permits, unless you work outside in the sun, then wear long sleeves to protect your skin.

• Carry oven mitts to drive and handle hot objects. Really. Trust me. It works.

• Time to shift our outdoor ac-tivities to dawn or dusk. There is no need to mow the grass during the day when 4 a.m. works just fine.

• Respect the heat and stay hydrated, especially if you are not accustomed to the Arizona heat. Whoever said, “It’s a dry heat,” wasn’t sweating gallons.

• Stock up on sunscreen and apply it liberally. Skin cancer is no joking matter and neither is sunburn that requires treatment at a burn unit.

• Don’t leave children or pets in a vehicle in the sun – EVER!

• The kids are soon out of school - time for fun at the library, the Boys & Girls Club or aquatics center.

• Watch our children around water – ALWAYS! Never take your eyes off them for even a second.

• Plan vacations to cooler cli-mates, if even for a few short hours of relief. Day trips in Arizona offer many great tourist attractions. Pretend to be a tourist!

• Watch out for critters that slither, sting and bite!

Every year our firefighters get called out to help with a variety of avoidable rescues - someone overcome by the heat, fallen off of or stranded on a mountain, envenomated by a rattle-snake or the call everyone dreads the most – a child that has fallen into a pool. So do your part and avoid all the perils and pitfalls so you can enjoy summer to its fullest.

And speaking of all things heating up, let’s just jump feet first into the fire and briefly discuss politics. On a local level, I encourage everyone to

talk to the candidates and attend the community forums. Get to know the people you are electing to office to represent you. For most upcoming city and county positions, we have a great field of candidates. For the state-level propositions – please take lots of time to read and research the two propo-sitions. We have two choices: yes or no. And while it sounds simple, it isn’t. The consequences of your vote, either for or against, will be felt by the state for many years to come. And for the federal campaigns – all I can say is, “I can’t wait until it is over. “ I, for one, am tired of the name-calling and kinder-garten squabbling. Please tell me what you intend to do to improve the quality of life for me and the country and stop the endless evening news fodder. The only positive is the weekly Saturday Night Live skits - November 9th can’t come soon enough!

Our next edition is aptly themed the Education edition and will be released mid-July – just in time to enroll for the new school year. We have several excellent choices for parents in our area, which include public, charter and parochial. We’d love to hear from both educators and parents regarding your thoughts on education in Pinal County. Email me at [email protected]

Bea Lueck

–Bea

SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING

8 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION

Golden Corridor LIVING is published by RAXX Media . Editorial content is provided by affiliates of RAXX Media, community members and local organizations .

The publishers of Golden Corridor LIVING assume no responsibility for errors or omissions of any advertisement beyond the actual cost of the advertisement . In no event shall the publishers

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of information contained herein . Submitted articles do not reflect the opinions of the owners or management of Golden Corridor LIVING Information contained within submitted articles had

not been verified for accuracy and readers are responsible for forming their own opinions . Real estate information is as of 5-4-16 and is subject to current availability and pricing .

PUBLISHER Elaine Earle, CPA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bea Lueck

MANAGING EDITOR Katie Mayer

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Susan Conn-Hood

Harold Kitching Donna McBride

Jim Rhodes

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Debbie Cortez Melissa Wolf

CREATIVE DIRECTOR/GRAPHIC DESIGN Tim Clarke

GRAPHIC DESIGN Jake Pagano

Tad Smith

CHIEF OF OPERATIONS & FINANCE Elaine Earle, CPA

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES [email protected]

COMMENTS & IDEAS [email protected]

CALENDAR INQUIRES [email protected]

(520) 426-2074 442 W. Kortsen Rd, Ste 101

Casa Grande, AZ 85122

VOICES of the CommunityBob JacksonBorn in Whitefish, Montana, Mayor Robert Jackson has lived in Casa Grande since 1991. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, holding a B.S. in Civil Engineering. He retired from the City of Casa Grande as Public Works Director in 2002 and is now serving his fourth term as mayor ending in 2015.

Helen NeuharthHelen was hired as the President/CEO of the Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce in August 1991 and is a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management from Boulder, Colorado. Helen is an active member of the Arizona Chamber Executives

Donna McBrideDonna McBride is the Program Administrator/Public Information Officer and Supervisor for the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Unit for Pinal County Juvenile Court . McBride is actively involved as a Board Member for Casa Grande Alliance, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, BlackBox Foundation, Mayor’s Reading Program, Pinal County Town Hall Vice-Chair, Parks and Block Watch Captain for the Casa Grande Police Department. A freelance writer and photographer, Donna and husband Mike enjoy white water rafting, kayaking and spending time with their 2 sons and 3 grandchildren who live in the valley.

Harold KitchingHarold has worked for newspapers across the country. He was city government reporter for the Casa Grande Dispatch for 11 years until he resigned after the newspaper began downplaying local news.

9SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION

of the CommunityEvelyn CasugaEvelyn Casuga CEcD, serves as Economic/Community Development Advisor for Access Arizona, the area’s regional economic development foundation. Evelyn works part time at CAC and consults with the Center for the Future of Arizona, and other non-profit/private entities. She volunteers with numerous organizations in economic and community development throughout Arizona.

Breanna BolandBreanna is the Executive Director of the Casa Grande Alliance. She started working for the organization in 2012 as a Prevention Specialist. Breanna studied Public Health at Northern Arizona University and is a Arizona Certified Prevention Specialist.

Jerry Chinn Jerry Chinn’s is an award-winning and college-educated documentary filmmaker and photographer with more than 30 years of professional experience. Whether through film or still photography, his passion is telling stories that enlighten and inspire the viewer.

Susan Conn-HoodSusan has been a Fitness Instructor and Wellness Presenter for over 20 years and has conducted various speaking engagements on fitness, whole food education and proper hydration. Susan is an active member of the Casa Grande Toastmasters group and the Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce.

B U S I N E S S I N D E X100 Academy Mortgage - CG

23 Access Arizona

37 Ace of Shades

71 Agave Dentistry

73 American Family Ins-Hobbs

32 Annie-Mac Home Mortgage

10 Avocado Nursery

69 Banner / CGRMC

33 Brutinel

47 Capital R Construction

57 Casa Grande Alliance

63 Casa Grande Elementary

85 Casa Grande Family Dentistry

51 Casa Grande Union High School District

42 Central Arizona College

3 Coldwell Banker ROX - BROKERAGE







96 Coldwell Banker ROX - Property Management

77 Cottonwood Medical Center

62 D.A. Milewski Household Cleaning

81 Desert Sky Dental

74 Dick & Mitchell DDS

79 DM Family Dentistry

77 Elegance N Images

62 Farmers Insurance - Bryant

30 Fitzgibbons Law Offices

15 Henry Brown Auto

4 Heritage Motors

74 Jenkins Chiropractic

34 Make It Better

37 Mankel Mechanical

29 On Sight Shooting School

2 Phoenix Patio Systems

41 RAXX Media

45 ROX Casa Grande Insurance

92 Rox Travel CG

5 Sircle Pain Clinic

94 Star Towing

72 Sun Life Family Health Center

73 Sunshine Child & Adolescent Care

52 Surprise Regional Chamber of Commerce

27 TeePee Sand And Gravel

62 Title Security

77 Yang and Horsley Dentistry


Thanks for considering us for all your gardening needs!

520-723-44806855 N. Overfield Road, Casa Grande

• Cactus • Agave & Yucca

• Sonoran Desert Plants

• Honey & Seasonal Produce

• Community Garden Specialist

10

May 14th Farmer’s Market from 9am - 1pm

May 28th Grape Vine Workshop from 10am - 11am

(check our facebook page for schedule!)

11SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION 11

May-June 2016

MAY

15 CAVIT live burn - 7 a.m.- Signal Peak Campus Burn

Building Tower

17 DAY OUT DOWNTOWN & HISTORIC WALKING TOUR

- 9:30 AM-2:00 PM - Main Street Patio-Alley behind Cook E Jar, Casa Grande, AZ 85122

18 PINNACLE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION - 6:00 PM-

Pinnacle High School

19 Vista Grande Graduation - 6:00 PM- Vista Grande

High School

19 Maricopa High School Graduation - 6:00 PM-

Maricopa High School

20 PARTY IN THE PARK CONCERT SERIES - 6:00

PM-8:00 PM - Peart Park - 350 E. 6th St., Casa Grande, AZ

21 CENTRAL ARIZONA SPEEDWAY-DIRT TRACK

CAR RACES - 7:00 PM- Central AZ Speedway-512 Eleven Mile Corner, Casa Grande

26 Florence High School Graduation - 6:00 PM-

Florence High School

26 Coolidge High School Graduation - 6:00 PM-

Coolidge High School

27 THE BACKYARD MARKET CASA GRANDE - 7:00

AM-10:00 AM - Herbalicious-423 N. Florence St., Casa Grande

28 AQUATIC CENTER OPENS - MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

- Palm Island-1115 N. Brown Ave., Casa Grande, AZ

28 Horseshoe Tournament Fundraiser - CG Elks - 12:00

PM-5:00 PM - CG Elks - 909 E Florence Blvd

28 Grape Vine Workshop - 10am-11am - Distinctive

Earthscapes and The Avocado - 6855 N. Overfield Road, Casa Grande

31 Tuesday marketplace - 9:00 AM-1:00 PM - Southwest

corner of 4th St and Florence ST

JUNEMAY

JUNE

6 Sports Camp - Len colla Center Children 6-14 - 4:00 PM-6:00

PM - Len Colla Rec Center 1105 E 4th St

6 Rocket Club - 4:00 PM-6:00 PM - Len Colla Rec Center

1105 E 4th St

11 Arizona State Chili Championship - 10:00 AM-4:00

PM - Palm Creek 1110 Henness Rd

16 Summer Theatre Camp - Vista Grande High School

- 1556 N Arizola Rd

18 CENTRAL ARIZONA SPEEDWAY-DIRT TRACK

CAR RACES - 7:00 PM-12:00 AM - Central AZ Speedway-512 Eleven Mile Corner, Casa Grande,

23 2016 Summer theatre Camp - Vista Grande High School -

1556 N Arizola Rd

20 Blood Drive CG Valley Elks - 12:00 AM-5:00 PM - CG Elks

- 909 E Florence Blvd

JULY

4 July 4th Family Fun Daty at the Pool - 10:00 AM-12:00 AM

- Palm Island-1115 N. Brown Ave., Casa Grande, AZ

4 Fourth of July Fireworks Show and Activities - 6:30 PM-12:00

AM - Paul Mason sportsplex 2525 N Pinal Ave

23 Christmas in July CG Valley Elks - 12:00 AM- - CG Elks -

909 E Florence Blvd

MONDAY, MAY 30TH AT 9:00 AM Antique Aircraft Fly Over by the Arizona

Antique Airplane Association. Mountain View Cemetery Casa Grande located off I – 8 on South Trekell Road and West Skyway Ave

Flag raising - VFW Post #1677 Honor Guard

National Anthem - Sung by Brad Kepler

A Tribute to our fallen Casa Grande Heroes for the past year*

Rifle Salute & Taps - VFW Post #1677

Bag Pipes - Agent Mark Nelson, US Customs & Border Protection

Guest Speaker - Bob Jackson, Mayor of Casa Grande

KIDS 5-16 ENTER OUR ESSAY CONTEST! Winning entries will be published in the July

education edition. Visit Vista Grande Public

Library for details. Deadline to enter is June 15th

12 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION12 THE MEDICAL EDITIONGOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016

Deputy City Manager Larry Rains has been formally named Casa Grande’s next city manager.

The vote, during the April 18 City Council meeting, was unanimous.

His appointment will be effective Aug. 7, which is the day present City Manager Jim Thompson previously an-nounced he will retire.

Mayor Bob Jackson said that date could be moved up if Thompson de-cides to leave earlier.

Prior to the vote, Jackson said, “A couple of months ago, Jim tendered his retirement to us and we’ve kind of gone down this road. He authorized me to sit down and work out an agreement with Larry and I think what we’ve done is provided you with what he feels is fair and certainly I feel is fair, as well.”

According to the staff report accom-panying the agenda item, Rains’ year-ly salary will be at step 10 of the city manager pay scale, or $178,662.43. That scale runs from $145,475 to $200,440 annually.

Rains would also receive, in addi-tion to the standard city benefits, an automobile allowance, cell phone al-lowance, and city-paid dependent in-surance and life insurance, the staff report adds.

“I will say that the appointment of Larry as the city manager, he cer-tainly is capable and I think is the best candidate we would have found to be-gin with, Jackson said. “Also, it really provides a good transition for the city. So with that, it’s my recommendation that we appoint Mr. Rains as the city manager.”

After the vote, Rains told the coun-cil, “First of all, I truly thank you for this appointment. I can’t tell you how excited I am about the opportunity of being the city manager for the city of Casa Grande. Your vote tonight cer-

There are several issues that fu-ture Casa Grande mayors and City Council members need to con-

sider and act upon, Mayor Bob Jackson said during his final mayoral State of the City address in mid-March. These range from keeping up with infrastruc-ture to accommodating the millennial workforce.

InfrastructureBecause the city expanded and mod-

ernized the sewage treatment plant, Casa Grande was able to handle new industry.

“We need to be working on the next generation of infrastructure projects,” Jackson said, “because I think what’s helped us the last nine years is being ready. We need to be ready for the next go around.”

Shopping mall“We need to worry about the mall,”

Jackson said. “We’ve seen two major

tenants out there close in the last year – Target and now Sports Authority. Again, that goes back to this online shopping issue. We need to help figure out what we can do as a city to help that mall thrive.”

Online shopping will continue to be a problem for traditional brick-and-mor-tar merchants in the city, the mayor believes.

“I online shop, just like probably everybody here does,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is online shopping does not pay a local sales tax.”

He added, “I’ve talked to some of the small merchants here in town. They’ll get somebody to come and look at an expensive piece of equipment…then they’ll go buy it online so they avoid the sales tax. That same business owner is the guy who gets the call when Lit-tle League needs a sponsor or the Ce-sar Chavez dinner needs a sponsor for scholarships.”

He continued, “And I think moving

forward, we need to get a handle on In-ternet sales. I don’t know the answer, but I think that’s something that future councils are going to have to work on.”

Economic development“We’ve got economic development

always on our list,” Jackson said. “We have the only rail-served industrial area in Arizona – that area south of us

The Casa Grande HeraldCG News

by Harold Kitching

cgnews-info.webs.com or www.haroldkitching.com


• ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA • ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA • ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA •

Larry Rains named new city manager

State of the City address outlines key focus areas

continued on page 24...

13SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING 13 13SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION

Casa Grande will work with the Ar-izona Department of Transporta-tion to get federal funding for a hy-

brid beacon signal near Cacheries Court on Florence Boulevard.

But before City Council approv-al, there were questions about whether people would actually use the signal and whether it could cause traffic tie-ups be-cause of signals already at Henness Road and Camino Mercado, where there are existing crosswalks.

The signal would be just east of Cach-eries Court in front of two motels on the south side of Florence. That area has seen four pedestrian fatalities from people trying to dart across the road in the dark, including a mother who was killed while trying to cross with her 5-year-old son. Another fatality was a man crossing to a convenience store on the north side of

Florence.The beacon would be similar to the

one on Pinal Avenue north of Casa Grande Middle School, which is activated by pedestrians. It would not be a regular traffic light.

Under the resolution, ADOT will ap-ply for $386,417 in federal funding. There would be no city matching funds unless there are cost overruns. If that happens, the city would be responsible for the overage costs.

According to the staff report accom-panying the agenda item, “The purpose of this agreement between the state and the city is to allow the state to acquire federal funds for the design and con-struction of a pedestrian hybrid beacon, crosswalk striping, signage, and lighting to help reduce the number of pedestrian motor vehicle crashes and to enhance the

ability of pedestrians to safely and com-fortably cross Florence Boulevard.”

TimelineIt will be a while before the signal

would be built.Councilman Matt Herman asked when

those federal funds would be available.“The design will hopefully start as

soon as we get the approval to accept those federal funds,” Public Works Di-rector Kevin Louis replied. “ADOT will

The Casa Grande HeraldLocal News from Golden Corridor Living Magazine


• ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA • ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA • ARIZONA CIT Y • CASA GR ANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • M ARICOPA •

ALL THE NEWS WE THINK IS FIT TO PRINT!

Officials discuss impact of new hybrid beacon signal

tainly shows a confidence and I appre-ciate it.”

He added, “I’ve had a lot of folks ask me throughout the last couple of weeks about this position, and quite frankly the outpouring of support from many of the folks sitting in this audience and the community has just been over-whelming and certainly caused me to reflect and it just humbles me, quite frankly.”

Rains pointed out that it was 14 years ago in May that he came to Casa Grande as city finance director.

“A couple of things that I think are just impactful and one of the reasons why I looked at Casa Grande to come here 14 years ago and why I’m so excited about this opportunity today is, num-ber one, Casa Grande as an organization and community has such a rich leader-ship fabric and most communities that those of us in this profession move to from community to community can’t

say that,” he said. “The fact that the city of Casa Grande serves as an economic hub to western Pinal County, the fact that things are very, very stable here, comparatively, to pretty much the rest of the nation, the fact that we have such a fine community and the folks that are willing to really work for the better-ment of this community have all been motivating factors for me to really put my roots here in Casa Grande and call this place home.”

Rains said he looks forward to “working through the transition with Jim. I mean, obviously, he’s had a fan-tastic career here and as he concludes his tenure, my goals these next couple of months will be to make this transi-tion as seamless as possible.”

He added, “I also look forward to working with each of you (the coun-cil) individually and collectively, with our experienced management staff and the 450-plus employees that work here daily to make Casa Grande a better place. I’m excited about working with

everybody and getting on that common vision and moving forward. Thanks to all the folks that have been supportive over these last couple of weeks and my family and friends who have support-ed me for 27 years in this government endeavor.”

Jackson said, “Thank you, Larry. And thank you, Jim, for picking some-body as your deputy that could step into the job when you retired.”

Thompson, who came to the city in 2004, announced his retirement in an employee newsletter in February. The resignation date was accepted during the March 7 City Council meeting, beginning the process of finding a replacement.

“Part of this process included en-gaging in a discussion with Larry Rains, the current deputy city manager, who has served in that role since 2008,” the staff report accompanying the agenda item said. “After the interview process, the council instructed the mayor and staff to attempt to reach an agreement with Rains to serve as the city’s next

city manager.”Rains came to Casa Grande as fi-

nance director, then was appointed deputy manager.

“Rains possesses more than 25 years of experience in the public sector, in-cluding service as the finance director for the cities of Wilcox, Clifton, and Eloy,” the staff report says. “He also previously served as the city manager for the city of Wilcox for eight years. For the last 14 years, Rains has been with the city of Casa Grande, where he has provided exemplary service as the city’s finance director and deputy city manager.”

The report continues, “The appoint-ment of Mr. Rains will provide the city with a capable leader who is already fa-miliar with the community as well as has detailed knowledge concerning the operations of and issues facing the city. His appointment should provide for a smooth transition from Thompson’s retirement to Rains’ assumption of the city manager position.”

Larry Rains (continued)


14 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION14 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION

As we close out the city’s fiscal year I thought I would take the opportunity to update ev-eryone on several of our ongoing projects.

The Council earlier in the year approved a new Computer Aided Dispatch/Record Management System for the police and fire departments. The old system was more than 20 years old and simply could not accommodate many of the newer requirements. Think about your personal computer needs today and think about what you were doing 20 years ago and you can see how obsolete the system had become. The up-grade costs about $1.5 million and will take about a year to fully implement. It will have many new fea-tures to streamline our dispatch operations and the records system.

A second program we are undertaking for the police department is body cameras for our officers. As the Council looked at different alternatives, we felt that with everyone having smart phones today, we need-ed to be sure that the officers were protected from recordings which fail to show the officer perspective in crucial situations. After looking at all available technologies and camera locations, we have elected to move forward with cameras mounted on the officer’s chest. While we recognize there is no perfect system, we felt this would best serve our officers. We will be outfitting our officers over the next few years.

You will soon start seeing new police vehicles on the road, as well. After several years of looking at differ-ent makes and models, we will be switching to Chevy Tahoe SUVs. Police vehicles are typically only manu-factured by one or two of the big auto manufacturers. They require many special features that are not on civilian vehicles. Over the years, we have used Ford Crown Victorias (no longer being manufactured with the police package), Chevy Caprices and Dodge Char-

gers. Each has positives and negatives, but in the end, the Tahoes are best suited for our use.

In the public works arena, we are working on a cou-ple of projects that will help us achieve a more sus-tainable community. The first is a company called Waste Empowered. We are working on a long-term agreement with them to take all of our Municipal Solid Waste, process it and reduce its volume by more than 75 percent. This will allow us to extend the life of our landfill decades into the future. At its current pace we feel we have less than 20 years remaining before we need to look at a new site. This agreement with Waste Empowered is intended to keep our rates low and pro-vide a long-term solution to our waste disposal.

We recently approved a contract with a company called NFlux. The proposal will generate electrici-ty and grow food crops for sale using effluent from our treatment plant. The electrical generation will be used to offset the current cost of electricity at our plant and be a good outlet for effluent reuse. We cur-rently use a portion of our effluent for irrigation of the golf course and a portion is used by the SRP Desert Basin Power Plant.

One final update involves the proposed new com-munity center. At a recent Council meeting, we ap-proved moving forward with the final design of the center. It was voter-approved about ten years ago and is the last of the bond projects that were proposed. The design is expected to take about six months with construction starting shortly thereafter. With luck we should break ground by the end of 2016.

We are constantly looking at ways to upgrade and improve our service delivery to our citizens. There are lots of other projects being examined by the Council and staff with the goal of improving the quality of life in Casa Grande.

We are constantly looking at ways to upgrade and improve our service delivery to our citizens.

CITYSPEAK

CITY PROJECTSUPDATEby Robert “Bob” Jackson, Mayor, Casa Grande


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The LIVING Interview

GC LIVING: Craig, what do you make of the wacky local election situation – one May-oral candidate and nine candidates for three seats on City Council – this year?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: This election is defi-nitely an odd state of affairs, certainly on the national stage. Our local election mov-ing from a spring election cycle to the fall (to coincide with state and federal elec-tion) has helped bring more candidates to

the city election. So the combination of a raucous national election and the timing change for our local elections, has created the interest in our local race. That’s a good thing. It’s good to see people interested in making a difference in our community.

The current Mayoral race with just one candidate . . . is also odd. Not that I am complaining, but I also don’t want to take anything for granted. I don’t expect to be

anointed and want to win the commu-nity’s confidence and vote. I believe I am and would be the best candidate for the position of Mayor of Casa Grande. I am a collaborator and consensus-builder, and I will encourage entrepreneurs to build new businesses in our city, expand their exist-ing businesses and remain in Casa Grande. I have the time, passion, training, expe-rience and leadership skills to help make Casa Grande better! My ultimate goal is to make Casa Grande better than I found it!

