School spending cap waived / P.10
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
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This Week
NEWS ......................... 4 SUSD superintendent reacts to criticism during board meeting
BUSINESS............ 26 2 Scottsdale bars made for Super Bowl teams' fans
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Bond committee resists runaway Scottsdale project BY TOM SCANLON Progress Managing Editor
S
cottsdale’s Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee members individually and collectively pushed back on a proposed Fire Department training facility project, refusing to recommend that City Council use General Fund money to cover a $10 million cost overrun. “I feel like a pawn,” Andrew Armstrong said at one point while Janice Eng later complained to city staff, “What you're ask-
Arabian horses strut their stuff at WestWorld NEIGHBORS ...............................23 BUSINESS ...................................26 OPINION .....................................30 SPORTS........................................32 ARTS ............................................34 CLASSIFIEDS .............................38
ing us to do is rubber stamp this.” Those two and board members Mary Jane McCart, Brian Neeley and Laraine Rodgers squared off against some of the city’s highest-echelon staff, including City Engineer Alison Tymkiw, Fire Chief Tom Shannon (present but silent), Senior Assistant City Attorney Kimberly Campbell, Budget Director Judy Doyle, Finance Director Gina Kirklin and Public Works Director Dan Worth. Worth’s job has become explaining to the bond committee – and, to the coun-
cil – how inflation has negatively impacted most of the projects that citizens approved in 2019. Three years ago, Scottsdale voters approved a $319 million bond package with combined 58 projects. Though price surges have moderated in recent months, a series of construction-related price hikes has sent Worth to center stage repeatedly as he explains why many projects have sprinted past their original, sEE
BOND PAGE 6
City seems to duck Rio They loved the parade Verde Foothills black eye BY TOM SCANLON Progress Managing Editor
ARTS ........................ 34
Sunday, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
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ith apologies to Ray Romano, if producers made a TV show here, they could fairly call it “Everybody Loves Scottsdale.” But even as awards, accolades and honors continue to pour on the city sporting a “LOVE” sculpture, will a looming controversy damage Scottsdale’s once-pristine image? When Scottsdale ceased providing water to around 700 homes and ranches of
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Rio Valley Foothills, just outside northeast Scottsdale, it shocked the Valley – and, briefly, the country. “Arizona city cuts off a neighborhood’s water supply amid drought,” read a Jan. 16 Washington Post headline. “The Water Wars of the West have begun,” blared a Feb. 4 Colorado City Gazette sEE
BLACKEYE PAGE 12
Folklorico dancers from the Ollin Yoliztli Dance Academy were among dozens of entries that joined the 69th annual Parada del Sol Parade in Scottsdale Feb. 4. For a look at some of the other entries, see page 22. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer)
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