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Council delays Ranch vote after stormy meeting industrial,” Mayor Brigette Peterson said before the 7-0 vote to delay was cast. “I’ve said it over and over again,” the mayor continued. “I’m not comfortable with the project. This case is a tough one.” Peterson also responded to a resident who asked why the Town would partner with IndiCap when one of its principals had questionable past financial dealings. “We do not give developers special treatment,” Peterson said. “We are not going into business with this gentleman. This is not a private-public partnership. This is a gentleman who’s potentially purchasing land in this town. “Our role in that is to decide whether or not he can use it to the way he’s asking to use it.”
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS..................... 19 Broken bones and scraped scalps come with bull riding,
BUSINESS..............27 Ferguson opens massive warehouse in East Valley.
G
ilbert Town Council postponed action until Dec. 13 on The Ranch, a proposed 300-acre light industrial project, after developer IndiCap asked for more time to further revise the plan with residents, who jammed a meeting last week to again voice concerns about truck traffic, building heights and incompatibility with their neighborhood. The Nov. 15 meeting, packed to overflowing mostly with Morrison Ranch residents, was raucous at times with two police officers escorting resident Christine Dees for shouting from the audience. “I’ve been the one who’s been saying to the developer all along I think it’s too much light
Highland cross-country rocks the house in state finals. COMMUNITY.......................................24
BUSINESS............................................. 27 SPORTS................................................. 30
GETOUT.................................................32 CLASSIFIEDS....................................... 37
see RANCH page 6
Christine Dees stood up and talked over Mayor Brigette Peterson, demanding that Morrison Ranch be moved up on the agenda during the Gilbert Town Council meeting Nov. 15, which drew a standing-room-only crowd. Dees was eventually ejected for shouting while others were speaking. (David Minton/GSN Staff Photographer)
Higley eyes way out of costly school leases BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS................. 30
Sunday, November 20, 2022
H
igley Unified School District is looking to get out from under a costly 40year agreement for using two middle school buildings by refinancing the leases for a projected $10 million in savings. The Governing Board is expected to approve a resolution Dec. 14 authorizing staff to move forward with a new deal if market conditions are right. Each year the district pays out $4.4 million to service the two leases approved in 2012.
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“This has been a huge budget item,” district CFO Tyler Moore said at the Nov. 16 board meeting. “It’s in every single budget conversation that we’ve had.” The district has been making annual lease payments for a decade and has about $124 million outstanding for the remaining 30 years or until 2053. The total estimated payment by the district for the entirety of the lease is over $178 million, according to Moore. Moore presented a plan that called for paying off the outstanding bond debt and eliminating the fees and restricted fund
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deposits now being paid. It also would cut out the lessee JMF-Higley 2012 LLC. The district would make its principle and interest payments directly to the bank. Currrently, the district’s payments go to JMF, which then forward the funds to the bank. JMF also receives a fee for managing the two campuses. A refi with rates from two weeks ago would drop Higley’s total payment to $114 million, about a $10 million total savings for the remaining 30 years on the lease.
see HIGLEY page 16
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