GC LIVING: So Craig, what on earth brought you to Casa Grande?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: Well, my entire career has been in the beer business – primari-ly working for Anheuser-Busch in various capacities – and one of my customers was Golden Eagle Distributors in Tucson. When a succession crisis arose in their business, they invited me to become their vice pres-ident and Branch Manager of the Gold-en Eagle Casa Grande branch (the largest branch outside of Tucson). This branch was poised for growth and ultimately became the key SPIKE Beverage Distribution Center with their push into the Phoenix market.

The move to Casa Grande from St. Louis caused a mini crisis in my domestic sit-uation, as my wife Nancy did not know anything about Casa Grande! When I told her we were moving to Casa Grande she Googled “shopping” and Kmart is the only thing that came up. She cried. Over time, though, she relented and we moved to Casa Grande. Nancy is a very resilient and pos-itive person. Once she got settled, she was sold on Casa Grande. It is our home.

GC LIVING: The beer business sounds like ev-ery man’s dream! Tell us a little about that

Craig McFarland:He knows our community. Here’s why you should know him.Interview by Rock Earle

The name “Craig McFarland” has been the subject of ubiquitous mention around Casa Grande for years. Before I knew him personally at all, he kept popping up all over on my radar screen - Boys & Girls Club, Chamber of Commerce, this board

or event or that one, yada yada yada, ad infinitum … who on earth is this guy? Is there really just one? Or is he really three?!

In recent years, particularly since he retired from Golden Eagle Distributors, our paths have crossed a bit and I have gotten to know the real Craig McFarland a little better. And it turns out that he is the real deal - smart and successful - yes - but also generous and civic-minded. He really does want a better future for the community and its citizens - and he is willing to dedicate his time, in what would constitute his “golden years,” to help make it better.

So what a fortuitous circumstance, or coincidence, that as I write this, we are in the midst of an election year - and an odd one at that. Let me explain. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but a couple of years ago the date of our local elections was changed to be synchronous with other state and federal elections. What was originally a May 2015 City election was moved to November 2016.

This means that Bob Jackson, our incumbent four-term Mayor, is still in office, finish-ing what will be 9 1/2 years during the worst economic times since the Great Depres-sion - an extraordinary run by any measure.

But Bob is termed out and cannot run again, so we are guaranteed a new face in that office. Which is where Craig McFarland comes in. As of the date of this interview (mid-April, 2016) Craig is the only declared candidate for Casa Grande Mayor - surely an odd state of affairs for local races in small towns. We were going to get around to inter-viewing Craig eventually anyway, but with his new ideas, energy, previous appearances in this magazine and winning prospects, we thought we and our fellow citizens should get to know him a little better.

- ROCK EARLE


The LIVING Interview (continued)

and some of your experiences? CRAIG MCFARLAND: As you said, it was a

dream job. I have had the opportunity to travel, learn about and drink beer, teach people about beer, attend every type of sporting event and sit in the best seats all under the umbrella of work. With the good comes some sacrifices – from Jan 1979 to Jan 2005, (I’ve held) 10 different positions with Anheuser-Busch, Inc., including the training department (Los Angeles), field sales management (Seattle, Washington and Boise, Idaho), division administrator (Denver, Colorado), revenue management & coupons and refunds (St. Louis, Missou-ri), sr. field sales (Phoenix), sales director AZ/NV (Phoenix) and western sales direc-tor retail sales (St. Louis, Missouri). Those new positions meant moving ten times and living in six different states.

In my career, I managed everything from training department curriculum, field sales wholesaler activities, corpo-rate ABI revenue management – we had a $500 million budget – and managed all ABI personnel, sales, events, marketing and wholesalers serving Arizona, New Mexi-co, Nevada, and finally, managed ABI retail shelf sales personnel and programs for the Western U.S.

What I enjoyed most about the beer business was talking to people about beer and the differences in beer. Most com-mon questions and arguments about beer

would range from convincing people that “Beechwood Aging” of Budweiser makes a difference to why it’s easier to make an ale-style beer vs. a lager/Pilsner-style beer. My love of everything beer has led to my home brewing of my own beer. I have made ev-erything from Pale Ale, Black IPA, regular IPA and even a Bourbon Aged Stout.

GC LIVING: Wow! OK, back up . . . “Beech-wood Aging” . . . what is that?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: Beechwood aging is a process only used by Budweiser beer. “It creates a smoothness and drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price”. That’s actually a quote off the Budweiser label . . . if you want to check it out. Bud-weiser is naturally fermented with bottom fermenting yeast. They spread the Beech-

wood chips across the bottom of the fer-menting tanks, seal the tank, fill it with wort (sugar water), add the yeast on top and it floats to the bottom of the tank and covers the Beechwood. It creates a greater surface area for the yeast to interact with the wort (fermentation creates alcohol and Co2) thus giving a more complete aging and fermentation process. Now I’m sure you’re sorry you asked.

GC LIVING: No, no good stuff. OK, what sort of an upbringing prepared you for this? Tell us about little Craig’s formative years...

CRAIG MCFARLAND: I am the oldest of five boys, born and raised in California. I lived in Washington D.C., Honolulu Hawaii and Fresno, Walnut Creek, Concord and Northridge (mostly Fresno) in California. I was raised by two loving parents. We did move around, as my Dad was in the Navy and eventually went to work for Anheus-er-Busch. Living with four brothers in-cluded many life experiences like running paper routes, Boy Scouts, seven-person road trips in a station wagon with no air conditioning (back seat facing backwards), terrorizing neighborhoods and yes, just a few fights. Additionally, we brought home a long list of animals that boys find around a neighborhood –dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigeons, turtles, frogs, spiders, insects, snakes and lizards. You name it, we probably had it at one time. Our Mom would say, “You boys go out and play. Just be back before dark.” Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt and we all made it home. I won’t lie, there were some close calls.

GC LIVING: Did you have any special education that prepared you for your business career?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: School for me was a series of highs and some lows. Moving fre-quently made it hard to make consistent friends and longtime friends. I learned to be adaptive and find things to do with my brothers. Boy Scouts was also a really good program for me. It gave me direction, leadership, extracurricular activities and real-life survival skills. I graduated high school in 1972 from Hoover High School in Fresno, California, graduated college in 1976 from California State University Fres-no (Aug. 1972 – June 1976, B.A.). I also had a great opportunity to attend the Whar-ton School of the University of Pennsylva-nia in 2005 and 2006. It is a concentrated

“Our Mom would say,

‘You boys go out and

play. Just be back before

dark.’ Fortunately, no one

got seriously hurt and

we all made it home.”


two- week program through Wharton that gives business executives a crash MBA course and interaction with classmates from all over the world. I received two ad-vance certificates from Wharton. It was a great experience!

GC LIVING: So, back to your start in business with Anheuser-Busch – tell our readers about your first job?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: As mentioned, after college I went to work for Anheuser-Busch, Inc. in Los Angeles at its Van Nuys brew-ery. At the time, this location was also a Busch Gardens, with a bird sanctuary along with other wild animals. It was a Los An-geles tourist attraction. They gave tours on a monorail, just like Disneyland. My first office was above the bottling lines and next to the monorail. It was literally 10 feet from my office. Crazy! My first job was as a training specialist, where I learned about beer. I learned how to make it, how to take care of it, how to sell it and how to market it. I literally visited every part of the brew-ery from top to bottom, including the hop room, grain elevators, milling room, mash tanks, lauder tanks, brew floor, brew ket-tles, fermenting cellars, finishing cellars, what we called the “government cellars” (this is where the beer was counted and the U.S. government took count for its excise taxes), the keg room, the bottling floor,

and the warehouse. Every possible part of the brewery and brewing process I was privy to inspect, ask questions about and learn. It was an amazing experience for a 24-year-old from Fresno, California. My job was to work with our wholesaler fam-ily in all 14 western states and help spread Anheuser-Busch beer knowledge to our wholesaler personnel, to our retailers and to consumers. I did presentations in front of groups as small as five and as big as 350 people. We did beer education programs for all our wholesaler personnel from all the western states. I traveled and did pro-grams in almost all 14 western states from Alaska to New Mexico, including 350 re-tailers in Salem, Oregon; 100 students in an advertising class at the University of Ari-zona; the University of Colorado; Arizona

State University and retailers in Billings, Montana; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks, Alaska and all over California. I think the only state I didn’t get to was Ha-waii. It was an amazing time and if you had more time, I could tell you a dozen stories.

GC LIVING: And presumably you climbed the company ladder well and nicely?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: I did. It took moving 10 times, six different states over the course of 26 years, settling in Casa Grande when Golden Eagle Distributors hired me away from ABI in Jan 2005 to run its Casa Grande branch operation. We lived and worked in Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Wash-ington; Boise, Idaho; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri; Phoenix; St. Louis, Mis-souri again and finally Casa Grande.

Anheuser-Busch, like many companies its size, back in the day, moved people around. That’s how you advanced – learn-ing different parts of the business from training, field sales, revenue management, coupon fulfillment, corporate key account sales and senior sales management. You learned how to give sales presentations, wholesaler convention speeches, presen-tations to senior management and even presentations to August Busch III.

My wife and I have been in Casa Grande


“My life goal is to

leave this place, my

community, better than

I found it . . . that’s who

I am!”


As citizens of Casa Grande and Arizona, we have the opportunity to help strengthen the education

system in Arizona. The Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce does support the passage of Proposition 123, a referendum for restoration of inflation funding of the Arizona Pub-lic Schools. Passage of Proposition 123 will add $3.5 billion over the next 10 years into K-12 classrooms with-out raising taxes. A strong education system also strengthens the business climate and overall quality of life for a healthy community.

Career Camps, a summer program for seventh and eighth grade students in the Casa Grande Elementary School District, is coordinated through the Casa Grande Elementary School Dis-

trict in partnership with the Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce and supported by a number of busi-ness and community leaders.

The goals of Career Camps are to raise student awareness and interest in various career fields, help students recognize the preparation needed to enter various professions and provide relevance about education and its im-portance for students to attain future goals and aspirations. Career Camps are designed to provide real-life expe-riences with various occupations and an understanding of the educational requirements needed to fulfill vari-ous jobs. The Career Camps are also an effort to help business and educa-tion build a strong partnership that will ensure meaningful experiences for students and ultimately help meet

future community workforce needs.This year, the camps will run from

Monday, June 6 through Friday, June 10, 2016 and include: Pharmacy Camp; Health Care Camp, Camp WIN (What’s Important Now-Police/Safety), Fire Services, Agriculture Camp, Enter-tainment & Theatre Camp, and Vet-erinary Services Camp. For more in-formation about this program please contact me at the Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce, (520) 836-2125 or Dr. Frank Davidson at the Casa Grande Elementary School District at (520) 836-2111.

EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR A HEALTHY WORKFORCE, ECONOMY & COMMUNITYby Helen Neuharth, President/CEO, Greater Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce

Economy • Local Business

The Career Camps are an effort to help business and education build a strong partnership that will ensure meaningful experiences for students.

A strong education system also strengthens the business climate and overall quality of life for a healthy community.

EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR A HEALTHY WORKFORCE, ECONOMY & COMMUNITY

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©2016 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.

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HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: WE ALL PLAY A ROLEby Evelyn Casuga, Economic/Community Development Advisor, Access Arizona

LOCAL BUSINESS

A healthy community doesn’t hap-pen by accident nor is a healthy community guaranteed to stay that way forever. A healthy com-

munity requires the same kind of attention as keeping our bodies in good condition. As a starting point, David Darling and Gayla Ran-dall at Kansas State University capture Di-mensions of a Healthy Community as follows:

It’s a place where:• Residents hold a common vision of

their collective future which chal-lenges, motivates and unites them;

• Leaders identify and resolve issues;• Organizations and institutions antic-

ipate and adapt to an ever-changing environment.

This may sound too ideal or out of reach, however, if we reflect on the fact that when any of these elements are missing or some-how dysfunctional, we all recognize it. We can name neighborhoods, large and small communities – rural, urban, and suburban – where neglect, disrepair, and instabil-ity are the norm. We know what this looks like – rundown or abandoned buildings, for instance – and certainly not just in physical appearance. Also, we know what it feels like, i.e. not safe.

We know what healthy communities look and feel like, too – families playing in a well-groomed park, robust commercial activity, volunteers at the ready, and a stable political environment.

Imagine a potential new business and industry exploring the best place to locate or expand. The notion of a healthy com-munity may not be explicitly on the list of requirements or needs, but be assured that the elements are. Adapted from authors Mark Peterson and John Rohrer in their To-tal Development Paradigm model, the key layers include:

• Leadership Infrastructure – vision, knowl-edge of development process, technical knowledge sources and networking

• Human Infrastructure – values, work ethic, knowledge skills, family struc-ture and vision of the future

• Support Infrastructure – healthcare,

churches, financial sector, education and information systems, recreation and parks, law enforcement, retail sector and housing

• Physical Infrastructure – water, sew-er, roads, industrial parks, utilities, technology and waste disposal

• Economic Base – manufacturing ser-vices, agriculture and mining

Like Darling and Randall, Peterson and Rohrer recognize the need for vision, shared goals, and identified action plans as well as for leaders and community members to ac-tively participate in focusing energy and re-sources to achieve the greatest opportunity for success in building a healthy community.

Let’s look at a few key components and ask ourselves where our community and our re-gion stands.

• Leadership – without it, nothing hap-pens in a community: Who are the leaders, with or without titles? Is there room at the table for new leaders e.g. younger, more diverse?

• Governance – in all sectors, city, county, education, civic, social, reli-gious, and healthcare; do the various segments of a community have a voice or are there those who are left out or feel left out?

• Formal and informal organizations – how many do we have and what is the quality of these civic, social and political entities? Growing, fading, re-inventing?

• Planning Processes – once again, in all sections; is it top-down or partic-ipatory? Is the public, when appropri-ate, truly engaged?

• Responsibility/Accountability – is there ownership and buy-in for com-munity action?

Creating and maintaining a healthy com-munity is an ongoing conscientious task like taking care of our bodies. So how do we all participate to build a healthy community and increase the chances of staying that way? It’s easier than you think and EVERYONE can play a part. The CALL TO ACTION from the “How to Build Community” poster published by Syra-

cuse Cultural Workers says to pick one or more of these steps below. For a number of these, healthy personal behaviors are included as a bonus, as well!

• Turn off your TV• Leave your house• Know your neighbors• Look up when you are walking• Greet people• Sit on your stoop• Plant flowers• Use your library• Play together• Buy from local merchants• Share what you have• Help a lost dog• Take children to the park• Garden together• Support neighborhood schools• Fix it even if you didn’t break it• Have pot lucks• Honor elders• Pick up litter• Read stories aloud• Dance in the street• Talk to the mail carrier• Listen to the birds• Put up a swing• Help carry something heavy• Barter for your goods• Start a tradition• Ask a question• Hire young people for odd jobs• Organize a block party• Bake extra and share• Ask for help when you need it• Open your shades• Sing together• Share your skills• Take back the night• Turn up the music• Turn down the music• Listen before you react to anger• Mediate a conflict• Seek to understand• Learn from new & uncomfortable angles• Know that no one is silent though many

are not heard, work to change this.Evelyn can be reached at Access Arizona,

(520) 836-6868.

accessarizona.org Connect with us. Call 520-836-6868 or email [email protected]

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where Tractor Supply is. We need to con-tinue to market that.”

Part of economic development is workforce development, which is “al-ways a problem,” he continued.

When economic developers come to the city, Jackson said, Casa Grande gets criticized for its workforce.

“Unfairly, I believe, so we need to make sure that we’re ever vigilant about making sure we have the best qualified workforce we can possibly have.”

Millennial workforceCity officials are already seeing how

millennials view work, Jackson said.“I think moving forward, one of the

things that we are all going to have to look at is the millennial workforce,” he continued. “I know we’ve had this dis-cussion many times in City Hall.”

Jackson added, “I’m a baby boomer. I’m sure they thought the same thing about me when I was 20-something years old…it’s a different work ethic, a different work mindset. We recently im-plemented a paid time-off plan instead of the traditional sick leave/vacation

leave. (This is) very strongly-supported by millennials, not so much the baby boomers. But it’s one of those transitions that we all need to make.”

He continued, “I think going forward, the city of Casa Grande needs to get ahead of that, because if we don’t, we’ll have an aging workforce and we’ll find ourselves in a situation where we don’t have people to fill those jobs. And it’s not just us – everybody has the problem – so we have to make ourselves more attrac-tive than our competition.”

Transit system“We’re seeing growing pressure to

have a transit system here in town. I think that while we would all love to see that happen, they are very expensive and we need to make sure that we have proper revenue to be able to continue to operate that,” Jackson said.

Widening I-10“We need to work on widening I-10.

While we’ve seen projects at the I-10/I-8 intersection moved up on the list, we’ve seen the Picacho area moved up on the list, there’s no activity on that stretch

through the Indian community and we really need to work on that,” Jackson said.

Kortsen interchange“We need to work on the Kortsen

Road interchange, because if we’re going to open up that east side of the freeway that’s what’s going to help us do that. We need to have sewer service over there,” Jackson said.

Proposed I-11 “There’s an environmental impact

statement going on for the proposed I-11 corridor. We need to be very active in making sure that they bring I-11 through Casa Grande in the area that we want them to bring it,” Jackson said.

Trails“We need to continue developing the

trail system up on CG Mountain. There are thousands of acres up there; we need to make sure that we build it out to the best of our ability. We have a regional trails system here in town. We need to start working on implementing that, as well,” Jackson said.

Quality of lifeAs the city considers all of the above

issues, Jackson said, “We really can’t lose site of the quality of life issues that Casa Grande has. Typically what hap-pens in government is the thing that’s screaming the loudest…the quality of life things, are the last on the list. As we go out and prospect for economic develop-ment newcomers into the area, quality of life issues are one of the top things they look at, so we can’t really ignore that, as we move forward. But the pressure’s going to be there to spend that money someplace else.”

He added, “I’ve said this many times – Casa Grande is a great place to live. We need to maintain that sense of commu-nity here, and I think one way you do that is to be able to live, work and play in the same spot. I did my time commuting to another city. It was always really hard to decide whether I’m going to spend my leisure hours where I lived or where I worked.

We have a unique situation here where we have a fairly robust job market so we can live, work and play in one location.”

CG NewsCONTINUED…

STATE OF THE CITY...cont. from page 12

The City Council has approved a contract to rebuild the high side-walks along First Street between

North Sacaton and North Florence streets in downtown Casa Grande.

The $272,898 contract is with D.W.A. Construction of Casa Grande. It will be funded by present and future Community Development Block Grant money.

According to the staff report accompa-nying the council agenda item, “The proj-ect includes the removal and replacement of existing sidewalks and adjacent curb and gutter sections. There is additional related and appurtenant work associated with the project, such as street and drive-way pavement removal abutting the new sidewalk and curb and gutter sections, construction of short curb walls at the back edge of the sidewalk in certain lo-cations, minor storm drainage improve-ments and fixture adjustment work.”

The work also aims to bring the stretch of street into compliance with Americans with Disability Act requirements.

“This segment of street has undesir-ably high curbs along much of its length ranging up to 18 inches above the adja-cent street gutter line,” the staff report says. “The intent is to generally improve the overall streetscape, reduce the curb heights where possible and to create an ADA- compliant sidewalk on each side of the street.”

The contract will be for sidewalk work, not for stormwater water flow chang-es. The city has a separate request for a stormwater water master plan in the downtown area.

The work will include:• Removing about 14,225 square feet of old pavement.• Constructing about 1,680 square feet of new curbs.

• About 6,610 square feet of new concrete sidewalk, including two new sidewalk ramps.• About 2,485 square feet of new driveway pavement.• About 3,310 square feet of new asphalt street pavement.• Adjustments for 28 water meters, hy-drants, and valve boxes.• The existing brick driveway will be re-moved with the bricks saved and then re-built after the street and sidewalk work.

As Public Works Director Kevin Louis explained to the council, “This segment of the street has undesirably high curbs along much of the length and is probably, as we looked at sidewalks in the down-town area, one of our most challenging streets. We went through the process of having these improvements designed and it’s to meet the ADA requirements. Again, this is one of our most challenging blocks in the downtown area.”

He added, “I know you can go to any block down there and identify issues with

our sidewalk facilities, but it is a typical condition that you’ll find in such a histor-ic area of town.”

Councilwoman Lisa Fitzgibbons asked, “Is there any other area that has those sidewalks, or is it just that little stretch?”

Louis replied, “Like I mentioned, you can look in the downtown area and find a lot of areas that need attention.”

Funds are limited, Louis said, but “when we do make permanent improve-ments in the downtown, we want them to mirror what we’ve done on Main Street, on Sacaton, during Phase I and then on Flor-ence Street and Second Street on Phase II.”

He added, “This is an interim solution to some issues we’ve had with pedes-trian safety. We have experienced some trip and falls in that area. It’s also our first step at trying to identify a citywide ADA compliance process. We’ll be going through this effort all throughout town.”

In the future, First Street will also play


Council approves sidewalk repairs


CG NewsCONTINUED…

administer the project (and) we’ll be work-ing with them under their timeline. Once we get that first date, then we can kind of outline how things will look in the future. We’re trying to push this forward as quick-ly as we can through what I will consider a not-real-quick project through the federal process, but we’ll do the best we can.”

During the Planning and Zoning Com-mission meeting in March, city Traffic En-gineer Duane Eitel said ADOT would start designing the project after approval from the council.

“It takes about a year to do the design,” he said. “The project is currently scheduled for construction to be completed by 2019, but we’re working on moving it up” to per-haps the fall of 2017.

Eitel said it would take about the same amount of time if the city were to do the entire project itself.

“If we looked at using our procure-ment standards – what we have to do to go through procurement,” he said, “if we started very soon, we’d still have to hire a consultant to do the design. When the de-sign is done, we then put out a bid package, find the low bid, then we have to go to City Council and get it approved.”

Eitel added, “All those things have cer-tain timeframes. The rule of thumb that I use from starting a project to starting construction, not construction finish but just starting, is about a year. It could be 10 months (or) it could be 14.

So, our design and ADOT’s would be done at about the same time. If we’re suc-cessful moving it up to the fall of 2017, (it would be) maybe two months difference than if we did it ourselves.”

Congestion questionOn the traffic congestion question, Lou-

is said, “What we did when we did the pre-liminary layout of this to get the approval to move forward through this process, we identified a location for that crossing that would have the most impact or benefit to the hotels in the area and be far enough away from both of those signals so that this signal will not have a negative impact on that sequence.”

That location would not stack traffic, he said.

Councilman Karl Montoya said, “On the location, you’ve already committed to, where the location doesn’t affect the two lights, but realistically it sounds like it could be questioned. But is it where the people cross?”

Louis replied that it is about where some of the pedestrian fatalities have occurred.

Montoya responded, “OK, there’s no reason to build one if that’s not where they’re crossing. You’re going to be in compliance with your two lights and I don’t know if putting the two lights together or what the distance is, I didn’t measure that off. But I don’t know if there’s any syn-chronizing the two lights together so you don’t see people going faster through the yellow light to come up to the beacon that’s blinking already and they’re already go-ing faster than the 45 (mph), which they’re probably doing 55 by now just because they’re beating the light and setting up your crosswalk for disaster. Hopefully you guys have thought about that a little bit.”

Louis replied, “We’ll take into consid-eration all those things during the design process, yes.”

