Volume • Number April ,
The Voice of Marana, Oro Valley and Northwest Tucson
Community impresses 2 manager candidates
Inside
This Week
BY DAVE PERRY
FEATURES ................. 13
Tucson Local Media Contributor
with Brandhuber “to keep him moving. He would say, ‘Cancer is not going to get me.’” It didn’t. Yet it changed him. “It was a kick in the ‘you know where’ that I needed,” Brandhuber said. “I was too dumb and too driven. The things I thought mattered don’t matter.” Such as? “Everything.” Grateful, humbled, devoted to family and the people who work for him, and carrying “a very little bit of pride,” Brandhuber is now ready to serve as new chief of the 244-square-mile district, with 275 employees operating 10 fire stations, emergency medical services, inspections and permitting within a current-year budget of $48.3 million. “I didn’t get into this position by myself. So many people supported me, my family,” in particular.
see CHIEF page 8
see CANDIDATES page 6
Randy Karrer, retired chief of the Golder Ranch Fire District, and new Chief Tom Brandhuber at the district’s Station 380 on Magee Road. (Dave Perry/Contributor)
Movie, camping events come together
HEALTH ..................... 21 'Beezing' is the latest fad to avoid OPINION ...................................... 10 FEATURES.................................... 12 NEWS ........................................... 16 SPORTS ........................................ 18 HEALTH ....................................... 21 PUZZLE/HOROSCOPES ............. 22 WORSHIP/CLASSIFIEDS ........... 24 MLS #22307126
New GRFD chief ready to ‘pay it back’ BY DAVE PERRY
Tucson Local Media Contributor
T
om Brandhuber, new chief of the Golder Ranch Fire District, readily admits he’s been “terrible with work-life balance” throughout his career. “I’d stand on him pretty hard on that,” said Randy Karrer, the now-retired GRFD chief, who mentored Brandhuber for nearly a decade. “He had his hands into everything.” Then, in April 2017, Brandhuber was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a life-threatening cancer. “The first couple years were pretty rough,” he said, with intensive treatment and hospitalization, a stem-cell transplant, and more physical and emotional pain than he would ever admit. “The department really rallied around him,” Karrer said. “We walked the hallways” of hospitals
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fter a day in Oro Valley, the two finalists for the position of town manager liked what they saw and heard. “Wow, I’m impressed,” Larry Dorr told about 40 residents and staff members at a finalists’ open house in council chambers on April 12. “It’s clear to me you all are a group of people who care a lot about your community.” “I can’t help but say ‘community of choice’ is the best way to put it,” Jeff Wilkins told the group. “This is a fantastic community. You’re really lucky, the staff to work here, and the residents to live here.” Dorr is the deputy city manager and chief financial officer in Westminster, Colorado, a city of 116,000 residents between Boulder and Denver. Wilkins recently left the position of director of administration and treasurer of the multi-community Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio because he wants to return to city management. Wilkins and Dorr emerged from a field of 40 applicants, came to town April 12 for interviews and conversations, then toured the
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NEWS ........................ 16
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