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Inside This Week
City council discusses and reviews utility rate increase BY JORDAN ROGERS
Peoria Times Staff Writer
B
iannually, the Peoria Finance and Budget Department conducts an in-depth review of the cost recovery models associated with the water, sewer and solid waste enterprise funds, and that time came around again prior to the city council meeting on Feb. 21.
SPORTS .........13 Sunrise Mountain girls earn 1st state title
BY COLE JANUSZEWSKI
T Peoria High boys secure 1st state title since 2012
OPINION.........................7 BUSINESS .....................12 SPORTS .........................13 FEATURES .....................20 CALENDAR ...................22 RELIGION......................23 CLASSIFIEDS .................26
This last took place on Feb. 16, 2021, to look at fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and rates were set at the May 18, 2021, city council meeting. Like the rates set two years ago, the current review was conducted and built with the assistance of an outside consulting firm — FCS Group. Since that time, there have been significant economic changes related to the COVID-19,
drought, rapid inflation, fuel, supply chain issues, and the slowdown in the housing market. It was revealed by City Financial Officer Kevin Burke that, as one can imagine, all are impacting the cost recovery model. “This (meeting) came at a particularly timely moment because we just finished a pandemic, we have record inflation, and SEE UTILITY PAGE 2
Coyote Hills student looks to win national spelling bee Peoria Times Staff Writer
SPORTS .........13
March 9, 2023
Peoria’s Hometown Newspaper
op spellers from across the district competed against their peers at Peoria Unified School District’s spelling bee on Jan. 27, and Ethan Greenwood took first place for the second year in a row. Greenwood didn’t stop there. The Coyote Hills Elementary School student went on to win the Maricopa County Region IV Spelling Bee in February for the second year in a row as well. He said his success in the spelling bees were due to the consistent work he put in throughout the year. “I usually alternate between two different methods,” Greenwood said. “Sometimes my parents will read a word, I'll spell it, and then they’ll tell me if I got it right. The other way I do it is I have an app on my phone where I will type it in and it will tell me if I’m right or wrong.” He said he practices an average of 20 min-
utes a day off of the list the spelling bee gives to participants which includes over 1,000 words with different difficulty levels. With so many words, Greenwood said he has some other techniques that can help him if he is unsure of a word’s spelling. “I’ll usually look at the definitions, sentence and word origin,” he said. “Usually if it’s like French or something it’s going to have some wacky spelling. If it’s German and there’s a ‘V’ sound, it’ll probably be a ‘W.’” Greenwood’s mom, Risa Greenwood, said Ethan’s passion for the spelling bee came after a series of defeats in lower level spelling bee competitions. “It started in fifth grade when he did the class spelling bee and he got out,” she said. “He came home really disappointed and he said he wanted to do better next year. I said, ‘OK, we’ll spend a little more time on it.’ “Then, in sixth grade, I don’t think he went to the district competition, but I think he SEE COYOTE PAGE 2
Ethan Greenwood holds his trophy and certificate of participation after winning first place at the Peoria Unified School District spelling bee for the second consecutive year. (Peoria Unified School District/
Submitted)
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