Councilwoman Mary Kortsen said she agreed with Herman that there also has to be a matter of personal responsibility re-garding crossing streets.

EffectivenessKortsen had questions, though, about

whether the signal beacon would be ef-fective.

“I’ve watched, and I was the person, one of the people, that really pushed for the one that’s over there by the Historical So-ciety (Florence and Center). I work in that area and I watch. Nobody uses it during the day. You will see people that are down for the Old Town events and things (at night), those people use it.”

Kortsen continued, “I have yet during the day, seriously, to see mothers with their strollers and that. Again you can kick a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. I do have some concerns that we’re now doing this and will they be using this one, because they definitely are not using the one – on a regular basis during the day – over here by the Historical Society. And, again, I was one of the ones that just kept pushing you guys to do it.”

That’s actually not the case, Council-

man Dick Powell said.“I drive to work through there every day

and there are people that do use it.”Kortsen injected, “Oh, that’s great.”Powell continued, “There are a number

of people that use it. It’s not an overly-pop-ulated area (and) there’s not heavy usage, but I see people crossing at it – from older people to handicapped to kids, and that type of thing.”

Powell added, “The most dangerous thing is kids on bicycles coming across when you almost can’t see them in the evening.”

That aside, Powell said something has to be done about the Cacheries Court area, given the fatalities there.

Consideration also has to be given to the Cracker Barrel situation to the east, he said.

“One of the things I’ve heard a lot of people complain about is the exit out of there, if you’re coming from Cracker Bar-rel or whatever, and you come out, it’s re-ally had to get back on the highway,” he continued. “I know one of the things, they said (is) ‘Why don’t they have a strip where you come out where the stoplight was done there (Camino Mercado)?’ You would enter at Cracker Barrel but exit down at the oth-

er stoplight, which would certainly (ease) some congestion and some traffic. I think it’s something we need to do, but I would also suggest that we look further at maybe trying to do something to get a cross where people can leave that going to the west, and it’s not very far, and then hit the lane down to the light that’s there when they exit, which would really be a lot safer.”

It had been pointed out a few years ago that putting a traffic light at the entrance to Cracker Barrel was not practical because of the close proximity of a series of signals on the Interstate 10 overpass just to the east. That would cause tremendous syn-chronization problems.

Regarding the Cacheries situation, Herman said perhaps thought could be given to finding out how much it would cost to build a pedestrian fence in the area, funneling people to the proposed crossing signal.

“It’s sad that people get hurt, killed there,” he said. “We have to do some pub-lic safety responsibility, but maybe with something like that. I hate to be a nanny to everybody, but you know, if we’re going to put the money into it let’s make sure that it’s going to work.”

BEACON SIGNAL...cont. from page 13

Casa Grande is looking for a company to do a stormwater drainage master plan, drainage feasibility study and

concept reports for the final phase of the downtown streets reconstruction project.

“The roadway infrastructure for Casa Grande’s historic downtown needs reconstruction, along with other infra-structure improvements,” the request for qualifications says. “The area experienc-es repeated stormwater flooding during and after heavy rains. This impacts local business and results in partial or com-plete road closure for cleaning and main-tenance purposes.”

Phase I of the project was completed around 2007 and involved reconstruction of Main Street from Casa Grande Avenue to Sacaton Street.

“Phase I also involved costly stormwa-ter drainage infrastructure,” the request says. “However, this area still receives stormwater flooding complaints during

heavy rainfalls and requires maintenance.”The originally proposed Phase II in-

volved the reconstruction of First and Sec-ond streets, along with proposed stormwa-ter drainage infrastructure.

“Stormwater infrastructure was deemed expensive with (the) least ben-efits after lessons learned from Phase I construction,” the request continues. “A substantial portion of Phase II was re-moved from the original Phase II plan and was completed in 2012. The revised Phase II involved reconstruction of Second Street from Casa Grande Avenue to Pinal Avenue and mill and overlay of Florence Street only, with no provisions of stormwater drainage infrastructure. The remaining portion of original design was deferred to the future. The city would like to proceed with the final phase of downtown recon-struction. The major element, besides pav-ing, of the final phase of reconstruction is stormwater drainage.”

City looks into stormwater drainage issues



now for over 11 years. I retired from Gold-en Eagle in Jan. 2015 after 10 years (with a total of 36 years in beverage industry sales management and operations). I was brought to Golden Eagle to help with the Executive Management Committee. It was made up of a group of diverse individuals including the CFO, executive vice president of operations, company attorney and com-pany owners. We helped guide company policy and direction. In addition to that, I also ran the Casa Grande branch operation. (Working for) Anheuser-Busch and Golden Eagle was a great time and a great experi-

ence that has netted Nancy and me many lifelong memories and friends.

GC LIVING: And through it all you lived the American Dream, personally too, with a great and supportive wife, two wonderful children and now many grandchildren - pretty much classic textbook success in Life 101.

CRAIG MCFARLAND: I am a very lucky man. I’ve been married to Nancy McFarland for 38 years. We have two grown children – Kelly, 35, is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Scott, 34, is a graduate of Arizona State University and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. We have five grand-children – Dillan, 7; Connor, 5; Keira, 5; Lei-

la, 3 and Brady, 1. One family lives in Casa Grande and the other in north Phoenix. I moved my kids around and I know they would tell you that it wasn’t easy moving away from friends. You would think I would have learned from my own experience as a kid! I think they would also tell you that they have friends all over the country and that they are better adapted because of the experience. Nancy and I are included in that adaptability and experience. We bought and sold nine houses over that 26-year period, made some money on every one of them . . . until now. The good news is we are not moving. We are here to stay.

I attribute who and what I am today to my life experiences, my parents, my brothers, my partner Nancy, and my children. Also, everything I experienced as a kid and as an adult. As a young person, Boys Scouts shaped me the most. I learned early on that you leave your campsite better than you found it. Before you leave camp, you line up and police the campsite, picking up anything foreign that doesn’t belong. As an adult, moving, adapting and maturing in different environments and different situ-ations has made me who I am today. My life goal is to leave this place, my community, better than I found it . . . that’s who I am!

GC LIVING: I know it sounds like we are jumping around, but tell our readers about your job at GED?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: I came to work with Golden Eagle in Jan. 2005 and commit-ted to work 10 years. I had three different positions with Golden Eagle Distributors, Inc. and SPIKE Beverage (that was our non-Anheuser-Bush side of the business starting in spring 2006). My first position was vice president/branch manager at the Casa Grande branch. My second job was vice president corporate sales, statewide, and my office was in Tucson. Finally, I was promoted to vice president sales. I traveled throughout the state, as we had branches in Tucson, Casa Grande, Buckeye, Flagstaff, Show Low, Globe and Tempe.

Golden Eagle had approximately 350 employees with revenues near $250 mil-lion (on the low side). Most of my job was meetings and managing people. The key to a successful company is good people. We sold beer, wine, liquor, water, soft drinks,


continued from page 19...

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CG NewsCONTINUED…

a major role in moving stormwater from the flooding- prone downtown area.

“First Street has been identified as a preliminary way for most of our drainage, when we do design a drainage solution for the downtown,” Louis said. “It is going to be one of the roads that we use that we transfer that storm water through the downtown. This project is just focused on sidewalks and it is not pavement im-provements at this time, because of that future construction.”

Councilman Karl Montoya asked if the sidewalk work will have any affect on the drainage issues.

“Really, it’s not going to be changing any of the drainage conditions,” Louis replied. “The street flooding that occurs today will continue to occur. We’re not solving any of those drainage issues.

However, none of the improvements we anticipate will have any impact on the surrounding area. We may still have sections of sidewalk, if we lower it, that may be impacted during those high flow periods, which is not unusual for that downtown area, but we shouldn’t see any impact to the surrounding properties.”

Montoya said he hopes that no one will be flooded out or hampered by high water because of the sidewalk work.

“That is our plan,” Louis replied.

The city swimming pool in McNatt Park will be drained and complete-ly replastered. This is the second

major upgrade since the renovation of the pool decking.

Casa Grande Performance Institute, which is the large complex with athletic fields just east of Francisco Grande Re-sort, has been the subject of some con-troversy in recent months – mostly about lagging payments to the city.

“I know there’s been a lot of stuff recently written about it,” Mayor Bob Jackson said during his annual State of the City address in mid-March. “Some is true, some is not.”

Jackson continued, “What needs to be considered is the reality at the time the complex was built. We, at the time, were looking for youth fields and we were looking at different pieces of property that the city of Casa Grande owns. We have a robust youth soccer/football pro-gram in town and we’ve run out of field space for them.”

He added, “Francisco Grande came to us and they said, ‘Look, we have an idea of a public/private partnership where if you help us build this facility we will maintain that facility,’ so as we sit here today, we have eight soccer/football fields for youth programs out there that are the best in the state of Arizona. And if you talk to people who have kids that play soccer and have been here to play, they

will tell you that these are the best fields they’ve ever played on.”

He continued, “We don’t pay a dime for that maintenance. If we were to maintain them ourselves … we believe that cost would be somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000 a year.”

The complex, also referred to as Grande Sports World, has brought other benefits to the city, Jackson said.

“I think many of you may not know, but we have major league soccer teams out there, their version of the Cactus League spring training every year,” he continued. “It’s really put us on the soc-cer map.”

Because Arizona is not a soccer state, “we don’t see much of that,” he said, “but when the Seattle Sounders come down here to practice, our winter visitors from Seattle get on the Internet to find out what the practice schedule is in the Se-attle newspaper so they could go out and watch them.”

Jackson continued, “We have college scouts here all the time; we have ESPN soccer here all the time; we have inter-national soccer leaders here in town – all of which helps bring a focus on who Casa Grande is.”

Expectations“Has it performed the way we real-

ly wanted it to?” Jackson asked. “No, it

Mayor addresses controversy over athletic fields

SIDEWALK...cont. from page 25


Casa Grande Mayor Bob Jackson touched on some of his concerns with the actions of the state leg-

islature during his State of the City 2016 address in mid-March.

“We find ourselves in a situation frequently with the state legislature doing things that affect our ability to do the services that we provide to the public,” Jackson said.

Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF)The money comes from several

sources, but mostly from the state tax on gasoline. The revenue is allocated to cities and counties based on popula-tion. The fund is supposed to be for road improvements and maintenance.

“Over the last five or six years the state has taken money out of that HURF funding to pay for the Department of Public Safety,” Jackson said. “And it’s affected us in Casa Grande about a mil-lion dollars a year.”

He added, “That means your road network is going to not be able to be kept at the standards that we’ve be-come used to.”

In a sense, Casa Grande is lucky because a majority of its streets are in

good shape.“We recently completed a study

which is out for public hearing right now through the Sun Corridor Metro-politan Planning Organization,” Jack-son said. “They did a pavement rating system for Casa Grande, Coolidge and Eloy. The categories were poor, very poor, good, very good and excellent.”

He continued, “In Casa Grande, 82 percent of the streets were rated as excellent, very good or good. And that, again, is a tribute to our ability to stretch every dollar we have to the maximum ability possible.”

Good roads help with economic de-velopment, Jackson said.

“You drive into a town (and) if the roads look good you think, ‘Well, the town looks pretty well run.’”

He added, “I’m not saying anything at all about our neighbors, but I think that’s one of the reasons why we are so lucky with a lot of the economic devel-opment successes.”

What about those lower-rated streets?

“I’d be the first one to say I could

Roundup of state legislative bills


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LET US PRAY?Recent U.S. Supreme Court decision provides guidance regarding prayer and the exercise of religion at public meetings.by Nancy L. Davidson, Attorney

On March 2, 2016, the Phoenix City Coun-cil voted to reinstate prayer at the opening

of its meetings, but limited the speakers to city chaplains. The vote reversed its previous decision to replace prayer with a moment of silence, which sparked many questions such as:

• Can the government open a public meeting with prayer?

• Can the government ban prayer from public meetings?

• Can the government prevent a group from giving an invoca-tion before a public meeting?

• What does the Constitution say?

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has two provi-sions that deal with religion: the Free Exercise Clause and the Es-tablishment Clause.

The Free Exercise Clause pro-tects the people’s right to practice religion as they please, so long as the practice does not conflict with “public morals” or any “compel-ling” governmental interest. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from preferring, endorsing or advancing one reli-gion over another.

Similarly, Article II § 12 of the Arizona Constitution prohibits the government from using public money/property for any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or to the support of any religious establishment. In addition, Article IX § 10 of the Arizona Constitution provides in part: “No tax shall be laid or appropriation of public mon-ey made in aid of any church[.]”

The U.S. Supreme Court recent-ly addressed the issue of invoca-tions at public meetings in Town of Greece v. Galloway. Between 2009 and 2010, only Christian speak-ers performed invocations at

the board m e e t i n g s of the Town of Greece, New York. Even so, the court found no v iola-tion of the First Amendment. According to the court, the town had made it clear that it would permit any res-ident (including nonbelievers) to provide an invocation. The town neither reviewed the invocation speeches in advance of the meet-ings, nor provided advice as to their content.

The Town of Greece decision provided examples of what the government cannot do as part of its invocation practices, such as preaching conversion, classifying people based on beliefs, engaging in a lengthy discussion about reli-gious beliefs, instructing a person to participate in prayer, singling out or chastising a dissenter, or threatening damnation.

The First Amendment does not prohibit the government from opening public meetings with a prayer by a private speaker, nor does it limit any prayer to nonsec-tarian content. However, once a government entity invites prayer at a public meeting, it must allow the speaker to “address his or her own God or gods as conscience dictates.”

This means the government cannot screen, censor, suggest or ban specific content from any prayer or invocation, or otherwise discriminate against any religion or belief.

Nancy Davidson is an attorney at the Fitzgibbons Law Offices in Casa Grande. Her law practice includes municipal law, real estate law, land use and zoning, homeowner associa-tion law and business law.

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When you apply for credit, whether it’s a credit card, car loan, or a mortgage, lenders want to know whether you are likely to repay your loan and make the payments on time. To determine if you are a good credit risk, lenders examine your credit score whenever you apply for credit. Your credit score is an important factor in determining whether creditors will approve your credit application and, if you are approved, the cost of your loan.

Other factors that can affect your credit application include your income and employment history. Your credit score is calculated based on information in your credit report, which is a profile of how you manage your credit

(loan) accounts. Your credit report details how many credit accounts you have, how much you owe, the amount of your credit limits (primarily applies to credit cards), when you opened the credit account, your repayment history

(including late payments), and certain public records (for example, a bankruptcy filing or a tax lien). Each of the three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) maintains a credit report about you.

The information your creditors provide to the credit bureaus affects your credit score. For example, if a creditor reports that you made a late payment, it’s likely that your credit score will drop.

HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT TIPS TO INCREASE YOUR CREDIT SCORE:

Maintaining a high credit score is important because this is one of the factors that determines whether you will be approved for credit and the cost of your loan. Applicants with high credit scores typically are offered lower interest rates and better terms and conditions than applicants with lower scores.

A low credit score reduces the chances that your loan application will be approved. And if it is approved, you will likely pay a higher interest rate for the loan than a borrower with a higher credit score.

If you apply for credit and are denied, you have the right to obtain a free copy of the credit report the creditor used when denying your application. You should obtain a copy of the credit report to make sure

that it is accurate. If you find inaccuracies, you should file a dispute with that credit bureau.

HERE ARE THE PHONE NUMBERS & WEBSITES OF THE THREE MAJOR CREDIT BUREAUS: Experian-1-888-397-3742 • www.experian.com | TransUnion-1-800-916-8800 • www.transunion.com

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• At least once a year, review your credit reports from each of the three credit bureaus for inaccuracies and file a dispute immediately if you find an error. You are entitled to obtain a free credit report once a year from each of the three bureaus. To obtain a free copy of your credit report, go to annualcreditreport.com or call 877-FACT-ACT (877-322-8228).

• Pay your bills on time. Late payments can hurt your score significantly

• Keep credit card balances low relative to credit limits (30 percent or lower is recommended).

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• Apply for installment loans (mortgages, car loans, etc.) within a 0-day period because most credit scoring models will count multiple inquiries within a short period of time as only one inquiry.

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A Vision for Casa Grande’s Future

MAKE IT BETTER - CASA GRANDE (MIB-CG) is a group of local stakeholders who believe in a bright future for Casa Grande

Evelyn Casuga

David “Red” Fitzgibbons

Robert “Bob” Jackson

Judee Jackson

Rock Earle

Brett Eisele

Craig McFarland

Rona Curphy

Tim Smith

Larry Yount

Robert Miller

Darrell Wilson

You Can Help Us Make Casa Grande BetterContact Make It Better - Casa Grande: [email protected]

MISSION STATEMENT

MIB-CG will seek to improve the community’s prospects in the following ways:

PROMOTE: Enhance the quality of life and the future of our community by supporting projects such as a showcase Community Recreation Center, the Regional Trail Plan and fostering opportunities for private investment.

PROPOSE: Propose and support initiatives and opportunities to improve our community.

EDUCATE: Engage all citizens individually and/or groups on the consequences to communities of obstructionist and no growth policies.

ADVOCATE: Provide public advocacy when necessary to champion worthy initiatives that have been, are being, or otherwise would be at risk or denied in any venue/city/county/state by various special interests.

ACCOUNTABLE: Be involved and proactive in the local political climate to remain positive and “pro” progress by engaging in debate and the decision process for local government.

makeitbetter-casagrande.orgfacebook.com/Make-it-Better-Casa-Grande

A Vision for Casa Grande’s Future

MAKE IT BETTER - CASA GRANDE (MIB-CG) is a group of local stakeholders who believe in a bright future for Casa Grande

Evelyn Casuga

David “Red” Fitzgibbons

Robert “Bob” Jackson

Judee Jackson

Rock Earle

Brett Eisele

Craig McFarland

Rona Curphy

Tim Smith

Larry Yount

Robert Miller

Darrell Wilson

You Can Help Us Make Casa Grande BetterContact Make It Better - Casa Grande: [email protected]

MISSION STATEMENT

MIB-CG will seek to improve the community’s prospects in the following ways:

PROMOTE: Enhance the quality of life and the future of our community by supporting projects such as a showcase Community Recreation Center, the Regional Trail Plan and fostering opportunities for private investment.

PROPOSE: Propose and support initiatives and opportunities to improve our community.

EDUCATE: Engage all citizens individually and/or groups on the consequences to communities of obstructionist and no growth policies.

ADVOCATE: Provide public advocacy when necessary to champion worthy initiatives that have been, are being, or otherwise would be at risk or denied in any venue/city/county/state by various special interests.

ACCOUNTABLE: Be involved and proactive in the local political climate to remain positive and “pro” progress by engaging in debate and the decision process for local government.

makeitbetter-casagrande.orgfacebook.com/Make-it-Better-Casa-Grande



and a myriad of other beverages. As well, we managed events like the Arizona Re-naissance Festival and Country Thunder and implemented strategic programs like converting our Tucson and Casa Grande truck fleet to compressed natural gas. We sent out delivery trucks from Page and Chinle to Ajo and Nogales and just about everywhere in between.

I have learned that you can’t do it by yourself. You need collaboration. You need to include people in the decisions. This experience and exposure has helped me understand what and how we can make things better – make things better for Casa Grande.

GC LIVING: Let’s get back to your comment about learning from the Boy Scouts to leave everything better than you found it...

CRAIG MCFARLAND: My business career has been the perfect on-ramp to all kinds of community services. In my time here in Casa Grande, I have served on 11 different boards and civic organizations, including the Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce board of directors; Boys & Girls Clubs of Casa Grande Valley board of directors, in-cluding a term as board president and time on the executive board; Central Arizona Regional Economic Development Founda-tion board of directors (now called Access

Arizona), Golden Eagle Distributors Strat-egy Committee member/executive board, Wings Like Eagles Foundation board, Pinal 40 board of directors and executive board, Starwood Vacation Owners Association, Apartment Owners Association, and Mas-ter Association board of directors, board

president and current vice president in Hawaii; Market Casa Grande committee member (which includes a new website visitcasagrandeaz.com) and Boy Scouts of America (Eagle Scout and Scoutmaster).

I believe in the Boy Scout motto “Be pre-pared.”I believe in the Scout Oath, “I will do my best to do my duty to God and my

country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” I believe in the Scout Law, “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheer-ful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.” And finally, I believe in the Scout Slogan, “Do a Good Turn Daily.” As I said earlier, I believe we need to leave our community better than we found it.

I also believe that people can be divid-ed up into three groups – those who watch things happen, those who wish things would happen and those who make things happen. The first two categories drive me crazy – I put myself in the last category. I also believe that leadership is not a right. You can’t take leadership. True leadership is earned . . . true leadership is given.

GC LIVING: So, following your recent retire-ment from GED, what are your thoughts about how you are going to spend all of your free time (laughing)?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: I have always thought Casa Grande is a great place to live, work, raise a family and, yes, even retire. I have no plans to leave. I can’t imagine a better place to retire. As one of my friends is fond of saying, “I can get to Sky Harbor airport faster than my friends in Scottsdale!”

I have always believed in the potential of the area, but lately it has become clear to me and some other local stakeholders that we are not participating in the recovery to the extent that some of our neighbors are. We have certainly had some wins lately, in terms of new industries locating here, but we lag in some major metrics, like prop-erty values. Resale prices of our homes are barely back to replacement cost. Why is that? One of the reasons must be that peo-ple don’t want to live here very badly.

I like to look at it from a site selection point of view. In other words, if I were the head of a large company seeking to relocate or establish a new division in the Southwest U.S., why would I consider Casa Grande?

The first and most obvious checked box-es on my form are large-scale logistical advantages, like the intersection of two interstates, a shovel-ready rail-served in-dustrial park, a major railroad main line, an airport not in the Phoenix flight zone



“[Working for]

Anheuser-Busch and

Golden Eagle was a

great time and a great

experience that has

netted many lifelong

memories and friends.”


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COME ON IN!by: Kay Kerby and Sarah Campbell


E verything about this home says “Welcome.” From the wide, curving sidewalk to the covered entry and beautiful wood double

doors topped with a lovely arched window enhanced with stained glass, this home just begs you to enter and enjoy.

The classically-designed foyer dividing the formal living room and dining room is complemented with columns and spiced with Southwestern white glazed Saltillo tile.

This custom-designed home is located on an over one-half acre lot in Koenig Estates and was originally constructed for Casa Grande businessman Glen Gray and his wife, Lavern, by Casa Grande builder Henry McLaughlin in 1987. The excellent

design choices made 30 years ago have passed the test of time.

The two subsequent owners have meticulously maintained and upgraded this grande dame residence.

Entertaining is easy in the great room, which boasts a beverage wet bar with drink refrigerator, gas fireplace, large television and abundant room for friends and family. The entire home and the outdoor areas have surround sound.

The master suite is sumptuous and features a gas fireplace, doors to the patio, a secret garden patio for early morning coffee, a spa-like bath and an absolutely huge walk-in closet. In addition, there are three guest bedrooms and three baths.

The spacious patio overlooks the pool and the big cabana with beverage bar, built-in outdoor kitchen and another full bath with outdoor shower. The front and back landscapes are desert garden gems while remaining virtually carefree.

