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Inside This Week
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Gilbert offering cash for grass-less yards BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS ........................... 4 Revised Heritage District building returns.
BUSINESS..................27 New Mexican eatery marks 10 years in Gilbert.
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ilbert is offering up to $800 to homeowners willing to uproot their water-guzzling lawns and replace them with drought-tolerant plants and trees. According to the Town, which just launched the rebate program, converting to water-wise landscaping can reduce a household’s outdoor water use by half or more. Town officials made an initial allocation of $60,000 for residential grass removal projects and $15,000 for non-residential grass removal projects, according to spokeswoman Kelsey Perry. All projects must receive pre-approval before beginning to qualify for a rebate consideration.
How this dog inspired a coloring book debuting in Gilbert. COMMUNITY............................. 14 BUSINESS .................................. 27 GET OUT.....................................30 CLASSIFIEDS ............................ 33
Businesses, HOAs and other non-residential customers could receive up to $3,000 for removing their turf. Residents on social media for the most part welcomed the program. But some did not, including one man who wrote, “Maybe stop building massive apartment complexes, putting 40 houses on an acre of land and approving all of the tech-based businesses that require thousands of gallons of water a day to cool their servers.” On average, each Arizona resident uses about 146 gallons of water each day, the state Department of Water Resources says. The bulk, or 70%, of a household’s water use goes for outdoor activities such as watering plants, swimming pools
and washing cars, the state agency says. Gilbert’s voluntary measure to save water is far less draconian than what city leaders in Scottsdale instituted – a ban on front-yard grass in new single-family homes built or permitted after Aug. 15. Gilbert’s rebate program is the latest step in Stage 1 of its four-stage water management plan, which it rolled out in summer 2022.
see GRASS page 6
Fit to be tie-dyed
$31M Guadalupe Road re-do coming soon BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
GET OUT .................. 30
Sunday, July 16, 2023
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or the past five years, Gilbert has been working to revitalize its largest and oldest employment area in the northwest corridor and one of the steps toward doing that is a roadway project anticipated to start as early as this month. The $31-million project calls for improving Guadalupe Road from Arizo-
na Avenue to McQueen Road. It includes Obispo Avenue and Colorado Street as well as a major overhaul of the Guadalupe and McQueen roads intersection. The original estimated cost was $21.3 million, according to Public Works Director Jessica Marlow. “Inflation is certainly a large part of the cost increases, in addition to refinements in scope and other un-
see ROAD page 10
Elliot Colgan, 10, concentrated on making a cool color pattern during tie dye class at the McQueen Park Activity Center on June 12. To see how some of his classmates fared, see page 12. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)
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