The current owners, Jack and Marcy Voigts, have added a solar array greatly reducing the cost of electricity.

There is abundant off-street parking, an RV gate, parking area and a three-car garage.

This home with 3,308 square feet is currently listed with Coldwell Banker ROX Realty for $398,000.

Contact Kay Kerby and Sarah Campbell 520.560.0769 or 520.423.6577


CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE ROUNDUPby Harold Kitching

Ten people have filed statements to run for Casa Grande City Council in the Aug. 30 primary election. That in-cludes the three incumbents wanting

reelection: Karl Montoya, Lisa Fitzgibbons and Mary Kortsen.

The first challengers to file were David Snid-er, Bob Huddleston and Donna McBride.

During a candidate briefing by City Clerk Remy Miller on April 20, paperwork was taken out by Marty Schmidt, Peter Redwine, Gary Wood and Gilberto Mendez.

Nine of the candidates filed statements of organization. Redwine filed a committee registration with a $500 threshold exemption statement that his campaign intends to receive or spend less that.

Statements are required before a candidate may circulate nomination petitions. Petitions require at least 179 signatures of Casa Grande registered voters. The maximum that may be turned in is 357.

May 2 was the earliest day petitions could be returned to the City Clerk’s Office for verifi-cation. The deadline is 5 p.m. on June 1.

The 2016 election manual, posted at www.haroldkitching.com/political, has answers for both the public and for those running.

Only one person, Craig McFarland, has so far filed his statement to run for mayor. Incum-bent Bob Jackson is not running for reelection because of term limits.

A general election, if needed, would be on Nov. 8.

According to a statement from the City Clerk’s Office, “Any candidate receiving a ma-jority of the votes cast at the primary election will be declared elected to that office without running at the general election. If not all seats are filled at the primary election, then the primary is deemed a nominating election and those candidates receiving the highest number of votes proceed to the general election.”

It continued, “The number of candidates to proceed to the general election is two times the number of available seats. For example, if two council seats are not filled in the primary, up to four candidates would proceed to the general election.”

Because of a change in state law, Casa Grande is now required to conduct elections in even-numbered years instead of the traditional odd-year voting. This makes Casa Grande’s city election a part of the state and federal ballots, pushing it toward the bottom of the ballot.

Who are the candidates?The candidates who have filed paperwork to

run for Casa Grande City Council in the August primary election have a variety of backgrounds.

• Peter Redwine Installer, CenturyLink

• Gary Wood Insurance agent

• Marty Schmidt Employed at Frito-Lay

• David Snider Former city library director and former county supervisor, now operating a consulting service.

• Gilberto Mendez Arizona State University student

• Donna McBride Program administrator for Pinal Coun-ty Juvenile Court

• Bob Huddleston Retired Casa Grande police chief, serves as judge pro tem for Casa Grande Justice Court.

• Lisa Fitzgibbons (incumbent) Director of marketing and business development for Fitzgibbons Law Offices

• Karl Montoya (incumbent) Agriculture consultant with Fertizona

• Mary Kortsen (incumbent) Self-employed as an independent paralegal and certified legal document preparer

Only one person so far has filed to run for mayor

• Craig McFarland Retired after 36 years in beverage industry sales management and oper-ations

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Local farmer and entrepreneur James Bechtel II and Karen Geldmacher, pro-fessor of agriculture at Central Arizona College, recently partnered together to

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This past month, five representatives from China including an attorney, agricultural

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Geldmacher explained the top three soils found in Pinal County and how these soils are similar to soils found in the Xinjiang Uygur Au-tonomous Region, Kasgar Region, Nei Monggoi Autonomous Region, Shandong Province, and Jiangsu Province. These four main areas in Chi-na are the focus for product trials this next year.

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As a consultant to TA Ecology Science, Bechtel has reviewed in great detail the biotic resources and location conditions for each region in China being studied. Through collab-oration with Bio Flora, the fertilizer division of Global Organics Group in Goodyear, AZ, he will be assisting them with the development of plans to improve millions of acres of land for agricultural use.

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and lots of blue sky and sunshine. And that list is very, very extensive, including an ex-panded and modernized sewage treatment plant which has allowed and will continue to help Casa Grande bring in new industry.

Items missing from my checked boxes are more quality of life items like a com-munity center, young people entertain-ment, a well-trained workforce, and major sporting events – stuff for the people.

So my question back to you is how do we take advantage of who we are, where we are? How do we positively impact and in-fluence the hundreds of thousands of peo-ple who drive right by Casa Grande on I-10 and I-8? We have some untapped market-ing potential right there, I’m telling you!!

GC LIVING: What other “hard” infrastructure and other improvements do you see cham-pioning in coming years and beyond?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: My wish list includes expanding the sewer line expansion to the east side of I-10, working with Gila River Indian Community and the Arizo-na Department of Transportation to make widening I-10 between Casa Grande and Chandler happen sooner than later, cre-ating a true transit system, working with existing systems like CART (Central Ar-izona Regional Transit) and developing a cooperative system with funding sources at the state and federal level, building the

Kortsen / I-10 interchange, keeping an eye on and being involved in the evolving I-11 project. Working to encourage infill proj-ects in Casa Grande (fill in open spaces and vacant developments) and cleaning up our blight. One of my pipe dreams would be to try to move the Pinal County fairgrounds to a location along I-10 . . . it could happen with cooperation from the city, State Trust Lands and Pinal County.

GC LIVING: We have had a very active econom-ic development effort here for years. What kind of economic development program furthers these developmental dreams?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: Whatever the actual or-ganization looks like, we must continue to market and promote our location and in-dustrial area (I-8/I-10/rail/Airport location). I’m working with a team to begin market-ing Casa Grande outside of the city and working on our image outside Casa Grande.

We have four million potential buyers in the Phoenix metro area. Workforce devel-opment and training is critical, also. We need a workforce ready to fill jobs and a better understanding of the new millennial workforce. To achieve that, we will continue to seek help from Central Arizona College, Casa Grande Elementary School District & Casa Grande High School District.

Shopping malls aren’t exactly industri-al job sources, but the stores lost this year (Target and Sports Authority) hurt our ef-forts. We must address this issue imme-diately with the developer and promote a more robust “Shop Local” campaign, because online shopping doesn’t pay the bills. As I mentioned earlier, we can also encourage developers to infill home build-ing by creating development incentives including reducing or eliminating impact fees in select cases or in select zones.

And again, I would work to develop and implement “Marketing Casa Grande” MCG (see “Marketing Casa Grande”), a desti-nation marketing project which includes a media plan, a visitor guide program, a visitcasagrandeaz.com website and mobile application – all to promote and market Casa Grande.

GC LIVING: Wow! That sounds like something that is missing from our current effort. And all of that is easy to say, but what is it that you will do in this pursuit that is new and/or different?

CRAIG MCFARLAND: What you say about our economic development activities is abso-lutely true, but I think that bringing new investment to our community should be a marketing effort that spans all aspects of a community – business and industry for sure, but also residents, retired or not, and also visitors, who may or may not be look-ing for a new place to live.

Quality of life is a key component to suc-cessful economic development. We need to improve and bring quality of life to our Casa Grande community. So I want to help build a “Marketing Casa Grande” organi-zation that will market/promote our hous-ing opportunities (Real Estate), quality of life, education, events, sports activities/venues, lodging/hotels/RV resorts, visitors and trail systems – truly marketing every facet of Casa Grande’s attractive lifestyle.



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As for our community, the City of Casa Grande, 30 years from now, will we be able to say we left it better than we found it? I be-lieve we can if we implement solutions that we come up with today. We need to tap into more of the creative energy and talent in this city to solve our problems and take advan-tage of our opportunities. To steal a quote from Bob Jackson, “We all live in this city and bear the responsibility of making it better.”

Specifically, my quality of life initiative wish list includes:

• Building the proposed community recreation center at the Gilbert fami-ly property site

• Continue to develop our Regional Trails Plan, which means we contin-ue developing the trail system up on Casa Grande Mountain

• Beginning to build our Regional Trails Plan (bike trails in town) using the community center as the hub and working with developers to get this project moving

• A “Shop Local” campaign• Promote CG Events• Sports, world-class athletic fields • Golf courses (at $40 a round, not $150

– $300)• Increasing home buying (Let people

know they can drive 20 minutes and save $200,000 on housing costs by buying in Casa Grande)

• Hotels and lodging• Restaurants• Entertainment• Nearby side trips• Historical downtown and museum

visits / tours• Nature and desert tours• RV resorts• Education• Arizona Tourism Office• Chamber office (business resource

center)• Dorothy Powell Senior CenterAnd on top of it all, we have a very well run

city government, City Council and mayor.GC LIVING: Let’s talk about the “softer side”

of making our area better - things that di-rectly improve our quality of life or what you referred to as “stuff.”




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Out & AboutExciting events and striking scenery in Pinal County

If you would like to contribute images of area events, people, pets and scenery,

please post on our Facebook page or email to: [email protected]

PHOTO BY BEA LUECK

PHOTO BY AMANDA HARTMAN

PHOTO BY KAREN SCOTT PHOTO BY PATRICK BERNEY PHOTO BY SHERRIE KLIPPING

PHOTO BY SEEDS OF HOPEPHOTO BY MELISSA ANN

L-R: Alice Parkins, Mark Vanderheyden, Ruby Lerfald

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PHOTO BY PATRICK BERNEY

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PHOTO BY TEKKA KALANI

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REMEMBERING TO FORGETby Donna McBride

I remember drawing pictures in grade school that ended up on the refrigerator, no matter how ugly they really were. As a teenager, I tried other ways to score some

points with my mom so I could stay out late on Saturday night. And as I moved into my twenties, I just wanted to gain her admiration and respect.

My mom (known to most as Mama Tess) said something recently that brought a flood of childhood memories back. She looked down at her hands and replied, “Look at these wrinkly old hands.” All she saw were the wrinkles. I saw the hands of a wise, proud, hard-working woman.

I grew up in West Virginia, where my own grandparents didn’t have running water until my mom helped equip their old farmhouse with indoor plumbing. My dad died at 34 years old, leaving my mom with three kids (5, 10 and 12 years old). I’m sure, at times, she wanted to give up. But she didn’t.

Instead, she taught me about having val-ues, respect and working hard. She inspired me to volunteer and share our blessings with people not as fortunate as we were. She wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself because I didn’t have a dad like the other kids. She made me work hard to earn my allowance. I had chores, was grounded when I did wrong and had to study for my grades. But most of all, she never made me feel like I was a burden to her. Ever.

Fast-forward a few decades. I moved to Arizona, got married and started a family of my own. Mama Tess ended up coming out as a “snowbird” for several years until she realized the snow was for the birds and made Arizona her permanent home.

There is no any secret lotion that will remove the wrinkles from her hands or face. And I admit, I’m glad. It reflects the woman that I’ve loved my whole life. Every day of my life she has been there for me – good and bad. Those hands tell a story of working in the garden, cleaning up after me when I was sick and helping me when I was learning how to be a mom to my own two sons.

The wrinkles on her face remind me of those smiles she shared with me, the frowns I deserved a “few times” along the way and the kindness she shared with others. Mama Tess was an independent woman before most

people realized it was possible. There’s no getting around the fact that

Mama Tess is aging. I knew a few years ago something was going on, but couldn’t quite figure it out. But then it hit me faster than a dust storm in the desert coming out of no-where. She had made the trip between Casa Grande and Florence hundreds of times. But one day, something went terribly wrong. She got lost. The fear in her voice was as severe as the fear in my heart of not knowing where she was. She called me and kept saying, “Just come find me.” I felt helpless.

I kept calm as I had her tell me about her surroundings, street signs…anything I could think of. After several tries and too many agonizing minutes, I took off and found her sitting in a hospital parking lot in Queen Creek. But the woman I found was not my mother. The dazed look and frazzled state was that of a stranger. After locking up her car, I took her to her appointment with plans to pick her up when she was done. I remem-ber going back to my office, shutting my door and crying. Trying to soften my sobs behind closed doors, I knew it was time.

A few weeks later, medical tests told the story. We had Dementia. I say “we” because I am on this journey with her. Even when she doesn’t understand, when she doesn’t remember, I do. It is a family disease.

I immediately jumped into action to “fix it.” I scaled back on my own activities to give more time to her. I tried organizing her life with calendars, reminders of appointments, pill boxes with timers. Looking back now, I think I did more damage than good, especially for our relationship. I wasn’t thinking like her daughter, but instead a caregiver. In trying to fix things, I only made more stress for us both. I was losing her, and as selfish as it sounds, losing a bit of myself too.

I needed help. And I found it at the Pi-nal-Gila Council for Senior Citizens (PGCSC). They are a local nonprofit agency that develops community resources to address the unmet needs of the elderly and seniors. They offer a variety of services and resourc-es. I had driven by their office almost daily to and from work. I remember pulling into the parking lot and sitting there for a long time, willing myself to get out of the car. Putting one foot in front of the other, I made my way

to the door. Opening that door was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It was finally admitting I needed help – that I wasn’t in control and had failed Mama Tess.

What I found was understanding, warmth and hope with staffer Carol Wilson. She equipped me with good, solid information on Dementia, resources for patients and caregivers as well as local support groups. For the first time in nearly two years, I felt I wasn’t alone. Just as important, I didn’t feel like I failed my mom.

Not long after that, I attended a support group. I expected to find a room full of depressed people, but instead I found people laughing, having a few private conversations and the welcoming smile of Carol. I didn’t talk that day. I listened. I heard some of the same struggles, anger, guilt and even some funny stories about dealing with their loved ones. Between the support group and resource information, I learned that we need to work together to make things easier for her to remember. We now try to keep her on a schedule that eases anxiety. I learned, as a caregiver, I am never alone as long there are places like PGCSC.

Mama Tess just celebrated her 80th birth-day. Still living independently, but no longer driving, she realizes she can’t do all the things she used to do. She is determined she doesn’t want to be burden to me. It is hard to explain

51SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING 51 51THE MEDICAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING

CAMPUSES Two comprehensive campuses,

one STEM Academy and a Learning Center Program.

STAFF Led by 148 qualified teachers

COURSE OFFERINGS Over 200 course offerings

LIBRARY AND RESOURCES More than 10,000 volumes at two

campuses

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Emphasis on effective instructional practices

TUTORING Available four days a week on all

campuses

STEM AT CASA VERDE Science, Technology, Engineering,

and Mathematics

COMMUNICATIONS Websites, PowerSchool, Schoolway

App, direct email to staff, weekly news

ACTIVITIES Choir and Drama, FFA, FBLA, FPS,

Robotics, Marching Band, National FCCLA, DECA—state, national and

international awards

COLLABORATION ALTERNATIVES

CAVIT, CAC, private corporations, City of Casa Grande

FACILITIES Professional Culinary Arts Kitchen, FFA greenhouse, Art, Auto Shop,

Computer Labs, Theater Arts Auditorium

ATHLETICS Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Football, Track, Cross Country,

Soccer, Golf, Spiritline, Swimming, Tennis, Volleyball, Wrestling

Casa Grande Union High School District

A 21st Century Education with 21st Century Choices!

to her that she will never be a burden, ever – just the same way she has tried to convince me over the years that I wasn’t a burden to her. Perhaps it is a moot point trying to con-vince each other anyway.

There continues to be hectic moments. I get discouraged. She gets angry when she can’t remember. But I keep the attitude that “every day is a new day.” I cannot let Dementia define her…or me. On her good

days, she is spunky and fun to be with. On her bad days, I look at her beautiful wrinkles and let them take me back to a time where I remember good times. I know it will never get better, just different.

I will continue to make mistakes as I love her and care for her, but I am always thankful that she is my Mama Tess. And nothing will erase that memory.

Coming mid-July 2016Golden Corridor LIVING's

Education Edition This special section includes information on

Public, Charter and Parochial Schools • Elementary & High SchoolsPreschools • College • CAVIT

Parents & Educators - we'd love to hear your opinions on local education.

Please e-mail your comments to [email protected]


The Recreational Playground Of Phoenix’s West Valley

16126 N. Civic Center Plaza • Surprise, AZ 85374

™

SurpriSe, AZ

Located along U.S. 60, northwest of Phoenix, Surprise is one of the fast-est growing communities in the U.S. Today, Surprise is a 74-square-mile city on the move. Flanked by one of Arizo-na’s largest mountain preserves, and situated in the saguaro-dotted Sonoran Desert on the northwestern edge of the Valley of the Sun, it’s no “surprise” that Surprise was named Arizona’s fast-est growing city four times in recent years. Even the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers decided to take up res-idence here. The once sleepy square-mile farming community surprised just about everyone when it successfully courted the two teams away from their Florida training homes.

The Cactus League Spring Train-ing facility and stadium, along with a regional library, aquatic center, rec-reation center, and 57-acre massive park are the centerpieces of this new square-mile-plus downtown develop-ment, putting Surprise well on its way to becoming the playground of the West Valley.

Looking for some cool and affordable summer fun? Surprise’s 10,562-square-foot Aquatics Center takes swimming beyond the box. It includes a 4,700 square-foot water play area with zero depth entry, eight-lane competitive pool, diving well with two one-meter boards, two slides, splash pads, vortex whirlpool, class-room, concessions and more.

Hike or bike to a rare desert waterfall at White Tank Regional Park located on the western edge of Surprise. Waterfall Trail is a very popular and easy hike, suitable for the entire family.

Hit the greens at one or all of Surprise’s championship golf courses.

Cimarron at Sun City Grand, was designed by Greg Nash.

Play tennis, racquetball and table tennis at the Surprise Tennis and Rac-quet Complex. They have leagues as well as drop-in tennis. From time to time you can also catch professional exhibition tennis here.

A one-stop-shop for family enter-tainment, Uptown Alley has bowling, laser tag and games, as well as a full service restaurant and night life opportunities for the adult crowd. Be sure to check out the Wild World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park or take the family to one of two pick-your-own citrus farms.

Spend a day at Maricopa County’s northwest regional library. The $5.5 million, 20,000-square-foot library features a gift shop, and many public access flat screen computers and sep-arate adult, teen and child areas with greenhouse reading rooms overlook-ing a five-acre lake. Be sure to visit the 12’x78’ mosaic that depicts the history of Surprise.

Stunning natural beauty is just the beginning in Surprise, where art and culture extend to all corners of the city and include everything from fine arts, galleries to local traditional crafts and performances. Be sure to check out Arts’ HQ, the City Hall art collection or WHAM’s new showroom.

The City also hosts several unique special events that are must-see activ-ities like Fiesta Grande (October), Sur-prise Party (December) or the Second Sunday in the Park (Sept. to Spring). The festive events include live bands, hot-air balloons, food and treats for the entire family.

Enjoy your visit to Surprise, Arizona!

Texas Rangers Spring Training

Surprise Stadium

Surprise Party

• Weather and Natural Beauty

• Spring Training

• White Tank Regional Park and Nature Center

• World Class Tennis & Racquet Facilities

• Surprise Park ( 57 Acres, Lake, Aquatic Center, Playground, Library, Dog Park, etc)

• Surprise Party

• Wildlife World Zoo

• Proximity to Nascar, Coyotes Stadium, Diamondbacks, Wickenburg

• Greg Nash Designed Golf Courses

• Consistently Ranked One Of The Safest Cities In The Us

White Tank Mountains Wildlife World Zoo KC Royals Spring Training

Why Surprise?

The Recreational Playground Of Phoenix’s West Valley

16126 N. Civic Center Plaza • Surprise, AZ 85374

™

SurpriSe, AZ

Located along U.S. 60, northwest of Phoenix, Surprise is one of the fast-est growing communities in the U.S. Today, Surprise is a 74-square-mile city on the move. Flanked by one of Arizo-na’s largest mountain preserves, and situated in the saguaro-dotted Sonoran Desert on the northwestern edge of the Valley of the Sun, it’s no “surprise” that Surprise was named Arizona’s fast-est growing city four times in recent years. Even the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers decided to take up res-idence here. The once sleepy square-mile farming community surprised just about everyone when it successfully courted the two teams away from their Florida training homes.

The Cactus League Spring Train-ing facility and stadium, along with a regional library, aquatic center, rec-reation center, and 57-acre massive park are the centerpieces of this new square-mile-plus downtown develop-ment, putting Surprise well on its way to becoming the playground of the West Valley.

Looking for some cool and affordable summer fun? Surprise’s 10,562-square-foot Aquatics Center takes swimming beyond the box. It includes a 4,700 square-foot water play area with zero depth entry, eight-lane competitive pool, diving well with two one-meter boards, two slides, splash pads, vortex whirlpool, class-room, concessions and more.

Hike or bike to a rare desert waterfall at White Tank Regional Park located on the western edge of Surprise. Waterfall Trail is a very popular and easy hike, suitable for the entire family.

Hit the greens at one or all of Surprise’s championship golf courses.

Cimarron at Sun City Grand, was designed by Greg Nash.

Play tennis, racquetball and table tennis at the Surprise Tennis and Rac-quet Complex. They have leagues as well as drop-in tennis. From time to time you can also catch professional exhibition tennis here.

A one-stop-shop for family enter-tainment, Uptown Alley has bowling, laser tag and games, as well as a full service restaurant and night life opportunities for the adult crowd. Be sure to check out the Wild World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park or take the family to one of two pick-your-own citrus farms.

Spend a day at Maricopa County’s northwest regional library. The $5.5 million, 20,000-square-foot library features a gift shop, and many public access flat screen computers and sep-arate adult, teen and child areas with greenhouse reading rooms overlook-ing a five-acre lake. Be sure to visit the 12’x78’ mosaic that depicts the history of Surprise.

Stunning natural beauty is just the beginning in Surprise, where art and culture extend to all corners of the city and include everything from fine arts, galleries to local traditional crafts and performances. Be sure to check out Arts’ HQ, the City Hall art collection or WHAM’s new showroom.

The City also hosts several unique special events that are must-see activ-ities like Fiesta Grande (October), Sur-prise Party (December) or the Second Sunday in the Park (Sept. to Spring). The festive events include live bands, hot-air balloons, food and treats for the entire family.

Enjoy your visit to Surprise, Arizona!

Texas Rangers Spring Training

Surprise Stadium

Surprise Party

• Weather and Natural Beauty

• Spring Training

• White Tank Regional Park and Nature Center

• World Class Tennis & Racquet Facilities

• Surprise Park ( 57 Acres, Lake, Aquatic Center, Playground, Library, Dog Park, etc)

• Surprise Party

• Wildlife World Zoo

• Proximity to Nascar, Coyotes Stadium, Diamondbacks, Wickenburg

• Greg Nash Designed Golf Courses

• Consistently Ranked One Of The Safest Cities In The Us

White Tank Mountains Wildlife World Zoo KC Royals Spring Training

Why Surprise?


Reading Esther Cotton’s memoir has made me hungry for keeping my family’s story. My mother was one of six children. The last living, my Uncle Sam, recently lost his wife and has come to visit. Sam first came to Casa Grande to live with his father and sisters in 1942 at the age of 12. Today at 85, he has a hard time recognizing places where he grew up. This was his home until he was 24. He bagged groceries for George Y Wa, picked cotton, worked at a cotton gin, and worked for my father on our farm. So much of what Esther writes about is vividly etched in his memories of Casa Grande.

My father’s only sister, Aunt Margue-rite, has had a few health issues lately. She was only three or four years old when her parents moved here. When we visit her, my sister, cousins, and I find ourselves reminiscing about our child-hood, stories of our parents, grandpar-ents, and family. Several of the photos Esther and Nadine provided for this series are taken in front of an enormous Saguaro at the base of the Casa Grande Mountain. That Saguaro was just a few hundred feet west of my grandparents’ home on Peart Road. Anytime family or friends came for a visit, they were taken over to the cactus to have their photograph made. My parents’ farm was often visible in the background of those photos...but this is Esther’s story.

Nadine Turner Hackler is my dearest friend – a woman of strength, character, and compassion, who has made a very real difference in my life. Born in Prescott, Arkansas, her family moved to Casa Grande in 1938. Each time I have wanted to confirm facts about Casa Grande’s history for articles I have written, Nadine, without fail, has been my source for details and information. Her memory is as sharp as her wit.

Nadine’s parents, A.L. ‘Buck’ and Effie (Machen) Turner married in 1923 in Cam-den, Arkansas. Buck was a dirt farmer, logger, grave digger, cabinet maker and carpenter. They raised four children: J.T. (John Thomas, known to his friends as ‘Buck’), Nadine, Esther, and Opal Lavone (Bonni). Effie’s father was a Confederate in the Civil War. J.T. retired a Colonel in the U.S. Army, serving in WW II and the Korean Conflict. Esther became an LPN and X-ray technician and has lived in Bisbee since 1951. Bonni worked as the office nurse for Dr. J.B. Tucker for many years and lived in Casa Grande until

Chapter 4

On Sunday morning, we – the kids – got cleaned up and dressed in our best clothes and went to Sunday School. Mr. Ethington came by in

his big Plymouth sedan, picked us up, and we made the rounds to all the tent camps and collected all the children. He drove us into Casa Grande to the Calvary Baptist Church for Sunday School. Sometimes there were fifteen kids in the car. The authorities must have turned their heads when we had so many bodies in one car, because we were never stopped or questioned. Too, there was hardly any traffic on Sunday morning. It was a challenge every week to see how and where we could squeeze in another child. We waged a friendly contest to see if the car from Eth-ington’s Ranch west of town brought in more children than the car from Pate’s Ranch east of town. We had such good times singing choruses and laughing. Mr. Ethington was kind to us and “God – he never made us feel like poor hired help!”

It was fun to explore the des-ert after work and on weekends. We discovered a whole new world of ani-mals and insects. There were scor-pions, small brown and sand-colored ones of all sizes, and light green ones that grew up to 5 or 6 inches long that lurked in, around and under rocks, sticks and bushes. If you didn’t shake your clothes and shoes – even sheets – you might be surprised because they like to hide in the dark places. Desert rattlesnakes were to be watched for and respected also. One day when we got home, mother heard a rattle and saw a big snake coiled in the corner of the tent. She got daddy’s 410 shotgun and blew that snake to “smithereens!” There was a poisonous snake called the Sidewinder. It made a distinctive pattern

“God, what is poor?”by Esther Turner Cotton

In fond remembrances of Mother and Daddy Dedicated to Nadine, my sister

Esther Turner Cotton

her death in 2000. Growing up, music was always part of their lives; Buck was “an old fashioned hoe-down type fiddler,” J.T. played the guitar and Nadine played the organ and piano by ear. To this day, they remain a close-knit family.

In the early 1970’s, Nadine’s sister, Esther,

began writing for her children a memoir of her life in Arkansas and Arizona. In keeping with Nadine’s wish, Esther is sharing the following excerpt from that work.

Preface by Georgia Schaeffer, Casa Grande native and Associate Broker at Cold-well Banker ROX Realty.

THE MEDICAL EDITION


in the sand as it moved along slithering sideways. We often followed the tracks and tried to find it but it would disappear into a gopher hole.

Nights in the desert were so pretty. The skies were so clear and the stars were so bright and seemed to be close enough to touch. It was truly like you have heard in the old cowboy songs, with none of the smog clouds or noises that we have today. At that time, there still were many coyotes which howled and yelped all through the night. The desert owl, dove and quail calls and songs were heard in the early morn-ing. The desert lizards were sand-colored and so big and fast. There was a joke that they were big enough to carry their stick to sit on and cool their feet from the hot desert sands.

Once I remember seeing dust whipped up by a small herd of wild horses in the desert northwest of Casa Grande. We soon grew to love the wide open skies, the desert surrounded by purple mountains and the dry air. It was quite a contrast to the wet, closed-in wooded areas and clouded skies in Arkansas.

When the cotton grew and matured,

there were acres and acres of the white fluff. Then it was ready to be picked. Dad-dy bought 12-foot canvas cotton sacks for mother and him and shorter ones for us kids. We got up early and went out into the hot fields and pulled and dragged our sacks up and down the rows, picking the white cotton balls. They were so light and fluffy and it took so many of them to fill a sack and make the weight. The pay was 75 cents for one hundred pounds. The days were so long and it was hot – sometimes the tem-perature was 115 degrees and there was no shade. Even though the cotton is soft, the pods are dry and prickly – and our fingers bled. It seemed our backs would break from bending all day. Even though we suffered physically, I’m sure it didn’t compare to the mental anguish and stress our parents were having just trying to survive and keep the family going.

At one point Mr. Ethington decided to build a new, high home* for his large fam-ily and he wanted to live closer to town. He learned that daddy had done some carpen-ter work (he built our farmhouse in the flats in Arkansas), so he was hired as a laborer. What a great day for us, because it was late

August and it was an opportunity for us to move to town before school started in Sep-tember. The foreman on the building was a tall redheaded man. He was also the Pas-tor at Calvary Baptist Church, where we at-tended Sunday School. His name was Wi-ley Hinton. His landlady in town was Mary Plenz, a licensed mortician who operated a mortuary in a big two-story stone building. She also owned several low-cost rent hous-es and through Mr. Hinton, we were able to rent one of the houses** about a block from the mortuary. Our dad worked for her part-time around the mortuary and digging graves at night.

I want to digress a bit and go back to the terrifying experience of starting in the school in Casa Grande after we arrived in March. Our sister Bonni , who was in first grade and I in the fifth, attended old Cen-tral School in downtown. There were two buildings – one was a large two-story and a basement which housed third, fourth and fifth grades. The smaller building housed first and second grades. It was harder for Bonni, I’m sure, than for us. Besides be-ing put in separate buildings, there was a matter of different nationality. This was so foreign to us. We had never heard the Spanish language and the percentage of Mexican students was so large that we were overwhelmed. First grade had bilin-gual classes, even then, because in many families only Spanish was spoken at home and the smaller children did not speak En-glish. There were no preschools or kinder-gartens. The schoolyard in front was lined with olive trees beside an irrigation ditch and there were big tamarisk or salt cedars along the side of the schoolyard. The back side of the playground ended across the sidewalk from Florence Blvd., the main street downtown.

…to be continued.

* The Ethington home was purchased in the 1980s by Michael and Nancy Jackson, renovated and is The Property Convention Center.

** Our house in town was on the northwest corner of Florence Blvd. and Olive Drive (across the street from where the present Dairy Queen sits). The City Hall was located where the Chamber of Commerce now sits.

Esther Turner Cotton


Hailey lay in a hospital bed. She had a concussion, a few broken bones and multiple bruises after she passed out while driving and hit a parked

car. Unable to get out of bed, she had time to reflect on her past and think about how she ended up here...

Hailey started drinking her sophomore year in high school. She wanted so much to feel like she fit in and she found acceptance in a group of youth her age that used alcohol. By the 12th grade, Hailey had used marijuana and pills – pretty much anything she could get her hands on. She found herself feeling like she needed to pop a few pills just to get through her day. Once a bright student, her mother noticed that Hailey’s grades were lower than usual. She confronted her, but accepted her daughter’s explanation that the classes were getting harder and balancing school and a social life was not easy.

Hailey managed to graduate with grades that were barely passing. She knew she had to quit using drugs or she would never make it through college. One morning, she flushed her pills down the toilet and swore she wouldn’t use anymore. That evening, Hailey was a mess. She was sweating and felt sick to her stom-ach. She had a pounding headache and her thoughts were racing. The longer she waited, the worse she felt. Then, she couldn’t take it anymore – she got in her car and drove to a friend’s house. Her friend gave her two pain pills she had taken from her dad’s prescription. After about an hour, Hailey was feeling some-what normal again. She left her friend’s house to go get a coffee, as she was starting to feel sleepy. She awoke in the back of an ambu-lance, with no recollection of the accident.

What is drug addiction?For a long time, people who were addicted

to drugs were thought to be lacking will power and good morals. As a result of scientific research, more is known about drug addiction today than ever before. Addiction is defined as a chronic relapsing brain disease that is char-acterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the

brain; they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long-lasting and can lead to many harmful, often self-de-structive, behaviors.1

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 21.5 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder in the past year2. Addiction can happen to anyone, regardless of ethnic background, financial status, or any other indicator. However, research shows that people who start drinking before the age of 15 are six times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at or after age 21.3

Signs of addiction include the following:

• Neglecting Other Activities: Spending less time on activities that used to be important (exercising, pursuing hobbies, etc.) because of the use of alcohol or drugs; drop in attendance and/or per-formance at work or school.4

• Risk Taking: Becoming more likely to take serious risks (ex. stealing) in order to obtain one’s drug of choice.4

• Relationship Issues: People suffering from addiction often act out against those closest to them, especially if someone confronts their substance problems. 4

• Changing Appearance: Displaying no-ticeable changes in physical appearance that cause concern or lack of hygiene. 4

• Tolerance: Over time, a person's body adapts to a substance to the point that they need more and more of it in order to have the same reaction. 4

• Withdrawal: As the alcohol or drug wears off, the person may experience

symptoms such as anxiety or jumpiness, shakiness or trembling, sweating, nau-sea and vomiting, insomnia, depression, irritability, fatigue or loss of appetite and headaches.4

• Continued Use Despite Negative Con-sequences: Even though it is causing problems (on the job, in relationships, legal issues), a person continues the substance use. 4

Can addiction be treated suc-cessfully?

Yes. Addiction is a treatable, chronic disease that can be managed successfully… Treatment approaches must be tailored to address each patient’s drug use patterns and drug-related medical, psychiatric and social problems. 1

THERE IS HELP FOR DRUG ADDICTION by Stephanie Collier, Prevention Specialist, Casa Grande Alliance

For more information on substance abuse prevention or a listing of local substance abuse treatment programs, visit the Casa Grande Alliance at www.casagrandealliance.org, or call 520-836-5022. 1 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-basics. 2 SAMHSA, Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.3 http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm4 https://ncadd.org/about-addiction/signs-and-symptoms/signs-and-symptoms.

You would do anything for your loved ones...

but when it comes to medicine, sharing isn’t caring!

Your meds are just for you. Drug abuse prevention and treatment referrals

901 E. Cottonwood Lane - Suite C Casa Grande, Arizona 85122

520-836-5022 | [email protected] www.CasaGrandeAlliance.org

Facebook: Casa Grande Alliance | Twitter: @CG_Alliance


CG NewsCONTINUED…

hasn’t.”He continued, “But I don’t think that

it’s the white elephant that so many peo-ple have made it out to be. Again, we’ve run youth programs out there that we don’t pay a dime for the maintenance. So in my mind, we were going to build the fields anyway, (but) we just built them out there (and) somebody else is maintaining them at a savings to the city of some-where between $500,000 and $600,000 a year.”

There has been much talk about the United Football League that was in town when the complex was begun.

“We were pretty sure that they weren’t going to last and so when we ini-tially looked at them, we had only pro-grammed revenue from them for three years,” Jackson said. “They were there for a year and then they left.”

The future“I do think that things are getting

better out there,” Jackson continued. “I do know that you’re going to see some announcements, hopefully in the next few weeks, that will, again, bring light to the fact that this is a great facility. It’s brought a lot of attention to the city of Casa Grande that we would not otherwise have gotten.

It’s really helped in our economic de-velopment, not to mention the increase we’ve seen in our room tax revenue. Nine years ago, we were hitting about $80,000 a year in room tax, today we’re almost $500,000. And it’s not because we’ve add-ed a bunch of hotels, it’s because they’re much fuller than they used to be.”

Earlier stories and financial sheets about the Performance Institute/Grande Sports World controversy are posted at www.haroldkitch-ing.com/sports-world

The Dairy Queen sig n at Ma r-shall Street and

Florence Boulevard in old downtown Casa Grande has been des-ignated a local his-toric landmark in an attempt to head off a move by the corpora-tion to replace it with a modern version.

A resolution for the designa-tion was unanimously approved by the City Council during its April 18 meeting.

“Because the Historic Preser-vation Commission is concerned about losing some of Casa Grande’s history…the HPC is requesting that the sign be designated as a local his-toric landmark,” City Planner Laura Blakeman told the council.

Blakeman, the city’s historic pres-ervation liaison, added, “According to our historic preservation code, our code states and declares that as a matter of public policy that the pro-tection, enhancement and perpetua-tion of landmarks in historic districts is necessary to promote the econom-ic, cultural, educational and general welfare of the public.”

Designating the sign as a historic landmark is a great thing, Council-man Dick Powell said, but added that he has questions about enforcement if Dairy Queen corporate is adamant about replacing the sign.

“How enforceable (is it) and how can we protect the sign if the com-pany says it has to be changed?” he asked. “Is there anything that we’re doing tonight that would keep them from being able to do that?”

Powell added, “From what I was reading the (franchise) owner would like to keep it and I know the com-munity would like to keep it. Once we get this done, is it a PR thing that puts pressure on the company to not change it, or is there any kind of official action that can be taken if he’s ordered to take it down and it’s a

landmark sign?”Basically, it boils down to just a

pressure move, Blakeman responded.“What we’re trying to do is get

that sign preserved as a local historic landmark and hopefully through our efforts with that that we have some kind of pressure to put on them to keep that sign,” she said. “I know that they’re also looking at one in Holbrook, as well, that we’ve heard they’re keeping because they’ve des-ignated it a local historic landmark.”

Councilwoman Mary Kortsen said that the iconic sign has the ice cream cone on top and the brazier sign be-low. She asked if both parts of the sign will be designated as historic.

“Yes,” Blakeman answered. “We’re considering the sign (in its) entirety.”

Marge Jantz, chairman of the HPC, said she and Jeff Trendler, the fran-chise holder, have been working for the past year to save the sign.

“This is critical, obviously,” she continued. “Once we get the local landmark there’s no guarantee that Dairy Queen will still let us have it, but we do have a couple other things in our back pockets and we hope we don’t have to go there.”

Jantz did not say what the “couple other things” are.

“But we really need it as a local landmark,” she added.

Jantz said “Jeff has told corpo-rate that we’re going through this process. I think he’s really hopeful. That’s what he’s expressed to us, he’s really hopeful that this is going to work. It’s just our best shot.”

Officials try to save vintage Dairy Queen signATHLETIC FIELDS...cont. from page 28

cgnews-info.webs.com or www.haroldkitching.com

show you roads right now that don’t fall into those categories,” Jackson said, “but if you think about the roads you drive on all the time, they are all in pret-ty good shape.”

Guns in public buildingsJackson said the legislature is consid-

ering a law allowing guns to be brought into public buildings.

“I know my wife, Judy, worries about this all the time,” he continued, “and if you’ve been in City Hall we have like zero security in there. What the law says is that you can bring guns into public places, as in City Hall, unless the gov-ernment entity wants to put in a se-curity system. So, you think about the number of buildings, even City Hall by itself. We have three main entrances. We’d have to have three security gates like you go through at the airport and three security guards.”

The guns proposal would also apply to

other city buildings, such as Parks and Recreation and the two libraries.

“We probably own 35 or 40 buildings,” Jackson said, “and if we’re going to put in a security system and a security guard, (it would) probably cost the city of Casa Grande a couple million dollars. The al-ternative is to let people come in with guns. I’m sorry, I just don’t think that’s good public policy, but as it stands today, that legislation looks like it’s probably going to pass.”

Eliminating tax on rentalsThe legislature also has a bill that

would eliminate sales taxes on rentals.“That is not a big hit for Casa Grande,

but it is a hit for some of the other cities,” Jackson said.

“We get about $200,000 a year. If you’re in a city that has a higher percentage of renters, like Phoenix, that’s a huge finan-cial hit. And there’s not a way to make that up, because you can’t raise property taxes, can’t raise sales taxes, so you would tend to take that as a budget cut.”

ROUNDUP...cont. from page 28


Approval has been given to a $121,001 planning contract that will lead to pushing Fifth Street through from

Marshall to Drylake streets in old downtown Casa Grande, improving access to Peart Park and helping with downtown traffic flow.

The project will be known as Peart Square.Because of this work, the plan for a splash

pad in the southeast corner of Peart Park is on hold. Officials are waiting to see how that would fit in with the street extension.

“This project would provide direct access to Peart Park, (to) which we currently have very little direct street access,” Public Works Director Kevin Louis told the City Council. “When we worked with the planning depart-ment to take a look at the opportunities in this area to enhance that park and connec-tivity to the downtown, we saw this as a key link that was missing, and especially for di-rect access and parking for Peart Park.

He added, “We saw this as an opportunity to look at the downtown activities that cur-

rently take place and extending that through Marshall and to this new Fifth Street if we move forward with construction.”

There are many “if” factors to be consid-ered before approval of a construction con-tract, including budget. No construction time estimate was given, but a tentative timeline shows that planning should be completed by mid-July.

According to the staff report accompa-nying the agenda item, “Improvements will include new curb, gutter, sidewalks and on-street parking. A new privacy wall will be constructed between the roadway and the city library and police dispatch station.”

Putting the splash pad on hold does not mean that it will never be built.

Community Ser vices Director Bill Schwind told the Parks and Recreation Advi-sory Board, “Once that (Fifth Street) architect is on board, we will team with them to talk about if we were to utilize this site down here for a potential splash pad, that when they do

their design work for curb, gutters, sidewalk, sewer and all that kind of stuff we want to make sure that we’re involved with that so we can at least plan for something to go in down there at a future day.”

He continued, “We’ll be communicating with the architects and the engineers as far as the road design goes to make sure that ev-erything that we need will be taken care of, as far as infrastructure goes, for the future so we don’t put a bunch of stuff in the ground now, do a road, and then tear it up.”

If Fifth Street is pushed through, the road

and part of its parking areas would be close to where the splash pad would be located.

A splash pad at Peart Park is already fund-ed, Schwind said, and more are projected for the city.

“I think as far as the (park’s) master plan goes,” he continued, “there are probably three… community splash pads in the capital improvements plan. (They are) not sched-uled to be funded anytime within the next two years, but there are locations throughout town that through our master plan have been kind of designated for splash pads.”

CG NewsCONTINUED…

The City Council has given final approv-al to buying 40 acres of land off of Isom Road that will allow eventual construc-

tion of a new Peart trailhead for Casa Grande Mountain.

As the staff report describes it, “The 40 acres of land is adjacent to city of Casa Grande-owned property that houses the Casa Grande Mountain Ridge Trail. The plan for the new-ly-acquired land is to build a city-owned trail-head. Currently the Peart Trailhead is located on leased property and the lease agreement

can be cancelled at any time by (the) property owner. The purchase of this 40-acre property will allow for a permanent trailhead location to be established.”

The purchase price is $40,000.In asking for approval of the purchase,

Community Services Director Bill Schwind said, “What I’ve learned in looking at property to purchase in the state of Arizona, they’re not making any mountains any more and any city property near mountains is a good investment.”

Councilman Dick Powell said the property

once had a picnic area.“It’s trashed and torn up now,” Powell said.

“This is wonderful that we’re getting a hold of it and able to use it, because it should have been available a long time ago. We once thought we owned it and we found out the county did, then it got sold from the county into some private hands.”

He added, “I’m really happy it’s back in city hands and it gets cleaned up. It’s just a natu-ral area to start the trailhead. I think it’ll serve very well.”

During the Parks and Recreation Adviso-ry Board meeting in January, Schwind said,

“There’s nothing in the works currently as far as getting it developed, but as far as acquiring that land, it is a good program.”

According to the staff report, another $40,000 is authorized for trailhead work, which is expected to take several years to complete.

The work includes:• Cleaning the property, including removing

trash and glass particles.• Fencing the property lines and adding

gateways.• Regrading areas.• Building the trailhead area.• Installing signage.

Not all of the donation boxes you see around Casa Grande are actually for charities, a City Council member re-

cently pointed out.“For a long time we would see it for a (char-

ity) donation that you knew, a group that that you knew, here and there,” Councilwoman Mary Kortsen said during a regular meeting. “And over the last few years, I’ve just seen this proliferation of bins. And I start look at who is it, because I want to know who it is, and it’s

so hard to even tell if there is even anything (written) on them. And then all of a sudden you see them mushroom.”

Kortsen said she read in a Phoenix news-paper about problems the city is having with such boxes, some on private property.

“And just by coincidence when this came out, just prior to that,” she continued, “I was driving down McCartney Road off of Pinal and, lo and behold, on the south side, it’s totally un-developed right now, and here sit two of them.

What they do is, there are some questionable groups that put these bins up in the hopes that they can get these clothing items and appli-ances and then they turn around and resell them. They are not for charity.”

She added, “I would like to see us take a close look at this. What can we do? And I would like it enforced. We have some very good char-ities here. We have St. Vincent; we have Good-will; we have Salvation Army and these peo-ple, they deserve these donations and that.”

She continued, “You have people out there that are leading the public astray and putting a box (out) and somebody puts things inside that box thinking it’s going to charity and it’s not.”

Kortsen’s comments came during the in-formal council reports at the end of the meet-ing, not as a formal agenda item, meaning no decision could be made.

“Duly noted,” Mayor Bob Jackson said, adding that he saw Deputy City Manager Larry Rains “over there writing notes.”

City to add new trailhead

Councilwoman raises concerns over donation boxes

Fifth Street contract approved


Webster defines com-munity as people living in a common area, who share

ownership or participation of a common interest. And what Seeds of Hope experienced on Tuesday, April 5 was nothing less than an outpouring deluge of community support for Arizona Gives Day.

Arizona Gives Day is an annual

24-hour online fundraiser for nonprofits across Arizona. This year over 900 nonprofits partici-pated. Groups are categorized as small, medium, large, and rural. Additional prize money is award-ed to the nonprofits that place in the top five of each category. Seeds of Hope is in the rural and medium-sized categories.

Seeds of Hope had a goal of raising $42,000 this year, which is $15,000 more than we raised last year. With many prayers and good luck wishes we optimistically prepared for what is the largest fundraiser we do all year long. But nothing could prepare us for what we experienced from every corner of our community this year.

At the hot lunch program, Toni set out a jar to collect spare change from the people we serve— people on fixed incomes who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from.

When she counted what was collected on Arizona Gives Day it was over $200. The very people who depend on us for food will-ingly and enthusiastically gave to support us.

Many churches and businesses also made donations that day. Not all of them gave the same amount, but the impact of their gifts is equal in what it allows us to accomplish in our programming. Individuals near and far got online and made donations. Some are friends, while some are friends of friends. But each one understands our mission to provide opportu-nity to improve lives spiritually, educationally, and socially.

At the end of the day our community of supporters helped us raise $56,484! That put us in third place in the midsize category, earning us an additional $8,000! Thank you, Casa Grande, for believing in what we do for our community. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for making us a household name in our com-munity. Because of you, we can continue to impact individuals and families in meaningful ways. We LOVE community partners!

THANK YOU CASA GRANDE!by Terri Durham, Office Coordinator

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The Casa Grande Elementary School District is one of the most recognized and awarded school districts in Pinal County. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of its staff, there are a few more top-level awards and recognitions to add to the

district’s long list of achievements.

Ironwood Elementary receives an A+ School of Excellence AwardIn April 2016, Ironwood Elementary staff received notice that they

were one of only 40 Arizona schools to receive the A+ School of Excellence Award. A team of independent judges from across the state reviewed Ironwood’s application and spent two days on campus inter-viewing staff and students and learning about what makes Ironwood unique and special. One of the things that set Ironwood apart was its implementation of a program for students, which is called Leader in Me. Based on the work of renowned leadership expert Stephen Covey, the program builds character, communication, and leadership skills in students starting in Kindergarten. Ironwood joins other Casa Grande Elementary Schools that have received this prestigious rec-ognition: Villago Middle School (2013), McCartney Ranch Elementary (2013), and Cactus Middle School (2007).

Casa Grande Middle School Principal Jennifer Murrieta named a Distinguished Administrator by the Arizona School Administrators

Also in April 2016, Casa Grande Middle School Principal Jennifer Murrieta was selected as the Arizona School Administrators (ASA) Distinguished Administrator for the Middle Level Division. Only six prin-cipals are recognized across the state each year. Mrs. Murrieta was rec-ognized because of her deep commitment to ensuring success for every student at Casa Grande Middle School. She is no stranger to accolades as she previously received the Council of Administrators of Special Ed-ucation Outstanding Leadership Award in 2010, and in 2012, she was one of ten Arizona principals named a Rodel Exemplary Principal.

Governing Board President Judee Jackson receives the 2015 Valle del Sol Profiles of Success Hall of Fame Award

In fall 2015, Governing Board President Judee Jackson was one of the honorees recognized at Valle Del Sol’s annual Profiles of Success luncheon at the Phoenix Convention Center. She was recognized in part for her efforts to enrich the lives of Latino students through participation in such innovative programs as Latino Familia and for her work with Pinal County’s Hispanic Leadership Institute. Since retiring from Arizona Public Service Company, she continues to be actively involved in supporting the children in Casa Grande.

Superintendent Dr. Frank Davidson Awarded the Dr. Roger Sterling Kellis Leadership Award

Dr. Frank Davison who has served as the Casa Grande Elementary School District superintendent since 1997 has been recognized for excellence in leadership and community involvement by Arizona School Administrators. Dr. Davidson exemplifies the spirit and intent of this prestigious award which is given annually to ASA members who actively participate in civic leadership, mentor aspiring, new and veteran leaders and demonstrate a vision of a better life for children through education. He will be recognized at the ASA summer conference in June, 2016.

AWARDS KEEP COMING FOR CASA GRANDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICTby Bryan Harris, Ed.D., Director of Professional Development & Public Relations, Casa Grande Elementary School District


• Casa Grande Elementary has more A+ Schools and A+ Programs than any other school district in Pinal County

• The District has a proven, rigorous instructional program built upon “Success for Every One”

WWW.CGELEM.K12.AZ.US 520.836.2111

Casa Grande Elementary

School District isThe choice

for families in Casa Grande

Did You Know?

Visit Your Child’sSchool Today!

Successfor

Every One

Theresponsibility

and Mineis Yours

Community

Students

School

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

SUMMER IS BACK! AND SO IS THE SUMMER FOOD SERVICE by Wendy Garcia, CPFM, Field Supervisor-Food Services Dept., Casa Grande Elementary School District #4

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) child nutrition program established to ensure that

children, ages 18 and younger, continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Free meals meeting federal nutrition guidelines are provided to all children at ap-proved SFSP sites. This program encourages good health through nutrition and an active lifestyle, and it also provides an opportunity for learning. The Casa Grande Elementary School District has sponsored the Summer Food Service Program since 1992. The district’s mission, “Success for Every One, the Responsibility is Yours and Mine,” is demon-strated as we partner with families, students, and the community for the betterment of our children and their future.

When the summer seems to run long and children begin to get restless, our program can remedy their boredom. We offer special events and activities at each site! Demon-strations from local community members, businesses, and students are presented at various participating sites during the summer. Crafts time is set up throughout the week for the children and games and theme days are held at all sites on specified days during the

program. This year’s program will be held Monday through Friday, May 23 through July 29 with various locations in and around the Casa Grande area, including Paradise Palms and Chuichu.

For more information, call 520-876-3630. An-swers to frequently asked questions along with site times, locations, menus and event calendar will be posted in May on the Casa Grande Elementary School District’s Food Services webpage at www.cgesd.org.


Special Medical Section

Medical, Health & Wellness Special Section

HEALTH CARE: The act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to improve a person’s well-being. This may be accomplished with surgery, the administering of medicine, or other alterations in a person’s lifestyle. Services are typically offered through a health care system made up of hospitals, physicians and other clinicians or practitioners. Education and community outreach play a key role in prevention.

In less than a century, prevention along with earlier detection has made many deadly diseases a rarity. As our community has grown, so have our health care options. No longer do we need to travel to the Valley for specialists. Many specialists now have offices or hours in our region. Along with expanded medical practitioners, we now have local dental options, including orthodontia and oral surgery, for both children and adults. As more information is shared on the Internet, alternative and holistic providers are now embraced as part

of mainstream care. This year our Medical, Health & Wellness edition includes a bit of information on each: medical, dental, chiropractic, holistic and alternative medicine. We hope it inspires you to see not only the incredible health resources available in our community, but that it also empowers you to find your own tools for healthier living. Be well!

Major Announcements in the News• On May 9, Banner Casa Grande

Regional Medical Center broke ground on an expanded Obstetrical Care Unit. The new 27,800-square-foot unit will feature the highest level of medi-cal technologies for these services, ensuring a safe and nurturing environ-ment and delivering expert care for all. Earlier this year, Banner Casa Grande

completed its Level II Perinatal Ser-vices Survey with the Arizona Prenatal Trust. The hospital was recognized for its goal to provide exceptional care to high-risk pregnant mothers, and to newborn infants born at 32 weeks and above.

• In 2016, Sun Life Family Heath Services is celebrating 40 years of continued ser-vice. With clinics in seven communities in Pinal County, it is now Pinal County’s largest primary care provider, offering care in family practice, women’s wellness and maternity care, pediatric care, family dentistry, in-house radiology, pharmacy and laboratory services.



THE STORY BEHIND THE COVERWhat is one part skilled surgeon, one part robot and one part high-tech 3D video game? The answer is the da Vinci® Surgical System.

Introduced by Intuitive Surgical, the state-of-the-art da Vinci® Si can help surgeons perform minimally invasive, complex surgeries. The

system features four lightweight surgical arms, allowing for extended reach of motion into the body. The system is also much easier to use than past surgical robots with mini-mal setup in the operating room.

What is da Vinci®?Banner Health uses the da Vinci®

Robotic Surgical System. Da Vinci®, a well-known system, consists of an ergonomically-designed surgeon’s console, a patient-side cart with four interactive robotic arms, a high-per-formance vision system and special-ly-designed instruments.

Benefits of Robotic SurgeryWith robotic surgery, patients who

once faced several weeks in recov-ery following surgery can be back on their feet within days. Through advanced technology that creates

a less-invasive approach to surgery, patients may experience:

• Reduced blood loss and need for transfusions

• Less post-operative pain and discomfort

• Less risk of infection • Shorter hospital stay • Faster recovery and return to

normal daily activities • Less scarring

Banner Casa Grande Regional Medical Center installed and began using the da Vinci® System in fall 2015. Specially-trained surgeons use robotics to help patients have better, faster and easier recoveries from difficult procedures. The robot pro-vides surgeons with all the benefits of traditional surgery while enabling

When we began planning this edition of LIVING, we decided we wanted a cover image showing a medical professional in an authentic setting. Rona Curphy, the CEO at Banner Casa Grande Regional Medical Center, was extremely helpful in setting up this opportunity, as getting into the operating room takes a bit more effort and planning than other photo shoots. The e-mail came in late Friday afternoon saying there was a slot open in the operating room schedule on Monday. So first thing Monday morning, Tina Cates from Elegance N Images and I met with Karen Tiemann from Banner. The first stop was getting into our “bunny suits.” The staff was gracious and patient with us, taking the time to answer the zillion questions we asked - questions that had nothing to do with the photo shoot and all to do with satisfying our own curiosity. Dr. Mourelo was equally as gracious to take the time from his busy schedule to meet in the operating room for the photo shoot. The focus of the shoot was the hos-pital’s new robotic surgical system. It was difficult to get everything into the image, such as the doctor and his control console, the actual da Vinci® robotic device and the nurses. It literally FILLS the room! So the cover image focuses on Dr. Mourelo, with the unit behind him. The images here show more of the device, along with information on the apparatus from the hospital’s and the manufacturer’s websites. -Bea

PHOTO BY TINA CATES


PHOTO BY TINA CATES

Dr. Jonathan Willms, Sun Life OB/GYN recently did the 100th case on the robot.

Dr. Mourelo with Razyl

Maghanoy RN and Maritza

Rodriguez, Surgical

Technologist



GETTING FRIENDLY WITH FERMENTSby Jackie Paunil, MFA, CHC., owner of Terra Medela: Personal Health Coaching

T oday I want to talk about the powerful healing and maintenance properties of fermented or cultured foods.

There are many cultural varieties of these foods and drinks, originally created for preservation of foods prior to the convenience of refrigeration or (blek!) chemical preservatives. You can find lots of information about the cul-tural varieties online these days. Foods and drinks are allowed to ferment or grow bacteria, extending their shelf-life and are later consumed as part of a standard diet in many cultures – not so much in America, though. We seemed to have turned our noses up at such “rotten foods.” It’s a pity really, as there were so many good things growing in those foods that the American culture abandoned for so long which we’re now realizing turned out to be really good for us.

Our bodies are loaded with bac-teria. They say a good three pounds of our weight is attributed to bacteria that are mostly essential to our good health and function. We are actually made up of more bacteria than human cells. As with life, there are the good guys and the bad guys. The beneficial bacteria of our gut microbiome, or the community of bacteria residing in our gut, contribute to proper digestion, immune system function and even our emotional well-being, believe it or not. When the bad guys, which are just looking for the moment to take over the microbiome, have the opportunity, they will take it. For me it was the ex-cessive sugar in my diet that was feed-ing these nasty critters, giving them power and numbers to overtake the good guys. For some it may be a virus that made them vulnerable or eating foods with no real life to them – I’m talking about processed foods. Or for some, perhaps it could be pesticidal residue on and in foods. (We’ll talk GMO’s and Bt toxins another time). Just know there are some crazy bacte-rial battles going on inside your gut.

So this is where fermented foods come to the rescue. By reinforcing the troops and providing more benefi-cial bacteria from live foods, you are balancing the ratio of good to bad bacteria that strengthen and support your body in so many ways, and I will venture to say, in ways we haven’t begun to fully understand. In two tablespoons of homemade sauer-kraut, there are trillions of beneficial bacteria, otherwise known as probi-otics. You can actually culture more probiotics in your homemade ferment than a bottle of good quality probiotic supplements. And if you’ve purchased those, you know they can cost you a pretty penny. Sauerkraut consists of cabbage and salt brine. Trust me, even an organic head of cabbage, for those of you that shy from the prices asso-ciated with organic products, doesn’t come close to the price of a bottle of probiotics, nor is the value as I said – in terms of the number of good bacteria – anywhere close either. So eat your probiotics from real foods that you’ve fermented yourself.

Yes, you can buy them at a grocer’s, but first know they don’t compare in quality to what you can make at home, and secondly, buy only refrigerated brands. Heat sealing in the canning process kills the live bacteria that are so significant. Look for food products like sauerkraut and kimchi to start incorporating ferments into your diet. I find there are many people that just love fermented foods and have no problem gobbling down two tablespoons a day, but then the other end of the spectrum are the ones that couldn’t manage the flavor without some serious masking-com-bo of other foods. Hiding ferments in other foods to get them into your system is perfectly fine -- just remember not to heat them. I added about one teaspoon of sauerkraut to salads for my finicky fermented food eaters and gradually now serve it as a small side dish or condiment. Remem-

ber, fermented foods are intended as a condiment. That seems to help a lot of people get over the fear of having them daily. I also want to note an interesting observation regarding those finicky fermented food eaters -- their taste for the ferments seemed to change over time. I don’t know if they just coincidentally had a new set of taste buds or if they went through what I call, “a nutrient brain-body training process.”

Let me explain that one. I find that many people crave certain foods and, low and behold, there seems to be a reason their brain was telling them to eat a bag of tangerines or a bar of chocolate. There are deficiencies that we may have and at some point, in some way, we have learned that certain foods supply certain nutrients or minerals that we need. I believe we get the message through a craving. This requires us to have first eaten or experienced the food as a nutrition-al source, so that our bodies-brains eventually register it as a source. But what about the foods with which we are unfamiliar, such as fermented options for most Americans? As we in-troduce something like sauerkraut into our diet, maybe it starts with repulsed, face-twisting, gagging swallows. But if we endure, knowing it is medicinal and we have our tiny bite daily, over time our body learns that the fermented food provides some wonderful firepower to the probiotic army in our gut. I’ve actually seen the initial gaggers morph into sauerkraut-eat-ers, seeking out the newly learned “source.” Perhaps the body and brain just needed a little training to really understand the value of the unfamiliar ferments, in order to start sending those craving messages? Check out the Brain-Gut connection research to really be amazed.

Fermented beverages are another option, again much better made at home, but also available now at your grocer’s refrigerated section. If the

By reinforcing the troops and providing more beneficial bacteria from live foods, you are balancing the ratio of good to bad bacteria that strengthen and support your body in so many ways, and I will venture to say, in ways we haven’t begun to fully understand.



GETTING FRIENDLY WITH FERMENTSby Jackie Paunil, MFA, CHC., owner of Terra Medela: Personal Health Coaching

flavor puts you off, add beverages like kefirs or kombucha to your smoothies or add fruit to your brew for a natural sweetener. Yogurt is another fantastic probiotic source, if dairy is OK for you. Most of the fermented beverages require a starter (grains, SCOBY or culture) that you pamper and feed to sustain its life for future production. I love the story of the pirate Blackbeard keeping barrels of kraut on his ship for his crew. He was a very successful pirate. Was it because the sauerkraut kept his crew healthy? Cabbage is a great vitamin C source and after fer-menting into sauerkraut the value sky-rockets, not to mention the beneficial bacteria keeping the gut microbiome balanced for optimal health.

My recommendation is to start with homemade sauerkraut. My recipe calls for some less common seasonings that you might have to order online in some areas, but certainly are not essential to the final product and can be omitted. It really is just a matter of some food processing, salt and water, packing with a few success tips, and then just waiting for the magic of the

fermentation process to do its thing. Start with just a teaspoon each day for a week. Gradually increase until you get to two tablespoons a day. Add it to salads, and eventually a plate of organic sausages, baked beans and kraut will be something you may even start craving.

Casa Grande residents and visitors have access to a variety of practi-cal food preparation and nutritional education classes through the Casa Grande Parks and Recreation pro-grams. Fermented Foods and Bever-ages class will be offered again the last Tuesday in June. I try to include some recipe demonstrations that offer some seasonal selections to make it easier to get your hands on fresh, less expen-sive ingredients.

Excerpt previously published from the Terra Medela: Personal Health Coach Blog Post. Paunil, J. (2016, January 21). Getting Friendly with Ferments. Retrieved from http://terramedela.com/service/blog/2016/01/21/getting-friend-ly-with-ferments

I am a Certified Health Coach and hold a terminal degree (MFA) in Movement Analysis. I taught many years at university, doing research in both quantitative and qualitative anal-ysis of movement, primarily of dance art and aesthetics. I have merged my areas of study and now work with private clients as an integrative nutrition coach. I also offer a variety of wellness classes to the community through the City of Casa Grande.

Jackie Paunil, Certified Personal Health Coachterramedela.com520-444-5434

Bavarian Sauerkraut Fermented and Probiotic-Rich Shared by Jackie Paunil

Prep Time 10-15 minutes

Prep Notes Set aside several clean outer leaves from cabbage head. Use a pulse setting on a food proces-sor to shred cabbage and apple.

Ingredients 2 small heads red or green cabbage, cored and shredded 1 large apple, cored and shredded 1 T caraway seeds 1 t juniper berries 2 T Himalayan salt or unprocessed sea salt 1 packet Veggie Starter- optional

Directions Toss all ingredients in a large mixing

bowl. Knead and squeeze the cabbage

and salt mixture thoroughly by hand to break up the structure of the cabbage shreds. Using a wooden dowel or veg-gie pounder, beat cabbage for approx-imately 10 minutes. Cabbage shreds should be limp, almost translucent and should release their juice readily.

Layer this mixture of kneaded salt and cabbage into a mason jar and pack it down with a wooden spoon, dowel or your hands, so that sauerkraut is thoroughly packed into the mason jar or fermentation vessel.

Continue layering and packing until your jar is full, and the level of brine or juices is higher than the level of the cabbage. Leave about 1/2" space at top.

Use reserved cabbage leaves to cover the top of the cabbage mixture. Weight the cabbage leaves to keep shredded cabbage below the level of the brine. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature (ideally 63 -̊70˚) for at least two weeks before tasting it. If you prefer a stronger tasting sauerkraut, allow to ferment for an ex-tended period of time until it achieves the desired sour flavor.

Burp jar 2-+3 times daily, releasing pressure.

Transfer to cold storage. Sauer-kraut will keep for one year, properly fermented and stored.




ROBOTIC SURGERY SAVING LIVES AT BANNER CASA GRANDE MEDICAL CENTERby David Lozano, Public Relations External Media

The surgical robot mimics a surgeon’s hands allowing for better flexibility, accuracy and control.

What is robotic surgery? One may conjure up images of a stainless steel robot at the

helm of the patient’s operating table performing surgery with no human required, like an assembly plant in an automobile factory. In reality, robotic surgery is the use of a robot, but a surgeon is actually navigating interactive robotic arms, performing a variety of surgical procedures.

For a long time, larger and spe-cialty hospitals were the only ones that offered robotic surgery. Today, smaller hospitals like Banner Casa Grande Medical Center are offering this leading-edge technology to the community – and it’s proving to be a popular surgical option for many patients. Right now, it’s being used as a minimally invasive or laparoscopic option, treating issues related to the abdomen area such as the stomach, kidneys and uterus.

“We’re the main medical provid-er for many people who live in our community,” said Banner Casa Grande Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Rona Curphy. “So why make our own residents travel to Phoenix or Tucson if they don’t need to?”

The surgical robot mimics a surgeon’s hands allowing for better flexibility, accuracy and control. The operating room is prepared just like it would for a regular surgery. Surgical staff is present in the operating room and as the patient lies on the surgical table, the robot is positioned over the patient, while the surgeon sits at a separate console and operates the arms of the robot. The tiny “arms” at-tached to the robot have tiny “surgical hands” and are used to enter the body and operate via small incisions. These tiny hands are able to get into tight areas of the body, compared to the surgeon’s hand. Because the “hands” of the robot are a lot smaller than

an average-sized human hand, the incisions to the body are smaller and it allows for less blood loss, less stress to the body, minimal scarring and a quicker recovery time.

Once in the body, surgeons are able to magnify their surgical sight with a small camera attached to one of the arms, which is then transmitted through 3-D optics. As all of this oc-curs, the surgical team supervises the robot at the patient’s bedside.

While the da Vinci Surgical System is helping surgeons perform complicat-ed surgeries, it’s not replacing doctors. Physicians who opt to use the robot as part of their treatment plan for their patients are required to undergo strict training and must be certified to use the robot. In addition, robotic surgery is a decision that must be agreed upon between the patient and his or her doctor, because not everybody may qualify for robotic surgery.

“While we’re proud to offer this technology, it’s important that patients understand that the robot is only used for minimally invasive procedures,” Curphy said. “If a patient has had multiple procedures in the same area of the body, they may not qualify for robotic surgery. However, that’s a decision that will have to be made between them and their physician.”

Banner Casa Grande provides next-generation surgical care to patients who are facing an array of medical conditions. The hospital has state-of-the-art surgical suites and medical professionals who are able to perform a wide-variety of inpatient outpatient surgical procedures such as:

• Orthopedics• Gynecology• Urology• OphthalmologyCurphy said, “We know surgery is

not only important for a patient and their loved ones, but it can also be scary for everyone. So, our job is to

not only provide the best treatment and care in a compassionate setting, but make sure they’re at ease, they understand their options, that we can help them relax before surgery, and answer any questions they may have prior to their procedure.”

The surgical area at Banner Casa Grande Medical Center includes:

• Pre-admission Department – contacts each patient before surgery to obtain patient in-formation educate them about their procedure

• Pre-operative Unit – 22 pri-vate spaces where patients are prepared for surgery and can relax with family before their procedures

• Operating Rooms – five operat-ing suites and three endoscopy rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art surgical, imaging, and endoscopic technologies

• Post-anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) – Seven recovery bays where registered nurses work with physicians to ensure a safe and successful transition home or to an inpatient unit. Nurses working in the PACU are trained in adult and pediatric advanced life support. Nurses and caregivers in all hospital units are trained in cardiopul-monary resuscitation (CPR).

• Sterile Processing Department – Responsible for the proper and thorough maintenance, cleaning and sterilization of all surgical instruments, equipment and sup-plies used in the operating room.

“We’re really proud that we have the capabilities to be able to provide this for our community,” Curphy said. “As health care and its technologies rapidly change, it will be exciting to see what we’ll be able to offer next.”

For more information visit www.bannerhealth.com/casagrande.

We understand that people heal better when surrounded by friends and family. That’s why Banner Casa Grande Medical Center provides innovation in intensive care, obstetrics, and patient care close to home. We couldn’t be happier to continue serving this community with medical advancements that help save lives and enhance patient satisfaction—right where you need it.

(520) 381-6300 • www.BannerHealth.com/CasaGrande • /BannerCasaGrande

INNOVATIVE CARE CLOSE TO HOME.



Most people know that it is recommended to visit your dentist twice a year for a cleaning and exam to help

locate and prevent dental decay. How-ever, it is not uncommon for patients to come in for their biannual dental appointment with hesitations about having X-rays taken. Just mentioning the word “radiation” often invokes an unpleasant image for many people. Whether the reason is fear of radiation, discomfort, financial concern, or simply a dislike for the process, you are not alone if you share any of these con-cerns. However, it is important to get dental X-rays taken regularly to improve your dental health, and here’s why.

There are several benefits to having dental X-rays (also called dental radio-graphs) taken regularly. First, only so much can be seen by the naked eye. Dental radiographs allow your dentist the opportunity to diagnose and treat a wide variety of conditions that may not be visible to the human eye. X-rays can help your dentist find hidden dental structures, malignant or benign masses, bone loss, and cavities. X-rays help your dentist and hygienist get a more in-depth look at your gums and teeth and this more detailed perspec-tive allows them to catch problems while still in their primary stages.

Finding and correcting dental problems early allows you the oppor-tunity to fix the issue when it is small, manageable, and typically long before any pain begins. An early fix also often means it is easier to fix, less invasive on the patient, longer-lasting and lower- cost than more complicated procedures.

Advances in dental X-ray equip-ment have provided dentists with the ability to obtain a good X-ray image using much less radiation than was previously required. At Agave Den-tistry, Dr. Davis has been using digital sensors for years, which require much less radiation that the older film style X-rays. He has also recently upgraded his dental radiograph system to using the NOMAD Handheld X-Ray System to improve patient care and mini-mize the amount of radiation to the patient when taking a dental X-ray. The NOMAD system improves dental radiography speed, convenience, and quality with minimal exposure to radiation. The NOMAD lets off less than one percent of the allowed occupational dose of radiation. It has been proven safe with low patient dosage exposure, internal shielding, and backscatter shield to protect the operator. (http://aribex.com.)

Radiation is all around us, all the time. Radiation is measured in units called “rems” and “millirems” (mrem). The National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) says that the average resident of the U.S. receives about 360 mrem every year from background sources. This comes from outer space, radioactive materials in the earth, and small amounts of radioactive material in most foods we consume. When your dentist takes radiographs of your teeth, you are typically exposed to only about 2 or 3 mrem. To put into perspective how small that amount of radiation is, consider the fact that people are exposed to about 5 mrem each time

they make a cross-country flight, and those who cook with natural gas are exposed to about 10 mrem per year from radon gas in the natural gas sup-ply. It is a small price to pay to keep your teeth healthy.

Dentists need X-rays in order to complete a comprehensive exam at the highest level of care possible. A dentist performing an exam without X-rays is similar to asking a mechanic to fix your car without allowing them to open your hood. Just as the me-chanic may be able to find or fix the problem without opening the hood of your car, it will most likely take longer and therefore cost you more money.

Most dental insurances cover annual dental radiographs at 100 percent because it is considered a diagnostic or preventative service. Call our office today at (520) 876-9955 to see if we accept your insurance plan and to schedule an appointment with one of our excellent hygienists. For those who don’t have dental insurance, we offer some affordable options that are typically less expensive than a yearly insurance premium. We look forward to hearing from you!

Radiation statistics found at: http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/dental.htm.

THE ROLE OF X-RAYS IN OPTIMAL DENTAL CAREby Courtney Davis, Agave Dentistry

Most dental insurances cover annual dental radiographs at 100 percent because it is considered a diagnostic or preventative service.

NOMAD


520-876-9955Tyson A. Davis D.D.S

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2028 N. Trekell Rd #107 Casa Grande, AZ 85122

WWW.AGAVEDENTISTRY.COM

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When you first walk into one of our 12 locations, you may not realize

that you are coming in for more than just a doctor’s visit.

Being a patient at Sun Life Family Health Center means that your medical care is based on the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model. What that means is that our staff creates care that is patient-centered and not doctor-centered. It em-phasizes care coordination and communication to transform primary care into what patients want it to be.

So when you come in for a physical checkup, Sun Life med-ical providers will work with you personally to set personal health goals that you want to achieve based on your medical history and medical tests.

And our providers aren’t only

looking at your current state of health; they take your lifestyle into consideration, as well. You can expect at a regular check-up or routine doctor’s visit to be asked about how you’ve been feeling lately – both physically and emotionally. If you are feel-ing overwhelmed or melancholy, that can affect everything in your life and can impact how well you are taking care of yourself.

With integrated services such as lab, and on-site pharmacy or pharmacy services, Sun Life can address your physical health at a routine visit. In between doctor’s visits, our behavioral health, di-abetes education, and outreach and enrollment department can also support you in finding the resources you need to main-tain access to quality healthcare and a healthy lifestyle for you and your family. Outreach can help you not only navigate the

SUN LIFE TREATS THE WHOLE YOUSun Life Family Heath Center, INC.
















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1515 E. Florence Blvd Ste#103, Casa Grande, AZ 85122

520 423-8282Dr. Alexandru Tanase has been practicing Pediatrics

for over 20 Years.Providing ALL URGENT CARE SERVICES Except Wound Suturing

as well as complex conditions as:• Developmental Problems-Autism, Asperger Syndrome• Temperamental Problems/Parenting Strategies• Asthma / Allergies• Headaches/Migraines/ Concussions• Regular Check Ups/Sports Physicals/Vaccinations• Hearing Screening (Otoacoustic emission) and Circumcisions.

Most Insurances Accepted!

NOW TAKING WALK - INS!

healthcare system by helping you apply for Sun Life’s sliding fee or payment schedules and learn about insurance options through the marketplace, but also match you up with other community organizations that provide assistance with every-thing from emergency assis-tance to help with utility pay-ments or signing up for food stamps and much more.

Our Casa Grande location is also home to a dental office. Our dentists and hygienists can do things as simple as a routine cleaning to more complicated procedures. Our Communi-ty Dental Program also travels to schools and other locations and Sun Life hosts an annual Give Kids a Smile event. These services ensure that the youth of Pinal County, as well as our adults, are receiving screenings and proper dental checkups.

Our services are continually evolving

We regularly survey our pa-tients so that we know how to meet the needs of our growing patient population. Due to these surveys, we have opened several new offices across Pinal County in the last few years. Those of-fices include three family prac-tice locations, a Center for Chil-dren (patients 0-18), two new Centers for Women (ob/gyn), and a completely new pediatric dental office. And we do much of this through with the help of generous donations from read-ers like you, who have supported our nonprofit organization for the last 40 years. We are not just a doctor’s office.

To learn more about Sun Life, please visit our Web site at www.SunLifeFam-ilyHealth.org, or find us on Facebook.



Jenkins Chiropractic1891 N. Trekell Rd. Casa Grande

520-836-2969 casagrandechiropractor.com

Special Offer

FREE Exam and Consultationc a s a g r a n d e c h i r o p r a c t o r . c o m

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JENKINS CHIROPRACTICIf you are in PAIN, find out if Dr. Sean can help you!

Are you experiencing...BACK PAIN • NECK PAIN

HEADACHES • AUTO INJURY

Experienced, Quality Care for the Entire Family

Living & Serving in Casa Grande for over 60 Years

After-hours Emergency Treatment Available

Most Insurance Accepted

(520) 836-7111 • 721 N Olive Ave. • Casa Grande, AZ 85122 • www.dickandmitchelldds.com

Services Provided by an Arizona Licensed General Dentist

DOES SITTING STRAIN YOUR BACK?by Dr. Sean Jenkins

W e do it every day. Whether we drive to work, sit typing on a computer, play video

games or watch television in the evening, we all spend hours sitting each day. Our sedentary lifestyle with too much sitting can cause our backs to become strained, leading to discomfort or pain.

So, what can you do? As the 80’s song says - get

physical! One of the best ways to alleviate or reduce back pain is to stay active. Increased activity doesn’t just dramatically decrease low back pain, physical activity is natural, drug-free and yes - fun! Getting up and taking a break to walk for a few minutes through-out the day is good for your spine and your overall health.

How to boost your healthProlonged sitting doesn’t just

strain your back—it’s also bad for your health. Sitting and a sedentary lifestyle can con-tribute to a variety of chronic conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. When you get mov-ing, you are not only helping your back, but you enhance your overall health too. Every-one can benefit from increasing their activity level.

Developing malfunctioning spinal joints from excessive sit-ting puts needless wear and tear on your spine. Feel better by making sure you’re well-adjusted. To optimize your health, be all you can be and perform at your best, give us a call at (520) 836-2969.


















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Metabolism represents all chemical reactions that sustain the life of cells and thus the life of the

organism. The process can be divided into two categories: catabolism, or the breakdown of molecules to obtain energy and anabolism, the syntheses of compounds needed by the cells.

Carbohydrates, proteins and fats provide a variety of substances essential for the building, upkeep and repair of body tissues and for the efficient functioning of the body. Carbohydrates come in three forms – starch, sugar and cellulose. Starch and sugar are essential energy sources for humans. Cellulose is a non-caloric indigestible carbohydrate known as dietary fiber, which provides volume or bulk in food.

Proteins are the chief tissue-builders of every cell in the body. Proteins help make blood hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the cells, forms antibodies

to fight infection and supplies nitrogen for genetic synthesis.

Fats are considered concentrated sources of energy, providing energy more than double that of carbohy-drates and proteins. Fats make up part of the structure of cells, form a protective cushion and heat insulation around vital organs, carry fat soluble vitamins and provide reserve storage for energy.

Exercise intensity is the primary factor determining the degree of fat or carbohydrate utilization during exer-cise. During light exercise, most energy from cells is derived from fat. Howev-er fat oxidation increases as intensity rises until it reaches 65 percent of your target heart rate. Beyond this in-tensity, a gradual decline in the rate of fat oxidation is observed until intensity goes above 80 percent, at which point fat oxidation rapidly declines. Training can reduce this decline in fat utili-zation thus demonstrating that with

continual endurance training, the body becomes more efficient at using fat for energy and increases metabolism.

Practical fitness tips to increase your metabolism:

• Low to moderate long-duration steady-state cardiovascular exercise - 65%

• Fast, continuous, maximum steady-state cardiovascular training between - 65%-80%

• Interval training with moderate and high-intensity intervals during the workouts - 65%-80%

• Resistance training with weights and/or strength machines will improve sev-eral hormonal responses and impressively improves muscle and bone density, which results in better overall health and a faster resting metabolism.

OVERVIEW OF METABOLISMby Susan Conn-Hood, Certified Yoga/Fitness Instructor & Whole Food Educator

Exercise intensity is the primary factor determining the degree of fat or carbohydrate utilization during exercise.

Puzzles Answers



THE ENERGY TREE: DEPLETION AND RESTORATIONby Jackie Paunil, MFA, CHC., owner of Terra Medela: Personal Health Coaching

A s a visual for understanding our adult body's energy depletion, imagine a tree trunk and outwardly reach-

ing branches above the soil line as a depleted and colorless tree. And below the surface of the soil are the roots, again colorless. The trunk is the power and force of the energy we utilize to reach out into those branches to perform, participate and engage in our energy-requiring activities – mentally, physically, spiritually. The roots are the source by which we absorb essential nutrients and provide for ourselves. For many, infancy and childhood would be a period of time where our tree would be saturated with color and vibrating with energy, fueling our body, mind and spirit to experience, learn, and indulge in our world. But too often, the color begins to recede indicating the deficiency of nutrients present not just in our diet, but in our life experi-ences, so that before we even reach adult maturation, we can be devoid of color. Our energy source that fills our trunk with vibrating color is initiated from the very distal ends of the roots, where the essential nutrients that we

need are drawn from the foods that we consume. As the nutrients slowly enter the root system, color fills the root hairs and rises. Just filling those roots with nutrients takes time; for it has taken time to leave them colorless. The foods we chose to eat are the source for that energy. Choosing nutrient-poor foods offer very little and toxins within those foods actually deplete what little nutrients we have extracted from such a dismal diet. Choosing nutrient-rich foods rebuilds and revives the root system and continues as we continue to consume nutrients that eventually fill the roots and the trunk with color. This is the time where many give up on a real food diet. We are inundated with immediate gratification options offered by pharmaceuticals or even misleading single-focused research suggestions. We must remember that transitions take time. The word transition has to do with a process or period of time in which change will occur. We must be patient in the process. Not until we have energy-saturated the roots will color rise to the trunk, and not until that trunk is vibrating with the color, can it begin to radiate out toward

those branches. As the branches fill with color, we begin to reach out to those activities and areas with this energy that allows us to go beyond, to again enjoy life and what it has to offer. What we desire is to live beyond those limits that once barely allowed us to just get through our day. And with time, the nutrient-rich food that we continue to provide for our body allows expansion and development of new branches. These allow us to pursue yet even more in our lives, as they represent what we perform, par-ticipate and engage in within our newly transformed lives. This is restoration. Grow your own energy; rebuild, revive, restore. Get started with your own transformation. Develop a sustainable transformation to achieve the energy that allows you to do more than just get through your day.

Excerpt previously published from the Terra Medela: Personal Health Coach Blog Post. Paunil, J. (2016, March 7). The Energy Tree: Depletion and Restoration. Retrieved from http://terramedela.com/service/blog/2016/03/07/visually-de-fined-energy-depletion-and-restoration

Grow your own energy; rebuild, revive, restore.

Develop a sustainable transfor-mation to achieve the energy that allows you to do more than just get through your day.

77SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING 7 7 77SUMMER 2016 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVINGTHE MEDICAL EDITION


Accepting New Patients

(520) 836-5538(800) 895-5538

Fax (520) 876-0878

560 N Camino Mercado, Suite 7Casa Grande, AZ 85122www.cottonwoodmedical.com

Associates in Pediatric & Internal Medicine

Michael P. Ridge, M.D., A.B.I.M.LaTrecia M. Herring, M.D., F.A.A.P., A.B.I.M.

Craig W. Connor, PA-CKevin G. Hall, PA-C

Darryl R. Brown, M.D.Natalie A. Teng, M.D.

C. Marlene Hoeft, RN, MSN, FNP-CDerral E. Hawthorne, PA-C

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(520) 836-9685 325 E. Cottonwood Lane

www.CasaGrandeDental.com

Julie Yang, DMD | Philip Horsley, DDS | Janelle Yang Horsley, DDSFamily-owned and locally operated for over 30 years



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48%OF LOW-INCOME ARIZONA ADULTS

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58%

Oral Health Status Index Among Adults in 2015

Oral Health Knowledge Index Among Adults in 2015

Information provided by the Arizona Dental Association. For more information, visit ADA.org/statefacts

The only Dental office in Casa Grande honored for excellence 6 years straight.

www.dmfamilydentistry.com

(520) 426-0404



HEAT SAFETY – HEAT RELATED ILLNESSby Arizona Department of Health Services

A rizona is one of the hottest places on earth from May to September. Heat-re-lated illnesses are common during the summer. Year after year, nearly 2,000

people visit Arizona emergency rooms because of heat-related illnesses. Some heat-related illness-es could even be fatal. Over 1,500 deaths from exposure to excessive natural heat have occurred in Arizona from 2000 to 2012.

As a result, the Arizona Department of Health Services has developed a Heat Emer-gency Response Plan, a Heat Safety Resource Guide, and a bilingual Heat Brochure. To sign up for email alerts and information regarding extreme heat warnings, check out the instruc-tions on our Extreme Weather and Public Health homepage.

Preventing Heat-Related IllnessYour body keeps itself cool by letting heat es-

cape through the skin, and by evaporating sweat. If your body does not cool properly or not enough, you might suffer from a heat-related illness.

Anyone can be susceptible to heat-related illness. Those at greatest risk are children under four, adults over 65, homeless people, outdoor workers, people who are overweight, and people who are ill or on certain medications. Heat-related illness may be serious or even deadly if unattended.

Staying healthy during the summer is easier if you take the time to protect yourself by making sure you are drinking enough water and limiting your exposure to the heat. Follow these simple rules:

• Drink water. Even people who stay mostly indoors all day should drink at least two liters of water per day. People who spend time outdoors should drink one to two liters per hour that they are outdoors. People that do strenuous ac-tivity outdoors should be very careful, because your body can lose up to four liters of water per hour during strenu-ous activity. Carry water with you and drink, even if you do not feel thirsty. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which dehy-drate the body.

• Dress for the heat. Wear lightweight, light-colored clothing. It is also a good idea to wear hats or to use an umbrella. Always apply sunscreen to exposed skin.

• Eat small meals and eat more often. Avoid foods that are high in protein which increase metabolic heat.

• Slow down. Avoid strenuous activity. If you must do strenuous activity, do it during the coolest part of the day, which is usually in the morning be-tween 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.

• Stay indoors when possible.• Take regular breaks when engaged in

physical activity on warm days. Take time out to find a cool place. If you recognize that you, or someone else, are showing symptoms of a heat-related ill-ness, stop activity and find a cool place.

Signs & Symptoms of Heat-Related Illness

When temperatures are on the rise, watch for the following symptoms:

• Thirst: By the time your body tells you that you are thirsty, you are already mildly dehydrated.

• Heat cramps: Heat cramps are mus-cular pains and spasms due to heavy exertion. They usually involve the abdominal muscles or the legs.

• Heat Exhaustion: Heat exhaustion is less dangerous than heat stroke. It typically occurs when people exercise heavily or work in a warm, humid place where body fluids are lost through heavy sweating. Fluid loss causes blood flow to decrease in the vital organs, resulting in a form of shock.

• Heat Stroke: Also known as sunstroke, heat stroke is life-threatening. The vic-tim’s temperature control system, which produces sweating to cool the body, stops working. The body temperature can rise so high that brain damage and death may result if the body is not cooled quickly.

Stages of Heat-Related IllnessHeat-related illness usually comes in stages.

The signal of the first stage is thirst. Drink-ing water at this stage can prevent you from progressing to the more serious kinds of heat related illnesses. The next stage is muscle cramps. These cramps can be mild or very painful. If you are caring for a person who has heat cramps, have him or her stop activity and rest. If the person is fully awake and alert, have him or her drink small amounts of cool water or a commercial sports drink. Gently stretch the cramped muscle and hold the stretch for about 20 seconds, then gently massage the muscle. Repeat these steps if necessary. If the victim has no other signals of heat-related illness, the person may resume activity after the cramps stop.

The signals of the next, more serious stage of a heat-related illness (often called heat exhaustion) include:

• Cool, moist, pale skin (the skin may be red right after physical activity).

• Headache.• Dizziness and weakness or exhaustion.• Nausea.• The skin may or may not feel hot.

The warning signs of the most serious stage of a heat-related illness (often called heat stroke or sun stroke) vary but may include:

• Vomiting.• Confusion.• Throbbing headache.• Decreased alertness level or complete

loss of consciousness.• High body temperature (sometimes as

high as 105° F).• Skin may still be moist or the victim

may stop sweating and the skin may be red, hot and dry.

• Rapid, weak pulse.• Rapid, shallow breathing.• Seizures.

NOTE: Heat stroke is life threatening. Call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number if you are suffer-ing from any of the above symptoms.




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them to operate through tiny incisions. With smaller incisions, patients can heal faster.

The surgical robot allows surgeons at Banner Casa Grande Regional Medical Center to closely explore the surgical site using 3D high definition robotic-guided instruments through small incisions. The robotic instruments bend in all directions and precisely mimic the surgeon’s hand movements, permitting access to tight

and difficult to reach areas that would other-wise be inaccessible by hand and require larger incisions. The surgeon’s hand movements are seamlessly translated into precise movements for the robotic arms.

The surgical system cannot be programmed, nor can it make decisions on its own. It re-quires every surgical maneuver be performed with direct input from the surgeon.

THE STORY BEHIND THE COVER (continued)

PHOTO BY BEA LUECK PHOTO BY BEA LUECK



Consumer Wellness Monograph

Overcoming

ACID REFLUX Righting What’s Upside Down

Max Stanley Chartrand. Ph.D. (Behavioral Medicine)

Introduction: If I was speaking to a room full of adults and asked those who suffer from acid reflux to raise their hands, about a third of the hands

would reach for the sky. If I was to ask them if the problem is too much or too little acid, like a Gregorian Chant I would hear “too much”. And my reply would be, “Oh, really? Welcome to the Twilight Zone.” For in today’s dietary world, too little, not too much acid is the problem for at least 95% of sufferers of GERD/GORD/GRD (gastroesophageal/gastro-oesophageal/gastric reflux disease). Lost in the world of microwaved, genetically modified, synthetically fortified, degerminated, chemically preserved, and artificially colored & fla-vored food, is that nothing about the recent changes to the food we eat is good for the human body. Nothing. Our children are not devel-oping, as increasingly more suffer from developmental disorders. Even our pets get chronic health rarely seen in the wild and die early deaths when fed what modern humans eat. So, now we ask those who raised their hands to read on. Learn how to change your life—the SIRCLE® way!

Not Enough Acid, You Say? Yes, you see, the healthy stomach has an acid-alkaline bal-ance of pH 1.2-2.0 (on a logarithmic scale of 1.0-14.0). It was meant to be a veritable caldron of acid so that we can: 1) create an “acid barrier” to kill the bacteria & viruses we ingest each day, without which we would become ill with the slightest amount of same, 2) help us absorb vital nutrients, such as iron, copper, zinc, calcium, folic acid, B-12, and various proteins, and 3) break down food components to a fine puree (created from sufficient HCL, citric acid, pepsin, and bicarbonate) so that it can be emptied through a pencil-sized pyloric splincter into the duodenum within 25-minutes of entering the stomach. In the du-odenum, bile acids are sprayed onto fatty lipids to maximize HDL, minimize LDL for their specialized purposes in your body. When food reaches the small intestine, food-to-nutrition differ-entiation then occurs to sort out energy, nutrients, and waste (food-to-nutrition synthesis) until we achieve that balanced state called homeostasis. Satiation, or the feeling of fullness when we’ve eaten enough, is closely connected to our ability to ab-sorb these nutrients. If we do not get enough nutrients, we often will not experience satiation until it is too late. Weight gain by nutrition starvation is arguably America’s number one health problem today!

Description of the Reflux Cascade The reality is that today’s modern stomach boasts a puny pH 2.5-3.0, acidic enough to scar the esophagus during reflux

events, but not acidic enough to kill bacteria, absorb nutrients, and breakdown half-chewed, over-processed nutrient-lacking “food”. In truth, since the majority of those suffering chronic illness in the US today also suffer from acid-based conditions (poor diet, poor digestion, IBS, Crohn’s disease, Celiac disease, hypertri-glyceridemenia, alkaline liver, diabetes type 2, neuropathy, ar-thritis, cancer, etc.). Hydrochloria, or low stomach acids, contrib-utes mightily to these conditions, and causes many sufferers to also suffer frequent food poisoning because of lack of acid barri-er. These episodes are mistaken for “stomach flu”, which is ac-tually a rare form of flu, indeed! The reason so many think they have too much stomach acid is because the food stays in their stomach for 2-4 hours where it never really digests properly. This lack of breakdown of the food prohibits the pancreas from doing one of its chief tasks, secre-tion of high pH bicarbonate into the duodenum so that the pylo-ric sphincter can open. The lack of proper digestion (from low or imbalanced stomach acids and lack of bicarbonate secretions into the duodenum) causes a “stenosis” at the top of the duode-num. This prevents the stomach from emptying and the food, with nowhere to go, refluxes back up into the esophagus, espe-cially when lying down. As stated earlier, the acid & partly bro-ken down food is strong enough to burn the esophagus, even the pharynx/larynx, yet it is nowhere near acidic enough to break down the food enough so that nutrition can be extracted by the time is reaches the upper intestine.

Are the Reflux Meds All You Need? What does the research say about taking the acid reflux medi-cations of our day? Let us summarize their findings:

Increased bone loss and fractures Anemia (deficiency in iron and other vital nutrients) Depression, other cognitive disorders Increased risk of pancreatitis and diabetes Vitamin B12, folic acid deficiencies

Functional Review of Human Digestion

• Vision/Smell/Taste/Tactile• Bolus down esophagus• HCL Acid/Churning• Chyme via Pyloric Sphincter• Duodenal Process• Food-to-Nutrition Synthesis• Hydration & Bile Recapatureat the Transverse Colon

• Waste/Water Cycling• Elimination



Fibromyalgia, Neuropathies of all kinds Elevated risk of pneumonia and breathing disorders Chronic colitis, including colon cancer Fatty liver cirrhosis And much more!

The list of problems associated with long term use of this class of medications is troubling in light of the fact that clinical practice has little to do with looking for underlying causes. Instead, die-tary and digestive habits are left in tact in the vast majority of cases and rampant prescribing of acid-suppressing drugs is the norm for the day! Research shows this to be a very dangerous path to follow for such conditions. Since these drugs interrupt the metabolic processes of the hu-man body, nutrient extraction is interrupted and patients suffer increasing nutrition deficiencies. There is also negative interac-tion between acid reflux meds and other medications and sub-stances. However, simply stopping the drugs without profession-al guidance can cause severe rebound effects!

SIRCLE: Righting What’s Upside Down As in all chronic conditions, the objectives are to repair un-healed injuries, make sure infections and inflammatory states are corrected, and restore the biomarkers of cellular acid-alkaline balance to pH 7.45, oxygen to 99-100%, A1C below 5.0, CRP below 1.0, Gelactin-3 below 17.1%, electrolytes in per-fect balance, and cartilage, bone, and cardiovascular state is normalized. These markers tell us how close to “homeostasis” we have come with diet and lifestyle. First and foremost it is important to address underlying caus-es. It is not the purpose of this monograph to provide an ex-haustive treatment on this topic. However, some of the more sa-lient piint that can be followed safely by everyone are as follows:

1. No more microwaving, not even to warm up your food. See my monograph titled What’s Wrong with Microwaving or my DVD Lecture Series titled Overcoming Acid Reflux & Other Di-gestive Disorders for more thorough treatments of this topic 2.Read the labels of the food you buy, especially avoiding Aspertame (prevalent in sugar-free gum and most diet sodas), MSG, high fructose, bromulated vegetable oil, canola oil, and, as much as possible, avoid GMOs, caffeinated drinks, and foods with gluten. 3. Start meals with fresh vegetables and fruits before eating any meat; eating meat sparingly. Drink no more than 1/2 glass of anything during the meal—finishing the remainder at the end of the meal. Eat an apple a day to bring down bad cholesterol. 4. Chew your food to a paste, mixing saliva thoroughly be-fore swallowing. This neutralizes acids and prepares the food for quick digestion. It also brings earlier satiation, so you will less inclined to overeat. 5. Take (1) or (2) Apple Cider Vinegar Capsules at the start of at least two meals per day for 30 days, overlapping with your acid reflux meds for about a week. Then, as you phase out your reflux meds, you will find you will digest your food better and overcoming the deficiencies caused by the reflux medications. 6.Eat no closer than 3 hours before retiring to bed. Never eat and lie down directly afterward. In fact, avoid eating for at least 3 hours at a stretch so that your body can regain its pH

and digestive efficiency. 7.The best reflux medicine is ionized alkaline water. It is quicker, at lower cost, and will allow you to regain your health! 8. Put (1) drop of Digestzen Essential Oils by doTerra in a few ounces of water and drink before dinner each night.

There is so much more to consider in each case, for we are all individuals. Many times, we find that the cause is an injury in the neck that has been neglected, or a string of septic keratosis in the ear canal that is often mistaken for earwax (see illustration below) or some other potentially life threatening infection that has not been diagnosed. Neuropathy and diabetes sufferers cases nearly always experience acid reflux and keratosis obtu-rans! Nearly all of those taking multiple medications have severe acid reflux, unless, of course, one of those meds is for acid re-flux. Then, they will experience the associated health issues listed above. So much to learn; so much to know, that it is best to seek the guidance of a qualified professional.

Resources for Study Chartrand, M.S. (2013). How to Raise Your Body’s pH & Overcome Chronic Disease. Casa

Grande, AZ: Digicare Behavioral Research. Eland, A, Alvarez, CH, Stricker, BC, Rodriquez, LA (2000). The Risk of Acute Pancreatitis

Associated with Acid-suppressing Drugs. Br J Clin Pharmacol, 2000, May; 49(5): 473-478. Hofmann, A., and Mysels, K. (1992). Bile acid solubility and precipitation in vitro and in vivo:

the role of conjugation, pH, and Ca2+ ions. Journal of Lipid Research. http://www.jlr.org/content/33/5/617.full.pdf

Thirteen Foods That Fight Acid Reflux (2013). http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20440834,00.html.

Tips for Overcoming GERD (2013). http://www.gibay.com/articles/houston-acid-reflux-3-tips-to-overcoming-gerd.html.

More resources: http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gerd/ http://www.bmj.com/lookup/eletters/336/7634/2#185858 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=204783 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21318590 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17661965; http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2000/04/01/omeprazole/ http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=707082 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=412428 http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/Pharmacy/PPIcdiff.html http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(09)00522-8/

• Latent diabetes II case

Keratosis Obturans: Progression over 2-5 years as seen in many GERD sufferers

• When cellular pH of the body falls below pH 7.1 (acidosis), external ear keratin can peel off at the rate of approx. 1mm per day. The example to the left is from a patient developing diabetes mellitus type 2 @ 6 months

• At year 4-5, several keratoses have formed, trapping dead skin cells, bacteria, amoeba, fungus, yeasts, etc., debris, and cerumen. Often mistaken for impacted cerumen

• Upon removal of one of the keratoses, more are revealed, each with their separate layers of keratin wrapped around the organisms listed above

• Upon removal of the final keratosis, a normal tympanic membrane is revealed

• After removal: Track from where the keratosis started—usually unresolved infection in jaw, sinuses, intestines and/or feet



W hether you are bringing a new pet into your family or bringing a new child home to an existing pet

family, it is important to prepare for the changes. Your two-legged and four-legged children need to feel safe and secure to avoid unnecessary jealousy and acting out. New additions to the family can feel threatening to a child or pet. Before one arrives, it is important to prepare the family for changes. By tak-ing the time to follow a few simple steps to establish rules and boundaries, you can create a long-term successful, loving and safe relationship for everyone.

Bringing Home a New Pet

Children under 10 are at the greatest risk of being bitten by a dog. Most dog bites to children are by a family or neighbor’s pet. It’s extremely important to teach young children how to safely interact with pets before they reach age five.

Top Causes of Dog Bites

• Disturbing a pet when it is sleeping - older pets, especial-ly, snap when startled from a sound sleep.

• Hurting the dog by pulling ears or tail, poking eyes or jumping on it - an animal in pain will strike at the source of the pain to make it stop.

• Chasing a pet into a corner or confined space - a cornered an-imal feels threatened and reacts defensively to get away.

• Trying to take a toy away, whether it’s the dog’s or child’s

– dogs engage in resource guarding to protect someone from taking their property away. Little children do this too!

• Reaching into the animal’s food dish or taking away food – this is another example of resource guarding and protecting what’s theirs from being stolen.

• Sudden movements or high-pitched sounds – small children amplify prey-drive, especially to breeds with a genetically high prey drive.

• Face to face contact – small dogs especially do not like it when you blow or yell in their faces.

How to Introduce a New Pet to your Home

• Set rules and boundaries for your children. Address any vio-lations or broken rules with the child rather than the pet.

• All child/pet interactions should be supervised.

• Limit the number of interactions until you are sure of how the dog reacts.

• Provide your new pet with a child-free area for sleeping and eating.

• Crate train your new pet and teach your children that the crate is the dog’s safe zone and to stay away.

How to Introduce a New Baby to your Pet

• Never leave baby and dog together unsupervised.

• Reassure your pet when the baby cries.

• Install a baby gate to keep your pet out of the baby’s room. Just like your pet needs a safe area to call its own, so does your child. Start at the very beginning to establish this rule.

• Allow the dog to sniff the baby and get used to the scents asso-ciated with the new baby.

• Make sure your pet doesn’t feel neglected and lacking in attention and affection. New babies are very demanding and require a lot of time that the dog is accustomed to getting. Include walks and tossing the ball around as much as possible so pets feel part of the family.

Supervision is the Key for Success

Even if your child is gentle with your dog and your dog is calm and loving with your child, it is important to supervise in-teraction at all times. It only takes seconds for a child to be injured by a pet that has been accidentally startled or hurt. Children and pets look to you for guidance, so always set a good example for both.

KEEPING THE PEACE WHEN A NEW PET JOINS YOUR FAMILYby Staff Reports

Even if your child is gentle with your dog and your dog is calm and loving with your child, it is important to supervise interaction at all times.



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Come to the land of Ah-h-h-h-h-hs!by Dennis Beye, L.M.T

Massage therapy can assist your body in its natural healing processes, offer

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life your way. Massage therapy should be as much a part of your routine as eating right, sleeping well, working out, and having fun. Dennis Beye L.M.T., at Treasured Hands Massage Therapy is celebrating more than 20 years as a massage therapist and has won the Casa Grande’s Best Massage Ther-apist award (Market Surveys of America) every year since 2008. In the peaceful coun-try setting of his home, you will receive a quality massage, tailored to your needs and at a price that won’t stress you out either! Come to the land of Ah-h-h-h-h-hs! Be amazed at how good you can feel! Dennis Beye, LMTMT-03638P

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Agave Dentistry 2028 N. Trekell Rd., #107 Casa Grande 520.876.9955 www.AgaveDentistry.com

Banner Casa Grande Medical Center 1800 E. Florence Blvd., Casa Grande 520.381.6744 www.BannerHealth.com/CasaGrande

Casa Grande Chiropractic 201 N. Florence St., Casa Grande 520.836.6700 www.chiropractorcasagrande.com

Casa Grande Family Dentistry 1355 E. Florence Blvd., STE 107, Casa Grande 520.836.0100 www.casagrandefamilydentistry.com

Cottonwood Medical Center 560 N. Camino Mercado, STE 7, Casa Grande 520.836.5538 www.cottonwoodmedical.com

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DM Family Dentistry 1968 N. Peart Rd., STE 22 BLDG. F, Casa Grande 520.426.0404 www.dmfamilydentistry.com

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Jenkins Chiropractic 1891 N. Trekell Rd., Casa Grande 520.836.2969 www.CasaGrandeChiropractor.com

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Stewart Chiropractic 1415 N. Trekell Rd., STE 101, Casa Grande 520.509.6160 casagrandeazchiropractor.com

Sun Life Family Health Center 865 N. Arizola Rd., Casa Grande 520.381.0394 www.sunlifefamilyhealth.org

Sunshine Child & Adolescent Care 1515 E. Florence Blvd., STE 103, Casa Grande 520.423.8282 www.sunshinecasagrande.com

Yang & Horsley Dentistry 325 E. Cottonwood Ln., Casa Grande 520.836.9685 www.casagrandedental.com

2016 Medical, Health & Wellness Directory

Medical / Dental

Health / Wellness

Everyone likes a list of resources available in one easy-to-find location. This is the 2016 Medical, Health & Wellness Directory. The providers on this list are our advertisers – businesses whose continued support makes this publication possible. We can’t say enough how much we appreciate them. And in spite of their busy schedules, many of them contribute valuable and engaging articles that continue to make this magazine a sought after local publication. So from the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU for everything you do.

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GET AWAY... IF ONLY FOR A DAY!If a summer vacation isn’t on the agenda this year,

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• Enjoy a scenic train ride at the Verde Canyon Railway in Clarkdale

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CRAIG MCFARLAND: That is where our “stuff” - mainly quality of life issues - drops off rapidly: recreation center, per-forming arts center, public transporta-tion, biking/hiking trails (hiking trails are getting better), historic downtown (work in progress and getting better) and private sector entertainment and recre-ation options. Just as most of our most promising young people leave the area for education and careers in, shall we say, more robust areas, we ourselves tend to recreate up in Phoenix more than we do here in our own area.

So a bunch of us have gotten together to analyze why these disparities with our neighboring communities exist and to come up with solutions. Our group is called Make it Better - Casa Grande and although we have been meeting casually for a year or two now, we are just now ready to enter the public arena with our thoughts (check out our website mib-cg.org for more infor-mation). [Full Disclosure: Interviewer Rock Earle is a founding Member of Make it Bet-ter - Casa Grande]

We initially identified areas that we felt needed improvement and support. We established five areas to promote, pro-pose, educate, and advocate and be ac-countable to Make it Better. We want to promote quality of life projects; propose and support opportunities to improve our community; educate and engage all citi-zens on the consequences of no-growth policies; advocate and provide public fo-rums to champion worthy initiatives that

might otherwise be at risk or denied by any city, county or state entity; be involved (accountable) and proactive in the local political climate to remain positive and pro-progress by engaging in debate and the decision-making process.

I have been involved in Casa Grande now for over 11 years. I’ve been on local boards, worked in and around Pinal Coun-ty and I’ve worked with and on almost every major Casa Grande event that has happened over the past 11 years. Addi-tionally, based on circumstances, like Bob Jackson being termed out, the upcoming City Council election and discussions with friends and family, it seemed to me that maybe a new face was needed. So the way I decided to help make Casa Grande better is to run for mayor!

One of the first things I did after decid-ing to run for mayor was to conduct my own survey. I don’t believe anyone has done a survey since the last bond election in 2006. As it turns out, the public concerns and wants are still very much the same as they were in 2006. The top concerns in or-der of importance are 1) jobs and economy, 2) schools and education, 3) crime and pub-lic safety, 4) roads and city infrastructure. Additionally, they still want a community recreation center built, 72.4 percent of the respondents said “yes” to the question, “Do you support building a Community Recreation Center?” Even the Phoenix Mart was supported by 63 percent of the respon-dents. So based on the survey I developed my list of priorities (many listed earlier in this article), we have a good grasp of what the needs and wants of our community are and plans for how to achieve them.

GC LIVING: Seems to us that the few small steps you have taken so far are indicative of your whole approach to solving problems.

CRAIG MCFARLAND: Yes, I think so. Through my business, charity and life experiences, I have learned to listen, analyze, discuss, encourage and build trust and teamwork. I believe I have the leadership skills to help run any organization. I can and will pro-vide leadership, encourage people, pro-mote progress and work to increase our quality of life in Casa Grande.

The main part of making Casa Grande better, though, entails more than just pro-viding quality of life features for our citi-zens – somebody has to pay for it all! And that magic is all about growth, growth in business and growth in the employment base. I will collaborate with and encour-age businesses to build new, expand and remain in Casa Grande. I will continue to support Casa Grande’s infrastructure and economic development and represent Casa Grande in the greater Arizona community as the face of our community. Ultimately, my goal is to leave Casa Grande better than I found it!


“I can and will provide

leadership, encourage

people, promote progress

and work to increase our

quality of life in Casa

Grande.”



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1201 N. VIP Blvd. Casa Grande, AZ 85122

Coldwell Banker® brand platforms drove 600,000 leads to affiliated companies, offices and agents — an increase of 40% with the highest conversion rates in the industry.* Mobile dominated in 2015 with more than half of all traffic

coming from a mobile or tablet device. In addition to the brand’s domestic coverage, the platform grew its diverse, international audience with approximately three million visitors coming from 235 countries outside of the U.S.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate launched the exclusive CBx Listing Experience application, which revolutionized the “kitchen table” listing conversation by merging the best of Big Data with an agent’s unique knowledge and understanding of the market. CBx allows sales associates to create a hyper-targeted marketing plan based on Coldwell Banker’s proprietary algorithms.

• CBx is used by over 25% of productive agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Real Estate

• Over 30,000 listing presentation enhancements have been created with CBx since launch

• The app has a 4+ rating in iTunes, Google Play and the Microsoft Store

Coldwell Banker Real Estate began a massive rollout of the Coldwell Banker Zap® platform to franchisees and their affiliated agents. This powerful digital marketing system allows consumers to find up-to-the-minute property listings and easily connect and communicate with agents from mobile devices, tablets and

desktop computers. The sites include community and school data, and comparative real estate pricing, and allow for each agent to communicate more effectively with email alerts, open house notifications, property status changes, sales estimates and other timely responses.

If you are an experienced agent who has earned the right to work and succeed without having your hand held through every transaction, Coldwell Banker ROX Realty is the next and final step for you.

We will treat you with the respect you deserve and provide the environment you have earned, including a

private office, two conference rooms, and the best tools available, including CBX and our exclusive new ZAP web environment with personalized agent websites and integral CRM.

Call me - let’s talk!

The CBx listing experience

Coldwell Banker Zap®

Wanted - one seasoned Realtor

520.423.8250 | ROXsells.com1919 N Trekell Rd, Casa Grande, AZ 85122©2016 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.


Hire a property manager

RENT with Coldwell Banker ROX Realty and have piece of mind

Free rental evaluationThinking of renting your home?

Contact Coldwell Banker ROX Realty today for a FREE consultation

Costs• $150 one time set up fee

• 10% Monthly management fee only on collected rents.

• No hidden fees!

• Marketing• Tenant Screening • Lease Execution • Rent Payments

• Rent Collections• Evictions• Accounting • Regular Inspections

• Emergency Calls • Coordinating

Maintenance& Much More

We offer

520.423.8250 | ROXsells.com1919 N Trekell Rd, Casa Grande, AZ 85122©2016 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.


SAVORY SUMMER A RECIPE TO LIVEN UP YOUR SUMMER BARBECUE

Grilled Spareribs with Cherry Cola Glaze

Tender spareribs coated in a delightful glaze of cherry cola, jam, Dijon mustard and horse-radish will make a beautiful and unique main dish for your summer barbecue. Prep time• 15 mins

Cook time• 2 hours 10 mins

Total time• 2 hours 25 mins Spareribs baked in the oven until tender and then finished on the grill with a sweet and spicy cherry cola glaze.

Serves• 6

Ingredients• 4 (12-ounce) cans cherry cola (flat)• 2 cups cherry jam or preserves• 2/3 cup Dijon mustard• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish• 3 tablespoons soy sauce• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar• 2 teaspoons tabasco sauce• 7 to 7½ pounds well-trimmed pork spare ribs

Instructions1. Place cola in a Dutch oven or large sauce-

pan and boil over medium-high heat until reduced to 1½ cups, about 45 minutes.

2. Add next 6 ingredients and stir well. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to 2½ cups, stirring occasionally. This will take about 35 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Place oven racks in top and bottom thirds of oven and heat oven to 325 degrees.

4. Season ribs with salt and pepper. Wrap each rack tightly in foil. Divide ribs be-tween 2 baking sheets and place in oven for 2 hours. Let ribs cool slightly.

5. Heat grill to medium heat.6. Cut racks of ribs into individual ribs. Toss

with 1 cup of glaze.7. Grill ribs, basting with extra glaze, for

about 2 to 3 minutes per side.8. Serve with extra glaze.

NotesIf possible, use flat soda or pour it into a bowl and let it sit on the counter for 4 hours. But it is ok to skip this step.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious (published in Bon Appetit)

Page Article

The Most Amazing Vacation!

The Best Vacation!

by Julian Olson

by Abigail Finch

Library Creative Writing Contest

One day, I was sitting at my desk at home when the mail lady came. I said, “I’ll get it!” Then I found a $91,000 credit card addressed

to me! I ran to the house yelling, “Mommy, mommy!” (You can guess what happened next).

The next thing I knew we were on our way to LEGOLAND, SeaWorld, Disneyland, Arches Nation-al Park, Yellowstone National Park, White Sands National Park, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. They were all so much fun! “I hope this happens again because it was so much fun!

The very next day there was another card, but this one was addressed to my sister…

One morning at breakfast mommy and daddy were packing. “Why are you packing?” I asked. They said it was a surprise. After

breakfast, I got in the car. After driving three days, we stopped and stayed at an apartment and we stayed all summer until December. At first it was cool and then it got cold.

Have your child stop by the Vista Grande Library in Casa Grande to enter the Golden Corridor LIVING essay contest!

98 GOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016 THE MEDICAL EDITION98 THE MEDICAL EDITIONGOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 201698 THE MEDICAL EDITIONGOLDEN CORRIDOR LIVING SUMMER 2016


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PATHWAY TOPURCHASE

We are pleased to announce a NEW down payment assistance program; Pathway to Purchase, being offered in ADDITION to the current HOME Plus DPA program.

About Home Plus:Assistance depends on the �nancing Assistance depends on the �nancing type and credit score. Home inspection is NOT required. Manufactured homes are not eligible. HOMEBUYER ELIGIBILITY: 45% maximum debt-to- income ratio. Income may not exceed $89,008. Homebuyer must complete a homebuyer course (can be an online homebuyer course (can be an online course). Special incentives for military personnel (+1% to grant program)* An additional 1% grant (total of 5%) is available to �uali�ed Military Per-sonnel. ��uali�ed United States Military Personnel� include �uali�ed �et-erans, active duty United States military, active United States Reservists, and active members of the National Guard. A ��uali�ed �eteran� is a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable (as provided in 38 U.S.C. Section 101.)"

This new $20,000 Down Payment Assistance Program was just released 3/2/2016. Some of the Pathway to Purchase program highlights:

1. The DPA assistance is 10% of the purchase price, up to a maximum of $20,000.

2. The Program is limited to the following 17 Cities: Arizona City, Avondale, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Coolidge, Douglas, El Mirage, Fort Mohave, Goodyear, Huachuca City, Laveen, Maricopa, Red Rock, Sierra Vista, Snow�ake, Tucson, Yuma.

3. The Pathway to Purchase program is a �ve-year, no interest, no payment forgivable second mortgage lien.

4. Program funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest-Hit Fund with a $48 million allocation through the AZ Home Foreclosure Prevention Funding Corp.

5. The available �rst mortgage is the Fannie Mae HFA Preferred at a max 95% LTV.

6. Many of the current HOME Plus DPA program guidelines will be the same.

HH�A Sample 95% LT� conventional scenario: 30 year �xed rate mortgage. Purchase price $150,000, loan amount $142,500 with 5% down payment ($7,500) and 10% ($15,000) Closing Cost Assistance, $ 964.96/month (PITI), 30-year �xed 4.125% interest rate,. credit score of 720, 4.741% APR. MI will be higher with a credit score under 720. All mortgage products are subject to credit and property approval. Rates, program terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all states or for all amounts. Additional conditions, quali�cations, and restrictions may applmay apply. This is not an offer for extension of credit or a commitment to lend. Please contact Academy Mortgage for more information.

MAC316-1437310

A NEW DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMFor Ar izona’s Hardest H i t Communi t ies

DDaawwnn SSvvoobbooddaaBranch Manager | NNMMLLSS ##117777223355

(520) 421-1171 ▲ Cell: (480) 221-9826442 W Kortsen Road, 104, Casa Grande, AZ 85122

[email protected]

www.AcademyMortgage.com/dawnsvoboda

AZ 0913936

CCoorrpp NNMMLLSS ##33111133 | Corp State Lic AZ #BK-0904081

Documents

Golden Corridor Living Magazine